In-Class Reflection: Rebuild & Reconstruction

1. Good with music/soundscape
2. Visual tone was complemented by bass tones
3. Too content with abstract shots instead of contextual shots – Perfect
4. Beautiful mix of sound levels

Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago’s Public Housing, An Inspiration

Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago’s Public Housing

I really think our documentary on public housing will definitely undertake the same style and tone as this but in a more concise and perhaps more expertise and opinions as well. I think as I watched this, I kind of imagine 85% of our documentary to be filmed like this. The interesting tenants and their kids, the local worker refuggee, the cranky black person who faces issues with color discrimination in public housing, the mature child, the innocent and cute kids, the worked up mother… It was overflowing with such dramatic and delicious characters and talents!:)

I was particularly loving the amazing and heap loads of cutaways and colourful visuals present. As for lighting, it was something worth thinking about as the lighting was all natural. Even in locations like hair salons or houses, I’m making a huge guess that natural lighting was definitely used as some scenes had overexposure tungsten rays coming in from the windows in homes. Another aspect was also the shot focus, there were 2 or 3 cuts that literally showed a handheld camera work where the DOP probably shot at the moment and pulled focus whilst zooming in all at the same time. To me, i would have shrieked if it was in a film. But I feel that this real-time authenticity movements added this truth and interactive feel. Like, the audience would believe that this is real time and occurring, and they are involved as well as they see everything shot with no edits.

Another scene which i truly loved was at 12:33 onwards. It encapsulates the scene of this particular family and it showcased their lives in detail which were intricate and narrative. The location definitely helped the audience in empathising and it could provide a form of relevance of topic. I loved the interview with the son, where it was done as a a side profile interview and a slightly faint silhouette of the son’s face could be seen. There were shadows overcasting all over in that interview but yet it worked well with the style and tone at that moment. SO this was worth considering and exploring.

In the beginning, I must say the introduction was well done in the aspects of teaching our viewers about public housing and the current background details in Cabrini. Likewise, I think in our documentary it is extremely important for us to be as succinct in explaining and giving an overview of the current public housing debate and issue surfacing in Victoria. Only then will the interviews and cutaways make sense! This can be done by maybe showing past rallies or even a simple voice over with overlaying pictures of the public housing estates as well as the government.

I really enjoyed this documentary and it will definitely be an inspiration for our own documentary:)