Reality vs. Documentary

http://www.pbs.org/pov/56up/lesson_plan.php

Documentary 101:

http://documentaries.about.com/od/introtodocumentaries/u/Documentaries101.htm#s1 

A Primer for Getting the Most Out of Documentary Films

By Jennifer Merin

Welcome to the wonderful and fascinating world of documentary films! Nonfiction films provide you with unlimited access to the whole wide world around you. No subject is too obscure, no mountain too high to deter a determined documentary film director from exploring it and presenting it to you. Here, you'll discover the basics about the production elements, aesthetics and history of documentary film.

1. Must-Know Basics
2. Documentary Terminology
3. Popular Subjects
4. Filmmakers and Visionaries
5. Where To Find The Films You Want To Watch

Must-Know Basics

Hundreds of documentaries made and released each year cover every imaginable subject, providing in-depth investigations of ubiquitous nightly news items and examining obscure factoids that they expand into engaging and enlightening full-length features. Having a basic knowledge of documentary styles and filmmakers will help you find and focus on the movies that will meet and satisfy your interests. Use this primer to enhance your understanding of the genre, and learn how to assess the artistry and accuracy of any documentary film.

• Documentaries 101
• Documentary Styles - An Overview
• Documentary Genre Offshoots
• Top Documentary Filmmakers and Visionaries

Documentary Terminology

A glossary of the words and terminology used to define and describe the techniques and styles used in documentary filmmaking and documentary films.

• Anthropomorphism
• Authenticity
• Cinema Verite
• Commentary
• Compilation Film
• Demonstrative Proof
• Editing
• Ethnographic
• Expository Documentary
• Interrotron

• Intertitle
• Long Take
• Masked Interview
• Observational Mode
• Participatory Mode
• Performative Mode
• Perspective
• Voice of Authority
• Voice Over
• Additional Terminology

Television

Discussion Questions

1. Television was first invented in 1886 by a German student, Paul Nipcow. How much television do you watch in one week? How would you spend your time if television had never been invented? 2. RCA's David Sarnoff was credited for bringing television to the masses at the 1939 World's Fair with President Roosevelt speaking. If television were invented today, with what programming would you choose to debut the new invention and why? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puIqcv1nB44 3. The first color television camera was the TK 41. Describe how would black and white television change the programs you watch? Go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUcjJ-yChjg Compare and contrast TV commercials of the 1940s with today's commercials. 4. The most recent invention in television is digital technology. Explain what could you invent to improve television programming and viewership? 5. Video recording has revolutionized the television industry and brought about channels like CNN, ESPN, and MTV. What would television be like for you without these channels? Describe the target audiences for these channels. 6. How will the agent or Intelligence Search Software affect your choice of television shows?

Links

The Farnsworth Chronicles This is a concise and easily accessible site detailing the efforts of Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of modern television. Exploratorium Exhibits Exciting online demos and guided discovery help explain how we come to "make pictures" on the tube. Vocabulary Click on any of the vocabulary words below to hear them pronounced and used in a sentence.    fiber-optic Definition: Relating to thin transparent fibers of glass or plastic that are enclosed by material of a lower index of refraction and that transmit light throughout their length by internal reflections. Context: The signal will be captured and temporarily be converted into laser light and fed down long strands of glass called fiber-optic lines.    bit Definition: A unit of computer information equivalent to the result of a choice between two alternatives (e.g., yes or no, on or off). Context: A television camera breaks the scene into bits and scans the world a bit at a time.    vacuum tubes Definition: An electron tube evacuated to a high degree of vacuum. Context: For the next 60 years, television cameras used vacuum tubes.    prism Definition: A transparent body that is bounded in part by two nonparallel plane faces and is used to refract or disperse a beam of light. Context: In broadcast color cameras, the light streaming through the lens enters a prism, which does the usual prism thing, splitting the light into three colors.    ray gun Definition: A device which fires a stream of electrons toward a fluorescent screen. The direction of the stream is controlled by a magnetic field within a cathode ray tube (the point of origin for the stream). Context: There is a ray gun at the back of the picture tube firing a thin beam to light up a tiny dot on your screen.    record head Definition: An electromagnetic strip device which imparts a characteristic pattern on a storage medium such as magnetic tape, thereby saving information to the storage medium. Context: All magnetic recording begins with an electromagnet called a record head.    segmentation Definition: The process of dividing into segments. Context: He could get rid of segmentation by a nice long scan with a tape wrapped around this big drum.    analog Definition: Relating to a mechanism in which data is represented by continuously variable physical quantities (such as voltages). Context: We live in an analog world.    digital Definition: Relating to data in the form of numerical digits. Context: To make our analog world digital it must be converted.    agent Definition: One who is authorized to act for or in the place of another. Context: And these days you use the word agents to do that.    Intelligence Search Software Definition: Computer instructions, customized to the preferences of an individual. Context: And the term agent refers to Intelligence Search Software that will be programmed to know what each family member likes.

Podcasts/Journalist killed in Afghanistan

Please read the following article:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/04/world/asia/afghanistan-journalists-shot/


FINISH PODCASTS FOR PRESENTATION NEXT WEEK!