Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Class#3: Just for fun!

After our foray into the genre of documentary, here's a "Cross Country Snowboarding" mock-umentary for your viewing pleasure. Can you critique the ways in which this mock-umentary uses (abuses?!) the techniques & constructs of the documentary to entertain and educate? How is music, sound, editing, camera angles, interviews, narration all used to create the tongue-in-cheek authority of a documentary?

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7 comments:

  1. T-revFebruary 7, 2010 at 10:53 AM

    This is ridiculous and I actually believed it when I first saw it. I thought this is crazy, people don't actually do this, but at the same time it didn't seem too crazy not to be true. What I did what I went and googled this idea. Luckily I didn't get much on it, but the whole video was extremely well done. It shows examples of people doing it, has it very well explained, shows the side effects, and even shows a fake commercial. The music was also very well done, it fit in nicely and really made one believe this as a reality and event. This was believable because the people in it also were giving it a reality. People hate snowboarders on the mountain, same thing here. Also it wont be the next big thing, which you believe, but it will still be a thing, which makes you think it is actually happening.

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  2. PaulFebruary 7, 2010 at 1:12 PM

    As a serious nordic ski racer I find this video one of the most hilarious things ever posted on youtube. This is probably around the 6th time I have watched it this year and it is still funny. The music combined with the interviews is spot on compared to a typical documentary especially outdoor sports documentary. The creative vernacular is of course ingenious, I mean "MN" mother nature definitely deserves an abbreviation here.

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  3. TorieFebruary 8, 2010 at 9:06 AM

    Love this!!
    I love the use of the 'titles' underneath them when they talk. The studious setting for expert opinion talks. Love the 'scientific' pictures. The whole thing is so funny.

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  4. Peter BFebruary 8, 2010 at 2:40 PM

    "you really feel connected to MN" "Triple Entendre" "Skootch Leg" "you can tell the guys in the chalet who have the skootch leg"

    A lot of funny stuff here. Its clear from the beginning (at least to me) that its a joke. I love how the chraracters portray themselves as such radical cross country snowboarder bros who genuinely love the sport. Haha. genius

    The video is so funny because it has the appearanc, music, lingo, and characters of any snowboarding/skiing movie, but the premise is completely ridiculous. Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

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  5. Ben CarlsonFebruary 8, 2010 at 4:10 PM

    The documentary is exactly like one for something very cool and exciting… except it’s for something that would be completely awful. The images, personalities, and characters in the documentary give the viewer a very strong “cool” vibe. It is all built around the classic “snowboarder” image and has just substituted in a ridiculous sport. The fireside interviews, action scenes, and guitar strumming add to this feeling. It appeals to the viewer’s emotional response rather than logical thoughts about the sport. The viewer is not focused on what the sport itself would be like, but what it is portrayed to be like and how they admire and want to imitate the characters in the video.

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  6. faye's BlogFebruary 8, 2010 at 5:23 PM

    “Cross Country Snowboarding” had a lot of fast, eye-catching shots and formal interview settings, as well as a reference to other fake attempts to cross country snowboarding. The fact that they were two young, hip looking fellows that were super passionate about this outrageous sport made it seemingly new- agey and innovative. During the intense action shots the film cut quickly through a variety of different angles paired with loud electronic music. Then the intensity was relieved with longer, level clips of interviews and calmer acoustic guitar playing. Some parts had a mixture of these techniques to help the overall flow of the film with interactive narration. The parallels between this mock-umentary and other high intensity sports fanatic films was very entertaining especially through the two guys who represented all the cliché styles and ego. An educational aspect is shown through applying these repetitive tactics of persuasion that sway the masses, by showing how much production goes into making something look legitimately original when its just a regurgitation of something else.

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  7. Sarah SkipFebruary 8, 2010 at 10:33 PM

    Cross Country Snow Boarding
    I though this was absolutely hysterical. At first I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to think it was real or not, but I’m very gullable so that’s not a surprise. It was quite well- done in terms of documentary style. It had the titles underneath the people. It had the ‘video excerpt’ labels. It had the music that would suit a documentary of this type. It had head shots of people talking about the subject as well as this idea of presenting socially useful info to the public about this “outsider sport.” Also, the context of the video was aimed at being informative about the sport. So funny!!

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