Death In Gaza Analysis

Death In Gaza (2004) is a documentary by James Miller and is about a the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza and how the fighting is effecting the Palestinian children's childhood. The film also has a sub-plot that tells the story of how the director and camera operator James Miller, was killed whilst filming and didn't get time to finish the whole film (as he wanted to get the Israeli children's perspective as well).

The film opens with just a simple montage of text on screen that gives the audience background information about the conflict and a brief history of the major events surrounding Gaza. This is very effective in this film as the audience may not be aware of the past of the area and how important that information is in understanding the rest of the film. Our film will most likely not use this technique at the start of the film as we want there to be some enigma around the main contributor Hannah, so we can keep the audience enticed and encourage them to carry on watching. We may use this convention at the end of our film when informing the audience where she is now, what she's doing and how much money she's raised etc.
The film introduces the main stories in the film with the use of a narrator (voice of god). This is to explain the context of the shots used as well as what was about to happen/was happening on screen if it was unclear. This technique is usually used to compensate for sloppy edits or a lack of footage which makes the context of what's being shown on screen unclear to the audience and is generally not used within documentary film making. However, this film twists occasionally to a 'the making of' style of film when this voice over is used in conjunction with the voices of the crew in the back of the shots discussing what to do. The combination of putting these two styles of films together in one can be a little overwhelming at times as the audience isn't sure which documentary they are watching and some of the common conventions of one, mix in with the other. Having said that, in this film it isn't too bad as it mimics the chaotic nature of the subject matter and narrative and also gives a very realistic representation of it at the same time.
Finally, the film uses archive footage and archive voice over during parts of the film that require context and explanation. The use of this over the arguably un-edited footage of scenes of conflict makes a very powerful impact on the audience by showing the realism and horror of these news stories. We are going to adapt this convention in our film by using archive footage and archive sound to create a different emotional effect on the audience. We will attempt to make the audience empathise with Hannah and create a connection between them by showing her growing up as a child, this is so when we introduce her being diagnosed with cancer, the emotional impact will be greater on the audience as they feel as though they are experiencing it with her and not as just an observer.