documentary filmmakers need to realize that some of their viewers will be at a certain age and would very much like it if they kept re-indentifying people from earlier scenes, like over and over
i am doing this right now, but in this case it's a documentary about the taliban so to my american eyes they all have a similar look (same beard, same hair color, etc) and it's making it tough!
As someone who works in docs I can say we talk and think about when to re-ID someone. For TV docs that were broadcast it was so much easier, re-ID after every ad break. With features and streaming series it’s definitely an issue.
Yeah I did a doc recently where we showed some interviews from the same people that happened years apart so we did re-ID them because of this because it is SO confusing
This usually hits hardest with docs about old bands or music scenes. The rock and roll lifestyle means the old farts being interviewed often look nothing like the young people in the concert footage or album art
It’s like in an news article when the introduction of a person was edited out an never put back in.
“Who is this Dr Stewart who suddenly jumped into this conversation? Why do I care about them?”
Makes me think of poorly-written Wikipedia plot summaries where they sometimes forget to even mention characters until they become pivotal to the plot.
Too many times this happens. If you’re lucky, a better written article of the same topic exists online so you can figure it out. Unlucky if every other article basically just copied the same baffling source material.
this would be great, also they could include a helpful nickname like "Mark Stidham (you remember him from before) - Creepy Guy Married to the LuLaRoe Lady Even Though They Have Different Last Names"
Amazon Prime has an overlay they call X Ray when you juggle the mouse that will tell you who is onscreen in the current scene if they fill it out. It's helpful.
I'm somewhat faceblind. It helps to give each character an affectation like always wears a scarf, a different speech pattern, different height or unusual hair color, a hand full of rings, a peculiar clothing style, a cane/limp/ unusual gait, tattoos or scars... You get the idea.
I work in corporate video. I re-ID whenever the job title is directly relevant to sound bite. If it’s a video longer than five minutes I re-ID every act break. Sometimes I just ID the whole video because I’m feeling generous.
I appreciate the WW2 YouTube history channel I watch who puts up a little headshot and placard when someone is brought up again like it’s the first time.
They introduce someone 30 minutes before they say something really interesting and then I don't know who they were because I wasn't interested in them when they said their name.
I’ve had to stop watching films because I couldn’t keep track of who was talking and the context of what they were saying. Not only did I not remember names, people changed outfits and hairstyles since they were obviously interviewed multiple times. Chyrons, captions, text on screen would help.
