I watched Home on my computer and throughout the documentary I would pause it and take screen shots of parts of the film I found specifically beautiful. Above are those screen shots.
What do you feel is the message the director is trying to express in this movie?
Home is a documentary that was released in 2009. It is composed entirely of areal shots of different parts of the world. Glenn Close narrates the entirety of the documentary. It speaks of the earths history, and of how humans have changed it for the worst. I think that the point of this documentary is to show the beauty of the earth and at the same time to raise awareness about the dangers it faces. In fact the documentary isn't copyrighted, because the producers wanted the film to be seen by as many people as possible.
Explain if you think the director's ethnic/cultural /professional background played a role in directing this film?
Yann Arthus-Bertrand is both a photographer and a naturalist. He was born in Paris, but spent three years in Africa studying and photographing Lions. In the early 90's he founded the Altitude Agency which specialized in aerial photography and with that started his first project called Earth from Above. Home was the natural next step in Bertrad's career, it was sponsored by a French company which represents a number of luxery fashion brands. This gave him the funded he needed, but also caused controversy because "the contradiction between its message and the sponsors' legacy."
What the movie added to your visual literacy?
This documentary was completely visually stunning. There were times the shots were so unbelievable that, although I knew they were real, I was still in the back of my mind debating if they were animations. The vast majority of the shots were from a birds eye view, and it was interesting to see how that made such an impact. In most films I watch birds eye view shots are rare. Most films use low level, eye level, or high level. This gave the viewer an unique perspective. If made the viewer feel insignificant compared to the vastness of the earth, and I think it also made the viewer appreciate the true beauty of the earth better.
What kind of artistic and/or visual means did the director use in the movie to focus our attention?
I don't think the director had to do much to focus our attention, every shot was so beautiful. What I did notice, however, was that a couple of times he would start with a realitive close up shot then continue to expand outward in order to create a sense of perspective with regards to size. 
No comments:
Post a Comment