This short film is portrayed to me, to be about people who keep storage units for a variety of reasons. The film looks at a range of people to explore these reasons, for example a memory of an event or a person they've lost. People are known to keep storage units to keep hold of any part of their history, be it childhood memories or even past dreams or hopes they don't want to let go of. I think the aim of the director (Eva Weber), was to portray every-day life at these self-storage warehouses and explore the reasons and memories kept there.
I believe that the director is trying to portray the life and emotions from this particular place as the main focus, as throughout the short film, we are presented with the people who keep a storage unit and their stories, for example, one man is explaining how he keeps his late mother's belongings here, arguing with himself about why he does this.
In my opinion, the film itself was very successful in presenting its subject matter. There are a variety of people involved in the video that reveal different emotions and belongings they cannot let go of, therefore the audience are able to understand and feel for the people in the situation - for example, one man says that the storage unit holds all the things that make up his soul, the storage unit is 'Me in a box'.
One of the things that stood out to me was the camera work. The way the film has been shot makes it look personal, as we never get a face-to-face interview, we just watch them place more memories and other histories slowly into their storage units. The audience are more likely to feel like their stood watching these people and hearing their personal thoughts, rather than an interview - which results in them feeling more sympathy and involved with the situation.
Another feature was that there was no music and minimal sound with the exception of dialogue (the voice overs). Also, there are minimal sounds used, for example at the beginning with the lift where a high pitch noise is presented before returning to the noise of the lift itself. This allows no distraction from what the dialogue is presenting - because this is the most important part, because it provides the audience with the information the director aimed to project - an exploration of memories and histories in life at a self-storage unit.
I did like this production because I think it was filmed very well. It's filmed at normal eye level, as if it were the audience there looking down the aisle of units, which makes the feature more personal and therefore entice the audience to learn more about the subject. Also it doesn't show inside any of the units, portraying the secrecy or even maybe the sacredness these units hold for people. Another feature I like is at the beginning, when the film is being introduced, that people are walking or hiding away from the camera which signifies wanting 'personal space'.
In regards to the form and content relation, the film uses a variety of techniques to create the atmosphere they aim for with the audience. They structured the work to be very quiet, shown at the beginning when no one is on the corridors, and the audience are shown around alone. Since the subject matter was to portray and explore the emotions, the dialogue definitely helps by allowing people to tell their stories of why they keep their units. There is never any eye contact which indicates that the people want to keep these histories private and close to heart. The style of the film is quite 'dim' in the sense that it's quite a lonely, maybe even depressing place, which is furthermore presented by the people involved, such as holding onto late loved ones belongings.
A technique which has been used well in this film uses is the level of the camera. Throughout the film, we are kept at eye level with everything going on, therefore allows the audience to feel like they are there, and it also allows us to see how the people involved in the film see the place as well.
Overall I enjoyed the work, the atmosphere was right for the audience as well as the subject matter, and the work was portrayed to both inform and pose enigmas as to what people hold.
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