Merit Exemplar - Film
Describe at least two production techniques were used in a visual text you have studied.
Explain how verbal and/or visual film techniques helped you to understand the text.
In the film Looking for Alibrandi, a teenage drama, directed by Kate Woods, two production techniques that worked well were voiceovers and background music. They showed the emotions of scenes, the types of scene, and provide detail about each one.
This film starts at Tomato Day, which is the Italians’ yearly festival. The first thing that happens is that the background music begins to play. It is an effervescent, lively Italian song called Tintarella di Luna by Happy land, and shows the audience that the occasion is happy and fun. It is straightforward, telling the audience what to expect, and this is fulfilled by the smiling faces and dance movements of the Italian family working together to puree the tomatoes. Due to the fact that the song is sung in Italian, I felt immediately like I was witnessing and Italian family and culture. The music was effective because it helped me understand what was happening – an Italian festivity.
Another contrasting time music was effective was in during the funeral of John Barton (Matthew Newton). While images of his father trying to hold in tears, and Josie crying excessively are shown, U2’s song ‘With or Without You’ plays. The song is remixed to be slower and more solemn than the original. This helped my understanding because it made me sympathetic towards the characters who had suffered a great, unexpected loss. The words of the song reflected John’s view of his life before he killed himself. – “I can’t live with or without you.” This showed how he could not find his niche, his place on earth. The words “feel the thorn twist in your side” highlighted how he thought other people viewed him. He did not feel good enough for anyone, and the music at his funeral allowed better understanding of this.
Voiceovers were used frequently in the film, and were spoken though of the main character Josie Alibrandi (Pia Miranda). They were important because they let the audience know what she was thinking and how she felt about certain situations. In the opening scene of ‘tomato day’ she looks unhappy, but there is not dialogue to show why. She reveals, in a voiceover “This is Tomato Day, but I think of it as National Wog Day.” The bitterness in her tone shows how she feels out of place and stupid doing this Italian custom in Australia. After her date with Jacob, her voiceover adds humour to a serious situation when she says, “Dear Guinness Book of Records. I’ve just been on a ten minute date. Is that a record?” This helped me to see how her felt when there was no-one around she could express herself to. Voiceovers are especially important in this film, because Josie feels alone. To have anyone else as a sounding board to whom she could reveal her feelings would therefore be contradictory.
Voiceovers help the audience understand the text clearly in situations where introductions needed to be made. The film, being all about Josie’s finding herself, needed to show her view on life and people. She introduced her best friend as “the love of my life” to let us know her feelings towards him, and her Nonna as “ a martyr who thinks she and my mother, and I, are cursed.” She described her school as “where, who your father is and were you come from, are the only things that matter.” The voiceovers were simply ways of introducing the audience to characters and situations, quickly.
The music and voiceovers were effective because they were straightforward in describing details and emotions of various situations.
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