This documentary about the impacts of climate change on third world countries and the burning fossil fuels was highly informative. Lines such as: ‘As a result of climate change, an extra 50,000,000 people could be at risk of hunger by 2050’ are stated within the first minute of the documentary, highlighting the issues raised throughout to be hot topics.
The narration and footage have been edited together in sync so that what the audience hears is reaffirmed by what they see:
‘Climate is becoming a hot topic
from cabinet tables
to university campuses
more and more people are sitting up and paying attention.
This montage of shots and graphics continues for the first minute and a half of the film, offering the audience a brief introduction into the film to give the audience a vague idea about the content of the film and what to expect.
The film incorporates a lot of narration from interviews to use over other pieces of footage. This is a very common technique that I would be interested in using as it allows for the words to be visualized for the audience and does not restrict the film makers in making a five minute speech equate to five minutes of screen time of the interview.
There is a very dull white noise playing under all of the footage, ensuring that even though the film is set in a sunny place, the situation is not so bright, and as one of the interviewee states: ‘Climate change is top of the agenda.’
A shot of one of the interviewees on her computer has a blurred newspaper in the foreground with the title ‘Estimates Show Another Food Disaster’. This is then followed by a clean cut into articles online with similar titles. This gives the facts that the interviewee is stating validity as more than one other source is also suggesting the same thing.
Having a presenter, the interviews are presented in a shot-reverse-shot style, additionally with a MS at certain points of the interviewee’s hands, highlighting her passion and emphasis on how important of a topic it is. In another interview, they have framed the interviewee in front of a water pump that kids are drinking from. This is significant as it has the Trocaire logo on it and therefore the film makers are self-referencing themselves to portray to the viewer that they are contributing more than just a documentary about the country’s struggle.
Although the film has a presenter, there is never a moment where he is stood solely talking to the camera. Instead, his narration in used in areas where none of the interviewees are talking in order to contextualise the shots that the audience are seeing.
To introduce the interview with a local, a series of shots of her in her day-to-day environment is used to portray to the viewer that she is an ‘authentic’ first hand respondent who can give truthful and reflective answers on how climate change has effected her village. The film makers have chosen to have the main interviewee translate the villager rather than have sub-title translations at the bottom of the screen as this engages the viewer deeper into the location and experiences, and they are not detached by post-production editing. This allows for a more immersive experience.
Like with a lot of the documentaries I have already looked at, straight cuts are used between shots as this is the most coherent way of editing footage together. As a documentary’s purpose is primarily to inform, film makers do not want their audience to feel lost or confused with extravagant editing techniques.
As the presenter talks to another villager, a montage of shots of him in his surroundings has been used over the narration. Mainly MSs have been used, showing him with his family, pulling crops and eating dinner. All of this footage is relevant to the respondents answers that his family runs a farm, they will only have enough crop to feed them for three months and that his family used to have three meals but now they only have two. This is a very basic way of visualising what is being said, as well as confirming it for the viewers as many may only ‘believe it when they see it’.
Next the documentary moves onto how the villagers are doing their bit to try and save the environment. This is accompanied by a very subtle but certain uplifting score and various LSs of villagers working together in their tree planting initiative.
The narration includes lines such as ‘it got me thinking’ as a way of personalising the documentary, and highlighting that this a real human’s response to the crisis, demonstrating that they care.
One section that is really poignant to me is when the two points raised by Clever Kanga, ‘irrigation and solar power’, are explored. The narrator describes the system that allows for solar energy to water crops, but then explains how this has increased the school’s attendance from 400 to 800 as the children can now be fed there. This is an extraordinarily mind blowing concept that is not something most viewers would have thought about. Similarly to my documentary, some elements about amphibian importance has greater impacts than one may initially expect. To allow for viewers to wrap their head around the enormous impact of such small changes, a LS tilt of part of the irrigation system is held for eight seconds, slowing the pace slightly, enabling the audience to soak up all of the information.
Tash Ward A2 Media 