A 20 mark essay answering the question: "Digital technologies have expanded our sense of what a documentary is. How far is this true in relation to your chosen film?"
My chosen film is Amy (Kapadia, 2015).
This essay was graded at 17/20, which is the equivalent of an A. I have also included f...
“Digital technologies have expanded our sense of what a documentary can be.” How far is this
true in relation to your chosen film? [20 marks]
The advancement in technology over the years has led to a shift from analogue filmmaking, where
film had to be cut and stuck back together to edit a film, to digital filmmaking, where the footage is
recorded as a digital file rather than physical film. In Amy, Kapadia utilises these advancements in
technology to his benefit, in order to tell a coherent narrative made up of other people’s footage.
One way digital technology has affected Amy is through the use of convergence, which is where
different types of media come together. Almost all of the footage in Amy is either found or archive
footage, whether it be a home video camera (such as the scene where Blake records Amy in their
house and reveals he is the one who did drugs first) or footage recorded for Mitch Winehouse’s
documentary in St Lucia. This also leads onto the idea of ‘global village’, which is where everyone on
the internet is connected and can communicate with one another. This allowed Kapadia to find
footage of Amy from a variety of different sources, such as the concert footage of Amy performing
while drunk which was filmed on a crowd member’s phone. Both of these ideas have changed the
way documentaries are made because it gives the director more source material from a variety of
people and places to work with, and therefore allows them greater freedom with their editing.
Another way digital technology has affected our sense of what a documentary is is through the
change from ‘push media’ to ‘we media’. Before the advancements in technology, media companies
had almost complete control over what their spectators watched because they didn’t have any
alternatives. Now, however, spectators have a greater freedom of options to pick from and
therefore the power is all theirs. This, combined with Web 2.0 where the internet became more
interactive and ordinary people started to post their own content, led to a rise in citizen journalists
who could post their own news. An example of this could be the footage of Amy’s body being taken
out of her house, or the photos of the paparazzi taking photos of her. This kind of footage allows a
different perspective to be put across, therefore challenging the hegemony, which is society’s
dominant ideology. Amy challenges the popular media view of her as a drunk and a druggie, and
instead portrayed her as the victim.
17/20
Explain how it affects the definition of a documentary
Audience have better media literacy because they make their own media
Amy uses footage from multiple different sources/POVs
Use more film techniques (i.e. specific shots) when using examples.
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