Category: documentary
Sunday Paper – Interview Rough Cut (B-roll only)
Superheist – Simone’s Version
Amish or English? – Visual Evidence Blog
Job Interview and Car Crash Scenes.
In this clip of Devil’s Playground, Faron is trying to win back Emma and trying to see if he can make it on his own before going back and joining the church. Visual evidence is shown in the job interview and car crash scenes. First, the job interview scene is shown, where Faron is at the house of a family that is hiring for a landscaping business. In the interview they specifically ask if has his own means of transportation, and he answers “yeah, I’ve got a car”. Because he has his own car, they ask him to start as soon as possible. The next scenes then show Faron’s car busted in the middle of the road with the door wide open, and then Faron on the sidewalk with blood running down his forehead with an officer talking to him and sirens blaring in the background. While the transition of scenes seems jarring, it is important for the audience to see the visual evidence of Faron’s car crash. If they had only interviewed Faron about the car crash, it would not have had as great of an emotional impact on the audience. Because of the visual evidence, the audience can feel how Faron was feeling because of the crash, which is “How is he going to make it to his job? How is he going to make it on his own now?”. Visual evidence makes the story more real for the audience and allows them to have a sense of being in the “shoes” of the people being interviewed. Though as an English Faron has a car as transportation, he has to worry about car accidents and repairs. He must also worry about finding a means to make money, as no one is guaranteed a job in the English world. If Faron were part of the Amish, he would not have a car, but he would not need to worry about accidents and repairs, and he would be guaranteed a job.
Blog Post Week 6
Hello class,
Visual evidence. It’s the key to conveying the documentarians’ themes and ideas to the audience. The essays emphasized the importance of visual evidence. How can someone tell a story without any sound, just visuals? Silent films are prime examples, as the essays point out. Their only option WAS visual evidence. They shot scenes with intention. A documentary highly focuses on the visual with the inclusion of sound to reflect one another. While being in the modern world, how can we tell the story of local nurses during COVID without going inside the hospital? I’d want to tell the story of the physical, emotional, and mental impact the pandemic has over the nurses on the front lines.
“A critical part of the preparation for any documentary project should be to ask yourself what you can show your audience that will help them to understand the subject” (pg. 99).
To tell my story, I’d want to show an interview with a nurse from a local hospital. The audience gets to see behavioral evidence from this interview, the responses to questions about their work, family, and personal life resulting from COVID. However, the essay points out that interviews usually aren’t evidence. How can someone believe what a person is saying if all they see/hear is that person? What does that struggle look like? The essays highlighted the importance of location when conducting an interview.
“If you’re filming an expert on juvenile delinquency who is proposing alternatives to putting adolescents in adult prisons, film her at the prison rather than her office” (pg. 98).
The hospital is off the table. But COVID isn’t solely located at the hospital. The world “pandemic” means affecting the entire nation. Filming this interview in locations that would usually be full of people, perhaps a mall or a school, showing a scene of the interviewee taking off or leaving on their medical mask. These locations point out the impact of COVID on our environment that would allow for the interview to touch on, reflecting points from the dialogue with visual evidence. I would also ask the interviewee if they could supply and photographs of themselves on the job, of their family, or simply include publicly available images of nurses, patients, and other medical staff dealing with COVID.
“You have to plan for filming in situations and at locations likely to provide useful visual evidence, and you must also be prepared to recognize visual evidence when it occurs, even when it doesn’t show up in the way you might have expected” (pg. 99).
A distinction is made about B-roll and visual evidence in the essays. “B-roll mentality” is a worry of the writer that filmmakers fall into. They disregard looking for the scenes that tell the story and instead look for scenes relating to the story.
“Any time a shot in a documentary could be taken out of the film and replaced with something completely different, it’s B-roll. If it has to be there, it’s visual evidence” (pg.107).
A scene where the interviewee is washing their scrubs early in the morning before work tells us just how often this person is working during the pandemic. Another scene of them arriving home late at night after a busy shift. A car ride with the nurse showing their route to work at the start of their shift. These scenes could be replaced with shots inside the hospital if allowed, but the replacement isn’t necessary. These shots tell the story, the struggles of nurses in all aspects of life from the COVID pandemic while at home.
I’ve garnered a new appreciation for the documentarian and the work that goes behind creating a truly authentic story.
Thanks for reading,
Caleb
Nurses Documentary Blog
The story of the documentary will be about the everyday lives of nurses during a pandemic, and the unique struggles they face by being a medical worker. I would create interview questions asking them about if/how their jobs as nurses have changed since the pandemic hit, and then I would ask them about if/how their personal lives have changed due to the pandemic and being an essential worker. For example, the information that I am trying to get at is if they need to take extra precautions when they get home from working at the hospital as to not get their household sick. Do they quarantine themselves away from their loved ones? Did they use to do their own shopping but now they have someone else do it for them? Has someone in their household gotten sick, and do they feel guilty about perhaps being the cause? Have they had a loved one die from COVID, but they were unable to see them due to being an essential worker?
Due to not being allowed at their workplace with a camera, some B-roll will be taken that is related to the narrative but not essential. As stated from the reading, “B-roll illustrates talk” so the B-roll will be in conjunction with the nurses talking about their pandemic routine. The B-roll is as follows:
- B-roll of them getting ready in the morning and leaving from their house. The footage will show their routine, either normal or abnormal. This will be in conjunction with them talking about their routine. This footage highlights how even though people may only see them a few times per year, they are people with individual lives of their own. This footage may highlight precautions they take while being home with loved ones, or perhaps that they take a long time getting ready to work at a hospital.
- Time-lapse footage of patients coming and going to and from the hospital, hopefully getting some shots of long lines and wait times. This view will go from a bird’s eye view, showing people arrive in their cars and walking to and from the building, then also a shot in front of the building of people going in and out. This footage, depending on what is caught, may show the demand on hospitals and their workers.
While I am personally not allowed in with a camera, I could ask the nurses I am interviewing if they would be willing to vlog updates about their shift, the focus being on their work conditions and what they have to deal with. There will not be focus on patients (as this is probably the reason why I am not allowed inside with a camera). This will be my only “evidence” to show their working conditions, and if they match with what they tell me. As stated in the reading “…shoot people doing what they’re do… Plan the location so that it becomes part of the evidence for the scene”. It’s important to show them at the location they talk about so that it becomes “real” for the audience.
The following footage will be them going home, and what they do at home. For example, their interactions with their family, how they deal with being a parent or partner, how they balance work/life or perhaps a lack of balance, the boundaries they set with other people in their household, and any precautions they take when living with other people while being a hospital worker. The footage captured would widely depend, but the point of this footage is being visual evidence for how the pandemic has impacted the everyday lives of nurses. Visual evidence is important because it shows the audience the truth of the situation, whether if what is happening matches with what is being told, and to give the audience a real sense of the reality.