My first influence to create a documentary on strong
opinions first occurred when Kate and I were looking at different types of
documentaries. We came across a documentary ‘The Most Hated Family in America’,
which is about a family that have very strong beliefs about many things. They
believe that anyone who disagrees with what they believe are wrong, also they
have very strong beliefs that being homosexual is very, very wrong. We both
found this documentary quite interesting and agreed that there were many
possibilities to create a documentary on strong opinions.
After researching more into documentaries on people with
strong opinions on certain topics, we found a discussion on ‘This Morning’
between two women and their opinion on tattoos. One woman believed that tattoos
were graffiti and ruined your chances in being successful in life, and the
other woman believed that tattoos were beautiful and a form of art, personal to
each different person with them. After watching this, I thought that creating a
documentary on tattoos and people’s opinions on them, could be very
interesting. As tattoos are becoming more and more popular lately I also
thought that people may be more interested in this type of documentary possibly
more than say 15 years ago.
The word tattoo is said to have come from two originations,
from the Polynesian word 'ta' which means striking something, and the tahitian
word 'tatau' which means to mark something. Many years ago, tattoos were
created by striking the body, with pieces of sharp bone with ink on it. It is
said that over time the English translation of this has formed into tattoo, so
the name tattoo just means what it generally was, marking the skin by striking
it. The history of tattooing began over 5000 years ago, and was seen over many
different cultures and on a range of different people. Despite the current
popularity of tattoos and the proof of how long they date back, there still
aren’t many historical records of tattoos.
In 1991 a male frozen body, know as Oetzi, was found on a
mountain between Austria and Italy. This mans body is said to be dated to be at
least 5300 years old. The tattoos on his body consist of horizontal and
vertical lines. Researchers have only been able to guess, that this type of
tattoo was designed to fend off evil spirits, or possibly a kind of rite-of
passage. The most popular opinion of the meaning of these tattoos is that they
were designed to relieve painful joints, as his 57 tattoos are located on
several joints of the body. Some other theories say they could show social
position, ritual markings or even just preference.
Egyptians are well known to have an ancient culture of
tattoos. Mummies have been discovered covered in a rage of tattoos; tattoos in
the Egyptian society were believed to be seen as ritual markings. In Japan
tattooing began on clay figures of deceased individuals. The meaning of these
tattoos on the figures is said to be for religious or mystical purposes. The
earliest acknowledged tattoo in Japan is from 297 AD and has been demonstrated
to be for decorative purposes only. Both Japanese and Chinese cultures
throughout history have not shown a liking to the idea of tattoos. I is still
considered to be a way of contaminating your body. In ancient China a tattoo
was a sign of criminal activity and was a permanent brand to show an individual
as a lawbreaker.
During the late part of the 19th century and the
first half of the 20th century tattoos were popular in circuses. For
over 70 years major circuses employed several completely tattooed people. Some
of these people were exhibited in sideshows, sometimes as ‘freaks’, whereas
others may have performed in the circus as acts such as sword swallowing.
The various words in this word board are what tattoos mean to me,
what I feel are the main topics and controversy's when getting a tattoo what
people consider about tattoos to be wrong and the whole reason for someone to
get a tattoo in the first place. Words will overlap as words can have a 1000
different meanings to loads of different people.
So...
The words that represent what tattoos are to me, as the words:
Healing, Spiritual, Memory, Message.
Healing: Tattoos are more than just ink. I know this. I know
people who consider tattoos to be a form of spiritual healing to them. That the
tattoos on their bodies are a form of redemption.
Spiritual: Tattoos, more often than not, are created with a meaning behind it,
often spiritual. These can vary from giving the wearer good fortune, to showing
praise or dedication to someone/something. This line of thought in tattoos come
from the concept of the tatau.
Memory: People get tattoos for honouring the deceased, remembering
them and as a symbol of carrying them with you forever more. This is a very
noble idea when it comes to tattoos, that you're going through physical pain to
adorn yourself with the memory of a fallen/lost one.
Message: Messages are also very commonplace in the realm of
tattoos. They can range from references to tv shows, showing loyalty to
something for example a gang tattoo all the way up showing people a new
perspective on life or showing people what you believe in as a person.
The words which I believe represent main topics for tattoos are:
Fear, Pollution, Mistake, Opinion, Healing, Redemption, Unison and
Conflict.
Fear: People fear what they don't understand. And with tattoos,
that's very natural. People will look upon, for example, a tattoo of a gun with
someone’s name on it. Now, people may take this literally at first glance and
believe that this person wishes to use a gun on someone with that name, when in
fact it may be a memory of a loved one that was lost to a firearm.
Pollution: This word springs to mind the Christian arguments that
go on about the sanctity of the human body and we shouldn't pollute and scar it
with ink in our flesh. Our flesh is sacred in all aspects and we shouldn't
de-face it as god doesn't have a defaced body and ours was made in likeness of
god and it should remain that way. So...some people believe that tattoos are pollution
in our skin.
Mistake: This word I chose in this sense because it could be seen
as penance for a past mistake? A reminder of past deeds that they wish they
hadn't done or that they wish they could've prevented and this tattoo is either
a way of penance for their mistake, a reminder of what happened or as a form of
redemption which ties into why i chose that word in this sense.
Opinion: This word is the epitome of tattoos. Opinion. It's your
opinion on them. It’s your opinion of their meaning. It’s all different
opinions hosted by different people. What can tattoos do? Many opinions. Are
they good or evil? Again, opinions. Are they always symbolic? Or merely
decoration? Opinions. And that's what this word speaks to me. The world of
tattoos cannot be written, it cannot be defined by just one soul, it's a
plethora of opinions, emotions, meanings, stories, religions, beliefs and the
list goes on. Which is what I’m hoping we can show with our documentary. That
tattoos aren't solely one thing. They're a multitude of topics and meanings
that are different every time to each person viewing them. That they're not
evil, that they are used for good things too.
Healing: This word, again, I chose it because tattoos can be a way
of emotionally healing yourself. There was a story I've heard in which a woman
had lost both her breasts to cancer and that she felt emotionally crushed by
this. She felt ugly, she felt worthless. But then she got tattoos. She felt
beautiful again, she felt confident again and she felt like she could live her
life again. And that is what is truly amazing at what tattoos mean to some
people and what they can offer.
Redemption I've mentioned in the Mistake word description, about
atoning in some way and allowing tattoos to help or be a part of
atonement/penance.
Unison: Tattoos are a great way of sending hidden message to those
who know how to read them. The best examples of these are prisons and
gangs. They label their members with tattoos to show ranking within the group
or to show accolades that person has been awarded. Another example of unison
tattoos is couple tattoos. The types of tattoos that a husband and wife might
get or between a parent and child. These are typically someone’s name or his or
her face or a sentimental line of text that means the world to the bearer of
that tattoo
Conflict: This is exactly what goes on inside the world of
tattoos. The main conflict is people opinions I’ve mentioned that already in
the “Opinion” word description.
The other side to conflict is real world conflict. Wars and
battles, they have the potential for loss of life and that idea of getting a
tattoo is talked about in the “Memory” word description. Our military also has
an idea of getting a tattoo to show your loyalty to your unit and to the
country your fighting for. This idea obviously hails from the roman legion.
The words I chose to represent why you’d get a tattoo in the
first place were: Spiritual, Memory, Conflict, Mistake and Tattoo
Spiritual: This word I chose because in many base cultures
around the world, people received tattoos for any number of spiritual reasons.
From supposed enhanced abilities to being initiated into a position of power
and then in some cases of being prepared for a ceremony.
Memory: I’ve talked about the memory message, in which you
would get a tattoo to remember a lost member of the family or somebody that you
deeply cared about.
Conflict: I’ve spoken about the ideas behind conflict and
how they relate to memory, that conflict can be a direct cause to create the
need for a memory.
Mistake: Again, this word could relate to many different
ideas. The tattoo could relate to having made a mistake and the tattoo is a
reminder of that mistake. However, the tattoo itself could be the mistake. It’s
the mistake and isn’t valued by the bearer.
Tattoo: This word I chose because there are some people who
get tattoos for the sake of getting a tattoo. This could be because they get
pleasure out of the pain of the tattoo. They like the release of the chemicals
that getting a tattoo releases. Or, they could simply believe that tattoos look
good and they believe it will make them attractive.
This
is Mrs M. Stevens Wagner in 1907. She was one of the earliest
tattooed ladies that performed in a circus as a freakshow. If we
think about how even now in modern times women with a lot of tattoo's
are still occasionally looked down on and stereotyped, this woman
would have gone through a horrible time being labelled as a freak
show and being looked at as abnormal just because of expressing
herself through body art.
Tattooing
was practised for many centuries, many different cultures, especially
in Asia and the whole idea spread throughout the world. Japanesse
people traditionally had facial tattoo's.
Tattooing
spread through the Polynesians, and some tribal groups in places such
as Africa, Borneo, Cambodia, Europe, Japan, the Mentawai Islands, New
Zealand, North America and South America, the Philippines and
Taiwan.
In
the ancient world pre- Christian Germanic, Celtic, and other central
and northern European tribes were often heavily tattooed. The Picts
were supposedly tattooed or scarified with elaborate dark blue woad
and possibly copper designs. Ahmad Fadlan described his encounter
with a Scandinavian Tribe saying they are tattooed from 'fingernail
to neck' with dark blue 'tree patterns' and other figures. During the
gradual process of Christianization in Europe, tattoos were often
considered remaining elements of paganism and generally legally
prohibited.
As
many tattoos were stimulated by Polynesian and Japanese examples,
amateur tattoo artists were in great demand in port cities all over
the world, especially by European and American sailors. The first
documented professional tattoo artist in the USA was Martin
Hildebrandt, a German immigrant who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts
in 1846. Between 1861 and 1865, he tattooed soldiers on both sides in
the American Civil War. The first documented professional tattooist
in Britain was established in Liverpool in the 1870s. Tattooing was
an expensive and painful process, and by the 1870s had become a mark
of wealth for the crowned heads of Europe.
As part of our initial ideas we researched different documentaries. We researched documentaries following people around in their lives, taking a personal look into their lives, etc,. We watched a few documentaries discussing people's popular or strong beliefs and decided that was a route we'd like to take. For example we watched this documentary about a family in America with very strong beliefs..
I found the whole idea of the documentary very interesting. This kind of documentary is all about opinions and different opinions which also gets the audience involved and thinking about their different opinions. After seeing the effect a documentary like this had I was influenced into doing one about strong thoughts and beliefs. One thing people feel very strongly about is tattoo's. This is where our fist influence to do this documentary came from.
I also watched a documentary that was centred around a guy who is very well known, The Rock, also known as Dwayne Johnson. The Rock is a role model to younger kids and they look up to him. He is an influence to them. Using someone like him for a documentary is a great idea as people are interested and will listen. This could be a great idea for us, however, we just don't have the ability to get someone that famous to star in ours.
Intentions
Our intention is too inform the audience of different opinions and beliefs on tattoo's and who should get them. We want to take a detailed look into the art of tattooing, the interest in it and why people feel the need to get them.
Pre-1900’s - Very first documentaries/films were called
“actuality films” because they captured short snippets or real-life actual
events.
1920’s Russia – The first real documentaries start with the
Russian poet and film editor called Dziga Vertov. His group created a series of
educational newsreel called “the Kino-Eye” translated as “cinema truth” during
the Russian revolution and was the first to follow the traditional documentary formula.
1922 – “Nanook of the North” by American film maker, Robert
Flaherty. Considered the first “original” documentary, as this film profiles
the lives of a real Eskimo family. This was his second attempt at the documentary. his first attempt went up in smoke, quite literally, as he dropped a cigarette onto his original footage and lost 30,000 feet of film.
1926 – The first recorded mention of the word “documentary”
to describe a non-fiction film by John Grierson
1930’s and 1940’s – Documentaries become a very good
propaganda tool during WWII for Nazi Germany, America and Britain. This was due to leaders being able to film the travesties of war that the opposing side has done to their troops, gaining sympathy with their own forces as well as reporting victories to their side, gaining morale.
1950’s and 1970’s – Cinema Verite and Direct Cinema – With
new technology and lighter camera equipment, new film-making styles emerged to
capture more “spontaneous” events.
The late 60’s and 70’s and later decades see changes in the narrative approach
of documentaries. Although cinéma vérité is still practiced, first-person video storytelling, powered by
the rush of camcorders into the marketplace in the 1970’s onwards, begins to
emerge as something of a unique genre. With the availability of portable camcorders
to the public, this was an important event as it allowed more and more people
to film events as they happened, they could become more spontaneous they could hold interviews on the go and this
is what we plan on doing, filming tattoos and holding interviews on the go in
the street by asking people about their views on tattoos and tattoo related
topics.
Still need to add in pictures, also looking into new, more artistic ways of presenting this information. This post is to show I have the work done.
Through researching the “Marked” documentary series, some of
their camera and editing techniques really struck me as a great way to really
show off the tattoos. Their intricate details, the bright colours it’s a great
way to show them off. They use an editing technique whereby they take the image
of the tattoo, delete the rest of the image leaving only the tattoo remaining
against a background. Unfortunately I’m un-sure whether or not we can do
something like this, but we can perform a camera trick to perform a similar
effect. If I zoom in whilst moving the camera backwards, the tattoo will become
the centre of focus and attention and will really show off the beauty of the
tattoo.
Another influence for me is that I come from a sub-culture
and I can sympathize and empathize with people who are criticised for looking a
different way. So, I’m really looking forward to making this documentary and
shedding some light on the world of tattoo’s and revealing them to be more than
just ink and tearing down the stereotypes and negative views upon them.
Theorist, Dyer, applies here greatly. We’re given a voice
over of the action taking place, and the robbers are being placed in the wrong,
by both the commentary and the expert opinions. They are being represented as
the bad guys.
Theorist Rayner applies here too, because through this media,
the real world is being represented as a crime polluted area that is not safe
for anyone.
Perkins doesn’t apply here, because the stereotypes are
simple. The robbers aren’t very smart; they are mostly brutal and quite angry
and violent.
O’sullivan works here, because we are given a selected view
of reality. There is a probability that the robberies take place because of a
desperate need for money.
Todorov applies here, but only in the equilibrium,
dis-equlibrium and then equilibrium again.
Strauss has a strong hold here, due to the fine being
between the good of the store managers and employee’s against the villains of
the robbers.
This documentary did have a persuading view to the audience, in the sense that
it showed the criminals in a negative light, so the documentary is biased.
Our documentary could be considered biased based in the sense that we could be considered to be on the side of the people with tattoos, given that we're trying to help put them in a better light in society's eye, trying to help show people the truth behind tattoos, that not everyone who has them is a ruffian.
This documentary was chosen to be reviewed before we specialized our documentary subject to Tattoos.
Observational model, follows conventions very strongly,
hiding behind camera, merely watching. Looks amateurish footage and no
influence on proceeding actions.
Camera angles, not too far behind.
Theorists, Rayner applies to this documentary greatly, given
its type which is a reflexive. So, through this media we are seeing the real
world for what it is, there is no embellishment at all or anything altered.
Perkins, applies too. The “stereotypes are not simple”
applies because these people are not a stereotype. They have parts in a number
of them, but aren’t solely one. For example, they have parts in the irish
citizen stereotype, of having strong accents and being up for fights. They also
have stakes in the “gypsy traveller” stereotype, being that they have numerous
family members and have a strong clan/family pride.
O’Sullivan doesn’t apply here, because this isn’t a selected
view of reality. The director ecompases the backstory to this documentary as
well as the surrounding culture of the two families: the sport of bare fist
fighting and why the two families have this feud. So, this director has no
selected view of this reality.
Strauss doesn’t apply, because there is no good or evil in
this documentary. There is only the world and the events in this documentary
that take place. No binary opposition whatsoever. There is perhaps a perception of good and
evil, given that the documentary takes place from the point-of-view of one of
the feuding clans, and not the other. This could be portraying the second
family, the un-followed one as “evil”.
Mode-Reflexive? Looks
at the history of black tattoo artists and how things have changed
for them, and how they are now more accepted.
Mise en scene-People in
tattoo shops, their art in the background on the walls. Visible
tattoos when talking to the camera. People tattooing people. Tattoo
guns, latex gloves, tattoo ink, tattoo drawings on walls.
Camera work-Medium/
Medium long shots when talking to the camera. Fade from a long shot
of the woman to a close up of her tattoo. Lots of close ups of
tattoos on different people and of tattoo equipment such as ink and
tattoo guns.
Editing- Voice over of
a woman tattoo artist talking about her career as a tattoo artist.
People talking about their work in an interview over them tattooing.Shot reverse shots of people being interviewed then to their tattoos or tattoo equipment in the shop they're sat in, and then back to them being interviewed.
How this documentary
could help us-The main focus of this documentary is the background of
black tattoo artists in America and how they started off in the
tattooing career, and also how hard it was for them to get into the
business when they did. The use of close ups of tattoos and the
equipment they use could be useful to get ideas for our own
documentary as I believe using close ups of tattoos may be effective
within our documentary. Also as it focuses on black people and their
struggle when first starting off in tattooing around 20 years ago,
which I personally never knew was an issue, this helps to show that
there are/have been stories and struggles for people, not only for
people with tattoos and getting careers because of this, but also for
people and their careers within the tattooing industry.
