Narrative structure and random order

In the past decade the term "narrative" has become diluted to include "narratives of identity" [Jerome Bruner], "Grand narratives" of History [Jean Francois Lyotard], "narratives of interface in computer software" [Abbe Don] and "cultural narratives" expressing values, experiences and beliefs of cultural groups. "Narrative" is intertwined with "story" and can be analyzed together as one and the same thing, or separately -- as an event or sequence of events (the story) and the textual actualization of the story (narrative). For this exercise I use the two terms interchangeably, i.e. the narrative IS the story.

I cut four clips from the opening scene of a YouTube video I like, "Shoes" -- 1) parents set up it's a birthday party for their teenage twins, 2) the first twin gets a great gift, 3) the other twin (Kelly/main character) gets a lousy gift, 4) both twins yearn for things that are more ideal 5) Kelly leaves the party to get what she wants. The clips were played first in the linear narrative order intended, then I put them through a MaxMSP patch to let them play in random order. The idea of this exercise is to see if letting the clips play out in a nonlinear fashion add, detract, change, muddle, heighten or do relatively little to alter the intent of the linear narrative.

In most examples I watched in class it was interesting to see that both the linear order and random order formed narratives with little shift in the narrative. The clips I chose from "Shoes" took on a slightly different and equally enjoyable narrative, and had a bit more strangeness when played in random order.

For anyone who wants to play with the structural order of narrative(s) rather than locking into a preconceived narrative order, this software is a great tool. I suggest using clips with dialogue and intercuts within the clips to get the most out of the exercise.

If this post peaks your interest in exploring notions of narrative, and I hope it will, it's time to explore narratology.

Week Three - Linearity and Nonlinearity

Working with a Max MSP patch created by Professor Steve Daniels I projected film clips first in linear narrative order and then randomly to create nonlinear results. I enjoyed the exercise. I found that examples I watched in class that were based on visual montage, i.e., a series of shots without dialogue and with no cutting within scenes would play out as a montage without a narrative both in linear and nonlinear modes, there wasn't a big difference. The narrative shifts were more evident in clips that used dialogue and had cuts within the clips. I enjoyed the sample I played with for this reason. I used four clips from a video I like called "Shoes" and the story intent at the start of the video shifted with the random order to become more wonky than it had been in the intended order. Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF3ywukQYA

I will dedicate more time to the topic of narrative linearity in a post on the topic in the next few days. I got a little behind because today is my birthday and I've discovered that at my age it takes two days to prepare to turn a year older :0)

I will also write a post about archive aesthetics and notions of telepresence art. I want to dedicate a bit of extra time to each of these explorations and will catch up in the next few days. I find time going quickly and information overload piling up. Is there a new media sortware for sorting out time to extend the day -- to give us more time, say roughly five hours.....

I am also about to enter second life. My first question is why go there? I have created an avatar named Gia Parx and hopefully she will lead me to the answer.

New Media Software MaxMSP

MaxMSP is a software I am trying in in my New Media course. I am tinkering with a basic projector set up and I'm impressed with the ease of coding I've been shown. I have been wondering how new media might factor into my thesis project but I don't think it's going to be with this sofware.

The MaxMSP software is a valuable tool for programming installations. An artist who makes great use of MaxMSP is David Rokeby. To view clips of his work check out You Tube.

I think new media will factor more into the delivery of my project rather than the production, but I still have a few weeks to consider my options.

Week Two - Web 2.0 Social Networking

My accounts on Del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, Vodpod and Listal.

"Web 2.0 has numerous definitions. Tim O'Reilly [credited with terming Web 2.0 in 2004] regards Web 2.0 as business embracing the web as a platform and using its strengths (global audiences, for example)" -- taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

My exploration of the Web 2.0 platform begins with building a social network for my course in New Media, part of the MFA in Documentary Media program at Ryerson University. Eventually I will expand my networking capacities to include research on my thesis topic. By doing so I can begin to meet people who share similar interests identified by the way we tag our blog posts, bookmarks and online interests. This potential for building research relationships fascinates me. At the same time, the Web 2.0 platform is merely four years young, and I am interested in understanding more about it as I enter into this realm.

In a podcast interview Tim Berners-Lee [developer of the World Wide Web] described the term "Web 2.0" as a "piece of jargon." "Nobody really knows what it means," he says. -- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

I have found these mixed opinions, however the value of Web 2.0 as a social networking platform seems clear. Still, I have some questions about using these technologies for sharing information, especially with user interfaces changing as rapidly as they are. To explore my questions it is necessary to understand the network potential and there is no better way to do that than trying it out.

Here are links to my del.icio.us, flickr, vodpod, youtube and listal accounts:
http://del.icio.us/documentarynewmedia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26535911@N08
http://documentarynewmedia.vodpod.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/documentarynewmedia
http://janiscole.listal.com/view/books

About my MFA Thesis Project

My thesis project is on invisibility and visibility in the margins of disappearance. While doing research this morning I found these two links to a Toronto Star newspaper article that was published on December 13, 2008. The article describes my thesis work so you can read a bit about it. These websites do a lot of work specific the the downtown eastside missing women in Vancouver, hosted by Wayne Leng and inspired by his missing friend Sarah De Vries.

Week One - Web 2.0

Introduction to blogging (hence this blog!), Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr, MaxMSP and Web 2.0

I will do weekly posts to summarize ideas, concepts and development strategies I'm being introduced to and the new media practices I'm trying out during the months of May and June. This will include outreach and integration into online social communities and especially blogs on various technologies that might be applied to my documentary projects.

My background in media includes thirty years of independent filmmaking. I am first and foremost a conceptual practitioner working as a writer, director and editor on more than a dozen documentaries and as a story consultant and writer of drama. http://www.spectrumfilms.ca

I am currently researching my thesis project for the MFA in Documentary Media program at Ryerson University in Toronto. http://www.ryerson.ca/graduate/documentarymedia

My thesis project at Ryerson will be completed in the spring of 2009 and is titled "Visibility and Invisibility in the Margins of Disappearance". I started my research for this project five years ago when I began to look into writing a film on the disappearance of sixty-five women in the downtown eastside of Vancouver. I have been involved in various development stages of projects along the way, but each project collapsed. During my first year at Ryerson I have broadened my research to include missing women across Canada and homelessness. From this ongoing research several projects will emerge over the next two years with the immediate focus being on my thesis project. I am at an early development stage with this project and interested in discovering how various forms of new media concepts, technologies and delivery modes might factor in.

My Documentary Manifesto (abridged, 2008)

Janis Cole’s Documentary Manifesto

1. Committing to a documentary begins with a passion for the topic.

My early student films were about friends living alternative lifestyles in downtown Toronto, and my passion in telling their stories was to convey their point of view and break down stereotypes. My goal (in 10 minutes or less!) was to introduce them and slowly reveal their alternative lifestyles as strippers, hookers, transsexuals, gay men and female impersonators. In the 1970's when I made the student shorts there was much less material being made on these topics than there is now. I believed then, and still do, that people get stereotypic ideas and/or unfounded fears about people who live different lifestyles because they don’t know similar people in their own lives. The people in my early films were friends and I related to them without awe or intrigue about their lifestyles. I wanted to get that same feeling across to audiences. In this way it is my belief that audiences will get to know people in different walks of life for who they are. The approach I used in these two student films became the approach I built upon in subsequent films about people living in the fringes of society. I have an ongoing passion to bring stories about people living in the fringes into mainstream consideration.


2. Voice-over narration is best used sparingly to fill in the story, not to ‘tell’ it.

My goal in documentary filmmaking is to avoid using voice-over narration altogether. “We have been ‘taught’ to believe in the image of reality and similarly ‘taught’ how to interpret the narrational voice as distorted and imposed onto it [film].”(1) While I prefer avoiding narration altogether in my own films (with the exception of Thin Line, 1977), I can appreciate films that use voice-over narration effectively. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) has been a long standing favorite of mine.

The narration, which is carried through the whole film, never bothers me; in fact the voice of well-known gay actor Harvey Fierstein acts as a welcome guide to convey the emotionally packed story. “The role allotted Fierstein’s narration is confirmatory as opposed to purely instructional, so the ‘voice’ of The Times of Harvey Milk ostensibly comes from the active collusion between filmmakers, form, subjects and archive.”(2) I admire docs that don’t use narration. Next to that I like docs that weave narration into the story so it doesn't feel added afterwards. I dislike overly narrated docs explaining the obvious instead of letting the audience get it for themselves. Robert Drew says “narration is what you do when you fail” (Drew 1983: 271-3)”.(3) While this is harsh, I find it’s generally true.


3. Research your doc topic thoroughly, and then do more research, and more…

To make Thin Line I researched criminology, criminality, sociology and psychology, the Penetanguishene Hospital for the Criminally Insane and the penal system in Canada for similarities and differences, noting recidivist rates in both streams of incarceration. I screened every film I could find on penal issues in Canada and the United States. I researched famous prisoners who were locked up at Penetang, the categories of crimes the patients at Penetang fell into, like rape, murder, spree killing and serial killing, and the types of treatments patients underwent such as the capsule, the use of pure alcohol and forms of speed (I also researched acid treatments which had been controversial and were no longer used by the time I filmed). I researched various mental health conditions the patients were diagnosed with such as schizophrenia, antisocial disorders, paranoia, and psychosis. Once I met the participants for the film I researched their crimes and backgrounds. I taught myself how to do deep research on that film. I prefer doing my own research even though it’s time consuming. There is no greater gift than discovering a nugget during research that leads in a new direction to explore.


4. Get to know your participants before you film them.

I was lucky to have the advantage of knowing my participants in early student films I made. Then I worked on getting to know participants once I left school. It took six months to get into Penetang to film Thin Line. This seemed like a long time but I focused on research and when I started filming I was able to converse with the patients on their terms. Taking so long to get in turned out to be an opportunity in disguise. This waiting period carried on into the next project, P4W; Prison for Women. It took four years to get into the prison to make P4W. I can’t say enough about the value of getting to know the participants in advance of filming, which includes getting to know the primary location, especially when it's an institution such as the Penetanguishene Hospital (for the criminally insane) or the Prison for Woman. An institution, just like a person, has a life and a story all its own.


5. Documentary filmmaking is a transaction between filmmaker and participants.

A documentary filmmaker enters into a transaction with their participants, a negotiated way of conducting the business of making the film. I want my participants to be themselves. I want to capture the naturalism of their lives on film. I want them to be reliable, especially when I film over a period of eighteen or twenty days. One way to secure participants is to pay them, which I have heard of some documentary filmmakers doing. Television reportage tends to pay participants for the ease of filming without getting to know people due to quick turnaround for delivery. Personally I have ethical questions about paying participants. On the one hand if the crew is being paid why not pay the participants. But on the other, if the participants are paid do they see their role as a job, and act accordingly. It can be a tough call. I work out the filmmaking transaction with my participants, not paying participants to be in my documentaries, which has been the right decision for me. I always go back to show the film to my participants. I don’t give them editorial control, which I make clear from the start, but at the end when I’m completely finished I get great satisfaction in hearing my participants say, “Wow, you really got the story right.”


6. Documentaries are harder to make than dramas.

Unlike most dramas which are scripted before shooting, there isn't a script written in advance for most documentaries. The shaping of the story is a series of decisions made by the filmmaker about what to film, and when and how to use the rushes. One of the main difficulties in making documentaries is learning to balance objectivity/subjectivity in making these decisions. Documentary film is traditionally perceived to be the hybrid offspring of a perennial struggle between the forces of objectivity (represented by the ‘documents’ or facts that underpin it) and the forces of subjectivity (that is the translation of those facts into representational form).”(4) One’s objective/subjective balance in documentary shapes everything in the film, from the choice of participants, how and when they’re filmed, when the cameras roll, how the film is put together, what the story is about and how to release the finished film. The entire shape of a documentary rests with the objective/subjective choices of the maker, often an auteur, and he or she cannot escape the result of these choices. If you make the wrong choice at any phase of the production the story might not cut together, may require narration, or at worse may never work at all.


7. A good documentary director uses their ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ in the field.

Learning to direct a documentary is about learning to shape a story as you go. There is no point in writing a script for a documentary film and then heading out in the field and trying to film that script verbatim. When I go out on a documentary shoot I’m well prepared. I’ve done my homework, carried out exhaustive research and I know my topic and participants. I have a schedule for every shoot day and a list of things to be shot. I am prepared for every interview. But that is not a blueprint to abide by, it’s an outline so I’m prepared to converse with people and learn from the actual experience of being in the field. I veer from my shooting plan all the time when I’m filming documentaries. Something happens that is different than I anticipated, so I shift things accordingly. Or I discover something I didn’t know and shift my plan to fit it in. Sometimes I learn that I’ve gotten something wrong in my research and by learning the right thing in the field I have to change quickly and move my shoot in the right direction, even if it means eliminating things I thought were important. I use my eyes and ears in the field, and I process what I hear and see through the knowledge I’ve gathered in my research. I make informed decisions and instead of doing what’s best for my schedule and plan, I do what’s best for the documentary story and the portrayal of my participants.


8. Documentaries are written in the cutting room.

The place for writing documentaries is in the cutting room, not at the writer’s desk. It helps if the documentary director is an editor or at least understands the job of editing. I have edited all but two of my documentary films and I was involved in those cuts all the way through. “This book [New Documentary, second edition by Stella Bruzzi] has argued against the uncompromised rendition of the real being an attainable goal for non-fiction, [however] the presence of the auteur is not so problematic, for one of the corollaries of accepting that documentary cannot but perform the interaction between reality and its representation is the acknowledgment that documentary, like fiction, is authored.”(5) Yes, documentary is authored, but unlike fiction where the story is scripted before shooting, documentary rushes are generally used to ‘find’ the story after the filming wraps.

The director experiences a freedom of choice in their rushes, the opportunity to tell any number of stories, and yet there is generally only one ideal story lurking in the rushes that rings true to the experience of the filmmaker. Any number of stories exist in documentary rushes. Finding 'the' story takes skill, practice and time. I did three rough cuts for P4W and each told a different story. I settled on the final one because it reflected what I wanted the film to say and it had an emotional structure. My sound recordist, who had seen all three rough cuts, was disappointed at first that I didn’t stick with the first, which she said was the best because it was wonky just like the prison. She was right, but it was also all over the map, and the story needed to unfold with a structure. “I found that there were many smart, articulate people willing to talk to me, but the amazing thing was that none of these smart people could agree on anything. So it fell on me to try to develop the truest story I could (Fairweather 2003: p.6) [about the experience of making Capturing the Friedman’s].(6)


9. Practice good ethics.

Ethics is a way of operating in the world, a way of treating people, a knowledge of what is ‘truth’, what is not, and how reality events are used. Ultimately ethics will form the guiding principles of documentary storytelling to shape the final results that will be shown to an audience. Wrapping a film in a documentary package gives the subliminal message that you are presenting the ‘truth’. I see no reason why anyone should needlessly be disregarded in the making of documentary filmmaking. I see no reason why fiction events should be disguised as non-fiction to fool audiences. In this era of the hybrid doc this is one of the more controversial aspects of documentary ethics to consider before setting off to shoot.


10. If you’d like others to be changed by your films allow yourself to be changed too.

Making documentaries is a gift of continual learning. I’ve had rare experiences along the way and gained unique insight into the human condition. My greatest reward is earning the trust of people living in the fringes, who are usually there because they have a mistrust of people. I learn something each time I make a documentary film, and it keeps me going to make the next.

1 Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary, Second Edition, pg. 47
2 Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary, Second Edition, pg. 54
3 Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary, Second Edition, pg. 48
4 Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary, Second Edition, pg. 46
5 Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary, Second Edition, pg. 197, the auteur
6 Stella Bruzzi, New Documentary, Second Edition, pg. 241, Capturing the Friedman’s

Welcome to my documentary new media blog. I am a graduate student in the MFA in Documentary Media program at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto. I have made documentary films for three decades. I am new to the world of new media. My main interest in exploring new media is to learn concepts that can be applied to my documentary projects. Once I know which concepts I wish to explore I'll be interested in exploring the appropriate technologies. This is my first post and I'm not sure if I need to date it or if it does that automatically, we'll see. I can edit it later if I need to add the date. Janis