A film blog for students of my classes at Santa Clara University. Use this blog to discuss the films we are studying, classic films, current releases or production issues you encounter while making your own films.
Monday, October 05, 2015
Man On Wire documentary
How does the filmmaker combine minor recreations with news footage to create the scene of the crime? Does this work? How effective is the filmmaker’s use of abstract b-roll and recreations in creating a heightened tension in the film?
Like many action films, Man on Wire expertly combines news footage, interviews, and still photos to create suspense. During the walk, the audience sees what is going on from the perspective of Philippe and his crew. Then they see the perspective of the police. And then, there is the perspective of the interviews. Before the walk, the re-enactments mimic techniques found in movies like Mission Impossible. Quick cuts, tense body language, and high stakes.
In "Man on Wire" James Marsh films a combination of interviews where Phillipe Petit, his crew, and the NYPD tell their portion of the story; piecing the entire crime together from the moment Phillipe rips the piece of French newspaper with the news of WTC being built to getting arrested for illegally crossing the twin towers 8 times. Watching the reenactment while hearing Phillipe’s voice tell the story really makes it seem like the audience is they’re seeing it first hand. I think this really works. It’s nice how it is in black and white, emphasizing how it was in the past. Having the reenactment really shows the intensity and fear they felt at that moment. It also gives dimension to the interviews because not only does the audience try to imagine it as they hear the story, they actually get to see some form of what it actually was.
As the interviewees tell their side of the story, B-roll of news footage and reenactments are displayed as a visual of what is being told in order for the audience to envision the story and gain that perspective. This is an extremely effective method and definitely worked on me. As a viewer, it is as though I experienced what happened and can retell his story. The use of abstract B-roll and recreations amplifies the tension of the story because the viewer feels as though they are part of the journey and the obstacles Phillipe faced. A verbal telling of the story isn't enough to spike the tension. Having the combination of visuals, intensifying music, and the narration of what is happening creates that experience for the viewer.
Throughout the film the story of the break-ins into the World Trade Centers are gradually told, cumulating in the final breaking where they set up the wire with the equipment. Minor recreations of this night are used to help tie that story line together, including silhouettes of the blanket covering the equipment and the guards walking past. All these scenes have these similarly stylized recreations, so when the story jumps back to a previous moment and then comes back it is clear that we are back to the night of the final break in. Using the interviews as the main backbone of the story, these recreations add the missing visual element, often shrowded in darkness and mystery to make them more believable. Even when actors are used to play the main characters, their faces arent shown in order to not break this illusion that its real footage. Specific recreations also act as visual aids, such as the poking of a hole through the blanket, guiding the viewer through what the break in looked like. News footage is also used, especially when he is walking across the actual wire, also serving as visual aids to the story being told. I believe this strategy worked and was quite effective, especially the shadowy recreations, as the darkness added to the tension without really breaking the illusion that it was just recreation. This was especially effective in moments where the guard nearly caught them, as it transformed the guard from a spoken danger into one that could literally be seen, showing how close they were to being seen.
"Man on the Wire" tells the story of Phillipe Petit's high wire act between the World Trade Centers. The film uses a lot of news footage as well as reenactment videos to help visually convey the information that is being talked about in the interviews. In the beginning of the movie, a lot of supplementary news footage is used to show the process of building the Twin Towers themselves, which helps establish the World Trade Center Towers and gives the audience a sense of the setting of Petit's high wire act. The film also uses reenactment videos to recreate visually Petit's experience building up to the high wire act. All of the reenactment videos are very stylized and stand out compared to the interviews and news footage. As a visual element, the reenactment videos I would say are crucial in helping the viewer visualize and experience what Phillipe experienced and saw. Without these reenactment videos, the film would be mainly talking heads describing different scenarios or actions that the audience would not be able to fully grasp and understand.
I think it was a great cinematic decision by the filmmakers to use the combination of news footage with recreations because it gives the audience a good visual representation of the story. It goes back to the idea of showing instead of telling. Philippe Petit is a great and passionate storyteller so it makes sense to add the visual elements of the news footage and the recreations so we can much better feel the story as it is being told. The news footage, I think, adds weight to the story since it gives the feeling of historical significance. The recreations are visually entertaining and they were done in a way that I feel fits the style of the story. I think there is heightened tension with the abstract b-roll and the recreations because it creates a cinematic feeling with various ways of watching and hearing the story play out. The editing between the footage used adds to times of tension, giving the audience the grand heist feel.
The combination of the new footage, still images and interviews really helped the documentary explore every aspect of the 'crime scene'. The news footage allows for the viewers to get a clear picture of how the actual even took place. The interviews within the film also help to enhance this, since you are hearing the different perspective directly from the interviewees. The abstract b-rolls and the reactions allowed for dramatic suspense to build as the film progressed. The reactions help 'influence' the views outlook on the movie. The film was mainly shot in the perspective of Phillipe Petit and his team. Along with Phillipe's perspective, there were reenactments do stand out, however they add a lot of anticipation and suspense. I liked that the film was in black and white and I thought the film worked really well with all the aspects it incorporated.
In the “Man on the Wire” documentary, the filmmaker shows the interview that was conducted where Philippe petit, his crew and the police are telling their own versions of the story. The image draws attention to the audience to feel what was going on. Audience visual viewing has a big impact because not only is his crew telling the story but the audience gets the chance to view the same experience from Philippe Petit’s point of view. The recreations and news footage did a good job showing the different perspectives. It really works because it almost puts the audience there and shows the real emotions going through the crew and Philippe. The performance also lasted for almost one hour.it took a lot of preparations to pull something like that off and the reenactments show just how tough it was putting it more into reality.
The combination of news footage and recreation scenes really draw out the passion that is seen in "Man on Wire". In the film, we are taken on a behind-the-scenes look at Philippe Petit and the story behind his incredible feat of tight-rope "dancing" across the Twin Towers in New York in August of 1979. The film follows the sequence of events leading up to the final endeavor, but also shows the reasons why Petit wanted, or rather needed, to accomplish this act. The recreation scenes bring out the true beauty of the film, where we see the passion and the care that Petit dedicates to his craft. It's like watching any other artist create their masterpiece. Like watching a painter painting a picture or a musician writing a song, Petit dedicates himself entirely to his passion. The news footage helps to get a glimpse at how Petit's accomplishment was seen by others around him. Many saw it as a work of art, something too beautiful to describe, you could only believe it if you saw it. I believe that in this particular case, this unique type of storytelling works wonderfully for the film. The abstract b-roll adds to the intensity of the film. Even though the characters aren't stealing anything, it feels like a heist movie. The audience is fully rooting for Petit to make it to the top of the towers undetected to fulfill his dream. The recreation scenes help remind the audience of just how important this dream is to Petit, and why it is so beautiful once he achieves it.
The combinations of minor recreations and news footage to tell the story was probably very useful for the filmmakers because it seemed as if there wasn't much actual footage of the event. I think in doing this, they could still tell the story visually and I think this combination, in a sense, made it more artistic. I think it worked, however, I do think using recreations takes away from the story just because I personally see it as less of a reality, and more of how people remember the story. I think the abstract b-roll and the recreations didn't necessarily create a heightened tension in the film, but I think it helped the film become a visual and cinematic success. If it weren't for the b-roll and recreations the film would have just been a lot of talking heads remembering the event, instead of the audience actually seeing what was happening. Overall, I think the recreations and b-roll helped set the stage for the actual event and did a great job of showing the preparation for the walk, but I do wish there was more real footage.
The minor recreations are combined with news footage for an overall more immersive effect on the viewer. I think that this creative tactic works very well with the subject, Philippe and his method of storytelling and narration. His personality is so vivacious and his story is told in such an animated manner that the recreations bring his words to life. As he tells the story his voice evokes a certain level of emotion and tension. This is shown most accurately, perhaps, in the scene in which he is describing hiding underneath a tarp and evading the watchful eye of the security guard. Philippe and his accomplice's colorful commentary is underscored beautifully by the re-enactment in this instance. The same occurs with the news footage of an interview with one of the officers who arrived at the scene and Philippe and his accomplice describe the moments before he left the wire. This technique draws the audience into Philippe's story and brings us into the tension of the moment.
Man on Wire, the documentary detailing frenchman Philippe Petit's journey to high-wire walk between the Twin Towers, combines real news footage with staged recreations to tell the full story of what actually happened on that day in 1974. I've personally never really been a fan of recreations and reenactments, just because they seem too fake and over-the-top for me. However, with this particular film, I felt that filmmaker James Marsh directed the recreations in a way that made the scene informational, useful, and subtle enough that it sort of seemed real. It was very effective in the scene where Philippe is hiding underneath the cloth and the security guards are walking back and forth, in and out. So much tension was created here, which I don't think would have been possible to feel by merely hearing the interviewees talk about the event. By giving us visuals, we were able to feel apart of what transpired directly rather than getting distracted by trying to visualize it in our mind. In terms of the abstract b-roll, I think it added to the aesthetic of the film and helped to break up the various interviews and talking heads.
In the documentary, Man on Wire, there was a special way the film was put together because there was actual footage of the majority of the process it took Philippe and his team to get to be able to walk the wire the Twin Towers. And with anything that was not on film the director, James Marsh, recreated the events to show us the stories, Philippe and his team were telling through interviews. I thought this was brilliant and worked great because the recreations would happen during the climb up the towers with all of the equipment, something that could not have been filmed. It kept me interested and waiting to see what happened next and when the original film was shown it all tied together because we were able to see how difficult and stressful their experience was. If the documentary was half interviews and half original film it would have not been tied together as well in my opinion, because we wouldn't have had an idea of EVERYTHING they had to do and go through to be able to pull of this incomparable stunt that most likely will never happen again.
The filmmakers use recreations expertly in this film that blend together seamlessly with the historical footage and photos of Phillipe's walks and practice. Many parts of the documentary had strong elements of traditional fiction film, with the actors and actions carefully chosen to cause the viewer to feel the drama and tension of the events- such as when Phillipe and his partners in crime were hiding under a tarp in the World Trade Center as the guard walked about. Often the news footage and archived footage was saved for the most dramatic moments- such as the final walk, during which the filmmakers pieced together many photographs and footage which grounds the documentary even more and contributes to that "awe" factor.
I think that the decision to recreate the scenes had much to do with the fact that they did not have video footage from the scene of the crime, yet they wanted viewers to get a visual sense of how each event happened. They used a combination of visual elements (reenactments, news footage, pictures, interview footage) to capture the suspenseful, exciting, and beautiful journey that Philippe and his friends took. The techniques that the filmmakers used to structure the reenactments made it work. Hearing Philippe’s voice in the background made it seem genuine. It also made it more suspenseful—instead of just listening to the story, we were actually able to watch something. Without the reenactments I don’t think I would have been as engaged in the film, so I think that the filmmakers were effective in this way.
17 comments:
Like many action films, Man on Wire expertly combines news footage, interviews, and still photos to create suspense. During the walk, the audience sees what is going on from the perspective of Philippe and his crew. Then they see the perspective of the police. And then, there is the perspective of the interviews. Before the walk, the re-enactments mimic techniques found in movies like Mission Impossible. Quick cuts, tense body language, and high stakes.
In "Man on Wire" James Marsh films a combination of interviews where Phillipe Petit, his crew, and the NYPD tell their portion of the story; piecing the entire crime together from the moment Phillipe rips the piece of French newspaper with the news of WTC being built to getting arrested for illegally crossing the twin towers 8 times. Watching the reenactment while hearing Phillipe’s voice tell the story really makes it seem like the audience is they’re seeing it first hand. I think this really works. It’s nice how it is in black and white, emphasizing how it was in the past. Having the reenactment really shows the intensity and fear they felt at that moment. It also gives dimension to the interviews because not only does the audience try to imagine it as they hear the story, they actually get to see some form of what it actually was.
As the interviewees tell their side of the story, B-roll of news footage and reenactments are displayed as a visual of what is being told in order for the audience to envision the story and gain that perspective. This is an extremely effective method and definitely worked on me. As a viewer, it is as though I experienced what happened and can retell his story. The use of abstract B-roll and recreations amplifies the tension of the story because the viewer feels as though they are part of the journey and the obstacles Phillipe faced. A verbal telling of the story isn't enough to spike the tension. Having the combination of visuals, intensifying music, and the narration of what is happening creates that experience for the viewer.
Throughout the film the story of the break-ins into the World Trade Centers are gradually told, cumulating in the final breaking where they set up the wire with the equipment. Minor recreations of this night are used to help tie that story line together, including silhouettes of the blanket covering the equipment and the guards walking past. All these scenes have these similarly stylized recreations, so when the story jumps back to a previous moment and then comes back it is clear that we are back to the night of the final break in. Using the interviews as the main backbone of the story, these recreations add the missing visual element, often shrowded in darkness and mystery to make them more believable. Even when actors are used to play the main characters, their faces arent shown in order to not break this illusion that its real footage. Specific recreations also act as visual aids, such as the poking of a hole through the blanket, guiding the viewer through what the break in looked like. News footage is also used, especially when he is walking across the actual wire, also serving as visual aids to the story being told.
I believe this strategy worked and was quite effective, especially the shadowy recreations, as the darkness added to the tension without really breaking the illusion that it was just recreation. This was especially effective in moments where the guard nearly caught them, as it transformed the guard from a spoken danger into one that could literally be seen, showing how close they were to being seen.
"Man on the Wire" tells the story of Phillipe Petit's high wire act between the World Trade Centers. The film uses a lot of news footage as well as reenactment videos to help visually convey the information that is being talked about in the interviews. In the beginning of the movie, a lot of supplementary news footage is used to show the process of building the Twin Towers themselves, which helps establish the World Trade Center Towers and gives the audience a sense of the setting of Petit's high wire act. The film also uses reenactment videos to recreate visually Petit's experience building up to the high wire act. All of the reenactment videos are very stylized and stand out compared to the interviews and news footage. As a visual element, the reenactment videos I would say are crucial in helping the viewer visualize and experience what Phillipe experienced and saw. Without these reenactment videos, the film would be mainly talking heads describing different scenarios or actions that the audience would not be able to fully grasp and understand.
I think it was a great cinematic decision by the filmmakers to use the combination of news footage with recreations because it gives the audience a good visual representation of the story. It goes back to the idea of showing instead of telling. Philippe Petit is a great and passionate storyteller so it makes sense to add the visual elements of the news footage and the recreations so we can much better feel the story as it is being told. The news footage, I think, adds weight to the story since it gives the feeling of historical significance. The recreations are visually entertaining and they were done in a way that I feel fits the style of the story. I think there is heightened tension with the abstract b-roll and the recreations because it creates a cinematic feeling with various ways of watching and hearing the story play out. The editing between the footage used adds to times of tension, giving the audience the grand heist feel.
The combination of the new footage, still images and interviews really helped the documentary explore every aspect of the 'crime scene'. The news footage allows for the viewers to get a clear picture of how the actual even took place. The interviews within the film also help to enhance this, since you are hearing the different perspective directly from the interviewees. The abstract b-rolls and the reactions allowed for dramatic suspense to build as the film progressed. The reactions help 'influence' the views outlook on the movie. The film was mainly shot in the perspective of Phillipe Petit and his team. Along with Phillipe's perspective, there were reenactments do stand out, however they add a lot of anticipation and suspense. I liked that the film was in black and white and I thought the film worked really well with all the aspects it incorporated.
In the “Man on the Wire” documentary, the filmmaker shows the interview that was conducted where Philippe petit, his crew and the police are telling their own versions of the story. The image draws attention to the audience to feel what was going on. Audience visual viewing has a big impact because not only is his crew telling the story but the audience gets the chance to view the same experience from Philippe Petit’s point of view. The recreations and news footage did a good job showing the different perspectives. It really works because it almost puts the audience there and shows the real emotions going through the crew and Philippe. The performance also lasted for almost one hour.it took a lot of preparations to pull something like that off and the reenactments show just how tough it was putting it more into reality.
The combination of news footage and recreation scenes really draw out the passion that is seen in "Man on Wire". In the film, we are taken on a behind-the-scenes look at Philippe Petit and the story behind his incredible feat of tight-rope "dancing" across the Twin Towers in New York in August of 1979. The film follows the sequence of events leading up to the final endeavor, but also shows the reasons why Petit wanted, or rather needed, to accomplish this act. The recreation scenes bring out the true beauty of the film, where we see the passion and the care that Petit dedicates to his craft. It's like watching any other artist create their masterpiece. Like watching a painter painting a picture or a musician writing a song, Petit dedicates himself entirely to his passion. The news footage helps to get a glimpse at how Petit's accomplishment was seen by others around him. Many saw it as a work of art, something too beautiful to describe, you could only believe it if you saw it. I believe that in this particular case, this unique type of storytelling works wonderfully for the film. The abstract b-roll adds to the intensity of the film. Even though the characters aren't stealing anything, it feels like a heist movie. The audience is fully rooting for Petit to make it to the top of the towers undetected to fulfill his dream. The recreation scenes help remind the audience of just how important this dream is to Petit, and why it is so beautiful once he achieves it.
The combinations of minor recreations and news footage to tell the story was probably very useful for the filmmakers because it seemed as if there wasn't much actual footage of the event. I think in doing this, they could still tell the story visually and I think this combination, in a sense, made it more artistic. I think it worked, however, I do think using recreations takes away from the story just because I personally see it as less of a reality, and more of how people remember the story. I think the abstract b-roll and the recreations didn't necessarily create a heightened tension in the film, but I think it helped the film become a visual and cinematic success. If it weren't for the b-roll and recreations the film would have just been a lot of talking heads remembering the event, instead of the audience actually seeing what was happening. Overall, I think the recreations and b-roll helped set the stage for the actual event and did a great job of showing the preparation for the walk, but I do wish there was more real footage.
The minor recreations are combined with news footage for an overall more immersive effect on the viewer. I think that this creative tactic works very well with the subject, Philippe and his method of storytelling and narration. His personality is so vivacious and his story is told in such an animated manner that the recreations bring his words to life. As he tells the story his voice evokes a certain level of emotion and tension. This is shown most accurately, perhaps, in the scene in which he is describing hiding underneath a tarp and evading the watchful eye of the security guard. Philippe and his accomplice's colorful commentary is underscored beautifully by the re-enactment in this instance. The same occurs with the news footage of an interview with one of the officers who arrived at the scene and Philippe and his accomplice describe the moments before he left the wire. This technique draws the audience into Philippe's story and brings us into the tension of the moment.
Man on Wire, the documentary detailing frenchman Philippe Petit's journey to high-wire walk between the Twin Towers, combines real news footage with staged recreations to tell the full story of what actually happened on that day in 1974. I've personally never really been a fan of recreations and reenactments, just because they seem too fake and over-the-top for me. However, with this particular film, I felt that filmmaker James Marsh directed the recreations in a way that made the scene informational, useful, and subtle enough that it sort of seemed real. It was very effective in the scene where Philippe is hiding underneath the cloth and the security guards are walking back and forth, in and out. So much tension was created here, which I don't think would have been possible to feel by merely hearing the interviewees talk about the event. By giving us visuals, we were able to feel apart of what transpired directly rather than getting distracted by trying to visualize it in our mind. In terms of the abstract b-roll, I think it added to the aesthetic of the film and helped to break up the various interviews and talking heads.
In the documentary, Man on Wire, there was a special way the film was put together because there was actual footage of the majority of the process it took Philippe and his team to get to be able to walk the wire the Twin Towers. And with anything that was not on film the director, James Marsh, recreated the events to show us the stories, Philippe and his team were telling through interviews. I thought this was brilliant and worked great because the recreations would happen during the climb up the towers with all of the equipment, something that could not have been filmed. It kept me interested and waiting to see what happened next and when the original film was shown it all tied together because we were able to see how difficult and stressful their experience was. If the documentary was half interviews and half original film it would have not been tied together as well in my opinion, because we wouldn't have had an idea of EVERYTHING they had to do and go through to be able to pull of this incomparable stunt that most likely will never happen again.
The filmmakers use recreations expertly in this film that blend together seamlessly with the historical footage and photos of Phillipe's walks and practice. Many parts of the documentary had strong elements of traditional fiction film, with the actors and actions carefully chosen to cause the viewer to feel the drama and tension of the events- such as when Phillipe and his partners in crime were hiding under a tarp in the World Trade Center as the guard walked about. Often the news footage and archived footage was saved for the most dramatic moments- such as the final walk, during which the filmmakers pieced together many photographs and footage which grounds the documentary even more and contributes to that "awe" factor.
I think that the decision to recreate the scenes had much to do with the fact that they did not have video footage from the scene of the crime, yet they wanted viewers to get a visual sense of how each event happened. They used a combination of visual elements (reenactments, news footage, pictures, interview footage) to capture the suspenseful, exciting, and beautiful journey that Philippe and his friends took. The techniques that the filmmakers used to structure the reenactments made it work. Hearing Philippe’s voice in the background made it seem genuine. It also made it more suspenseful—instead of just listening to the story, we were actually able to watch something. Without the reenactments I don’t think I would have been as engaged in the film, so I think that the filmmakers were effective in this way.
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