Documentary + "Regular Movie"?

FrankLad

FrankLad

Wasn't really sure how to word the title of this thread, but here's what I mean...

I'm thinking about shooting a short documentary-style fiction piece (ie. shot as if a documentary, but of a contrived nature. Mockumentary or docu-fiction, I suppose.)

BUT I would like it to have a narrative/cinematic type ending.

It would be like a filmmaker following the habits of this particular reclusive-but-intriguing individual.

Such that you have the general documentary-style snippets of day-to-day activity, with the subject talking/narrating through this. This gradually builds to an ending sequence which the filmmaker would not necessarily be privy to. (The audience sees this, but not through the lens of a documentary filmmaker.) It's basically the culmination of events, but shown in a more cinematic manner. From an everyday viewer's standpoint, you could say it shifts from documentary to "movie" by the end.

I can envision this working, but wanted to get some feedback.

Also, if you guys know of instances where this has been used, please share!

As always, THANKS for the help!
 
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Alright... so I watched District 9 last night (via Netflix's instant dealy-o).

I'd honestly planned on only checking out some of it - from an analytical point of view - and then bailing before it got all gory and languagy.

Long story short, I watched it through and found it to be pretty compelling. I really wanted to see what happened to Wikus and the alien dad + son. So it definitely had that going for it. ...and I rather liked the ending.

As far as the docu-style approach, I did raise an eyebrow at some scenes. (Even early on in the movie. For instance, when the team were going in to deliver eviction notices, there were some handheld shots from the aliens' POV.) I thought, since they were mixing documentary and narrative, they could've at least shot the how-could-a-cameraman-be-right-there-near-an-alien scenes cinematically. There were several shots like this in the film anyway, and they were easy to distinguish.

BUT... all in all I think they handled it well and, as we touched on in this thread, it's entertainment. I think they were successful in that regard.
 
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I've decided to go forward with this idea.

The way I plan to handle it visually is to have a CLEAR distinction between the "docu" footage and the narrative, to hopefully dispel any ambiguity.

The docu will have its own coloring (or lack, rather), framerate, style in which it is shot, and aspect ratio - occupying a smaller portion of the screen. In addition, I plan to capture audio on a cassette recorder, with regular "clean" audio taken as a backup (which I can always muddy down if I have to use it).

The narrative will be full/wide, clear, crisp - and obviously (hopefully) the part accepted as "actual".

For example... when the main character answers some questions in an docu-style interview, the audience will hear the dialog but see occasional cuts to the "real" events.

I have written it to open with a cinematic/narrative shot before getting into the documentary. The cinematic sequences are shown in small doses until gradually only the narrative is left.

Hopefully that sounds OK. If anyone has pointers, I'm always glad to hear 'em. :)
 
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FrankLad said:
In addition, I plan to capture audio on a cassette recorder, with regular "clean" audio taken as a backup (which I can always muddy down if I have to use it).
Click to expand...

Don't bother with the cassette on-set, it will be just one more thing to worry about. You can always dirty it up later with any of numerous audio plug-ins or "worldizing" the audio by just playing into the cassette or other device and rerecording the results.
 
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Murdock: Thanks, man!

Alcove Audio said:
Don't bother with the cassette on-set, it will be just one more thing to worry about. You can always dirty it up later with any of numerous audio plug-ins or "worldizing" the audio by just playing into the cassette or other device and rerecording the results.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, Alcove! Honestly, I'd not even heard of "worldizing" until I joined here. (It's a really clever concept.) BUT I didn't even consider it in my own case! So thanks! ...and the more I think about it, I believe you're right; another device to worry about on-set could be problematic. Especially considering the limited crew I'll have. (Not to mention... it seems like sync would drift, maybe. ?)

polfilmblog: Ahh... Yes, I've not seen that one. Thanks for the heads-up! :)
 
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I know this was posted some time ago, but I wanted to bring it up, considering I'm planning to do something similar in an upcoming sci-fi mockumentary film I'm working on.

In studying District 9, where documentary style filmmaking is mixed with a traditional cinematic approach, I started giving thought to a simple solution that may work in terms of clearly delineating what parts are "documentary" and what parts are cinematic.

As pointed out earlier in this thread, there are scenes in District 9 where you go "There is no way a documentary filmmaker is there capturing this part." For instance the shots from within the aliens' shacks, or the parts where Wickus is on the run, or piloting the ship, etc, etc, etc.

For the average person, this isn't really an issue. ("It's just a movie.") But for some, it takes you out of the story a little as you're thinking "Hrm... that's not quite right."

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film overall. But I think what would have helped was to use a different shooting style for the cinematic parts because, after-all... even on the parts where no cameraman was around, they still shot it handheld, just like in the docu-style scenes.

So what I'm thinking about doing for my film is to clearly differentiate between the two by changing the shooting style, and grading differently (not just grading, but differing the film emulation). So you have a visual cue and there's no confusion when you're watching through the lens of a documentary filmmaker, vs. standard narrative.

What I've planned for the introduction is to show a brief cinematic shot of the lead character with a voiceover that transitions into the scene with the character being interviewed.

The majority of this film is already shot, almost entirely in doc-style. The cinematic stuff, which will only be shown in relation to the main character, has yet to be filmed.

Thoughts?

P.S. Sorry for the long-winded explanation. ;)
 
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