Wednesday 27th April 2016 Sound Screen-craft Lecture: Dominic Deane
Lift Documentary - Reflection
1. What do you think the principle subject was for this documentary.
I think that the main idea behind this short documentary was to see how people act within a small space, in this case a lift. I would like to know whether or not about the possibility of staging some of these conversations, I feel that perhaps the majority of the public were new to this experience, I felt as if these certain individuals were warming up to the idea of a man being in a lift. As the documentary progressed, I felt like the characters who were repeated were getting used to the idea of entering the lift to find a man filming their comings and goings.
2. Does this documentary film make use of material (e.g. live action, scene location, and/or interview) recorded as spontaneously as possible subject only to the effect introduced by the immediacy of observation from the camera operator director?
I think that the shots weren't spontaneous, take the long shot on the floor, for example he clearly had to position himself on the floor. Going into the action of the film I feel as if some of the characters were so lonely, take the old woman at the start, I feel as if she had no one to chat with and so she regularly visited the lift to talk to the man behind the camera. The art of kindness stood out to me from the foreign man, the fact that he gave the man a banana was just very touching and heart warming and I felt like we need more people like this.
3. What in short does the documentary film maker look at, and encourage us to look at and to see as most important about the principal subject of his film?
He looks at the life of others, the characters were quite mature, he focuses around their lives now, he repeats the question "what was your best childhood memory", I found the piece upsetting in some cases because the majority of responses linked to bad health, crisis, family problems but in the main I feel like everyone linked to the category of loneliness.
4. Does this documentary film include directly solicited observation, information, reflection, or commentary by witnesses, experts, other participants in relation to the documentary subject?What kinds of witnesses, experts and/or other participants does the film maker find most useful, how does she or he use them to get the film's chief points across, and what kind of response does the film maker seek to evoke by using these subjects as he does?
He seeks the responses around how people's childhood were, we gather an understanding of the characters from their first impression, body language, accent, colour, interests, whether they are laid back or confident in talking to the camera, not many people were shy. He then throws in the question "what was your best childhood memory", we get a mixture of responses from this.
5. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of this documentary film? why?
I didn't enjoy this at all, I was moved at the responses and attitude of certain individuals, coming from a nature background this documentary didn't appeal to me but the aesthetics and the way that the piece was edited I quite liked. I would like to know whether the questions and responses were set up, whether these questions were asked straight away (as soon as they met in the lift) or whether they were asked over a period of weeks.
