Kossakovsky's 10 Rules for Documentary Filmmaking
Posted on Dec 15th, 2006
by 
ebbandflow
ebbandflow
[Image Source]
Here's a summary of Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky's 10 Rules that he follows for documentary filmmaking:
1.) Film only if you can't live without filming
2.) Film only when you want to show something
3.) Allow the film to change you while you discover the world
4.) Film something only if you hate and love it at the same time
5.) Film using your instinct and intuition, not your brain
6.) The best films capture the unrepeatable moments of life
7.) Include shots that provide new impressions that the viewers never had before
8.) Structure your story around the arc of changes in the viewers' feelings
9.) Ethics and esthetics are intertwined in documentaries so be human yet "not nice."
10.) Don't follow these rules. Find your own rules.
(via Re:Sources)
Wow! These could be applied to narrative films as well as to videoblogging. Go read his full version as he adds a lot of other things NOT to do as well.
These rules really resonate with me because I find that I've been following them as I've been making The Echo Chamber Project.
* I felt totally compelled to document the pre-war news media by recording over 800 hours of coverage.
* I wanted to show the world how the media was glibly treating the war as inevitable
* I allowed myself to be profoundly transformed through the journey of learning why the media does the things that it does
* I was infuriated by how the media performed leading up to the war, but yet I love the idea of intrepid journalism so much that I'm driven to help heal the underlying illness.
* I was using my instincts on who to interview and my intuition for which questions to ask
* The pre-war television news is unrepeatable for everyone who wasn't recording hundreds of hours of coverage
* Aggregating and recontextualizing the pre-war news coverage with interview analysis will hopefully provide a new perspective on it
* There is a balance between allowing the journalists to defend themselves and calling out their combination of laziness and ineffectiveness.
Okay, time to start putting these into action!
Here's a summary of Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky's 10 Rules that he follows for documentary filmmaking:
1.) Film only if you can't live without filming
2.) Film only when you want to show something
3.) Allow the film to change you while you discover the world
4.) Film something only if you hate and love it at the same time
5.) Film using your instinct and intuition, not your brain
6.) The best films capture the unrepeatable moments of life
7.) Include shots that provide new impressions that the viewers never had before
8.) Structure your story around the arc of changes in the viewers' feelings
9.) Ethics and esthetics are intertwined in documentaries so be human yet "not nice."
10.) Don't follow these rules. Find your own rules.
(via Re:Sources)
Wow! These could be applied to narrative films as well as to videoblogging. Go read his full version as he adds a lot of other things NOT to do as well.
These rules really resonate with me because I find that I've been following them as I've been making The Echo Chamber Project.
* I felt totally compelled to document the pre-war news media by recording over 800 hours of coverage.
* I wanted to show the world how the media was glibly treating the war as inevitable
* I allowed myself to be profoundly transformed through the journey of learning why the media does the things that it does
* I was infuriated by how the media performed leading up to the war, but yet I love the idea of intrepid journalism so much that I'm driven to help heal the underlying illness.
* I was using my instincts on who to interview and my intuition for which questions to ask
* The pre-war television news is unrepeatable for everyone who wasn't recording hundreds of hours of coverage
* Aggregating and recontextualizing the pre-war news coverage with interview analysis will hopefully provide a new perspective on it
* There is a balance between allowing the journalists to defend themselves and calling out their combination of laziness and ineffectiveness.
Okay, time to start putting these into action!
Access: Public
advice
January 2007
Fabulous! Thanks for the post :-)
Tom
That picture is funny. What is that a Bolex?
I used to have one of those that I could hand crank.