- Trailer Reflection
The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
The central subject of the documentary trailer is the story of a man through his journey of stardom in Hollywood. A lot of the elements in the trailer were pieces and bits of direct media excerpts, such as video clips from news outlets and magazine printings. I presume that this is to build the story of this man on the foundation that is his fame. One critical moment, that actually plays throughout the trailer, which stood out to me is Robert Evans’ own voice that balances out the narrator’s. This really captures the tone of the documentary for me because it brings a personal touch to the documentary. Another element that captured my eye is the fact that the trailer is built on series of footages from various media outlets as well as different types of media. This was important for me as an audience member because it captures the fame-focused direction of the documentary.
Nanook of the North
The central subject of this documentary is the story of a Native community living in the arctic. The first part of the trailer shows lifestyle footages of the community as in footage of the families eating and traveling. One of the best elements incorporated in the trailer, in my opinion, is the sound. The sound is very effective in manipulating and altering the mood of the trailer which brings attention to the suspenseful effect of the story.
B. Structure Reflection
For this assignment, I watched the silent film “Nanook of the North”, which followed the story of a man and his family who reside in the arctic. The five areas that make up the structure of this documentary I would say is the following: introduction, culture/lifestyle activities, struggles of living in the arctic, cultural differences between Native and White culture, and conclusion. In the beginning of the film, there were mainly scenes of footage that introduces Nanook’s family at a first-hand basis. Then there were scenes of the family eating, travelling via kayak, building an igloo, as well as perform trade with other cultures etc. These scenes represent elements that allow viewers to almost take a first-hand look at the lifestyles of these Native families living in the arctic.
C. Cinematic Style (full length)
The way that the movie was filmed, in particular respect to the use of movement, framing and depth, etc, was centered around the fact that the director wanted as close to a realistic portrayal of the rigorous lifestyle that Nanook and his family must take on whilst living in the Arctic. The shots seemed to be taken with some but not a lot of lighting equipment and also taken with portable camera equipment in order to document the lifestyle of arctic dwellers in a “travelogue”-esque tone.
D. Documentarian Stance (full length)
In my opinion, the main goal of the filmmaker seems to be to really immerse the audience into the lives of this particular Inuk family to demonstrate the heroism that come with residing in one of the most extreme, if not the most extreme, geographic locations in the world. To demonstrate this, the filmmaker (Flaherty) uses a lot of scenes that portray this rigorous lifestyle as well as sound to vamp the mood and tone of the film. I think his approach was fairly proper, as he wanted to introduce as best as he could the endurance and strength that this particular race must have for survival.
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