The word “Actuality” when used to describe the material used in in documentary or non-fiction project, whether it’s film, video, or a photograph means that it was recorded “actually” happening and was not staged or manipulated in anyway.
In a pure sense a documentary film is a story that uses actuality sources to create a non-fiction documentation of some reality. Actuality meaning something that “actually’ happened and was in some way recorded on film, video, still photographs, audio, or other medium. It’s a non-fiction reality, somehow witnessed and recorded. A documentary does not employ actors to recreate a reality of which we have knowledge in some way. As soon as we employ actors, or script what is going to happen, even if it is based on a true story or event, we have created a fictional story.
Every Documentary Film, Video or Photograph has a Point-of-View (POV). It is important for the creators of the documentation to consider what that POV may be.
I think there is an important reason and need to offer an explanation of the history and evolution of the concept of documentary filmmaking.
To this end it is necessary to look at many other issues that deal with the telling or reporting of non-fiction realities via the many methods of conveying such realities in books, magazines, newspapers, television and the internet. These issues have to do with the expectations of the public and ourselves as to how information is reported and disseminated in our culture, how it’s perceived and how subjectively the information is presented .
All of this to help us decide how a documentary filmmaker or non-fiction story teller may approach his or her story telling, both technically and ethically, of subjects both mundane and controversial, with some hope of realizing some measure of objective reality.
An excellent book that looks at the history documentary is “The History of Non-fiction Film” by Erik Barnouw. 2nd Edition
J R Martin
The First Documentary To Be Screened To The Public By Louis Lumiere
One of the things we plan to look at in The Baldwin Park Story is the similarities and/or differences between a planned community built in an urban environment and a traditional city neighborhood. In many cities people are moving back to the neighborhoods their families reluctantly left years ago. Most neighborhoods were comfortable places to live for any number of reasons. Planned Communities offer many of the same amenities as neighborhoods did, like being able to walk to stores, and children walking to school. Do people get to know their neighbors in a community like Baldwin Park in the same way they would in a traditional neighborhood? Many urban neighborhoods were dominated by one or two ethnicities. What role does ethnicity play in a Planned Community and the New Neighborhoods?
After some interviews with individuals associated with the development of Baldwin Park in Orlando, Florida shooting began in and around the downtown area and along Lake Baldwin. The notion was to get some footage that would complement the interviews and give us a feel for what this “planned community” looked like.
Baldwin Park is built on the ground, which was once a Naval Training Center that was closed 1993. Located in Orlando, 10 minutes from the down town area it was acquired by the City. After much debate and time it was developed as new community, based on New Ubanism concepts in the heart of the city.
The documentary begins with this community and plans to explore the ideas of New Unbanism, Planned Communities, Green Communities and the shift from suburban living to revitalized urban environments.
Baldwin Park, Orlando has been successful in a number of ways as an urban planned community and provides the documentary with starting place to look at other communities and aspects of New Urbanism and Urban Planning.
The documentary also plans to follow a number of families and individuals moving to and living in Baldwin Park and similar urban areas to learn first hand who and why people live there.
Downtown Baldwin Park, Orlando, FloridaStreet festival in Baldwin Park
The word “Actuality” when used to describe the material used in in documentary or non-fiction project, whether it’s film, video, or a photograph means that it was recorded “actually” happening and was not staged or manipulated in anyway.
In a pure sense a documentary film is a story that uses actuality sources to create a non-fiction documentation of some reality. Actuality meaning something that “actually’ happened and was in some way recorded on film, video, still photographs, audio, or other medium. It’s a non-fiction reality, somehow witnessed and recorded. A documentary does not employ actors to recreate a reality of which we have knowledge in some way. As soon as we employ actors, or script what is going to happen, even if it is based on a true story or event, we have created a fictional story.
Interestingly the prehistoric mound pictured here documents the Winter Solstice every year as the sun rises and shines through the window above the passage way on to the back wall of the interior. So doesn’t the construction act as an actuality recoding device however temporary the recording?
A documentary or non-fiction story explores actual events and presents them in a nonfiction context.
The term “Reality TV” does not live up to the “actuality” definition as the program is staged, individuals employed to participate in a fictional “reality” created by the producers of the show.
Traditional documentary format relies on collecting spontaneous coverage of events, unrehearsed interviewing of individuals and working in a non-fiction context. Over the last few years a format termed “Hybrid Documentary” has emerged which basically creates an event and then documents it. One example of this format is American Shopper which documents an event in a Columbus Missouri supermarket and then documents the reaction and participation of the residents. The difference between this approach and a “Reality TV” format is the filmmakers don’t interfere as much. In many ways Super Size Me was a Hybrid since the story was essentially invented.
Documentary story telling is as old as human life, older then cave paintings, older then Neolithic nomads passing on hunting skills and survival stories. It is perhaps one of our most important ways of handing down information and exploring reality.
Think about it for a moment and it becomes obvious that even early folklore and fiction were metaphors for human experience and intellect that reflected or tried to understand non-fiction realities.
After some interviews with individuals associated with the development of Baldwin Park in Orlando, Florida shooting began in and around the downtown area and along Lake Baldwin. The notion was to get some footage that would complement the interviews and give us a feel for what this “planned community” looked like.
Baldwin Park is built on the ground, which was once a Naval Training Center that was closed 1993. Located in Orlando, 10 minutes from the down town area it was acquired by the City. After much debate and time it was developed as new community, based on New Ubanism concepts in the heart of the city.
The documentary begins with this community and plans to explore the ideas of New Unbanism, Planned Communities, Green Communities and the shift from suburban living to revitalized urban environments.
Baldwin Park, Orlando has been successful in a number of ways as an urban planned community and provides the documentary with starting place to look at other communities and aspects of New Urbanism and Urban Planning.
The documentary also plans to follow a number of families and individuals moving to and living in Baldwin Park and similar urban areas to learn first hand who and why people live there.
J R Martin
Downtown Baldwin Park, Orlando, FLoridaStreet Fair Baldwin Park, Orlando
Documentary story telling is as old as human life, older then cave paintings, older then Neolithic nomads passing on hunting skills and survival stories. It is perhaps one of our most important ways of handing down information and exploring reality.
Think about it for a moment and it becomes obvious that even early folklore and fiction were metaphors for human experience and intellect that reflected or tried to understand non-fiction realities. When there was no written language, documentary stories were told orally. Someone actually experienced being chased by a tiger and was able to survive and pass on the account from his or her own point-of-view (POV). Perhaps they traced the route or location of the attack in the earth as they told the story so everyone knew where the tiger might be lurking and even drew a picture of the tiger leaping from a rock somewhere. This story would be passed down to the next generation or to the neighbors or other families in the vicinity until it became legend, embellished by each generation no doubt.
Today we might interview the person who encountered the tiger, then go to the location and show the route and perhaps even the tiger if he was still around. We have all sorts of methods of recording reality i.e. events that are actually happening with people being spontaneously interviewed, unrehearsed, not manipulated, the event itself not scripted, and no actors employed.
Where do we start, what kind of logic can we apply to telling actuality based stories? It might be interesting to borrow some ideas from Science. It is said that “Science observes and measures the natural world.” Science accumulates information and uses that data to deduce empirical laws that govern biological and physical systems in our universe.
But in Science explanations must be tested and proved by applying observations and by coming up with other observations that might disprove the explanation. This requirement is called making predictions falsifiable.
This requirement rules out super natural explanations which cannot be proved or disproved. Imagine what Television News would be like if they used this system!
Where do we start, what kind of logic can we apply to telling actuality based stories? It might be interesting to borrow some ideas from Science. It is said that “Science observes and measures the natural world.” Science accumulates information and uses that data to deduce empirical laws that govern biological and physical systems in our universe.
But in Science explanations must be tested and proved by applying observations and by coming up with other observations that might disprove the explanation. This requirement is called making predictions falsifiable.
Baldwin Park in Orlando, Florida is the focus of a new documentary produced by J R Martin Media Inc that looks at Planned Communities and New Urbanism concepts in the United States. The documentary is directed by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Jim Martin who is also Director of the Documentary Film Course at Full Sail University in Winter Park Florida. Production has started and interviews with the original developers of Baldwin Park have been shot. Production will continue in Baldwin Park and in other communities over the next few years.
