Documentaries subjectivity

To what extent these chemical arts originated in Egypt or to what extent they were dependent upon Asia Minor, Persia or perhaps India, it is difficult to determine, for we have no documentary evidence relating to these subjects, which is specific, of established antiquity and demonstrably free from later interpolations. 

The objective of the book is to provide fundamental information on the subject of explosives not only to experts but also to the general public. The book will therefore, apart from industrial companies and research facilities concerned, be found useful in documentary centers, translation bureaus, editorial offices, patent and lawyer offices, and other institutions of this nature. 

While there is only little documentary evidence for the existence of gas vans , we do have numerous statements by defendants and by witnesses in NS trials, confirming that the gas vans had indeed existed and that people were killed in them. Especially in the 1960s and 1970s trials took place which dealt with the use of gas vans , among other things. In the literature on this subject, therefore, arguments are based primarily on this testimony. 

There are various kinds of motion pictures. Here we are concerned with the educational films. Educational films include documentary and instructional films. Though some documentary films can be used in classroom teaching but they are especially planned for classroom teaching purposes. On the other hand instructional films are specially planned to achieve certain educational objectives and are made in specific subject areas tor teaching purposes. These films can be background films or direct teaching films. They help to promote to achieve a skill, an attitude or to convey certain facts, information, phenomenon or theory. As a science teacher we will be mainly concerned with the instructional films in our areas. 

Unity of invention is required for documentary research reasons. In the United States, the requirement of unity of invention (single subject per patent application) is investigated with the greatest strictness. 

A) Subject to subparagraph (B), an interested person is entitled-(i) to present such person s position orally or by documentary submissions (or both), and... 

The power of documentary films comes from the fact that they are grounded in fact, not fiction. This is not to say that they re "objective." Like any form of communication, whether spoken, written, painted, or photographed, documentary filmmaking involves the communicator in making choices. It s therefore unavoidably subjective, no matter how balanced or neutral the presentation seeks to be. Which stories are being told, why, and by whom What information or material is included or excluded What choices are made concerning style, tone, point of view, and format "To be sure, some documentarists... 

Share the humor. No matter how grim the situation or subject, audiences cannot take a program that is unrelieved misery. Watch any of the top documentaries of the past few years, and notice not only how often you re on the verge of tears, but also, even within the same film, how often you re laughing. 

Although Howard and Mabley s book is directed at dramatic screenwriters, who are free to invent not only characters but also the things that they want and the things that are getting in the way, this list is useful for documentary storytellers. Your particular film subject or situation might not fit neatly within these parameters, however, so further explanation follows. 

Armed with an understanding of story, how do you find one within a chosen subject for a documentary Suppose, for example, that you re thinking of doing a film about Elvis Presley, a diner in your home town, or images of Islam in American popular culture. Something about the topic has caught your interest, and you think you want to take it to the next level. 

We re surrounded by subjects that offer potential for documentary storytelling. Current events may trigger ideas, or an afternoon spent browsing the shelves at a local library or bookstore. Some filmmakers find stories within their own families. Alan Berliner made Nobody s Business about his father, Oscar Deborah Hoffinan made Confessions of a Dutiful Daughter about her mother s battle with Alzheimer s. Even when you re very close to a subject, however, you ll need to take an impartial view as you determine whether or not it would make a film that audiences will want to see. This is also tme when you adapt documentaries from printed sources a story may read well on paper, but not play as well on screen. In making the series Cadillac Desert, drawn from Marc Reisner s book of the same name, producer Jon Else chose three of the roughly 40 stories in Reisner s book Else and his team then conducted their own research and determined the best way to tell those stories on film. 

Some people decide to make documentaries because the/re passionate about a subject and determined to bring others to their point of view. This can be a great place to start, but only if you can be open-minded as you explore the evidence, and honest as you present it to an audience. If you start out with a conclusion—"I want to show that animal testing is bad"— you re going to create a film that is either an illustrated lecture or a sham trial. 

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