to me, b-roll is like the experimental filmmaker's treat when making a narrative film or a documentary which is usually fairly story driven.....i love experimental film so i love b-roll. i can appreciate b-roll because i know how powerful visuals can be on tone and mood. i think our 5 minute documentary could be half b-roll and still be very effective. because we are making a film about buddhism, i think aesthetics will be especially important. here are my ideas:
-time lapses: sunrise/sunset at the monastery, drive to and from bolivia, general nature scenes
-the monk's in none-serious moments: walking around in haynes socks, laughing, playing, eating
-ceremonial footage
-big churches in bolivia and wilmington
-buddhist iconography at the monastery and in wilmington
-people eating fast food
-busy city streets, buildings, etc.
i think most of my b-roll ideas are either nature based, which is very related to buddhism, or they are images showing the similarities/differences between buddhist life and american culture. for example, i think it would be a really nice juxtaposition/irony to show the monks eating in their element: a begging bowl full of rice and native thai food; followed by us americans stuffing our faces with fast food; but then again followed by the monks eating delivery pizza (which we saw at the ceremony last month). i would like to show how buddhist monks have a drastically different way of thinking and arriving at their behavior, but that ultimately they can arrive at the very same conclusions as we do. in my opinion, buddhism is not so much about changing behavior as it is about recognizing the behavior that we choose to enlist and creating meaning for it.
peace, genevieve
The Buddhist Flag
The five colors of the flag represent the colors of the aura that emanated from the body of the Buddha when he attained Enlightenment
1 comment:
i absolutely agree that your film can have tons of b-roll. its a concept your dealing with. a philosophy. so using the aesthetics of the idea makes sense...and is also, i think, more capable of speaking to people in an effective way.
definately get close ups of all the little details at the monastery. zoom in on the buidling details. is it older? is there peeling paint? are there shiny surfaces? what textures are there? cloth? color? skin? wrinkles? inside the building what sort of objects are used in the ceremony? can you get close ups of these before or after? can you get close ups of his office? we have the establishing shot, but go in close and get some details. I think getting these little details of their whole world will give you an amazing library to work with. it all just lends itself to you cinematically.
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