Sunday, July 16, 2017

MOVIES.FICTION.FACTS:THE RESULT OF CRITICAL RESEARCH AND STUDIES OF THE CONTENT OF HISTORICAL FILMS AND FEATURE FILMS ABOUT THE SECRET AND HIDDEN USE OF ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE



-Media Archaeology-

THE GOAL
The main aim of the paper presented is to debate and to inform about the increasing use of stock footage in historical movies and feature films which are introduced to viewers as a fictional piece of art only. Some film directors have made statements about the issue of creating fictional movies by using shots of real events and persons. The research of about four thousand movies and documentaries have revealed the assumption that fiction is not fiction in fictional movies and in historical films. The paper will also deal with some of the reasons for secret and hidden use of material kept in audiovisual archives.

DEFINITIONS
Stock footage, archive footage  , newsreels, documentary film and stock shots are concepts that need to be defined and explained to understand the result of the research done to discover hidden use of real shots in movies.
Stock footage and archival footage: Recorded material, such as film footage and videotape footage, that is stored and kept by a television company ,a television corporation, a television network or other media outlet archived to be broadcast when a subject relating to images in the material is discussed.
Stock shot: A single piece of stock footage is called ” stock shot” or ” library shot”.
Newsreels: A short documentary film containing  filmed news stories  and items of topical interest. Newsreels are considered significant historical documents because the films are often the only audiovisual record of historical and cultural events of those times.
The history of newsreels: Short documentaries regulary  released between 1910 to 1960 in a public presentation place  containing political news, current affairs and daily life matters. The new television companies made their own newsreels for transmission. Therefore the making of newsreels died out. Cuba, Japan and Spain continued  producing newsreels into the 1980s and 1990s.
Documentary film/videotape: A broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt to document  reality. Stock footage is used intended to make some aspect of reality but the shots have to be used in the correct context.

THE SOURCE FOR THE RESEARCH AFTER HIDDEN EXCERPTS USED IN MOVIES

The main source for my research was my private collections of movies and documentries contenting about four thousands films.The movies have been viewed more than once and photos have been taken to show the excerpts used. The result of the research have led to many discoveries of incorrect incorporation of stock footage in documentries produced and transmitted by television companies worldwide. The incorrect use or misuse of stock shots discovered will not be dealt with in this paper written to document the active and secret use of real shots in movies only. The Credits lists of and the official critics of the movies were  important objects for the research after archival footage used in the films selected.

ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE IN MOVIES

To highlight the issue of making use of real shots in movies, six movies have been selected to illustrate the difficulties in finding  archival footage used in the movies.
The selected movies are:

-Casablanca
-Persona
-En pasjon(English title: The Passion of Anna )
-Hemngway & Gellhorn
-Ashes and Diamonds
-Uprising

Some facts about the movies.

CASABLANCA was released in 1942. The film is directed by Michael Curtiz. The main actors are: Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart and Paul Henreid. The plot of the film is about an American expatriate who must make a choice between his love for a woman or helping her  husband who is a Czech Resistance leader making an escape from Casablanca. The French city was  controlled by the French Vichy rule of France. The film is not an American romantic drama film only. No. It is a film dealing with  international conflicts leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War. It is a political film contenting  talks about the reasons for the fight  for a democratic society and an attack on the policy of the Nazi German  wanting to occupy country after country.

The film was not made in Casablanca but at Warner Bros.Studios in Burbank, California, USA. An exception is the sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, USA.

The City of Casablanca has made an attempt making tourists believe that the famous ” Rick’s Cafe Americain” was situated in th Ciy of Casablanca. As a tourist in Casablanca some years ago I found ” Rick’s Cafe  Americain”.


The song  ” As Time Goes By ” by Herman Hupfeld  is played in the movie.

PERSONA was released in 1966. The film is directed , produced and written by Ingmar Bergman.The main actors are: Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Bjørnstad and Margaretha Krook.The plot is about an encounter between two women: A successful actress who became mute and a nurse charged with caring her. The themes of, Persona, are duality, insanity and personal identity.
The working titles of, Persona, were many: Sonat før två kvinnor( Sonata for two Women), Ett stycke kinematografi ( A Piece of Cinematography), Opus 27, and Kinematografi.

EN PASJON was released in 1968. The film is directed by Ingmar Bergman. The main actors are: Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow. The English title is: The Passion of Anna.The plot is about a man struggling with the recent demise of his marriage. On the island where he lives alone he meets a woman who is grieving the deaths of her husband and son. The story is also about the relationship between the two persons who are struggling with private emotional problems.

HEMINGWAY  & GELLHORN was released in 2012. The film is directed by Philip Kaufman. The main actors are: Nicol Kidman and Clive Owen.
The film is about the relationship between the American journalist Martha Gellhorn and the American writer Ernest Hemingway. The movie begins in 1936 in Key West, Florida, USA. The plot deals with the career of the famous American journalist and writer, Ernest Hemingway and the American journalist Martha Gellhorn. They are covering the Spanish Civil War, working with  the production of the documentary , The Spanish Earth, together with, Joris Ivens, covering the war in China, making an interview with Chiang Kai-shek, and they also get married. Both are active during the Second World War as journalists. The relationship between the two journalistas are dramatic and
complicated.

ASHES AND DIAMONDS (Original title: Popiol i diament) was released in 1958. The film is directed by Andrzei Wajda. The main actors are: Zbigniew Cybulski, Adam Pawlikowski and Waclaw Zastrzezynski.
The film is based on a novel written by the Polish writer, Jerzy Andrejewski.The plot of the film is the critical political and military situation in Poland in May 1945. Two former Home Army soldiers have been assigned to assassinate a communist commissar. The first attempt to kill the commissar failed. The main person in the film, Maciek, made it the second time. He was killed later on.
A Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1957 awarded the film together with Ingmar Bergmans film, The Seventh Seal.

UPRISING was released in 2001. The film is directed by Jon Avnt. The main actors are: Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Jon Voight and  Donald Sutherland. The plot is about the Polish Jews who were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1943 a revolt against the Nazi German soldiers  took place. The rebellion held back the German soldiers for almost a month in 1943. Half-a-million Polish Jews were imprisoned in the ghetto in Warsaw. The story presented is a fictional story based on events that took place. It is not the aim of the film to describe the tragic events as a correct historical report.

SOME REASONS FOR MAKING USE OF ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE IN NEW MOVIES
-For economic reasons only. It is less expensive making copies of films which were made during a battle or any other historical events than making a reconstruction of the battle or the events.
-To make moviegoers aware of the time of the historical events dealt with in films.
-To avoid making reconstructions of the events in television or film studios.
-Because the reality is better on television news than news made in the studio.
-Copyright is no problem when it comes to use German made newsreels or films from WWII.
-To portrait a person by using shots of the person might make the movie better than using expensive actors.
-Statements made by official persons are important to portrait persons later on.

HOW THE STOCK FOOTAGE HAS BEEN USED IN THE SIX MOVIES SELECTED FOR THE PRESENTATION

”…the Devil is in the Details…”

The discovery of implication of scenes and shots of archival footage in fictional movies is a task for dedicated media searchers, media librarions and above all: Media archaeologists. The work is time consuming. Credits lists have been studied searching for the sources used. But the credits lists are not  reliable sources. No information about the use of stock footage was found on the credits lists of the movies, Persona, and ,Ashes and Diamonds. A reliable source was reading critics of the movies where the writers who had evaluated  the films in details.

CASABLANCA
In the movie, Casablanca, the use of archival footage is not easy to discover by  viewers. You have to study the scenes of the film frame by frame. Casablanca is made in black and white film. The few seconds of archival footage is taken from German  black and white newsreels. The shots described the German invasion of France. German soldiers are advancing towards Paris.

PERSONA
In  the movie, Persona, it is easy to find the archival footage used. The Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann is viewing a television programme. The television set is set up in the room where she stays. The sceen selected for the film is television news of a Vietnamese monk, Thich Quang Durc, in Saigon burning themselves to death with gasoline. The television newsreels made the reality as real as possible. A photo taken in the Warsawa Ghetto was shown too.The photo is taken from an official report prepared by General Jurgen Stroop for the SS chief Heinrich Himmler.The report is referred to as ” The Stroop Report ”. The original title of the report is: ” The Jewish Quarter of Warsaw is No More!” ( German title: Es gipt keinen judischen Wohnbezirk in Warschau mehr!). No fiction. Persona was also made in black and white.


The identity of the boy and the place where the photo was taken is unknown
The archival footage from the Vietnam War is taken in Saigon. The monk Thich Quang Durc is burning to death.

A PASSION OF ANNA-(Orginal title: En pasjon )
The stock footage selected for the movie, ” A Passion of Anna ”, is also easy to find . Ingmar Bergman has selected the famous scene or event in Vietnam where a Vietcong is shot in the head in the street of Saigon by South Vietnamese National Police Chief, Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The date and year: February 1, 1968.The film is made in colour.The archival footage is in black and white.

HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN
The film is made in colour. The archival footage is used to inform Ernest Hemingway about the Spanish Civil War. Facts about the war is presented by viewing a documentry in his home in Key West, Florida, USA.  Newsreels are also shown. Real actions from the  civil war: Shots of the suffering of people, shots of soldiers and shots of the brutal war are presented. Live-action footage and archival footage are appeared seamless. Archival footage was used in a fascinating way where the actors appear to enter historical shots from the Spanish Civil War and other events. The past, the future, and the present are nested through the use of archival film footage.

ASHES AND DIAMONDS
The archival footage was presented by making a scene in a cinema where newsreels about the Second World War is shown to people.
UPRISING
The archival footage was presented by viewing of newsreels in a private room.

DREAM, FICTION, REALITY AND ARCHIVE: OFFICIAL STATEMENTS ABOUT MAKING USE OF REAL SHOTS OF EVENTS INSTEAD OF A RECONSTRUCTIONS IN STUDIOS.
Ingmar Bergman, Philip Kaufmann, Nils R. Muller and Bjørn Lien
The Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman was debating and commenting the role of the artist in many of his films.He was of the opinion that actors and filmmakers was humiliated by people whose interests in films and artists were negative.
Ingmar Bergman has asked himself about the importance of the filmmaker. What was the reason for him to make use of archival footage in two of his films: ” PERSONA” and ” A PASSION FOR ANNA” ? Both films are dealing with dream and reality. He let his actors take care of  dream describtions but not  describtions of the reality. ”… political activity today is precipitated by the news, by television’s immediate closeness to what is going on all over the world. In this respect art has missed the boat completely .Artists are hardly the social visionaries they used to be. And they must not imagine they are! Reality is running away from artists and their political visions…”, statement made by Ingmar Bergman in the book: ” Bergman on Bergman ”. 1970.

The scene selected for the film , Persona,is television news of a Vietnamese monk in Saigon burning t to death with gasoline and a famous photo taken from the Warsaw Ghetto. Television newsreels made the reality as real as possible. The archival footage selected for the film, A passion for Anna, is the famous event in Vietnam where a Vietcong was shot in the head in the street of Saigon by South Vietnamese National Police Chief , Nguyen Ngoc Loan. February 1, 1968 are the date and year for the shot used.
The American film director Philip Kaufman has made a publick statement about making use of archival footage in his movies: ”…People are too eager in throwing away materials(films)wishing to create something  new. The result is the fading of authentic. I like archival footage because it is like stones you find on  the beach and are cleaning in the water. The colours are emerging and you are wondering where they came from…”.  Philip Kaufman made the statement in an interview by Ellen Engelstad in Sodankyla, Finland. The interview was published in the Norwegian newspaper, Klassekampen, June 24, 2013.
The Norwegian film director Nils R. Muller was asked by me about the reason for making use of archival footage in his movie, Contact. He could not give me a good explanation for the selection of archival newsreels  for his film except for economic reasons. Copyright to German newsreels made during th Second World War was not a problem. If he had not made use of German newsreels he had to hire about 100 men dressed like German soldieres for a march in Oslo in 1940. The scene might be very expensive.
Bjørn Lien and Nils R. Muller had no movie philosophy connected to the selections of real stock shots for movies produced by both of them. Bjørn Lien has produced the movie: " The Reward ".


POSTERS OF THE FILMS EVALUATED FOR THE RESEARCH



CONCLUSIONS
A HIDDEN, FORGOTTEN , OR A SECRET ?THE OFFICIAL POLICY OF MAKING USE OF STOCK FOOTAGE IN HISTORICAL AND FEATURE FILMS MUST NOT REMAIN A SECRET FOR THE HAPPY FEW.

”… There is myth that, once digitized, a document or moving image is preserved forever…. The answers to the long-term storage files will only be answered in the long term…” so far Andrea Kalas, former President of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). The new policy of digitalization of movies is important for the preservation of the movies –but we need also a policy for a detailed evaluation of the content of the movies that are announced as  products of fiction and fantasy only.
Archival footage is an important source for new television productions and an important source for making movies too. We do think that any movie released was  a result of fiction and fantasy. My limited presentation of some  of the movies that I have studied during many years,  showed  that archival footage was used in films to make the film better. It is important to recognize the work of audiovisual archives worldwide as sources for education and new productions. Research work viewing files, old filmes, videotapes, photos and sound recordings are a time consuming business recommended for those whose patience must last for years.

Tedd Urnes,
Oslo, August 18, 2017.










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