Documentary Blogging #3

August 22, 2007

Over the last few days Emily and I have been watching the Godfather films. We just finished the second part. They remind me of why I never wanted to be a filmmaker. The making of a film is an immense collective undertaking, depending on dozens of individuals to make the final product worthwhile. If we conceptualize creative endeavors as falling along a continuum from complete individual control (like a poem) to minimum individual control (a medieval cathedral).. then there is no doubt that a big budget film falls closer to the cathedral than the novel. Which is to say, it is an undertaking that depends upon multiple people.

I have never wanted to work in a large group.. but the miracle of technology is that creative tools of all kinds are suddenly in the hands of everyone.. at least potentially. The expression of ideas in a visual manner has gotten infinitely easier in the past few years. If the Godfather functions as an ideal.. then filmmaking is still in the hands of those who can come up with millions of dollars in funding. But if the ideal is something a little less controlled.. less professional.. then there are not many barriers to creative work.

In Dearborn for my interview at the museum I walked into a couple of guys filming a real documentary. They had equipment that far surpassed what I was carrying.. and an independent light source. I had a moment of jealousy seeing all this equipment. But then I thought about all the programs out there that looks so professional. The world has no lack of well-produced drivel! Needed is actual creative and constructive thinking. All that equipment represents so many constraints on individual expression. Better far (it seems to me) to be the guy walking around with an older and smaller camera.

I have difficulty explaining just how fun it is to work with images and interviews.. and then construct a linear narrative out of all this material. My academic interests have always been strongly correlated to images (witness dissertation with lots of photos and maps).. and so documentary and multi-media work is not an illogical extension of my work. The problems I run into when writing a paper.. such as my desire to show this or that picture.. are suddenly solved when I think of an essay as a visual tour. What I have to say in my Dearborn essay could be partially expressed in a traditional academic essay.. but not as well. And I may add that I find it a much more creatively fulfilling activity.