Research Issue: Why does the equation create a good documentary?

(Needs to be discussed)

Thesis: To create a thought-provoking, artistically sound documentary a filmmaker needs to

think about three key aspects of the film: telling a story, aesthetic, and the social message.
(Needs to be edited, with your help)

Counterclaim: Not all documentaries need to discuss a social message. Great documentaries
blend storytelling and aesthetics.
I.

Intro:
A. Harder to get out to the public, and harder to access.
1.Digital age
B. Avant Garde, audience is everyone, but geared to pop market
C. Part of the art is that they are not easy to access to the public. ?

II.

Telling a Story
A. Paragraph 1: Background of topic:
1.The section on background and need reviews briefly any information

necessary to acquaint the reader with the subject. This section lets the
reader see why the topic is interesting and why such a film is needed or
would be of interest as entertainment or information for a general
audience. (Rosenthal 26).
2."The background information should be a lure to fascinate the reader, to

make him or her say, 'What a marvelous possibility for a film'" (Rosenthal
27).

a) The background to a story creates a back bone to the entire piece.

The topic is revealed to the audience, so that the viewer get a feel
for the documentary.
B. Paragraph 2: Approach,Style/Technique, and Structure
1."Your ideas sound fascinating and appealing, but how will you carry them

out in practice? Where is the drama in your story? Where is the conflict?
Where are the emotions and the character development? This is where you
must be downshy; to-earth. If your approach or structure is tentative, then
say so, or indicate two or three approaches you would like to investigate
further" (Rosenthal 27).
a) So What factor. A development of the story is needed. A

documentary, essentially requires everything a written story or

fiction film needs. Starting with an exposition, followed by rising
action, a strong climax, superseded by a falling action and finally
the resolution or the end result.
C. Paragraph 3: Audience and Context
1.When filming a documentary, the director needs to think about who the

film will be geared towards.

a) "The objective of a film cannot be discussed in isolation. It always

goes together with a consideration of the audience for whom the

film is intended" (Rosenthal 18).
2.It is important to learn about the audience. Know the audience, and film

the documentary with the audience always in mind.

a) "You must know from the beginning something about your

audience" (Rosenthal 18).

3.Where will the documentary be shown? What time will the documentary

be shown? The documentary must have a certain feel to it, depending on

the context of where and when the film will be shown.
a) "You must be certain to define audience feeling about the subject"

(Rosenthal 18).
4.To me, of course, the high value is not what makes it expensive, but the

high value comes in capturing another persons experience as directly and

as interestingly as possible (Stubbs 4).
a) The audience can receive and learn the information given to them,

however to make them really think about, and absorb the

information the film must capture the audiences attention, to make
a lasting impact.
III.

Aesthetic
A. Cinematography:
1.Talk briefly about Rouch--background. "The camera is for Rouch a kind

of two-way glass that retains a double function: it is a window that

delivers the profilmic to an absent gaze and, at the same moment, a
reflective surface that reintroduces us to ourselves" (Renov 197)
a) The cinematography, is just as important as what the documentary

is about. The right shot can make a scene engaging, while a

mediocre shot will not intrigue the audience.

2."Cinematography visually presents points of view and the verisimilitude

and artificiality of movement for a narrative or psychological purpose"

(LoBrutto xi)
a) Documentary films express reality. Other cinema genres usually

rely on method acting to enhance a scene, or make it real. However

with documentaries, the scenes are real, the conversation (if any) is
real, as well as the shots. With the correct camera angles and length
of a shot, the scene delivers to the audience in an authentic, and
appealing way.
B. Sound:
1.After picture editing, music and narration are added to the film. Music

should not be used to solely uplift the mood of scene. Music enhances a
scene, whether emotionally, or comedically, but when over used, defeats
the purpose of the sounds.
a) "Documentary films tend to use less music, since it can break the

illusion of reality. However, when used well, music can lift a film
tremendously" (Rosenthal 175)
(1) Music within documentaries solely depends on the topic of

the film, and the rhythm or beat of the scene/shot. *Give

examples of music within documentaries where its good
and bad*
2.Narration and documentaries usually are associated, however not all

documentaries need narration. Narration is used to inform the audience on

a specific scene or depict a certain mood for the scene(s). If there is

narration illustrating a scene, that is already self-explanatory, it defeats the

purpose of either the narration or shot.
a) "The broad function of narration is to amplify and clarify the

picture. It should help establish the direction of the film and

provide any necessary information not obvious from the visuals"
(Rosenthal 182)
b) "Narration can also help establish the mood of the film, and it is

particularly useful in bridging filmic transitions and turning the

film in a new direction" (Rosenthal 182)
IV.

Social Message:
A. Importance and Relevance
1."the very fine filmmaker Robert Vas, once put it to me this way: 'I've

brought with me a great many things to talk about. This baggage, this
message which nobody asked me to talk about, is absolutely central to me.
I can't exist without it. And I must talk about it to audiences that never
experienced these things directly'" (Rosenthal 287)
a) With documentaries, the film maker must be passionate about what

he or she are filming. Without passion, how can one effectively get
a message across to an audience. The audience must feel
something from a socially provoking documentary, whether it be
an intensely joyful emotion, or an emotion that makes the audience
member rattled.
2."For argument scholars, however, the film's rhetorical success as an

instance of social advocacy that successfully galvanized ordinary people

to take action and become advocates themselves is its related, but more
interesting achievement" (Olson)
a) Documentaries have many purposes, however many are used to get

a certain social awareness message across to a large number of

people.
B. Thought-Provoking/Purpose
1.Documentaries with a strong social message, provoke audiences to really

think. The job of the filmmaker is to artistically and articulately share

audiences this information. The social message of a film may be strong
but, how it is shown will result in either success of the message or the
down fall.
a) They give the illusion of being documentaries because so many of

their techniques are the same: location shooting, real people,

natural sound, godlike commentary, and so on, but we know they
are a horse of a different breed. The main difference, of course, lies
in purpose. The documentary usually has a strong social drive. It
wants to inform you, to draw your attention, to awaken your
interest so that some social or political problem can be fully
understood and perhaps ameliorated. (Rosenthal 259)
(1) Many people need to hear about either a political or social

problem on a screen to believe it. A documentarians job is

to communicate that issue to audiences, and to make the
audience think.
V.

Comparing and Contrasting Actual Documentaries

A. I am not sure whether or not I want to do the Baraka film or An Inconvenient

Truth. Although I am fairly certain I want to use Super Size Me, but I need to pick
a documentary to back up my paper first, to decide on the the opposing one.
VI.

Conclusion:
A. Incorporate my equation and the documentaries to back up my thesis.
1.Not all documentaries need these things to be a well thought-out

documentary; however a documentary with purpose will contain all three

components making it an ideal documentary.

Works Cited
Vincent. Principal Photography: Interviews with Feature Film Cinematographers.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999. Questia. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Olson, Kathryn M. "Rhetorical Leadership and Transferable Lessons for Successful Social
Advocacy in Al Gore's an Inconvenient Truth." Argumentation and Advocacy 44.2
(2007):
90+. Questia. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Renov, Michael. The Subject of Documentary. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2004. Questia.
Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Rosenthal, Alan. Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Videos. Revised
ed. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1996. Questia. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
Stubbs, Liz. Documentary Filmmakers Speak. New York: Allworth, 2002. Print.