This documentary covers the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour and behind-the-scenes negotiations that allowed them to play their free Altamont concert. It is titled after the first track off their 1969 album "Let It Bleed". Unlike most documentaries that are investigative, Gimme Shelter was filmed in the sense that both Albert and David Maysies (the directors), were flies on the wall. They recorded events that we're happening on the fly, rather than planning and carrying out traditional documentary techniques such as interviews and narrations. As I read more about the Maysies brothers, I found out that they played an important role in the "Direct Cinema" movement that stretched out between the 1950's and 1960's. This information would explain why this documentary had a lot of shaky hand-held camera shots, being that light, handheld cameras also played a big part in Direct Cinema.
I enjoyed this style of documentary film-making, because even though it wasn't narrated, the film didn't hesitate to introduce the main players right off the bat. Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richard, Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman. These guys were The Rolling Stones and it was very clear that this film was about them.
The disaster at the Altamont show is documented in which the Hell's Angels were involved as providing security for the concert. Many people are shown intoxicated from alcohol, drugs and other substances. The band as well is depicted in many scenes to be taking in a large consumption of alcohol, but I guess this is just the image of "Rock & Roll" that one would imagine.
This doc had many fast zoom-in and zoom-out shots during the concert scenes, which added to the effect of the music. It had many close-up shots of many different peoples faces, from the band members to management, and the faces of different fans. During a performance when The Stones played one of their slow songs, a lot of the footage was altered to play in slow-motion which I thought was a cool effect.
Although this film really intrigued me, I do however have a beef with many of the night-time shots from early in the film, as they are very dark and lacking proper light. But I guess this is a perfect example of Direct Cinema, and I've now come to have a better understanding of it.
60 MINUTES - THE FACEBOOK STORY
This episode of 60 Minutes had the spotlight on Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Watching this segment was a very awkward experience for me, and at one point the host even narrated that she found Mark Zuckerberg to be very awkward on camera, he hardly pauses between sentences and it would be very rare to catch him blinking.
This segment covers a lot of things, including Facebook's privacy settings. The host asks Mark Zuckerberg if Facebook keeps peoples information confidential, in which he replied that it does. However, individual applications that run within Facebook do not. Many apps will analyze someones Facebook page and display advertisements based on their interests, such as specific music preferences and clothing. When the host brings up this issue, Mark Zuckerberg awkwardly tries to defend himself.
A number of controversial questions were asked surrounding the company, in which he time and time again tried to steer the ship in another direction to awkwardly avoid. The recent film "The Social Network" was also brought up, and surprisingly enough, he expressed interest and enthusiasm about the effect of the film, in which he hopes will influence more people to join Facebook (because it's lacking members, right?)
This news magazine doc had many great shots, one that I liked in particular was a 360 degree panning of the Facebook headquarters. It immediately gave me a look at the workspace and showed many different engineers hard at work. There were also many close-up shots, mostly of Mark Zuckerberg's face, which exposed his nervousness. At many points you could see his face twitching and drenched in sweat.
Overall, very good interviewing techniques were used and I found this piece to be very revealing. Will the privacy concerns steer me away from Facebook? Probably not, in the sense that I keep my personal information to a minimum. But for others, this doc can be quite entertaining and informative.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to log into Facebook to check my messages!
THE FOOD NETWORK - "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives"
This was shot almost in a similar fashion to our "Good Food" docs. There are many interviews with different customers that give Smoque BBQ praise, claiming that it's the best BBQ they've ever eaten. The host of the show even gives his personal critique on the food, like he does for many other episodes as well. The owner Barry Sorkin does most of his interview in the kitchen, as he should. He gives the audience a taste of what sort of ingredients go into his BBQ, one interesting ingredient used for some of the dishes includes Coca-Cola!
There were many great shots of the food being prepared, served and enjoyed. Many extreme-close up shots, which brought out the texture of many different meats and it's seasonings. The extreme close up's almost had me dying for a bite of this BBQ. It definitely left me with a craving.
Although this episode had me hypnotized from the moment it started, there were a few moments that snapped me out of this trance and made me ask the question as to why Barry Sorkin's three co-workers and friends were not interviewed. This episode has them shown hard at work in the kitchen and interacting with customers, but lacks any sort of feedback and on-camera communication with them.
All-in-all however, this show is taking food to a whole new level and I quite enjoyed it!
Below is a direct link to the Smoque BBQ website. It gives you an idea of what they're about and highlights the many delicious BBQ dishes that they have to offer:
http://www.smoquebbq.com/
