Well, here I come, I’m gonna have to be a buzz kill on this one. It pains me to see talented artists prostituting themselves in order to sell this human tradgedy and farce to young boys who are the most likely audience for this. I suppose it’s the only possible way to get to even an inkling of the truth. But reading how our honorable statesmen with automatic weopons and gernade launcher have dropped behind “enemy lines” also known as somebody else’s country, village and home to seize a key bridge. I’m sickened. War is wrong period. No grey area. If we were honestly trying to win hearts and minds we would be dispatching the best set builders Hollywood has to offer to manufacture homes, hospitals and roads instead of blowing up what little they have and saying “ooops?!” Send in the best of our brave statesmen to remove the hidden, buried land mines left over from the last war. Do we really care about making friends?

I’m certain this talented camera man did a spectacular job of capturing what he saw but to what end? Glorifying this evil charade? What would we find if we followed the money on this film.

In the seventies during Vietnam the slogan was I hate the war but support the troops. The difference is back then soldiers were being drafted. Just following orders is in my world never a viable excuse but it is particularly true in this instance. It is naive to the point of retardation to believe that it is an effective strategy against violent terrorims in this country to be rooting around their country door to door with machine guns drawn looking for the bad guys. Wake up Obama.

Posted by Jim Hines  on  10/24  at  09:28 AM

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Not having seen the whole film, It’s not completely fair to judge it. But I think the way it’s shot brings up issues of what is a documentary and what is voyeuristic or entertainment.

I am not entirely sure it is fair to the subject matter, shooting a serious subject like this so that it “looks like a movie” with the deep focus and all.

What’s going on there is very serious. I think at best, making the imagery “pretty” contributes to an atmosphere not unlike Michael Moore’s films.

Michael Moore’s hand is always obvious in the content of his films. This may be like that except that Danfung’s hand is on the visual style more than story.

Is he just making it pretty because he can?
Is he trying to make it look performed rather than real to create a surreal feeling?

The style brings up a lot of interesting questions about the content. New documentary styles have always brought up questions regarding how the “style” changes the content.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/24  at  04:55 PM

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The Frontline PBS episode from two weeks ago, “Obama’s War”  used Danfung’s footage in the first five minutes to set up a story that was both very sympathetic with the troops, and very seriously questioning of the war at the same time.  This proves that the style of his shooting can be used by an editor or producer in a sophisticated and critical way.

The episode can be seen for free at PBS.og in Flash or for $2 in nicer h.264 on iTunes.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/26  at  10:36 AM

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I have not watched the complete movie, It’s not completely fair to judge it. But I think the way it’s shot brings up issues of what is a documentary and what is voyeuristic or entertainment.
Last Airbender Trailer

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/17  at  05:41 PM

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Hello old thread!  Hi guys.
I understand the position and feeling you are relating.  But I think it’s the EDIT that may have given it an entertainment feel, and not the photography itself.  Again, see what the FRONTLINE editors do with his footage in the first 5 minutes in the link above.  And then the context of the whole program.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid

Clearly there is no romanticism of the situation when taken as a whole, but as an action that has consequences, some victories, and some mistakes and confusion.

Around the six minute mark a regular HD camera takes over from the 5D.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/17  at  07:19 PM

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I watched the Frontline show and agree the show was very well done and that the footage does not romanticize or otherwise color the content.

The trailer was deliberately edited to show more of the “cinematic” and “artistic” shots than probably the vast majority of what was shot. Most of that footage seems to be straight doco or news style.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/17  at  09:08 PM

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