Touching the Void - Textual Analysis

Touching the Void is a documentary film brought out in 2003 which recalls the true life events of Simon Yates and Joe Simpson's near fatal attempt to climb Siula Grande (6,344m) in the Peruvian Andes.
The documentary begins with extreme close up shots of the ice and climbing equipment cutting and hitting the ice this gives the initial impression to the audience of the harsh conditions they are facing and what type of climbing they are doing is. They is also a strong use of diegetic sound of the wind whistling and the ice cracking and breaking to reinforce these extreme weather conditions. In contrast to this it then cuts to a close up shot to the face of a man who we then find out is Joe Simpson. There is no external sound other than his voice which grasps the audience’s attention and allows them to focus on what he is saying. He introduces the task that they had to face and as he describes the scale of what they are about to do, low pitched bellowing music begins to fade in to highlight the danger of their climb. The scene then moves to an establishing shot flying over the mountains displaying the vast landscape and scale of the mountains they are attempting to climb. The titles sequence then begins over the establishing shots of the mountains, as they emerge onto the screen there are also non diegetic sounds of wind blowing to accompany the moving titles.

As the main feature then begins we are introduced to each of the men involved with the climb all displayed with the same close up shot of their face for the interview. The following scene cuts between the interviews faces and the establishing shots of the landscape as they explain why the decided to embark on this task and what they were getting themselves in for. The voiceover bridges across the whole scene and gives an outline of what is happening. As new issues and dilemmas are introduced into the story the music will gradually build up to build suspense. As the scene develops and the climbers put them into more dangerous situations the music builds into a fast tempo and there is a strong use of diegetic sounds of the ice smashing and wind whistling to give it a harsh affect. They finally reach the summit of the peak and there is a panning shot from the top giving the viewers an idea of the landscape and what they had achieved, there is also operatic music playing to reinforce is grand, epic scenery.

To split the documentary into parts, each day is separated by a title that highlights what day of the week it is and gives the audience am idea of the time scale of the events happening.  The two climbers then proceed to travel back to the base of the mountain; the scene continues to cut between the interview situation and the real life scenes to tell the story. But as they get further down the mountain problems begin to develop. Joe Simpson walks out onto an overhanging piece of ice without knowing and falls through. During this scene there is no music just the non-diegetic sounds of him moving in addition to this the camera angles and extreme close ups of his feet and the snow around him so you as the audience are aware that something is about to happen. As he falls through the ice there is complete silence which draws the audience’s attention to what is happening. He then lands on the snow below and breaks his leg which is identified through the exaggerated sound of the leg breaking during impact. The music then builds again and he cries out in pain to show to the audience that he is in serious danger and could die if he is stranded there. As Simon his partner realises what has happened he comes up with a plan to lower Joe down the mountain via his rope. However as he begins to lower Joe down further and the music stop to highlight that something significant is going to occur and to grasp the audience’s attention. It then develops as he loses sight of him and he ends up leaving him hanging over a crevasse on the mountain without knowing. There is a strong use of close ups shots of the two men to show their emotions and close ups of their equipment they are using as that is the only thing holding him up. The shots continue to cut from the real life events to the interviews to show the direct comparison of the emotions of the people and the story of the events that happened.

Due to Simons lack of knowledge of what had happened he made the bold decision to cut the rope as he believed that Joe had died due to his broken leg. As Joe lands in the crevasse he is surprised to still be alive and the 1^st person camera angle gives you the viewpoint of his emotions in that situation and the dark and harsh conditions he was surrounded by.  He then realises he is going to take the risk of lowering himself to the bottom of the crevasse. During this scene there is no non diegetic sounds or music only the diegetic sounds of his climbing equipment on the ice and verbal pain he expresses due to his broken leg. However he discovers an opening at the bottom and emerges out onto the side of the mountain.  Soft orchestral music is then played to highlight the great sense of achievement he as a climber has just achieved and the camera uses slow panning shots of the surrounds and atmosphere to show the contrast to being in the crevasse and the vast landscape in front of him. The daunting truth then comes to realisation for Simon though as he realises he has to travel across this vast landscape in order to get back to the base camp so he begins the impossible task of dragging himself back to where he started. Throughout this scene there is a strong use of an electronic and almost hypnotic sound as Simons body begins to die from the cold and the injuries he has. Quick cuts to images of flowing water show the audience the contrast to the situation he is in and the tantalising nature of all the ice around him although he is extremely dehydrated and dying. There are also a strong use of extreme close ups and hand held footage to display his emotions and gives the audience a sense that they are with him.

The scene then progresses to the point where he is lying in a pile of rocks not knowing to the whereabouts of his position and at this point he is on the brink of dying. During this scene they use flashing images of death and use non diegetic evil sounds of creepy laughs and gloomy music to show to the audience that he is going to die at any point. The scene then cuts back to the viewpoint of Simon in the interview and he begins to describe a piece of music that he had in his head at this point. However this piece of music is juxtaposition to the events happening and changes the whole feeling behind the scene and brings a sense of hope to the situation he is in. The non-diegetic sound of Simons interview describing the events continues throughout the whole scene to keep the audience in touch with how he was feeling and create a more personal relationship between Simon and the viewers. He is then reunited with his team members and the credits conclude the documentary.  The credits are accompanied by soft piano music and a montage of photos displaying the real life events of the expedition. The soft music give the audience a chance to reflect of the film and events they have just witnessed.

Canon EOS 600D

The Canon 600d is the digital SLR camera that I used to film my documentary. 

Here is a basic overview of the functions and settings that can be used within the camera.

The video quality from the 18-megapixel APS-C sensor films up to 1080p HD quality.

The camera has many features such as control over the shutter speed, aperture, ISO and gives opportunity to use a wide variety of lenses that gives you the freedom to create a shot ideal for you and to give you access in taking photos or film in low light or bright light.

The high-res, free-angle LCD screen is much more than just a novelty - it's a lot more versatile than the usual combination of optical viewfinder and fixed LCD, providing new angles of view and enhancing your overall creativity. Above all, it's a fun way of composing your images.

The EOS 600D's top-mounted shooting mode dial has a multitude of letters and icons. The so-called Creative Zone features Programmed Auto (P), Shutter Priority (Tv), Aperture Priority (Av), Manual (M) and A-DEP modes. 

There's a host of scene modes including Flash Off, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait and, oddly enough for an interchangeable-lens camera, a close-up mode as well. The majority of these scene modes allow users who do not want to fiddle with shutter speeds, f-stops, white balance or ISO settings to let the camera know what type of photo they are about to take, which helps the EOS 600D / T3i to optimize 

these settings for that particular subject. 

Live View is also used for the Canon EOS 600D / T3i's movie mode. If you turn the mode dial to the position denoted by the movie camera icon, the camera will enter Live View automatically. Before you start filming, you need to focus on the subject either manually or using auto focus as described above, and optionally set exposure and ISO. To be able to do this, you first need to enter the menu, highlight "Movie exposure" on the relevant tab, and select "Manual". Now you can set aperture, shutter speed (within limits) and ISO manually. Note that even if you do not enable manual exposure for movies, you can still use functions like AE lock and exposure compensation if you feel a need for it.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/canon-eos-rebel-t3i600d-for-dummies.html

Throughout my filming I used two lenses. A Canon 28mm-135mm and a Sigma 17mm-70mm both are very good lenses. The combination of the two allowed me to experiment with close up shots with 28-135mm as it has a larger optical zoom where as the 17-70mm lens gave me a wider angle shot.

                   

B-roll Research

B-roll is the supplemental footage that provides greater flexibility when editing video. Think of the footage used to cut away from an interview or news report to help tell the story. That's B-roll. When filming something static, like an interview or a news anchor reporting on-location, having shots of the environment makes the end-product more interesting to watch.





B-roll is also referred to as "safety footage" — and for good reason! If you've got moments that work for audio but not video — perhaps something distracting in the background or a necessary jump-cut— B-roll can help save the project by covering up these edits.

Here are a few tips for shooting B-roll:

1. • The most important thing is to capture as much variety as possible! Cover your bases by filming a good selection of wide shots and closeups, and try out some interesting angles, such as below the subject, or maybe a bird's-eye view of an event.


1. • Don't be afraid to move! Using only static shots can slow down the pace of the video.


1. • It's better to shoot more than is needed — you don't want to be left without enough to edit.


1. • Don't forget to capture B-roll of the person you are interviewing. Switching from an interview to a voice-over with footage of the person going about their business can help connect your audience with your subject.


1. • Make sure to get some B-roll on location after the interview; there may have been details mentioned that will inspire footage. For example, if you're interviewing a mother and she mentions her children, get some shots of those kiddos in the backyard, or of their photos around the house.
And remember, although the industry term is "B-roll," this all-important footage shouldn't be dismissed as "B-list." B-roll can be creative and beautiful, and truly helps to produce a more well-rounded, engaging final piece.
Vimeo Film School (B-roll)

Research - History of Documentaries

Here is a short interview with famous director Martin Scorsese on the history of Documentary films.

Documentary Film History

Throughout history, documentary film has encompassed a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality.
Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has expanded to include video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television series. Documentary, as it applies here, works to identify a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.

Scorsese begins his interview by mentioning the first evidence of 'documentary' style film from pre-1900s France in which they would film single shot pieces of footage of trains coming into a station or factory workers leaving work they would document everyday acts and this was called "actuality" filming at the time as the word "documentary" wasn't brought into place until 1926.

Between 1900-1920s Travelogue films were very popular in the early part of the 20th century. They were often referred to by distributors as "scenics." Scenics were among the most popular sort of films at the time.  Pathé is the best-known global manufacturer of such films of the early 20th century. A vivid example is Moscow clad in snow (1909). Also during this period Frank Hurley's documentary film, South (1919), about the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was released. It documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914, to some people this was the very first proper "documentary' film.

The city symphony
The continental, or realist, tradition focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called "city symphony" films such as Walter Ruttmann's Berlin, Symphony of a City, Alberto Cavalcanti's Rien que les heures, and Dziga Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera. These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde.

Kino-Pravda

Dziga Vertov was central to the Soviet Kino-Pravda (literally, "cinematic truth") newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera — with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion — could render reality more accurately than the human eye, and made a film philosophy out of it.

Newsreel tradition

The newsreel tradition is important in documentary film; newsreels were also sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after a major battle and re-enact scenes to film them.

Between 1920s-1940s the Documentary genre of filmmaking turned into propaganda for Nazi Germany where films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. In Britain, a number of different filmmakers came together under John Grierson. They became known as the Documentary Film Movement. Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Harry Watt, Basil Wright, and Humphrey Jennings amongst others succeeded in blending propaganda, information, and education with a more poetic aesthetic approach to documentary. 

Between 1950-1970 Cinéma vérité (or the closely related direct cinema) was dependent on some technical advances in order to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound.

Cinéma vérité and similar documentary traditions can thus be seen, in a broader perspective, as a reaction against studio-based film production constraints. Shooting on location, with smaller crews, would also happen in the French New Wave, the filmmakers taking advantage of advances in technology allowing smaller, handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded.

Modern Documentaries

Compared to dramatic narrative films, documentaries typically have far lower budgets which makes them attractive to film companies because even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable.

The nature of documentary films has expanded in the past 20 years from the cinema verité style introduced in the 1960s in which the use of portable camera and sound equipment allowed an intimate relationship between filmmaker and subject. The line blurs between documentary and narrative and some works are very personal.

Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with the development of "reality television" that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged. The making-of documentary shows how a movie or a computer game was produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is closer to an advertisement than a classic documentary.

Films in the documentary form without words have been made since 1982, the Qatsi trilogy and the similar Baraka could be described as visual tone poems, with music related to the images, but no spoken content. Koyaanisqatsi (part of the Qatsi trilogy) consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States.

Creative Shot ideas

For my documentary I am researching various types of shots that can be used so that I am able to capture the images desired for my final product. The cinematography behind an artistic piece such as a documentary or a music video is a well thought out process so that you can produce the product to how the filmmaker wishes it to look. The beauty of filmmaking is that each individual filmmaker will use certain shots more than others or will capture certain images, maybe landscapes or movement. It comes down to what you want to send across to the audience watching. Here are some examples of creative shots or techniques used to capture certain images.

1- Tracking or dolly shot where the camera is placed on a mobile platform or in this case a person on a skateboard to capture a fluid image and for smooth panning when capturing movement. 

Timelapse

Timelapse photography is a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. For example, an image of a scene may be captured once every second, then played back at 30 frames per second. The result is an apparent 30-times speed increase. Time-lapse photography can be considered the opposite of high speed photography or slow motion.
Here is an example of professional Timelapse photography.





Slow Motion

Slow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down.Typically this style is achieved when each film frame is captured at a rate much faster than it will be played back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving more slowly. Slow motion is used a lot in modern filmmaking. It is used by a wide range of directors to achieve diverse effects. Some classic subjects of slow motion include:

• Athletic activities of all kinds, to demonstrate skill and style.
• To recapture a key moment in an athletic game, typically shown as a replay.
• Natural phenomena, such as a drop of water hitting a glass.

Here is a example of slow motion photography in the industry.

Point of view shot (POV)

Point of view shot: (Often abbreviated as 'POV'). A shot which shows the scene from the specific point of view of one of the characters.

It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction. The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.

A POV shot need not be the strict point-of-view of an actual single character in a film. Sometimes the point-of-view shot is taken over the shoulder of the character (third person), who remains visible on the screen.

Here is a compilation of POV shots in the TV series Breaking Bad.