The Face of Time - POV - Aarhus Universitet

122 p.o.v. number 13 March 2002
Further down the same page in Filmmaskinen, Jørgen Leth also
writes: "Like a membrane, style (a series of choices) is pulled down
over the authentic material." But the main issue must be how thick
this membrane is – whether reality, so to speak, suffocates. And that
depends on the degree of intervention, how the cinematic technique
is used, and how the material is edited.
All documentaries are somewhere in between inventing and
capturing reality, between the subjective and the objective, and
although the distance between the two poles is short, you should
reflect on where your film is placed between these poles. To what
extent is your film obliged to depict reality? Are you inventing your
own representations of real life in order to make reality more
distinct? Are you placing authentic people in situations that they
wouldn't otherwise have been in (as is the case with Nanook in
Robert Flaherty's classic documentary Nanook of the North (1920-22))?
Are you writing their lines and instructing them on playing
themselves (as in Jon Bang Carlsen's It's Now or Never (1996))? Are
you arranging tableaux or events which the characters take part in?
Asking yourselves questions of this sort is essential in order to
elucidate which form of modality you prefer in your film.
The Shooting Phase
Shoot the 'soft' things first (the daily chores). Don't shoot the
interview until the person has become used to the presence of the
camera as well as his/her role as an 'actor.'