Shaping Reality*

• 1993 ----- color ----- 71 min ----- vhs
• (Constructing Reality: Exploring Media Issues in Documentary series) Documentaries, like all media products, are constructions rather than transparent windows onto "Reality". The focus here is on film language--images, words, sound effects, music, and silence; the tools that film and videomakers use to create an experience for an audience--with an emphasis on the critical choices made in the process of constructing "real life" films. Ready When You Are (13 min), logistics and potential pitfalls in a documentary shoot shows crew members struggling with all the angles on a crowd of school-children playing banjos on a Halifax dock; Techno-Babies: The Making of a TV Documentary (18 min), behind-the-scence look at the making of a television documentary for a weekly CBC series which includes the producers' reflections on the process; The Edit (14 min), focuses on the ways in which the malleability of film and video footage can lead to manipulation and ethical dilemmas, as a zealous TV reporter tries to nail a shady politician; Track Stars (8 min), shows two foley artists creating sound effects in a studio to match the action unfolding on a film screen. Study Extracts facilitate close study of the elements of film languages: City of Gold (3 min), Of Lives Uprooted (2 min); Our Marilyn (5 min); Lonely Boy (2 min); Anybody's Son Will Do (3 min); Sandspit to Dildo (3 min). (Closed-Captioned) (Donated by the Department of Canadian Studies) (Restricted to use by institutions of learning within the State of Washington only)
• Topics: (Audiovisual Education, Canadian Studies, Communications, History: Canadian, Motion Pictures: History)