Question_1

I’m very impressed by the landscape shot in ‘End of The Line’. The landscape is not only a great establishing shot but also emphasise the major feature of ‘Broken Hill’, the loneliness. In this landscape, we can only see a small town which is surrounded by a desert. I remember the film starts with this landscape shot and it finishes with the same shot at the end of the film. Perhaps, the filmmaker considers that he is a tourist to visit this mysterious small town, therefore, he generates the natural view of the Broken Hill to say “I’m here.”

The second thing is the interviews. The filmmaker prefers the informal interview and he just grab random people to interview in the town, mostly because of the reality. I think the filmmakers wants to illustrate the reality of the Broken Hill people. The formal interview may destroy their innocence. In one scene, the filmmaker interviews three guys at dark night, they seem to be shy and they do not really know what to say in front of the camera. Sometimes they just awkwardly laugh to each other because they don’t expect to be interviewed by someone from outside the Broken Hill. The pursuit of people’s innocence is greatly emphasised in this scene.

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For the following project in the future, I would like to be a DOP, an editor or a sound operator. I’m very interested in cinematography and I like to hold a camera to shoot something. Also, editing is always my favour part in any projects because I can create something in the post. Finally, I’m not familiar with sound, not as good as editing. So it would be a great challenge for me.

Question_2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

In Bernard’s readings, I found something very useful for me. According to Bernard, the story is always revealing so the filmmaker can receive the new findings when they are documenting the story. In the documentary-making process, the filmmaker cannot just simply record the materials without thinking because the story must have a focal point or a theme. The filmmaker get to explore in the story in whatever way. For example, ‘Daughter From  Danang’ is a successful documentary.  The filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco had a great exploration about the main characters Heidi Bub and the birth mother. However, they didn’t know the story of the film was great until they started to film it in Vietnam. Before reaching in Vietnam, they could only anticipate this story was only a happy reunion of a family. They didn’t know what was going to happen and they only went with their concept.

Another interesting thing for me is the access. Bernard considers filming with the subject needs an access,. The access not only represent a established relationship between you and the subjects but also secure the trust with people who can grant it. When you are exploring your the story, you need to consider “Can you get inside your character’s story?” or “where is the deadline that you cannot step over?” Your shooting has to be granted by the subject in order to they know what will be shown in the film.