Question (1)

Anna Broinowski’s Forbidden Lies in 2007 was an intriguing film. From the beginning, there were a lot of non-diegetic sound inserted in the sequence, and I noticed sounds such as birds chirping, car’s engine, scarf being blown by the wind, sound effects walking in sand, woman talking, and many more. All of these sounds seems to be used to give it a more dramatic approach to the film. She also uses sound effects such as chime sound, cash register and camera shutter. These sounds were used as transitions of scenes.

Some of these sounds could have even been recorded when filming the footage while others recorded the editing. For example, when the women talking to the camera or even heard as a voice over of other shots was most likely recorded while filming. However, sounds such as the music, the chime sounds effect or the camera shutter sound effects would have been recorded or sourced after filming. In one scene, where Rana and the filmmakers tries to explore the truth, a light energetic music was played to represent ‘adventure’ and elevate the audience’s mood. Broinowski have Norma’s voice reading another passage from the book as a voice-over before Rana explains her side of her story, before exploring the section.

Question (2)

Some of the keyboards shortcuts for Premiere and some functions that I’ve never used before that could be valuable to our editing are;

(i) Cmd + T: For creating a title, which is to add texts to aid the visuals.

(ii) Cmd+R: speed/duration: This could be useful for us to learn, especially in a documentary when we may be speeding up or slowing down a lot of clips for dramatic effect or to show time passing.

(iii) M: This is useful for us in marking out unwanted sections from an interview.

(iv) Shift Cmd: To duplicate. This is a more convenient way and will save a lot of time in duplicating sequences and clips.

Question (3)

I found ‘From a distant gaze…’ (1964) directed by Jean Ravel was an intriguing film. The thing that impressed me the most would be the framing. I noticed that most of the shots are zoomed in, as in the frame is full of either objects, vehicles or even people. Even the shot of a single person looks very zoomed in because the shot was framed to fill a person’s face fully. For the editing, I found the transition between shots in their editing expect very professional. The filmmaker uses the car or the vehicles around him as a tool to aid in the editing. For instance, as soon as the car passes the shot, it cuts into another shot from another perspective and still making it look great.

As for the camera movement, It feels as if the shots were made like a point of view shots. It made the audience have the sense of their own presence in the scene.There was a lot of panning and tracking, therefore this movement also gives the feel of a POV shot. Overall, I believe that the filmmaker was successful in trying to convey his message across in an observational mode approach by focusing on realism in their shots and the everyday life of people in the society.

Question (4)

A couple of points that interest me from the readings are;

(i) Mantaining good eye contact. This was important because in order to make a good documentary, we have to learn how to stage interviews so that interviewees will appear to speak directly to the viewer. To mantain good eye contact to the interviewee and to show visually, not verbally is important because listening to what people are saying isn’t important but to look as if you’re listening is. Interview scenes increase the clarity and directness of speech through editing technique and shooting conventions.

(ii) Observational Documentary mode or the ‘flies on the wall’ technique. This technique is a style that implements realism on screen. “From a distant gaze…” seemingly has intriguing shots that might have some inspiration to our documentary as well, which is a style that we could also apply in our documentary.