rough cut review & suggestions

Having shown my colleagues my rough cut most of them were impressed as I had revealed some insights into the events. However, my lecturers did point out that it might be a bit too much information to digest. And I have neglected, perhaps yet again, the personal aspect to the project.

This was because, I intended to use characters and show personal sides to them. I wanted to show what the events of 84 had done to them, and ask them questions to talk about issues perhaps they had not talked about.

However, as you may know the characters I had chosen pulled out on me. Therefore I had to settle for one gentleman who didn’t want to be pictured, and another who was just well educated about 84. In doing this I lost the most important thing which was that personal touch. It’s this personal touch that people relate to characters. I remember McKee saying that sometimes, what’s true for you is true for other people too. I didn’t agree with this until recently.

SUGGESTIONS

Ken advised me to look at a film called LETTER TO JANE which uses photography of Jane Fonda to analyze the Vietnam war. I have also looked at a film called UNRAVELLING by Kuldip Powar. He makes excellent use of a conversation between himself and grandfather to describe the latter’s participation in war. This film has brilliant visuals. Absolutely stunning.

Over the past few days, I’ve been looking at some of the images that have drawn a personal response from me. I’ve held back quite a bit in terms of including myself in this documentary. Some of my apprehensions were because, I only feel a character should be included in a film if he’s important to the story. I’d previously been annoyed when some film-makers like Nick Broomfield would include themselves in their films, and not be essential to the story.

I also have not been essential to the story of 84, and I’ve also been reluctant to talk about people refusing to speak to me about the subject. This is because, I’d always get annoyed by those ‘Making of’ videos that people assume are documentaries. However, after talking and discussing it with my colleagues I’ve changed some of my opinions.

Although I’ve not been an integral part of the 84 story, I’ve been affected as a Sikh. Those images of the Golden Temple do always stir something in me, so I’ll write a personal view on some of the images. This should help create a link between the main interviewee’s arguments.