You will prepare and submit a term paper on Filmmaking. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words in length.

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Filmmaking. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words in length. Filmmaking Filmmaking is a splendid way to enhance awareness and guide attention to a specificissue or topic. Nevertheless, prior to making a film, there are various ethical issues required to be considered. Most of the individuals not involved in this industry are not completely aware if the camera power and the editing methodologies that may be used to develop structure events in unexpected ways. At the center of documentary production is the association among filmmaker and subjects that usually lacks equal equilibrium. And for the majority portion, all of this is determined by the filmmaker. So one of the most important things to be considered while filmmaking is the ethical dimensions to the subject, to the story, to the articulation of different scenes, to the moral justification of the utilization of media for creating awareness or creating a means of violence in the minds of audience (Maccarone p.200).

In most cases, the ethical considerations are mostly ignored by the filmmaker and only the major attention is given towards utilizing it for earning huge sums of money. Ethics are a continuous issue that is required to be carefully considered while filmmaking. This hard decision-making is extremely dominant in documentaries development, due to the difficulties linked in shooting “social actors or ‘real people’ (Nichols p.2). More significantly, the ethical matters confronted by a filmmaker dissent amongst each of the modes of documentary. Each peculiar documentary mode impersonates different conventional choices that must be attained in order to function in an ethical style. Two such documentary films made in order to expose the way ethics should be considered when commencing a documentary are ‘Capturing the Friedmans’ in 2003 and ‘Etre at Avoir’ in 2001. These films had been created in distinct documentary modes, spotlighting that none of the modes facilitates the ethical decisions linked with it. Moreover, the fact that needs to be considered is the way the choices of styles in each mode may impact the power relationships amongst the filmmaker, subject of the film and its audience, (Nichols p.10).

The significance of ethics while filmmaking, is ignored as they appear in the filmmaking world to lead the behavior due to lack of such rules and guidelines (Nichols p.20). It has been argued by Bill Nichols that the important question to think is the way the people are treated around which the whole documentary is based. As mentioned afore, despite of the type of film making, the filmmakers should be regarded responsible for the ethical considerations regarding the subjects of those films particularly in documentary filmmaking. Similarly they may be regarded as to justify their actions as documentary filmmaking exhibits the social dilemma of individuals within the society. So the basis of their decision making should be supported by various ethical models such as Kantian, Utilitarian or Aristotelian. But it has been seen that this aspect is quite ignored in developing a documentary (Unite For Sight, Inc.).

Critically evaluating various aspect of the issue considered in the film various aspect of social ethics are completely ignored. So while considering filmmaking the ethical aspects should not be ignored although they are given less importance and the major responsibility lies with the filmmaker.

Works Cited

Maccarone, Ellen M. “Ethical Responsibilities to Subjects and Documentary Filmmaking.” Journal of Mass Media Ethics: Exploring Questions of Media Morality 25.3, 2010: 192-206. Print.

Nichols, Bill. ‘Why are Ethical Issues Central to Documentary Filmmaking?’ Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001, p1-20

Unite For Sight, Inc. “Ethics and Filmmaking in Developing Countries”. Unite for Sight. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.