The Medium Is The Message

Marshal McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" is an interesting read for the simple fact that McLuhan was able to understand the power of the media long before those in control of it did. For instance, he touched on the idea about how our world is becoming a "global village" and how new media is an extension of our human senses. When he refers to the global village he is really talking about how our world is becoming smaller with the medium of technology because we are now much more closer to each other than ever before. For example, in today's day and age we have the ability to know what is happening around the world instantaneously, whereas before when our culture was governed by literature we were only able to see it through printed lines. In other words, the messages throughout the world used to be interpreted individually. Therefore, we are no longer concerned with individualism, but rather collectivism. As a result of this, new media is an extension of our human senses; it captivates us in physicality, but it expands our ability to perceive our world to an extent that would be impossible without the media. Our senses are heightened, and that in itself is perpetuating an Age of Anxiety. Above all, McLuhan is saying that the medium influences how the message is perceived. This video shows the journey of a guy who travels to 12 countries in 8 months. I think the video below is a clear example of how our world becoming a global village and how the new media is an extension of our human senses.

Take A Walk (Around the World) from Humanity.TV on Vimeo.

Intro to documentary

I learned a lot about documentary film from the article. It introduced about six types of documentary: poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, and performative documentary. “Poetic: adept at opening up the possibility of alternative forms of knowledge to the straightforward transfer of information, the prosecution of a particular argument or point of view, or the presentation of reasoned propositions about problems in need of solution. Expository: assembles fragments of the historical world into a more rhetorical or argumentative frame than an aesthetic or poetic one. (voice-of-god) it rely heavily on an informing logic carried by the spoken word. The expository mode emphasizes the impression of objectivity and well-supported argument. Observational: simply observe what in front of the camera. Filmmaker is invisible. It involve with the ethical issue of voyeurism and when should the filmmaker to intervene. Participatory: “being there” and experience. Record what he or she have learned. Reflexive: readers attend to the filmmaker;s engagement with them, speaking not only about the historical world but about the problems and issues of representing it as well. Performative: what is knowledge, what counts as understanding or comprehension? Concert or abstract? Personal or organizational? ” Personally, I have a strong feeling about observational documentary. When it is about the naturel world, there is no problem at all. However, as the article has pointed out, it has raise the question about when should the filmmaker comes out and stop the whole process? A film called Das Experiment (2011) by Oliver Hirschbiegel is a great example of how the ethical issue interacts in observational documentary. It was base on true story. 19 volunteer men are divided into to group, in the experiment, half of them role-play the convicts and the other role-plays the guards. They are lock in a place for two weeks. The situation goes out of control, people start to fight and hurt each other, but the observers in the other end of the camera did not stop the madness. . Few people dead and the ending of the film is fairly inspiring and sad. I do not know how to solve the problem, which is more important? The truth and the sufficient scientific result of a research or experiment or observation, or the objects in the observational process?

Introduction to Documentary

This reading focused heavily identifying what makes a documentary so different than other aspects of filmmaking. As such, it sets out clearly defined examples of describing the voice of documentaries and why these voices are important. This is because the voice of a documentary is what makes a documentary so much different than other aspects of filmmaking. Not only is the general idea of the voice of documentary important, but also the fact that there are different types of voices of documentaries. The reading points to six of these: poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, and performative. Each of these types of voices is important because, as the reading stated, “It attests to the individuality of the filmmaker or director, or, sometimes, to the determining power of a sponsor or controlling organization”. Within each of these different voices, each filmmaker will have a different perspective or twist on the voice of the documentary. The reading also points out that a documentary does not have to be held to one distinct voice, but rather, a documentary can utilize multiple voices to deliver the message.

The poetic mode of documentary focuses on the representation of the history of what has happened and uses this history to deliver its message. The expository mode brings this history into an argumentative form that will address the viewer directly so that the viewer becomes more involved with the message. The observational mode is pretty straightforward; the filmmaker is “on the scene” but is not involved with the scene. The participatory mode is similar to the observational mode with the difference being that the documentary will show the effects of the filmmaker being on the scene. The reflexive mode fully engages the viewer with the filmmaker in that the filmmaker challenges the viewer to think about the problems and issues that the documentary brings up about its subject. Finally, the performative mode seeks to show the viewer a better understanding of general processes that occur in society.

The Kony 2012 film, produced by the organization Invisible Children, uses a combination of these voices to bring about their message. They use the poetic mode to provide history of the issue. They use the expository mode to address the viewer that they need to take action against the issue. They use the participatory mode to question those affected by the issue so that they can gain more evidence to help draw the viewer to the issue. They use the reflexive mode to further encourage viewer participation against the issue. They use the observational mode to show examples of the issue of which they have not altered or affected. Finally, they use the  performative mode to show these social issues and spark a social movement to combat the issue.  

Response to Intro to Documentary: 'Man Bites Dog'

I actually took a class on documentary and mock documentary last semester, and out of all the films we screened, I found Rémy Belvaux’s Man Bites Dog among the most fascinating. Though fictional, the film adopts the agenda of the reflexive documentary by interrogating the very act of filming real-life subjects, specifically focusing on the often ethically problematic relationship between the subject and the filmmaker. The movie follows a diegetic documentary film crew as they go about filming the exploits of Ben, a fictional serial killer and the subject of their film. Watching this process take place, our moral instincts immediately kick in. How can these filmmakers go about making their movie when Ben is walking the streets, murdering people left and right for sport?

But it is precisely the extreme nature of the movie’s subject that foregrounds the ethical issues inherent in documentary filmmaking. To what degree are filmmakers justified in continuing to film a subject before they are ethically obligated to intervene? The film’s aim is satirical rather than realist, using the film crew’s chilling moral apathy (and later outright moral decadence) as a commentary on the way in which documentary filmmakers sometimes sacrifice moral integrity for the pursuit of knowledge. One thinks of the infamous incident in which a photojournalist takes a picture of a hungry child only to receive vicious backlash for not helping the child out.

It only goes to show how complex a genre documentary is. Because a documentary’s goal is to represent reality, there are added ethical implications to the making of the film.  

Below is Man Bites Dog in its entirety, available on YouTube. Go to the 1:00 mark and you’ll see Ben describing the process of disposing a body. The way he’s framed and talking at the camera mimics the “talking heads” interview style commonly seen in the expository mode of documentary film.

If you’re going to watch the whole movie, be warned: it’s very violent and disturbing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOHAVFejTWg

Response to Intro to Documentary

         I found the reading to be very interesting, especially considering my primary interest is ethnographic film. I especially liked the part that examined performative documentary and “the observational mode.” I feel, however, that in order to make what I consider a truly observational film, you would have to be completely without bias or interference. The ways in which the category is defined confuses me a little bit. Because most observational films seem to be less simply observing and more of asking people to act in a way, to reveal the information that they need to capture. While the observational documentary is more “real” and “raw” in some ways, such as the lack of voice-overs or interviews, it the filmmaker is always trying to get specific footage to fit in with his fiction. One of the best examples of this type of film is Jean Rouch’s Jaguar. I have included a trailer of it below. Jaguar was a film made with great assistance from the subjects themselves. It is what most anthropologists call an “ethno-fiction,” or a fictional story that also has significant anthropological and documentary value. I believe that this film is exemplary of the observational mode.
       Performative documentary is similar in the fact that it does not focus solely on the facts, as one would expect from a documentary, but instead seeks to illicit an emotional response from its audience. It often focuses on the filmmaker’s personal story or connection to the subject matter, becoming almost autobiographical and very subjective. Modern performative documentaries often focus on the subjectivity of a specific group of people regarding the core subject of the film. Instead of presenting the audience with cold facts, these filmmakers give them deep emotional material and, while not always unbiased or scientific, that material is real to a certain extent. I think this is really interesting.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9rTiHC20y0

Intro to Documentary

I have always thought of documentarians as striving to maintain objectivity (regardless of personal bias) but this reading made me reevaluate the degree to which a filmmaker can assert bias and opinion. While documentaries can be purely observational they can also have an agenda that specific shots and editing choices help to reinforce, manipulating viewers on a subconscious level. I was excited to see The Man With a Movie Camera cited as an example of how realities can be constructed through visual associations and montages, as I have seen this film and experienced its effects. I was also glad to see the mention of Triumph of the Will, as it too uses a historical reality as a base of construction to plant seeds in viewers’ minds. This documentary style opposes the aesthetics and purposes of observational documentaries. Narration and voiceovers are another way documentarians more overtly insert their opinions. This reading comments on a documentary style I especially appreciate, documentaries that make me question a certain status quo and leave me thinking after the credits roll. I also connected the discussion of participatory observation to my interests in film and anthropology, imagining the combination could create powerful understandings of new cultures and environments and allow these enriched perspectives to be shared with a wider audience.

Man With a Movie Camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW5Nm_D7Wns

Triumph of the Will:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0kwnLzFMls

Intro to Doc

I found the article very informative, as I was not previously familiar with the six different "modes" of documentary. I actually had to read the same article for one of my film classes since we are also starting our documentary unit. We were assigned to watch Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, which definitely embodies the expository mode. What I liked most about the film was the effective use of humor to emphasize its argument.
The documentary I've seen most recently is Taxi to the Dark Side, a powerful film that provides an in-depth look at the US torture practices in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. The film is also expository; there is a "voice of God" commentary that directly addresses the viewer, interview segments, and photos/footage from the events. I enjoyed this film because though it can be hard to watch due to the nature of the events it exposes, it is very well edited and provides a lot of genuine evidence that sheds light on our military's horrible, inhumane war practices.