1. Lecture 9
In todays lecture we watched and reviewed more documentaries. We watched Biggie and Tupac
(2002) by Nick Broomfield. This is a participatory documentary. The start of the documentary is very
expository at first with use of stills, archive footage and voice of god narration talking about the
topic and reinforcing the visuals. The narration in places tells the audience where to look in the
scene for example when Tupac and Biggie hug and the narrator directs the audience to the area of
the shot to look and explains what is happening. In the first five minutes of the documentary the
topic and subject is introduced and the audience is given a brief understanding of the lives and
history of the rappers feud that resulted in their deaths.
In this documentary the filmmakers leave a camera on the entire time on location to make sure that
they don’t miss anything, this is apparent in the scene where they attempt to speak with the police
officer about the investigation and they are denied any information. The camera is handheld and
would appear to be switched off to the other people in the room. This is the first time you see the
filmmaker in the film and takes advantage of decisive moment.
I learnt a lot about documentary film making in this lecture and I will be putting it into practice when
making my own.