The Voice of Documentary: Characterization and Storytelling

The Voice of Documentary and Its Relation to Storytelling

Understanding Documentary Voice

• Documentaries distinguish themselves from fiction by speaking about our shared, historical world without relying on imaginary allegories.

• Discourse: Refers to any series of representations that form an organized whole, ranging from a casual conversation to a novel or a documentary film.

• For a discourse to effectively communicate, it must possess a voice that addresses the audience.

• In documentary, this voice specifically addresses us about our world, conveying its perspective directly or indirectly.

• The voice can manifest as:

  • An actual spoken voice (e.g., narration, interviews).

  • Written text (e.g., intertitles, on-screen graphics).

  • The strategic use of cinematic techniques that articulate the filmmaker's perspective.

• While every voice is unique, they share commonalities and fall into broader categories.

Discursive Frameworks: The Language of Cinema

Foundations of Documentary Voice

• The voice of a documentary fundamentally utilizes qualities and attributes distinct to cinema itself.

• Documentaries speak the language of cinema, with techniques like editing serving as its grammar.

  • Cinema: Defined broadly as any audiovisual representation displayed on a screen, whether a $35 ext{mm}$ film in a theater or a recording on a cell phone.

• Filmmakers make continuous decisions from the planning stage through shooting and postproduction (editing), shaping the film and defining its unique voice.

Key Filmmaking Decisions that Shape Documentary Voice

Every decision contributes to the film's structure and the filmmaker's perspective:

1. Shot Duration and Juxtaposition:

   • Whether to allow a shot to continue (forming a continuous long take) or to edit and juxtapose it with the next shot.

   • Continuous long takes have an indexical relationship to time, meaning they accurately record the historical event for its precise duration.

   • Example: Raw footage of police violence used by the Black Lives Matter movement serves as a potent document due to its evidentiary value and precise, uninterrupted representation of time. Editing such footage can jeopardize its direct evidentiary weight.

2. Framing and Composition:

   • Choices include close-ups or long shots; low or high camera angles; artificial or natural lighting; use of color or black-and-white; whether to pan, zoom in/out, track, or remain stationary.

3. Sound Recording and Addition:

   • Whether to record synchronous sound simultaneously with shooting.

   • Whether to add supplementary sound later, such as voice-over narration, translations, dubbed dialogue, music, sound effects, or commentary.

4. Chronology:

   • Whether to strictly adhere to an accurate chronological order of events.

   • Alternatively, to rearrange events to more effectively support a specific point, argument, or mood.

5. Archival vs. Original Footage:

   • Whether to incorporate existing archival footage, photographs, and sound recordings.

   • Alternatively, to rely solely on sounds and images recorded directly by the filmmaker on the spot.

6. Filmmaker-Subject Interaction:

   • Decisions regarding interaction: conducting interviews, giving directions, staging scenes.

   • Alternatively, to observe subjects without direct engagement.

   • Whether to create reenactments of past events or solely present recounted information and archival material.

7. Models and Modes of Representation:

   • Selecting the overarching model and specific mode(s) of representation to organize the film's framework.

   • Common modes include: expository, poetic, observational, participatory, reflexive, performative, or interactive.

Documentary Voice vs. Fiction Style

• Both documentary voice and fiction film style employ similar cinematic techniques and language.

• However, their functions differ significantly:

  • Documentary Voice:

    • Indicates that the film directly addresses us as socially situated individuals.

    • Speaks about our shared, common, historical world.

    • Attests to how the filmmaker uses cinematic language to engage with the historical world and conveys that engagement to the audience.

    • Possesses an ethical component (as discussed in chapter $3$), influencing how perspectives are presented.

  • Fiction Style:

    • Indicates how a director constructs a distinct, often imaginative, world that we imaginatively enter.

    • Typically appears to unfold on its own, allowing us to overlook and overhear events.

    • Style is embedded in how this constructed world unfolds, leading to emotional attachments based on its portrayal.

Expressing Perspectives Through Voice

• The voice of a film can articulate various perspectives on a given topic.

  • Example: On the topic of abortion, different films can express the