A Man Who Delivers

http://documentarylovers.com/short-film/a-man-who-delivers/

This film has the same basic premise as mine, in that it is the words from an interview with a real person, played by an actor. I think the film is really cleverly done, although you can tell its an actor speaking it doesn’t matter as the words are raw enough to still give you a real feel for the original interviewee. One of the things I have been worrying about with my film is how to introduce the idea that it is actors speaking real words, rather than the actual interviewees. A Man Who Delivers solves this problem with a simple title right at the start of the film. I really like this tactic, no complicated shots involving one face merging into another, which was my original idea. I guess this is one of the benefits to making a film over a play, I can use words in this way and it doesn’t break the style of the piece.

The film combines information about the job with personal reflections, which I really like. Although I want my film to watch as a documentary, having watched this piece I realise how important getting some personality of my interviewees is. It helps to make the point that this is just one person’s experiences, rather than solid facts about everyone in the industry. It also makes for much more compelling viewing, as we can relate to the person, bringing them closer to us in a way that wouldn’t have been achieved if they were simply spewing information. As one of my aims is to bridge the gap between people in the industry and my audience, I think this is really important.

The film maker has included text messages to and from the main character, which I think is a really clever way to include extra information not covered in the interview. I would like to do something similar, using emails and forum posts to intercut the main interview scenes in Garden of Eva. I like how it gives more details about the life of “Mr”, and think I could use a similar technique to get some different voices and viewpoints into my film. It would be a good way to broaden the lens that we are viewing the industry through, which I think would help to provide a balanced look at the positive and negative aspects of it.

The one criticism I have is that towards the end I feel the film I feel that what the original interviewee is saying is being twisted to suit the film makers own opinions on what he does. The use of overly dramatic music and emotive sound effects of police sirens etc. feel slightly out of kilt with the actual words, and they change the feel of the film. It conforms to the generally help belief that drug dealers live in constant fear of the law, whereas what Mr is actually saying doesn’t back that up. This highlights the importance of understanding as the film maker what your interviewees are actually saying, and staying neutral in the presentation of it.