I’ve watched Anna last term and I was about to post a blog-post about it, but then I watched the Burning Temple and decided to go with that, instead. I found this video in my favorites this weekend and remembered why I wanted to write about it.
The first shot was what hooked me. Looking into Anna’s eyes and hearing her voice talking to the doll, made me want to know more about her story. The music also fitted so perfectly to this clip.
The other thing that pulled me in was the poem and how it reflected Anna’s life, getting the viewer to see and understand her.
I’m not sure how the filmmaker created the out of focus scene at 2:24 or 3:23 and I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. It is poetic in a way and distracting in another. Yet, there were so many more shots that were shot in a creative way and composed well. For instance, at 2:05 when she was walking away from the horse, waving her hands or at 9:08 when she was sitting in the corner. One of my many favorite shots is at 11:36, a medium shot, with her blue eyes crips and sharp, the light reflecting on her face and she is centered on, I found it to be such beautiful shot.
Another thing that I enjoyed were the long clips of her, staring into space, the filmmaker held a lot of shots for a long time, one was as long as 30 seconds. I didn’t really mind it, I actually enjoyed it more since it made me want to look at her and hear from her more.
The more in the video, the more that is reveled about Anna and who she really is and the ending. But, I did have one thing that I personally didn’t enjoy in the editing/video, which was the light in-between the pictures, like the one that flashes by at 14:35. I found it very distracting and unpleasing.
Other than that, I found this piece to be beautiful. It is such an intimate video of so many people’s life that it’s impressing to watch. The film producer was thoughtful in his choices of clips and how he presented Anna with care and love.
It makes me think of my current project and how I would like to represent the group of individuals I’m filming. I’d like to be able to capture them in the best possible way, but I would also like to be thoughtful about the clips I choose on how to represent them.