CIN270Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Direct Cinema, Film Stock, Italianamerican
11 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017
CIN270Y1
CLASS 14
AMERICAN NON-FICTION FILM IN THE 1970’S
• “Documentary Voice”
• people tend to identify that observation plays a real role in provoking its subjects – on the
other hand, the point is to capture without engaging the subjects
Participation: Cinéma Vérité
• Jean Rouch’s filmmaking a catalyst
• It intervenes; it participates
Ex. Michael Moore’s directorship is very present in his films
• Rouch intervenes/participates in his films
• Ex. explaining to Africans the reality of the concentration camp through having them ask
about the numbers on another character’s arm; they share the experience of the racism
(Chronicle of the Summer)
- He says he’s in a “ciné-transe” when filming
- The documentary situation puts everything into a “strange state”
“Uniquely Filmic Truths”
• CREATING THE CONDITIONS for “truths” to emerge
Ex. Italianamerican documentary Scorsese has the characters provide accounts of
Italian immigration
- The documentary is self-conscious
- Through the organic integration of the filmmaking setting in the house, the
subjects are made visibly nervous
• Truths are PROVOKED by these settings
• The subject may have no conscious access to such truths
Cinéma Vérité: Interaction
• “cinema truth” produced in/by the act of filming
• new developments in technology
• portable, lightweight 16mm cameras were increasingly available
• fast, light-sensitive film stock
• new sound recording equipment made direct, synch sound possible
DIRECT CINEMA IN AMERICA
• DIRECT use lightweight equipment to informally capture events as they happen
• Events are caught, revealed as they’re happening – with as little intervention as possible
• These docs makers take on the role of observers
• A “fly-on-the-wall” approach
• Direct Cinema
- Unplanned exchanges
- Unprompted behaviour – absent-minded
- Revealing comportment
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
American non-fiction film in the 1970"s: documentary voice , people tend to identify that observation plays a real role in provoking its subjects on the other hand, the point is to capture without engaging the subjects. Participation: cin ma v rit : jean rouch"s filmmaking a catalyst. He says he"s in a cin -transe when filming. The documentary situation puts everything into a strange state . Uniquely filmic truths : creating the conditions for truths to emerge. Italianamerican documentary scorsese has the characters provide accounts of. Through the organic integration of the filmmaking setting in the house, the subjects are made visibly nervous: truths are provoked by these settings, the subject may have no conscious access to such truths. Cin ma v rit : interaction: cinema truth produced in/by the act of filming, new developments in technology, portable, lightweight 16mm cameras were increasingly available, new sound recording equipment made direct, synch sound possible fast, light-sensitive film stock.
