Godfrey Reggio- “Evidence”
This is amazing! I’ve been learning a bit, over the last few days, about work by other people that’s similar to “Immersion”. This is really great- it reminds me a lot of a sequence I’ve posted before from Truffaut’s “Les Quatre Cents Coups”. Except these kids seem so utterly gone; transported and absorbed. The title indicates what you’re supposed to feel about it, I guess. It represents one state of mind, there’s almost no variation of expression and when there is, it’s weird.
However, that’s not to say that that is entirely about Reggio’s technique or editing.
Fallon did a campaign for CBBC that came out a month or two ago, that was obviously attempting to show the value in kid’s experience of TV, using the same technique that I use (an employee that had just left the company was on a test shoot for immersion in February. Coincidence I’m sure). The results are really odd, and maybe show some of the difficulties involved. They don’t seem natural to me- the kids are too aware they’re being filmed. The technique can yield an almost unnerving intimacy, but in these it just isn’t present. But more to the point it’s deathly boring to watch. Their YouTube views speak for themselves- around 200 per video;
November 29th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I see what you mean about the weirdness of the fleeting expressions, especially in that early shot of the girl in the red vest. It’s like she just has these brief flutters of emotion, but is too immersed to recognize them or enjoy them.
Did you ever read about the “interrotron” that Errol Morris used to film his interviews with MacNamara? His comments about that setup were very interesting, particularly that he found the system to be a very familiar situation for people, since the interviewee essentially watches the interviewer on TV. There’s an interview in which he talks about it in detail here: http://www.errolmorris.com/content/eyecontact/interrotron.html
November 29th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Yes. But I think the way Reggio is doing it is very different. Those kids are completely unaware of the camera panning, or any movement in the camera or crew. Infact they have no awareness of being filmed…
November 30th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Oh yes, I didn’t mean to imply that I thought they were aware in the way that Morris’s subjects are. Just made me think of it, that’s all.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I meant to add that the hidden dimension of the film crew is so totally opposite to the interrotron method, but equally (perhaps more) effective.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I agree, in this case it’s better. TV is passive- so the process would have to be completely hidden. He’s filmed it like a wildlife photographer, with a “hide” or a one-way mirror or something.