After class today I was prompted to watch A Song of Air (1987) a film by Merilee Bennett. This film uses existing footage from her Fathers 16mm camera which he used to film his own home movies with throughout her upbringing. She pieces together the footage and uses narration to guide the film in which she bids her father her own personal swan song.

I found this piece really interesting, the harshness of the narration contrasting with the softness and liveliness of the family within the shots shown. Another interesting choice by the film maker is to not match the narration and discussion with likewise shots, which adds another element of juxtaposition to the film. The narration heavily focuses on the father/daughter relationship and the consuming feelings of the daughter towards the father throughout the duration of her life, from her childhood to adulthood. Though in light of the heavy nature of the narration it’s clear that the daughter speaks in mourning for her father.

This piece has elements that I could definitely use and grab inspiration from to use in my second film pitch. Like Merilee Bennett I have acquired a family camera with tapes full of memories of my childhood that my father filmed with. I’d like to transform these tapes into a film of some sort, however I wasn’t sure on the structure which is why I turned to this piece for inspiration. The use of narration is the clear guide and idea for this particular film, but after watching it I realise that is not the direction that I want to go down with my film idea. What I did gain from this film was learning that shots can be used and re-used throughout the film, but also slowed down and played around with despite the quality/nature of the shots.