The content of the feature film, The Thin Blue Line, directed by Errol Morris was not considered to be a traditional documentary during the era it was released (1988), for it allowed multiple points of view and the dramatizations performed throughout the film. Nonetheless, it is a successful film which slowly unveiled the truth being the 1976 murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood. The two protagonists involved are Randall Adams, who has been in jail for 11 years, and David Harris, who is serving time for an unrelated crime. Local authorities believed Harris’ story, testifying that Adams was the one who has shot and killed Wood after their car had been pulled over on their way home from a movie. Adams however claimed to know nothing about the murder, insisting that Harris had dropped him home two hours before the incident. Prior to his sentence being later revoked by the Supreme Court, Adams was convicted with a death sentence. The viewers later learn that Adams are convicted of a crime he was totally innocent of, which influences and impacts the audience to re-think their opinions and thoughts about their local authorities.
The simplicity and basic structure of Morris’ documentary is deceivingly conventional. There are three fundamental concepts that Morris merges together. Firstly, the core of the narrative is told by the participants in interviews to the camera: Adams himself; David Harris, who claimed to have been in the car as Adams shot Wood; members of the police force that investigated the case; eyewitnesses to the shooting; Adams’ lawyers; and the judge in the original trial. Secondly, Morris shows us pieces of raw, true documentary evidence: crime scene photos and diagrams, newspaper reports, illustrations by court reporters, mugshots and line-up photos. Lastly, as each participant provides contradictory perspectives on the murder, we see a recreation of the events, each adding or subtracting new details based upon the account we have heard.
The techniques used by Morris not only enhances the raw and true concept of the film, but it offers a new direction to documentaries.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
C. TV Documentaries: Discovery Channel – Mythbusters: Spy Car Escape
The content of the TV documentary, Mythbusters, hosted by Adam, Jamie, Kari, Grant and Tory involves testing certain myths, popular beliefs or rumours typically through a two-step process. Occasionally the mythbusters will perform a friendly competition to see which of them can develop a more successful solution to recreating the results. When a myths result fails, they label it as ‘busted’. When a myths result produces a similar result, but less intensity than the one described, they label it as ‘plausible’. When a myths result succeeds, they label it as ‘confirmed’.
Within this particular episode, Adam and Jamie decide to test the myth of escaping a car chase successfully using spy gadgets such as: spiky tacks, smoke screen and oil slick. They test this by using two separate cars, one in pursuit and one fleeing using the spy gadgets. In a guided race course, the spy car takes off first in full speed, then the car in pursuit follows. Without the pursuit car knowing, the spy car randomly releases its gadget to try and successfully stop the pursuit car and get away discreetly. The first test was releasing spiky tacks from the rear of the spy car, hoping to damage or even pop the tires of the car in pursuit. Unfortunately, this section of the myth was labelled busted. Although the spikes punctured the tires, they stayed in place, not allowing the air of the tires to be released fast enough, therefore the spy car was caught in the end. The second test was releasing canned smoke from the rear of the spy car, hoping to blind the driver and cause confusion to the car in pursuit. This test had to be done twice, for the first round the smoke engulfed the spy car, instead of the pursuit car. The second time around, they placed a long plank at the rear of the car and released the smoke this way, which did cause the driver blindness and forcing him to lose sight of the race course. This section of the myth was labelled confirmed. The final test was releasing vegetable oil from the rear of the spy car, hoping to malfunction the grip of the tires on the pursuit car, forcing it to skid or glide off track. This test did cause the traction of the pursuits car to lose grip and slightly caused the car to slid, however it still maintained momentum and was able to catch the spy car, therefore it was labelled plausible.
Within this particular episode, Adam and Jamie decide to test the myth of escaping a car chase successfully using spy gadgets such as: spiky tacks, smoke screen and oil slick. They test this by using two separate cars, one in pursuit and one fleeing using the spy gadgets. In a guided race course, the spy car takes off first in full speed, then the car in pursuit follows. Without the pursuit car knowing, the spy car randomly releases its gadget to try and successfully stop the pursuit car and get away discreetly. The first test was releasing spiky tacks from the rear of the spy car, hoping to damage or even pop the tires of the car in pursuit. Unfortunately, this section of the myth was labelled busted. Although the spikes punctured the tires, they stayed in place, not allowing the air of the tires to be released fast enough, therefore the spy car was caught in the end. The second test was releasing canned smoke from the rear of the spy car, hoping to blind the driver and cause confusion to the car in pursuit. This test had to be done twice, for the first round the smoke engulfed the spy car, instead of the pursuit car. The second time around, they placed a long plank at the rear of the car and released the smoke this way, which did cause the driver blindness and forcing him to lose sight of the race course. This section of the myth was labelled confirmed. The final test was releasing vegetable oil from the rear of the spy car, hoping to malfunction the grip of the tires on the pursuit car, forcing it to skid or glide off track. This test did cause the traction of the pursuits car to lose grip and slightly caused the car to slid, however it still maintained momentum and was able to catch the spy car, therefore it was labelled plausible.
A. Newsmagazine: The Fifth Estate (CBC): The Confession
The context of the documentary, The Confession, directed and produced by Oleh J. Rumak, Marie Caloz and Angela Gilbert, written and hosted by Bob McKeown on CBC’s The Fifth Estate takes place in an interrogation room at Ottawa Police Headquarters. It is here where Russell Williams, a former Colonel in Canadian Forces Base Trenton, confesses to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of forcible confinement, two counts of breaking and entering and sexual assault. He was interrogated by Detective Sergeant Jim Smyth, a member of the Ontario Provincial Police’s Behavioural Sciences Unit, on February 7, 2010.
Ten days prior to his interrogation, a 27-year-old woman named Jessica Lloyd had vanished near William’s town of Tweed, Ontario. When a tip was given to the police about an SUV that was spotted parked in front of Lloyd’s house the night she vanished, the Ontario Provincial Police began an extensive search for motor vehicles in the area that matched the tire tread marks found on Lloyd’s property. William’s Pathfinder tires resembled the exact marks, and he was on surveillance ever since.
The interview lasted approximately ten hours. In William’s confession he described details of his crimes, including the two murders he convicted against Jessica Lloyd and Corporal Marie-France Comeau, multiple sex assaults in Tweed and 82 fetish break-ins and thefts. He admitted to police that he photographed thousands of pictures of his victims and of himself dressed in stolen underwear and bra’s, and told them where they can find these evidence.
William later identified to Detective Jim Smyth on a map where he dumped Jessica Lloyd’s body. When police searched the area, they found Lloyd’s body exactly where he said it would be. Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert F. Scott sentenced William’s on October 22, 2010 to two concurrent terms of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
The content of the documentary is told through the host Bob McKeown’s narration, comments and analysis by expert individuals involved with the police force and raw personal footage from the two surveillance cameras placed within the interrogation room. Banter, comments and accusations are a two-person shot between the host and various expert individuals, which are placed in between the raw surveillance footages. I believe the way this documentary was executed was very powerful, informative, moved the emotions of the audience, direct, personal, and over all a very persuasive successful documentary.
Ten days prior to his interrogation, a 27-year-old woman named Jessica Lloyd had vanished near William’s town of Tweed, Ontario. When a tip was given to the police about an SUV that was spotted parked in front of Lloyd’s house the night she vanished, the Ontario Provincial Police began an extensive search for motor vehicles in the area that matched the tire tread marks found on Lloyd’s property. William’s Pathfinder tires resembled the exact marks, and he was on surveillance ever since.
The interview lasted approximately ten hours. In William’s confession he described details of his crimes, including the two murders he convicted against Jessica Lloyd and Corporal Marie-France Comeau, multiple sex assaults in Tweed and 82 fetish break-ins and thefts. He admitted to police that he photographed thousands of pictures of his victims and of himself dressed in stolen underwear and bra’s, and told them where they can find these evidence.
William later identified to Detective Jim Smyth on a map where he dumped Jessica Lloyd’s body. When police searched the area, they found Lloyd’s body exactly where he said it would be. Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert F. Scott sentenced William’s on October 22, 2010 to two concurrent terms of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
The content of the documentary is told through the host Bob McKeown’s narration, comments and analysis by expert individuals involved with the police force and raw personal footage from the two surveillance cameras placed within the interrogation room. Banter, comments and accusations are a two-person shot between the host and various expert individuals, which are placed in between the raw surveillance footages. I believe the way this documentary was executed was very powerful, informative, moved the emotions of the audience, direct, personal, and over all a very persuasive successful documentary.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
B. Feature Length Documentaries: “Important Documentaries”: Woodstock
The extent of the feature length documentary entitled, Woodstock, directed by Michael Wadleigh, takes place in the summer of love 1969 in a farm at Bethel, New York. The film documents a three day concert celebration of pop culture and what it stood for: freedom, rights, power and peace. An outstanding 400,000 people, mostly youths and young adults, participated in this free concert event, hosting some of the biggest names in the music business: Jimi Hendrix, Sha Na Na’s, Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby, and many more. The amount of footage captured for this event is phenomenal, and through multi-split screen techniques through post-production, the film was not limited to only showing a portion of what took place during those three days of love and peace. Every aspect of this event was documented, from the moment the event was being planned out, constructed, set-up, to the massive amounts of people lining up to get in, to the numerous stage performances, to the parties that took place during the night, to the disastrous polluted after math. Every moment of this life changing remarkable event was captured on footage.
Unlike traditional documentaries, Woodstock had no narration. The audience, performers, promoters and the original crew who conducted this free concert spoke for themselves. The film was about the people, not just the music. It was about the cause, the moral message, the hope, the future, the change that was about to come and impact the world forever. This was the first and last free massive concert of its kind. Many have tried to duplicate this miraculous moment years after, but was unsuccessful. I believe this defining moment in history was beautiful and necessary to our rights that we have today.
What struck me most from this documentary were the massive amounts of people who turned out for this event. Not knowing what they were getting into, hundreds of thousands of people who believed in making a difference and standing up for what they believed in showed their support for this worthwhile cause. The after math however was a bit distasteful. The garbage left on the farm destroyed the land. And the stories of the raping, drugs and crime that took place during those three days disgust me. But nonetheless, the event was magical and I wish I could have been there to witness such a milestone moment. This documentary speaks truth and empowers our generation to continue the love and peace and to stand up for our rights and freedom.
Unlike traditional documentaries, Woodstock had no narration. The audience, performers, promoters and the original crew who conducted this free concert spoke for themselves. The film was about the people, not just the music. It was about the cause, the moral message, the hope, the future, the change that was about to come and impact the world forever. This was the first and last free massive concert of its kind. Many have tried to duplicate this miraculous moment years after, but was unsuccessful. I believe this defining moment in history was beautiful and necessary to our rights that we have today.
What struck me most from this documentary were the massive amounts of people who turned out for this event. Not knowing what they were getting into, hundreds of thousands of people who believed in making a difference and standing up for what they believed in showed their support for this worthwhile cause. The after math however was a bit distasteful. The garbage left on the farm destroyed the land. And the stories of the raping, drugs and crime that took place during those three days disgust me. But nonetheless, the event was magical and I wish I could have been there to witness such a milestone moment. This documentary speaks truth and empowers our generation to continue the love and peace and to stand up for our rights and freedom.
A. Newsmagazine: The Fifth Estate (CBC): Over the Edge
The extent of the documentary, Over the Edge, directed and produced by Kit Melamed on CBC’s The Fifth Estate is based on a true story about a daring and adventurous 24-year-old individual named Sam Brown. His thrill to test his limits and craving the adrenaline he receives when living on the edge, entangles him in to partaking in the marijuana drug smuggling business in BC, Canada. His extraverted personality leads him into an addiction to money, which then caused him to overlook his situation, therefore costing him his freedom and unfortunately, his life. Sam did not plan to have his situation end this way, he actually wanted to get out of this business when he finds out one of his partners is placed in jail. But it was too late.
The documentary is very personal and states the facts very clearly through various interviews with people closely related to Sam Brown. The re-enactments throughout the documentary helped me visualize exactly what took place and gave me a sense of suspense as the story unfolded. The dramatic music effectively set the mood and tone of the documentary, which I found very efficient. The archival footage and photographs of Sam and his family also helped me visualize the characters being discussed more clearly and gave me a sense of personal relation to Sam, as if I had known him myself.
Over the Edge not only touched based on the protagonists life, but also revealed the federal and law side of the situation, which I thought was very effective. Most documentaries choose to only unfold the story of one side of the situation, giving a more biased approached. The law was given a voice in this segment, which I thought was very interesting and informative.
The Fifth Estate conducts its documentary very well, for they freely choose to approach topics and situations which are both interesting and challenging, and get right down to the matter. The footage they shoot is very real, raw, personable and fresh. Usually I find hosts or narrators of documentaries to be too serious or too uptight, but the host in this segment was very comfortable to listen to and watch. I enjoy watching Fifth Estate documentaries for the soul reason that it offers the truth the way it is, not twisting the message in such a way that looses the stories significance and moral value. I feel that every time I finish watching a Fifth Estate documentary, I walk away with more knowledge, insight, strength and courage as a model citizen and as a filmmaker.
The documentary is very personal and states the facts very clearly through various interviews with people closely related to Sam Brown. The re-enactments throughout the documentary helped me visualize exactly what took place and gave me a sense of suspense as the story unfolded. The dramatic music effectively set the mood and tone of the documentary, which I found very efficient. The archival footage and photographs of Sam and his family also helped me visualize the characters being discussed more clearly and gave me a sense of personal relation to Sam, as if I had known him myself.
Over the Edge not only touched based on the protagonists life, but also revealed the federal and law side of the situation, which I thought was very effective. Most documentaries choose to only unfold the story of one side of the situation, giving a more biased approached. The law was given a voice in this segment, which I thought was very interesting and informative.
The Fifth Estate conducts its documentary very well, for they freely choose to approach topics and situations which are both interesting and challenging, and get right down to the matter. The footage they shoot is very real, raw, personable and fresh. Usually I find hosts or narrators of documentaries to be too serious or too uptight, but the host in this segment was very comfortable to listen to and watch. I enjoy watching Fifth Estate documentaries for the soul reason that it offers the truth the way it is, not twisting the message in such a way that looses the stories significance and moral value. I feel that every time I finish watching a Fifth Estate documentary, I walk away with more knowledge, insight, strength and courage as a model citizen and as a filmmaker.
C. TV Documentaries: Discovery Channel – Megacity: Poland
The content of the TV documentary, Megacity: Poland, hosted on the Discovery Channel covers interesting historical and modern sites, attractions and hidden wonders throughout this beautiful European region. The segment not only thoroughly explains the historical significance of each location, but also reveals the present state and future goals of the site. The various stories are told effectively with the support of very informative factual narration / voice over from the host of the show, creative b-roll footage, and allowing the host to preface each different site by conducting a brief humorous and friendly segment prior to a new place being introduced.
The first location revealed takes place in the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which is described to be 900 years old. The mine is a sacred monument to all the mine workers who took part excavating over the past hundreds of years. This particular site is a very popular and major tourist attraction, preserving remarkable underground chapels, sculptures and artefacts made entirely out of salt. The mine consists of a maze of tunnels and as a whole is seventeen times the size of the Vatican City. In total, the mine holds 20 chapels underground. Today, miners are risking their lives to save, preserve and restore this beautiful and historical mine and its eroding carvings.
Poland is known for its steel making business, and therefore the city Nowa Huta, which literally means ‘new steel mill’ in Polish, is revealed in this segment. History explains that the citizens of this city would work in the steel factory, and those who worked in the steel factory, lived in the city. Today, Nowa Huta holds the most modern and efficient facilities in the world. Its current steel factory has the most advanced hot rolling mill in all of Europe, which is conveniently owned by the largest steel makers in the world, ArcelorMittal. The steel sheets made in this factory are shipped out to countries all over the world and are used for everything from car parts to kitchen appliances.
Another interesting and mysterious location discussed in this TV documentary is WWII artefacts located a few hours away from the city Krakow. Scientists discovered Hitler’s underground tunnels, and have yet to find out the true purpose of these unfinished tunnels, if it were meant to be use for military purposes, to test weapons or if it were one of Hitler’s headquarters.
Overall, this TV documentary was very interesting, informative and creatively shot.
The first location revealed takes place in the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which is described to be 900 years old. The mine is a sacred monument to all the mine workers who took part excavating over the past hundreds of years. This particular site is a very popular and major tourist attraction, preserving remarkable underground chapels, sculptures and artefacts made entirely out of salt. The mine consists of a maze of tunnels and as a whole is seventeen times the size of the Vatican City. In total, the mine holds 20 chapels underground. Today, miners are risking their lives to save, preserve and restore this beautiful and historical mine and its eroding carvings.
Poland is known for its steel making business, and therefore the city Nowa Huta, which literally means ‘new steel mill’ in Polish, is revealed in this segment. History explains that the citizens of this city would work in the steel factory, and those who worked in the steel factory, lived in the city. Today, Nowa Huta holds the most modern and efficient facilities in the world. Its current steel factory has the most advanced hot rolling mill in all of Europe, which is conveniently owned by the largest steel makers in the world, ArcelorMittal. The steel sheets made in this factory are shipped out to countries all over the world and are used for everything from car parts to kitchen appliances.
Another interesting and mysterious location discussed in this TV documentary is WWII artefacts located a few hours away from the city Krakow. Scientists discovered Hitler’s underground tunnels, and have yet to find out the true purpose of these unfinished tunnels, if it were meant to be use for military purposes, to test weapons or if it were one of Hitler’s headquarters.
Overall, this TV documentary was very interesting, informative and creatively shot.
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