Documentary: Dreams of a life

Dreams of a life

Quick facts

- Written by Cairo Cannon & Carol Morley 

- a film that tells the story of Joyce Carol Vincent, whose body was found in January 2006 decomposing in her bedsit in Wood Green, North London, after she apparently died unnoticed in December 2003, surrounded by unopened Christmas presents with her TV still switched on

- won awards from 3 different film festivals

We were shown this documentary during a lecture and it was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. Partly because you cant help but put yourself in the position of the main characters. The creators captured the emotion from all the characters and there are multiple techniques used throughout to evoke emotion. 

• First major thing to note is the use of reconstructions to further illustrate the settings and what kind of life the main character (Joyce) was living.  

Here is an image of the reconstruction of her home. 

• I noticed that they had a lot of set up interviews with real people who knew her throughout their life. Although it was a set up interview, the way they were positioned and the use of lighting allowed you to focus on what they are saying. Even though it was structured, there were times where the camera would hold onto their facial expressions and their reactions. It made you form connections with the characters. By showing their real emotions, it heightened the accuracy of the film, it separated the reconstructions from the reality.

 

• Here you can see one of the speakers are centred, looking at the camera. The lighting is deep and intense and makes you focus on their eyes. 

The whole thing made me think about how you can show people's personalities. They did not have a narrator and instead it was the voices of the interviewees that told the story. So clearly the creators of this documentary would've had specific questions to ask them. questions that they knew would allow the interviewees to give elaborate and in depth answers. It just made me realise that if this is the style we end up going for, its important to know what angle you are trying to portray and to know what questions you should ask in order to get the answers you need. This goes for all projects and not just documentary