TMA 273 Post 3

OT: Our Town

I must not be very well educated because I'm not familiar with the play Our Town. I liked how this film was structured. Separating the preparation for the performance into the same three parts used in the play made a nice connection to the theme: People, and life in general, stay consistent. The ideas present in the play - life, love, death, inter-human relationships - are present in Compton. Each one of the youth in the film have great potential. They need to see it in themselves and others need to see it in them.

I understand that when shooting documentary you often don't have control over lighting. Many of the shots, though, were either blown out or over exposed. That was a bit distracting.

I wonder how much of the film was scripted. It looked like there were multiple interviews, but it appears that they had the main interviews with the kids after the show and had them respond to the questions as if they had just barely experienced key points in the film. I got this impression because in the interviews, the kids seem to wear the same two shirts.

Let's pretend that the interviews were all scripted, I still think it was true to the nature and feel of the film. I've been in plays before. I know that things can get pretty stressful. I can only imagine how things would feel in the situation they were in - no budget, no stage until the day before their performance, no drama program - and yet they were able to pull off a performance and start a new legacy for the school.

Good film. Certainly worth watching.

TMA 273 Posts 2

Beehive Stories: Tooele County

I liked this doc. The subjects were rather interesting, the B-roll was very well done. I particularly liked the 25 MPH sign with the racer speeding through the background.

I've been to the salt flats on a number of occasions, but for some reason I had forgotten that they are in Tooele. I've never stopped there when people are trying for the land speed record. I liked Rick's explanation that the salt flats are the safest place to drive in the world. His story of rolling the car going 300 miles an hour was the perfect example.

I appreciate how wise the editor was to withhold the information that the subjects had taken the land speed record until the very end. It was nice building up the car, the fact that it was made by Rick's father and that it had been rolled and damaged in other ways in the past, before letting us know that it is also the fastest car on the planet. Well done.

TMA 273 Posts 1

Man on Wire

This was an interesting documentary because of how heavily reliant on reenactment it was. There were several parts that felt rather Hollywoodesque due to the way the reenactments were filmed. Like Brad mentioned in class, the beginning seemed like people were committing some nefarious act - almost like watching a band of terrorists enter the Twin Towers. There was one long sequence of reenactment during which people were hiding under a tarp or blanket while guards patrolled the floor.

With Philippe's interviews, they had him near a curtain, which he used to dramatize his storytelling of hiding under the tarp. He was certainly the most animated character being interviewed.

The stylized, well-lit black and white sequences are obviously reconstructions. I'm not so sure about the film with the Super 8 feel to it. It seems almost too convenient that they would have footage of Philippe arguing with his friends or teaching them how he's going to manage the extra movement of the cable.

I think the dramatizations helped the film in that it was engaging and drew the viewers in initially, but I also think that it hurt the film at the same time. Even though the climax of the film is done beautifully, I felt jipped because they didn't have any video of Philippe on the wire. They had quite a few stills, which they used quite well and complimented with excellent sound design, but after viewing so many stylized, perilous sequences the climax seemed a bit flat.

Still, overall I think it was a well made film and I enjoyed watching it.