Lifesize Zoetrope by Mark Simon Hewis

This is the last of the Experimental docs from my first CMPP that i will be doing. 


Life size Zoetrope is a short in which a group of people with flip boards ride a zoetrope (large spinning thing) and flip the pictures of the flip book and that shows a persons life from birth to death. It is narrated from first person by the character in the flip book. I don't have much to say about camera work in this short as it was fairly basic and still to accommodate the zoetrope my discussion of this really digs into whether it is documentary or not. Like many of the Docs we watched it is Experimental and pushes the boundaries of Documentary for sure but some may argue that the voice over confuses what is being documented. Some would say it was the experiance of the zoetrope but this is arguable because of the voice over. If it is the animated story told by a narrator that removes it from the documentary catagory as it is clearly a constucted story. I liked the story and the way is was animated as well as finding the honest down to earth voice over style interesting and amusing but it does confuse the whole Doc.... or not Doc.


But i think the whole range of Doc's were experimental to make us question how we as film makers and audiences perceive documentary and how we could make documentary of massive varying types and styles.