My responses to the films shown in our Creative Media seminar last Thursday.

Above: Still from "The Life Size Zoetrope"

We were shown two short documentaries to provide commentary on for our blog. Before I post about those, I would also like to acknowledge the other excerpts we saw and discuss a few techniques I liked from one or two.

Firstly, I really enjoyed “The Life Size Zoetrope” by Mark Simon Hewis which establishes the never ending circle of life. The events are relatable but this is heightened due to the effects on the pictures which are stylised using colour and light, making the pictures just pictures but the events happening the focus in the viewers mind. The narrator speaks in a monotone voice which at times makes the viewer concentrate on whats being said but also makes the viewer become a bit more objective about life. It is itself, a very objective look at life in that the narrator does not become emotional when describing different events. He describes being born in the same tone he uses to describe doing drugs and this creates an objectivity that you are watching this unfold not empathising with it as it unfolds. The pace creates a feeling that life moves very quickly - indeed we progress through the narrators life in a matter of minutes. The use of the turning circle is instrumental in voicing the film’s opinion that life is a continuum. I think that the choice of using still images and manipulating them on unknown bodies makes the film stronger in conveying the message that everyone can be touched by the events that happen in the narrators life.

The second film I’d like to discuss is Strange Lights. I didn’t enjoy this as much but I can acknowledge that the techniques are good. I didn’t think it was successful in conveying it’s message - I only began to understand it when I was read the blurb of the dvd but I think that the film itself should provoke the understanding. It used interesting lighting techniques and time lapse combined with archive sounds and ‘tinkling’ sounds, for lack of a better word, to great effect in that I appreciated the aesthetic and the sound did create a tension. However, I thought it was a little too long for it’s subject matter and I think it may have benefitted from being a bit more explicit about what it was trying to do.