Night and Fog and JFK Documentary

The film Night and Fog, directed by Resnais, was an interesting and intense documentary that really captivated and drew the audience’s attention.  The use of real and raw footage from the deserted concentration camps really made the documentary. The documentary is haunting, but it is also a beautiful portrayal of the Holocaust. The use of black and white images in the flashback of the concentration camps during the Holocaust and the colored images of the deserted concentration camps really draw the audience’s attention and have an impact of the destruction that the Holocaust had caused. In addition to this, the use of both black and white imaging and colored imaging made the documentary more intriguing and captivating. The images used in the documentary were very powerful, and the sequence of the images was very impactful as well. The sequence of the images was powerful in its self that the narration, it can be argued, was in a sense not needed. The narration of the documentary did not hurt the documentary, but it did not help make the documentary more impactful or powerful. The narration of the documentary was just simply a description of what the images were showing the audience or quotes from the Nazis.

The documentary film about JFK is very different in the use of editing and filming than the Night and Fog documentary. The JFK documentary was more like a theatrical movie or film than real life footage. The footage still captured the real life events and did an amazing job in doing so. The audience viewed it as if it were filmed and screened right after the events. If this documentary were all real or raw footage it would not have been the same or had the same impact, arguably. The way the film was sequenced and portrayed helped in the understanding of the film and played a big role in it. This was the same for the Night and Fog documentary; the sequence of the pictures enhanced and made the documentary powerful.

Sequence and music score has a lot to do with the films and/ or documentaries as well. The score for the Night and Fog documentary for example was rather upbeat at times and not sad or somber, like the viewer would think. It contradicted the images that were displayed. If the music was sad and somber it might not have had the same effect or given the viewer the same feeling after watching it. The music score plays a part of the inner turmoil that the viewer feels while watching the documentary because it contradicts at the end of the documentary the viewer is left with feud of seeing horrible images and rather upbeat music at times.

Night and Fog

The documentary Night and Fog is an extremely powerful and emotionally moving film that depicts the hellish horrors and terrors took place inside concentration camps during the Holocaust.  The films images are what really create the sense of dread and pure sadness in the film. The films images by far over power the soundtrack of the film.  The soundtrack to me seemed very contradictory. The music seemed out of place with the images that were being displayed on the screen.  It seemed as if the music belonged in scenes where positive actions are being enacted.  Since the music was out of place, it almost gave a creepy feel towards the film as well.
       There were multiple times throughout the documentary that the disturbing images almost compelled me to look away.  I think the most disturbing image was the forklift piling up the bodies and dumping them into a ditch as if they were garbage.  It is horrifying that people were able to complete such tasks without any empathy whatsoever.  There were multiple times where the images displayed on the screen made me overwhelmed with disgust and confusion.  I was having a hard time grasping onto the fact that these things actually happened, and that's why this film was so powerful.  The film acts a reminder of the tremendous amount of power a film can have on a audience.
       An aspect of the film I found interesting was the use of color and black and white.  The color was used during scenes from present day as the camera showed the concentration camps during the time the film was made.  The black and white is then used for scenes showing the acts that happened during the Holocaust.  This color usage has multiple effects, including that it helps distinguish past from present. When the film would change back to color, it almost gave me a sense of relief.  The horrors being displayed during the Holocaust were so powerful at times, that the switch to color served as a reminder that these things were in the past.  But, although the scenes brought relief, it also, in my opinion, carried another reminder that although the crimes are in the past, they are NOT forgotten.  The abandoned concentration camps served as a basis to remember those who were brutally murdered there and that there deaths will never be forgotten.
       This was one of the most powerful films I have ever seen.  It's one of those films that has the ability to stick with you days after viewing.  It definitely did so for me.

Night and Fog Documentary

The Night and Fog documentary is a very powerful documentary on the Holocaust. It shows, by choice of image, the terrible things that have happened to the people in the Holocaust. The narrator describes to the audience what is being shown in each scene and image, but it isn't really needed in this film because of how powerful the images truly are to the viewer.  Image is an extremely powerful medium. The images shown in the Night and Fog documentary were a very powerful and moving section of the film. The images were more shocking and more intense than the audio track itself. The fact that the documentary showed images in black and white, and then in color and then back in black and white showed that although it happened in the past, it can very well happen again; there is beauty in everything even horrors such as the Holocaust.  From most of the other documentaries I've seen (mostly health food documentaries) the main story is told by the audio track and spoken instead of this, which is shown. The soundtrack of the documentary adds some creepy moments in the film. A beautiful landscape in this documentary isn't what it seems. It has history, death and sadness woven through it’s past. I wonder if the documentary didn't have any sound at all, just how much more powerful the images would become because then the viewer has to really think of what they are seeing, paying attention to all of the fine details etc. Although in certain parts of the documentary, the sound doesn't technically sound like it should be associated with the images shown. For example, there are many parts where the soundtrack seems too “upbeat” for what is actually being shown on the screen itself. Overall, the Night and Fog documentary was a very powerful film that only really needed image to send its message across.

Linearity

Linearity

       In a short scene of the movie M, directed by Fritz Lang, the editor demonstrates the parallel in time by using linearity and skillful juxtaposition. At first the editor establishes that it was the same time in both scenes. Several police officers were having a meeting to find a way to capture a murderer. At the same time a mafia and his crew had a meeting to catch the same murderer the police is looking for. With the manipulation of time, the editor skillfully juxtaposes between both scenes to capture the sense of similarity within both scenes. With this intercutting technique the editor was able to simultaneously capture the main points in each scene without seeming to lose time.

      In the movie JFK there was also a strong sense of linearity. In the round table discussion scene the editor uses an intercutting technique to demonstrate several types of time period scenario. Throughout the discussion the editor cuts to a flashbacks that expresses the pass. At the same time the editor momentarily cuts to the present action of the round table discussion. There were also cuts that seem to be the present time, but a different scene where someone is putting together a photograph. This rapidly intense form of juxtaposition allows the audience to know what took place in the past and and what is takes place in the present at the same time. this process as one may see, represents the recollection process in someones mind. I felt like these cuts were rapidly place intentionally so that the viewer may not lose time and action.

       In both movie scenes the manipulation of time was critical. As the editor it is your responsibility to keep the audience engage and on track of the action. Both scenes I believe surely demonstrates how important linearity is to filmmaking. This doesn’t only shows parallel times but also flashbacks, present alternate scenes and future actions. All of which is accomplished without losing the storyline of each scene.

Dananagelowe

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 Also check out my Zero to Hero cut
http://youtu.be/75PjbFiM0ag

Night and Fog

                Alan Resnais’ documentary Night and Fog is a hauntingly beautiful portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust.  Unlike most documentaries, the image track is much stronger than its soundtrack.  The juxtaposition of the modern day color footage and the black and white stock footage of the concentration camps are powerful and show the destruction of the remnants of such an unimaginably horrible place.  In the majority of documentaries the story is told rather than shown but for Night and Fog, this is not the case.  What the narrator is saying throughout the film is somewhat insignificant in the grand scheme of the film.  He is merely describing to the audience what we are seeing or what the Nazis for example are talking about.  Nothing more is really added with the narration and the film arguably would be just as powerful, if not possibly more, without it.  The film’s score on the other hand has a completely different meaning and purpose to it.  The score seems to contradict the images the film shows and are at times completely ironic.  For example, instead of a somber soundtrack playing over the images of the dead concentration camp victims the film has an upbeat, lighthearted, and arguably at times somewhat happy soundtrack.  It is in complete contradiction of the viewer’s own uneasy, and gloomy feelings while watching the film and the purpose of the film score is probably to provide this complete inner turmoil.  The viewer witnesses somber and completely horrible images but is listening to a soundtrack that gives you a completely opposite feeling and you are left with a feud of your senses.

                While Night and Fog may not be the norm for film documentaries, the way it was edited makes it a complete work of art.  Between the juxtaposition of the color modern day footage and the black and white stock footage, to the film’s happily eerie soundtrack, the documentary becomes nothing less than completely memorable.  Among the film’s powerful images, what Night and Fog leaves the viewer with is the most significant.  In the end when not one perpetrator of the horrible actions of the Holocaust claims responsibility it leaves the viewer with the thought that what happened here can never happen again.  For those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBrChiLtEyc

Hey guys.  This is my pitch for the final project.  It's a scene from Martin Scorsese's movie Shutter Island.  I want to start my scene from 1:50 into the video. Thanks.

Resnais' Night and Fog

I think, Night and Fog, perhaps unintentionally (perhaps not), captures, ultimately, the problem of historicizing; this is, subjectivity, perspectivism—but, furthermore, in extraordinary circumstances (the Holocaust being one of, if not the most glaring), the signifiers of language cannot accurately represent socio-historical moments the way in which film can. And, at times, it seems Resnais does consciously address this notion: at the 26:41 mark, the narrator explains that “words are insufficient.” His remark precedes six archival photographs, close-ups of severed heads among them, before the dialogue returns: “from the bodies they make soap.” Around the 27:00 mark, the narrator leaves his sentence altogether incomplete: “as for the skin…” is completed (and, perhaps, can only be completed) the way it is: panning across drawings upon dried-skin papers.

            The film’s release coincides with idealized post-war politics of progress—Germany is prospering upon the illusion of temporal dichotomy, that the past has been closed off and archived; and it has been archived—but Night and Fog subverts the notion that this archival footage signifies closure—the binary bleeds. There are moments in the film, moments of uncertainty, where the past/present, black and white/color dichotomy is broken down, or at the very lease, blurred. At the 7:55 mark, Resnais presents us with what appears to be his own footage, completely absent of the color which would signify it as such. With this, as viewers, we’re placed “in one of those night scenes so dear to a Nazi’s heart.” At this same moment, an apparent change in the soundtrack occurs; so, while the image perhaps subverts this temporal dichotomy, the soundtrack begins to reinforce it. Here, the change in soundtrack is prompted (relatively speaking) by an edit-point. As the film progresses, however, this isn’t always the case. More often than not, the music begins to change within shots, and continues into the next edit (sonically blending the archival footage with Resnais’ own).