The Cutting Edge

Documentary Genre: Exploration film

Role of the Filmmaker: Chronicler

Burning Question: Why would editing be so important to a film?

Visual Imagery: Example from films, black and white of earlier editors

Theme: Editing started out very under appreciated and is still a silent art today.

Stakes: Not enough cut on a scene it will drag out or not match up. To short and you won't have the right feel. Must work with the director, and although not recommended sometimes the actor.

Editing Style: Continues

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer:

This would be a documentary I would like to own in order to study it more fully. Very fascinating and doesn’t bore.

War Dance

Documentary Genre: Biographies and portraits, Direct cinema, Performance Films

Role of the Filmmaker: Chronicler

Burning Question: With this group of students be able to make it to competition and win?

Visual Imagery: Crisp clear, rack focus, heart breaking with actions. Traditional song, dance, and clothing.

Theme: Through difficult times, a group a students in bush practice hard to get to a huge competition.

Stakes: Being attacked by Rebels, The students won’t be able to compete, The students won’t place in the first three, Some of the students won’t be able to come

Editing Style: Continues

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer:

I watched a documentary very similar to this a few years ago called the invisible children. They are very different from each other, even with the same setting. You feel sorry for the children, but you also learn how strong the people of Uganda are. They are adults in children’s bodies, and it’s horrible to know that they’re not living without worry. There are two major things that stuck out to me in War Dance. One, you learn about children trying their hardest to compete in music and dance in a war zone. Two you learn about individual children and their strengths.

Unzipped

Documentary Genre: Biographies and Portraits, Direct Cinema

Role of the Filmmaker: Chronicler

Burning Question: Will Isaac be able to pull off his next show with high reviews?

Visual Imagery: Goes back and forth between black and white with color.

Theme: Follow Isaac Mizrahi processes of planning and putting on a fashion show.

Stakes: Will Isaac have to compete with another designer that released an Eskimo project. Will the scrim be to much of a crazy idea.

Editing Style: A lot of discontinued editing.

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer:

I liked the interview that were done while they are walking. It shows a that they are real people in the real world. I also like the close up of Isaac when it is a very emotional time. The camera focuses on his eyes to show the emotion but then lowers and focuses on his cigarette.

Ricky J

Documentary Genre: Biographies and portraits

Role of the Filmmaker: Chronicler

Burning Question: What is it like to be a magician and who is Ricky Jay?

Visual Imagery: Dark silhouettes for mystery, old footage and pictures, magic trick performances, mirrors

Theme: Magicians keep secrets from other magicians but they still learn from each other.

Stakes: Who are the master magicians? Will we know more about magic by the end of this show?

Editing Style: Mostly continues, but some discontinues.

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer:

I loved this documentary. I learned a lot such as their are a lot of first name, last name ini. Transitions are great and the way they did the scenes without the talking heads are great.

Cove

Documentary Genre: Cinema Verite, Discovery

Role of the Filmmaker: Guerrilla, Movement

Burning Question: What is going on with hunting dolphins?

Visual Imagery: Old footage of flipper and Ric O'Barry. The wale convention, surfing, and diving. B-roll of dolphins. Undercover footage.

Theme: Breaking into restricted area to find the truth behind dolphin slaughter.

Stakes: Will they get caught and go to jail? Will they be able to tell the story? What will happen to the dolphins?

Editing Style: Some continues and discontinues

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer. Describe the parameter factors and how they came into play during this film.

This was a very difficult documentary for me. I’ve become fascinated with Japan for awhile now and it saddens me to see this side of them. Not that it is going to keep me from learning more about them, after all America as done some pretty bad things as well.

This documentary inspires me to stand up and do something to fix the problem. Although, how one person can make a difference and how to do it are very popular questions for me.

La Mancha

Documentary Genre: Biographies and portraits, Direct Cinema

Role of the Filmmaker: Chronicler, observer

Burning Question: Will the movie Don Quixote get finished?

Visual Imagery: Footage of actual scenes. Clips of setting locations and making other production design equipment.

Theme: The process of how Don Quixote is attempted.

Stakes: Will the actors make it in time for rehearsals and screen test? Will the actor for Don Quixote get well enough to ride horses again? Will they run out of money and who will clean up the bills afterwards? Is the insurance going to cover them.

Editing Style: Continuous

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer. Describe the parameter factors and how they came into play during this film.

This documentary reminded me a little bit of a production I was on. Although we actually finished ours and everything didn’t fall apart in the end.

Rush

Documentary Genre: Musical documentary

Role of the Filmmaker: Chronicler

Burning Question: What are they going to do next?

Visual Imagery: Old footage of concerts and interviews. Photos of promotions and concerts.

Theme: Rush shows the ups and downs of how a band has progressed over fifty years.

Stakes: Rush might be forced to go mainstream, play at low venues, or have to go home and work farms. Will Rush get stuck in one style for too long and get in trouble with fans.

Editing Style: Mostly Continues editing with some discontinues

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer

I enjoyed this documentary a lot. It was interesting watching about a band learn and grow. I like to put on my Pandora with shuffle and just listen to music. I had no idea I was listening to Rush or  have ever heard of them, until this documentary.

Tesla

Biography and historical film

Chronicler

Who is Tesla and how did he benefit the future of mankind?

Interview are done by those who studied Tesla and are related to him. In order to understand who the audience was learning about or the experiments were being conduct; black and white photos were shown on screen.

A man’s capability with the mind is beyond all possibilities.  

Was Tesla going to be able to create his inventions, and was he going to survive financially. When Tesla first proposed AC current electricity society thought it was thought to be impossible, but proved them wrong. Although many of his later ideas were presumed scientific. Could they one day be made reality in some form?

Editing was continues

The documentary was very interesting I have heard of Tesla, but only as a passing name. It was nice to learn more about him, but parts of the movie seemed to drag on. I think the audience might be more towards those who are actually studying famous scientists. I like learning about other areas even if it is science, but they were throwing names around that I have never heard before which made it hard to follow. For what I needed to know I believe it have been shortened and condensed, but I don’t think I’m the target audience for this film.

The Truth Behind: Bigfoot

Documentary Genre: Exploration and Discovery, and science films

Role of the Filmmaker: Explorer

Burning Question: Can we use scientific methods to finally confirm or deny the possibility of bigfoot.

Visual Imagery: Focused on one area of california. Showed old footage of the same area. A lot of the documentary was filled with animations in order to compare the old and new footage.

Theme: Discovering proof whether bigfoot is scientific fact or science fiction.

Stakes: Will it finally be proven scientifically or is Bigfoot just a science fiction hoax.

Editing Style: Actual footage mixed with animation. In the beginning scenes it the editors tried to create suspense has the narrator tried to describe how difficult it would be to land. It switch between inside the helicopter and outside of it only showing it go down very little in each cut away.

Neanderthals

Documentary Genre: Exploration and Discovery, Historical Films, Cinema Verite, and science film

Role of the Filmmaker: Explorer

Burning Question: How different are Neanderthals from modern day humans?

Visual Imagery: Flashbacks, scientists working, b-roll on humans, animations

Theme: New discoveries have found how Neanderthals are more similar to Modern Humans than we originally thought.

Stakes: Are neanderthals stupid and hairy? Or are they intelligent and strong distant relatives?

Editing Style: When they were showing the results of the Neanderthals DNA I thought they did it in a pretty unique way. When they did shots of multiple people in front of the white wall it amazed me how uniform they were.

Questions, emotions, thoughts that this film provoked in you as viewer:

I took biology anthropology which discussed some about neanderthals. So I was comparing it with information I remember from that class, but they still seemed to have new information I have not heard before.

I watched this twice in order to have a better understanding of the documentary. During the first time I was hanging on to every word because this kind of stuff fascinates me.  Somethings seemed off but the film was going so fast I couldn’t think about it much. On the second time around the documentary seems more off and feels like it has some little holes. It is for an audience who are pretty new to the concept and don’t have a ton of background in evaluation.