Ethics

The one word that always gets me going ‘ahh not again..”
We had a guest lecturer who came in today to talk about ethics in documentary. What got me thinking about the lecture was how truth is always contested. I liked how reality isn’t really reality because of various factors.

Presence
- The presence of the camera automatically alters reality when placed at a location that is noticeable.

Exclusion
- The view of a camera is always partial and not impartial. Once a camera is pointed somewhere, the frame has segregated the world that is outside the frame making everything outside insignificant.

Manipulation
- I love the world manipulation because editing is all about manipulation. Somewhat we play God when we edit on screen.

These were the three points that were playing around my head the whole time of lecture especially exclusion. The whole idea of documentary is documenting a story of something, but by doing so, you are choosing to document ‘some-thing’ not every-thing.