Thursday, February 25, 2016
Spellbound
Think cinematically about how the subjects of Spellbound are presented by the filmmaker. How does this film differ from the style of Harlan County USA, which is in the style of cinema verite? Does Spellbound contain any characteristics of cinema verite? Please cinematically discuss in 2 paragraphs.
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In the documentary, Spellbound, the director Jeff Blitz presents the subjects (the spellers) as individuals through a linear and narrative structure. The film follows Angela, April, Ashley, Emily, Harry, Neil, Ted, and Nupur. These subjects are not a group working towards something as the subjects are presented in Harlan Country USA, but rather as unique people who have their own lifestyles and methods for achieving their own goals, which must be approached and won on their own. They all come from different means and backgrounds, some from “cacoons of privilage”(Emily) and others who view the bee as “part of a strategy for self-improvement and social advancement” (Ashley). The use of multiple angles and close ups shots that capture their concentrated faces while mulling over the words and their reactions to the judges bell or silence are extremely effective in engaging us as viewers.
ReplyDeleteBlitz’s style in Spellbound can be compared and contrasted to the style of Cinéma vérité, as seen in Harlan County USA. Cinéma vérité is noted for its combination of improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind a different portrayal of reality. For example, Blitz interacts and interviews the eight teenage spellers throughout the process of the spelling bee: studying and preparing before, during the trails, and after misspelling or winning. This is considered to be a typical cinéma vérité style, where there are stylized set-ups and interaction between the filmmaker and subject. Yet at the same time, Blitz allows unplanned scenes with improvisational material to let the kids to express themselves more honestly and openly as individuals and not just numbers competing for a title. Contrasting Harlan Country, Spellbound is not concerned with the political and social implications of what is captured on film, another characteristic of cinéma vérité. Instead, it is trying to entertain the audience with a subject matter that it may not have previously had too much interest.
Spellbound adheres to some of the conventions of cinema verite in that there were many instances where the spellers were shown doing work as if they did not notice the camera was there. There were many times where the spellers were shown studying either independently or with their families, which sort of pounded in the idea that spelling had become their lives. Rarely were they depicted doing anything but studying words, and if they were, they were depicted doing tasks that were daily necessities such as eating dinner, or discussing things with family. In instances of intensity, such as when the kids are spelling and waiting to see whether they have spelled their assigned words correctly or not, they are constantly and commonly viewed in an extreme close up in order to contribute to the suspense of the situation.
ReplyDeleteLike Harlan County, USA, Spellbound is told mainly from the varying perspectives of the eight subjects being filmed. Their testimonies are the primary sources of information, and the only characters in the film play themselves. The film gains a sense of realism through its capture of everyday tasks that seldom decorate what is mainly a film plagued by constant studying and competing in and for Spelling Bees. Like Harlan County, it is easy to identify with on account of the fact that it captures the real life situations very similar to our own.
I love the shot variety between moving and static camera, as well as different angles, to capture both individual nerves and concentration, and the nerves of the competitors as a whole. I particularly enjoyed the instances where a panning shot panned right to left on a row of contestants giving each of them their moment to be centered in the frame so that the spectator could notice them both individually and collectively. This film resonates with me because everyone in life has something that they work hard for to achieve, and this was captured in a very cinema verite, down to earth, type of way.
ReplyDeleteThe “protagonists” of Spellbound are, in their individual segments, portrayed in a typical cinema verite style, through both hopefully candid shots and set-up interviews where the filmmaker’s presence disrupts the ordinary flow of the subject matter. I thought both were very effective in creating a full glimpse into each child’s life. The candid shots were necessary for showing us how they lived day to day and highlighting the important activities (studying and eating) that each child went through. However, these shots alone were not insightful enough to provide the audience with the ability to relate to the spellers. The interview portions, both with the children and with their parents, allowed us to learn the thoughts and motivations behind the pursuit of spelling as a hobby and greater interest. These details could have been shown cinematically, but doing so would be unnecessarily complex and most likely involve further intrusion on the honest lives of the spellers. Both honest and set-up material is needed in conjunction to fully develop the stories of those depicted. A good analogy might be a coloring book, with the existing lines being the structuring the filmmaker does and the setup they create, and the colors added being the individual flare of and stories behind the spellers.
Harlan County, USA was very different cinematically from Spellbound, primarily due to the nature of the subject matter in each. The first film was centered around a group struggle, and the filmmaker gave very little personal attention to individual miners, instead favoring their shared struggle and perhaps the dehumanization their employers forced upon them. Each miner was experiencing roughly the same situation and had roughly the same opinion on how to handle it. The use of set-up shots was lessened in comparison to Spellbound, due to the open and direct nature of the film’s conflict. Anyone walking through Harlan County could tell why the miners were striking without needing personal insight into their lives. This ties into another key difference, if a subjective one, that I found between the two documentaries related to the subject matter. The depiction of coal miners suffering oppression and danger at the hands of greedy corporate figures is an interesting story. In my opinion, the depiction of children spelling words for hours on end is not nearly as exciting in itself. Therefore, the filmmaker creates interest by drawing the audience into the individual stories of the bee’s participants. We, during climactic scenes, experience the same anxiety, joy, or disappointment as the speller shown because we know their background and how much preparation they have put into this, and can see the expression on their face because of the camera’s extreme close-up. We know their other interests and how much more important spelling can be.
Spellbound can be considered cinema verite at times throughout the film. Mostly the cinema verite comes from scenes like the actual contest or when the kids are studying their words in the dictionary. In these scenes the camera is ignored by the subject creating the style of cinema verite. It also gives a naturalistic tone to those scenes because the subject is left alone to go about life as he or she would. Through this the film conveys its meaning more effectively by depicting to the audience the everyday usual lives of the subjects that are being portrayed. In scenes where subjects are interviewed it is helpful for the information that the viewer needs to understand the subject. When seeing the subject in a more natural state the viewer can really understand their situation.
ReplyDeleteSpellbound and Harlan County both share elements of cinema verite in the scenes where the camera or cameraperson does not take part in the scene. However, in Harlan county the events are more left up to the subjects than in Spellbound. Watching Harlan County, a viewer can get more of a feel of naturalism because they are interviewed much less than in Spellbound. The kids in Spellbound are interviewed constantly which is required for the film to progress the way it does.
-Adil Kadwa
ReplyDeleteSpellbound, in some instances in the film, could be considered cinema verite. This is seen most heavily in scenes where kids are studying or actually competing in the competition. In other words, scenes where the camera is ignored to give off a natural, unforced tone to indicate that what we see on the screen is normal. With this, the film is able to express meaning better due to the depiction of normality. While scenes where the subjects are interviewed are helpful to for the viewers, it is in scenes when cinema verite is most prevalent that we can truly observe the subjects for who they are.
Harlan County and Spellbound both have heavy amounts of the “cinema verite” elements within them. In Harlan County however, the subjects are more in control of the events that the viewer will see. Harlan County feels much less forced than Spellbound because of the lack of interviews in comparison to Spellbound. The film Spellbound cannot progress without its interviews, but Harlan County does not need interviews to portray its meaning and progress. The fact that Harlan County does not need individual insight for progression but Spellbound does is an indication that the story of Harlan County, in comparison to Spellbound, is just better. It is more captivating to an audience. So much so, that we simply don’t require individual knowledge of the subjects. Personally I do not believe that a story about a spelling bee can ever carry as many cinema verite-esque scenes as a story about coal miners undergoing oppression because of how much less interesting a spelling bee is than a coal mining story. Therefore, Spellbound is forced to branch off from the cinema verite style for the sake of story progression.