More and more films are getting hard to categorize, are they a narrative or documentary? "Favela Rising" raised this question again, and in very interesting ways. As Mike Nichols suggests in his book "Introduction to Documentary," there are two types of films: documentaries of wish fulfillment, commonly referred to as fiction films, and documentaries of social realities, commonly referred to as documentary films. "Favela Rising" is a film that sits in both camps.

On the one hand the film tells a solid story and shares the aspirations of Anderson Sá, a leader of the AfroReggae cultural movement that exists to counteract the drug violence in a handful of the favlelas in Rio de Janeiro. The film plays a role in creating the myth of Anderson Sá as a leader and co-founder of the movement, without getting into the messy details of too many facts and details. Not that the film should. Anderson Sá's position as a role model is more important that any mission of documentary purity for specific facts of what actually happened when. The truth lies beyond the fact, and myth is a powerful vehicle for social change.

The film at the same time is a documentary, not a documentary about it's central character, for that story plays out more like a narrative, but the film is a poweful documentary about the social realities that lead to a third of Rio's population being abandoned and ignored by the other two thirds. The citizens who live in the favelas are not afforded the same rights as other Brazilian citizens, for them the law is in the hands of teenage drug gangs and the police are accomplices to the drug lords providing arms, looking the other way, and collecting a handsome sum.

This reality is clearly depicted in other films like the documentary "Bus 174" and the narrative "City of God". While "City of God" is clearly in the narrative camp, "Bus 174" is clearly in the documentary camp. "Favela Rising" is different from these two films dealing with similar social realities in that it clearly and unapologetically staddles the line between narative and documentary and is better for it.

I suspect that this staddling is one of the reasons for not only the films popularity, but it's ability to motivate people. The film has caught the attention of the Ford, Hewlett, and Kellog Foundations as an entertainment vehicle that can be used as a device to inspire other communties with parallel problems to look at how they can solve their problems from inside-out using their internal resources. The film has the potential to go way beyond the festival circuit and small audience of documentary film lovers and become an agent for social change.

So, yes, "Favela Rising" is a documentary, and it's a powerful documentary, because it's both types: a documentary of both wish fulfillment and a documentary of social realities. And as a film, it stands as a potentially more powerful agent of change than it could be if it had followed either the conventions of narrative alone or the conventions of documentary alone. Maybe films like this are bringing to the fore a new mode of documentary, the narrative documentary.

An interview I did with Jeff Zimbalist, co-director of the film, appears in the September issue of NewEnglandFilm.com.]]> 2006-02-01T05:02:18Z 2006-02-01T05:00:08Z tag:www.kino-eye.com,2006://1.91 2006-02-01T05:00:08Z

The video podcasts I've been doing with students at CDIA are compressed from Final Cut Pro using the "Export => QuickTime Conversion" menu and then selecting the desired options (described below).

The only downside is that older systems can't play the movies, they require QuickTime 7 for Windows (running 2000 or XP) or Macintosh (running Panther or Tiger), there are other options for playing back H.264, however, QuickTime 7 is by far the easiest in install and use, and it's a free download from Apple. QuickTime 7 Pro offers additional features for $29.95. This will be required for it's authoring features that include creating video for iPod, simple cuts-only editing with cut, copy and paste simplicity, and convert (or export) media formats as described in this post.

From Final Cut Pro I've been making movies for download (and playback using QuickTime 7 player or Browser Plug-In with QuickTime's wonderful "Fast Start" capability that offers download quality and streaming performance (with a fast Internet connection) that beats hands down other download or streaming video options in terms of overall quality and experience.

Export Option: Movie to QuickTime Movie
Compression Tool: Export using QuickTime 7 Conversion via Final Cut Pro

VIDEO SETTINGS

• Size: Use Custom Size: Width: 320, Height: 240
• Movie Settings: Compression Type: H.264
• Movie Settings: Frame Rate: 15fps
• Movie Settings: Motion: Key Frames: Automatic
• Movie Settings: Motion: Frame Reordering is checked
• Movie Settings: Conpressor: Quality: Best
• Movie Settings: Compressor: Encoding: Best Quality (Multi-Pass)
• Movie Settings: Data Rate: Data Rate: Restrict to 300 kbit/sec
• Movie Settings: Prepare for Internet Streaming (checked on): Fast Start (select this option from the pop-up)

AUDIO SETTINGS

• Sound Settings: Format: AAC
• Sound Settings: Channels: Stereo (L R) (and you can save a little bit rate if you go for Mono).
• Sound Settings: Sampling Rate: 32.000
• Sound Settings: Sample Rate Converter Settings: Quality: Best
• Sound Settings: AAC Encoder Settings: Target Bit Rate: 64 kbps (or 96 kbs for better stereo audio, do some tests and find what's acceptable to you)

NOTES

For viewing on computer screens when there's not a lot of motion, you save big time bringing the data rate down to 15fps.

QuickTime's Fast Start feature allows the QuickTime player (or Browser Plug-In) to start playing the movie before the download completes. If movies stutter or stop on playback via the web, see the support page " Getting the best playback with Internet movies" on the Apple web site.

This combination of video and audio settings will end up limiting the the total data rate to 364 to 396 kbit/sec which yields acceptable 1/4 screen playback (320 x 240) and reasonable download times with home DSL and Cable Model connections. If you have a lot of complex music and your audio track is stereo, you might want to bump the AAC Encoder Target Bit Rate up to 128 kbps.

One price you pay for the the improved image quality of this recipe is that given the H.264 codec and choosing the best quality multi-pass compression, it will take a long time for your movies to compress, but the wait is worth it, like a fine Cabernet.

One issue is that this movie will be small and download quickly, however, for use with an iPod via iTunes there is one small problem, the movie will require conversion in iTunes before it can be dragged directly to a video iPod.

You can create movies that can be dragged directly to a video iPod without conversion if you choose the Export: "Movie to iPod (320 x 240)" setting instead of the Export: "Movie to QuickTime Movie" setting, however, it creates movies that are about 30% larger than the settings I like to use.

For a SEAMLESS direct download and iTunes/iPod experience, you might consider offering two options, but then it starts to get messy. I've not found a set of settings yet that yield the BEST OF BOTH worlds, drag to iPod without conversion and smaller file size for better playback via download. This is an ongoing investigation.

1. Open the movie in QuickTime Player
2. Select the "Show Movie Properties" Menu
3. A Dialog Box comes up, click on "Video Track"
4. Uncheck the check box that says "Preserve Aspect Ratio,"
5. Enter the new width in place of the old width (428 in the case of a 320 x 240 movie) in the text entry field labeled "Scaled Size", then press return and you'll see the movie change it's aspect ratio.
6. Save the movie, now it will open up and play as a 16:9 movie rather than 4:3 with a squeezed image.

That's it, this does require the player to scale in real time which might have a slight performance impact on slower machines. If things don't play as expected on a video iPod, there's a preference somewhere along the lines of "Play Widescreen" that needs to be set right.

Because these headphones are designed for professional use, replacement parts are available, as the MDR-7506 is a standard among broadcast professionals and rental houses who need to be able to order spare parts to keep their equipment in tip top shape, so unlike many other headphones in the $100. category, these are actually designed to be repaired in the field, all the parts are available in case you need to replace something like the soft ear pads, that eventually get damaged with constant use, true for any brand.

I own a pair and a while back ordered a whole bunch for them for use at school, and over the years this has been the model I have specified when I've rented audio equipment for video and film production, it's been around for a while, and remains popular.

Now the fact that they are accurate and flat in terms of frequency response is good and bad. They don't color the sound, so if you're looking for artificial boost or warmth in your music, these headphones will not provide it. On the other hand, with good audio sources they are a joy to listen to in terms of their accuracy.