RESEARCH METHODSJon Saward

PRIOR PRACTICE

BROADCAST TV: Limitations, formulaic & traditional.

OBJECTIVITY: Largely objective work.

MULTI SKILLED: Solid skillset all stages of production.

THEMES: Character driven, sentimental narrative.

BOUNDARIES: Challenge to shape raw materials.

EXHIBITION/DISTRIBUTION: TV & Film festivals.

LORD REITH: Educate, inform & entertain.

PRACTICE AIMS

THEMES: Explore characters, narrative & “truth”.

BOUNDARIES: Challenge to shape raw materials.

DEVELOP SKILLSET: Sound, MGFX, cinematography.

HYBRIDITY: Documentary, fiction & avant-garde.

PORTFOLIO: Explore documentary codes/conventions.

EXHIBITION/DISTRIBUTION: New avenues.

LORD REITH: Educate, inform & entertain.

DOCUMENTARY MODESNichols 6 modes of documentary. Similar to film genre but more about technique than content.

OBSERVATIONAL: Cinema verite & “fly on wall”.

EXPOSITORY: “Voice of god” & direct address.

PARTICIPATORY: Filmmaker central & their POV.

REFLEXIVE: Centred around process of making.

PERFORMATORY: Stylistics to create performance.

POETIC: Visual, aural, tonal, rhythmic & abstract.

PERFORMATIVE & POETICMost stylistic and cinematic of the modes. Utilise exploration and experimentation of sound and vision as well as construction to create an “inner truth”.

Performative documentaries use film language and stylistics, editing, cinematography, mise-en-scene and sound, to perform for the viewer and create meaning.

Poetic documentaries emphasise “ visual associations, tonal and rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages” and “move away from the ‘objective’ reality of a given situation or people, to grasp at an “inner truth” that can only be grasped by poetical manipulation” Nichols, 2001.

MY WINNIPEG

Guy Maddin’s My Winnepeg (2007).

Subjective personal poetic version of memories.

Dreamlike camerawork, archive clips & re-enactments.

Sound design VO, music and sound effects.

Blurs non-fiction, fiction and the avant garde.

Coined the term “docu-fantasia”.

LINK TO MY WINNIPEG

MY WINNIPEG

THE “TRUTH”Continual debates on “the truth” in factual and documentary film. Representation debate filmmakers re-present the truth and never create actuality on the screen. Grierson 1966: “creative treatment of actuality’, oxymoronic.

THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE (2002) Very subjective viewpoint of Robert Evans.

Brett Morgan (Dir): “Cinema mythologica”.

Robert Evans: “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently”.

THE “ESTATIC TRUTH”

“Our entire sense of reality has been called into question. But what moves me has never been reality, but a question that lies behind it [beyond; dahinter]: the question of truth. Sometimes facts so exceed our expectations—have such an unusual, bizarre power—that they seem unbelievable. But in the fine arts, in music, literature, and cinema, it is possible to reach a deeper stratum of truth—a poetic, ecstatic truth, which is mysterious and can only be grasped with effort; one attains it through vision, style, and craft.” (Hertzog, 1992)

THE ARBOR Clio Barnard’s The Arbor (2010) Cinematic camerawork. Scenes from plays acted out. Audio & actors lip synch. Talking heads eschewed.

“Cameras change the relationship between interviewer and interviewee. I think the interviews were intimate because there was no camera, no lights… I want the technique to raise questions about the relationship between fiction and documentary – to acknowledge that documentaries, more often than not, have the same narrative structure as fiction. I want the audience to be aware that they are watching material that has been mediated.” Barnard 2010 

THE ARBOR

MONTAGE & AVANT GARDE Style hugely important and powerful tool as long as not all style no substance! Use visual & aural materials to create meaning.

Soviet montagist Sergei Eisenstein “intellectual montage” theory that “an idea that derives from the collision between two shots that are independent of each other” Eisenstein, 1988

Avante garde sensibilities can “use technology in unconventional ways to produce new visual and sound experience, the goal is not necessarily to make conventionally beautiful images, but, rather, to create thought provoking sensual and aesthetic experiences ”. Pramaggorie, 2005

THE POSSIBILITIESARE ENDLESS…

Edward Lovelace & James Hall (2007). No talking head. Recorded audio over few years.

“Visual tapestry” over the top. Hall, 2014. No Edwin Collins until 20 minutes in. Abstract sound design, music and sound effects. Blurs non-fiction, fiction and the avant garde. Re-enactments subverted by son, contemporary.

THE POSSIBILITIESARE ENDLESS…

A POETIC “LOVE”

Mini documentary using poetic mode stylistics.

3 stages of love. Lust, attraction, attainment. No “talking heads” audio IV’s then cinematic images. Abstract sound design, music and sound effects. Blurring non-fiction, fiction and the avant garde. Re-enactments, MGFX/animation, grading & effects.

Film festivals on and off-line, possibly TV.

VIDEO INSTALLATIONS Liberating new avenue for distribution & exhibition.

Clash between authenticity & realism again.

Overlapping of art & documentary hybrids.

Allows multiple simultaneous narratives & structure.

Art gallery ideas increasing TV ideas diminishing?

More physical, interactive & immersive for audience.

Build upon aforementioned doco style.

Interactivity between multiple screens.

Film festivals on and off-line, possibly TV.

BILL VIOLA “total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound.” (Bill Viola, 2015)

Triptych & Quadtych: Often multiple screens.

Sound: Very important to his installations.

Populist: Mainstay in galleries, mainstream.

Human experience: Life, death & consciousness.

NAM JUNE PAIK “video images into sculptural form, seeks to upset convention by transforming how and what we see.” (Stoos & Kellein, 2015)

Sculptural forms: Robots, people, instruments.

Themes: Engagement with visual playground.

Multi screen work: Multi screens, united themes.

JANE & LOUISE WILSONCHANTAL ACKERMAN

Large scale: Projected gallery works for spaces.

Multiple screens: Immersive interactive qualities.

Sound: Very important to unite installations.

Populist: Exhibit in galleries, recognised.

Avant garde: Filmmakers and installation artists

SIBLINGS Video installation work for galleries. Triptych: 3 screens or built interdependent installations. Birth order. Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler’s sibling traits. Subversive “talking heads” breaking 4th wall. Boys own voices & lip-synch to others perceptions. Large installation work. Immerse & engage the audience. Explore MGFX/animation, MES, grading & effects.

SIBLINGS

WHAT NEXT

Development of Poetic Love. Sound design.

Development of Poetic Love. Visuals & cinematography

Explore software: After effects, audition & pro-tools

More development of siblings. Screens or sculpture?

Consider immersive documentary formats. ANAGRAM

Look at on line and consider interactive documentaries.

Investigate “live documentary” possibilities.