Kuta Cowboys

Cowboys in Paradise Bali show one way of how entertaining documentaries are mediated. The filmmaker here uncovers how Bali’s Kuta Cowboys have made Bali one world leading tourist destination for romance.

http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/films/view?film_id=104058

What Virmani as a filmmaker succeeds to do for making the talents speak the truth, is maintaining the presence of camera and including ethical risk factors. In relation to the topic of interview, this is what I can learn if Virmani and include into the production of Yanni.Fin.

1 Presence – The camera always alter what is being filmed. It can chang the way people behave and people do change behaviour as they are being filmed, by talking fake, and then maybe not convey the things and the truth I was looking for. The solution here is to have reflexive style; filmmakers can be quite explicit about the camera being there and that is a part of production.

2 Exclusion – The view of the documentary is always partial, not impartial, as the filmmakers chose to speak to certain characters and not others, and also by excluding some events. Every time I button the camera on and off, it will exclude reality. Always set a plan of how long to film and also prepare what is meant to be in the frame. The frame includes things in it but it also excludes things out of it – for whatever reason, always decide to exclude some things and not others.

3 Manipulation - The things we film in film is also manipulate the way he or she sees the world. Editing constructs the reality of the film and the interview, not just capturing somebody speaking.

Lastly, the moral ethical risks in documentary filmmaking are the adverse issue of representation (as seen in the glorifying of German Nazis), the issue of news camera people (do they intervene into the car crash environment when people start crying or do they keep on filming?), and the release form.

The release form is what the talents are actually agreeing to and so are the negotiated informal rights of subject – the unwritten contract.