American Bisque - found footage no narration 3 hr political documentary

(this is the entire rough cut, part 3 by itself is still online though) Edited July 18, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

Politics sub-forum pls

Don't think it's necessary but I don't oppose the concept, maybe you should make a poll?

Got this off youtube yesterday. Looking forward to watching it this weekend. I noticed this said Part 3, so how long is the entire feature?

the rough cut is right now 3 hours 24 minutes. Trying to get it down to 3 or shorter.

Having one guy as The President works pretty well as a distraction from all the real sketchy lurkers whose names we'll never know.

watching these really unsettles me.

we're on the brink of....

The music is completely inappropriate, and is too overbearing. Documentary music should compliment the tone of the narrative, and not be full of tunes you like for the sake of it. I was trying to concentrate on what was being said and this dance music was annoying the shit out of me until I had to kill the video.

 

had to...

Edited July 12, 2013 by Audioblysk

the music makes it hard to understand the voices properly - maybe it should fade a bit down whenever people are talking

the music is terrible

lol, i skipped to the end because I figured you'd put the Machinedrum track there. I was right. Also, yeh the music is annoying. Death fuck in a documentary, no thanks.

looool, ouch.

 

happen to agree though, like rumbo I turned it off after 4:57, mainly due to the music, although the content was also a bit tiring. Though I know it would be a ton more work, it'd be great to have it be a more standard documentary, something like the "hidden history of the war on terror." That would probably require a decade's worth of research and clip-digging though. For what this is, visually it's "quite good". But the music does undermine it.

Why not make Obama look like Bush in 10 mins? Or less?

I agree it is too loud in parts, surprised so many people find the musical accompaniment annoying though. Is it because the music is busy beat driven and not background type music?

so just to clarify for those who literally had to turn it off or found the music 'inappropriate' or 'terrible', if it had different music or the same music at a much lower volume would it be watchable? Or is this whole idea just not your cup of tea. Please don't hold back with the criticism, I have a thick skin.

Edited July 12, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

  On 7/12/2013 at 7:43 PM, Pennywise said:

Death fuck in a documentary, no thanks.

if it was a song from SAWII would you say 'thanks' or still 'no thanks'. Im just trying to understand why such a good track like Death fuck can't belong in a documentary. Is it just the way that I'm using it?

Edited July 12, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

  On 7/12/2013 at 8:06 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

I agree it is too loud in parts, surprised so many people find the musical accompaniment annoying though. Is it because the music is busy beat driven and not background type music?

 

so just to clarify for those who literally had to turn it off or found the music 'inappropriate' or 'terrible', if it had different music or the same music at a much lower volume would it be watchable? Or is this whole idea just not your cup of tea. Please don't hold back with the criticism, I have a thick skin.

you should just present the useful content and leave the background music to the networks

Yes unfortunately it's way too obtrusive (both in terms of audio level and tone). I'm sure in the right context and dynamic Death Fuck (in fact all the tracks used) could easily used in a doc (maybe something with more rapid cuts) but here the disparity between the visuals and the soundtrack is really quite detrimental at getting across the message that doc is trying to convey.

 

I think as an example (since you raised it) some SAWII tracks would be more fitting - as a trial (if it's not too much of a pain) try something like this on the section from 17:40 onwards

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcn2ZZxA5G4

 

(not sure if it'll work, just a thought !)

 

EDIT: But hell it's your doc, obviously you have an idea about what sort of tone you're wanting to achieve here so it's not really for me to say if the music choice is necessarily wrong or not !

thanks for the feedback, ill take it into consideration. this is essentially a temp music soundtrack, i'll experiment with using some more ambient selections in it.

There are 2 parts in this that are entirely set to ambient, maybe you could check out those and see if they work vs the more jarring beat driven stuff. 8:22 - 12:23 & 25:45 - 29:29

Edited July 12, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

  On 7/12/2013 at 8:06 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

I agree it is too loud in parts, surprised so many people find the musical accompaniment annoying though. Is it because the music is busy beat driven and not background type music?

 

so just to clarify for those who literally had to turn it off or found the music 'inappropriate' or 'terrible', if it had different music or the same music at a much lower volume would it be watchable? Or is this whole idea just not your cup of tea. Please don't hold back with the criticism, I have a thick skin.

I would copy the musical concept of a documentary you like. Its supposed to be a soundtrack pushing the mood of the story in a subtile way best if you do not notice why it makes you feel in a certain way.

Edited July 12, 2013 by o00o

Do you discuss any solutions in the film?

  On 7/12/2013 at 8:30 PM, mcbpete said:

Yes unfortunately it's way too obtrusive (both in terms of audio level and tone). I'm sure in the right context and dynamic Death Fuck (in fact all the tracks used) could easily used in a doc (maybe something with more rapid cuts) but here the disparity between the visuals and the soundtrack is really quite detrimental at getting across the message that doc is trying to convey.

 

I think as an example (since you raised it) some SAWII tracks would be more fitting - as a trial (if it's not too much of a pain) try something like this on the section from 17:40 onwards

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcn2ZZxA5G4

 

(not sure if it'll work, just a thought !)

 

EDIT: But hell it's your doc, obviously you have an idea about what sort of tone you're wanting to achieve here so it's not really for me to say if the music choice is necessarily wrong or not !

 

Personally I think using SAW tracks as background music is sort of overdone. So I can see why John would be reaching for other material to pull from.

You should use some Thomas Köner.

  On 7/12/2013 at 8:52 PM, Bread said:

Do you discuss any solutions in the film?

there isn't any narration, so no discussion from my own point of view in a literal sense is ever interjected. at earlier parts in the film (before what is shown i this section) i try to convey some solutions as best as I could.

 

i also realized labeling this as a documentary is not even accurate. Just in case anyone missed it:

you could watch it as more of a long political music video/dj mix since the footage is being cut to the beats

Edited July 12, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

  On 7/12/2013 at 8:54 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

Personally I think using SAW tracks as background music is sort of overdone.

Yes I absolutely agree, I was just suggesting it as an example of tone. I think the first and last doc to get away with it was this (though RDJ personally hates it)

 

 

  On 7/12/2013 at 8:35 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

There are 2 parts in this that are entirely set to ambient, maybe you could check out those and see if they work vs the more jarring beat driven stuff. 8:22 - 12:23 & 25:45 - 29:29

Yeah IMO those ones work perfectly. They're a little loud - well actually it's not that they're too loud it's just that some of the dialogue is a bit too quiet, maybe try a bit of compression to boost the volume/give more consistency in the levels of the clips used.