MEMORY, IDENTITY & NEIGHBOURHOODS – ASSESSMENT #2: PART TWO

MEMORY, IDENTITY & NEIGHBOURHOODS

 

Secrets of Underground London (2014), Vicky Matthews, Gareth Sacala (PBS) (Available to watch on Netflix)

The documentary I chose to look at that I found particularly insightful and fits themes of the studio is Secrets of Underground London (2014), directed by Vicky Matthews and Gareth Sacala on PBS, that is also available on Netflix to watch. The reason I thought this documentary fit the themes of this studio accurately, is because it’s a film that explores London’s deep history that’s attached to places within its city limits. Discussing up to 2,000 years worth of history of the places that ultimately shapes their identity and defines who they are as people.

Matthews and Sacala made use of many different techniques overall, inclusive of cinematic music that changes frequently with the mood of the shots, birds-eye view shots, long-shots, a lot of panning, mid-shots and close-ups for interviews, stills, cross-fades, tracking, natural diegetic sounds, voice-overs, zoom & focus and fast paced cuts. I took a deeper look at this scene*, that shows examples of most of these things.

From the onset of the scene, we see the use of birds-eye view shots of London. These shots giving us a complete overview, showing us all of the veins of the city. We then move into the use of close-ups, panning and zooming in and blowing up these places that we just got a brief glimpse of. You can also feel the mood of the scene changing, as the content gets more intense, the music changes with it. As we start hearing about the Museum of London the use of stills are incorporated, and we see a picture of a map of London – Ken Burns style. We also hear the use of natural diegetic sounds as we move into the shots of the front of the Museum, just slightly hearing the sounds of the cars within the shot underlaid the music. As we get into the thick of the scene, moving into the interview with the expert, we get all different kinds of shots of her within the setting of the interview. In this case, it’s the Museum, as she walks us through London’s extensive research collection of bones. We get shots of her sifting through the boxes, through the shelves, moving into extreme close-ups of her face. We see use of mid-shots and close-shots throughout the entirety of the interview, cutting between these shots of her and other pan and zoom-ins of the Museum. At 6:24 we see a beautiful use of said zoom of the skull that of the bones that the expert is showing us in the scene. Matthews and Sacala continue to make use of all of these techniques throughout the rest of this scene, and the entirely of the film.

**[5:09 – 10:00]

Citations

 

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