The Shadow
One of the first things that I learned about cameras at UCLA in the mid-1970s while I was earning my master’s of fine arts degree in theatre arts is that cameras can lie.
In other words, the person behind the camera gets to choose what to film, and by filming only a portion of a sequence, the one behind the camera doing the filming can distort and mislead the viewer.
For example, the action that brings about the reaction can be edited out of a film, or it can be missing from a film. The viewer of the film then only has a portion of the action to react to, and that can lead to propaganda pronto.
For example, a TV network videoed the stadium where Donald J. Trump was scheduled to speak, and the TV reporter videoed the stadium early when only a few people had arrived. The video shown to viewers led them to believe that only a few people showed up despite the fact that a huge crowd filled the seats later on after the videoing took place.
Also, camera angles can distort the way a subject looks as can the lighting used for the videotaping or filming. A famous case in history was that Richard Nixon was filmed in his TV debate against John F. Kennedy in such a way that Kennedy won the debate hands down.
Of course, the content of the debate had much to do with the outcome, but historians will readily agree that the lighting and lack of makeup did not serve Nixon well.
Those who study film know that there is a filmic language, and the way film is edited often tells the story without a visual continuity that takes the actors from one place to another.
For example, in “Adele H,” the movie, the leading lady is at a house, and as she leaves she is handed an unopened letter. The camera reveals her in a carriage heading in one direction, but after she opens the letter and reads it, the carriage driver makes a sudden turn and heads in the opposite direction.
The film maker used filmic language in the scene without any dialogue taking place. The cut is made after the carriage driver reverses his direction.
The next scene shows the woman at the bedside of her ailing father, Victor Hugo. That is filmic language working at its best.
Nicholas Sandmann, a Covington Catholic High School student, was standing with his classmates waiting for a bus to pick them up in Washington D.C.
The CNN reporter who filmed the Native American beating a drum during a protest did not film what took place before the Native American approached Sandmann who stood his ground and looked at the drummer face to face.
The filming of the scene misled the viewers in that the earlier action was missing, and its impact on viewers across the nation led to a storm of criticism aimed at the high school student who later sued CBS and settled out of court to reportedly become a young millionaire.
While I was attending UCLA, propaganda films that Hitler used to woe his nation were shown, and the professor would point out the way the film worked as a tool to shape opinions.
One film that was shown at UCLA wound up winning an Academy Award for documentary film making. That was “Hearts and Minds.” The film was an anti-war film about America’s involvement in the War in Vietnam.
The filmmaker interviewed General Westmoreland and edited what was a much longer interview to a few words in which he said that the enemy did not value human life the way Americans value human life.
The filmmakers cut from Westmoreland’s words to a mother in North Vietnam who had lost her son in action, and the film showed her fling herself onto her son’s coffin while she screamed in agony.
The entire context of General Westmoreland’s interview may have altered the way his words were perceived by viewers of the film that by editing created the juxtaposition of his words with the grieving mother.
I believe that there should be classes in videotaping and editing offered in high schools throughout our nation. Hopefully, teachers will enlighten their students about the danger of propaganda and the way propaganda can be perpetrated and perpetuated via the way filming and videotaping is achieved.
