Canadian Film Forum

taraczkozi claudia · Junior Data inscrierii: 21/Mar/2010 Mesaje: 8

http://www.nfb.ca/film/pukaskwa_national_park

General aspects

Bill Mason had a creative career, being a commercial artist, animator, filmmaker, author and painter. In the process of making a film he did all the work, the directing, editing, filming, scripting and research. Being a real professional, Mason used to write a script before starting to shoot. In this way he wanted to depict exactly how he intended to film every scene or action sequence. In order to find the ideal location, the right light and all the conditions to make a good job, he stayed in the wilderness during the shooting, sleeping in a tent or under his canoe.
Called "wilderness artist," as he canoed all of his adult life and left many books, films and artwork on canoeing and wild nature. (Shoebridge)
These aspects are also shown in the documentary called Pukaskwa National Park. As the title suggests, this film focuses on a natural environment, on a place which attracts tourists and which stands as a symbol for Canada’ natural environment. This film is a real source of information, as it reveals geographical aspects but also different human activities typical for this place such as hiking, canoing or camping. Related to this, the narrator’s voice is often interrupted by people’s voices and dialogues. However, his voice is a very persuasive one, and it often emphasizes some words in order to persuade the viewers of the beauty of those places.
Moreover, this documentary is a mixture of present and past information. Regarding this, the producer inserts images from both present and past for the same object just to highlight the contrast between them. Therefore, this documentary is a mixture of present and past aspects about the same place, a contrast which gives a clear idea about the ancestors’ way of living but also past and present background.

Camera movements
Being a documentary based on geographical aspects, one can notice a preference for zooming the images either it is about zoom in or out. This can be seen even from the beginning where there are presented general information about the place where the park is situated. The producer’s aim is to particularize a certain object he is focusing on and then to locate it in a more general panorama. As the film focuses to present landscapes, static objects, natural elements there is little camera travelling. However, besides the geographical aspects, the plants, the weather, the animals, the documentary highlights also the activities which tourists could do in this place. Related to this, when the movie shows certain dynamic activities such as canoeing or hiking, the camera is following the objects mainly by free-handled as the background is shaking. Thus, the producer wants to offer the viewers a degree of authenticity and to prove that he actually participated to that expedition and was not just an objective film maker. All in all, camera movement is limited to paning and zoom in and out because the producer wants to pass in the same shot from something vast, panoramic to some details or vice versa.

Proxemics
Taking into account that it is a mainly descriptive documentary, the producer prefers, on the one hand, the long shots and even the extremely long ones. Therefore, the producer has to use large images, to present all the natural elements which can be seen in Pukaskwa National Park. On the other hand, the plants, the rocks or other static and smaller elements are filmed in an extreme close-up, in detailed shots in order to highlight that particular inanimate object (eg. the scratches of a rock).

Composition
This documentary uses mainly the rule of thirds and the essential elements shown in a certain image are situated in one of the basic points. For example, when the top of the hills are described as being rounded off, they are placed in the upper third just to give a clear view of their aspect. Related to this, there are quite many images with landscapes and one can notice that the horizon is never in the middle of the image. When the narrator presents the stone beaches, the horizon in placed in the upper third and the shore occupies the most part of the image in order to emphasize the extent of the stone beaches.
There can be noticed also some diagonals especially when the camera focuses on rocks or hills and in this respect, the camera is paning, following the diagonal. For instance, when two persons are climbing a hill, the camera is following them from down left to up right as it is also the vector of the diagonal.

Focal length
This documentary is filmed in a normal length, namely the camera shows what eyes can normally see. The producer chose to use the normal size in order to create authenticity of the images, of the natural environment.

Conclusions
To sum up, Bill Mason created a very complex documentary either from technical point of view or from the information presented. He made up a film which contains clear images both from micro and macro levels. Therefore, through this film he offers the viewers large panoramas on the land of Pukaskwa National Park but also more detailed sights from the interior space of this place.

Bibliography:

Shoebridge, Tom. (1979). "Bill Mason (1929 - 1988) About Billby", His Camera : the Land and its Creatures. [Online]. http://www.redcanoes.ca/bill/about.html, [31.01..2011]