Article

Name: Between Vertov and Flaherty: Editing Strategies for Representing Reality in Film and Television Practice

Authors: Elizaveta A. Manskova

Altay State University, Barnaul, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The paper discusses the actual problem of documentary film devaluation, the disappearance of clear boundaries between play and non-fiction, fact, and fiction. The author analyzes this phenomenon from modern directors’ and reporters’ technological strategies in television and documentary films. The structural-semiotic approach allowed focusing on the technical coding analysis of reality. The author concludes that the dominance of the two main editing strategies in film and television practice can be designated by the terms “Vertov” and “Flaherty” approaches. In the “Flaherty” approach, the fact is given the properties of a dramatically finished story at the intra-frame editing stage, in other words, while filming; at the same time, using the reconstruction method is acceptable. The “Vertov’s” approach supposes that the director or reporter does not interfere in the event’s course, relying on the following methods: reportage, observation, hidden or familiar camera. The drama of the recorded event, if it lacks texture, is created at the stage of interframe editing. Based on observations of modern editions of information and content analysis, the author concludes that nowadays, the “Flaherty” approach dominates in information production and the “Vertov” one – in documentary film practice. However, the absence of norms and canons in both approaches leads to a distortion of the documentary method and violation of a documentary film’s accuracy principle.

Keywords: Dziga Vertov, Robert Flaherty, documentary film, television, editing, staging, accuracy

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