The Archive

You can watch the video on Vimeo here.

The Archive

Length: 7 Minutes
By: Sean Dunne (2008)

This documentary follows Paul Manwhinney, a man born in Pittsburgh. The piece reveals he's amazing (world record) collection of records, and how because of health problems and the struggling music industry, Paul has to unfortunately sell his collection.

I really enjoyed this documentary because they made it appear and sound so professional. The main character/person presented in the piece is shown in the very first shot, even before the titles. He rolls back on his chair and reveals the very first record ever released, and asked 'how could this not be enough a lot?' - which automatically identifies the theme of the documentary, it's about music records, money and this man. But it doesn't give too much away straight away to keep the audience interested.

I think the camera shots have been very clear fully considered in regards of the conventions of a standard documentary. The subject is to the side of the shot, looking to the side of the camera (possibly the interviewer or another member of the crew) and the background has features linked to the documentary's purpose, the record stacks. It's clever to keep the topic involved at all times. The background is kind of unfocused to show the importance of Paul in this particular shot, because he's speaking and the information is an important factor for the viewer to understand. The interview shots are really good, they make them professional and different, for example, his *wife is sat facing the other way, somewhere else in the record shop, keeping the topic in the shop but making the shot different therefore interesting to the audience, as well as presenting her in a different way to ensure the audience listen to what she says clearly.

The sound is used very well in the piece. Music is almost always played throughout the piece, whether it's in the foreground, or the background of the interviews taking place. It's clever because music is the topic of the documentary and is therefore always there for that reason, but it's also professional to always have something else there, make an environment for the audience to be comfortable and therefore make it easier for them to listen and understand the documentary. 

The music also makes the mood change within the documentary. At first it's quite light hearted, as Paul introduces his records, saying it's been his life, his wife told him to set up a shop.. and the mood was genuinely happy. But when Paul becomes distressed about how he cannot sell his collection because no one has been interested, and we learn about Paul's health problems, the music because deeper and therefore makes the audience feel empathy for Paul.

It's a simple and lighthearted documentary that makes you feel sorry for this man because he cannot sell his collection, the images and sound work together to create the empathy as well as inform the audience about Paul and the collection, raising awareness and maybe therefore eventually selling the collection.

One of the last shots I liked was this (below). When all the lights in the shop started turning off and then they showed this 'checkout' desk, which is empty. But it can also connote that the shop is over, someone needs to buy these. This shot is shown to you as a push to go to that checkout and buy the collection... maybe... but either way it's an amazing documentary and I think it worked really well and was really well thought through and creative.