Cinema Verité
- True Cinema
- First applied by Jean Rouch
- Derived from the 1960’s showing people in everyday situations with authentic dialogue.
- Accomplished using a hand held camera
- Must be a relaxed and trusting setting between the filmmaker and the subject
- Two Different theorist view:
Jean Rouch- thought the camera should stimulate the way people acted in front of it, and express themselves in way they normally would not. Wanted to explain life
Leacock- wanted life to reveal itself. He thought Rouch forced meanings out people
Harlan County, USA.
Filmed between 1972 and 1976 documenting the coal miners in Kentucky and their thirteen-month strike for decent working conditions.
“I’m a politician first, a filmmaker second” –Barbara Kopple.
The music is quite prevalent. “Which side are you on?”
She’s on the miners’ side which makes the film one sided and bias.
Examples:
-“scabs” are the “bad guys”
- police are compared to the “pinkertons.
- Miners and wives=heroes and Duke Power Company=Villains.
No attempt to be objective.
Editing: Links a police cruiser of 1973 with a tank from the 1940s era of bloody Harlan County, trying to show that things have not changed much over the years.
Showing sympathy with the workers through guilt by association.
Only mine workers families shown revealing only one side of a very complicated issue.
“I’m a politician first, a filmmaker second” –Barbara Kopple.
The music is quite prevalent. “Which side are you on?”
She’s on the miners’ side which makes the film one sided and bias.
Examples:
-“scabs” are the “bad guys”
- police are compared to the “pinkertons.
- Miners and wives=heroes and Duke Power Company=Villains.
No attempt to be objective.
Editing: Links a police cruiser of 1973 with a tank from the 1940s era of bloody Harlan County, trying to show that things have not changed much over the years.
Showing sympathy with the workers through guilt by association.
Only mine workers families shown revealing only one side of a very complicated issue.
Is documentary film realistic?
Do documentaries in the 1970’s represent realism or are they staged?
“Did the filmmakers distort, through selection and arrangement, what actually occurred?” (Ellis, McLane, 223)
Filmmakers are in control of what is being presented. There are film techniques and manipulation methods such as editing which can change the perspective of the film and provide the viewer with a distortion of the truth.
Although documentary films are shown in the perspective of the videographer, and modifications are easy to make, some documentaries simply want to demonstrate real and un-staged events.
Harlan County represents a form of historical documentation.
One may argue that this documentary is one sided, that it demonstrates only the struggles of the coil mineworkers and their families against the Duke Power Company in Kentucky (1973). In contrast Harlan County is a perfect example of a documentary, which represents a true historical event.
The example, which I will show, will demonstrate how events in Harlan County are true. The camera is acting as a sort of hidden camera, and when it is revealed to the public, they react and throw it to the floor.
(Time of INTRODUCTION clip to watch: 2:32)
As we will be discussing: “Reality” television may be preserved as being a true indication of reality documentation today, but in contrast this form of documentary involves editing, scrip and sometimes even staged events.
An example is Growing Up Gotti :
Nichols, Bill. "Representing Reality." Indiana University Press (1991).
Reality Television
- According to a poll by CNN, 57% of 1016 adults believe that Reality TV shows provide a distorted picture of events while another 23% say the shows are "totally phoney". The amount of pressure for TV ratings pushes people to make the show more interesting.
- Reality shows are constructed and mediated because there is a tight filming schedule. The setting, the events must be carefully controlled and directed.
- Profits and ratings are the number one concern.
- All reality tv show participants are forced to sign all kinds of waivers, so it is impossible to sue even if things do get taken out of context and the waivers protect the network from any liability if someone gets hurt on the show.
Cinema Verite, Direct Camera and Reality Television
Cinema Verite (Canada/Europe) or Direct Cinema (U.S.)
•Lighter cameras allowed for more mobility and the ability to take the camera with you and most importantly away from the artificial constructs of soundstages and studios.
•Filmmakers used this new technology to follow “real” life. The people filmed were their own narrators, and the camera captured their story to be interpreted by the viewers.
•Cinema Verite (French for “film truth”) was a term created by French filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch.
•Cinema Verite: purpose is of “discovery and revelation” (Ellis, McLane 213) and because of this CV films can take a point-of-view, film makers do and can participate in the process.
•Direct Cinema: believes the camera can act as an “objective observer” (Ellis, McLane 215). Filmmakers do not direct or participate or influence a scene in any way.
•Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite have influenced not only how modern documentaries are created, but have helped to change television, specifically in the development of reality television.
•While there are several forms of reality television, including competitions like American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, the shows that can be related back to both Cinema Verite and Direct Cinema are “unscripted” programs where viewers can watch a group of people in a particular setting; for example, Survivor, Big Brother, and Real People.
Albert and David Maysles’ were pioneers in the development of Direct Cinema in the United States. One of the films that they produced was “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A” (1964) which has a camera following the Fab Four throughout their first trip to the U.S. and even back to Britain. Here is an example of a scene from that film: Beatles clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYciRQDkYD4 (start at 2:25).
•Now compare that to a Direct Camera-style reality television show, in this case: Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica. Newlyweds’ clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKYd_elR1-o&feature=related (start at 8 seconds).
•Basically, it is the same scene (car/limo) and the same camera technique. There is no narrator, the camera is being the “objective observer” and viewers are free to interpret what is being shown or said by the people being filmed in their own way.
•One of the first and the most successful Direct Cinema programs on American television is the show COPS! Started in the mid-1980s during a writer’s strike, it led the way to the development of modern-style reality television using the technique of Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite. Watch as the camera follows these officers in this scene, it is not shot from a camera-car, the camera moves with them and even moves in for a close-up shot. Cops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD9XC_LCcDw (start at 20 seconds).
•Lighter cameras allowed for more mobility and the ability to take the camera with you and most importantly away from the artificial constructs of soundstages and studios.
•Filmmakers used this new technology to follow “real” life. The people filmed were their own narrators, and the camera captured their story to be interpreted by the viewers.
•Cinema Verite (French for “film truth”) was a term created by French filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch.
•Cinema Verite: purpose is of “discovery and revelation” (Ellis, McLane 213) and because of this CV films can take a point-of-view, film makers do and can participate in the process.
•Direct Cinema: believes the camera can act as an “objective observer” (Ellis, McLane 215). Filmmakers do not direct or participate or influence a scene in any way.
•Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite have influenced not only how modern documentaries are created, but have helped to change television, specifically in the development of reality television.
•While there are several forms of reality television, including competitions like American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, the shows that can be related back to both Cinema Verite and Direct Cinema are “unscripted” programs where viewers can watch a group of people in a particular setting; for example, Survivor, Big Brother, and Real People.
Albert and David Maysles’ were pioneers in the development of Direct Cinema in the United States. One of the films that they produced was “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A” (1964) which has a camera following the Fab Four throughout their first trip to the U.S. and even back to Britain. Here is an example of a scene from that film: Beatles clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYciRQDkYD4 (start at 2:25).
•Now compare that to a Direct Camera-style reality television show, in this case: Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica. Newlyweds’ clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKYd_elR1-o&feature=related (start at 8 seconds).
•Basically, it is the same scene (car/limo) and the same camera technique. There is no narrator, the camera is being the “objective observer” and viewers are free to interpret what is being shown or said by the people being filmed in their own way.
•One of the first and the most successful Direct Cinema programs on American television is the show COPS! Started in the mid-1980s during a writer’s strike, it led the way to the development of modern-style reality television using the technique of Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite. Watch as the camera follows these officers in this scene, it is not shot from a camera-car, the camera moves with them and even moves in for a close-up shot. Cops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD9XC_LCcDw (start at 20 seconds).
Conclusion: How is reality television shows a modern form of Cinema Verite?
- Film techniques
- "Follow real life"
- Are "unscripted"
Discussion Questions
1) When you watch historical documentary films, do you feel like you are witnessing reality?
2) When you watch modern reality television, is everything you see seem real or staged?
Works Cited
Bibliography
Merrit, Greg. Celluloid Mavericks. New York. Thunder’s Mouth Press. 2000.
Rosenthal, Alan. The Documentary Conscience. University of California Press. 1980.
Rabigeer, Michael. Directing the Documentary. Burlington, MA. Elsevier Inc. 2004.
Barnouw, Erik. Documentary. New York. Oxford University Press. 1993.
Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. A New History of Documentary Film. Continuum: New York; 2005.
Fetveit, Arild. "Reality TV in the Digital Era: A Paradox in Visual Culture?" Media, Culture & Society 21.6 (1999): 787-804.
Michael, Charlie. "Claiming a Style: The "Living Cinema: of Pierre Perrault's Pour la suite du monde." Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television (Fall2004 2004): 32-47.
Tomaselli, Keyan G. "'at the Other End of the Camera': Film through History in John Marshall's Documentaries." Studies in Documentary Film 1.2 (2007): 123-36.
Zuber, Sharon. "The force of reality in direct cinema: an interview with Albert Maysles.(Interview)." Post Script 26.3 (Summer 2007): 6(16).
Nichols, Bill. "Representing Reality." Indiana University Press (1991).
INSIDE REALITY TV
Stars Talk About Their Experience By Charu Suri
http://ptcchallenge.com/october08/oct08_realitytv.html
"Infoplease Television Timeline." Fact Monster.
© 2000–2004 Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster.
28 Nov. 2004 .
"The Osbournes': Genre, Reality TV, and the Domestication of Rock 'n Roll."
Pieto, Rick and Otter, Kelly. Counterblast.org.
28 Nov. 2004
Merrit, Greg. Celluloid Mavericks. New York. Thunder’s Mouth Press. 2000.
Rosenthal, Alan. The Documentary Conscience. University of California Press. 1980.
Rabigeer, Michael. Directing the Documentary. Burlington, MA. Elsevier Inc. 2004.
Barnouw, Erik. Documentary. New York. Oxford University Press. 1993.
Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. A New History of Documentary Film. Continuum: New York; 2005.
Fetveit, Arild. "Reality TV in the Digital Era: A Paradox in Visual Culture?" Media, Culture & Society 21.6 (1999): 787-804.
Michael, Charlie. "Claiming a Style: The "Living Cinema: of Pierre Perrault's Pour la suite du monde." Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television (Fall2004 2004): 32-47.
Tomaselli, Keyan G. "'at the Other End of the Camera': Film through History in John Marshall's Documentaries." Studies in Documentary Film 1.2 (2007): 123-36.
Zuber, Sharon. "The force of reality in direct cinema: an interview with Albert Maysles.(Interview)." Post Script 26.3 (Summer 2007): 6(16).
Nichols, Bill. "Representing Reality." Indiana University Press (1991).
INSIDE REALITY TV
Stars Talk About Their Experience By Charu Suri
http://ptcchallenge.com/october08/oct08_realitytv.html
"Infoplease Television Timeline." Fact Monster.
© 2000–2004 Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster.
28 Nov. 2004 .
"The Osbournes': Genre, Reality TV, and the Domestication of Rock 'n Roll."
Pieto, Rick and Otter, Kelly. Counterblast.org.
28 Nov. 2004
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