paul ritchard

VISUAL and AURAL AESTHETICS

all docos have been made with aesthetics in mind

all filmmakers make aesthetic choices

this is a way in for you to think about the style and aesthetics of sound & vision

a way in to research and establish your style and aesthetic

a formalistic analysis of certain docos style and aesthetic

an inspirational starting point for all the elements you need to CONSIDER!

Your big enough and bad enough to analyse for yourselves all the elements that the filmmaker and crew have thought through.

What to analyse?

This is what the digidoss
and the links to docs
and the library
and watching telly
and going to festivals
and our collections are there for.

We want to develop your aesthetic part of the treatment – your style guide.

Lists are good

It is by no means comprehensive you should be able to add to it – develop your own list as your develop your own aesthetic.

Taxonomy makes things clearer

Here is a list of the elements that you should think about when developing your aesthetic.

SOUND

NONE OF THE ELEMENTS BELOW EXISTS IN ISOLATION

Interview audio
Controlled (studio, quiet room)
Uncontrolled (Location, outside)
Interviewees voice becoming V/O
Voice over

Narrator
Voice of God
Filmmaker’s voice
Self reflexive

Music
Tone
Pace
Complexity

VISION

frame
rule of thirds
size
dutch tilt
inside frame, outside
content
This can be representative of your characters, subject matter etc.
minimal
clean
cold
modernist
complex
cluttered
intricate

colour
hue – colour caste
primary colours
colourful
single or multi colour
non chromatic

lighting
contrast
tone
hard / soft

movement
camera
panning
tilting
tracking
crabbing
steady cam
wobble / hover cam

within frame
following subject
letting them move around frame
eyeline
angle from camera
looking into camera
ala errol & purple hearts
angle above or below camera

Graphics
Framing of interviewees ala Morris
Inter-titles
Computer screens
Overlay footage / stills
Stills

other vision
recreation
drama doc
night vision
no vision
archival footage
stills
green screen

Your aesthetic or group’s aesthetic is the combination of all these elements.

A guiding principle in matters of artistic beauty and taste

Documentary does not have to conform to any one style or aesthetic - it can be a combination of many different styles.

Lets not forget we’re making Art here

The last five paragraphs of Leacocks article, ‘The search for Reality’ (the first in the dossier) describes beautifully my favorite happenings in doco filmmaking and the last two year’s tv doco subjects I’ve taught. Those sublime moments when you discover ‘something else’ in your development, script, footage or edit. “Two minutes and thirty seconds of virtual bliss, concocted from three separate perceptions of an event that had nothing to do with what we were there for. THAT is what makes it all worthwhile.”
The trick this semester is to keep yourselves open for that moment. You’ll notice that the process of making docos is more free and open-ended than in drama – especially when given the time constraints of producing something within a semester. This is not to say that the production process timeline is not rigid, we still need to have steps in the process completed by week x, more that within those deadlines these steps don’t have to be as ‘locked off’, if you get my drift.

Christine’s lecture, as I mentioned in the Tuesday tute was a right cracker – right on the message. Nice and clear and eloquently explained. It gave us a way in to finding what we really want from our subjects. You will discover you own ‘ways in’ to your characters and story with our and your fellow group member’s assistance.

WOW - First set of doco ideas / one pagers was delivered in the Tuesday tute. Really tight, thoughtful ideas and concepts. All had considered the form of their potential documentary. Even in the quick presentations in the class I had some striking and evocative images projected onto my mind’s eye.
I was really pleased with the ideas I heard. Knowing you guys I’m confident it will be the same in other tutes. Also, group formation a breeze (as far as I’m aware).
I would recommend that all post their ‘one pager’ on your blog and that you go through the blog roll and have a quick look at others to get a sense of what might be produced and to glean from others the varied styles of thinking, writing and research.

“To make documentary is to practice living your life existentially, as though each day were your last. People who make documentaries put a high value on the joy, pain, compromise and learning that come from being completely alive.” Rabiger, M. “The Director’s Role” Directing the Documentary (The second reading in the dossier.)

I think Rabiger is talking here about being in the privileged position to artistically analyse, interpret and depict the world around us. In making your docos you’ll be able to investigate deeply, poetically and artistically other’s lives and your own. Also he’s talking about the journey of the making of that doco.

At this level you will discover much about filmamking, every aspect of it. As you know this is the first year we’ve run Doco in second semester. It’s worked out successfully so far - using short film making to get your creative, technical, reflective and production skills to a professional level. Now you have the chance to utilise and build upon all the skills and knowledge gained in the last one and half years. We’re excited to see you develop some interesting, lateral interpretations on the theme ‘belief’.

With you guys I will go part way through the steps with you. My starting point for this is a personal one. I wouldn’t make something about myself - God forbid. I would like to investigate something in others that I’m passionate and know something about. Music, friends, my elders, what form my doco might take, architecture, other’s workplaces . . . . . just for starters.

One important thing I learnt in the first week’s tutes was not to close the idea off, not to try and resolve or answer the question.

“To be able to scrap prior work if assumptions become obsolete” - Gerne
this can mean any number of things:
How you work through things
How you need to be open to change
How you need to be lateral

serendipity is part of this –
Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely
Last year it became the guiding philosophy of many strong productions (and lives).
I’m introducing it to you now and you will discover why - hopefully in Lenny but maybe in your productions.

I believe and have been proven correct in most instances / happenings in life that when something goes wrong if you have a serendipitous outlook you will be able to see that the change of direction that is resultant of the work-through or solution is better than if nothing had gone wrong.

I say ‘most instances’. I would never to be so facile as to assume you can apply this to all instances

Something that struck me was that none of the scripts start with the protagonists leaving the cinema. It always heads towards the cinema or the act of movie going. Interesting or obvious?

Maybe in the script editing process some might consider re-ordering the events. This might help enliven the story. Remember to consider the release of information - to whom, when and why.

Film Victoria - Occupational Health and Safety Management System

You might have noticed that we’ve talked about trying to maintain objectivity at every point in the production process. An objective viewpoint is crucial to the making of any art/media. How do you gain this objectivity? Experience, having been through the process is one one way of gaining it. Having been through similar or like processes is another.

For example having written many essays can you give you that rigorous thought process that gives you that clear headedness / objectivity that you may need to write a a shootable, interesting script. Having taken many stills can develop your eye for cinematography. Watching tv and films closely can help you in your lighting.
Storyboarding and shooting someone else’s script is an obvious boon for objectivity.

Whats wrong with subjectivity? There is nothing destructive about subjectivity - it is a crucial part of the creative practice. But if you aim for objectivity, standing aside from your work so you can analyse it more thoroughly. Striving to put yourself in the audience’s shoes is your goal here.

check it the axis of action, the line, directional shooting, coverage etc. -
an elegant demonstration and description

tropfest secret symbol is 8