THREE TRACKS OF NON-FICTION FILMS

VISUAL TRACK What we SEE on screen

Parts of the visual track

1) Main story being told

2) Can be interrupted by…. Cutaway Archival / found footage Stills

VISUAL TRACK Main footage created / filmed for movie

Often interview footage of a subject

Can be the filmmaker him or herself

ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE Primary source photographs

Primary source film

Footage from ANOTHER movie

EXAMPLE…. Interview with a guitar player…

Guitar player talking about his childhood in Chicago

Cutaway to pictures of Chicago (when he was growing up)

Back to player talking about his heroes Cutaway to film of player’s heroes playing

guitar He says he’ll play Close-up on his fingers as he plays.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING The Fog of War Atomic Cafe

AUDIO TRACK What we hear!

Narration On screen Off screen

“Voice of God” narration

Soundtrack Music in the background

MUSIC Diegetic

Logically heard by someone at the time of filming

Non-diegetic Sound track Sound effects!

What EFFECTS are created with the music choices?

EXAMPLES Outfoxed Supersize Me

TEXT / GRAPHICS TRACK Overlays of the visual track

Charts Drawings Graphics Subtitles

TEXT Identify who is talking Title of the person talking Location of a scene

Who IS identified; who is NOT? HOW are they identified (Big BIAS clue!)

BE CAREFUL Just because a person on screen has a t-shirt

with a word on it Not the text track Part of the visual track

EXAMPLES Religulous Where in the World…

HOW MIGHT THE FOLLOWING BE IDENTIFIED? George W. Bush

Michael Jackson

Madonna

Barak Obama

CONSIDER Image + Audio + Text = Possible Meaning

Consider Bowling for Columbine – Irony clip An Inconvenient Truth Super Size Me