film/tv 2 analysis reflection 2, question 2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

the reading i chose is “Imagining reality” by Pawel Pawlikowski.

my favourite point from this reading was the following quote: “for me the point of making films is not to convey objective information about the world, but to show it as i see it and to find a form that is relevant”. i think this is extremely important when considering making a documentary. the filmmaker is making their own film which is a representation of reality and so it must be relevant to the filmmaker themselves. the authro talks about his most meaningful films as being thsoe where the subjects strucka  chord with him, those which took time to make because his heart was invested in it. this is something i really hope to take into account when making our documentaries this semester, to make something which is important to us or means something to us, it will give it so muhc more heart and be more interesting and hopefully better quality than anything that we may make but are not fully invested in.

the second point i got was rather new to me where that author discusses the impact which television has had on documentaries. it was interesting to read how the commercialisation of tv, the need to just make money and sell merchandise has even bled into documentary making where filmmakers can no longer experiment or take risks with what they are making because the productions studios are breathing down their necks. he also discussed about the rise of voyeurism in tv docos where people are content to simply set up a camera in an intersting location and film the people there. but there is little thought or heart put into these and thus, while they may sell money immediatly, are worth nothing in the long run and are diminishing the overall standard and expecations aroudn documentaries.

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