The Progression of Mock-Documentary Film Through Digital
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THE PROGRESSION OF MOCK-DOCUMENTARY FILM THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS BY WALTER BENDER DR. ROBERT BROOKEY – ADVISOR BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA December 2016 ABSTRACT THESIS: The Progression of Mock-documentary Film through Digital Media STUDENT: Walter Bender DEGREE: Master of Arts COLLEGE: Telecommunications DATE: December 2016 PAGES: 116 This study is presented as a critical analysis to discuss how mock-documentary film is changing and understood through digital media. The author believes that digital technology has altered the way these films are made and how audiences view them. The author illustrates this by looking at the development and theories surrounding the style as well as its employment of the DVD format with satirical comedies and new media with horror films. The analysis points out that DVDS and the internet allow for the creation of a variety of secondary text which may or may not preserve the artifice of the mock-documentary. Through the style along with secondary text, digital media has allowed these movies to further the narrative, discuss the style’s construction as well as shape the promotion of these films. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Review of the Literature ......................................................................................................3 Origins of Non-fiction Film .....................................................................................3 Rise of the Narrative Film and Representational Cinema .......................................5 War of the Worlds and the Replication of Radio Conventions ................................7 The Travelogue ........................................................................................................7 Land Without Bread & Man with a Movie Camera ...............................................10 Newsreels and Television News ............................................................................12 News Aesthetics Replicated in Film ......................................................................14 Reflexive and Performative Documentary.............................................................17 Different Forms of Mock-documentary ................................................................18 Modern Marketing and Promotion for Theatrical Mock-documentary Releases .21 Theory ................................................................................................................................22 The Degrees of Mock-Documentary .....................................................................24 Nichols on Irony ...................................................................................................27 Critical Review ..................................................................................................................29 2 Mock-documentary and DVDs ..........................................................................................32 Introduction ............................................................................................................32 The DVD Format ...................................................................................................32 This is Spinal Tap...............................................................................................................36 Different Versions of the Spinal Tap DVD ...........................................................38 Cheese Rolling Preview .........................................................................................39 Marty Di Bergi Update ..........................................................................................40 The Band & Documentary Ethics ..........................................................................41 Christopher Guest ..............................................................................................................43 Waiting for Guffman ..............................................................................................40 The Expectation for the Observer ..............................................................45 Emotional Perceptions ..............................................................................46 Additional Scenes ......................................................................................47 Best in Show ..........................................................................................................48 Deleted Scenes ..........................................................................................49 Guest’s Mock-documentary Construction ................................................51 Essence of the Subject ..............................................................................52 A Mighty Wind ......................................................................................................53 The Framework of Nostalgia & Building “History” .................................55 Furthering the Narrative .............................................................................56 Hidden Behind-the-Scenes Feature ...........................................................57 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................58 3 Mock-documentary and the Internet ..................................................................................62 Introduction ............................................................................................................62 The Blair Witch Project: An Online Pioneer .....................................................................64 Online Encounters with Mock-documentary: Cloverfield .................................................69 Quarantine .............................................................................................................75 The Paranormal Activity Approach ...................................................................................80 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................90 4 Mock-documentary and Digital Media Conclusion ..........................................................94 Final Thoughts ...................................................................................................................97 Continuity ..............................................................................................................97 Mock-documentary Framework...........................................................................100 Essence of Characters and Situations ..................................................................103 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................105 References 111 1 Introduction Throughout the 21st century, the mock-documentary style has gained a lot of notoriety and publicity. Essentially, mock-documentaries are fictional texts that emulate documentary codes and standards. Along with the upsurge in the style’s use, the century brought new mainstream ways of consuming media via digital technology. The purpose of this study is to examine how mock-documentary movies are changing and understood through digital media. To further understand the style, it is important to know the elements of a documentary. Film critic, Bill Nichols, describes documentary film not as copy of reality, but rather a “representation” of the world we inhabit (1994. p. 20). Documentary has the power to characterize a point of view of the world that the audience may or may not have encountered before, even if some features are familiar to them (Nichols, 1994. p. 20). Visually, documentary can apply these representations in the form of movies, television programs, or video reporting. In order to make the piece cohesive for the audience, documentaries often employ voice-overs, interviews, vérité footage, graphics, or re-enactments. Similarly, mock-documentary fits into multiple mediums borrowing documentary elements to form/ further develop a fictional narrative. The style also incorporates many genres or categories, such as comedy, horror, action, etc. With variations of mock-documentary filmmaking, texts can look incredibly different from one another. The style has been labeled with several names such as faux documentary, mockumentary, and pseudo-documentary. Often, the various terms are associated with a certain genre. Mockumentary, for example, is usually grouped with comedies. In Jane Roscoe’s and Craig Hight’s book, Faking It, they settled on the term mock-documentary to label the style. The first reason they selected the term was because it indicated imitating a pre-existing form that the audience recognized. The second reason was the word mock indicates a satiric agenda of the 2 documentary genre on some level (Roscoe & Hight, 2001, p. 1). They note, whether intentional or not, an agenda is unavoidably formed in these narratives. By using mock-documentary, I can broadly cover more information on the topic with little confusion. For the study, I will use a critical approach to examine mock-documentary movies. To understand the style’s relationship with digital technology I will look at the development and theories surrounding mock-documentary as well