ipl-logo

The Shift In Convention Of Realism In Film Nanook Of The North

1834 Words8 Pages

The Shift in Convention of Realism in Documentary

Sarada One (ONE13403079)

Introduction

This essay studies how the convention of realism in documentary has diversified from the emergence of documentary to the online video blog today. As the production technology develops, the way documentary captures, represents or approaches to reality has changed and now the notion, realism, has various aspects and interpretations. The emergence of modern information technologies such as television, the Internet, social media and convenient and affordable recording devices is a key feature. New technologies occurs with the times and the creators have established their own style of making documentary. It is represented in several documentary theories. …show more content…

As Grant and Hillier (2009, p145) writes ‘with Nanook, he (the director Robert Flaherty) went beyond most travelogues of the period,… to create a compelling story of the harsh life of the Inuit … by focusing on individual characters, the hunter Nanook and his family.’ This method of making a documentary shows a comparison to Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera. Vertov’s method of recording reality in the film does not focus on an object, for example a specific person or event. The film is shot in three different cities in Soviet and his camera ‘look(s) anywhere and everywhere’ to illustrate the lives of ordinary Soviet labours (Grant and Hillier, 2009, p135). On the other hand, Nichols (1995) points out the emergence of movie stars in the 1920s and he indicates Nanook is the first documentary star. He continues that Nanook’s flight against the nature in Canada is the documentary version of a classic Hollywood type fairy tale. However, Vertov considers a story opposes to, or it prevents representing reality. In the film, Vertov says Man with a Movie Camera is ‘an experiment in cinematic communication of real events ... without the help of a story’. For Flaherty, recording the real lives and telling the story do not conflict (Nichols, 1995). To quote Grant and Hillier (2009, p146), ‘Flaherty did not hesitate to manipulate events for the purpose of dramatisation’ and he ‘projected his romantic vision onto his subjects’. Therefore, Nanook of the North has a lot of Flaherty’s direction and most of the events in the film are set up. However, Nichols points out that the film has extraordinary persuasiveness. It could be because Flaherty tries to be faithful to the originals (Brigard, 1975). For Flaherty, the realism could be archived with and through telling a story. In Flaherty’s point of view,

Show More
Related

Jasper Jones Film Analysis

881 Words | 4 Pages

The novel ‘Jasper Jones’ written by Craig Silvey and the film ‘Dressmaker’ directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse have connected to the audience and use of narratives conventions in very similar ways. The ways that they have succeed doing this is through characteristics, plot and setting. By looking into how they are used by the author/ director widen the knowledge and have deeper in-depth understanding on how authors and directors use them to connect with the audience. The author and director have used characteristics to connect with the audience by using relatable situations like peer pressure, disliked by people, challenges and traumatic experiences.

Read More

The Most Dangerous Game Book Vs Movie Analysis

1363 Words | 6 Pages

I always love to read books and watch their movies, because I get to witness the differences that take place. I prefer the books because they have more detail and really let you decide how the characters look and act. Lots of times, the stories are different than the film versions. The short story, “Most Dangerous Game”, is a very good example of this. The film and the movie have lots of things in common, but this paper is about the complete opposite.

Read More

Black Christmas The Clasher Film Was Made In Canada Summary

1125 Words | 5 Pages

(.) [intending] to illustrate the value of criticism through a close reading of a film’s style and content.” , (Forsyth et al.). Not only is Constantineau an academic, deeming her a reliable source, CineAction is also credible, as all academic submissions sent into their journal are reviewed and edited by their team of revered Canadian film professors and critics; namely: Scott Forsyth — hailing from the University of Toronto, as well as Florence Jabobwitz and Richard Lippe — who currently teach at York University. Moreover, Constantineau’s analysis aligns with pre-existing scholarly debates on the topic, hence the author’s semi-recent works are both reliable and credible, providing an extremely useful approach to understanding the narrative’s significance as a work of Canadian national

Read More

The Devil's Miner Film Analysis

715 Words | 3 Pages

This form of Direct Cinema documentary is highly effective and contributes to the theme of strength from within. There is no narration, interjections from film crew or directors. Since the viewer gets a direct view into Potosi citizens’

Read More

Catfish Documentary Techniques

452 Words | 2 Pages

In a related article, the author Murray describes that the borrowing of documentary techniques or looks blur the lines between reality TV and documentaries (41). The confrontation scene in Catfish depicts the documentary style because of the interviews occurring, natural setting, and the filming techniques used. Murray also stated that documentaries are “rather high-minded, and if not fully educational, then at least informative” (43). This show does inform the viewer that not everyone is who he or she claims to be on the

Read More

Nanook Of The North By Robert Faherty

657 Words | 3 Pages

A scene in the “Nanook of the North” that effectively showcased this style of filmmaking was when Nanook and his family were hunting walrus. The fast-paced editing created a sense of urgency and suspense. As the viewer you feel the excitement and danger of the hunt. Another scene that showed this style of film-making was with the editing, more specifically at the 29:18 mark, an intertitle appeared on the screen, "Winter," followed by a scene of snow blowing harshly, after another intertitle then explained how harsh the winter is, with its long nights, short days, and strong winds. This scene added suspense and created a sense of worry among the audience regarding how the family would survive.

Read More

Mother Dao The Turtle-Like Movie Analysis

996 Words | 4 Pages

The post-production soundtracks that the film set includes natural voice, local music and poetry. The film also contains footages that has different point of view from different perspective on two different lands. Such documentary is a really in depth piece of art that focus heavily on the creation of natural sounds, and relativity light on the visual senses. In the film, by separating the visual and auditory, viewers can enhance the concentration of the pictures and also escape synchronied sound environment. As a result of that, as a viewer of this film, I can truly feel such unique way of presentation of the film allow different perspective to be brought out, and give audiences a better understanding of what the “fact” is

Read More

Analyzing The Documentary 'American Experience: The Gold Rush'

608 Words | 3 Pages

The second approach, they create reenactments of scenarios that occurred to keep the audience entertained with the film; it helps the documentary from losing the attention of the viewers. The documentary uses different types of strategies to keep the audience entertained while showing them different forms of evidence. A film must be based on a nonfictional event for it to be a documentary. The film uses different types of evidence to provide the audience with authentic information.

Read More

Forms Of Interaction In Michael Polley's Stories We Tell

749 Words | 3 Pages

In Stories We Tell, the ways in which the narrative’s subjects interact with the mode of construction (i.e. the crew, Polley as a director, equipment, and so on) are diverse, and scholarship on the film has already noted this. Anderst, for example, points out two primary mediums of interaction, one being narration, such as in the case of Michael Polley’s voice over at the beginning of the film, and the other being interviews, conducted with Polley’s siblings, Michael, her biological father Harry Gulkin and so on. Waites, meanwhile, discusses these forms of interaction as “fictional devices,” or tools of storytelling, and includes in this category the “faux home video footage” interspersed throughout the movie, as well as the appearance of Polley herself (544).

Read More

Brief Summary: Soviet Union In The 1920s

677 Words | 3 Pages

Also, it shows how film industry took advantage of the situation or those who didn’t take the advantage and faced the consequence. For instance, the rise of the Montage Movement was one of the thing both authors considered when thinking about how Soviet Union film production increased. In the 1920s, a film known as Potemkin made by Sergei Einstein was shown abroad and it was a success becoming popular in Germany and in many countries, furthermore it embodied the new ideals of communist government. This led to an increase in profit from montage style films this facilitated the Soviet industry’s purchase of foreign production and exhibition equipment. This led to more montaged style based film to be produced even more and it led new generation of film maker to continue experimenting in the avant-garde Montage

Read More

Nanook Of The North Summary

1125 Words | 5 Pages

In a documentary sense, truth can be defined as the state of being true or in accordance with facts and reality. As mentioned previously, Flaherty has been criticized for staging several sequences throughout the film which created the illusion to which the audience believes is real and truthful. This illusion was necessary in order to obtain the buildup of narrative structure, which is crucial to the film’s site of image. For example, it has been discovered that walrus hunting was no longer practiced by the Inuit at the time the film was released and it hasn't been for some time. A well-reasoned explanation for this is that Flaherty staged the walrus hunting scene in order to create excitement and produce a climax which was essential for the narrative structure portion of the film.

Read More

Essay On Dostoyevsky's Notes From The Underground

1359 Words | 6 Pages

To what extent does the nature and form of a film and literature influence what is or is not presented as “reality?” How do we define what is considered as realism and what isn’t?In the world of realism we find ourselves engulfed in an attitude of living in the moment. By this I mean in regards to realism, we deal with situations as they arise. We do not plan or fabricate or use emotions; we use logic. We see this realism prevalent in Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground.

Read More

Perception And Understanding: Five Distinct Documentary Filmmakers

1331 Words | 6 Pages

He heavily influenced the ideals of observational cinema. “Vertov saw human perception as having limitations compared with the more perfectible ‘machine eye’ of the motion picture camera. Flaherty, too, thought of the motion picture camera as a seeing machine, like the telescope or microscope, offering ‘a sort of extra sight’, albeit with a very different purpose from Vertov’s “(McLane 74). In Nanook of the North our subject and focus is surrounded by an Eskimo family. Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929) has no definitive subject, but many subject’s.

Read More

Symbolism In The Movie Barton Fink

1259 Words | 6 Pages

In the film “Barton Fink” (1991 Coen Brothers), John Turturro takes on the extreme task of playing the role of the perplexed character, Barton Fink. His desires are to remain in tune with the common man, however, the success of his recent play in New York brought forth the opportunity to produce screenplays for movies in Los Angeles. This sudden change, ignites an ongoing feud within Barton Fink; should he write the movie Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner) wants or go with his gut and stick to a story about realism and the “common man.” The various medium close up shots, uses of symbolism and lighting throughout the film allow us to venture into the life of Barton Fink and to grasp his deteriorating mental state as the film progresses. When we are

Read More

Abortion: Wrong And Inhumane Act

732 Words | 3 Pages

Abi Parette 8 February 2015 Professor Dunn Comp 102 Abortion Advertisement Abortion is a wrong and inhumane act. There is not another action in this world that should disgust people more than abortion. A fetus is defenseless and innocent without the ability to save itself. Depicted in this advertisement is a picture of a woman with a baby hanging from a noose inside of her silhouette. Not only is abortion wrong, but it is an immoral act that should be highly illegal.

Read More

More about The Shift In Convention Of Realism In Film Nanook Of The North

Related Topics

Open Document