2 feature docs with inventive editing may inspire to think outside the box - - though off-topic & though these 2 directors interpose themselves in the materialwhereas I doubt you'd want to. But the editing trips on free association, expanding options beyond linear narrative: Orson Welles based F FOR FAKE on an existing documentary on Elmyr the art forger by Francois Reichenbach from 1970. Welles bought it from the BBC including outtakes, recut it, shot new material, replaced final cut takes with outtakes from the original doc. In the middle of it all on screen Welles hosts the documentary from his editing suite even as he is editing it. Editing is where Welles always said that a film is really made, & this time, in 1973, he thought he had invented a new film genre. Critics called it an essay film but it's not really, It's closer to what was called New Journalism. One scene includes outtakes of 2 talking heads from the original doc - - of the speakers not saying anything, seeming to wait for the next Q or thinking about the last one, & Welles has dubbed a clock ticking over the soundtrack. Takes a lot of nerve for a director to hold the moment of nothing happening. (My free association probably remembered this after recalling RG show with epic lull I mentioned to you.) Holding on the image of 2 talking heads who are inbetween saying things, both of them elsewhere persuasive in their rhetoric, Welles seems to look for the real person inbetween moments. An idea that came to him from those seeming disposable outtakes that are merely lead-ins to the 2 men talking. The other doc, from 3 years ago, is Bob Weide's long-delayed feature about his friend Kurt Vonnegut. Weide had been shooting film of Vonnegut on road trips for 20 years, & now KV was dead & Weide filmed himself in the editing room changing the concept of the piece. Now it was about his friendship with Kurt & grief at his passing. Not a chronological structure, free association has a say in the narrative here too (though the balance between Vonnegut/Weide doesn't quite work). I just wonder whether (re-)watching those docs might trigger some creative assembly for yr narrative that isn't in either of those docs but which they might inspire. Just a thought. F FOR FAKE is easily available. The original Francois Reichenbach doc on Elmyr that Welles bought from the BB is less available but can still be seen. Weide's doc I can probably put you onto if you got curious.
It was an interesting show some time ago with a diverse panel, all sorts of hitters and real action passing through. It’s been widdled down to a small clique and kinda lost its entertainment value long ago. Long gone any gripping drama and replaced with more personal beefs . Even RG chances to debate politics were better away from her own show with the panel being so few and the same opinions day after day. Its to amuse themselves nowadays and the retired VC but if you look back more the a few hundred shows it was on a much different trajectory.
Love Marty's outro! ❤ ...and, all you need is cash, da da da da!😊
2 feature docs with inventive editing may inspire to think outside the box - -
though off-topic & though these 2 directors interpose themselves in the materialwhereas I doubt you'd want to. But the editing trips on free association, expanding options beyond linear narrative:
Orson Welles based F FOR FAKE on an existing documentary on Elmyr the art forger by Francois Reichenbach from 1970. Welles bought it from the BBC including outtakes, recut it, shot new material, replaced final cut takes with outtakes from the original doc. In the middle of it all on screen Welles hosts the documentary from his editing suite even as he is editing it.
Editing is where Welles always said that a film is really made, & this time, in 1973, he thought he had invented a new film genre. Critics called it an essay film but it's not really, It's closer to what was called New Journalism.
One scene includes outtakes of 2 talking heads from the original doc - - of the speakers not saying anything, seeming to wait for the next Q or thinking about the last one, & Welles has dubbed a clock ticking over the soundtrack. Takes a lot of nerve for a director to hold the moment of nothing happening.
(My free association probably remembered this after recalling RG show with epic lull I mentioned to you.)
Holding on the image of 2 talking heads who are inbetween saying things, both of them elsewhere persuasive in their rhetoric, Welles seems to look for the real person inbetween moments. An idea that came to him from those seeming disposable outtakes that are merely lead-ins to the 2 men talking.
The other doc, from 3 years ago, is Bob Weide's long-delayed feature about his friend Kurt Vonnegut. Weide had been shooting film of Vonnegut on road trips for 20 years, & now KV was dead & Weide filmed himself in the editing room changing the concept of the piece. Now it was about his friendship with Kurt & grief at his passing. Not a chronological structure, free association has a say in the narrative here too (though the balance between Vonnegut/Weide doesn't quite work).
I just wonder whether (re-)watching those docs might trigger some creative assembly for yr narrative that isn't in either of those docs but which they might inspire. Just a thought.
F FOR FAKE is easily available. The original Francois Reichenbach doc on Elmyr that Welles bought from the BB is less available but can still be seen. Weide's doc I can probably put you onto if you got curious.
It was an interesting show some time ago with a diverse panel, all sorts of hitters and real action passing through. It’s been widdled down to a small clique and kinda lost its entertainment value long ago. Long gone any gripping drama and replaced with more personal beefs . Even RG chances to debate politics were better away from her own show with the panel being so few and the same opinions day after day. Its to amuse themselves nowadays and the retired VC but if you look back more the a few hundred shows it was on a much different trajectory.