S.O.S - Sound List

S.O.S - Day Schedules

S.O.S - Parashoot

S.O.S: First Tutorial Feedback

We presented both ideas for Esther but gladly, our more complex interesting one was approved. She liked the idea because it was more complex, however she added that we may want to use a time scale, such as the course of day. We did think about this, however the film isn't really following time, both myself and Sophie have discussed it, and hopefully focusing on the narrative instead of passing time maybe strong enough.

We are happy with this and rearing to go!

:D

S.O.S: Timeline

The First Draft of our timeline :)

S.O.S: Full Brainstorm

Here's my brainstorm of ideas for this project :)

S.O.S: Sheffield Sirens (Script)

Here is the script draft from our 2nd Idea: Sheffield Sirens :)

Sheffield Sirens: Script (Draft)

SIRENS…

It’s 3:30am, and that’s the 4^th Ambulance siren to wake me up tonight. It happens every night – siren here, siren there. It’s far too annoying.

Sheffield is always loud. No matter what the time, you’ll find somewhere full of life. Whether it be in the day, when everyone is shopping in town….

[Pause]

Or at night, when all the students come out to play and sleep in the road. I can’t say anything; I’ve been one of them.

[Pause]

Even though I’m a student, it’s still sometimes nice to get away to a quiet place, where you can just rest, listen to nature, just be with yourself.

[Fades to Silence]

[Sirens fade in]

Ah, the famous Sheffield Sirens again, early morning again, lack of sleep… AGAIN! I really wonder what accidents occur at this time…

[Silence?]

[Background Noise – Friends asking you to come out]

Go out to a nightclub? Should I? Hah, maybe this time the sirens won’t even wake me!

[Club Ambience]

My friends and I went to our favorite club; it’s been ages since we’ve done this. I miss just being with him, but hell, clubs are busy, you bump into so many people, and sometimes you get the wrong person.

[Background noise – club/guy shouting angrily at you for bumping into him]

I was having a nice night with my friends and didn’t want any trouble, so we ignored the guy and walked away – which only made him madder. He grabbed his drink, walked towards me and…

[Music Stops]

[Bottle Smashes]

[Silence]

[Sirens]

Now I know what accidents occur at this time. This time the sirens are my fault. I’m the one waking you, annoying you whilst you try to sleep.

[Sirens fade out]

S.O.S: Project Idea Two

Idea Two: Sheffield Sirens
I thought about this idea when I was woken in the night by ambulance sirens going off outside my window. It got me thinking about how loud sheffield can be, and sometimes how annoying that can be, especially in the morning - therefore I wanted to try interpret this into the idea of showing the space that is Sheffield whilst presenting a story of a student.

The story starts with a loud siren passing, and dialogue explains that the sirens keep me awake and are annoyingly loud and how this reflects on Sheffield as a whole. We use city ambience, (with traffic, conversations etc.) of busy streets in town and busy nightlife in clubs to show that Sheffield is always loud, night or day. Even though i'm a student, it's sometimes nice to get away to a quiet place, which allows us to change the tempo to a quieter area - the winter gardens, which is more calm and tranquil - which slowly fades to silence.

The sirens start again - it never ends. My friends ask them to come on a night out (background noise of conversations, people saying 'come out tonight, please?', and basically, I'm a student - of course I'm going to give in and go out.

So we're at the loud club, partying with friends having a good time. I accidentally bump into a man dancing, who gets aggressive about the situation (angry shouting in the background/overlapping the club ambience). We don't want any trouble, so we ignore him and try to get away. Apparently this was the wrong move and just makes the guy angrier and without warning, I get a bottle smashed on my head. (ambience stops, and the glass shattering is the only short).

Sirens fade in - aren't they annoying. This time it's my fault, i'm the one waking you up, annoying you when you're trying to sleep.

S.O.S: Project Idea One

Idea One: Morning Routine

At first we decided that if we created a film inside somewhere, that we had access to both internal and external sound effects for our piece, as we could use a window to hear traffic, people walking past and weather...

So our first idea was to use this project to present the journey of a morning routine in a flat. A woman who works from home is woken by her alarm and starts her morning routine before she sits down with her files and starts work.

It's a simple and easy idea but allows us to use a range of sounds which we have easy access to - all facilities are available all the time, so we wouldn't have problems capturing the sound. We had access to so many sounds that we would be able to create a 3-minute piece with ease, which means that we can use a lot of our time working on editing it to make it perfect.

S.O.S: William Thompson IV's War

Piece: William Thompson IV's War

By: Alan Hall

Year: 2006

Length: 27 Mins 34 Secs

The first thing you notice about this piece is the piano. It appears out of place of the story - it's unsettling, and low - there's no piano themes in Iraq. A bomb effect is played throughout the piece - it represents an explosion, which links with the dialogue straight away and sets the scene of the piece, you know it's going to be about war. This bomb effect is repeated throughout, to remind you - and also make it realistic, as bombs never stop going off when you're at war - I assume.

You also hear background noise from the radio, which once again makes it realistic - as it's how units tended to communicate at this time in the war. 

One piece i like from this is when the dialogue says that you're 'free to listen', and the background is completely silent. It has a big effect, because it makes the audience relax and feel more involved in the piece, without taking it too far. The silence under the dialogue shows how important the script is - it needs to be clear for the audience to understand the piece.

The more of this you watch, you notice that the piece is about both THE war and HIS personal war, as you hear street sounds, birds, cars etc. - Which would not be heard in the war zone. 

Overall, the sounds and the dialogue are both presented clearly, which means many soundscape tracks must have been used and edited with great detail & you are constantly reminded of the space he is talking about - by the repetition of the 'bomb' sounds.

S.O.S: The Sound Of Sport

Piece: The Sound Of Sport

By: Dennis Baxter

As soon as the piece starts, you can tell that the sound artist has used many soundscapes over the dialogue (main). The piece uses a range of sound from sport events whilst Dennis Baxter explains how to capture sound of sport in such a way that is so effective today. 

You hear a lot of ambience, in a crowd at a range of sport stadiums, as well as commentary for example in the Olympics. The piece uses ESPN rips of commentary when Dennis talks about ESPN - the dialogue and sounds blend to allow the video to flow - as well as give the audience a sense of space - you know exactly what he's talking about straight away. However, it is clear to see that the dialogue is the main focus of the piece, as it is always louder, and always clear - sometimes there's even silence under the voiceover. 

The music (country) is soft and calming and automatically creates a character in the audience's mind - you can hear where he comes from, and the image comes to mind - and is helped further with his accent.

It's clear to see that sport has been his passion, and the video has a nice turn in the idea of him talking about his life and how he came to be the successful sound artist he is today. 

I love this piece. The juxtaposed sound and dialogue works very well together to create a space in my mind - I feel like I can picture exactly what he's talking about. It's a very powerful piece with good conventions used.

S.O.S: Tunnel Vision

Piece: Tunnel Vision

By: Pejk Malinovski

Year: 2001

Length: 5 Minutes

When we watched this film in class, it was so strange and different to the others. It seemed to be about different men talking about girls and sex on a tube journey. Saying how many they slept with, or how many they loved. The tube is referred to as the 'Tunnel'.

You know the space of the sound when you hear train/tube sounds, such as when the tube screeches to a halt at the end. 

Most of all I found this really funny. I like the accents added to the personality and creates a character in the audience's mind - also throughout you hear mistakes, coughs, 'urms' - which are usually cut out of films - however it works well in this because it shows the embarrassment the man is feeling about what he is talking about - makes the character more realistic and allows the audience to familiarise themselves much easier. 

Background sound is mainly a beat rather than tube ambience. Which suggests it's quiet maybe, but also that they are underground.

I liked this piece mainly because it was funny. The story distracted me from the sounds, however the sounds juxtaposed with the story to make it whole - and therefore allows the audience to understand.

S.O.S: Jarman's Garden

Click To Play 'Jarman's Garden' by Sherre Delys

Piece: Jarman's Garden

By: Sherre Delys

Year: 2000

Length: 14 Mins 49 Secs

Sherre Delys' aim for this project was to show her journey of Derek Jarman's garden (a filmmaker who loved and laboured to create a unique garden of his own).

In this piece, there appears to many more layers than in Beirne's work. So much is going on at once that there must be around 7 soundscapes flowing through the piece. The dialogue and sound effects are once again juxtaposed - by having high pitched beeps and a deep bass at the same time. You can hear feet walking through gravel throughout as the dialogue plays, which suggests that the piece contains movement. One downside I think to the idea of so many soundscapes is that sometimes there is too much, so it's distracting from what the dialogue is presenting to the audience - is it meant to appear in a way disorientated? Maybe Sherre Delys aim was to present the place's rugged and uniqueness compared to normal beautiful green gardens. 

The idea of wind is presented through a variety of sound effects: the wind blowing itself and the wind chimes chiming. The wind fades out and the audience is presented with silence, which appears to be the method that Sherre has chosen to change the scene in piece, as afterwards the dialogue begins again or completely different sounds occur. This is clever because it allows the piece to flow as a journey, instead of quick cuts to different parts of the garden.

Sometimes the dialogue presented isn't clear, at first I thought this was a fault in the piece, however after listening over, you can tell that the dialogue wasn't the aim, the aim was the place itself, rather than him describing it - the place overpowers him and his words wash away with the water. 

The piece sets it's scenes very well. For example, when the dialogue talks about fishing, a sound file of the sea waves crashing against the shore is used - makes the audience feel like they're there in the moment, allowing them to listen and paint this space as their own. 

At the beginning of the piece, the sounds collide to create a calming and relaxing effect on the audience, the majority of sounds makes an impression, the variety of noises identifies it's uniqueness to any other garden. Towards the end, the sounds get louder, closer to the audience. The sound of the waves becomes more aggressive, and the deep bass slowly starts to overpower it - until the sound quietens to silence all together. It creates tension and excitement, which isn't usually something I feel from a garden!

I feel that the end kind of drifted a little. Maybe the aim was to present a calming, or the drifting of words - showing they mean nothing in the piece, however the beginning had dialogue and a range of tempos, the end had one deep tempo it followed for over 3 minutes...

I liked this piece, but some of it was hard to understand. For example the amount of soundscapes at the beginning was sometimes too distracting from what the piece was supposed to be saying, almost like too much was going on at once, however it calms at the end, allowing the audience to relax and portray the calm side of the garden space in their minds.

Sense Of Space: Richie Beirne's 'Meat Factory Earworms'

Click To Play 'Meat Factory Earworms' by Richie Beirne

Piece: Meat Factory Earworms (The Curious Ear)

By: Richie Beirne

Year: 2008

Length: 13 Mins 47 Secs

This sound project by Richie Beirne follows a young man who feels trapped in his job at a meat factory in Ireland. He works on the slaughter process and has trouble coping with it. The piece shows how music keeps him going, as throughout he explains that he has songs that are stuck in his head, which he calls the 'ear worms' - because you can't get it out.

There appears to be several layers of soundscape used - one for the dialogue, knives sharpening, machinery as well as background noise and voices in the factory. Not forgetting the music layer. 

Throughout the piece, you hear the machinery working and revving up, ambience of other people working to make the piece feel like you are there listening to him - almost like he's the voice in your head, juxtaposing the idea of him having music 'earworms' in his head. 

The music is used throughout his story and silenced at others. The songs are cheery, almost dream like, suggesting that the songs allow him to switch off from the dead end job he can't escape. The songs tend to be about love or dreams, which create an empathy affect on the audience. The music seems to be soft and calming, but also uses quite horrific lyrics to help link it back to the story of the piece.

The sound effects are carefully juxtaposed with the dialogue of the piece. For example when he talks about someone 'giving a lift', you hear a car pull up and screech to a halt. It creates an image in the audience's mind - making it more realistic in the audience's mind - they create the image - the space themselves. Also, when he explains when he stabbed himself in the knee by accident, you hear a squeal coming from the machinery, which sounds similar to a man's scream of pain, making it slightly scary to it's audience - more tense than empathy.

The piece also likes to create tension, to show his hatred and anger for this job, for example, when he talks about the factory being a 'blood bath', the knives are sharpening louder, there is a high-pitched saw in the background and the machinery is slightly louder. Makes it feel closer to you, makes you unsettled in the situation. 

The use of accent gives the person character straight away. You know where he's from, most likely a working guy, who lives a regular life, who has a job he doesn't enjoy. If he did enjoy it, you would hear the enthusiasm in his voice at the beginning of the piece. 

The dialogue and the music are juxtaposed, the music is sweet and calming, whereas the dialogue is sour and almost disturbing - it makes the story itself more shocking and allows the audience to portray the place.  

Also, the editing is quite jagged. It gives the piece an unsettling and uncomfortable feel to it. However it is clever as it reacts to the way our human minds work - we don't think linear thoughts, our minds flit between various things - therefore the piece gives the audience a more realistic experience.

I enjoy the piece, it's clever and works well to create the unease in it's audience. The layers work well together and the way it is edited is realistic to us - it's less predictable too, which makes it much more interesting. We expect it to flow - but the jaggedness is intriguing as well as unsettling. 

P.O.P: Parashoot

Just showing my Parashoot Risk Assessment that has been moderated :)

Rest Of The Pages Are Here:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzPxQKPScZT0NDQxZmNiMGYtZDU2Ny00YmMwLTg3NWQtYzUyOWNiZGRkM2Mx&hl=en_US

P.O.P: Day Schedule

ABANDONMENT – DAY SCHEDULE

(This will be attached to Parashoot also)

Time	Action/Requirements
11:30	Train Station Shooting – the fast train and slow arriving train must be filmed in this time. The shot of the empty tracks, the shot over character’s shoulder also must be attainted at this time.  Also the shot of the Edale sign itself should be shot at this time.
12:00pm	Shots of scenery taken from BY THE TRAIN STATION to be efficient.
12:15pm	Shoot Farm Scenery. This includes the sheep, fields and mountain shots. All the types of shots should be attained at this time.
13:00	The River & Moss shot should be taken before moving onto the next area for scenery shots. Ensure to get a range that we can work with in post production.
13:15	LUNCH
14:30	Revisit Farm (2nd Field) for more scenery shots.
15:30	Scenery around Edale, aim for the focus pull shot planned in the storyboarding. As well as any other useful pieces we can adapt later.
16:00	Meet at Rambler’s Inn and discuss footage, review the day and see what needs to be done.
16:30	Take EXTRA footage for our benefit.
17:00	Review footage to check the quality. Time code may be broken for this project. Are the shots working correctly? Focused? Have we used the right set up for the camera?
18:00	Meet at Rambler’s Inn (The Production Base) with the rest of the class!

P.O.P: Shot List

A small shot list for our short film :)

P.O.P: Location Shots

Just some basic shots taken to get the feel of what Edale is like:

P.O.P: Storyboards

Here are the storyboard sheets of the production for the Portrait of Place Production: Abandonment.

P.O.P: Abandonment

The Basic Idea...

After looking over several ideas, we decided that the strongest one and the one we found most interesting to complete would be an abstract story called 'Abandonment'.

It follows a young girl who has been left abandoned in Edale. She sees scenery and animals, but never any people - she's all alone. As she explores, we see her miss trains out of the area over and over again, showing her desperation (they just speed right past her - like she isn't there).

Near the end it becomes more panicky, the shots are quicker and therefore add more tension.

So..
The girl will only be shown from behind (over the shoulder). It adds mystery to her character. What has she done to deserve being left abandoned on her own in this deserted place? The shot is at the train platform in Edale, whilst no trains or people are present. This is to symbolise her loneliness and abandonment straightaway, but still poses the enigma as to why she is being here. This question is left up to the audience to decide, to give them an active role in the feature.

The scenery will be used to show how deserted and quiet the area is, it's miserable and empty (like her life?) - the only thing she has here is the animals and nature.

The flashes of shots of the train leaving is representing each chance to leave gets ignored. The train goes straight past her, never acknowledging her desperate need to leave Edale. The shot is basic and quick, to represent the speed of the train, and the speed of the chance slipping away...

Near the end, the scenes will intertwine with each other, scenery, animals and trains, as well as the final shot of the train slowly stopping at the platform for her to finally leave. Using fast snappy repetitions shows tension and depressing idea that nothing changes here, there's no-one here, it's abandoned itself as a place. However the shot at the end is slow, to show her relief of finally being able to leave.

Portrait Of Place: Ideas

Here's a mind map from when we got set the brief. I admit that at the time, I researched the place slightly and realised that some of the ideas wouldn't be feasible or were too complicated to produce in such a short time, however the one idea (highlighted above) is the strongest one for our group, because it portrays Edale and shows the scenery, and how nothing changes in the place itself, but at the heart of Edale, the station is where everything changes.

Gasman

The Gasman is about a split family, meeting with each other around the festive season, and showing the struggles.

The scene is set straight away with this film, in regards to being the festive season. Firstly by playing ‘Let It Snow’ on the radio, and also with the boy pouring sugar on the table and driving his toy car through it, like snow on the road.

The film starts with a man polishing his shoes, and background ‘house’ noises or children and their mother. It shows the class of the film straight away.

(Shows people getting ready, but poses an enigma as to what they are getting ready for.)

At the beginning it doesn’t reveal any faces. The first face you properly see is the little girl’s, which signifies that she’s a main character in the feature. It never shows the mother’s face – meaning she isn’t important or isn’t an important role in the story. The second face shown is the little boys – meaning he isn’t as important maybe, but allows the audience to familiarize themselves with this character.

The girl makes a juxtaposition of stories, by clicking her shoes together and saying ‘no place like home’, which has been taken from The Wizard Of Oz.

In the middle of the story, the boy throws a rock at his father as a joke - play fighting, which they all giggling at. At the end though, the rock throwing has a darker meaning. The girl wants to throw the rock at the other, but we're just shown her gripping the stone in anger and throwing it down. It shows her jealousy of the other girl being in her family's or more specifically, her father's life. Jealously is also shown at the party, when the other girl is sat on their father's knee and she fights with her to get her off.

The audience get a feel of involvement throughout this film, you see shots at the party, which allow some people to relate to the story as well as the struggles the family is going through.

The costume design has been very well set for the feature. The children wear subtle costumes make the film realistic. For example the children wear their school uniforms to a party, it's sad and shows the financial situation the family is in, hoping for the audience's empathy.

At the beginning of the story, the girl is shown (with close up shots throughout) as the happy one within her family, who loves her father, however at the end, she's the one who's most upset and angry with her family secrets.

Another point about shots is the location used for the production. The Railway line scenes signify that the film was low budget, but also allowed easy tracking shots as well as no interruptions from the public.

The background music is quiet and doesn't distract from the dialogue, which allows the audience to follow the story easily. It's constant Christmas songs to keep the scene going throughout the film. Christmas songs is usually a time of joy and being with family, but this family's Christmas is quite different...

Highrise

Highrise by Gabrielle Russell (2002)
This short is about a mother who seizes the opportunity to escape her life as her child crawls towards the window of her high-rise flat.

As soon as the film starts, you were background noises of people talking and a screech, straight away that makes you uncomfortable and gives off the feeling that something is wrong. The camera pans across the blocks of flats and goes to this one room. It focuses on this one flat, one story of many in this area.

When first in the apartment, you see the mess and uncleanness of the place, as well as dirt on the baby’s face. It signifies her stress, how unwell she’s coping and maybe the state of the house represents the state of her life, just all over the place. The TV program is positive; a game show about winning, the mother is stressed and wants that to be the woman on the show.

She doesn’t want to pay attention to the child at all, she’s worn out and wants to watch the TV Show, but the child’s screaming is too loud for her to hear it properly.

When the child starts crawling, you get a close up of the mother’s face, which shows worry, and the music of the game show goes quiet and you get a wind effect to add tension to the situation. When she drops to the floor, you hear heavy breathing, once again to add tension to the situation. The dripping of the bottle could symbolize many things. Her life ‘dripping’ away, or the ‘fall’ of the droplet representing the fall of her child out of the window.

Throughout the film, you stay on the mother’s eye level so the audience feel that they’re there watching her. When she closes the door, there’s silence and darkness. Does the darkness represent how she feels, or is it symbolizing that what she is doing is wrong?

A scream causes her to run back into the apartment, hoping that it’s over, however it’s from the TV Screen. Show’s her post-natal depression over taking her in wanting her child dead – she wants peace.

The doll is significant. In the beginning, it’s just a child’s toy and the baby throws it onto the windowsill and goes after it. At the end it shows what could have happened to the child if he’d fallen out of the window. Using a human baby doll (which falls instead) is effective because of this.

The Light In The Dark

When researching about Edale and what facilities it has, we noticed that the promotional videos for the area were quite mundane. They presented the place as almost deserted rather than being a nice quite place for a variety of activities.

Our aim is to brighten up the campaign, through a variety of methods. Firstly, we want to make our shots more beautifully composed in order to attract the audience and make the place stand out. Our plan is to use a variety of shots and methods of the landscape as well as the small village to capture the atmosphere of Edale. By using both the landscape and village (e.g. Pub areas), it shows what different facilities the place offers – you can have a quiet walk, do some photography or socialise in the pub.

I also wanted to add a little experimental work to the piece, as without sound, it may seem quite bland. I wanted to use something colourful, as the weather has been predicted to be quite poor. We discussed ideas and came up with the idea of using a flashing (different colours) bouncing ball, which would travel through the shots, almost as through the ball is leading us through Edale. The use of the ball and colours may also help attract young children to the place, as well as adults.

I think our idea will be successful, because we do not require cast, therefore will be easier to run and of course, lower the budget of our film.

Wonderful Winter

Winter is nearly here, and I love this image of a snowy landscape. The colours are all so beautiful, and the picture has used the rule of thirds quite well, sky - mountains and trees - land and water (which reflects the sky).

I've always loved landscape photography - an idea may to use some beautiful local sites for my project later on...

House

(from watching TV Series House MD - 'Pilot') 

House is one of the medical dramas I can bring myself to watch. Although it sometimes makes me squeamish, the way the stories are told are clever and engaging, because of all the twists and turns in every episode.

Hugh Laurie (who plays the main character Dr. Gregory House) portrays the part to an excellent standard, presenting to the audience a character, which is considered to be the best diagnostician in the nation, but also showing his struggles and differences, such as hating dealing with patients and physical health problems. The fact his ethics are quite questionable by the audience, makes him (and the show) different from other medical dramas (Doctors in shows such as Holby City are portrayed as caring and kind) – it makes his character more complex, making the audience more interested about finding out about him, and also makes the show stand out from those in the same genre.

As the show goes on, I started to notice some conventions in footage, for example, when House figures out a condition, the same expression is shown on his face, which the audience learn to recognise and therefore understand what’s about to happen in the drama. This keeps consistency, and also allows the audience to know there’s a twist they wouldn’t expect, they expect one, but it still poses an enigma as to what it is.

Most camera work is kept eye-level, allowing the audience to feel like they are there with the characters and therefore more enticed into the program. And shots are usually very professional in regards to a scene. If something is happening (e.g. a patient crashes) the shots are changing fast to capture the room and what role every doctor is playing to save the patients life, or if something as happened in regards to losing a patient, the music and shots are slow to capture the atmosphere and present it to the audience in a way to make them emphasise with the character. It transfers these emotions (or tension) to the audience, using music and realistic medical sound effects.

There are many things to say about this program, but it’s something I’m looking at in regards to making my work stand out in its genre, as well as producing my work to a professional standard for both my audience and myself.

BЯOKEN (An Idea)

An Opening Idea: Broken

Maybe I’ve been watching too many action films, but here’s an opening sequence idea.

It starts as a shot in an old house. It’s dark, quite and damp from the rainfall. The shot pans down from the ceiling behind the protagonist, to show a young girl on the floor frightened. The girl is begging for her life (the camera slowly pans down to eye level at this point), and the protagonist says nothing. Whilst the girl is beginning, the shot pans down to met her eye-level, to allow the audience to feel like they are stood behind the protagonist, almost helpless. The girl continues to beg, and as she does, thunder and rain sounds continue in the background, the shot fades and focuses on what’s in the protagonist’s hand – a gun.

The angle of shot changes as the gun is raised:

1.  First the gun being raised is shown from the side (slowly to add tension)
2.  Second, the shot shows the bottom of the protagonists face (not revealing their identity just  yet) with the gun pointing towards the camera.
3. We see a tear roll down the protagonist’s face as they say ‘I’m sorry’
4. The shot changes to the girl as she curls up and screams.
5. The gun takes up the full shot while shooting the bullet.
6. We then have a long shot, which shows the gun thrown to the floor and protagonist leaves the shot: allowing the opening title ‘Broken’ to be shown.

Rather dark film thinking? Time to watch some comedy...

:|

Infiltration

This is a film from a media student I found on YouTube. The story is about a guy infiltrating a criminal base, and disposing of it. The director has clearly put a lot of effort into this. Their use of shots is quite something; it’s enticing and conventional, making the piece appear to be professional to its audience. The effect such as the blood appears to be more powdery than anything else, yet it’s still effective enough not to be too bigger problem for the audience. The sound affects are all precise, and the fact there is no speech makes it more enticing and furthermore pose an enigma, it allows the audience to wonder about what the boy is doing and the further into the film they get the more they understand.

Christmas With Dad

In this short film, we follow a man (known as AJ) and his family as they prepare for Christmas, as well as the arrival of another child. The film allows the father's point of view, as he reveals his struggles and fears about his role as a father. The film then goes on to explain why, by allowing him to explain his childhood and health problems that will affect him in the future (such as losing his sight).

The main aim of the director (Conor McCormack) was to portray the father and his family in everyday life and showing the audience the struggles of life itself. The film concentrates on telling the story of how the family came together and expose the audience to a type of family life they may not have been aware of beforehand.

The main focus of the film is the ‘father’ AJ and his struggles, in regards to his family (only being the biological father of two of the seven children) and how he feels about each of them differs because of this, as well as his family health, as he explains how his father went blind with a gene with runs through the family – which he later explains is already affecting him to the point that he may be blind in approximately 2 years.  By adding all of these to the main focus, it makes the audience feel a little more sympathy, as before, looking at the attitude of the family, they have decided against – which therefore shows that the subject matter chosen was portrayed quite successfully.

In regards to technique, the filming format is a documentary convention of blending both interview shots and ‘family life’ shots, which don’t regard the camera. This is powerful, because the conventions ensure the film keeps a professional standard, but also allows the audience themselves to get a feel of AJ’s life (shown in ‘family’ shots) as well as his personal story that he presents in his interviews.

Conor McCormack himself has thought about how and when the film should be set in great detail as well. Simply, Christmas is a festive season for families to enjoy and have fun, but McCormack decides to show the struggles that occur not just in normal everyday life, but at the festive seasons as well. This is also a good technique, because once again you’d expect the audience to regard Christmas as a simple, happy family event, however it exposes how others experience Christmas, and how their problems don’t magically disappear, such as AJ’s feelings towards the other kids (he says he loves them, but cares for his own too much more), as well as his health problems in regards to his sight.

A downside to the camerawork, could be the poor quality shots taken, however since a documentary’s main focus is to portray the story more than anything else, this isn’t a massive problem. McCormack uses conventional methods to shoot the interview, in regards to exposure, white balance and placement of the subject, but on the family shots, it lacks potential. However the story itself is portrayed well, as it uses a range of shots to explain, meaning it doesn’t stick to interview format whilst he talks about his family, it shows their life and the way the children react to avoid any judgement from the audience.

The sound design for this piece is simple yet effective. It’s kept minimal but linked to the story itself, for example, it uses jingles to represent the Christmas season, and that’s about it, (and it’s only used a couple of times throughout the story). Normally this may be a concern, however in the case of a documentary such as this, it allows the audience to understand and learn about the subject itself without being distracted by sounds – which highlights that it is the most important part to the film.

Overall, I liked this production, I think the features all worked well together and the subject matter was successfully portrayed to its audience. However, maybe an interview from his wife in regards to AJ’s struggles might have allowed the audience to get all the views about their reality and make it more personal – maybe even getting the focus across that tiny bit more…