Objectivity of Documentary Film: Cinema Vérité

1557 Words4 Pages

Introduction
The ideation of objectivity remains a highly debatable subject among philosophical elites. Some philosophers may argue that human’s understanding of objectivity is subject to the scope of understanding of the term and exposure (Livingstone & Plantinga 10). When the term objectivity is entwined with realism, it yields a complex ideation that remains highly debatable and less agreeable among erudite authors (Livingstone & Plantinga 23). However, to understand and appreciate the concept of realism and objectivity in film, it becomes critical to adopt a definite definition. First, the term reality in film is used to describe concepts that are visible in nature as experienced on a daily life by one or more individuals (Livingstone & Plantinga 24). The term objectivity in this case is used to define a set of ideations or perspectives that are incorporated in the film (Livingstone & Plantinga 24). Documentaries are used to create a form of reality, an experience or ideation of the person or group of person experiencing an event or phenomenon. The argument in this analysis is that it is impossible for documentary films to objectively capture reality.
Objectivity in Scripting and Structure
Traditional ideations of film and documentaries have been to create scripts that are structures to fulfill a set idea. The challenge with scripting an idea is that the script writer(s) have a subjective view of the documentary. The vastness of documenting a situation is restricted by the script making it impossible for a documentary film to capture objective realism in their work.
To understand the subjective ideation of film scripting, one has to consider the various possibilities of changing a section of a scene. There are innumerable po...

... middle of paper ...

...heila Curran. Documentary storytelling for video and filmmakers. USA: Focal Press Publications, 2004. Print.
Das, Trisha. How to Write a Documentary Script: A Monograph. USA: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
Livingstone, Paisley & Carl Plantinga. The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film. London: Routledge – Taylor & Francis Group. 2009. Print.
Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. 2001. Print.
Rivers, Tina. “From Alienation to Hallucination: Peter Whitehead’s The Fall and the Politics if Perception in the 1960s.” Frameworks 52. 1 (2011): 426-457. Print.
Tarkovsky, Andrey. Sculpting in Time: The Great Russian Filmmaker Discusses His Art. Russia: Soviet State Film School. 1986. Print.
Williams, Linda. “Mirrors without Memories. Truth, History, and the New Documentary.” Film Quarterly 46.3 (1993): 9-21.

More about Objectivity of Documentary Film: Cinema Vérité

Open Document