Moeraki Beach. In't it pwetty?As a kid, I drew lots of lines in the sand. Wiggly ones, made with a stick, for chasing along. Straight ones, made with a toe, for racing from. Curly ones, for marking out territory. And later, words, even. Jinty was here/Tom loves Katie [4 eva]. I learnt that lines in fine wet sand stay put, but that even the heaviest stick stuggles to make a deep line amongst pebbles. I leant where to put lines so they (and my sandcastles) weren't washed away by the tides.
So you'd think I'd be used to it. Well, I didn't have to think about it, then.
Lines in the sand. They're not as arbitrary as one may think. One film-maker may draw a deep line in fine wet sand and say Hey, I'm not making any film that takes animals out ot the wild. Another may think, I'm willing to take an animal and put it in a set to capture behaviour that I wouldn't otherwise be able to film. Yet another may take footage and reel it back and forwards to make scorpians dance.
Me? I'm hesitantly drawing a toe through pebbles, glancing nervously at my film partner's line at the same time. Where is my line? What is ethical? At what expense the story?
4 comments:
Very interesting post, Jintster. I sometimes find it helpful to go to this site : http://www.filmmakersforconservation.org/ethics.htm
and examine their guidelines. Filmmakers For Conservation members recognize that the welfare of an animal is more important than the sequence; that they have a responsibility to ensure that nothing they do could reasonably be considered cruel; and that they should not have a detrimental effect on the ecological integrity of the ecosystem they are working in. But nothing is ever black and white, is it? I struggle too, J. Hang in there. The good thing is, at least you are thinking about it. Some don’t.
Hmmm yeah, they're interesting Kat. The thing is, when it comes to ethics, stuff about animal welfare and animal behaviour IS pretty black and white. Animals are amazing, delicate creatures, and to me the enviornment is probably what God is to others. I'd hope that I would never do anything to harm an animal, or to portray an animal in a way that it isn't - I can't envisage any situation where I'd do that. What I have a bit more trouble with is things like timelines. I know that some people go crazy with timelines, mixing things up to the point where they no longer resemble the actual chain of events, but instead have the 'climax' in the right place, etc etc. I really struggle with this too. I know that the narrative is important, but is it not more important to reflect reality? Or as film-makers can we justify manipulating sequences of events in order to make a story more accessible to a viewer? Instead of reflecting reality, are we simply framing reality in a way that helps get a message accross? Oh dear. How confusing. Maybe I just think about these things too much?!
Oh Jint, you're so deep and poetic. Haha :) If only I had such powers of rhetoric... I'm sure I have much more to post, or simply 'D.A.M' with you, but right now I must make a better at attempt at this Ethics in World Politics essay. Is foreign aid and intervention even ethical? Reading some of these arguments, it's not as straightforward as we might think. You would be so proud of the path I am starting to walk though, methinks dear Jint! What I really wanted to ask before this procrastination credit seriously runs out is: has a date been set for the screening?? Am I gonna make it in my short return to Dunedin in May!?!? Catch up soon bud...
Yo Tee!
Ok, haha so now you've lost me. What is D.A.M.? (I'm not up with the computer-lingo yet, still struggling...)
Screening June 9th (unless the Regent finds something more worthy of their time), and you'd best be back darlin', or I'll be striding over to get ya!
Have you got a blog? No? I think it's time you started one, tehe. Wanna hear more about this ethics stuff please.
Will email soon, promise...
xoxo
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