“This week’s Op-Doc is “Alone,” Garrett Bradley’s Sundance-winning story of a single mother deciding whether to marry her jailed boyfriend. We love this film for its nuanced exploration of how the criminal justice system’s effects ripple outward among families.”

Technical Skills:

The way of the filmmaker to construct the main melody of the documentary impresses me a lot. It seems more common for fiction films rather than documentaries. Firstly, The combination of the frame and music comes out before the voice of the character. It already constructed the main sense of the documentary, a sad and tangled story. Secondly, early frames with only the background music can make the audience calm down and immerse in the story. When the audience doesn’t hear information from the sounds, they will search for information by their eyes. In this situation, some petty action of the single mother will be magnified. It is beneficial for the audience to follow the character and feel her inner world. Besides, the filmmaker uses a lot of B-roll shots to reinforce the sense, such as the slow-moving fan and the high-angle shot of the highway. In addition, the voice of Desmond sounds like playing from the telephone or tape. It shows the distance between the character and her fiancé.

Storytelling:

Just like the introduction mentioned, the theme of this documentary is to show the effect of the criminal justice system to families. The theme sounds too formal and far from the majority’s life. The filmmaker finds a smart way to explore the theme. He decides to present a process of a single mother decision for marrying her fiancé. Rather than just interview her and people around her, he decided to follow her. Thus, the documentary can tell a more complete story of the character instead of just showing a part.

“These choices in breadth and depth permitted the filmmakers to plot a gripping story in which audiences are willing to invest a great deal of emotion and energy.”  (Fox 2017, p.78)

like I mentioned before, this documentary mainly focuses on the emotional expression. As a result, it combines the two documentary modes, poetic and Performative modes. It uses the method of montage rather than a normal narrative structure. Besides, the interview of a single mother is more like a monologue.

Reflection:

The project I am going to make is about the homeless community and introducing the unique restaurant called Lentil As Anything. I could also use the method of Alone to convey the sense of the documentary by the combination of music and sound. Moreover, I could interview various people t, such as the manager, the volunteers, and customers, to know the restaurant better.

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