After reading through Peter Brook's "The Rough Theatre", I realize my own experiences with film is varied by the different ways I have made films. I have made documentaries, experimental films and narrative films, but each can made in many different ways.
Documentaries, for instance, you can tell them by in strict objective terms, doing a "Voice of God" or speaking for a group of people but not letting them tell their stories. You can also create reenactments for events that happened in the past that you want to portray. I did a documentary where we filmed these Roller Derby girls, asked them questions and watched them play a game. Sadly our audio didn't record so we ended up having to trash it but it was a good learning experience.
Experimental films, on the other hand allow the filmmaker greater freedom to create what they want and the viewer to view the film in more interpretive ways. There is no right way to make an experimental film, you just explore what it is want to show the audience, leaving them in the dark so they can interpret it how they wish. There was a Experimental film I worked on last semester, I was the camera operator and the director of the film deliberately did not tell what the film we working on was about. At one point, he held a banana to his ear like a phone, like he was talking on a phone. I think even he may not have known what it was about. Regardless, it was an interesting experience I wont forget.
Finally, Narrative films have been the films I've done the most of. When I was a kid, me and my brothers would always make cheap remakes or sequels to popular films like "Jurassic Park" or "Star Wars". It fueled my passion for film-making and helped me find ways to tell stories and eventually tell my own. Making a narrative film is more technical, and more rules based but finding a creative way tell your story is interesting.
Documentaries, for instance, you can tell them by in strict objective terms, doing a "Voice of God" or speaking for a group of people but not letting them tell their stories. You can also create reenactments for events that happened in the past that you want to portray. I did a documentary where we filmed these Roller Derby girls, asked them questions and watched them play a game. Sadly our audio didn't record so we ended up having to trash it but it was a good learning experience.
Experimental films, on the other hand allow the filmmaker greater freedom to create what they want and the viewer to view the film in more interpretive ways. There is no right way to make an experimental film, you just explore what it is want to show the audience, leaving them in the dark so they can interpret it how they wish. There was a Experimental film I worked on last semester, I was the camera operator and the director of the film deliberately did not tell what the film we working on was about. At one point, he held a banana to his ear like a phone, like he was talking on a phone. I think even he may not have known what it was about. Regardless, it was an interesting experience I wont forget.
Finally, Narrative films have been the films I've done the most of. When I was a kid, me and my brothers would always make cheap remakes or sequels to popular films like "Jurassic Park" or "Star Wars". It fueled my passion for film-making and helped me find ways to tell stories and eventually tell my own. Making a narrative film is more technical, and more rules based but finding a creative way tell your story is interesting.
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