Summary Of The Film 'OASIS'
Documentaries are a powerful way of informing an audience about a particular person, place or issue within society. This film style is very popular with filmmakers for when they want to tell a person or place’s story like in The OASIS and the work of Captain Paul Moulds; a volunteer for The Salvation Army and manager of Sydney’s OASIS refuge. The Australian film is a full length documentary filmed over two years that provides a realistic observation of Paul’s efforts and the challenging lives of the homeless youth. They achieve this by using a natural tone and personal point of view throughout the film. As well as, consistent use of stylistic features, filming techniques, diegetic and non-diegetic audio, various lighting and editing techniques.
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The way these documentaries are filmed play a major part in how the audience’s responds to it. The OASIS documentary is filmed typically with handheld observational camerawork. This is important as it gives an authentic personal feel to the documentary and helps put us into the action, bringing us closer to empathize with the subjects. There is also some use of archival footage and minimal use of graphics. Archival footage is seen when Darren goes back to his mum’s house. His mother is filmed showing the film crew pictures of Darren during his childhood. The pictures are then displayed on screen in a presentation style as Darren’s mother talks about funny stories of him. By having the archival footage they give insight into how innocent and lovely some of these teens lives were and that anyone could be in the position they are in now after making a few bad choices. The graphics in The OASIS also play a big part in introducing new characters and building relationships between them. If a different person is presented in the documentary then their name appears in unobtrusive white writing. This assists the audience with keeping track of each of the young people that the documentary is focusing on and helps establish the timeline and documentary’s ‘flow’. Nevertheless, footage isn’t the only way that the film crew use to give the documentary an authentic feel. The OASIS also uses music, whether diegetic or
The way these documentaries are filmed play a major part in how the audience’s responds to it. The OASIS documentary is filmed typically with handheld observational camerawork. This is important as it gives an authentic personal feel to the documentary and helps put us into the action, bringing us closer to empathize with the subjects. There is also some use of archival footage and minimal use of graphics. Archival footage is seen when Darren goes back to his mum’s house. His mother is filmed showing the film crew pictures of Darren during his childhood. The pictures are then displayed on screen in a presentation style as Darren’s mother talks about funny stories of him. By having the archival footage they give insight into how innocent and lovely some of these teens lives were and that anyone could be in the position they are in now after making a few bad choices. The graphics in The OASIS also play a big part in introducing new characters and building relationships between them. If a different person is presented in the documentary then their name appears in unobtrusive white writing. This assists the audience with keeping track of each of the young people that the documentary is focusing on and helps establish the timeline and documentary’s ‘flow’. Nevertheless, footage isn’t the only way that the film crew use to give the documentary an authentic feel. The OASIS also uses music, whether diegetic or