Dean Duncan, a professor at BYU, teaches three main purposes of documentaries:
- Give voice to the voiceless.
- Exalt the everyday.
- Transcendence through tribulation.
In our documentary analysis class we added 3 more. We call our list “Dean Duncan Doubled.”
- Entertain to earn.
- Preach a point.
- Broaden your brain.
There is a documentary called Lucy Tsak Tsak. It features a 2nd assistant camera named Lucy. The whole two minute movie shows her clapping a slate over and over again. The end of the film tells us that over her thirty year career she worked on over 56 feature films, 3 documentaries, two series, with 7200 slate claps for each film. That’s almost half a million claps, and over 382 hours of her on film. However, she never appeared in a movie until this doc.
Honestly, you could ask if this even counts as a documentary. There could be opinions either way. However, assuming that it is a documentary, is it valuable? Does it serve a purpose, specifically one or more of our six purposes?
Everyone watches movies. They are an integral part of our culture. Most people don’t really understand all of the effort that goes into making those movies. They never think about all of the people involved; they probably don’t even know what an AC does. Lucy Tsak Tsak sheds light on the work of a woman who spent her entire career adding to a body of work we all watch, and her contribution is really marginalized by most people.
I think that this film definitely gives voice to the voiceless. It draws attention to something often overlooked and ignored.
On a film set, there are few things that are more ordinary than clapping the slate. It happens before every single take of every single scene in the film. So even though most people don’t see a slate clapping in their regular lives, for filmmakers there’s nothing more mundane. I think that this documentary beautifully glorifies the task; it absolutely delights in slate clapping. After seeing this film, one may be more inclined to notice and appreciate the work of a 2nd AC, so I think it totally exalts the everyday.
Lucy Tsak Tsak may broaden some people’s brains. You may find yourself thinking about the diligent work of the 2nd AC and other members of the crew every time you watch a film. You may think about filmmaking, or career paths in a new way, which I believe is expanding your mind.
I don’t think that this film really fulfills the other three purposes. It doesn’t depict someone overcoming any sort of struggle, so there’s no transcendence through tribulation. It didn’t really make much money, and some people probably think it’s boring, so I don’t think it entertains to earn. It also isn’t trying to educate or persuade you about anything, so it doesn’t preach a point.
I don’t think a documentary has to fulfill every one of our purposes to be considered important. Lucy Tsak Tsak fulfills half of the functions we listed, which is pretty good. The one that makes it most worthwhile, in my opinion, is probably exalting the everyday. Maybe clapping the slate seems like the most boring part of making a movie, and something only done for function. However a collection of slate claps all edited together really becomes art. It is beautiful, maybe even profound, and definitely valuable.
No comments:
Post a Comment