ENGL 277 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Work Function, Direct Cinema, Stock Footage

• School: McGill University
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 277
• Professor: Derek Nystrom

Document Summary

Lecture outline: documentary as non-narrative cinematic mode, documentary vs. fiction film, documentary from the truth value, three documentary traditions, formal choices. Construction of truth claims: scenes, roger and me. Thin blue line: powerful social influence: direction connection between thin blue line and real life outcome. Documentary claim a claim about their fidelity to the the real that fiction do not. Structure of reception and evaluations that documentary invites is different from that of a fictional film, relates to the film is very different way: different structure of reception and evolution. Not about what is tell, also what it not telling us: narrate trop, cinematographic style are also used, many documentary are not narratives, but often use narrative as a rhetorical tool. Documentary form and truth value: there is no one fix style on documentary camera work, but there are certain time, formal decisions have a truth value on things they depict.