I had my students watch A Vietnam Peace Story for this week specifically to introduce them to the rhetoric(s) of documentary filmmaking. Unfortunately, the big winter storm has closed school for several days. I didn’t get to finish. I’ll be posting some thoughts on the Dr. Cline’s Peripatetic School of Media podcast soon.
I’ll edit the (way too) long script and post here soon.
(Side note: I use Anchor which belongs to Spotify. So you might also want to catch my episode about media ethics in which I briefly discuss this situation.)
Until then, check out the trailer and the obvious use of the Kuleshov effect.
A Vietnam Peace Story from Carbon Trace Productions on Vimeo.
Except, the effect, in my opinion, really just identifies effective editing (i.e. IMO effective use of the language of cinematic art) (also, not making any claims about the editing of this trailer; that’s for others to decide). Cuts between shots, seems to me, always create juxtapositions with meaning. The question for me is: Are you creating for the audience the meaning you intend?
It’s getting that intention on film that is a big part MED412 Documentary Storytelling.
