為小銀幕而制作的紀錄片

保羅﹒克里瓦切克
(Paul Kriwaczek)
楓 葉譯


Part I
第一篇

The Nature of Television Documentary
電視紀錄片的本性
Chapter 1 Introduction
第一章 引言
Haven't I seen you on TV?
我在電視上見過你嗎？

Television, in all its forms, is a dominant feature
of today's world culture. From Baltimore to Buenos
Aires to Beijing, from Malmo to Makhachkala to
Mahabalipuram, televison is the in the home, in the
office, in the factory, in the hospital, in the
post office, in the hairdressser, in the bar-room.
Everywhere where people are, there is television.
It comes by transmission from terrestrial antennae,
by cable, by satellite, by closed circuit wiring.

電視及其一切形式是今日世界文化的主導特征。從巴爾
蒂摩到布宜諾埃利斯到北京﹐從瑪爾摩（一個瑞典一南方城
鎮－譯者注）到馬哈奇卡拉到馬哈巴里普蘭,﹐電視存在于家
里、辦公室、工廠、醫院、郵局、發廊、酒吧。只要有人的
地方就有電視。它從球形天線、電纜、衛星、閉路電線傳輸
過來。

TV is the primary communications medium of our
age. It is our entertainer, our informer, our
educator, our transmitter of culture, our codifier
of ideology. It sets the agenda for political debate,
manipulates our attitudes to ourselves and others,
suggests shared images, stereotypes and paradigms.
TV programmes put in front of us role models powerful
enough to alter the way we behave. Real police carry
out real actions in the style of their representation
on the small-screen; politicians take up catch phrases,
gestures and mannerisms ascribed to them by television
satires. We know how undertakers, soldiers,
bricklayers, authors, airline pilots, rock stars,
factory workers are supposed to behave because we ---
and they --- have seen it on television.

電視是我們這個時代的主要傳播( 亦譯作通訊）媒介。它為
我們的娛樂者﹐是我們的信息來源﹐是我們的教育者﹐我們
文化的傳播者﹐我們的意識形態的編纂人。它規定了政治辯
論的議程﹐操縱了我們對自己和對別人的態度﹐提出共享的
視覺形象、定型人物和范例。電視節目把人物模式推到我們
面前﹐它強大到足以改變我們的行為模式。真正的警察照著
小螢屏上他們的代表人物的風格來執行實際任務﹐政治家們
接受了電視諷剌劇給他們規定的俏皮話、手勢和行為舉止。
我們知道殯儀員、士兵、泥瓦匠、作家、民航飛行員、搖滾
明星、藍領工人該如何行為處事。因為我們－和他們－都在
電視上看見過。

Television is our favoured way of presenting
ourselves to the world. Most youngsters would prefer
to tell the wider community about their school in a
co-operative video rather than a written essay. Most
company marketing managers judge the publicity value
of a promotional film well above that of a printed
brochure. Most political pressure groups or
charitable foundations know that the persuasive power
of a single television appearance is worth hundreds
of leaflets.

電視是我們所喜歡的向世界展現我們自己的方式。大部
分年輕人寧愿用合伙拍攝的錄像片來告訴更多的公眾關于他
們的學校﹐而不愿意寫文章來說。大部分公司的銷售經理都
認為一部促銷影片的宣傳價值遠高于一本印刷小冊子。大部
分政治壓力集團和慈善基金會都知道在電視上僅出現一次抵
得上成百傳單的說服力。

This preference results from a number of
television's particular qualities. One is the illusion
of transparent truth that film and video seem to
offer. Another is the very familiarity and ubiquity
of the medium. TV is such a part of everyday experience
that its codes and conventions, its complications
and craftsmanship go largely unnoticed. The process
of making a television programme seems to the casual
observer to need little more than common sense and
an eye for a picture.

對電視的這種偏愛是來自電視的一些特殊性質。一個是
電影和錄像似乎能夠提供透明的真相的幻覺。另一個是對這
一媒介的熟悉和它的普遍存在。電視是這樣一種每天每日的
經驗的一部分﹐以致于電視的慣例和成規﹐它的復雜程度和
技藝大都被忽視了。電視節目的制作過程看起來象是隨便的
觀察者﹐它只需要稍稍多一些的普通常識和有繪畫感的眼睛。

One important factor which gives television its
special status is the fact that until now access to
it by ordinary people has been severely restricted.
In the capitalist as well as the former communist
world, in the developing countries as among the new
industrial tiger economies of the Far East, television
has been under the exclusive control of a cultural,
political, social, commercial or artistic elite ---
at face value, a wide enough spectrum of people, but
an elite nonetheless. The selection criteria for
admission to that elite differ from country to country
and society to society, but wherever on looks,
broadcast television programmes have been made by a
privileged few, and those in control of broadcasting
their works have been an oligarchy also. This might
not be so important in fiction film-making, but in the
field of documentary it has meant only the chosen few
making films about the unchosen many. It has not been
possible for ordinary people to present their own
image of themselves; they were only ever to be seen
through the others' eyes.

使電視處于一種特殊地位的一個重要因素就是這樣一個
事實﹐即到目前為止﹐普通人進入電視這一行業是被嚴格限
制的。無論是資本主義國家還是前共產主義國家﹐發展中國
家和遠東的新興工業國家一樣﹐電視一直完全被掌控在某一
文化、政治、社會、商業或是藝朮精英（從表面看是一大批
人﹐但仍是某種精英）手中。盡管每個國家之間、每個社會
之間磷選精英的標准哥不相同﹐但無論在哪里看﹐傳播電視
節目都是由少數特權制作的﹐而那些掌控傳播事業的人也就
是（傳播業）寡頭。這也許對故事片的制作沒有那么重要﹐
但在紀錄片的領域里﹐那就意味著只有被選中的少數去制作
關于未選中的多數的電影。那就不可能為普通人去呈現屬于
他們自己的形象﹐他們只是通過別人的眼睛被看。

In consequence, television everywhere has come to
fulfil an important validating role. To appear on
television is as if to have one's existence officially
acknowledged. Being allowed onto the box is a kind of
formal recognition of a person or a group's presence
in society. Back in the 1970s Parosi, though not a
documentary series but a drama serial set among the
South Asian community of the British Midlands, and
which included passages of dialogue in Hindi and Urdu,
had at the time --- according to a UN report --- a
notable effect on the self-image and self-confidence
of British people of Asian origin. Even now if you
ever appear on television people who normally meet
you every day of your life feel driven to approach
you with an impressed and almost awestruck: 'Didn't
I see you on TV yesterday?'

總之﹐每個地方的電視都變成滿足作一個重要的人物的角色。
在電視上露面就象得到官方公認存在一樣。被允許上電視是
一種在社會上對一個人或一個團體的正式承認。回顧70年代
的電視片Parosi（BBC1976年出品）﹐盡管不是系列紀錄片﹐
只是把情景設置在英國中部的南亞社區的連續劇﹐其中包括
有用印地語（Hindi）和烏爾都語（Urdu）（印度回教徒的語
言－－－譯者注）對話的段落﹐根據聯合國的報告﹐在那時
﹐這在亞裔英國人中的自我形象和自信方面有著令人矚目的
影響。即使是現在﹐假如你曾出現在電視上﹐那些平時你日
常生活中遇到的人就會懷著一種印象深刻和几乎是肅然起敬
的感覺趨前接近你：“昨天我在電視上是不是看見你了？”
It is tempting to compare the status of
television production with that of writing in the
European Middle Ages before the development of
printing. In fact there is a considerable difference.
Writing may have been a skill restricted to the few
and controlled, in mediaeval Europe at any rate, by
the Church, but the products of the literate labour
of monks and clerks were, unlike the products of the
television producer, only accessible to the tiny
minority who could read them. It was that minority
who held the power in their society. In our form of
democracy, public opinion has power, and television
has from quite early on been available to, indeed
directed towards, the majority of the population
either in their own homes or their places of
relaxation and entertainment.

把電視制作的情況和印刷朮發展以前的歐洲中世紀的寫作情
況相比是吸引人的。事實上存在著一個很大的不同。在中世
紀的歐洲﹐在任何等級中﹐寫作可能一直是限制在少數人手
中的技巧﹐并被教會所控制﹐不象電視制片人的產品那樣﹐
神職人員的文字勞動只能影響那些極少數能讀到他們的人。
那是一小部分在他們的社會握有權利的人。在我們的民主社
會形式下﹐公眾意見是有力的﹐而電視從一開始就能夠﹐并
確實直接面向大多數民眾﹐無論是在他們家中還是他們休息、
娛樂的場所。

Thus until now television has had all the features
of a typical twentieth century mass medium, with
costs which are quite unbalanced between producer and
consumer. Much like other cultural products of our
mass age, pop music for example, television has
everywhere been centrally tightly controlled by large
corporations or government bureaucracies. It has
been expensive to produce and distribute, At the same
time it has been relatively easy to acquire and cheap
to consume. Power, for good or ill, was largely in
the hands of the producers. The consumer's choice was
to answer a multuiple choice question, to select
between a small number of predetermined responses: to
buy this record, that one or neither, to watch this
channel, that one or switch off the television
altogether.

因此﹐到現在為止﹐電視已經擁有一個典型的二十世紀大眾
媒介的所有特征﹐同時﹐費用在制片人和消費者之間又非常
的不平衡。與我們大眾時代的其它文化產品非常類似﹐比如
說流行音樂﹐每一個地方的電視都已經被大公司或官僚政府
牢牢掌控了。它的制作和發行都很昂貴。同時對消費者而言﹐
它的獲得就相對容易和便宜。無論好壞﹐權力大部分掌握在
制片人手里。消費者的選擇就是答多項選擇題﹐在很小范圍
的預定答案內做選擇：買這張唱片或那張唱片或是都不買﹔
看這個頻道﹐看那個頻道﹐或是關電視。

Today, as we look towards the beginning of a new
century, this imbalance has already begun to change.
The unstoppable development of technology is
starting to render the previous dispensation quite
out of date.

今天﹐在我們展望新世紀的開始時﹐這種不平衡已經在
改變了。不斷發展的新技朮正在開始給先前那種分配倒計時。