The steez

After giving Nichols’ reading some serious thought, I feel that one thing he highlighted was sort of glossed over once you consider its true importance.  When discussing the five “departments” of documentary filmmaking, one stood out to me that seems almost more important than the rest:  Style.

Nichols spent all but two paragraphs explaining his thoughts concerning the use of style.  Essentially, he professed that style is like the wrapping a present comes delivered in.  I would argue that while he’s on the right track, the degree of importance may be slightly off.  I would argue that it’s more central than that.  I would say that style is like the marinade a steak has soaked in.  Style should be more highly integrated than a wrapping paper is.  Earlier in the chapter, Nichols talked about Aristotle’s three methods of argument, namely ethos, pathos and logos.  He then proposed that each of the five “departments” appealed to one of those in some way.  Just as a review, those five methods are invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery. 

The method in which somebody conveys a story is almost as important as the story itself.  A poorly presented story is hard to watch, even if the subject matter is enthralling (unless, of course, the story is intentionally presented in a poor manner as a stylistic choice).  One group of people I’ve always appreciated for their storytelling style is Radiolab.  This is honestly the closest thing I got to viewing a documentary outside of class this week.  But this is both brilliantly researched, and brilliantly presented.  PLUS—it features Errol Morris, one of the world’s foremost documentarians and the whole segment is about the pursuit of truth, which should be central to every documentarian’s purposes.

This podcast has not only interesting subject matter, but also does a terrific job of telling it in a way that’s conducive to the story.  Its style is why I have an emotional reaction to it and why it stays embedded in my memory.