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Question about using the pseudo-documentary style.

H

harmonica44

I was thinking of using the story telling style for my script where it's a fictional narrative, but there is a documentary movie within the movie. Kind of like District 9, or Frost/Nixon. Both movies start and end where the characters are being interviewed in a documentary.

I was thinking of using the same style for my script but only wanted to use it in the resolution, and not the opening. Would this be okay to viewers or would audiences possibly feel jarred where after the climax, the movie all of a sudden shifts into the point of view of a documentary film and the characters are being interviewed for the ending? Do I have to start if off that way in order to set it up, or is having it start at the resolution only, probably fine?
 
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harmonica44 said:
I was thinking of using the story telling style for my script where it's a fictional narrative, but there is a documentary movie within the movie. Kind of like District 9, or Frost/Nixon. Both movies start and end where the characters are being interviewed in a documentary.

I was thinking of using the same style for my script but only wanted to use it in the resolution, and not the opening. Would this be okay to viewers or would audiences possibly feel jarred where after the climax, the movie all of a sudden shifts into the point of view of a documentary film and the characters are being interviewed for the ending? Do I have to start if off that way in order to set it up, or is having it start at the resolution only, probably fine?
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I don't know about District 9, but the whole point of Frost/Nixon is the interview. It's not really a stylistic choice there - it's the subject matter of the whole film.

As usual, however, because you provide no details about the actual project and instead ask vague questions, it's quite difficult to say whether it would be jarring or not. It depends on all sorts of things.
 
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In Interstellar, at the beginning of the film, there's people being interviewed for a documentary. And
at the end of the film we realise that the documentary is about the events after humanity has been saved
It depends really. The main question to ask yourself is this - will this be more than just a gimmick? To me it's like the found footage films that have come out over the years. Not all are entertaining and good films, but some are just done in that style for the gimmick factor.
 
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you provide no details about the actual project and instead ask vague questions
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And bingo was his name-o.

Do I have to start if off that way
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Yes. You have to, otherwise the little green movie police will come and throw you in a little box.... with many, many pieces of string.... questions.

As per all your threads. Try it. Screw it up. Learn from it. Move on.
 
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It's an interesting idea. It might work. It might not.

Like Sweetie said, try it, learn from it, move on.

A jarring ending that doesn't entirely fit in is not always entirely unsatisfying. Think "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" for example.
 
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