Saskia at London Film School drew our attention to Marc Isaacs’ 30 minute documentary ‘Lift’, which combines many of the techniques we are supposed to look at this year. The film is notionally observational – though the filmmaker is so close to his subjects that he can’t help interact. We printed out a letter for the boys to hold for lift occupants to read when they entered, giving them the option to ask the boys to stop filming. None did, of course!
Here are two versions – shot in the Royal Festival Hall or National Theatre. Tugi and Nikita lost the original sound, so they’ve added some of their own (raised eyes emoji). Abu wasn’t the only person in his group.. and the third film was corrupted somehow in the transfer (another raised eyes emoji, for myself).
There’s something sad about this lonely lift, on its endless search for passengers; each stop offers hope, only to be disappointed..
But this one is much more populated, and there’s a real sense of being squashed in – very induglent passengers, especially when they have to squeeze in a large TV screen! It has a nice shape to it, switching to an external view, and then ending on a kind of ‘closure’, back where they began. And the non-diegetic sounds aren’t that bad..
Cinema cent ans de jeunesse - BFI edit 