Bp1: Doco English Inclass Essay

Front 1

Interview thesis

Back 1

The audience’s perspective of the soldier stereotype as being tough and emotionless is challenged through highly stylized and carefully constructed interview scenes.

Front 2

Audiences response

Back 2

By establishing this response, audiences establish an emotional connection to the soldiers conveyed through the story and thus the stereotype is further debunked.

Front 3

cinematic techniques

Back 3

Through the use of cinematic techniques, Junger evokes a sympathetic response from the audience by manipulating the mis-en-scene, cinematography, editing and audio.

Front 4

What the Black backdrop does

Back 4

The use of a black backdrop behind the subject results in the entirety of audience attention being focused on the person being interviewed, which positions the audience to engage with the interviewee.

Front 5

Audio in Interview

Back 5

This is furthered by the audio, having deliberately no music or any other kind of voice over, complete attention from the audience is achieved.

Front 6

Interview cinematography

Back 6

The eye level camera angle acts as a means of neutralizing the subjects and results on the soldiers being put on our level.

Front 7

Interview cinematography explained

Back 7

By having the soldiers on the same level as the audience the stereotype of them being emotionless and tough is debunked as they are reflected as human with human emotions just like the viewers.

Front 8

Interview clothing

Back 8

This connection to the audience is further emphasized through the construction of clothing. The soldiers clothing is an important mis-en-scene technique as they appear wearing casual citizen clothing instead of their military outfit, thus audiences can further associate with them due to lack of intimidation typically aligned with soldiers.

Front 9

Interview sequencing introduce

Back 9

Lastly, the audience’s attitudes of soldier stereotypes are further challenged stylistically through the construction of sequencing.

Front 10

Introduce example of sequencing

Back 10

A perfect example of this is before the rock avalanche mission, interviews with four soldiers take place whereby each soldier says almost the exact same thing as each other.

Front 11

Sequencing example continuos cuts

Back 11

During this scene the interviews are continuously cut between each interview without any cut-away footage beside the interviews themselves.

Front 12

Sequencing example real footage

Back 12

The issues and topics explored by the soldiers are then backed up with visual evidence as it cuts to real footage of Rock Avalanche and the events that occur reflect the interviews.

Front 13

Pausing Hijar example

Back 13

During the last interview, Junger uses sequencing as Hijar pauses after saying “I didn’t even know that they had been hit at that point”, he looks away from the camera without saying a word as he tries to hold back his emotions.

Front 14

Pausing Hijar example explained

Back 14

This was intentionally not cut out to convey the extreme emotions that the soldier experienced to challenge the “soldier” stereotype

Front 15

Concluding sentence

Back 15

By manipulating the mis-en-scene, audio and cinematography, Junger is able to provide a deeper insight into the individuals and connect to the audience in this way, thus challenging the audiences initial attitudes about soldiers being emotionless.