Balance of the perspective: Introduction of Background(What gives documentary a voice of their own)

Citation：

• Nichols, B. (2017). Introduction to documentary (Third ed.). Indiana University Press.

Annotation：

• In the third chapter of the book, "What gives documentary a voice of their own?", the author mentions three modes of voice in documentary: rhetorical voice, poetic voice, and narrative voice. Narrative voice is the mode of storytelling to express the content, which helps to engage the audience and is most often used in personal documentaries.
• Narrative Voice: Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. (Each story has specific characters)
• Beginning: presents issues, needs related to the character (not related to society, mainly related to the individual)
• Middle (adds complexity to the story): elaborates on issues and challenges (shows conflict, emphasises characterisation). Films are character-driven, show how the protagonist faces challenges - character-driven documentaries conflict often stems from other characters (family or friends)
• Ending: not necessarily a happy ending, but an ending that shows how the protagonist's attitude changes throughout the story.
• Narrative Voice documentaries tend to start with an individual and work outwards. This presents a problem. The subjectivity of the individual may detract from the objectivity of the documentary. The book mentions a way to increase objectivity with the presence of a larger context and multiple different perspectives (the presence of different people), although subjectivity itself can come with some passionate perspectives.
• As a filmmaker, it is important to go about clarifying the facts that are already there and introduce the audience to the larger context of the film. Give the audience the background and then go ahead and record the emotions of the protagonist. This way, even if it is a subjective perspective, it is a true reflection of the protagonist in the larger objective context so that the audience's judgement is not mislead.
• The voice of the documentary film is evidence of human participation in the social order and the views on the values that form the basis of the social order, which come together as the voice of the documentary film.
• 在本书的第三章“What gives documentary a voice of their own?"里作者提到了纪录片的三种声音模式：修辞之声，诗意之声，叙事之声。其中叙事之声是通过讲述故事的模式来表达内容，这种方式有助于吸引观众，用在个人纪录片最多。
• 叙事之声：故事都会有开头，中间和结尾。（每个故事都有特定的角色）
• 开头：呈现与角色相关的问题，需求（并非和社会有关，主要和个人有关）
• 中间（增加故事的复杂性）：详细阐述问题和挑战（展现冲突，强调人物性格）。电影是由角色驱动的，要展现主角如何面临挑战-以人物为导向的纪录片冲突往往源于其他人物（家庭或朋友）
• 结尾：不一定会有个快乐的结尾，但要有一个结局，展现主角的在整个故事中态度的改变。
• 叙事之声的纪录片往往都是由个人为起点并向外延伸。这就会出现一个问题。个人的主观性可能会影响纪录片的客观性。书中提到了一个方法，虽然主观性本身会伴随着一些充满激情的视角，但可以用大环境的存在和多个不同的视角（不同人的出现）来增加客观性。
• 作为电影制作者，一定要去澄清那些已经存在的事实，向观众介绍影片的大环境。给观众交待好背景，然后再去记录主角的情绪。这样就算是主观视角，也是在大的客观环境下主角的真实反映，这样不会误导观众的判断。
• 纪录片的声音证明了人对社会秩序的参与，以及对构成社会秩序基础价值观的看法，这些看法汇聚起来就是纪录片的声音。

• Film example: Su Friedrich’s The Ties That Bind (1984)
•  The film is about follows the director's relationship with German history mediated by her German-born mother.
• Su Friedrich combines herself with society in a way that often adds credibility to personal narratives, increases objectivity, and makes the social environment part of the objective perspective.
• 这部电影讲述了讲述了导演在德国出生的母亲介导下与德国历史的关系。
• Su Friedrich将自己和社会结合在了一起，这样的结合往往可以增加个人叙述的可信度，增加客观性，让社会大环境变成客观视角的一部分。

Test in my film:

• In last year's portfolio I introduced the audience to the big picture in the beginning with photos and a personal narrative (my father's departure is something that's always bothered me, and I wanted to find a chance to talk to him and find out the truth about how he left me back then). Some of my emotional breakdowns in the video afterwards were also caused by the larger context. Although there is more personal footage, I will edit my emotions in with my family's reactions. The viewer not only gets to see me (as a subjective point of view), but also my family's emotions (as a human-based objective point of view), and the viewer is also aware of the introduction of the backstory (making the background part of the objective point of view), which helps the viewer to understand some of my actions and balances the use of both the subjective and the objective points of view.
• 在去年的portfolio里我在开头用照片和个人叙述的方式向观众介绍了大环境（父亲的离开是我一直的困扰，我想找个机会和父亲聊聊，找到当年他离开我的真相）。之后的视频里我的一些情绪崩溃的时候也是因为大环境的影响导致的。虽然个人镜头比较多，但我会把我的情绪和我家人的反应剪辑在一起。观众不仅能看到我（作为主观视角），也能看到我家人的情绪（作为以人为主的客观视角），同时观众也知道背景故事的介绍（让背景成为客观视角的一部分），这可以帮助观众理解我的一些行为，也能平衡主观和客观视角的运用。