1/24/2017 0 Comments Catfish![]() This documentary is about Nev Schulman and his online relationship with a young woman called Megan on Facebook, it is filmed by his brother Ariel Schulman and his friend Henry Joost. The documentary starts with Nev opening a 3rd parcel from an 8 year old girl called Abby who painted his photographs, their communication grows through Facebook and more of Abby's family friend Nev, he also gets a friend request from a woman called Megan who claims to be Abby's half-sister. Nev and Megan talk for nine months in total during which they start an online relationship with phone calls and letter writing, she sends Nev MP3s of music covers she has performed for him, however, Nev later realises that she has copied the covers from Youtube. Ariel convinces Nev to continue the relationship for the documentary even after finding out that Angela (Abby's mother) lied about buying an art gallery for Abby's paintings. They all travel to the address he has sent his letters to find the house empty and unlived in, so they go to Angela's house, Angela answers and is very different to the painting of her, while there, they learn that she has recently begun chemotherapy for uterine cancer, Nev calls and texts Megan multiple times but she doesn't answer. Angela takes them to see Abby and Nev discovers that Abby never sees her half-sister and rarely paints. The next day Nev recieves a text from Megan stating that she has alcohol problems and has checked herself into a rehabilitation centre. After discussing the situation with Angela, she confesses that she has a daughter called Megan that is in a rehab centre called Dawn Farms downstate but it is not the Megan Nev was talking to, however, Angela says that the girl in the photographs is a family friend, she also admits that she maintained the Facebook profile account of Megan and multiple others using fake accounts and an alternate mobile phone, she also admits that the paintings were done by her and talking to Nev helped her reconnect with her love of painting, she tricked her husband, Vince, into thinking Nev was paying her for them so he would let her continue. While Ariel and Henry spoke to Vince her told a story of how fishermen would put catfish in the crate with cod to keep them fresh and active during transpotation and ensure good quality of the fish, this can been seen as a metaphor, that there are always people in everyone's lives to keep them alert and active and is implied that Angela is this person. After the documentary there is on-screen text, informing people that Angela did not have a daughter at Dawn Farms, she did not know the woman she used as Megan and that shee does not have cancer. Angela deactivated her 15 additional Facebook profiles and changed hers to a picture of herself and began trying to promote herself as an artist. Filming techniques (camera angles and shots) They film this documentary non-professionally, they use hand held cameras most of the time and one high end camera. The quality of the footage is below par for a professional documentary, but for this documentary it is acceptable because of it's style and focus. The majority of camera shots they use are close up, extreme close up and medium shot, wide shots are also used but only a few times. Close ups are mainly used when filming Nev and Angela when they are talking and she admits to everything, they use it to show their emotions which helps the viewer connect with them. Extreme close ups are used to film computer screens and Facebook pages, e.g. Megan's profile and messages shared between Nev and Megan, by sharing their intimate messages gives the audience an insight into their relationship and how meaningful it was to Nev. Editing They want to make Facebook the focus of this documentary, they use the tags on photographs from Facebook to tell the audience who people are, Megan, Angela and Vince, by editing in this way it emphasises how their relationship is based around the internet and all he knows is only what she has told him.
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