Resisting the Realism Complex : Challenging the Aesthetic and Technical Range of Digital Production in Taiwanese Documentary Filmmaking Ching-Hua Liao Kao Yuan Institute of Technology, Department of Information Communication Candidate of Professional Doctorate in Design of Swinburne University of Technology Taiwan jack12178@yahoo.com.tw Abstract: Digital production techniques allow filmmakers to combine traditional filmmaking with diverse non-traditional approaches, offering the potential for more effective and creative communication. In Taiwan, the use of digital effects in documentary is regarded as contrary to the spirit of the field. The general concept of documentary privileges unmediated approaches. Taiwan produces many documentaries but there is almost no discussion of the aesthetic or theoretical aspects of the medium outside the requirement that they represent the truth. This design research will explore the creative capacities of digital processes in the context of Taiwanese documentaries, challenging their conventionally expository or observational mode. This article will explore the creative potential of the medium. Key words: documentary, aesthetic, digital effects, Taiwan 1
1. The problem of the real The field of documentary has a specific set of values that govern the way footage is captured and treated. A pioneer of British documentary, John Grierson, defined documentary as having two characteristics. One is the recording of the image and sound of actual event; the other is the creative treatment of actuality. [1] Since 1970, the field of documentary has been renamed non-fiction film. The change stresses that what is presented somehow true, creating a binary opposition with narrative cinema. Non-fiction film is characterized by a set of rules and conventions designed to ensure the truth value of the content. There is, for example, an implied understanding between the director and audience that all images record actual events in the most direct way. Accordingly, the raw aesthetics of documentary style signify the honesty of the documentary process. It is nonetheless possible to argue that these conventions have ossified into a documentary style that is more about the look of reality than representational accuracy. There is a long history of challenges to the objectivity of documentary film production that question whether non-fiction films record reality or simply the perspective of the filmmaker. The same event, filmed by a range of different filmmakers, would reveal different treatments and potentially different meanings no matter how many the individual filmmakers were dedicated to showing events in their actuality. The same person might even produce a different treatment of events on different occasions. Protecting the accuracy of non-fiction material is important. However, insisting on a limited aesthetic restricts the potential of the field to effectively communicate information and ideas. These issues are most critical for specific types of documentary. Film scholar Ming-Dao Lee argues that, Documentation and documentary are different words. When we record an affair, it will produce documentation, but will it become a documentary? I doubt it! Documentary is a creative work. [2] Media scholar Bill Nichols divides the field of documentary into six types. [3] These are the observational mode, the expository mode, the poetic mode, the participatory mode, the reflexive mode and the performative mode. Nichols argues that in the observational mode, filmmakers record what happens in front of the camera without overt intervention. [4] In all other modes, however, the intervention of the filmmaker in the subject matter is clear. For Nichols, the expository mode uses titles and narration to represent the subject matter. This mode seeks to persuade the viewer to see the subject of the film from the ideological perspective of the filmmaker. [5] Nichols contends that the poetic mode is a branch of documentary influenced by the filmmaking of the modernist avant-garde. It sacrifices the conventions of continuity editing and the sense of a specific location in time and place that follows from it, to explore ideas through temporal rhythms and spatial juxtapositions. [6] Nichols argues that in the participatory mode, the documentary filmmaker goes into the field to take part in the lives of others to represent what they experience. [7] According to Nichols, the participatory mode provides the meeting place for processes of exchange between filmmaker and subject. By contrast, he argues that the reflexive mode provides the meeting place for processes of exchange between filmmaker and viewers. The reflexive mode addresses the issues implicit in a subject. [8] For Nichols, the performative mode captures the personal experience of the filmmaker as in the tradition of literature or narrative cinema, except that the content is based on actual experiences. [9] In Taiwan, production outcomes from all these six modes of documentary exist. Before martial law ended in 1987, however, most documentaries belonged to the expository mode. As I will later explain, observational 2
documentaries have dominated since 1987. There is a marked preference for them among Taiwanese filmmakers and they have also gained government support. As the digital video camera has become an increasingly popular means of recoding everyday life, the Taiwanese Council for Cultural Affairs has proclaimed, Everybody Make Documentary! [10] Providing an outlet for Taiwanese documentary, the Taiwanese public broadcasting channel, Public Television Foundation, presents the program Point of View, a weekly screening of documentaries made by both professional and amateur filmmakers. The majority of documentaries are of the observational mode. Other modes of documentary have begun to appear in recent years in Taiwan but filmmakers are reticent to try different approaches to the observational mode. In Taiwan, there are only few documentary directors using digital effects to create new approaches to documentary. The director Wen-Zhen Zeng is one of these filmmakers, arguing in a 2001 interview that, I design an animation and a modern drama in my documentary Story of Jin-Yu Xu to present the truth of the story. [11] 2. The argument between Reality and Representation All documentaries include three different characters : recorders, people who are recorded and viewers. Recorders have different backgrounds, education levels, life experiences and values so they naturally have different feelings and understandings of the same situation. It is very difficult to ask recorders are objective and fair in their films. It is also difficult to ask the people who are recorded to pretend the film workers for example video cameramen and director do not exist during the filming. It is expected that these film workers will not bother the people who are recorded, just as flies on the wall don t bother us. The Argument between reality and representation has become an important issue since viewers are encouraged by postmodernism to express their own opinions bravely and think these opinions are correct. But most of the Taiwanese documentaries are influenced by so-called realism complex. They ignore the basic difference that I mention above. Realism complex stems from a particular event in the history of Taiwanese film. The Taiwanese media scholar Fei-I Lu divides the history of Taiwan documentary since 1945 into four periods. [12] These are the movie newsreel period (1945 1970), the television news and report period (1970 1984), the television and independent documentary filmmaking period (1984 1995), and the era of individual and academy documentary filmmaking (1995 ). One of the few examples of independent filmmaking of the period is the important 1966 documentary Liu Bi-Jia by Yao-Chi Chen. In 1965, 1700 retired soldiers from Mainland China moved to Taiwan s east coast to reclaim 770 acres of land. Liu Bi-Jia is the story one of these men. [13] It was the first example of a Taiwanese observational documentary, and many film scholars treat it as the first true Taiwanese documentary. [14] Also notable was the fact that the subject was an ordinary person, a retired soldier and a farmer. During the movie newsreel period, documentaries consistently represented the government as good while showing the people of Taiwan as faithfully obeying the rule of government. Almost all documentaries were contrived industrial and information films celebrating the economic development of Taiwan, especially through their propagandistic narration, articulated in perfect Chinese by professional narrators. It is evident from the outline above that over a period of forty years Taiwanese documentary filmmaking has gradually shifted from the sphere of government to independent and commercial filmmakers. Over the same 3
period the quality and quantity of Taiwanese documentary filmmaking has grown. Yet, this does not explain why there is such strong resistance to digital manipulation in the field. According to the Taiwanese media scholar Dao-Ming Lee, the realism complex is at the basis of this resistance. [15] The realism complex privileges the observational mode and rejects overt manipulation of the visual image and the nature of events. The rise of the realism complex can be traced to the 22 nd Golden Horse Film Award in 1985, the most prestigious film prize in Taiwan. In that year, the judges announced there would be no winner in the documentary section. All the nominees for the 1985 award belonged were either industrial or information films. According to Dao-Ming Lee, who was a jury member for the award, the panel rejected the exploitation of documentary by the military and the KMT, insisting that documentary should obey the truth, not function as a propaganda tool. [16] During the period of martial law this was a very brave act. In the ensuing debate a number of film commentators supported the jury position. The influential film critic Jian-Ye Huang also added criticism of the films presented for the 1985 award on the basis of their quality as films, arguing they lacked a personal viewpoint and had tedious voice-overs. [17] Huang also argued that the music poorly matched the film content. [18] For Huang these films denied the spirit of documentary. He consigned them to the status of promotional films, lacking in truth and creativity. [19] Dao-Ming Lee has argued that due to the trouble around the 1985 Golden Horse Film Award the importance of representing the truth became the new aim of Taiwanese documentary. [20] From 1985-1988, actuality documentaries progressively increased, being epitomised by the observational film of Yi-Feng Wu and the filmmakers around his Fullshot Communication Foundation. Wu has been the leading exponent of the observational style since this time, his films being very popular, highly praised and widely influenced. Some of the stagnation in the field of Taiwanese documentary can be attributed to the influence of Wu, especially through his work as a film educator. Apart from working at the Fullshot Communication Foundation, Wu also taught in the Graduate Institute of Sound and Image Studies in Documentary of Tainan National University of the Arts. In these two positions, Wu trained a significant group of professional documentary filmmakers. [21] Yi-Feng Wu has significantly contributed to the rise of Taiwanese documentary but his style of documentary has also limited its development. [22] The documentary director Ju-Zhen Xio has argued that: I have watched many foreign documentaries in recent years. I find that although the number of Taiwanese documentaries has increased, there is no discussion about aesthetics. I have even heard some experts define documentary in ridiculous ways. For example, when I made the documentary Hongye Little League Baseball, someone even queried why I asked a professional musician to dub in background music in my film. I am always being queried about my work some even question that my style of documentary is too gorgeous! But I wonder why the documentaries of other countries can be more gorgeous than mine? The creative latitude in Taiwan is actually small. I feel very upset about that. [23] As Xio suggests, Taiwanese documentary has been constrained by its limited philosophy and aesthetic. Works that obey the nature of documentary in engaging actuality but which use the film medium creatively should be encouraged, especially the possibilities for enhancing meaning and impact through the application of 4
new media. 3. The role of digital processes in production and consumption Defining the limits of digital production is a complex issue given the ability to transfer other media into a digital format. In the narrowest sense of the term, digital production is visual material captured by a digital camera and edited by digital means. However, in the post-production phase there is also an ever-increasing range of software that can be used to treat the visual material for any number of reasons. The application of new visual effects software to mainstream commercial cinema releases has escalated in the past 20 years, driven by the ongoing quest to attract audiences and increase profits. Films with state of the art digital effects are extremely expensive to produce but the commercial film industry is prepared to accept this impost because the returns can be very high. In the production of documentary film, digital equipment is cheaper, lighter and easier to use than traditional film equipment. It can also converge effectively with other kinds of media, especially the computer. In the consumption of film, digital video has the following merits. It can be accessed in a range of convenient, affordable formats. DVD-Video also supports menus that allow filmmakers to incorporate multiple information layers and modes of viewing. Digital video is a medium highly suitable for media convergence, allowing filmmakers to more broadly communicate their material. The use of digital processes has transformed film production, giving filmmakers access to a far wider range of technical and creative effects. In the field of documentary, digital cameras have made the cost and process of production and post-production far more accessible. In Taiwan resistance to the use of digital processes in the post-production phase is entrenched even though digital processes and effects offer documentary filmmakers the possibility to extend the meaning and impact of their work, and to amplify the range and sources of information through interactivity and media convergence. In the main, however, digital technology is used predominantly as a cheap and convenient way to record audio visual material. The contemporary dissemination and consumption of film increasingly happens through digital processes. No matter how a film is made, ultimately it will be translated into a digital format to be transmitted through broadcast technology or made available for public sale. The majority of Taiwanese documentary filmmakers use digital cameras to make their films, make their opposition to digital effects somewhat anomalous. The predominance of digital processes in the dissemination and consumption of film also makes the basic definition and understanding of what is digital video production difficult. 4. Case study There have been two excellent, famous and popular documentaries in Taiwan. One is Viva Tonal the other is Gift of Life. These two successful documentaries have awoken the attention of audiences to Taiwanese documentaries. Viva Tonal recalls Taiwanese popular music of the 1930s and reproduces a beautiful, bright and free time. It proves that the impression held by Taiwanese people, that the time of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan was a poor and difficult one, in all ways, is wrong. Gift of Life is a film in which Director Yi-Feng Wu records the results of 9/21, Taiwan s largest earthquake, after 4 years long term observation, the not only records 5
the result of the disaster and the process of rebuilding but more importantly also reveals his self-examination and his respect for life. It is a very moving documentary. Both of these two important documentaries respect realism. The beginning of Viva Tonal shows a very old blurred film from the 1930s. The director uses the expository mode to describe the people and their lifestyle in the 1930s, in order to express his opinion that people in that time were interested in music. Gift of Life is a kind of participatory mode documentary not avoiding the conversation and interaction between the recorder and people who were recorded. The recorder and recorded people appear in the film but the recorder not only observes but also participates in the film. The recorder wants to be an honest witness. However, these two films still represent the conventional form of documentary. I believe it is necessary to break the realism complex of documentary filmmaking to provide more diverse styles of creation in the future. In particular, reluctance to use digital manipulation is a big issue for Taiwanese documentary. I intend to make a documentary which focuses on a contemporary Taiwanese calligrapher. This film will try to use digital manipulation to subvert the conventional Taiwanese documentary style and establish a new aesthetics for Taiwanese documentaries. The film will only be ten minutes long. Unlike conventional Taiwanese documentaries, the opening sequence will be a silent night; gradually strong thunder and lightning come in, then some calligraphy appears: contemporary Japanese calligraphy, contemporary Korean calligraphy, contemporary Chinese calligraphy and contemporary Taiwanese calligraphy. These images are meant to show that eastern traditional cultures are modernized and affected by western culture. And then rain appears on the screen forming Chinese calligraphy. The background is black and the rain is white and forms the film s title: A New Spirit in Taiwanese Calligraphy. In the film, chanting will be used instead of voice overs and interviews. Colour will be used to express this calligrapher s mood and important events in the development of his calligraphy. For example, when I describe the strokes that the calligrapher suffered, I use red spraying on screen and write (escape from death in a great catastrophe); four Chinese characters in black calligraphy, on a picture of he confined to his bed. I will use different styles of calligraphy: seal script, official script, regular script, running hands script, cursive script and contemporary calligraphy to express the aesthetics of calligraphy. I will also exploit the possibilities of divided screens. The basic strokes of calligraphy, such as drop (dian), hook (gou), the left falling stroke (pie), the right falling stroke (na) etc. will be used to express the beauty of calligraphy. I will present these strokes using close up s. All interviews will be shown on the screen but instead of having the dialogue, the viewers will see brief paragraphs in contemporary calligraphy developing on the screen. In each case, the background will be images of interview and the foreground will be calligraphy. Divided screens will be used to display news items and archival pictures relating to this calligrapher alongside footage of his actual work. At the end of the film will be broken up using digital effects, symbolizes that means construction being deconstructed and deconstructed again; the infinite possibility of creation unfolds from here. One of the digital effects to be used is as following: when the calligrapher is writing, both the calligrapher and his writing will be shown on the screen, the background will be his writing; the foreground will be a close up 6
of the calligraphy itself. The close up of these calligraphy strokes will be exactly synchronised with his writing. I believe this design will convey to the power of his calligraphy to the viewer. 5. Conclusions The era of digital media has arrived. This postmodern world is beyond any standard and principle. Since the end of nineteenth century, the world view of science and art has actually undergone enormous changes. Suzi Gablik, a well-known art critic, indicates that the modern physics theory has already given up the perspective of ultimate reality and gone beyond the essence of objects anymore. [24] Authors and audience have the freedom to explain artworks freely. As French Philosopher Roland Barthes (1915~1980) indicates, when artworks are finished, they are poured into an ocean of texts, and the author has not control over their directions. The application of digital manipulation in documentary films exactly breaks the realism complex of Taiwanese documentary films and displays the bourgeoning spirit of postmodernism. Reference [1]Michael Rabiger, 1987, Directing the Documentary, Stoneham, Butterworth Publishers, p.13. [2]My translation, 2000, Wang, Wei-Ci, Recording Taiwan: Talking History of Taiwanese Documentary and Newsreels (The Second Volume), Chinese Taipei Film Archie, Taipei, p.168. [3]Bill Nichols, 2001, Introduction to Documentary, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, p.99. [4]Ibid, p.109. [5]Ibid, p.105. [6]Ibid, p.102. [7]Ibid, p.115. [8]Ibid, p.125. [9]Ibid, p.130. [10]My translation, Wei-Ci Wang, 2000, Recording Taiwan: Talking History of Taiwan Documentary and Newsreel (The Second Volume), Chinese Taipei Film Archie, Taipei, p.166. [11]My translation, Wei-Ci Wang, 2002, The Analysis of Genres of Taiwanese Documentary in Development based upon the six modes of documentary production prescribed by Bill Nichols, Council for Cultural Affairs, Taipei, p.35. [12]My translation, Fei-I Lu, 2002, Look Who s Talking: the Changing Roles of Taiwanese Newsreel and Documentary Auteur, Representing Reality: International Conference on Documentary Aesthetics, Council for Cultural Affairs, Taipei, p.65. [13]Chen-Yao Chi, 1966, Liu Bi-Jia, Taipei. [14]Lu, p.67. [15]Dao-Ming Lee, 2002, Exploring Some Aesthetic Issue of Taiwanese Documentaries, Representing Reality: International Conference on Documentary Aesthetics, Council for Cultural Affairs, Taipei, p.210. [16]Ibid. [17]My translation, A Yearbook of Cinema of R.O.C. in 1985, Taipei, p. 56. [18]Ibid. [19]Ibid. 7
[20]Lee, p. 210. [21]Lee, p. 212. [22]Ibid. [23]My translation, Wei-Ci Wang, 2002, The Analysis of Genres of Taiwanese Documentary in Development based upon the six modes of documentary production prescribed by Bill Nichols, Council for Cultural Affairs, Taipei, p. 34-35. [24]Suzi Gablik, Progress in Art, New York: Rizzoli, 1977. 8