The Lift documentary is a 2001 short documentary made by Marc Isaacs where the director himself installs himself in a lift in an English flat building. People start talking to him out of curiosity and we get to know about peoples lives. As the documentary goes on we begin to hear the director ask these individuals questions and we get to know about these peoples beliefs, struggles and day to day experiences.
I personally really enjoyed this documemtary as it took something so simple, standing in a lift all day talking to those who got in, and showed us a really strong message. That a place such as a lift, where many people stand side by side every day in silence, can actually be a place to make someones day or be there for somebody. As you don't know how that person standing next to you for those awkward few seconds is feeling or experiencing in their lives and that short interaction can make a big difference to their day.
The Lift documentary follows a inductive model of narration as we, the audience, don't know the purpose of this documentary until the very end of the film. This model has a narration that develops over time and as more information is revealed the meaning behind the documentary is too. This can be very rewarding for the audience that have spent their time watching the documentary.
Finally, we see the documentary follow two modes of documentary films. For the majority of the documentary the mode followed is the participatory mode as he himself is talking to the people that enter the lift, like in the two images below, and they are getting involved in the filming. However, from the final image, you can see he is showing his feet in the actual documentary. Similarly he shows himself through the mirror in the lift. This therefore means this documentary is also following a reflexive mode as he is acknowledging the documentary is even taking place.
The fact two modes are being used so seamlessly and effectively, this may be something I look to do for my documentary.
No comments:
Post a Comment