In his definitive documentary text Directing The Documentary, Michael Rabiger writes:
It is better in the end to be clumsily energetic than exquisitely correct - which is to say, silent. To verify and consolidate your commitment, you have only to start making a few short documentaries. Once you have a personal stake in the form, its history and present day issues will come alive as the context to your own work. Make short films and then see what kind of dilemmas your forerunners faced and how they rationalized solving them.
2 comments:
"Show, don't tell." I couldn't agree more. But, sometimes you need to connect the dots. My students have this terrifying fear of using title cards and narration. They tell me if they "resort to those devices" their films will "no longer be artistic." I have no idea where they got that idea. Sometimes those devices are needed to organize a film and, more importantly, provide the filmmaker's "voice." Show, don't tell, but "talk to us" when you need to.
I'll agree 100% with title cards, and will respect their fear/hesitation of narration.
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