Paris is Burning

Paris is Burning is a documentary film that was directed by Jennie Livingston and was released to the public in 1990. Paris is Burning tackled the ever-controversial issue of gender and whether gender is performed or is innate. The film is mainly shot in observational mode, expect for the few times when Jennie Livingston is heard asking questions in the background. She also used word titles in the film to introduce the queens and sometimes had just key phrases on the titles. Livingston also used interviews with the queens to narrate the stories.

The camera crew follows around a number of male drag queens in NYC in what could be considered their underground world or subculture. These men compete in balls in order to gain status and acceptance in the drag world. Not only does Livingston focus on the extravagent balls that these men compete in, butLivingston also delves deep into the emotional and physical problems that these men deal with on a daily basis and captures them at their weakest points sometimes. The reality that these men live is actually a very sad one at times and this film will definitely educate those how are ignorant on the subject.

Editing Film

I learned many things from this film all about editing. Some of these things include:

Mise-en-scene refers to the center of the screen being the main focus or main person of the film.

Before the films we have today were introduced, there were things such as actualities. Actualities were movies that were not edited and had no story. Actualities were pioneered by Lumiere in the mid 1890s, around 1895. They were popular from 1895-1903.

Continutiy editing seeks to achieve logic, smoothness, sequentiality and the temporal and spatial orientation of viewers to what they see on the screen.

Classical cutting refers to up close shots of characters. Not only do we see the exaggerated actions of characters anymore, we can see their faces and expressions.

Montage editing refers to the juxtaposition of images to create meaning not found in either individual shot by itself.

Eisenstein was an emotional and political pioneer for the film world. He experimented with discontinuity, which refers to the relationship of shots create meaning, and no single shot tells the story. It's like a puzzle, you need all the pieces for the finished product. One example of this could be Way Down East.

180 Degree Rule - Do not film so that there is never a space larger than 180 degrees between the camera and the focus of the shot. This will completely disoriente the viewer and look very choppy as well.

Films such as The Great Train Robbery exemplify the idea of beginning and ending of action with a cut in between. The audience then needs to assume that things have been cut out. Parallell action is also shown in this film and refers to the idea of two stories going on at once. For example, the train being robbed and the actions of all of the robbers.

Nixon's "Checkers Speech"

On September 23, 1952, Senator Richard Nixon took over the radio and television for a half an hour to let the American public know that he was not guilty of the many things he had been accused of, and he still wanted to be the Vice President under President Eisenhower. The speech was called the "Checker's Speech" because in it, Nixon explains that he will not be giving back the dog his family received, and the dog's name is Checkers. The whole speech is shot in Nixon's office, which can suggest an aura of hard-work and business. He may also have been trying to gain camradrie with the American people by allowing them into one of his most sacred places. Also, there are a variety of shots used in the speech. Nixon is shot sitting at his desk, from the desk up, addressing the American public, he is shot standing in front of the desk, (in order to construct some reality and desperation) and he was shot in a close up which showed just his face. I think that these different shots were used to emphasize what he was saying at the moment. There were no titles used on the screen, and it is obvious that there was no narrator other than Nixon himself. His speech was surprisingly sucessful and actually saved his spot on the ballot for Vice President.

LBJ

LBJ was a short avant-garde film produced by Cuban filmmaker, Santiago Alvarez. LBJ came out in 1968, and basically blamed LBJ for the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and of Bobby Kennedy. Alvarez used archival images throughout the film, as well as archival footage of speeches given. He also used subtitles because the film is in Spanish. Alvarez uses an owl throughout the film as well for some sort of symbolism. He never came out and said what it stood for, but some guesses could be LBJ himself or death. Editing and montage editing played a big role in this film. The juxtaposition of the images made some statements that could never be made by one object by itself. The correlation between the images really gives the viewer the idea that Alvarez wants to convey. Obviously the editing portrays his point of view in this film. LBJ is shown in a very negative light. There is also no real narrator, except for those giving speeches and the subtitles during those speeches. Other than that, there is music played constantly in the background.

Primary

Primary was released in 1960 and followed the campaign trail of the 1960 Wisconsin Primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Primary was produced by Robert Drew and shot by Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. Primary was purely an observational documentary and was groundbreaking because for the first time, filmmakers were able to follow the candidates around much easier because of mobile cameras and lighter sound equipment. Leacock and Maysles observed both men and never interfered with them or participated in the film in any sort of way. However, the way that the producer and editor chose to depict the men in the final film were very different observational styles. When the camera was on Kennedy, he was always smiling, shaking hands, and/or just showing connections to his followers. Kennedy basically seemed like a very open and trustworthy person. He was portrayed to be very personable. On the other hand, Humphrey was observed more at a distance, always wore a hat, and rarely interacted with his followers to the point of Kennedy. Also, in many shots of Kennedy, his wife, Jackie was present. She was even given notoriety for her style and became somewhat of a fashion icon to the American public. I believe that the editing process of this film was definitely essential to the film's message. What the editor chose to show and not to show seems a bit bias at times because of how personable Kennedy seems and how standoff-ish Humphrey seems.

Thin Blue Line

Released in 1988, Thin Blue Line tells the captivating story of two men, Randall Adams and David Harris' different sides of the murder of a policeman and all of the repercussions involved. The film was directed by Errol Morris and was one of the first serious documentaries to use reconstruction as a major part of the film. Reconstruction or re-enactments were usually thought to be untruthful and not very legitamate. The reconstruction is used to show the crime scene and how each man said the murder happened. Although obviously not completely accurate because no one can re-enact exactly what happened, the re-enactments worked for their purpose and gave reconstruction a better name than it had previously had with documentaries.

Morris used archival footage, reconstruction, and interviews with David Harris and Randall Adams themselves, as well as all other parties involved in the murder and trial. Although he used interviews quite often throughout the film, he never used titles to let the audience know who was speaking or what their relation to the case was. I'm not really sure as to why Morris chose to do this, but I think it definitely did keep the audience's attention because they were always guessing as to who the person was. Also, there was no real narrator since the interviewees basically told the entire story. As previously stated, this film was one of the first to use reconstruction, and it really paved the way for the shows of today such as Law and Order and America's Most Wanted.

Feed

Released in 1992, Feed was a documentary that followed the New Hampshire primaries and captured what happens right before the politicians would go "on air". The film had many different subjects, and this list of subjects included Bill Clinton. This film was directed by Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway. The angle that the film took was one of comedy and the comedic things that politicians really do go through and do right before they go on the air. The prepping that is done for them is ridiculous and really makes people see the candidates for who they are before they are coached on what to say or are made up to look how the cameras want to portray them. Much of the film is composed of raw satellite feed from major television networks which was not intended for the public viewing.