Film Studies - Entry 1 (Introduction)

Welcome to my blog!

To start off our year in film studies, we learned a few things so far in the past 3 weeks. During the first week, we  We learned about the difference between documentaries and movies. Documentaries are factual video formats that aim to inform viewers about a particular subject or topic, and they show the reality. Movies, however, are more of an 'escape' from reality that includes fiction and aim to entertain the viewer.

There are 5 main types of documentaries; which are

• Nature 
• Culture
• Travel
• Biographical
• Historical. 

We also learned about the top 10 grossing documentaries as of 2014, which were

1. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) at $119M
2. March of the Penguins (2005) at $77.4M
3. Justin Bieber Never Say Never (2011) at $73M
4. 2016 Obama's America (2012) at $33.3M
5. Earth (2009) at $32M
6. Chimpanzee (2012) at $29M
7. One Direction: This is Us (2013) at $28.9M
8. Katy Perry Part of Me (2012) at $25.2M
9. Sicko (2007) at $24.5M
10. An Inconvenient Truth (2006) at $23.8M

Earlier on, we did research about two early forms of documentaries, Nanook of the North and Chronique d'Un Eté.

Nanook of the North, also known as Nanook of the North: A Story of Life and Love in the Actual Arctic is silent documentary made in 1922. It tells us about an Inuk named Nanook and his family and how they are 'fearless heroes' who are able to survive in conditions where most people are unable to endure. While this film isn't the very first documentary, it is considered to be the first feature-length documentary.

Chronique d'Un Eté (Chronicle of a Summer) is a documentary made in 1960. In it, the filmmakers discuss with random individuals about French society and happiness in the working class. This documentary is widely known to be highly innovative and experimental and is an example of cinema verite which means truthful cinema. This means that the dialogue is improvised and therefore shows more truth rather than being scripted.

We also watched a short clip from a series called 'Bring Your Own Documentary' hosted by Ondi Timoner. The series focuses on documentaries as well as interviews from filmmakers of said documentaries.

The last thing we did in class so far was watch a documentary called 'Cuba 15'. This documentary features a Cuban girl named Tzunami who turns 15 and how it is celebrated in Cuban culture. We learned that in Cuba, when a girl turns 15 it means she has reached womanhood, which is why the celebration is more extravagant than a usual birthday.

Outside of class, I have not watched many documentaries. While I occasionally tune in to Discovery Channel or National Geographic, I have not memorized the documentaries I have watched. However, the last documentary I've watched, on the Internet, was Giant Squid: Filming the Impossible, which also happens to be my favorite. The documentary was released in 2013, and was narrated by David Attenborough, but I couldn't find the director. The reason why I like it, other than it being the only documentary I remember, is because underwater life fascinates me. We humans may have reached the Moon and beyond, yet we don't fully understand our own planet yet. This documentary gives us a glimpse of what goes on deep in the ocean.

My goal in this class I can learn more about different things by watching documentaries, while also improve my skills in video production and editing. When we formed our groups (or crews), I ended up being with Benson and Nadin, who are both new students. While I haven't worked with them before much, I believe we can work well together. I look forward to all the new things to learn in this class and new skills which I can improve upon.

Kevin 10A