Read the description of the documentary film Children of the Camps. If you were to make this film, what do you feel would be the most effective way to organize your footage? Would you use narrative, categorical, rhetorical, or some other overall form? Why would this story be important to tell?

A website called Visual Magic, which focuses on special effects in films, presents an interview with Judith Crow and Daniel Loeb, two people who worked extensively on special effects for the 1997 film Titanic (you can find the interview here). They discuss the many special effects used in creating the sinking of Titanic, including animation techniques like computer generated characters and rotoscoping. Would you consider the scenes they describe live-action or animation sequences? What separates live-action from animation when scenes are created in this manner? How does such digital technology confuse our traditional understanding of the differences between live-action and animated footage? What are the advantages/ disadvantages of digital technology?

Watch one of the experimental films at Undergroundfilm.com (at the homepage, click on "films," then "experimental." Note that you may wish to watch a few films to settle on the one you'd most like to discuss). How are the images in the film you have selected organized? Does the film depict a narrative? If so, how does this narrative qualify as "experimental"? Are the images organized by abstract or associational principle? How can you describe the form of the film?

Chapter 5 notes that an experimental film is often defined by what the filmmaker hoped to achieve with the film, perhaps to explore the possibilities of the medium, express an alternative viewpoint, and/or convey a mood or physical quality. View the two clips of Fischinger films posted at the Re:Voir video project website (click on extrait 1 and extrait 2), and consider how these brief clips are reminiscent of the descriptions of Lye's work.

Can documentary films have adverse affects on society? Because documentaries are real accounts of real people and events, is it possible they can cause harm to their viewers. The film Bowling for Columbine which examines guns, violence, and explores reasons for massacre insanity, such as what happened in Colorado, explores real life issues that have the potential to negatively educated its viewers. How can viewing real life events and people affect our thinking? Do documentary films affect us more or less than the conceived and imaginary worlds of television and narrative film? Is there any danger inherent in viewing true events that may be gruesome and disturbing since they really happened? How can truth really be portrayed?