Documentary film can encompass anything from Robert Flaherty's pioneering ethnography Nanook of the North to Michael Moore's anti-Iraq War polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, from Dziga Vertov's artful Soviet propaganda piece Man with a Movie Camera to Luc Jacquet's heart-tugging wildlife epic March of the Penguins. In this concise, crisply written guide, Patricia Aufderheide takes readers along the diverse paths of documentary history and charts the lively, often fierce debates among filmmakers and scholars about the best ways to represent reality and to tell the truths worth telling. Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking--its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders--Aufderheide focuses on several of its key subgenres, including public affairs films, government propaganda (particularly the works produced during World War II), historical documentaries, and nature films. Her thematic approach allows readers to enter the subject matter through the kinds of films that first attracted them to documentaries, and it permits her to make connections between eras, as well as revealing the ongoing nature of documentary's core controversies involving objectivity, advocacy, and bias. Interwoven throughout are discussions of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect of documentary production. A particularly useful feature of the book is an appended list of "100 great documentaries" that anyone with a serious interest in the genre should see. Drawing on the author's four decades of experience as a film scholar and critic, this book is the perfect introduction not just for teachers and students but also for all thoughtful filmgoers and for those who aspire to make documentaries themselves. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Documentary films produced for television, DVD, and movie theater distribution far outnumber movies made in all other genres, which makes documentary filmmaking a wise choice for students pursuing careers in the cinematic arts. This illustration-filled book offers a self-teaching course in making documentaries, beginning with important advice on how to recognize, define, and research a theme that will ultimately become a movie's subject. Lessons that follow describe the equipment that filmmakers must either own or rent for shooting and editing, explain the journalistic and production processes required for identifying locations and interviewing subjects, and review the cinematic and editing skills that budding filmmakers must master. The Documentary Moviemaking Course covers all practical filmmaking details, including-- Equipment and format Funding and budgeting Pre-production Shooting Editing and post-production Publicity and Distribution The enlightening and instructive text is supplemented with more than 350 illustrations.

Drawing on interviews with leading industry sources and containing discussion of over 200 documentaries, Australian Documentary: History, Practices and Genres brings to life over a century of documentary making and connects it to international debates in criticism, theory and history. Documentary is the oldest continuous form of screen production in Australia, and today plays a pivotal part in our creative industries. This incisive book covers the development of documentary in Australia from the early days of cinema to the coming of television and to the digital environment. Addressing the issues facing today's documentary makers, the authors explore the role of the documentary in shaping the nation and forming the 'imagined community'.

The most comprehensive reference to film analysis available for middle school through to high school. Featuring coloured photographs illustrating key terms and filmic techniques this is a one-stop reference for any genre of ilm studied in English, Media or Film Studies courses.

This much-anticipated new edition builds upon the achievements of the first, taking stock of the many recent exciting developments in the field while retaining the historical coverage and depth of the original. The text is supported by over 250 illustrations, selected reading guides, and full bibliographies. Another unique feature of The Cinema Bookis its fifty-five sidebars that support the text with in-depth analysis and relevant information on over 350 films. This new edition will consolidateThe Cinema Book's position as the leading teaching aid in the field.

Scene by Scene consists of detailed, incisive discussions in which film directors and actors analyse key scenes from their film output. Those interviewed include such famous names as Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Sean Connery, Martin Scorsese, Rod Steiger, Dennis Hopper, Tom Hanks, Roman Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jack Lemmon, Steve Martin and many others. Presented in a lively and accessible manner by Mark Cousins and fully illustrated throughout, the book will appeal to the general reader and those wishing to learn about the craft of film-making.

This is the essential guide for anyone interested in film. Now in its second edition, the text has been completely revised and expanded to meet the needs of today's students and film enthusiasts. Some 150 key genres, movements, theories and production terms are explained and analyzed with depth and clarity. Entries include: * auteur theory * Blaxploitation * British New Wave * feminist film theory * intertextuality * method acting * pornography * Third World Cinema * Vampire movies.

A comprehensive introduction to film that recognizes students as movie fans and helps them understand the art form's full scope. The authors situate their strong coverage of the medium's formal elements within the larger cultural contexts that inform the ways we watch film, from economics and exhibition to marketing and the star system.

Mise-en-sc#65533;ne: Film Style and Interpretation explores and elucidates constructions of this fundamental concept in thinking about film. In uncovering the history of mise-en-sc#65533;ne within film criticism, and through the detailed exploration of scenes from films as Imitation of Life and Lone Star, John Gibbs makes the case for the importance of a sensitive understanding of film style, and provides an introduction to the skills of close reading. This book thus celebrates film-making as well as film criticism that is alive to the creative possibilities of visual style.

Ed Sikov builds a step-by-step curriculum for the appreciation of all types of narrative cinema, detailing the essential elements of film form and systematically training the spectator to be an active reader and critic. Sikov primes the eye and mind in the special techniques of film analysis. His description of mise-en-scene helps readers grasp the significance of montage, which in turn reveals the importance of a director's use of camera movement. He treats a number of fundamental factors in filmmaking, including editing, composition, lighting, the use of color and sound, and narrative. Film Studies works with any screening list and can be used within courses on film history, film theory, or popular culture. Straightforward explanations of core critical concepts, practical advice, and suggested assignments on particular technical, visual, and aesthetic aspects further anchor the reader's understanding of the formal language and anatomy of film.

Basics Film-Making 04: The Language of Film explores the means by which film communicates meaning. Most films are a mosaic of fractured images and fragmented narratives, yet we have little problem piecing them together into a complete, meaningful sequence. The average audience is capable of following the most labyrinthine plots, feeling genuine emotion for characters, and believing that their worlds continue to exist even after the film has ended. This book discusses the stories films tell, the sign-systems they deploy, the interpretive contexts we are invited to place them in, and the range of aesthetic elements which contribute to the cinematic image.