Assignment: 3 Cinema Verite!

By Gledis Dedaj

Definition of cinema verite!

Cinema Verite is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of

editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects.

It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.

Cinéma vérité can involve stylized set-ups and the interaction between the filmmaker and the subject, even to the point of provocation.

Some argue that the obvious presence of the filmmaker and camera was seen by most cinéma vérité filmmakers as the best way to reveal the

truth in cinema.

History of cinema verite

• Cinema Verite was important for documentaries because it was blissfully unscripted.

• It relied purely on the truth (or what was perceived as the truth) to carry the film.

• It used a small budget, and films such as 'Don't Look Back' 'Salesman' and 'Chronicle of a Summer' were perceived as some of it's greatest achievements.

• It's style has influenced modern films like 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Spellbound'.

• Both involve a distinct lack of script.

• 'The Blair Witch Project' follows more of the conventions of Cinema Verite's American counterpart Direct Cinema, in that it deliberately nudges the action along, but both have the handheld camera feel, and both follow people through various situations.

• Cinema Verite has affected documentaries hugely.

• The lack of script, handheld cameras, interviews without questions and absence of voiceovers are all conventions of Cinema Verite, and all are featured in modern documentaries today.

How has cinema verite changed over the years?

• In the 1960’s production techniques did not depend on star quality actors, sets, props, casts of thousands, special effects and big budgets which was the trend in Hollywood films then as now.

• The cinema verite directors used non-actors, small hand- held cameras, and actual homes and surroundings as their location for a film.

• One of their production techniques was to tape record actual conversations, interviews and statements of opinion make by real people.

• Then they would find pictures to illustrate the actual sound recordings.

• The final production was put together in the editing room (which is also true of fiction/fantasy films).

• Cinema verite was characterized by the use of real people (not actors) in unrehearsed situations.

• Nowadays however it has evolved into T.V. programmes.

How has it mixed with other genres

• Many directors have applied Cinema Verite to their films thus mixing it with certain genres.

• This is done in order to allow the audience to forget that what they are watching has been scripted and feel as though what they see is real.

• Thus making movies more naturalistic.

• This is usually don’t through hand-held camera style filming and is normally exemplified in horror, thriller or action films.

The Blair Which Project Cloverfield Grave Encounters

‘Cloverfield’

• The film was shot and edited in a cinéma vérité style, to look like it was filmed with one hand-held camera, including jump cuts similar to ones found in home movies. 

• T.J. Miller, who plays ‘Hud’, has said in various interviews that he filmed a third of the movie and almost half of it made it into the film. 

• Director Matt Reeves described the presentation, "We wanted this to be as if someone found a Handicam, took

out the tape and put it in the player to watch it. What you're watching is a home movie that then turns into something else."

The whole film was shot from the characters own camera.

‘An American Family’

• HBO's fictionalized docudrama airing Saturday night about the making of "An American Family," loosely considered TV's first reality show.

• Filmed in 1971, "An American Family" followed the Loud family of Santa Barbara in their day-to-day activities for 12 episodes, which aired two years later on PBS.

• At the time, TV viewers accepted everything they saw in "Family" as "real" - from the most mundane details of the family's day

The show was shot in a documentary style thus making it seem as real

as possible.

‘The Blair Which project’

• A film that is made up of a collection of amateur footage.

• Set up as faux documentary within a documentary, the film's opening pronouncement establishes that what the audience is about to see is original footage shot by three filmmakers who disappeared in 1994.

• Not only is the movie filmed in a documentary-style but the very plot consists of the characters actually filming their own documentary.

• Thus the film is edited and filmed in such a way that it seems very realistic.