Introduction
According to Erik Barnow, observational films are direct cinema or cinema verité. For some critics, direct cinema and cinema verité can be used interchangeably, while for others, they should be used in distinct modes or assigned to the more observational stance (Abbott, 2017). The observational method includes nonintervention by the filmmaker, it relies on editing meant to enhance the real-time impression (Thompson, 2017, p. 65). In its purest form, an observational film’s external music, voice-over commentary, intertitles, and reenactments are thus entirely eschewed. It provides a precise reflection of ethical considerations. Since it is dependent on the filmmaker’s ability to be unobtrusive, intrusion comes about in a transparent mode of institutional discourse. Does the filmmaker intrude on people’s lives in ways that may alter their normal lives, or worse, to make a film? Has he or she sought informed consent from the participants? Does the film convey a sense of respect and responsibility for their lives, and also for the continuation of the filming? And the last question is whether the observation deserves a place in the final film if they are being observed by someone else (Albert & David, 2013).
The last question sheds more light on interactive filmmaking. The specific properties in observational filmmaking that work as texts should be considered (Korhonen, 2016 p150). Such actions involve indirect address, speech overheard since the participants are talking to each other rather than the camera. Relatively long takes and synchronous sounds are typical. These styles anchor address on images under observation that locate the sound, dialogue at specific times in history (Corner, 2012, p.260). Every scene is unique in that it represents a three-dimensional entirety in which the filmmaker’s location is already determined. Every shot supports overall orientation, and space provides indications of having been derived from the historical world rather than being fabricated on a fictional basis. This essay seeks to discuss the realistic nature of observational documentaries concerning specific visual works.
Observational documentaries
Inspired by the powerful immediacy of the footage of actual combat and the emergence of Italian neorealism, Hollywood films began absorbing the influence of documentary. For instance, films like The Naked City 1948 and On the Waterfront 1954 by Jules Dassin and Elia Kazan, respectively, used actual locations in New York to enhance the dramatic realism (Cohen, 201,5, p.15). Independent filmmakers like Morris Engel (1918-200,5), who filmed movies such as Little Fugitive and Weddings and Babies 1958, and John Cassavetes (1929-1989) created films using 35mm cameras. After the development of portable cameras and sync sound tools, there were significant changes that were experienced in the practice of documentary filming (Leahy, 2016,p 42). Filmmakers were now able to shoot with relative ease at a location. The new lightweight, thus easily portable, e-cameras were no longer the center stage in profile events but were now following events as they unfolded. Now, filmmakers were able to enter events without raising any distractions caused by technology limitations as had been the case before (Dovey, 2015).
The tripod that used to support cameras was abandoned as the new camera had a new mobility by being carried on the shoulder of the operator, as the filmmakers began working in a mode referred to as “uncontrolled cinema,” courtesy of Stephen Mamber (Korhonen, 2016, p 155). As more improvements were being made, the camera and tape recorder that were initially connected by a limiting cable were now separate. The crew involved in making a documentary was reduced to two people: the cameraman and the sound recorder. In the case of Sherman’s March (1986) and Bright Leaves(2003) by Ross McElwee (1947) are documentaries involving his life (Albert & David, 2013). He is the only crew member shooting with a video camera that is attached to a microphone. With these kinds of advancements in filmmaking technology, the filming of documentaries acquired a new aspect of immediacy and freshness, both aurally and visually; on the other hand, the Griersonian tradition, which the new technology evolved from, usually used omniscient voice-over narration that displayed ideological biases. Thus, documentary filmmaking experienced a revitalization, specifically in Europe and North America (Dovey, 2015).
As subsequent generations embraced the new valorised technology and observational style. Many filmmakers suggested an unproblematic view of cinematic realism whereby the camera would directly apprehend the world, penetrating even the reality of surface and revealing deeper and darker facts (Leahy, 2016, p 47). An American family was a twelve-part series made by Craig Gilbert and was broadcast on television in 1973; the film sought to capture the unadorned life of a particular family and thus expose the realities of a middle-class American family. In these documentaries, the camera’s presence wasn’t seen as affecting the profile event to any significant extent, and if it did, the filmmakers would look for moments of utmost importance that would show the real person hiding behind the social façade. Perhaps one extreme example of this approach was the portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 2013). The Jason film involved an entire series of talking-head close-ups of an unsuccessful actor who, under the influence of marijuana, alcohol, and prodding questions from behind the scenes, breaks down in self-pity after dropping his smug intellectual persona.
In the 1950s in Great Britain, filmmakers such as Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994) and Tony Richardson (1928-1991) began creating observational films based on everyday life as part of a free cinema movement and often focused on the common aspects of everyday culture (Panciroli et al., 2017). The movement involved six program films that were shown at the National Film Theatre in London between 1956 and 1959 (Thompson, 2017, p 68). The films included every day except Christmas (1957), Anderson’s O Dreamland (1953) about activity in Covent Garden, and Momma Doesn't Allow (1955), a jazz club portrait. An anthropologist filmmaker in France known as Jean Rouch (1917-2004), created many films based on people’s lives in western Africa. He often included their voices on the soundtracks, such as Fewer Meters Focus (the mad masters, 1955), which involves a record of devotees from a religious cult speaking tongues, and the 1967 Jaguar (Albert & David, 2013). As Rouch turned the camera closer to home, he filmed a section of Parisians in Chronique d’un été (a summer chronicle, 1961), which was co-directed by Edgar Morin. Instead of remaining purely observant, the filmmakers appeared on screen and acted as catalysts, engaging directly with their subjects by asking provocative questions and interacting openly.
The film they were creating was entitled “une expérience de cineveritéite,” and his aggressive approach developed the cinema into a verité observational documentary. In the early 1950s, French and English-speaking Canadian filmmakers working at the National Film Board—established by Grierson in 1939—focused on making films on ordinary people and events to help interpret Canada to the citizens (Dovey, 2015). The board’s initial goal was to produce a wartime propaganda film, but during that period, as a pioneer of observational films, the films by Roman Kriotor, Terence McCartney, and Quebec of cinemaveritée. Michael Brault, the filmmaker of chronique down ete, assisted in the production of fewer gazetteers (the snow showers, 1958), with Gilles Groulx as the principal director. This film, centered on an annual snowshoe race, marked a breakthrough in Quebecois cinema.
In the 1960s, a group of young filmmakers in New York, led by Robert Drew (born 1924), began producing films for Time Inc. to create more results-driven journalism, as noted by Louis de Rochemont in The March of Time. Known as the Drew Associates, this group included influential figures such as D.A. Pennebaker (born 1925), Richard Leacock, and Albert Maysles (born 1926), who was the cameraman for Louisiana Story in 1949 (Cohen, 2015, p.17). Their approach aimed for invisibility while capturing events as they unfolded, striving to be a “fly on the wall,” as Leacock described it. Their 1960 documentary Primary covered the Wisconsin presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, presenting both candidates in public and behind-the-scenes moments. While Kennedy was portrayed more favorably, the film refrained from overt political bias (Nash, 2011, p.234).
One memorable sequence features Kennedy emerging from a car and moving through a dense crowd to address supporters, filmed clearly despite challenging lighting, sound, and depth conditions. Impressed by the success of Primary, ABC and Time Inc. formed a dedicated network unit for these filmmakers. They produced several television documentaries, beginning with The Major and ending with Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963). These films often focused on prominent and charismatic public figures, including A Car Driver Eddie (Leacock & Pennebaker, 1960), Joseph E. Levine in A Showman (Albert & David, 2013), and the Beatles in The Beatles in the U.S.A. (Maysles Brothers, 1964). Although most observational documentaries emphasize institutions over individuals, these films stood out due to their celebrity subjects' commercial appeal, making them popular choices for feature-length documentaries (Nichols, 2011).
Thus, the “rockumentary” genre was created with films such as The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978) and Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970). Perhaps the best was Shelter Me(1970), by Albert and David (1931-1987), which has its main focus on the Rolling Stones’ American tour. At the final concert in Altamont, California, a man in the audience was fatally stabbed by the Hells Angels, and this intense moment was captured on camera. Rockumentaries, which often expose the presence of the filmmaker or reveal the persona behind the camera, tend to resonate strongly with audiences. This was evident in the documentary Living with Michael Jackson: A Tonight Special (2003), which aired on television (Albert & David, 2013). The style and approach of such documentaries also influenced the New American Cinema movement from the 1950s to around 1970, which featured seemingly opposing experimental film traditions, including the diary-style films of Stan Brakhage (1933–2003) and the structural films of Michael Snow.
After Wiseman observed a thirty-second television commercial film in the making, in his model, he shows that he observed everything worth noting from the film (Nash, 2011, p 230). He does not include the pre- and post-production sections of activity, which is obvious in observational films: the reason being that these films cover specific moments to an exhaustive extent, they avoid summarization of a moment requiring montage of ordinary moments. Additionally, Wiseman focuses on how the advertising system interacts with the social agents, rather than the entire film; the decision-making process, economic structure, and marketing strategies (Corner, 2012, p.265). The sense of observation not only comes from the filmmakers’ ability to include moments that represent the lived time, rather than story time (time as a result of the logic of a classical narrative where an economy includes carefully well-motivated and justified moments). The empty moment reveals itself where nothing that has historical significance happens, but the rhythms of everyday life are established. For this type of representation, each edit is meant to sustain the spatial continuity of observation rather than a logical continuity of the moment (Nichols, 2011). Even when the text shifts to a different scene, the sense of an underlying scene remains, one which remains constant with the filming moment, thus making observational documentaries particularly clear from a present-tense representation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, observational films convey a sense of unmediated access to the world. The body of the filmmaker does not limit what one sees in the film. The person behind the camera does not draw any attention from the participants or engage with them in any manner, other than just filming them. In this case, one takes an observer’s position, moving around and among people and places to reveal interesting facts. Initially, filming involved large cameras connected to microphones, thus affected the scenes in documentaries; however, after the invention of lighter cameras, filming became more interesting since it was now based on observation where the cameraman stands behind the camera. Invisibility is the main aspect of observational filmmaking and thus more realistic than other types of documentary.
References
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