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…
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