Land
Critical Review
The aim of our housing documentary was to show the
contrast between country and city living whilst highlighting so called ‘urban
sprawl’. The idea was to show suburban expansion and importantly the Greenland
that has been and is being built on and the paranoia, and the positive and negative
that comes with it.
The opening scene was one that was given much
consideration in the original plan; we had decided to do a shot of a rising
sun, but after seeing many other people had used that we decided against it. Furthermore
it would not be entirely relevant to our subject of housing. The helicopter
shot going over St George’s hill lacked the visual impact we had hoped for and
the voice over gives it more emotion, whilst setting the tone for the rest of
the documentary. The choice of poem is ironic in the way it talks about land
being free to share whilst showing St George’s hill which has been acquired by
a richer class than the previous owners. The bloody atrocities that occurred
during the digger’s movement at St George’s hill provide the legitimate usage
of the footage under public interest. Furthermore only what is necessary has
been used which protects the usage of the short clip under the ‘fair use’
policy.
The sound is brought in to contrast the peaceful
imagery of St George’s hill, the succession of building site sounds and imagery
was intended to show the hectic nature of building. These shots are mixed in
with countryside shots of open land and animals with a voice over which talks
about the countryside being built on. This technique of contrasting loud sounds
of a building site with the countryside is done to emphasise the difference of
what can be seen as an intrusion of man and machine onto natural land. This
concept is echoed by the voice overs of the ‘Save Barton Farm group’ who put
this into words again giving more emotion.
The time lapse sequence intends to show the negative
impact that urban overpopulation and new housing can have. The images show
crime, the time lapse represents the fact that over time increased population
and overcrowding has been linked to crime. This is of course one of many
factors that have been attributed to over population and urban decay but is the
one that visually provides a strong feel. The idea of crime spreading and over
all urban decay is reinforced by the smashing of the bottle which also ads an
acoustic contrast into the following sequence.
The next part of the documentary shows urban decay,
the visual imagery here was basic in terms of the shots as the dilapidation of
the buildings speaks for themselves. However the colour was taken out of the
shot of the post man walking through the estate. I feel the colour left on the
post man represents the contrast between the dreary surroundings of the estate
and man’s ability to overcome bad surroundings. It shows that despite what
surrounds you, you can prevail. I feel that the inclusion of social housing is
very important; council housing shows the might of welfare state, but also its
ultimate failings. With many estates now derelict it shows the negative side of
housing and how despite its roaring success in the mid 70’s it has led to urban
decay and ultimately failed. The sound track was made on garage band with the
intention of being dark to reflect the images; however we made it a bit more
upbeat than originally planned so that it would keep the viewer interested and
is catchy. The voice tracks over the music provide more stimulation without
literally narrating the piece, adding the negative attitudes towards housing as
well as the visual of run down places. Originally we had planned to use shots
from Barton farm that we had got permission to use, however they were not of a
great quality and upon reflection did not add to what we were trying to
achieve. The clasped hands again
represent the struggle between people and their surroundings and show the
contrast between concrete and flesh. The shots of the estate are a bit grainy
as they were not filmed using a HD camera; however this added to the affect
that we were looking to achieve. The sun light at the end of the sequence shows
the light which represents nature and that there are light and positive aspects
to emerge from the mass building of new houses.
The interviewee voice track that goes over the
countryside shots balances the views on housing talking about the positive
sides of immigration and new housing and the interviewee is an immigrant
himself which provides a valid point of view. The music from the busker was again
courtesy of a John Knutson who filmed him on the day of the Barton Farm
protests which fitted perfectly with the tone of the shots of various housing
estates. The suburban housing estates were put together to show a rapid succession
of identical houses that show the monotony of suburbia where everything seems
to be the same as the neighbour. This is reflected by the overlapping of shots,
which are actually of different estates but they look very similar. This wasn’t
intended to reflect the positive or negative side of housing but simply what
comes with new build housing estates. Whether the audience see these sorts of
housing estates as a positive or negative thing is open to interpretation. The
sequence also shows new homes that contrast the urban decay shown at the start
of the documentary. Although we had used music over these shots, I think that
we could have interviewed someone at a building company or from the council who
could talk about the positives and negatives of new housing to back up the
other interview. This would have given a bit more balance as well as getting
more information on housing estates.
The Drama of the urban decay shots coupled with the
protestors from Barton Farm gave a dark sinister feel to the documentary, which
contrasts with the countryside shots which have no music. The idea was to show
the countryside as being natural and untouched and I felt that the images speak
for themselves in this case and did not need a music bed and just needed a
simple voice over as the images are strong enough on their own.
