I have a feeling after watching a Morris film that I've watched a fiction film, something with the feeling and narrative features of fiction, a sort of ambiance associated with such. Does it have to do with the Interrotron's "new" way of both suturing me into the film and of revealing its process?
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This is Nesha Thompson. When I first started watching Vernon, Florida, it seemed like some of it was scripted. The way the man that hunts birds was talking in the beginning sounded poetic. It sounded like he was reading a script or something. As the film continued, it start seeming more real and less scripted. A person watching the film has to draw their own story from the film because it's very scattered. I didn't know what was going on and I was trying to pull a story out of it but I couldn't. It was truly a documentary that was real. It was real because the way the film was put together is the way life really is. It wasn't like on reality television shows where they pick all of the high points out of life and make every minute of life seem exciting. It was simply showing everyday life for these normal people living in this country town. Even though the beginning of the film seemed scripted, after watching the rest of it, it looked very real to me.
ReplyDeleteOne cinematic device that gave Vernon, Florida a fiction film appeal is the cross cutting techniques that is somewhat half attempted in the film. In the beginning the viewer gets the impression that the structure of the film will consist of intercutting between two interviewees at a time and then going on to the next two and so on. However that structure changes as past interviewees are re-introduced and as certain others appear only once in the film. To add to this, the crosscutting, unlike the norm, does not help to structure the overall story of the film, but instead it links the individual stories of the interviewee's lives together irregardless of any sort of overall order. The crosscutting then gives a false notion of the entertainment value inherent in a fiction film due to it's uncoventional use and it's lack of order or structure gives the film a more realistic feel similar to the chaos inherent in reality.
ReplyDeleteVernon, Florida came across as more of a “fiction film” because of the way in which Morris personalized the stories we were presented with. Compared to his other films with broader and more “serious” topics – McNamara, Abu Ghrab, etc – I found this film’s story (if there even is one) to be extremely personal and quotidien, concerned only with simple activities and the unique life perspectives of people whom we usually do not get to encounter. This could explain why, in this particular case, the interrotron wouldn’t have been appropriate because it brings the audience a sense of seriousness with which to watch the film. Vernon, on the other hand, requires none of that, I thought. Instead, I got the impression that in order to fully appreciate the film, one must watch Vernon with a sense of detachment from the larger context of these characters and go beyond it. Ironically, given that it is perceived as more of a “fiction film,” Vernon might be more in line with what I think of a “real” documentary, one of the purest genres of filmmaking that conveys very personal experiences of the milieu that surrounds us.
ReplyDeleteContrary to what many I havae said about Vernon, Florida, Morris presented a non-fiction film in a realistic way. It did not appear that anything was scripted. The use of cinematography took a realistic approach. Each cut was a mark of a new story or a new perspective opposed to each cut leaving a mark that something had been "edited" per se. Camera Angles were natural in addition to the lighting, with the term "natural" used to describle the style and the approach. Though very sporadic and at times hard to follow, Morris' creates a documentarty that represents life in one of the most realistic forms. The only perspectives presented are those of the turkey hunters, not the perspective/opinion of Morris or any other outsid party. What you see is what you get.
ReplyDeleteVernon Florida moves smoothly from one story to the next in an episodic flow and one after another, whether it brings a reaction of laughter or confusion, one cannot help but find themselves purely intrigued by the town and its inhabitants. Even though the film is structured in a narrative form, the greatest moments are those “dull” moments that take away from its fictitiousness. These moments enforce the reality, bringing the viewer back into the mindset of the film being a documentary.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically in the beginning of the film when the man is talking about the river, he pauses in the middle of his sentence, and an uncomfortable silence fills the air – something taboo for fiction films.
The same goes for the scene where the man gets the gopher (turtle) out of the bin and sets it on the ground. As the camera stays on the turtle, all action is focused at that moment on the animal. It is the mundane realism in the slow moving turtle that dominates the scene until the man reenters the frame.
Also, the ending is quite interesting, because it merely ends. The film contains no superficial action, unlike Standard Operating Procedure, therefore a great conclusion is anticipated, however never achieved, because for the citizens of Vernon, there is no ending. There lives continue, and what better way to end the film than to finish up the last story and fade out? The ending does not require a recap of what we have seen or a fancy cliché epilogue. In plain old Vernon fashion, what needed to have been said was said, and that was that.
In Vernon, Florida, Morris establishes a new location and then closes in on an interviewee. The stories of one interviewee are intercut with another. This kind of braided narrtive combines stories and images, while separating the viewer from the subject. Many landscape shots contain voice over, whithout showing the subject directly addressing Morris/the audience on screen.
ReplyDeleteAll interviews (except for the minister shot in low angle) are shot eye-level, which adds a 'factual' aspect to the documentary. Additionally, in the first part of the film, Morris avoids showing close ups. For example, he did not focus too closely on the gemstone a man was talking about. When the man says "look at it," the camera remains static, too far away for any detail of the gemstone. Similarly, Morris introduces a tire being filled up with air. Instead of shooting a close up of the tire, a long shot of three men surrounding the tire is used. In this way, distance is created, as Morris shifts focus to the person in their environment rather than particular objects. These techniques further the distance between the intervierwer, interviewee, and viewer. The film draws attention more to the interview process-the separation that the camera creates while dipicting human interaction-than to the spectable of Vernon, Florida's Other.
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ReplyDeletethis is jessie bockenek- One particular series stood out to me as a more narrative style than what is seen in the rest of the film and it certainly drew me in. When the turkey man is sitting on his porch and he tells the stories of his three best turkey kills. It is presented to the viewer intermittently between cuts to other characters in the movie. The predictability of that scenario felt familiar and traditional. Honestly, I was torn between feeling as though those were my grandparents on screen and thinking that there was no way this was just life. I mean, that policeman?! christ! It was both incredibly beautiful and wildly depressing for me because it is a reflection of all of us in a way. We all have that one thing that we find fascinating about ourselves (turtle/possum collections?) and our obsessive passion. It only seemed fictitious to me because of the interest that I garnered for such a mundane town. Maybe a toned (way) down Christopher Guest documentary?
ReplyDelete“Good and Very Good!” Running just under an hour, the only problem with Errol Morris’s 1981 documentary film Vernon, Florida, is that it simply is not long enough! Cut Cinema Verite that exquisitely captivates ones peep fantasy desires, whilst not getting hands dirty. You simply can’t write this stuff. A testament to decisions made during the edit, so difficult to do. There can’t be enough said about the power of an apparatus that can so cleanly present something quite often gritty and unclean. When squeezed into two-dimensions, something mundane, a “gopher” becomes not just something comical but beautiful, peaceful. Morris presents not only a setting and tone, but an exploited image that provokes but doesn’t cattle prod the senses. I only wish I could have stayed a bit longer.
ReplyDeleteErrol Morris's 1981 documentary film Vernon Florida, was to me a easy but fresh breath of air. The characters where basic people and wanted nothing more then to tell us who they were. There was no point of view nor right or wrong in the film, just a fun peace of well thought out film. Morris knew that the viewers would come up with their own questions so thats why there were none out in the open asked by the film. This film was pure entertainment and was a great example of how to take a seemingly boring subject and turn it into greatness.
ReplyDeleteThe film Vernon Florida by Errol Morris was one of my favorites so far. The way in which Morris chose to film his subjects very interesting to me. While some of the shots could have very well been "this is how I found them" others seemed set up for cinematic effect. For me this is not a bad thing. I enjoyed the feel that I got from the film that was created by this cross cutting between the real and the real but staged. As someone mentioned in an earlier blog,some of the things said sounded poetic and scripted but the more you watched you could see that it was entirely real and very well edited at that!
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