What is Dogme?

[Ross Milligan]

OK - I give up what on earth are 'Dogme95 rules'.

Confused (again).......

Ross

[Jon Eriksson]

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot).
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place).
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.
Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a "work", as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations.
Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY."
Copenhagen, Monday 13 March 1995

On behalf of DOGME 95


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You can read more about it on the official website at www.tvropa.com - but for us DV people, the ninth rule makes it impossible to make a film with the Dogme 95 licence.

I would also want to add that the Dogme movement was started as an experiment and has, according to the creators of it, outlived itself

But I'm not going to go into this discussion in this thread.....


Regards
Jon

[Jay Gladwell]

Jon, a night or two ago I found a web site that contained "Dogma 2001: The New Rules for Internet Cinema." It's not as controversial as Dogme 95. In fact, I think it contains some valid (common sense?) suggestions. If you'd like to read it, you can go to the following thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3619

[Ross Milligan]

Thanks for the information. So I now know what it is, but why would anyone want to be restricted in this way or is just an 'arty' thing?

Ross

[Jon Eriksson]

As far as I've understood it was started as a drunken conversation between a few danish film makers, and a few conversations later they wrote the Dogme 95 rules. I would assume it is all a reaction against mainstream (big money and big production) cinema and exploring how to make the narration and production process as 'basic' as possible, and see if it is at all possible to pull it off and if it works.

Lars von Trier (one of the founders) has aready said the Dogme movment is as far as he is concerned dead, since the experiment proved successful (The Idiots, Festen etc), and he rased concerns that Dogme has through this process started another 'mainstream', which was never intended.

But aside from that, I think it has shown that people will still appreciate a good story and film made without a massive budget, famous actors and special effects - and this should be a welcome discovery for all the indie film/video makers around.


That's at least how I see it...

Jon

[Ross Milligan]

Thanks Jon.

Now I must remember to drop the term into a conversation the next time I try to sound intelligent...... otherwise file in the green circular filing cabinet under - 'not applicable'.

Regards to all

Ross

[Steve Klusman]

Ross,

I know at the outset it sounds like esoteric nonsense, but I really suggest checking out a few of the Dogme films before dismissing the movement. I personally think it's one of the most exciting things to happen to cinema in a long time. The rules simply reduce the movie to it's most basic elements, and what emerges in each film is a clear sense of the director. The resulting film is to the director in much the same way a novel is to a writer.

See if you can find "The Celebration" or "Italian for Beginners” at places that show independent films. They're wonderful. It’s a thrilling experience for an independent filmmaker to see that you can make a phenomenal films without the big budget.

And incidentally, many of the Dogme films break a rule here or there. A number of them have been made on digital video. The important thing is to understand the fundamental reason behind the rules and not get too trapped into slavishly following them. I don’t speak Danish, but I’m guessing that the Danish word “dogme” has a slightly different meaning than the English word “dogma”.

[Ross Milligan]

Iwill make the effort to check them out. What I should have said was 'not applicable in my practice' - I can't see much use for them in the Healthcare environment ;-)

Ross

[Hagop Matossian]

'Festen' was fantastic... truly riveting. And the knowledge that was happening on screen was as real as could be added to the impact of the film. Highly reccomended

[Thomas Berg Petersen]

I found a couple of Dogma95 films on Amazon.com
Try to search for Thomas Vinterberg and VHS.
Oh, an other excellent Dogme film is 'Mifune' by Soren Kragh Jacobsen.
Tom

[Steve McDonald]

Sounds like the way I shoot all my stuff, except for the 35mm thing. I think I actually invented this years ago, because I didn't know how to do it any differently.