Written Blog

Photographs Collected from Participant Dom

Cut away opening scene filming shots and DVD cover

Cut away opening scene filming shots 

and 

DVD cover

The use of bokeh shots in the beginning of the film creates ambiguity and sets the scene for world of online dating. Relates to the beginning of Dom's interview where he discusses that within Grindr he always tells the truth- maybe others do not.

Cut aways of movement- symbolise that within technology everything is always moving and changing, similarly to people- always moving, changing, meeting new people. Online dating is always changing people joining leave etc. 

Shots of far away strangers adds to the ambitious tone of the opening sequence.

Groups of men present the theme of "homosexuality"

This shot is key within the film. A man holding a smart phone. The viewer can not see what the participant is doing/writing etc. This further adds to the mood of ambiguity. Overall what we what to create within the beginning is a tone of the almost futuristic dating world. In these scene, everyone is a stranger. 

Editing Week 8

Early Films

Lumiere Brothers 

First film- 'Workers Leaving the Factory' 1895 - 120 years old (Very short, static camera, one take, everything moves in front of the camera, silent)

George Melies- Discovered the first jump cut by mistake- Introduced editing techniques, fades, overlapping, dissolves, stop motion animation etc. Trip to the Moon 1902 (Films very theatrical)

Edwin S. Porter: the life of an american fireman (1903)

DW Griffith Father of film editing continuity editing. Intolerance (1916) cross cutting, inter titles, tempo created by editing- screened all over the soviet union- griffith films were stymied there. editing is a tool to guide your viewer

Sergei Eisenstin- theory of montage

Documentary Editing

Walter Murch on editing

Reflective Mode: Derrida Week 7

Directors: Kirby Dick, Amy Zierin- Film-makers are expects on Derrida

"Everything is false... i'm not really like this..." - usually wears his robe and will not get dressed all day, in the film he is dressed in a shirt and smart trousers.

"This is what you call Cinéma vérité" - Meta-cinematic scenes

Asking audience...
"Is it that I am both part of the spectacle and audience"

"Eyes and Hands" = Signs

Not interviews/ No talking heads
Talking to film makers
Flows like a conversation
Constantly plays with his theories and life

Derrida watches film back with film maker, talks to film makers about love and asks filmmakers questions. 

• Chanan- "playful documentray" he is aware of the processes- playing with the film maker- interacts with the film-maker
• DECONSTRUCTION- limits of biographical film-making. According to Derrida nothing is natural everything is constructed 

B. Nichols "Process of negotiation between film-makers and viewer become the focus of attention"..."draws attention to our assumptions and expectations about documentary form itself" (EG. Derrida asks documentarian questions)- Structural critique of documentary itself. A reconstruction of truth not the truth/ a construct of representation. 

Grindr Serial Killer

NEWS

Surrounding the sphere of online dating last week news articles have emerged concerning a 40 year old man (so far) killing 4 men in which he met through online dating. 

http://gawker.com/grindr-serial-killer-alert-1737389038

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34568485

As documentarians this raises many questions for us as a group concerning our film. 

The interviewees that we have decided to focus on thus far are:

Kemp, Age 19 British, unemployed, currently living in Brighton, Aspiring Photographer  

Dom, Age 19 British, Student at The University of Winchester, Creative Writing  

Marc, Age 21 Melanesian, Student at The University of Manchester 


Although these three men are in the same age bracket they all come from very different backgrounds. Kemp, from a lower income background, Dom, a more working class background from a small sea side town. And Marc who was born and raised in Melasia from a very wealthy background who came to the UK for a University level degree. 

What do our subjects think about safety on Grindr?
Has this changed their opinions and how they act through the app?
In terms of LGBT rights how do they view this article in the news? 


Also this article in the Gardian in August of 2015 asks "Are gay dating apps ruining gay culture?"

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/15/goodbye-to-all-the-gay-bars-are-dating-apps-killing-queer-culture

Week 5 Class Notes

Participatory mode:

• Appeared from the 1960's investigative reporter
• Directors voice

Was supposed to be a historical documentary

"This film through participatory doc gives us a sense of what the film makers life is like and how they relate to an actual situation-" (love life)

• Immerses the viewer into the room with the subject
• connect with him on a emotional level
• doc makes mistakes
• lighting allows us to connect to the director

Ross McElwee's life "what happens in front of the camera becomes an index of the nature of interaction between the filmmaker and the subject"

• Structure- disjointed, auteur, voice of god, somewhat chaotic

• Who financed the film? got money to make a film and didn't create the film he set out todo- it is a badly made film, but its a very successful film 1986- managed to place the camera in the middle of the action

• Beginning is expository- then disappears 
• Then directly listening to his voice over which is shows aspects of reflective mode 
• Takes his camera very close to the action- camera becomes a catalyst, he doesn't stop recording. 
• The cameras position and the way he treats the camera creates is as a subject . 
• Personal/viwing aspect you become so involved you want him to keep the camera on - Jean Rouch

• To prevoke the subject- to gain the information
• Doc representation of reality- 
• What we film, what we edit the more you can support your film though recherché the more credible your film will be
• New light weight camera, catch life unaware by observing it
• Camera pushes out the truth

Week 4: Presentation 'Divorce Iranian Style' Observational Mode

Divorce Iranian Style.

(Kim Longinotto, 2002)

Observational Mode

In 1960’s “The camera and tape freely

moved to record what happened as it happened”

The filmmaker observes what happens in front of the camera.

No voiceover to address the viewer directly (like the expository mode)

The viewers reach to their own conclusions depending on what they see (Active viewers)

Directed by Kim Longitto and Zib Mir Hosseini

Her films usually focused on issues concerning women.

The film explores five cases of five different women that are seeking divorce.

It shows the reality of how the legal system affects people’s lives.

Minimal voice-over that was used to state facts (woman narrator)

showed iranian women (middle eastern) differently. 24:40

Sometimes we hear the voices of the filmmakers interacting with the participants. 26:19

And sometimes the participants speak to the filmmakers?... Or to the camera directly 22:43

“We look in on life as it is lived.”

- Nichols, Bill (2001)

Relating to the work of the Italian Neo-realists (1944-1952) the characters within the documentary are caught up in “pressing demands or a crisis of their own”. However… these are not actors- the “at the keyhole” style of observatory mode does not take away the fact that the filmmaker is intruding on the lives and conflicts of her/his subjects.

The filmmaker as a director chooses specific subjects. Although the film is observational: meaning to watch life as it unfolds- this style in ‘Divorce Iranian style’ portrays features of ethnographic film making using ‘cultural phenomena’ which for a western audience-  is very alien.

HOWEVER...

'Divorce Iranian Style' through our analysis of the film, we discovered that although it does use observational aspects of documentary film mode, the way in which the film maker chooses to use the clips where the participants and film-maker are clearly converising and developing a relationship shows us that intact, it is participatory mode. 

Kim Longinotto shows the audience her relationship with the participants purposefully to highlight the power of the judge. The Judge has allowed them to come into his court and film- the Judge holds absolute power. Using participatory mode the audience get to witness more honestly the mood and atmosphere of the room through the film maker as a part of the participation.

Sound

S o u n d  K i t

TIPS

• 4-6 inches between the mic and the subject
• constant distance from the subject to ensure even sound recording
• If there is lots of wind or grainy noise recording the sound lower down can decrease the sound velocity 
• Find shelter and record using a 'dead cat' or cover for the mic