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The Fifth Estate
Strangers in Paradise
Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) is an online virtual world. Registers can create “their own “avatar”—a user’s idealized persona that embodies the physique and personality of his or her dreams”. In this episode, Hana Gartner tells two stories about 2 women who live in the real world as well as the virtual cyberspace. Janet is divorced mother, and Carolyn is a housewife and mother of four. Both of them meet their lovers Dutch and Elliott on Second Life, even get married with them. Janet and Carolyn think that this is just virtual world and there is no actual touching, so they never think it is cheating for their families. But Dutch’s wife and Carolyn’s husband don’t think so. They think if someone’s life in the real world is sating in the front of a computer 17 hours per day, her/his life is in the cyberspace. I can image before this doc was shot, the film crew did a lot of preparation work, so we can see Carolyn’s four youth children on the screen. In addition, some setup is set up in this episode. For example, Carolyn is packing for her meeting with her lover in London, and Janet and Dutch are spinning along the highway on a motorcycle.
The Thin Blue Line
This documentary makes me recall a film named The Shawshank Redemption, for they describe similar plots. There is no enough evidence, but an innocent person becomes an offender, and the judicial system gets a problem. From The Thin Blue Line I figure out two things. Firstly, compare with a hug system such as a system of law courts, one single person can be so insignificant; secondly, be careful to chose your friends. To illustrate, Randall Adams knows David Harris who has an arsenal, and he often takes out the gun and shots with any purpose; however, Randall Adams still intermingles with the extremely dangerous gangster. I also learn a lot from the doc. I understand that if you are a smart filmmaker, you can make use of many things to tell your story. In this doc an ashtray is used to show that Randall Adams is so anxious in the calaboose, and a falling cup on the ground with drink can make you imagine that the police officer is falling down and bleeding.
TVOntario
Wipe Out
These are the stories of three young men living with brain injuries. They describe how they got brain injuries and their feeling during those serious accidents. This program wants to tell a truth to viewers: there many people are crazy about the extreme sport in Canadian, and it’s the leading cause of death and disability among sporters. It’s too dangerous so that “more than 100.000 Canadians are brain injured each year” like other docs, they only disclose this phenomenon, but it’s hard to find an effective way to stop it. Because this program describes extreme sports, in the postproduction it makes every shot very short so that we can imagine that some accidents happen so quickly. Of course, it’s a kind of film style.
LEo
60 Minutes, is considered the preeminent investigative television newsmagazine in the United States and is the only regularly scheduled television program in American. In CBS 60 Minutes on Jan 11 2009, Steve Kroft explores the change of oil prices. The gas price is still a sensitive issue because nearly every family in North America owns at least a car. Steve Kroft says in his investigation of the swings that, "There must be someone answerable for this because some large corporations are controlling the gas price but general market factors”. （http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4713523n.) Next David Martin introduces Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. Then Scott Pelley features Wyclef Jean, a famous Haitian American musician and the creator of the foundation Yele Haiti. They talk about providing resources and assistance to Haiti because Haitian is in rioting and food shortages now. Last, in A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney, Andy Rooney shares his favorite holiday: Fourth of July. Because it involves fireworks.
Gimme Shelter is a 1970 landmark documentary film and is called “the greatest rock film ever made”. It follows the Rolling Stones on their disastrous 1969 US tour. After 4 months of the Woodstock Music Festival, Rolling Stones gave the free Altamont concert. It originally could be a significant festival for their fans. Unfortunately, about 300,000 people collided with a few dozen Hell’s Angels, security guards around the stage, and the terrible scene was recorded in the film, Gimme Shelter. The film is named after the lead track from the Rolling Stones' album, Let It Bleed. The film begins with the Stones watching at rough cuts of the concert and then captures the disastrous events in the history of rock and roll. It also profiles the performances and violence.
Today, the National Geographic Channel brings me back to China. The topic is the Forbidden City this time. A film crew from America took a chance and captured the scenes of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City, located in the center of Beijing, is one of the best preserved imperial palaces in the world. It was the Chinese imperial palace for 500 years and was a city within a city. From 1420 to 1912, Twenty four Chinese emperors lived and ruled China there. It is reported that there are 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden City. For almost five centuries, access was denied to all but the Emperor and his household. Now the Forbidden City opens as a museum. National Geographic Channel provides us an extraordinary access to the largest palace complex in the world and uncovers some secrets about it.
Unlike CBS 60 Minutes and the documentary film, Gimme Shelter, during this program, the National Geographic Channel involves more communications with audiences. For example, it often tells viewers how they took those amazing pictures. Therefore, we can see the camera and the photographer from the documentary clearly. While the main pattern of CBS 60 Minutes involves a number of interviews, different from Gimme Shelter, which more like telling stories to audiences.
LEo
