How to use Archive footage
Many documentaries use some sort of documentary footage, it being CCTV, interviews or old news reports. I've decided to look at some examples of this, to see how this works and why it works.
The first movie I looked at is 'There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane' by Liz Garbus. It is both a reconstruction using archive footage and an investigation. After a horrific car crash in which 8 people died, the toxicology report showed that Diane Schuler had been drunk and high while driving a car the wrong way on a highway. Her husband and sister-in-law both stated that this was not something Diane would ever do, and decide to hire and investigator. This is all done using newly shot footage. However, intercut into this are clips of the highway with the cars, the news reports of the crash and the frantic phone calls that happened on the day. As the investigation moves forward, we get more archive footage to paint a better picture of what happened.
One of the documentaries that was discussed in class was 'Rich Hall's Inventing the Indians'. In this documentary they have mostly used footage from old Western films. Once again there is a narrative woven from archive footage and new material. This time however, there is a narrator to guide us through the story. Where 'Aunt Diane' tried to sketch an objective picture, Rich hall tries to make us aware of what the media is showing us and how it has shaped our views of the indigenous peoples. The use of archive footage is mostly to prove a point and to make us aware. By contrasting the realities of how these people actually live with what is show on film, we get a clear picture of how Hollywood treats anyone who is different from the white American.
'Gimme Shelter' has lass to do with archive footage as the footage at the time was new. The movie was screened for the first time 1 year after the disaster of the concert took place. As in all the documentaries I've seen so far, it is an intercut of old and new footage. In this case footage of the concerts is intercut with footage of the concert planning and the band in the editing room reviewing the footage. This gives the audience breaks to think about what they've seen. The use of the band as both subject of the documentary and steering force by stating which pieces of footage they want to review is (so far) unique to this one film .None of the other films I've seen used their subjects as editing tools. Due to it being a film about the Rolling Stones, there is more music than investigation.
Due to the first documentary I made for this course being about my family, the research turns to the documentary 'Stories We Tell'. In this movie a family is being investigated by one of the daughters. The whole family is part of the Canadian entertainment industry as producers, actors and directors. The main focus of the film is getting people to tell their side of the story and in that way to get to the truth. Although there is some real archive material, most of the scenes in the past are acted out by actors. However, these scenes are all shot in Super 8 to give them an authentic look. News paper clippings are also used to illustrate the past. The cuts between modern interviews and past scenes is what gives the film its depth. Certain scenes are repeated several times in the movie to illustrate the way different people form different sides of the story felt like the events happened.
