Lift Documentary Analysis

The 2001 documentary 'lift' by Marc Isaac captures the everyday life of different character types within one East London tower block, from old women moaning about life to young men in love, as well as all types of ethnicities. The 24 minute long documentary begins to create a tv show kind of feel to it as the same people regularly appear and the audience begin to learn more about them through both casual conversations as well as questions asked by Isaac. Diegetic sound is used throughout, segments are cut that show close ups of the lift as well as the sounds it makes. Isaac also captures everyday things that makes sounds that we ignore for example a bee, this is consistently cut throughout the film. The idea of people missing out on everyday things such as the noise of a lift or a bee is reinforced by the very generic questions that Isaac asks the people in the lift such as "what did you dream about last …show more content…
He asks each person the same question allowing you to see the different responses from each person, questions are important especially ones that evoke emotion from people. Throughout the film scenes are cut that dont have any purpose but to entertain, for example at one point a dog walks into the lift, looks at the camera and then leaves. This is humorous to the audience but at the same time just an ordinary thing to happen, but by Isaac putting this in really projects the idea of day to day life in a tower block.
I think the most important principle of the film is looking at the different way people live and see life even when living among the same tower block, this is again shown through the way Issac films each scene the same and ask each person the same