Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/732
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Less like science, more like film : the use of non-redundant images to facilitate critical thinking in science film(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2009) Zemel, Dustin Reed; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias.It is the tendency of films and television programs promoting scientific subject matter to use semantically redundant images in juxtaposition with expository narration. Producers and filmmakers alike recognize that this powerful combination bolsters the appearance of objectivity in the piece, and thusly the scientific credibility of the presentation. Critics Carl Gardner and Robert Young argue that this type of stylistic self-containment hurts the advancement of science, and call for a new method of presentation that would encourage discourse and openness instead of closure. This essay highlights the atypical science films of Charles and Ray Eames, Errol Morris, and Jean Painlevé to show how the incorporation non-redundant visuals can facilitate a personal, critical reading amongst their viewing audience.Item Science documentary : a case for collapsing the distance(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2009) Lain, Kathryn Morgan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cindy Stillwell.This paper looks at conventional science documentary, placing it within trends of documentary, science, and science representation, all traditions with perceived connections to objectivity and authority. Bringing together documentary film theory, science studies, and my own experiences in an academic program dedicated to science filmmaking, I deconstruct conventional science documentary, highlighting why I find inadequate the current questions, assumptions, and methods that guide the making of these films. I demonstrate how such questions, assumptions, and methods reinforce a gulf between science and the general public, and celebrate science as being an objective, all-knowing, extrahuman authority. My case study of 'The Science of Sex Appeal' is an attempt to call attention to that gulf (and related celebration of science) and provide an example of a more active and critical approach to viewing these science documentaries. I conclude that there is a need for makers of science documentaries to venture beyond the problematic conventions that guide these films, to work toward a new type of science film that can help reconstruct the relationships between science, science film, and the general public.Item The pose of neutrality in social documentary films(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2010) Van Laanen, Michael Whitney; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias.From the outset, documentary filmmakers have sought to achieve the unobtainable goal of re-presenting reality in a purely objective manner. What began with an attempt to document a dying/evolving culture in Flaherty's Nanook of the North led to a century of debate about how closely documentary film could come to achieving the ultimate goal of representing our historical and social world accurately, objectively, and truthfully. The stem cell research debate has produced three documentaries that illustrate two models of filmmaking process: engaged filmmaking and non-engaged filmmaking. Within these two models, the filmmaker may utilize certain aesthetic techniques of vision and voice that reveal subjective manipulation. I intend to show how the rhetoric of the filmmaker presides over the content even when he presumes to maintain an objective stance.