Pockets

This is a 3 minute long Documentary by James Lees that looks at the content of peoples pockets and what the objects say about them.

I really like the way in which this is shot. He has used a lot of depth of field when filming the shots of their hands having the background of the shot out of focus. I really like this effect as brings all your focus onto their hands, not what you can see in the background. It also gives an artistic feel to the piece using very simple shots of their hands and faces but together they build up small stories about them. 

What is inspiring from this piece, and what I would like to bring into ours is the how personal it is. when watching it doesn't seem set up of fake in anyway. The stories are very personal to the contributors and the narrative as a whole comes from them, not a voice over or someone telling the story for them. I want to bring this into our documentary by having the general public in and around Liverpool to tell the stories rather then us tell their story for them. 

Something else that stands out when watching this is the way in which James Lees has framed the shots. In many of the shots showing the persons facial features he has decided to crop aspects out. such as having an extreme close up on the mouth or by having the contributor half off screen. I think this is some sort of signifier for the fact that the contents of their pockets and what they have said only build up a part of their entire story, showing only a part of their appearance.