Making of Documentary Films - Essay Example

one of the most important things to be considered while filmmaking is the ethical dimensions of the subject, the story, the articulation of different scenes, to the moral justification of the utilization of media for creating awareness or creating a means of violence in the minds of the audience (Maccarone p.200).

In most cases, the ethical considerations are mostly ignored by the filmmaker and only major attention is given to utilizing it for earning huge sums of money. Ethics are a continuous issue that is required to be carefully considered while filmmaking. This hard decision-making is extremely dominant in documentary development, due to the difficulties linked to shooting “social actors or ‘real people’ (Nichols p.2). More significantly, the ethical matters confronted by a filmmaker dissent amongst each of the modes of documentary. Each peculiar documentary mode impersonates different conventional choices that must be attained to function in an ethical style.

Two such documentary films made to expose the way ethics should be considered when commencing a documentary are ‘Capturing the Friedmans in 2003 and ‘Etre at Avoir’ in 2001. These films had been created in distinct documentary modes, spotlighting that none of the modes facilitates the ethical decisions linked with it. Moreover, the fact that needs to be considered is the way the choices of styles in each mode may impact the power relationships between the filmmaker, the subject of the film, and its audience, (Nichols p.10).

The significance of ethics while filmmaking, is ignored as they appear in the filmmaking world to lead the behavior due to a lack of such rules and guidelines (Nichols p.20). It has been argued by Bill Nichols that the important question to think about is the way the people are treated around which the whole documentary is based. As mentioned afore, despite the type of filmmaking, the filmmakers should be regarded as responsible for the ethical considerations regarding the subjects of those films particularly in documentary filmmaking. Similarly, they may be regarded as justifying their actions as documentary filmmaking exhibits the social dilemma of individuals within society. So the basis of their decision-making should be supported by various ethical models such as Kantian, Utilitarian, or Aristotelian. But it has been seen that this aspect is quite ignored in developing a documentary (Unite For Sight, Inc.).

Critically evaluating various aspects of the issue considered in the film various aspects of social ethics are completely ignored. So while considering filmmaking the ethical aspects should not be ignored although they are given less importance and the major responsibility lies with the filmmaker. Read More