Ask your students to identify examples of each type of purpose while watching the video. For example:
INFORMATION: When the headmaster tells us about what happened to Nanavi’s family during the time between the first and second visit.
MESSAGE: When we see the kids going to school a song has been added which encourages them to work hard. This is meant to underline how important schooling is for the kids in this village.
MOOD: The scene where Nanavi is giggling while she gets dressed creates a light, happy mood about getting ready for school.
Talking about purpose is a way to combine what students have noticed about the uses of camera angles, sound and movement in videos - and their own responses to them.
The notion of authorship is as important in video as it is in literature. The purpose of most documentaries is to give the audience an opportunity to see the world from the perspective of the filmmaker, not of the subject.
Sometimes the filmmaker advocates for the subject, sometimes the filmmaker “exposes” the subject and sometimes the filmmaker tries to be neutral about the subject, but it is always the filmmaker’s decision.
You might play a video clip you are using in your class through once first and then play it again, pausing it frequently. Ask your students whether they noticed any moments when the way the images were framed, the movement and pace, or the sounds they heard, seemed to be less about communicating information than about setting a mood or casting something in a negative or positive light. In other words, where do they see the filmmaker expressing an opinion?