Film Art

1. Chapter 10
Documentary, Experimental, and
Animated Films
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2. Documentary
• Presents facts in a trustworthy manner.
• Events can be staged.
• Can be misleading, inaccurate, or partisan.
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3. Boundaries Between
Documentary and Fiction
• Fictional films are assumed to be imaginary,
although they may refer to and comment on
actual events.
• Fiction film are typically staged, rehearsed,
filmed, and re-filmed.
• Some films seek to blur the lines between
documentary and fiction films.
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4. Genres of Documentary
• Compilation films assemble images from archival
sources.
• Interview or talking-heads documentaries record
testimony about events or social movements.
• Direct-cinema records an ongoing event as it happens
with little directorial interference.
• Nature documentaries explore nature.
• Portrait documentaries center around a compelling
person.
• Often documentaries use several of these options.
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5. Types of Documentary Form:
Categorical
• Categories are groups that organize
knowledge and can be detailed or casual.
• Categorical documentaries show all the
categories and subcategories of a subject.
• Development is usually simple.
• Exciting or broad categories, patterned film
techniques and mini-narratives can keep the
subject interesting.
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6. An Example of Categorical Form:
Gap-Toothed Women
• Consists of interviews with women with gaps in
their front teeth.
• The theme is that society has a narrow view of
beauty.
• The explicit meaning is the broad reaction to the
way the women feel about their gaps.
• The implicit meaning is that gaps are attractive
and natural.
• The symptomatic meaning could be a reaction to
the shift of the radical ideas of the 1960s to the
mainstream 1980s, when it was made.
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7. Rhetorical Form
• The goal is to persuade the audience to adopt
or act on an opinion.
• Addresses viewer openly, trying to move the
viewer.
• Subject is usually a matter of opinion.
• Often appeals to our emotions rather than
facts.
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8. Three Types of Rhetorical
Arguments
• Arguments from source: arguments will come
from reliable sources of information.
• Subject-centered: employs arguments about
it’s subject matter, using examples,
enthymemes, and common beliefs.
• Viewer-centered: arguments that appeal to
emotions.
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9. An Example of Rhetorical Form:
The River
• Persuades the audience that the TVA
(Tennessee Valley Authority) is the answer to
the region’s problems with flooding,
agricultural depletion, and electrification.
• Was controversial at the time.
• Has eleven segments that on the surface seem
to just inform about the Mississippi, but
through repetition, variation, and
development are very persuasive.
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10. Experimental Film
• Willfully nonconformist, challenging notions
of what a movie can show and how it can
show it.
• Frequently explores self-expression and
experimentation outside mainstream cinema.
• Can use narrative, abstract, or associational
form.
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11. Abstract Form
• Organized around colors, shapes, sizes, or
movements of the images.
• Often uses theme and variations.
• Goal is to make the viewer notice
relationships and elements they wouldn’t
normally notice.
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12. An Example of Abstract Form:
Ballet Mécanique
• Draws a comparison between the human
body and machines by turning human action
into mechanical gestures.
• Stresses the geometric qualities of ordinary
things.
• Uses theme and variations by introducing
motifs in rapid succession, then bringing them
back in different combinations later.
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13. Associational Form
• Ideas and expressive qualities group images
that may not have any logical connection.
• Akin to metaphor and simile use in poetry.
• Images are typically grouped into larger sets,
each which is a distinct, unified part of the
larger film.
• Repeated motifs reinforce associational
connections.
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14. An Example of Associational Form:
Koyaanisqatsi
• Juxtaposes found footage to communicate a
range of emotionally charged ideas and
qualities.
• The music has distinct segments, each with its
own tone, which corresponds to the film.
• Constantly shifting associations convey many
implicit meanings without any explicit
meaning.
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15. The Animated Film
• Not filmed in real time.
• Spans all types of films: narrative,
documentary and experimental.
• Types include drawn, cut outs, clay, model,
pixilation, and computer imaging.
• Can be mixed with live action.
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16. An Example of Traditional
Animation: Duck Amuck
• Has an experimental feel because it asks the
audience to explore cel animation techniques.
• Draws attention to painted backgrounds,
framing, sound effects, music, onscreen and
offscreen space, and time.
• Capitalizes on the character traits of Bugs
Bunny and Daffy Duck.
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17. An Experimental Animation:
Dimensions of Dialogue
• Displays aggressive alchemy.
• Contains three categories that display
aggression via dialogue.
• Each category displays theme and variation.
• Each category displays conversation as
annihilation.
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