Hand_on_a_Hard_Body

Morgan S. Burrows Dana Allen Eng 165.44 February 3, 2009 Hand on a Hard Body What makes a documentary a good documentary' I believe that a good documentary is created when it provides correct factual information, is creatively humorous, shows a slice of real life, and involves human nature; competition, endurance, utility needs, financial issues, social dynamics, and individual dynamics. I believe Hand on a Hard Body makes a good documentary because it covers these topics, especially informing, creativity, and human nature. Informing the viewer is an especially important part of a documentary! The formal purpose of a documentary is to inform, and the amount and pertinence of information which is reported in the film is the basic measure of quality regarding any documentary. The producer must use facts and give background information on the topic being reviewed. The information must not only be true but also must be engaging to the viewer. The location, people involved, time, and setting all come together to tell the vivid true story of Hand on a Hard Body. The producer starts off by stating the location which was Longview, Texas, along with the time and the fact that it took place at a Nissan dealer ship. Without all this information the viewer would be unable to truly grasp the lifestyle of these “backwoods hicks”. The more factual knowledge which may be shared by the producer the greater the possibility of impact the movie will have upon the viewer. Another thing that has a major impact on the viewer is how the movie is portrayed and how creative the producer is in the production of it. Creativity is a vital part of any movie or documentary. It helps to keep the viewer interested and entertained. In this particular documentary the producer does not have to do too much work in order to create entertainment. The people that were filmed have quite a lot of character on their own helping to hold the viewers attention throughout the film. Fitting each slide together so that it makes sense and entertains the viewers however is the film crew’s responsibility. The delivery of a message is equally important to the messages content. Without creative and original delivery the same story may be told by anyone. The approach and addition of personal insight from the crew separates the documentary apart from pure fact to film. One interesting part of the film included its minor showcase of the eventual winner J.D. Creative film editing including multiple visuals of the same image help to keep the general environment fluid and cohesive yet without becoming boring. A documentary that lacks creativity might as well just be one of those boring war movies on the history channel that tells the information with no entertainment. Facts combined with creativity help lead us to our understandings of the human nature which we are also able to observe in this documentary. Human nature is portrayed throughout this film by the very people apart of this documentary. All the competitors for the truck showed their very own unique human characteristics. Each had a different reason for competing in the competition and each had a reason for dropping out of it. Except for the few who went a little “cray-cray” and just walked away and wandered off. Many had financial reasons for competing; needed transportation to and from work, or wanted to sell the truck to pay off other bills. Each had their very own strategy in how they were planning to win the truck. They planned how much or how little they would interact with the other competitors and also how far they were personally willing to stay in the competition. Such as the marine, Greg, said that once his body failed he had his mentality because he had just come back from serving his country and could zone in and concentrate. He unfortunately did not even make it to the top three. Norma’s plan was to listen to her Christian music and pray to her God, but towards the end she ended up getting to into her music and she started clapping. When she did that she obviously removed both hands from the truck and was then disqualified. Kelly secluded herself from the others and failed to interact with them because she did not want to keep them awake. She also ended up accidentally removing both hands from the truck when it was not break time. This documentary did a great job at filming each individual’s actions and their response to the other competitors. It did not show much of the person who won, J.D. They left him out a lot throughout the film, which we only realized after the fact that he had won. Throughout this whole film the entire crew did a wonderful job putting together facts with entertainment. They cut out the sections and matched them together as to entertain the viewer while staying on topic and focused on the point in their production. It also gave a detailed view of all the characters, each of their personalities, traits, reasons for entering into the competition, and personal needs. Overall this was a wonderful and practically perfectly created documentary.