The Specifics of the Director’s Work with a Central Figure in Film and TV Documentaries

Abstract

The topic of the director’s work with a documentary’s central figure on the screen, in the conditions of active distribution of visual content, especially in the genre of interviews, is undoubtedly relevant. The interviewee’s preparation for filming, the methods of their emancipation, the achievement of the ultimate goal and the truth of life on the screen require detailed study, professional knowledge based on the experience of the classics of documentary film directing — D. Lunkov, Yu. Shiller, I. Belyaev, A. Lysenko, etc. Long-forgotten techniques are closely intertwined with innovative ideas of directors. These include what behavior the interviewer or presenter decides to adhere to. Depending on the combination of factors, the tone and course of on-screen conversation in different genres may change. By adopting a tough model of behavior, the presenter can make the conversation’s tone tense and, at the same time, more dynamic and sharp, while a soft behavioral model can make the conversation more sincere and friendly. The article analyzes the specifics of the director’s work with a central figure in the process of creating documentary screen works. The authors attempt to comprehend the experience of previous generations of documentary filmmakers, so that young specialists can take into account their mistakes and achieved results when working with the so-called non-actor — a documentary’s central figure in the audiovisual screen space. The article concludes that, despite the fact that the solutions to complex problems in the work of a director with a documentary’s central figure have already been described by leading practitioners and theorists in the field of audiovisual screen arts, the process of forming a central figure in film and television documentaries is not over. There are controversial points of view on a number of aspects of disclosing the personality of a documentary’s central figure, their emancipation on camera and the truth of life on the screen. Therefore, relying on the previous experience of the professionals and taking into account the emergence of new technologies, the younger generation of directors needs to use already well-proven techniques in their work, as well as try to find and apply new approaches (techniques) when creating documentary screen works having a central figure.