Doc Mode Activity 3: Autobiographical Mode

My Doc Mode Activity #3—titled “Roy’s House Band”—utilizes the Autobiographical mode of documentary in several ways.  First, I appear in front of the camera and disclose my involvement in the subject of the film.  While I don’t exactly bare my personal or emotional self (yet), I expose my subpar guitar playing.  The means by which I made this is also similar to other Autobiographical documentarians, who, according to Fox, “dismantle notions of documentary production as an endeavor requiring access to specialized equipment and extensive financial support, instead redefining the process as one of maximizing whatever tools are at one’s disposal and remembering that the personal can be both engaging and politically powerful route to documentary representation” (44). 

Admittedly, my documentary has no political pretensions, nor is it necessarily engaging to anyone outside of the band or our families.  That’s because it is incomplete at this point (anyone that watches until the end of the 7:30 will notice that Gavin’s interview ends without any real closure in the video as a whole).  My intention for this project is to utilize the Essayistic Mode (encompassing the Autobiographical) to tell a story about performing in front of people.  What is it that entices people to play music publicly (and in my case, play music that is not my own)? 

I categorize what I have so far as “Autobiographical” simply because I include the personal but have yet to integrate a historical or social aspect to my story (which may take quite a long time to put together).  At its current state, the video closes the gap between photographer and subject; however, it does not yet close the “space between filmmaker and audience” (Fox 41).  I need to make some broader strokes, implicating others in the need to perform, before this becomes anything but self-indulgent.