Australia, A Changing Climate explicitly critiques the Australian government’s incompetence and ineptitude in managing and dealing with climate, both in the past and present. The montage of clips demonstrates the horrific consequences of climate change that we are experiencing here in Australia and aims to provoke a drive for change in the audience.
The Dam is poetic look into the issue of housing and infrastructure in the Cranbourne region. The message of the piece is left subtle and ambiguous in nature, with the most explicit reference being the metaphorical poem. As the housing industry and population boom in this area, how much longer will it be before the infrastructure collapses under this weight?
Films by Patrick Turnbull & Ruby Bannerman
Click below for a Q&A with the filmmakers.
WHAT WAS YOUR TOPIC FOR EACH FILM?
The film that Ruby and I made in response to the prompt of “power” for Project 3 was a critique on the response towards climate change from those in positions of power within our government. In particular we felt it was important that the lack of action and inadequate handling of the issue directly by those in charge, the Liberal Party, was highlighted. The aim was not to herald a particular party or side in the debate but rather critique the response as a whole with a focus on the Libs; given that they are directly responsible for our nations handling of the issue over the length of their term.
I chose the topic as it was something that I was passionate about and also something that I felt has been put on the back burner recently in politics and popular culture. The issue is hotly debated and continually receives coverage however I feel that their is not very strong or confident actions being taken, with most happy to just dabble in the issue without considering the severity of it.
As for our filmed footage documentary, it’s mostly a comment on the swelling sizes of local communities in the Cranbourne area and the lack of infrastructure. Particularly, the lack of necessary roads and public transport to support those communities. Our aim was to highlight the urgent need for more infrastructure to sustain the growing population in this area. In particular, we focused on train stations, car parks, and road traffic to demonstrate this congestion.
Springing from Patrick’s personal experience of the lack of infrastructure in his local area, we decided to concentrate on the blossoming housing estates in Cranbourne. We felt this topic was an apt choice for our subject matter of project brief three, as it was inherently political with the government being solely to blame. Furthermore we also thought the housing estates were also going to be aesthetically pleasing and add a lot to the piece. In addition, as this piece was inspired in various ways by Blight (1996) by John Smith, we thought this topic would work.
ANY DIFFICULTIES FACED DURING PRODUCTION IN YOUR APPLICATION OF ‘EXPERIMENTATION’ / POETICS ?
Representing the issue and pushing our agenda would not be the challenge of this montage film, as it is an issue that has been broadcasted in a multitude of methods and certainly not something new. This fact made it easier in one sense but created a challenge for us to intentionally experiment with the nature of the documentary film and try to create a sense of jarring with the audience, perhaps causing them to delve deeper into the context and revitalise the debate.
Aside from this of course their is the issue of the politics themselves. It is easy to stake a claim and voice an opinion but it is harder to be consistent in supporting and bolstering this argument, not only through our own control (editing, etc), but in the selection of footage and personalities in the film. Of course we must be aware of the political allegiances and pre-conceived notions that apply to certain individuals in the political landscape. You would not use Tony Abbot’s speeches to champion climate change as a crucial issue in modern times just as you would not use an out of context quotation from Hitler to champion equality or diversity.
In our montage film we wanted to make the film impact the emotional senses of the audience primarily. Personal stories and a relatable human context were essential in conveying the devastation and eliciting an emotional response in the audience. Instead of driving the piece with a chronological timeline and narrative arc for each of these human characters however, we chose to place their emotions in the fore but leave the story in the background – instead choosing to hone in on the emotional response and amplify it through the utilisation of music, rhythm, pacing and the overall dynamism of particular shots.
In regards to our The Dam, we faced a major challenge during the filming process. As we filmed in three shoots, it was difficult to conceptualise what the film was going to look like. In this way, we grappled with whether or not the film was going to be clear, concise, make sense and overall mean something to the viewer. This confusion transcended into the editing stage as the footage we shot for the scenes showing the traffic, car parks and train stations, were all quite subtle in their nature. This was concerning as the contention of our piece was that these areas were crumbling under the weight of the blossoming population and therefore should have dramatic connotations. However, these problems ultimately resolved themselves in the editing process as we soon realised this subtle nature worked to our advantage.
The simplistic nature of our footage, paired with the concoction of audio tracks we chose, demonstrate our use of poetic experimentation in The Dam. In regards to the audio, we chose to include a metaphorical poem of a dam breaking to reference the deteriorating infrastructure and add emphasis to our contention. We also employed an ominous and ambient backing track to the background. In order to overcome some of the aforementioned challenges we faced, we utilised experimentation with the poem to overcome these.
By layering the poem and slowly introducing more and more voices, we felt that a much needed sense of drama or action was added, even though maybe in a subtle way. In this way we felt that we created a sort of climax to the film when all of the voices are speaking at once, paired with the footage of the congested traffic. By cutting from this shot to our final shot with a single voice and no backing track we felt that we drove our message home and also created a resolution.
HOW DID THIS PROJECT CHANGE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL AND POETIC DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING?
P: Throughout the course I found it exciting and invigorating to explore the relationship that can be fostered between the poetic and the political. Although I’d previously watched experimental documentary before, challenging myself with projects engaging directly with the idea of poetic and political documentary was an exciting way to test my own abilities and understanding of documentary film making. Through what I was able to achieve in projecting my visions onto the screen during Project 3 I developed an enthusiasm to continue to experiment with the form of documentary and increase my own capacity to have an impact politically utilising poetic technique.
R: I felt that my understanding of poetics and politics had blossomed. In particular I learnt a lot about how simplicity and ambiguity can add so much to a piece. Through the vast experimentation our group explored in project brief three in relation to sound as well as visually, I discovered a variety of ways you can produce a narrative that is equivocal. Finally, I learnt that for something to be political it does not necessarily have to be overt or explicit to achieve this.