Truth or Dare Documentary

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Film gives the illusion of being real to a much greater degree than the stage or any other dramatic art form, and yet the audience is aware that the film is not real, that it is created, and that there is a point of view behind this act of creation. With a documentary film, however, the audience is more inclined to accept whatever is seen as real and to fail to realize that there is a point of view shaping the material in a certain way. What the audience is accepting is determined by the form--the audience knows when a scene in a fiction film has been staged but accepts that a documentary is "real" and not staged, even though it may be. The artifact Truth or Dare (1991) is a hybrid documentary, utilizing different documentary styles and mixing them with the somewhat different tradition of the concert film. However, close examination shows that much of what appears is questionable either because it is staged or because the intelligence shaping what is seen and intentionally working tom project an image is that of the central figure, Madonna, the performer rather than the filmmaker. She shows what she wants and goads others into serving her image needs throughout the film, thus bending the meaning of representation and reality in the documentary form.

The concert film is not a documentary in the usual sense, though it is about a real event. It differs in that it usually concentrates on performance, which is a step removed from the reality of the documentary, though ofte

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ways aware of the camera following her around, of course, but in addition there are comments throughout the film as she takes note of the camera, sometimes directing the cameraman toward certain events or people, sometimes chasing the camera away. To the extent that she can control the actual shooting, she is imposing a certain vision on the material even as it is being formed. Clearly, though, there are limitations to the control that the subject can exercise in this fashion. The decision to allow the cameras to follow her around in the first place creates a certain distance between what might be the normal reality and what is the reality being seen by the camera. In other words, the fact that the subject knows not only that she is being photographed but knows the reason for it and that she will have some say over the final vision imposes a different sensibility between the material and the filmmaker that takes it somewhat outside the traditions of cinéma-verité which it otherwise imitates in its camera style. The use of black and white for the "documentary" portions of the film is what gives it that cinéma-verité look, and the handheld camera, with its somewhat jerky movements, and the way events are followed rather than
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Truth Dare, , rest film, truth dare, concert footage, black white, shaping material, Dare Miramax, material shaped, project image, reality documentary, concert film, expressing view,
Approximate Word count = 1737
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

Truth or Dare Documentary

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