American Cinematographer - October 1968 - 62

CINEMA VERITE AND THE
DOCUMENTARY FILM
By

MIKE

WADDELL

Calvin Productions, Inc.

It is an obvious fact that the audi¬
ences for films todoy have become
sophisticated to the ways of film-mak¬
ing. With the absolute flood of new
titles appearing every day, our films
have to be better than ever if we
want to command a share of the au¬
dience.
Quite a few of the film-makers en¬
gaged in non-theatrical production
must have gotten this message be¬
cause throughout the past twelve
months we have been asked by many
of them: "How can I make my films
different?" They have said, "I want
to try something new . . ." and when
we asked them why, we heard, "I've
got to hold my audience . . . you know
how it is, people go to the movies,
they watch TV, they go to the world
fairs, to expos and they see new
things being done in movies every¬
where. I've got to motivate my audi¬

The real truth of a documentary film depends
as much upon the honesty of the visual style
as upon the integrity of its subject matter
ence . . . moving catalogues won't
work anymore."
No, moving catalogues won't work
anymore ... in fact, they never really
did.
However, using techniques which
are supposedly new and different in
films isn't the panacea to solve the
problems either. The answer lies
where it always has-with the audi¬
ence and with what you want to com¬
municate to them.
Being new and different in your
film approach can be an asset if your
innovations are born out of a need for
better communication. But no tech¬
nique you employ should jump out at
the audience as something that is
"new and different." If a technique
calls attention to itself, it is bad be¬
cause it will divert the audience's at¬
tention from what you are attempting
to say.

Filming in actual locations, such as in the observation dome of the traveling train, shown here,
lends reality to the documentary film that cannot be simulated as well on a sound stage.
However, off-beat visual techniques utilized simply because they are "new and different" may
backfire because they call attention to themselves and divert the audience's attention from
what you are trying to say.

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When you're analyzing the audi¬
ence for your film, put yourself in the
viewer's place. Ask yourself, "What
would I like most to know about this
thing I am attempting to show these
people? If I were in their shoes, how
would I like to be told about this sub¬
ject?" Then think about this thing you
are trying to get your audience to do
or react to. What results do you want
to achieve-what is the purpose be¬
hind your film?
Sometimes, when you ask yourself or
your client to answer these questions
a fresh approach will just naturally
occur to you. This happened to me
this past year. I was assigned to direct
a film that didn't have a script. In
fact, all it really had was an idea.
Our client, College Placement Serv¬
ices of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania had a
Ford Foundation grant to produce a
film that was to do one thing to help
motivate Negro high school students
and Negro college students to seek
management careers in business, in¬
dustry and government through higher
education, namely the acquiring of
B.A. degrees.
But they had a problem-believability. How to get their audience,
which was composed primarily of Ne¬
gro students from the ages of 15
through 24, to believe that business,
government and industry were truly
seeking Negroes to fill managementlevel jobs or, as one student put it:
"Are they truly interested in me or
are they just interested in 'colorizing
their staff'?"
The idea that was presented was
to interview actual students in college
and find out what they believed and
why and then to interview young Ne¬
gro executives working in all phases
of business, government and industry
in order to get, hopefully, the reol
stories on management careers for
Negroes.
Without really knowing it at the
time, we were going to make a film
Continued on Page 788

American Cinematographer - October 1968

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