Documentary Exegesis

DOCOUMENTARY PROJECT

Exegesis

Len

This documentary focused on a Vietnam War veteran Leonard Shultz. It features his first hand experience of the conflicts he endured, the treatment of soldiers upon their return and the importance of ANZAC day.

The original concept for this documentary was to interview various war veterans and get their views on the current conflicts. This however altered, due to the availability of talent to become a one man’s story within the mess that was the Vietnam War. Another altering factor to our original outline was to include imagery shot at the 2012 ANZAC day marches within Sydney. This in turn was the basis of our documentary.

After collecting the interview and ANZAC footage we decided that the most visually effective piece would encompass Vietnam War footage and the welcome home parade. We also decided to undertone the piece with the instrumental version of He Was Only Nineteen.

A major difficulty with our process was the introduction and establishing the topic. While Len was a very open and honest character he often forgot to relay the question despite our reminders. This led to difficulties when editing the piece down to under 5mins as we wanted the audience to get an overall feel for the topic yet we had little dialogue to work with.

The editing process for this piece was highly educational. Although I am inexperienced at the editing process I feel I managed to put together a fluid documentary. The cuts that I chose and how they are pieced together runs smoothly and follows a linear narrative. The final section in which starts “My own personal opinion...” was originally not going to make the final cut but I feel that this adds an extra level of humanity and personality. 

This process was very enjoyable and highly informative. I would definitely be interested in perusing more interviews with veterans as I feel they each have a unique and interesting story to tell. Furthermore I do not feel that individuals are given the time and arena to openly reflect on their past experiences and apply it to the future. I would have loved to make this piece into a 20 minute documentary as Len delved into some very deeply emotional topics that we would not have been able to do justice to in the allocated time period.

In the future I would aim to go in to a documentary process prepared to making the most out of our talent. I would also aim to allow more time for the pre-production stage so too clearly understand and source out the talent that was required. I would love to have been able to get varying points of view from veterans ranging outside of the Vietnam War. However as an individual piece I think LEN works quite nicely.