Performative Documentary

What I learned in the process of making this film:
I had a pretty specific idea in mind for this film, but I realized once I got going that I was headed for yet another feature length idea, so I instead of following it directly, I cut down to one basic flow. I ended up cutting out the more expository elements of what I wanted to do, since this is after all performative. So I used nearly completely performative elements. This ended up cutting back on the information I had intended to provide and ended up being simply giving their accounts of what happened to flight 93. It worked pretty well, though. Each person had a specific personal experience that showed why they thought the official story of 9/11 was false, and they all ended up coinciding as well. In the end, the people have spoken, and what they say may not be fact, but a certain undeniable truth emerges in spite of it.







1) 911triumph. www.YouTube.com. "9/11:Flight 93 Eyewitness Says No 757 Crashed in Shanksville"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPigIuzXKcA

2) tonybiviano. www.YouTube.com. "Flight 93 Did Not Crash In Pennsylvania!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypi_J4E7IFM&feature=related

3)FLT111. www.YouTube.com. "United Airlines flight 93 ATC tapes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnfQfBhfrMw&feature=related

4) SteveM818. www.YouTube.com. "Bill Doyle, Father of 9/11 Victim, SPEAKS OUT!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0JZXIsi104

5) Murtagh, Joseph. Muckrakerreport.com. "9/11 Widows Keep on Asking the Tough Questions."
http://www.teamliberty.net/id358.html

Poetic Documentary

During the course of making this video I ran into many of the same problems as before, in that I could not find as many personal accounts as I would have imagined. Once I started however, I found that poetic documentary could lend itself to much more subjective ideas than I had begun with. Instead of doing interviews with people who had lost family or friends on 9/11, I decided to oppose the official story with the "hypothesis" of a conspiracy. I used Bush's speech because it was so well written and moving, and I used it to frame the piece, making the video seem like it is a regular tribute to 9/11. When the president of Venezuela speaks, however, there is a seed of doubt planted from his words. The next images, tied rhythmically to the music evoke more emotion about the event, and our rage at "terrorists" is once again awakened. It isn't until the end of the segment of Bush's speech that I cause a question to come in again, but now it is in a more subtle way. Instead of words or descriptions, I use a simple superimposed image of Bush over the towers burning. The effect, cast in a frank black and white, makes a visual, poetic connection that never could have been made with words. Black and white has a great way of showing things how they are. With the burning building behind his face, Bush looks almost demonic. Suddenly the viewer is questioning whether Bush is lying. I like how this one turned out. It wasn't my exact original plan, especially after I added the eagle, but I just let the music and images I picked carry me and I thought it turned out better than I had originally imagined.

WORKS CITED

1) XyRyx. www.YouTube.com. "Jim Marrs- Inside Job 9/11."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7797720534222056342&q=9%2F11+inside+job&ei=
U_cMSPWvAaHQ4gLR38y8BA


2) 9/11 Inside Job: Jim Fetzer on Fox News with Hannity and Colmes. www.YouTube.com.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4128078963550279427&q=9%2F11+inside+job&ei=U_
cMSPWvAaHQ4gLR38y8BA

3) WizardofOunces. www.YouTube.com. "9/11 Inside Job- The Most Damning Evidence Yet!"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8877180809083638640&q=9%2F11+inside+job&ei=
eP8MSPbTOZOg4AKe6pGwBA


4) itchyandscratchy. www.YouTube.com. "Proof thermate was used on 9/11."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-70567237499317904&q=9%2F11+inside+job&ei=-gANSI_
RAZSO4wKfioisBA

5) NufffRespect. www.YouTube.com. "9/11 Coincidences."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4458284336892803433&q=9%2F11+inside+job&ei=
ngENSJDAGovS4QKBifG0BA

6) yakwild. www.YouTube.com. "President Bush Speech September 11, 2001."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq-MuEms00w

7) rapaceros. www.YouTube.com. "Wild Bald Eagle and Blue Sky."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PCzTkORGyk

8) Earthjustice. www.YouTube.com. "American Bald Eagles."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze0hkcKj2Ns

9) GBVLeviathan. www.YouTube.com. "2007 in Romania-How to Kill a Wounded Horse."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xftgU06sZGg

My discovery process:

What I've learned while making this video is that making an expository found footage documentary was harder than I thought. Short of interviewing people myself (I don't know anyone from NYC!) there wasn't much I could do to get the interviews I had imagined. I had thought finding such interviews would be simple, but the only ones I found were part of documentaries that were already made and that were over an hour long. My computer simply doesn't have the memory to download a video that big so I can only use one minute of it for my project. Also, I had originally planned for the movie to be a feature length, but once I got going I realized that there was a huge gap between what I saw in my head and how it actually came out in video. In the first sequence, whereas I had originally seen the project as fast paced and fire powered- warzone like- once I started and found images and put them together I went automatically toward the other extreme, so that the images were separated by soft faded out blacks, making it seem like a moment of silence between each picture or video. In the end, the beginning became far more poetic than I had imagined. Also, I had intended to do a voice-over for this project, so I could steer the images by the "voice of God" that lends so much credence to expositories, but once again once I started I changed my mind. First, my voice is the only I had access to, and I had imagined the voice being male. Who ever imagined a female God? I am not a feminist, and neither is feminism a goal of my piece. Second, I couldn't get the voice over equipment to work. (I'd never used it before) I decided to use text instead. At first I saw this as a handicap, as I had envisioned the project very differently; but I found that the use of text was more powerful than a voice, since I had control over the pace with which the viewer read, as well as the emphasis on certain words. If you have a voice over, you often tune it out, but if you have text, you must read, because your mind is trained to decode language. You cannot turn off this urge. I felt this use of text moved the piece along much better than any voice over could have.




WORKS CITED

1) Lollyspike. www.YouTube.com. "9/11 News Reel."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9672094
42717964768&q=9%2F11+newsreel&total=6&start=
0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

2) Inregionecaecorum. www.YouTube.com. "Christian Civilization."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=919
0900630360554357&q=9%2F11+newsreel&total=6&start=
0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

3) Michael5046til. www.TouTube.com. "Sky News: First Report of World Trader Center Crash."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5341749893
106922227&q=9%2F11+news&total=6363&start=0&num
=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

4) TheWebfairy. www.YouTube.com. "2nd Hit-Fairbanks comments-FBI Took His Original."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-53417498931
06922227&q=9%2F11+news&total=6363&start=0&num
=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

5) September 11 News.com. "President Bush 9/11/2001."
http://www.september11news.com/PresidentBush.htm

6) "The Black Day: The World Will Never Be the Same." www.theblackday.org.

7) Skyracer90. www.YouTube.com. "9/11."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4307552688411396797&q=
9%2F11+news+footage+Al+Qaeda&total=31&start=0&num=10&so=0&
type=search&plindex=1

8)thetruthwillout. www.YouTube.com. "Operation Northwoods."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2533306150439966067&q=operation+northwoods&total=306&start
=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

9)hellyh72. www.YouTube.com "When History Repeats Itself 9/11 WTC Pentagon 9/11 Debunked."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3920853100041747035&q=government+sponsored+terrorism&total=372&start
=20&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5

10) 911triumph. www.YouTube.com. "9/11 Truth: Hugo Chavez says 9/11 was an Inside Job."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4387430336700538672&q=9%2F11+was+an+inside+job&total=2925&start=0&num
=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Project Proposal

Introductory Statement

I have chosen the subject of the tragedies of 9/11 for my documentary project. This is a topic that is close to my heart, especially since I learned about a year ago that it was carried out on the American people by our own government. Since then I have done a lot of research to find the truth. I wanted to have real facts, not just suppositions, especially since being called a "conspiracy theorist" has become a common occurance, causing me to know my facts so I can defend myself. What I have found is that most Americans know nothing about 9/11 except for what they had seen on the television. They never stopped to think that the government was lying, or that the news as a corporation is as corrupt as the government. Through these documentaries I suggest, I hope to examine both sides of the issue, so that neither side can complain that it was neglected. I want to show the facts as they are and allow the viewer to make their own conclusions. As a "conspiracy theorist" (which I prefer to rename "truth seeker") I believe the only conclusions can either be refusal to believe the obvious for fear of what the truth means, or a changed perspective about the media's lies about what really happened that day. To combat fear, I want to empower the viewer through painful images of the hurt people and speeches by leaders of our country admitting facts that undermine the very lies they spewed in the beginning. I want to show how they say one thing one day and take back what they said the next. I will use highly emotional music and editing to hopefully cause the viewer to feel he or she must not only get over their fear and embrace the truth, but also decide they must spread the truth to other deceived people.

(Williams)

MODES

Expository, Poetic, and Performative

DEFINITIONS

EXPOSITORY:
Expository is a one sided documentary, usually containing a narrator with the all knowing "voice of God". It choses its topic and explains it in the way the all knowing voice sees it, with very little room for debate. It tells simple facts furthering its view, and it places the facts of the topic in time and history by connecting the topic to the world around it. It makes you believe the topic is important because of how it connects to our world and it makes you believe what it says because the facts are represented as undeniable truth. It often uses experts and eyewitnesses as well as direct contact with the viewer and images and other documents are used for reference.

POETIC:
The poetic mode does not concentrate as much on the truth of the facts so much as finding inner truth through mood created by images, sound, tone, color, and texture of the topic. It creates a connection between what is true and what is only a fact which can be taken in or out of context. It creates alternate viewpoints for the viewer and allows them to see the facts in a new way. Non-continuity editing also helps create this feeling. It breaks down traditional views of the world and allows you to rebuild the facts in a new light, often letting you see the facts in a completely new way. The characters used are not well developed, and editing is carried out over time and space instead of in order of what makes sense for a good argument. In a sense, it is all about disillusionment, messing with the viewer's mind to leave them off balance and confused, then bringing them back in, but with a new perspective.

PERFORMATIVE:
Performative mode is highly personal and subjective, and often takes a "day in the life of" approach, to use that one person's personal perspective as a way of seeing a bigger issue in a new light. It questions the accepted view of a historical event, as well as questioning the public's memory of an event. It can lead to an alternative view of an otherwise accepted fact. It connects to the viewer in a personal way, bringing the viewer more into the topic and allowing them to think about a new perspective because they connect to the person's story and relate to it more than they do a broad story of an event that has no direct effect on them since they did not go through it.

Notes For My Projects

EXPOSITORY

For my expository project, I am going to do a video of 9/11 as seen through history of other government sponsored terrorism. I'll show videos of past events and how they were declassified as being caused by the government. Then I will tie those events with 9/11, using the comparison to strengthen my argument. I'll have expert commentary giving facts about the scientific aspects that caused the towers to fall, as well as a few personal interviews with people who were there, perhaps even those that were in the building. I will be using video with a few still images of the event worked in, perhaps during the personal interviews. I'll use a voice over in the beginning to introduce the topic and to guide the interviews. I want to use expository to its fullest, making it seem as if there is no other way to explain 9/11. I want the facts to be overwhelming and the footage to incorporate shocking and painful images to motivate people to anger that our government would do this to its people. I think in the beginning I may open with the traditional view of 9/11 as being caused by terrorists. I will start with news footage from that day, with people running while the towers collapse and a few montaged interviews with people who are angry at the "terrorists" that they think did it. Each found footage segment will be interspersed with black, and quick fade in and outs, to make the episodes reflect a light going on and off, in a rhythmic fashion to make it seem like a war zone. Then I will change to the "conspiracy theorist" view, with footage of the planes hitting a building, only in black and white and sped up, then frozen as the voice over begins and poses a question: "What if what we thought we knew about 9/11 turned out to be wrong?" Then black, with nothing but voice over- "What if we blamed the wrong people?" Here I'll add music and start a visual still images montage of people hurt in 9/11; images of the towers, the people covered in dust, the tears and the walls of missing persons, etc. After that I'll start with the actual backstory of government sponsored terrorism and experts' commentary, etc. This way I will draw the viewer in by the pain they see, and they will want to listen to the facts because their interest will be piqued. I see this project as being a feature length video, so I will make the beginning segment, as well as use a few sample interviews for the later part of the video, but I will not be able to make the entire video I imagine. Instead, I will write out my ideas and use videos to give examples of the feature I envision.

POETIC

For my poetic video I will be playing with the images available online that evoke emotion about what happened that day, and will be focusing on the missing persons wall, supplemented with interviews of people who lost friends and family in the towers. Over their interviews and images I will use soft, heart wrenchingly sad songs of loss. In the midst of the songs I will use fade in and fade out editing techniques like in the first one, but not in a rhythmic war zone way. Instead, the fades will be soft and long, to evoke moments of silence to each of the lost victims. In addition to these, I will overplay speeches by our leaders, both good and damning. A few will be phrases from Bush's big speech about the war on terror, but in the next beat, I will bring in voices of corrupt leaders lying to the public, followed by people who testify that the story of 9/11 was false. These phrases will follow the lies, undermining the story we were told. The phrases will fade in and out just like the music and the images and videos do, causing the overall effect to run truth into fiction, covered overall with strong emotion and sadness for the lost. In the end I want to viewer to feel carried along in the emotion tide of images, songs, and rhythms created. Over this all will be the 9/11 speeches, both lies and truths. I will try to construct this in a way to change a person's mind from what they were told to what the real facts are, but without using straight-forward "you must believe this" expository documentary ways like the first project. This one will be more for the viewer to decide the truth. I'm hoping that they will hear the truth almost subconsciously and that their minds will catch the phrases deep down where their minds can be changed without them feeling force-fed.

PERFORMATIVE

For this mode I will be focusing on the fate of Flight 93. I will be using eyewitness accounts to tell the story that is different from what the media has told us. I want to edit these different accounts together, running their stories together and therefore playing their accounts off each other to reach one consistent point. I will be using a touch of expository in this example as well because I will be using the eyewitness accounts in conjunction with a voice over to pull the facts together into one plain truth, that Flight 93 was switched out and the drone plane that was supposed to hit WTC 7 was shot down before it could hit its target, thanks to the brave military men that decided to disobey orders. I will pull in videos that show leaders admitting the plane was shot down as well as using copies of Operation Northwoods to explain that the idea of 9/11 had already been thought out in this declassified document. I will also be using Flight 93 manifests to show how the number of passengers on these flights were suspiciously low and that the people that were on the plane had intelligence connections and probably were in on the whole plot from the beginning. I will also mention through facts brought in by other 9/11 researchers that the so called terrorists were actually intelligence operatives. I will use text over the copies of manifests to pull out specific people that can be proved as having intelligence connections. I will not be using much music in this video because I don't see it as being emotional like the other two, but rather it will be more factual and the "music" will be the voice overs of the narrator, the eyewitness accounts, and the leaders admitting the flight was shot down. I see this as a more personal perspective from the eyewitnesses, so I want the viewer to feel they are talking directly to the person being interviewed, not watching a documentary where they are being fed a story to believe. I see this as another longer project that I may not be able to make entirely, but for sections where technical needs get in the way I will write out what I am missing and use later videos for examples. Mostly, however, I will try to make this video in its entirety.

WORKS CITED

1) Williams, A.D. September 11 News. com. 12 April 2008.
http://www.september11news.com/index.html