CMNS 322 Lecture 1: CMNS 322 Lecture #1
Document Summary
Science: tied into a claim of knowledge. Films of lumiere brothers from 1885 - 1887 : documenting the world; bringing cameras out and showing us the world, tom gunning. Indexicality: camera is showing us things that are taking place in the world: too much footage and not enough interpretation, documentary as agent of social change, two former famous documentarians. Documentary as genre: genre are social frameworks for text, genre is weird as documentary is about interpreting reality. Songbirds; directed by brian hill: best genre for exploring questions of truth and authenticity. Sing the narration as well as speak it. Narrative/documentary: nanook of the north begins with introduction of characters almost like actors in a play. Framing reality; in documentaries, this happens like telling a story: very easy to understand, often a journey of discovery for the filmmaker, hot docs forum format, filmmakers get 7 minutes to pitch their films/documentaries. Los angeles plays itself: fiction film shot on location.