Influences are everywhere for me. From television programs, to magazine articles, to film, these influences can either reflect a positive or negative attitude towards something. When it comes to working on my capstone documentary project, influences from multimedia are the primary influence.
Not pertaining just to documentaries, I will start with production that had the most positive or inspiring influence on me. The first is Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore, or really just any documentary by Moore. The reason why I appreciate and value his work is the same reason why his biggest critics despise him. Michael Moore is able to manipulate the majority of his audiences. But for the sake of blog content I will not get into details or all his films, instead just use Bowling for Columbine as an example.
Moore effectively uses the three act structure or classical paradigm in his film. Moore’s film has a beginning middle and end. He is also able to introduce us to the problem (gun violence) and the hero/protagonist (himself representing the American people), a climax and resolution (since Moore can’t stop gun violence by himself he makes the viewers aware of steps they can take). Michael Moore makes this work for him because he follows a structure we have been seeing since we were small children from The Wizard of Oz to The Simpsons, everyone can identify with his means of communicating with us.
Building off of the basic three-act structure, Moore is able to incorporate his own means of storytelling throughout his documentary. Whether it is from crafty editing or letting his opinion coming through narration, Moore makes sure the audience gets the point he is trying to establish.
We’ve all heard how Moore only puts in select clips from his interviews with people like Charleston Heston but the audience doesn’t ever know what is taken out of context, they are only left of what Moore will show them. While this method may not be entirely truthful, Moore does an outstanding job of entertaining his audience and giving them exactly what they watch films for- a conflict. Unless a person has absolutely no respect for filmmaker Michael Moore and detests the very product he delivers, most would have a hard time arguing Moore doesn’t make good points and even better entertainment.
Moore will come out through my project in the sense that I will have control over what the audience sees in my documentary. I hope to have enough material to put a certain “feel” in my documentary. This “feel” will lean towards a reflective look at the culture of motorsports and the people involved in its community.
How I approached my subjects and interviewees is hardly the technique of Michael Moore. I had a more subtle, yet professional, approach when I explained to those that participated in my interviews. This method is one I learned doing packages and stories for The County Line (Westminster College’s weekly news broadcast), which is essentially the format of any local news broadcast. I particularly watch Pittsburgh news channels not only due to their proximity of my hometown, but also their professionalism and integrity to their viewers. With the combination of practices I learned through courses at Westminster and personal preferences, I know what to look for in a newscast (lead stories, breaking news, and novelty packages) and what doesn’t really fit into the broadcast.
Through watching documentaries like Bowling for Columbine, and local newscasts, as well as HBO sports segments like Hard Knocks (as I’ve mentioned in previous posts), I found the best way is not to copy or duplicate any one of these. The best method for me is to find the most compelling features of all my influences and incorporate those into my own product.
I’m planning to use the best camera shots and interviews (Hard Knocks) to drive the story, and use a rather heavy narrative voiceover (Bowling for Columbine) to convey a sense of direction and that “feel” for the project. Going against the grain of local news broadcasts (which aren’t documentaries anyways) I will use some background music and graphics to highlight certain moments in Life on the Road, going with the newscast format, however, I will use straight forward narrative and true to context bits of interviews.
At the same time I am utilizing the best features from my influences, I will also stay away from elements that make a product unappealing. Fundamentals such as a shaky camera shots, bad audio, a wavering storyline, or no compelling video (boring shots) will be in the front of my mind when I am reviewing my final product during post-production.
There are many other great influences in my life that go beyond Michael Moore films and local broadcasts but no one wants to read about all the things that catch my eye.
