Argumentative Essay On Black Fish

Documentaries are a non-fiction films that in some way capture, or document reality; they are often created to display or reveal an either unusual or hidden perspective. Blackfish is a documentary directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, which reveals the story of Tilikum, a killer whale who was held captive at Seaworld Orlando, and killed one of his trainers, Dawn Brancheau. It follows the aftermath of the events of Brancheau’s death and both the economic and social impacts on Seaworld, and the impact on xparks similar to Seaworld. Louie Psihoyos’ 2009 documentary, The Cove, follows a group of activists who travel to Taiji, Japan in an effort to expose the thousands of dolphins who are captured and slaughtered each year. It follows Ric O’Barry,

a former dolphin trainer for the television show “Flipper”, and the Ocean Preservation Society, as they expose the capture and slaughter of dolphins with the addition of underwater cameras and microphones, as well as hidden security cameras. Both documentaries employ techniques and features such as exposition, interviews and narration to assist each director in conveying their argument against the slaughter and captivity of marine animals.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s 2013 documentary, Blackfish, and Louie Psihoyos’ 2009 documentary, The Cove, both manipulate the exposition of their documentaries to expose and introduce their main themes of marine animals in captivity.

Blackfish begins with a black background and the audio of the 911 calls made when Dawn Brancheau was attacked by a killer whale, Tilikum, this immediately introduces the focal theme of the documentary. The black background and 911 audio then switches to a video of a performer interacting with a killer whale during a show from inside of the tank, which looks as if the performer is getting attacked. The black background and show footage then switch between each other until the 911 calls end. The exposition ends with the footage from the show showing the successful trick with the performer and the killer whale. Both the audio of the 911 calls made about Dawn Brancheau’s attack and the footage in the tank of the performer and the killer whale, make the viewers feel on edge due to the horrific nature of both elements, and the movement between the two scenes builds up an uncomfortable and scared feeling. However these feelings then become more positive when they see the successful outcome of the trick. This contrast between the gruesome death of Dawn Brancheau, with the whimsical, fantasy-like aura of the killer whale shows at Seaworld, which reflects the entire subject of the documentary. Alternatively, The Cove begins with a landscape shot of Taiji’s

coast line at dawn, with the sound of a bell ringing to call in boats. The footage of the landscape then cuts to an unseen interviewer saying “we did try to do this story legally”, which makes the viewers want to know what illegal practises the activists had to do in order to create the documentary. This audio is played in conjunction with a night vision camera filming the activists driving in a car to break into the cove, and then setting up their underwater cameras and microphones. The footage then cuts to a black and white filter over the night vision, moving between the horrific dolphin hunting and slaughtering, and the more tradition Japanese and suburban areas in Taiji. This footage is accompanied by traditional Japanese music, which gets louder and more intense when the graphic footage is shown, and softer when the traditional and suburban Japanese areas are shown This movement between the gruesome practises and beautiful landscape, provides a contrast similarly seen in Blackfish. The exposition of The Cove then ends with a black and white filter over the night vision footage of a dolphin with a glowing eye submerging itself underwater. Therefore, the directors of Blackfish and The Cove, successfully employ film techniques in their expositions to create and introduce their focal themes of animals in captivity, slaughter and attacks on humans.

The 2013 documentary Blackfish, and the 2009 documentary The Cove, both create an argument against marine animals in captivity by including interviews with individuals who are experts in the field. Blackfish includes interviews mostly with ex-Seaworld trainers, who had first hand experience working and performing with the killer whales and Dawn Brancheau; these interviews do not feature an on screen or heard interviewer. Each interviewee begins by broadly talking about their experiences working at Seaworld and their experiences, which is accompanied by footage of each trainer positively interacting with a killer whale. However the mood of the interviews then switch when the trainers start to talk about the Dawn’s death and the mental and physical states of the killer whales at Seaworld. The camera then gets closer to the interviewee’s face and dramatic music is played in the background. The interview footage then is interchanged with the footage of killer whale attacks at SeaWorld which was filmed either by the trainers themselves or footage taken with the underwater cameras in the tanks. In comparison to Blackfish, The Cove featured interviews with activists who were aiming to expose Taiji’s horrific slaughtering of dolphins; these interviews were done by an off screen and unheard interviewer. The interviews with the activists have backgrounds which reflect their personalities and career positions, so if the interviewee was a marine biologist, they were interviewed in a laboratory. Over the audio of the interviews, there is various actuality and archival footage playing which features the TV show Ric O’Barry, one of the activists, starred in, and footage from the actual cove. Footage of Ric O’Barry is also shown when he talks about all the work he's done to save the dolphins, this footage shows O’Barry cutting dolphin nets and entering foreign waters to free dolphins. However a common theme behind all of the interviews in The Cove is that there is sad and haunting music behind each interviewees voice, which helps reinforce the depressing topic matter. Therefore, by the inclusion of interviews, both Blackfish and The Cove have the ability to convey their argument against marine animals in captivity.

Narration via dialogue from interviews is a technique employed by both Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos.

The narration in Blackfish does not employ ‘voice-of-God’ narration, and is instead done purely through the dialogue from each of the interviews. By using the dialogue from the interviews as the narration, the audience become more easily convinced by the arguments made as the information is directly coming from the expert. The dialogue from interviews also will have an element of emotion behind them, which is not the case with ‘voice-of-God’ narration; as the ‘voice-of-God’ is more authoritative, and less personal. The narration from interviews was accompanied with 911 calls made to emergency services at the time of Dawn Brancheau’s attack, and various video footage filmed by the trainers at Seaworld to assist in reinforcing their arguments. The interview dialogue further encourages the audience to side with the interviewees perspective of the events shown in both Blackfish and The Cove. Similarly to BlackFish, The Cove also features narration via dialogue from interviews, in place of ‘voice-of-God’ narration. The only narration featured in The Cove is interview dialogue from the activists themselves, and the narration is accompanied by images, news segments and footage filmed by the activists to strengthen the argument against marine animal slaughter and captivity, this is a feature also seen in Blackfish. In both

Blackfish and The Cove, the narration from interviews effortlessly persuades the viewers to believe the documentary’s argument as the experiences and reasoning behind the argument is coming directly from the individual who has experience with the situation. Therefore, by adopting narration via dialogue from interviews, both directors of Blackfish and The Cove, have the ability to convey their argument of marine animals in captivity.

Directors, Gabriela Cowperthwaite and Louie Psihoyos, have the ability to convey their argument and message against the slaughter and captivity of marine animals in 2013’s Blackfish and 2009’s The Cove, respectively. By the inclusion of features such as exposition, interviews and narration, and the employment of various techniques like interview based narration as well as archival and actuality footage.