Blog 4

Making observation films requires the project to be as natural and as untouched as possible. Since this is Soda's specialty, he's able to focus all of his energy into cultivating the best method to have the most realistic and untouched portrayal of what he films. Having a set of rules or commandments to follow allows Soda to be able to challenge themselves with every project that they do. It's up to him to work with the rules instead of against it by guiding him to push past his artistry and create projects that art distinguishable from each other despite following the same set of rules. In his film, Campaign, you could tell that the method that he's developed really works well when filming people in their daily lives. It was as if he was a fly on the wall, not being in the way of the subjects that he was filming, everything was very organic. Observational and experimental films are probably likely to emerge when following rule's like Soda's because they allow more creativity and flexibility within the structure of the film in a way that you just can't do with the other types of documentaries. Imposing limits on yourself helps your artistic practice because it forces you to think outside of the box. It proposes challenges that you have to overcome in a various ways that can led to creative outcomes. If you can take control of an unfavorable or undesirable situation then you can grow as an artist.