Television and Documentaries

1
Television and Documentaries

• 1958 2008 part 1
• The Narrated Documentary
• Current Affairs Units and Docs
• The limits of freedom, independence and
  experimentation at networks
• The rebellion against conventional films
• TV and the Independent film maker

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Assignments

• The film critique
• The film list see weblog.
• 1 a single film due February 15th
• 2 a compare and contrast 2 films
• 3 a compare and contrast 2 films
• Details on s 2 and 3 on Feb 22nd.

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Assignment

• First film critique should be no more than 1000
  words or four pages double spaced
• Identify name of film and film maker at the top
  and where you got the film
• Draw from list on line or e-mail me if you want
  to review a film not on list
• You may also find some docs on LINE

4
Assignment

• The film critique
• Describe the film briefly
• Analyze its style and content
• Why is it effective or not?
• What visual or creative or experimental devices
  does it employ
• Draw from Barnouw or Nichols in your analysis.
  Reference sources

5
Documentaries on Television

• In the early days of television the news
  divisions of television networks in America and
  Britain saw current affairs and long form
  documentary programming as part of their
  responsibility
• Serious programming
• Serious issues
• Commercial pressures abandoned form

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Early TV Documentaries

• In the 1950s - 1960s CBS, NBC and ABC set up
  Documentary units
• Producing in house between 12 and 24 Docs a year
• At CBS Fred W. Friendly established See it
  Now and CBS Reports
• With famous broadcaster Edward R. Murrow

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Early TV Documentaries

• At NBC a unit called NBC White Paper was set up
  and investigative documentaries were introduced
• Cultural Documentaries were also encouraged ex
  1973 The Forbidden City of Beijing produced by
  Lucy Jarvis
• Robert Drew produced political docs (more later)

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Early TV Documentaries

• At American ABC News the ABC Close-up Unit
  was founded under Executive Producer Pamela Hill
• Encouraged independents as well as in- house
  documentaries
• usually in a traditional conservative, narrative
  style

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In Britain

• At the BBC in the 1950s the network launched
  Panorama a weekly single subject current
  affairs program
• The BBC invested in expensive cultural
  documentaries
• Independent British TV launched a cutting edge
  single topic current affairs program called World
  in Action

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An early film at American CBS

• Taught at J-Schools and Film schools around the
  world esp America
• Harvest of Shame 1960
• See 2006 article on the film
• http//www.populist.com/06.12.krebs.html
• An interesting footnote in 1961
• http//www.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS316/mbase/docs/ha
  rvest.html

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A modern comparison

• When the Levees Broke - A Requiem in Four Acts
  (2006)
• Hurricane Katrina
• Director Spike Lee
• http//video.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp
  ?ean26359397325zy
• Assignment check to see if this film is
  available in Hong Kong?

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Harvest of Shame (1960)

• Produced by Fred W. Friendly
• Reported by David Lowe
• Written anchored by Edward Murrow
• CBS Reports
• Was striking for its images
• For its subject matter
• And its timing Thanksgiving 1960

13
The BBC 1969Civilisation

• Started in 1966. The most ambitious, most
  expensive documentary series shot in 13
  countries, 100 locations
• Written by Lord Kenneth Clark
• Produced by Michael Gill
• In Colour
• Show film excerpt

14
Civilisation (1969)

• The personal view of history by
• Kenneth Clark
• http//www.tvfactual.co.uk/civilisation.htm
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clark
• Very stodgy by modern standards
• But the first of many BIG documentaries for
  television at the BBC

15
BBC Panorama

• BBCs first current affairs effort
• Single subject for 50 minutes weekly
• Worlds longest running investigative TV show
• 1953
• See http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panoram
  a/default.stm
• See http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panoram
  a/about_panorama/default.stm

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BBC Panorama

• Often Controversial
• Sometimes for the wrong reason
• Allowing a reporter/film maker to go too far
  personal involvement is part of doc film making
  but the actions of this doc reporter
• Was out of control
• Panorama May 2007 - Scientology
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vMd0zPchNeQ0

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The American Network Doc

• Born at CBS, NBC, ABC
• The style of CBS Reports remained at the networks
  through the early 1990s
• A personal experience
• Creativity lost to corporate film making
• 1979-1980

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This Shattered Land (1980)

• A film about the Cambodian Famine
• Shooting began in 1979
• Written and produced by Phil Lewis and Jim Laurie
• Approval by a committee of 12 people
• Graphic nature, scheduling problems
• A deeply flawed film about a worthy subject.
• Impact less than desired (show film 2 pts)

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Another film by contrast

• John Pilger
• 1980
• The Silent Death of Cambodia
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vV2dLjaB83WA

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Myths Behind the Miracle (1981)

• A film about Japan
• Directed by Malcolm Clarke
• Written by Jim Laurie
• Again the dreaded
• Committee of 12
• Limiting POV and Limiting expression
• ( excerpt )

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Smaller cameras changed the style and form

• From the mid 1950s onward
• First in film and then later (1980s) in video
  tape
• Cameras became smaller smaller
• Less obtrusive
• More flexibility for the documentary film maker
• Film making followed technology

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Early Influential Films Filmmakers

• Some film makers experimented
• Robert Drew producing films for NBC, ABC and Time
  Magazine moved away from narrative story telling.
  In early 60s broke convention.
• An experiment that lasted a short time to be
  revived only much later

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Un-narrated Docs on Television

• Cinema Verite
• Direct Cinema
• Observational
• Candid Drama Drew
• No narration
• Resistance by traditional television

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Un-narrated Docs on TV

• On Drew -- Susan Hamovitch writes of
  ambivalence of the television industry
  toward the un-narrated form
• difficulty attracting sponsors for the
  projects
• and most importantly
• the networks' unshakable preference for
  correspondent-hosted or narrated reporting.
  Predictable, containable, effects of a regular
  news anchor have prevailed, with exceptions, over
  more poetic candid documentary.

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Early NON narrative film making

• Robert Drew
• http//www.drewassociates.net/Main/About.htm
• http//www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/drewrobe
  rt/drewrobert.htm
• Primary (1960)
• http//www.sugarpictures.com/News/News_Item10_JFK.
  html
• Influential in making War Room in 1993 About
  1st Clinton Campaign
• Show excerpt from War Room

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Early NON narrative film making

• Show Clip re Robert Drew from CV _at_ 1530
• Footnote
• Primary was not shown on prime time network
  television
• Without national network TV -
• Distribution on smaller TV channels,
• Theatrical or film festival or DVD or internet
  (in the 2000s) release

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Next Time

• Continue Documentary and Television
• American PBS Frontline
• Britain Channel 4
• Getting money from TV to make films
• HBO, Discovery, and NGC
• Docs on TV 1998 to 2008

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Remember

• Critique one film
• E-mail by February 15th
• Check out film list on WEBLOG
• See you February 15th
• Cong Xi Fa Cai
• Kung Hei Fat Choi