Why did Kapadia make a documentary on Amy Winehouse?
- ‘I wanted to know how that happened in front of our eyes.’
- ‘I almost knew it was going to happen. You could see she was going down a certain path.’
- ‘It tackles lots of things about family and media, fame, addiction, but most importantly it captures the very hearts of what she was about, which is an amazing person and a true musical genius.’ – Kapadia
Product context:
- British documentary- Co produced by Film 4 (network premiers- vertical Intergrations) with Universal music
- Low production value of £2.5 million but a commercial success- made just under £20 million
- Kapadia is a documentary auteur
- Distributed by Indie companies- A24 and Altitude
Carrer:
- 2 albums- ‘Frank’ ‘Back to black’
- Back to Black- won a brit award
- Highly regarded as a musician
- Commercially successful- Island records (Simon Fuller- manager)
- First album sold 1 million copies
- Second album sold 3.8 million copies – one of the highest of the 21st century
Why this works so well?
- This style of documentary works because it mirrors the manner in which we live our lives in the modern world- for many of us, social media has become an extension of what we know as reality- we use ‘stories’ and ‘live recordings’ such as Facetime to connect ourselves amongst our friends, to show what we are doing in our lives.
- These ‘stories’ mirror the aesthetic of Amy because the footage in the doc is also shot and composed on a mobile device and the more we watch these stories the more normal we see them and the more connected we become to the people who share them
- The subject is producing the content for the documentary
- The new way of telling people about our life and what we do is why Amy is so memorable, the content is compelling- the story of addiction and the rise and fall of a musician is a story that has been told again- but this is a story that has not been told is this new virtual social media type of way.
- More engaging to contemporary audiences than conventional ‘talking heads’ type of documentary.
Other techniques used by Kapadia:
- Archive footage
- Stock footage
- Unseen footage captured by people close to her- mobile phone footage
- Variety of still images
- Lack of authorial voiceover is also important in encouraging the spectator to be guided more by the juxtaposition of images and sound, rather than direct point of view
- The selection of voices to support the images/footage which are carefully chosen. The interviewees are not seen speaking directly to camera- unless stock footage of Amy
- Montage effect of editing- piecing together a narrative based on the huge variety of sources material
- Real footage to provide expositional information about setting- ariel shots of London
- Captions used in the film form of lyrics from Amy’s songs- incidental music is used to align the spectator with the subject matter.
Kapadia’s films are defined by an innovative style called ‘True fiction’ where the documentary is constructed almost entirely constructed from archive footage and the story is told without any guiding voiceover, an untraditional break with convention in the documentary format.
Amy Winehouse’s relationship with the media:
‘Every single misstep, every tiny fall from grace was broadcast across tabloid covers and Internet home pages because that’s what the people wanted, and rule one of entertainment media is to give the people what they want.’
‘She quickly becomes the focus of the spotlight with the paparazzi camped permanently outside her home.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7516899.stm :
‘Together, the couple seemed to fuel each other’s bad habits. Reports of drug abuse and self-harm escalated, and Winehouse was caught on video carving the words “I Love Blake” on her stomach using a shard of glass.’
‘Winehouse proudly showed a Rolling Stone reporter photographs of her and Fielder-Civil “passing pills to each other with their tongues”.’
‘The couple were arrested in Norway for cannabis possession. They spent a night in police cells but were released after paying a fine.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14264245 – 2011 :
‘There are other memories, like the time when she arrived at the nightclub, was ushered into the DJ booth, promptly started a fight with the DJ and was ushered straight out again.
Then, there was the time when she appeared to punch a fan in the front row who reached out to grab her during a set at the Glastonbury festival.
That was the other side of Amy.’
‘Amy Winehouse roams the street at 4am after arrest over ‘crack smoking’ video’
‘troubled singer’
‘In the 19-minute film she is seen smoking crack cocaine and talking about taking Valium while appearing dazed and disorientated.’
‘She was arrested for allegedly attacking a man while on a drunken night out in Camden.
The arrest could jeopardize her chances of performing in the U.S. as the singer has already been convicted of possessing cannabis and has had difficulty obtaining a U.S. visa.’
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/25/amywinehouse- 2008 :
‘Amy Winehouse has been arrested following her appointment with police over the assault of two men. The singer arrived at Holborn police station at 5.10pm this afternoon to be questioned over events that took place in the early hours of Wednesday April 23.
It is not yet clear what those charges are, however her spokesman confirmed that the singer was questioned over incidents in which she is alleged to have headbutted one man and punched another in the face.’
The Sun published an account of the evening’s events yesterday, claiming that as well as assaulting two members of the public, the singer overturned tables in a pub and shouted that she “wanted to do drugs”.
Emma Coe Film Studies 