Documentary
For my documentary review I watched Frye, the greatest party that never happened, filmed by Chris Smith. This documentary is about a music festival that was planned to be hosted on one of Pablo Escobar islands, the Bahamian island of Great Exuma. This festival was a great idea but wasn’t planned in enough time which lead to it being a scam. By the time guest were arriving they had nothing set up, tents unfinished, and the stage was barely complete. The company used famous models like the Hadid sisters and Kendall Jenner to promote the festival and gain interest from the public. The documentary interviews the key players in the scheme and people who worked for the festive on the island.
I enjoyed how the filmmaker included cellphone footage from people were on the island. Clips including them running to find tents, looking for food, trying to leave the island, etc. I also loved how the first third of the movie is them setting up this idea, if you never heard about Frye, you would have thought this was a great idea. The showed the models, Billy McFarland, and rapper Ja Rule promoting this island by taking photos and filming. This is where the film got most of it's b-roll.
For the interview aspect of it, I enjoy how the filmmaker used different angles so that you were just use the the from on setting. I also noticed that he placed them all dead center. This is something that Wes Anderson does, and something I enjoy seeing. It makes you unconformable but also confronted.
While being in this class, I started to pick up how documentaries use B-Roll to there advantage. Using cellphone clips, photos, videos to hide a cut or to change it up so the view doesn't become un-interested.
I would recommend this film to someone interested in learning more about how to NOT pull off a music festive and scam many people, or people who just want to learn about the greatest party that never happened. Above I have attached my favorite interview from the documentary, one that many teens are turning into a meme.
