Nixon's Resignation

This speech was very interesting. At first the camera shot was wide view, they were very far away. As the speech went on they shot got closer and closer, and at the very end they continue to pan inward. It was as if the camera person wanted you to notice Nixon's disposition and the feeling he was putting into his speech. He looked very confident in the beginning, but at the end looked as if he was going to break down. Zooming in on this showed Nixon's feelings and showed every expression he was making very close up. Nixon held his speech in front of him for the entire speech, and in the beginning you were able to see it because of camera angle. At the end, all you could see was Nixon's face. This being on film was very interesting for the world could see Nixon's resignation as it was. They showed the raw resignation film for the whole world to see, as the very first president to ever resign was doing so, and doing so for a very controversial reason.

Richard Nixon - "Checkers" Speech

In this clip we see Nixon trying to defend himself against the allegations that were made that he was a bad person. They are at medium shot length, and it was filmed in black and white. The lack of color makes it seem very vintage. Nixon is clearly reading off a speech for he keeps looking down to see what to say next. The fact that he does this makes it very hard to trust what he is saying. For, instead of just speaking he needs to read off a script. The camera stays at the same shot length the entire time, and this seems to be important. Instead of getting close up, they chose to stay far away. At this shot you can see Nixon's body movement, and he does a lot of it. He moves his hands much and often moves his entire body as he is talking. With the camera at medium shot point they can get this entire movement. The camera also does not move, as to focus on what Nixon is saying. If it was to move in close you would focus also on his face, to see what kind of emotion he has.

Nixon & Watergate

In this clip, Nixon is clearly angry. He is talking with much conviction and he is very passionate about what he is saying. This seems to be the first time Nixon is actually candid. In all his speeches he has something to read off of, and knows exactly what he is going to say. In the Frost Nixon interviews Frost was ultimately in control of what was going to happen. Nixon did now know what exactly Frost was going to ask, and had to prepare himself for the worst. In this clip we see Nixon trying to defend himself saying he was not trying to cover anything up. Later in the interview he states that if he wanted to cover it up he could have easily. This interview was very interesting, they should both the reactions of Nixon and Frost as Nixon was talking. Yet, when they should Frost they were at medium view, and with Nixon they were very close up. It was as if they wanted the American people to be able to judge for themselves if Nixon was telling the truth. In other parts of the interview he is much more relaxed, but when the issue of the cover up is brought up they get very close on Nixon, and he gets riled up.

Reality T.V articles

The first reality television article was very interesting. The fact that the reality t.v shows were grouped into categories was good. I've never seen groups such as these before. I have always thought of reality television as one big large group, not as small groups sectioned off.

It makes sense to group them like this, for there are different types of reality television. One of the most common is the competitive reality television shows where they are playing for some kind of reward at the end. This could consist of love, money, or fame. One of the most common examples of this would be fear factor. They have to do very disgusting things in order to acquire money in the end. Another type of reality television category is transformation. In this either people, or other things are transformed by the end of the television show. An example of this is extreme makeover home edition, where they make over an entire house in a week. Or, the biggest loser. This is transformer peoples bodies so they can become healthier.

Sherman's March

Sherman's March was another very interesting documentary. At first you think it is going to be all about the historic Sherman's March, but in the end it turns out to be much of Ross McElwee's journey. He starts out searching for love and stumbles upon a woman named Pat. Now the beginning seems to be all about Pat, and McElwee seems to make most of the beginning about her endeavors. He uses the camera at very interesting angels when he is filming Pat, and often keeps it directly on her. Pat then gets an audition and leaves McElwee and he seems to be starting his original idea, and going back to the actual Sherman's March. This documentary has many masculine conquests the biggest being his romantic conquest. In the beginning his mother tries to set him up with people and that is where he ultimately meets Pat. It seems he feels as if he is incomplete without a woman in his life. Another small conquest could be his car. When Pat is not around to film, he often goes and works on his car, although he does not film this. This would be one of his smaller conquests, and only a side job for when Pat is not present.

London

London was made by Patrick Keiller in 1992. This documentary was very interesting to say the least, and it was very confusing. It had voice of God narration, and was observational but you do not see the people they were referring to. The images often did not match the narration. For at one point they were talking about Romanticism and had a very long shot on McDonald's. He was talking about where he can always go to get things done and before had been talking about Romanticism. When you think about Romanticism McDonald's is the very last thing that would come to mind. He also used medium shots, and stayed on the subject for a very long period of time. Often the subject would change before the actual picture would. The documentary did not focus on the traditional tour sites of London, but instead focused on parts the two characters had been and had experienced very normal things.

This documentary was actually really weird. I did not really like it, and did not fully understand what the purpose was. It seemed to put a negative light on London, which is not usually the case when someone is doing a documentary on a place.

Ric Burns

Ric Burns was a very interesting presentation. It was nice to see a man who makes documentaries so laid back, and so willing to talk to all of us and make jokes. It was really interesting to hear him talk about the whole process, and why he was starting his next documentary. I did not quite understand at first what would compel someone to write a documentary on whale hunting. After he talked about it, it really started to make sense and I saw that it is actually a very interesting topic. The part of the documentary he showed us was actually really interesting. He had a lot of interviews with many people which made all the stories seem so much more believable. I liked that he focused on the one boat that never returned, and after watching I would have loved to watch the rest. He left you in suspense and led up to what would actually happen with the boat in the end. It was nice that he first described the significance of whale hunting and what it was used for in the older days. What I was thinking during the documentary is where did he get the footage of all the boats at sea? Was this old footage or did he actually go on location and shoot this?