Back in 1999, Man on the Moon was released. The film stars Jim Carrey as the famous comedian Andy Kaufman. Through the during of the filming, Jim allowed a documentary crew to follow him as he took on the role but later on, Universal (as the Production company behind the film) decided that they didn't want the footage being released and show to the public because they believed it would make Jim "look like an asshole" which is explained by Jim Carrey in the film.
In 2017, Netflix released a Documentary called Jim & Andy The Great Beyond which uses that behind the scenes footage as well as a brand new interview with Jim Carrey, at his current age of 55 and talks about what he was going through and explaining the way he chose to take on the role the way he did. However, through the documentary we actually learn that Jim was taken over by Andy Kaufman (or so Jim says) and explains the craziness of having Andy communicating through him and coming back (as he had died from cancer) to do his movie. It's a very surreal documentary to watch and personally makes you question whether Jim Carrey is 'Method Acting' or if he really did have Andy take control. Through the behind the scenes footage we hear cast and crew explain that it really is Andy, we even see Jim (as Andy) meeting Andy Kaufmans family. It's a fantastic insight to this actors work on the film but also an excellent insight to just how well Jim was influenced by Andy Kaufman.
As I've done in my previous reviews of documentaries, I'll be focusing on the visuals of this particular documentary and although I'm actually taking very little influence from this, I feel it's one to right up on as it's done something I haven't seen many other documentaries do... Break the rules of documentary film making.
Visuals
All the archive footage shown in this documentary from the set of Man on the Moon was shot back in 1998/1999 so naturally it's all in standard definition. However, the interview with Jim Carrey has been shot with a modern camera, likely in 4K and graded as well. Naturally there wasn't any point in trying to shoot the new interview to match the original footage (which I've never seen done before anyway), a new interview was shot with Jim Carrey but discussing what it was like doing the film, how much of an influence Andy was for him, talking about some of the things that happened on set and also hearing his side of the story. This documentary does go with a classic style of archive footage over modern shot interviews with the interviewees talking in the past tense. Although a classic style of documentary, I've briefly explained that this documentary breaks some rules. Arguably, rules are made to be broken and this isn't the first documentary to do this. One of the first things I noticed about this documentary is the style of the modern interview with Jim Carrey. Below are screen shots of the different shot types for this documentary. In regards to different angles, there's only 2:
I've already said I think this interview was shot in 4K and my reasons for this is because the centre frame interview has been cut into. It's more likely they've shot in 4K and edited the scale of the interview rather than shooting the same interview on 2 different cameras (saves money on budget). The final screen shot is a harsh close up, almost portrait on Carrey and over all, this framing and angles aren't common in documentaries. However, since the documentary is about a rather unusual story and as it progresses it becomes more bizarre and (at times) unbelievable. I feel this would lead to the choice of a different interview style, not the classic side of the frame kind of interview we get. As well, the background and setting of this has no relevance here, we have no idea where Carrey is and are never told. The DOP made a good choice though and put on (I would assume)
We also hear the person asking the questions (at a guess I would say the Director) asking Carrey questions sometimes but not throughout the Documentary. Usually you'd get one or the other, never hear them or always hear them asking the questions.
The use of the archive footage is fantastic. The amount of coverage that the original documentary crew got during the films production is like a gold mine for the Filmmakers. It's from the start of production right through to the very end. As well as adding in footage of Jim Carrey from talk shows and the news to help show the excitement and support Jim Carrey had when getting the role of Andy Kaufman. This however, is only at the beginning and the end of the film.
It's difficult to take inspiration from this documentary as the only relevant section visually is the interview with Jim Carrey (Modern one) as the rest is archive footage and I don't think we'll be using any in our documentary. But the way they've shot Jim Carrey's interview is both budget effective and benefits the documentary. With the different angles it fits the crazy storyline of the documentary and with it being shot in 4K they are able to change the shot size without losing the quality.
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