Documentary Narrative Techniques in The Thin Blue Line

The story is about a crime that took place: capitol murder. In the film, the technique of re-enactments/visuals are used, but voiceover is not used. Re-enactments were performed as well as descriptive visuals. There was no voiceover was during the re-enactments/visuals. Although, in some scenes the interviewees voice could be heard to guide the audience throughout the visual depictions. In order to create a vivid picture that matched the details to tell the story to the best of his ability, is why Morris chose to do these following things in the film. The audience is able to understand and picture the crime scene instead of using their own imagination to match the storyline. With dialogue coming from the actual people that experienced the crime, it also helps the audience picture the story better. He also had a technique in his editing style where he juxtaposed certain pieces of interviews next to each eachother or scenes so that the audience could se the credibility of each of the interviewee’s stories. It makes the storytelling very effective because of this.

Some techniques that I could use in my own filming are these re-enactments, as well as being very precise when juxtaposing clips together during editing. I could also play closer attention to when storytelling as Morris did. One thing he did was that choose clothing very carefully. For example, in the beginning, Randall Adams is dressed in white—the color of innocence while. The police officers are wearing striped ties containing lines of blue, which represent the title of the film. What I can do is think about the image I want to portray and brainstorm as many examples and details that will help the reader follow and “feel apart the story” and certain emotions that relate. Another thing he did is that he chose a very important and controversial subject. Because of his film, he changed someone’s life for the better. That inspires me to film about subjects that are more important so that maybe I could maybe even just a small change in the world.