Eldon Booth is a New Zealand writer/director who plays with the idea of blurring the line between reality and what seems real. Booth himself was influenced by reality TV in the late ‘90s, where the camera techniques used would be either out of focus or have a bad form. Booth was also interested in John Fiske’s Television Culture, with the idea of “Television being a transparent window to the world, or a mirror of our own life reflecting back.” The idea of actually “creating” reality was another idea that influenced Booth.
I think all of these influences play a huge part in Booth’s way of experimenting with the mix of fact and fiction. In Withdrawal, Booth relied on amateur effects, which involved having to take longer takes, natural lighting and less editing to enhance realism. Although it sounds easy, being accustomed to using the right camera techniques and knowing what was going to happen, Booth had a few difficulties trying to use bad form in order for the film to look real.
Booth has also played with the use of time. In Booth’s latest film, Finding Honk, he uses the phantom camera to capture one of the characters throwing a brick at a glass window and a corvette doing a burnout. By using the phantom camera, Booth creates the effect of seeing an action in slow motion which makes the audience feel like they are somewhat being absorbed into the film in one way or another.
Booth also plays with documentary techniques in his film, Five Good Reasons. What was great about this film was that Booth used an ordinary storyline, but he used effects to sensationalise the whole scenario. It was also quite convenient that Booth was able to use footage of a car crash from previous years.
The film Elephant, directed by Gus Van Sant played with the mix of fact with fiction, where the story was based on the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, yet altered to maintain its fictitious nature. For me personally, I''m not sure what was real or what was totally made up. After researching the Columbine High School Massacre, I found that most of the story from the film fitted the articles about the massacre.
One film that plays with the idea of blurring the lines between fact and fiction is Exit Through the Gift Shop, which we viewed last semester. I'm not really sure if it is real, because of the idea that Banksy is well known for being "unknown." Maybe Mr Brainwash did meet Banksy, but then why would Banksy even risk being exposed, especially with some of his artwork which have attracted both the public and the police?
