My
Observation of ‘Our War – Goodbye Afghanistan’
The first observation that I conducted of the Afghanistan documentary was
of a close-up of a soldier preparing for war. This creates a sense of feeling of
depression as if you are actually meeting this person first-hand. The second
time that I encountered this was when I saw a first person depiction of a war
in Afghanistan with narration voice-over. This was a combination of perspective
and sound, and I felt compelled to watch onwards because this is a prime
example of the effects.
I also heard some diegetic sound of bullets firing. This was
applied to make the viewer feel morbid and depressed and sorry for the soldiers
in combat. The narration of the voice over gives a blunt in-sight as to what
the soldiers are feeling and experiencing.
I noticed some jump-cut editing that linked one scene to
another. This is done to make the documentary feel more fast-paced and to speed
up the power and emotion of the film. The interview was most of the time
foreshadowing what we were about to see in archive footage.
Even thought the soldier had already told us what was about
to happen, we were still taken aback to graphic nature of the voice-over and
the combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound created a truly distressing
piece of film.
The close-ups of the soldiers faces created negative emotions
because we became concerned for their safety, due to having seen a soldier in
third person, and were hoping that none of them were going to be hurt or
killed.
The sights of the conditions of the army base, with an
expressive description, gives an in sight as to how different and privileged
our lives really are here in Britain. The voice-overs are very good at telling
us how to feel when watching a specific scene and can generate a whole range of
various emotions.
The uncensored swearing, mixed with the melancholy sound of traditional military music,
created a plethora of sympathy and empathy for the soldiers, as we could see
why the soldiers were so aggravated and that they were so determined to win. The medical troop yelling at the other
soldiers in first person perspective makes me feel sympathy towards the
soldiers in battle, because they are battling, despite fearing that they could
be next.
The FOW footage of the soldier’s mother mourning his son’s
death with the other soldiers in his group, with the narrative voice-over,
makes you feel sympathy towards the mother, because she has out-lived her
child.
This scene I feel most of all emphasises the effectiveness of
the perspective, sound, editing and cinematography techniques that I have
learned today.
