Directions: Self Portrait 3

Another self-portrait film I enjoyed watching whilst carrying out my research was this one:

This is a self-portrait about a woman called Susan O'Brien. Similar to the other self-portraits I have watched, I do not know who she is, however I have purposely watched ones about people I do not know because an effective self-portrait will tell me everything I need to know.

What did I like about it?

What I liked about this film was the use of home videos at the start and at the end. She uses footage from her childhood to help tell the story. I think this is a very interesting technique and one I considered when I began this project. The home videos give you an idea of what her childhood was like and how it lead to her becoming who she is now. She clearly liked being on camera, or liked working with the camera, so it fits into her modern day personality as a filmmaker. And at the end of the video in a home video she says "Mum can you cut?". She sounds like a director when she says this, and from this video and from the video's description, I assume that she is probably a director now. The home videos help to tell the story in a very effective manner.

Another aspect I liked is how the videos are saturated with colour. Every single shot has something colourful or interesting in it, like her hat. I think this was probably done to match her colourful personality. From the video I would assume that she is probably quite a bubbly and fun person. And I think the heavy use of colour represents this.

And finally all of the footage filmed on the streets of a city again help to tell a story. You get a sense of where she lives and where she likes to go. She climbs up to the roof of a building and watches the sunset. You get the feeling that she has been there before. She points and looks at things like she's seen them before so you can tell she probably lives within the city. You can tell she is a city girl, not a country girl.

I think the video is very effective in telling her story, and I particularly think the home videos play a big part in this. I'm definitely going to find a way to incorporate home videos and old photos into my own film because I think they are a very effective way to tell a story of my childhood and how it made me who I am today. Overall I think this video is a very good example of a self-portrait, and I learnt a lot from it about the woman.