ABSTRACT
Filmmaking is teleological in the sense that the filmmaker’s short-term and long-term goals have a causal efficacy in bringing about the present and necessary conditions and events for their realization. Directionality in filming is maintained by a process of self-correcting feedback through the use of a “shooting-agenda” which updates and upgrades the need for a coherent film capable of being comprehended by a future audience. A parallel process of progressive awareness and ethnographic understanding of the society and culture being studied and filmed determined the content and structure of filmic events necessary for the realization of short-term goals. Missed opportunities in filming were corrected by a “shooting-agenda,” thereby resulting in logically-complete sequences. Short-term goals of filming, such as obtaining footage which would serve as visual “fieldnotes” for later use in writing an ethnography, were arranged in an order of priority (when possible) leading toward the realization of long-term goals – the needs and expectations of future audiences, professional and general public. In this way, the parallel processes of ethnographic writing and filming became mutually-reinforcing, corrective, and complimentary.
