I'm not a big fan of documentaries but docs like this one are convincing me that I have a lack of interest in following docs, but not watching them. It helps that the content of this documentary is interesting in and of itself, but Ransom Riggs does a great job leading me through the story of the Accidental Sea. The shots (that do not appear to be from a third party) are all beautiful and the story flows very naturally. This documentary does what I feel any doc should be able to do, tell a story in a powerful way that can get people who are neutral or disinterested at the beginning hooked by the end.
Having seen this film a few years back before I had any general knowledge about film I didn't get much out of it. Now, when I watch it again I can really appreciate how Ransom Riggs created a provoking documentary in only 6 minutes. While watching the first four minutes I found myself thinking, "where is this going to go? Where is the story's focal point?" Obviously Salton City is the main subject, but I think to create an effective short documentary there has to be a face or a person to be tied to the story. While the man's name was never given, the builder of this almost "oasis" successfully but a face to the message of the film, which for me, made it memorable. It seems that Riggs has an opinion and view of Salton City and subtly casts that upon the viewers, but I think he wants the audience to really form their own idea of the place.
“The Accidental Sea” is a short documentary by Ransom Riggs. While the short as a whole didn’t draw me into the story, the quality and skill involved was great. Riggs is definitely an artist and has a real eye for shots that invoke thought. His work with the cameras and angles were pretty good and the information provided helped flush out his vision. It’s always interesting learning new things or more things about something you already kind of knew. However, the pace of the film, to me at least, brought a film which could have been very good, down a level. Even with that the time and vision that went into the making of this short makes it well worth a viewing.
The Accidental Sea, for starters, the name is not very appealing from the get go. It doesn't seem to draw my attention and make me want to watch it. The name definitely places a major role in giving an idea of what I am about to watch before hand. To find out that it was a documentary sort of out shinned the name and brought more attention to wanting to see this short film by Ransom Riggs. The story itself didn't draw me much closer but the visuals of the story were very well shot and documented. On top of that, I was sort of lost because usually when you think of a documentary you think of a story about someone, a person. This was more like a documentary of a place. All in all I do this this story was shot well, but I didn't find it very fascinating.
The Accidental Sea by Ransom Riggs gave me incite into a piece of history I was not familiar with before. It was interesting finding out what happened to this town and I wish Riggs had gone into more depth on the subject. The imagery was amazing and I liked how he gave life to each shot by gliding through each environment. I feel like he left me with more questions than answers by the end of the doc. I wish he would have interviewed people that lived there and talk to the old man more. Overall, The Accidental Sea was an OK documentary but it needs to be fleshed out some more.
In this very captivating documentary short, Accidental Sea, Ransom Riggs does a spectacular job of explaining the history of a once cherished, now forgotten city, in just six and half minutes. Documentary film-making is a tough skill to master, but between an array of deep shots, stellar narration, and thrilling background music, Riggs sets the tone immediately, and really kept me on edge throughout. I really think the film flowed very well, it stayed in prime sequential order; covering the time period in which the accidental sea was created, to when it became the biggest tourist destination in the area, to now. Riggs did a great job of catching some very intense shots of the rundown town these days, for instance the writing on the walls towards the end, really shows how a once tourist-driven place, became this deranged pile of trash. My overall favorite part was the narration, between the voice or the narrator, and the captivating words that he spoke, I could really feel the emotion, as well as the memories and history of this poor town. As a documentary buff, I really enjoyed this documentary and the message the director is portraying, as well as the skill it took to make said message, in such a short film.
In this very captivating documentary short, Accidental Sea, Ransom Riggs does a spectacular job of explaining the history of a once cherished, now forgotten city, in just six and half minutes. Documentary film-making is a tough skill to master, but between an array of deep shots, stellar narration, and thrilling background music, Riggs sets the tone immediately, and really kept me on edge throughout. I really think the film flowed very well, it stayed in prime sequential order; covering the time period in which the accidental sea was created, to when it became the biggest tourist destination in the area, to now. Riggs did a great job of catching some very intense shots of the rundown town these days, for instance the writing on the walls towards the end, really shows how a once tourist-driven place, became this deranged pile of trash. My overall favorite part was the narration, between the voice or the narrator, and the captivating words that he spoke, I could really feel the emotion, as well as the memories and history of this poor town. As a documentary buff, I really enjoyed this documentary and the message the director is portraying, as well as the skill it took to make said message, in such a short film.
Ransom Riggs paints a hauntingly beautiful picture of the Salton Sea in The Accidental Sea. I really enjoyed the use of the 3rd party footage, I feel like it gave it a very "history channel" look. Riggs has a really good voice for narration and I love how he used the audio from the Salton Sea advertisement over old footage. I think overall Riggs did a wonderful job building suspense with the music he chose for the film. I think all of the tracking shots of the dessert were really beautiful and really gave a lot of depth to the shots. I would absolutely go visit this place. Overall I enjoyed the documentary a lot.
“The Accidental Sea” was well shot, well written, and we edited. The technical aspects came together to create a truly captivating documentary. Some parts seemed pretentious and over-stated, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the story presented. This documentary combined poetry, prose, philosophy, and fact seamlessly. The writing had a lot of movement and thought behind it, which complemented the emptiness of each shot. Typically, I am not a fan of the slow zoom, but it was reminiscent of someone looking for something that isn’t there, and I thought it worked. Another strong part of this documentary was the flow of the narrative and the way everything unfolded into a mess all at once. My only critique is that I thought having the man talk about his painting was odd because everything else was a voice over. It seemed to clash with the concept. Overall, I thought the “The Accidental Sea” was very well done.
This covers a solid amount of content during it's short length, which is fitting because I couldn't see a full length documentary being made just on this topic alone. I also want to add that I really liked the narration specifically as well.
I enjoyed this. It was shot beautifully, and I really liked how he used footage from the past to help us visualize the kind of place Salton Sea was back in the day. It really adds to the feeling of abandonment and deterioration. I think, given that this is only 6 minutes long, the story was told pretty well. He managed to tell the story of the Salton Sea, and lead it into the story of Salvation Mountain at the end, in a limited amount of time by giving us the most important points.
I though "The Accidental Sea" was really fascinating. So much information was packed in 6 short minutes. Not one line of dialogue was wasted. I enjoyed how he gave several interpretations of how to look at Salton City and allowed the viewer to think for themselves. The images were beautiful and thought provoking. I really liked how this weeks short was a documentary. I have always thought of them as long, heavily researched films. This was cool because even though this may have not been a subject that could fill 90 minutes with facts and images, Ransom Riggs still found it a necessary story to tell.
I'm not a big fan of documentaries but docs like this one are convincing me that I have a lack of interest in following docs, but not watching them. It helps that the content of this documentary is interesting in and of itself, but Ransom Riggs does a great job leading me through the story of the Accidental Sea. The shots (that do not appear to be from a third party) are all beautiful and the story flows very naturally. This documentary does what I feel any doc should be able to do, tell a story in a powerful way that can get people who are neutral or disinterested at the beginning hooked by the end.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen this film a few years back before I had any general knowledge about film I didn't get much out of it. Now, when I watch it again I can really appreciate how Ransom Riggs created a provoking documentary in only 6 minutes. While watching the first four minutes I found myself thinking, "where is this going to go? Where is the story's focal point?" Obviously Salton City is the main subject, but I think to create an effective short documentary there has to be a face or a person to be tied to the story. While the man's name was never given, the builder of this almost "oasis" successfully but a face to the message of the film, which for me, made it memorable. It seems that Riggs has an opinion and view of Salton City and subtly casts that upon the viewers, but I think he wants the audience to really form their own idea of the place.
ReplyDelete“The Accidental Sea” is a short documentary by Ransom Riggs. While the short as a whole didn’t draw me into the story, the quality and skill involved was great. Riggs is definitely an artist and has a real eye for shots that invoke thought. His work with the cameras and angles were pretty good and the information provided helped flush out his vision. It’s always interesting learning new things or more things about something you already kind of knew. However, the pace of the film, to me at least, brought a film which could have been very good, down a level. Even with that the time and vision that went into the making of this short makes it well worth a viewing.
ReplyDeleteThe Accidental Sea, for starters, the name is not very appealing from the get go. It doesn't seem to draw my attention and make me want to watch it. The name definitely places a major role in giving an idea of what I am about to watch before hand. To find out that it was a documentary sort of out shinned the name and brought more attention to wanting to see this short film by Ransom Riggs. The story itself didn't draw me much closer but the visuals of the story were very well shot and documented. On top of that, I was sort of lost because usually when you think of a documentary you think of a story about someone, a person. This was more like a documentary of a place. All in all I do this this story was shot well, but I didn't find it very fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThe Accidental Sea by Ransom Riggs gave me incite into a piece of history I was not familiar with before. It was interesting finding out what happened to this town and I wish Riggs had gone into more depth on the subject. The imagery was amazing and I liked how he gave life to each shot by gliding through each environment. I feel like he left me with more questions than answers by the end of the doc. I wish he would have interviewed people that lived there and talk to the old man more. Overall, The Accidental Sea was an OK documentary but it needs to be fleshed out some more.
ReplyDeleteIn this very captivating documentary short, Accidental Sea, Ransom Riggs does a spectacular job of explaining the history of a once cherished, now forgotten city, in just six and half minutes. Documentary film-making is a tough skill to master, but between an array of deep shots, stellar narration, and thrilling background music, Riggs sets the tone immediately, and really kept me on edge throughout. I really think the film flowed very well, it stayed in prime sequential order; covering the time period in which the accidental sea was created, to when it became the biggest tourist destination in the area, to now. Riggs did a great job of catching some very intense shots of the rundown town these days, for instance the writing on the walls towards the end, really shows how a once tourist-driven place, became this deranged pile of trash. My overall favorite part was the narration, between the voice or the narrator, and the captivating words that he spoke, I could really feel the emotion, as well as the memories and history of this poor town. As a documentary buff, I really enjoyed this documentary and the message the director is portraying, as well as the skill it took to make said message, in such a short film.
ReplyDeleteIn this very captivating documentary short, Accidental Sea, Ransom Riggs does a spectacular job of explaining the history of a once cherished, now forgotten city, in just six and half minutes. Documentary film-making is a tough skill to master, but between an array of deep shots, stellar narration, and thrilling background music, Riggs sets the tone immediately, and really kept me on edge throughout. I really think the film flowed very well, it stayed in prime sequential order; covering the time period in which the accidental sea was created, to when it became the biggest tourist destination in the area, to now. Riggs did a great job of catching some very intense shots of the rundown town these days, for instance the writing on the walls towards the end, really shows how a once tourist-driven place, became this deranged pile of trash. My overall favorite part was the narration, between the voice or the narrator, and the captivating words that he spoke, I could really feel the emotion, as well as the memories and history of this poor town. As a documentary buff, I really enjoyed this documentary and the message the director is portraying, as well as the skill it took to make said message, in such a short film.
ReplyDeleteRansom Riggs paints a hauntingly beautiful picture of the Salton Sea in The Accidental Sea. I really enjoyed the use of the 3rd party footage, I feel like it gave it a very "history channel" look. Riggs has a really good voice for narration and I love how he used the audio from the Salton Sea advertisement over old footage. I think overall Riggs did a wonderful job building suspense with the music he chose for the film. I think all of the tracking shots of the dessert were really beautiful and really gave a lot of depth to the shots. I would absolutely go visit this place. Overall I enjoyed the documentary a lot.
ReplyDelete“The Accidental Sea” was well shot, well written, and we edited. The technical aspects came together to create a truly captivating documentary. Some parts seemed pretentious and over-stated, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the story presented. This documentary combined poetry, prose, philosophy, and fact seamlessly. The writing had a lot of movement and thought behind it, which complemented the emptiness of each shot. Typically, I am not a fan of the slow zoom, but it was reminiscent of someone looking for something that isn’t there, and I thought it worked. Another strong part of this documentary was the flow of the narrative and the way everything unfolded into a mess all at once. My only critique is that I thought having the man talk about his painting was odd because everything else was a voice over. It seemed to clash with the concept. Overall, I thought the “The Accidental Sea” was very well done.
ReplyDeleteThis covers a solid amount of content during it's short length, which is fitting because I couldn't see a full length documentary being made just on this topic alone. I also want to add that I really liked the narration specifically as well.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this. It was shot beautifully, and I really liked how he used footage from the past to help us visualize the kind of place Salton Sea was back in the day. It really adds to the feeling of abandonment and deterioration. I think, given that this is only 6 minutes long, the story was told pretty well. He managed to tell the story of the Salton Sea, and lead it into the story of Salvation Mountain at the end, in a limited amount of time by giving us the most important points.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive short. I thought the visuals and the shots were what stood out to me, as well as the writing and editing.
ReplyDeleteI though "The Accidental Sea" was really fascinating. So much information was packed in 6 short minutes. Not one line of dialogue was wasted. I enjoyed how he gave several interpretations of how to look at Salton City and allowed the viewer to think for themselves. The images were beautiful and thought provoking. I really liked how this weeks short was a documentary. I have always thought of them as long, heavily researched films. This was cool because even though this may have not been a subject that could fill 90 minutes with facts and images, Ransom Riggs still found it a necessary story to tell.
ReplyDelete