Blackfish

To develop knowledge into styles of documentary further, I decided to look at cinematography within animal documentaries, therefore I can see how they interact with the animals and the workers, and what footage is captured (or archived) to bring the narrative together, as well as the different styles and shots that make the pieces successful.

The first documentary I chose to look into was a recent thriller called 'Blackfish'. The main reason I chose this film was because it was on a list of best cinematography in documentaries list (found on IMDB) and also because I'd seen many comments on the social media site 'twitter' about this specific documentary, and thought it would be a good idea. Also, because I'm going to be working with animals (not to the same extent), and wanted to see what style worked best for the approach we were aiming for.

'In the summer of 2010, Dawn Brancheau, a reknowned SeaWorld trainer, was killed by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound orca. I remember fragments: something about a ponytail, something about her slipping and falling, something about how this almost never happens because in these parks, the animals are happy and the trainers are safe.

But something wasn’t right. Why would a highly intelligent animal attack its trainer – in effect, bite the hand that feeds it? I set out to understand this incident not as an activist, but as a mother (who had just taken her kids to SeaWorld) and as a documentary filmmaker (who can’t let sleeping dogs lie).' 

- Gabriela Cowperthwaite - Director

Blackfish is a story of killer whales, focusing on Tilikum, a performing whale (for Sea Land & SeaWorld) that killed several people (trainers) whilst in captivity. He was moved from Sea Land to SeaWorld because of the first killing, however the film (directed/produced by Gabriela Cowperthwaite) shows horrifying and emotional footage and interviews with previous trainers and friends which reveals and explores the whale's nature, how they've cruelly been kept in small spaces within captivity, and how all these have shown pressures rise for the multi-billion dollar industry (Sea World).

It's definitely an emotional piece, which has been cleverly structured, and challenges us (as the audience) to think about our relationship with nature and wild animals - it truly brings to light how little we have learnt about the nature of these animals, and how they should be free to stay in the wild. The footage you are shown is so shocking, it made me genuinely angry at SeaWorld and how they treat their animals (especially when the animals attack each other and are kept in small confined spaces all night every night in complete darkness). It's a beautifully put together work that definitely tugs on the heart strings on the audience.

Cinematographers of the piece (Christopher Towey & Jonathan Ingalls) have worked together to create a beautiful portrayal of the director's approach to the story. The interview set ups are beautiful, with interesting backgrounds, yet not something that takes away from the main subject, being the interviewee.

Like here, it links well with the theme of the film in the sense that we're talking about wild  animals, and like the fact that it's a cool colour and doesn't take away from the man being interviewed, especially as the background is out of focus. The interview follows a similar approach to what our director wanted to do, and that is to have our contributors talking and also showing them working as well (and using the interview as a voiceover throughout).

When the interview visual changed to something else, it was always relevant to what was being said. For example one talks about one of the accidents where a girl is dragged in, as a viewer we're shown the archive mobile phone video footage of this happening, which makes it much more easier to visualise and understand than just watching him talk to us. This is a point we hope to keep during our editing process. 

I feel that the shots (not necessarily the archive) were beautifully captured and composed. The framing seems very well thought out, and the interviews follow the rule of thirds, as well as having good lighting which looked natural and easy (for the viewers) to follow. 

I found this an interesting approach to showing the court cases. I just thought it looked unique, therefore is something written comes up within our work, it's an approach I'd be interested in developing.

Here are some other shots I found interesting. The first shows the graphic injuries, so it allows a reaction from the audience. It's scary to think that the trainers are in this danger everyday, and therefore shows that these animals are not meant to be kept in small spaces and trained for our entertainment. The second screen grab is shown when the interviewee talks about how there are cameras everywhere. To explain: the interview follows a death of a person (believed to be a drifter) at night who was dragged in by the animal when the park was closed, there were lots of coverups and twisted stories to unsure that the park or animals held no blame, usually the persons involved or the trainers who were killed. The interviewee talks about how he was found later in the morning, however there are night trainers and watchers on shift at night, and cameras are located everywhere. These are all shots showing different camera locations throughout the water park, showing that there are eyes everywhere, so something strange must have happened that we never learnt the truth of. The last shot of the expert witness was interesting, because once again I liked how they introduced written or uncapturable audio/text relevant and displayed it in this way. 

The story definitely shocked and caught me off guard. It was an emotional piece from start to finish. You feel the emotion for the animals (you sympathise and feel sorry that they've been captured) as well as the trainers, and then anger at the sea world business. We're shown that there have been many cover ups when it comes to the deaths, and the stories are twisted to ensure that the company can't be held responsible for everything. We are shown clips of staff lying (about the life span of whales - they said that they live longer in captivity, which is clear to see as not true). I feel that the cinematography works well with the sound design and archive to tell a truly intriguing story which captured me as an audience member, showing me that animals like this shouldn't be captured, they were born to be wild and we don't deserve to take them away from their animals. Truly an emotional piece I will think about when developing our projects.