Harvard beats Yale 29-29 - I was at first intrigued by the title of this film. Two competitive ivy league schools competing in football, something outside of their highly respected academic reputations.
I kept watching, waiting for something more until the very end of the film. The whole film was cut between all of the sit down interviews with some old footage of the original football game.
Since we'd talked about lighting and things like that, I noticed all of the sit down interviews. All of the backgrounds were really boring. The colors were neutral and usually it seemed to be random settings and just a wall behind. Even when they showed more of a room, it didn't feel like it had to do with the story.
The film felt like you had to have been involved in the actual event in some way to get something about of the film. No emotion was created through the interviews or old footage. The interviewees weren't really animated, there was no music added, there wasn't any b-roll of Harvard or Yale, or their current teams, or anything. They did use a few old pictures to supplement, but that's about it.
I think it is good to have all of those interviews from the players because it was such a monumental game. I didn't have any background on the story, so I thought it was interesting to hear the story for the first time, but I had to struggle to stay focused on it. The story could've been told in a half hour and a faster pace would've made it a lot more engaging. I want to feel like I was in that stadium. Football games aren't boring.
The dynamics were set up interestingly between the two teams. The backgrounds of many of the Harvard players were more working class and I think that was a conscious decision to include that in the beginning. Also, there was the story of how the Vietnam War split the players when they weren't in their football uniforms, but on the field those differences in opinion went away. I liked the inclusion of the one player's story about getting back from the war and thought that that added a nice segway into how the war and current events played into team dynamics. The story structure was good and basic. It started before the game and ended with the end of the game and the win for Harvard.
It takes a lot more than a lot of interviews with the right people and some old footage to make a film engaging though.
Thanks Lauren. One thing you might find interesting, since you said you want to feel like you're there at the game, is that this is the only doc I know of that actually shows every play, in order, of a whole game--cutting to interviews inbetween plays.
ReplyDeleteLauren I too was intrigued by the title of this film and I almost watched for this assignment. But I am sad to hear that it was not very engaging. I found it interesting that you wrote about how much your paid attention to the lighting in the film. I find myself also paying much closer attention to lightning and I watched a documentary recently in which the lightning and backgrounds were not that interesting and it really made a difference. So I understand what you are talking about with the boring backgrounds. Taking the time to create a variety of good background adds nicely to the film and I think helps maintain the viewer's interest.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to hear that those interviewed were not very animated and that there was not any music to help make the viewer better understand the emotions of the moment. I went to a documentary last year at Sundance and the director said that they are very careful about who they choose to interview. The always look not only for people with great stories but who have entertaining and engaging personalities. He said that this is a very important part of their pre-production because of the positive difference it makes. However with this film the filmmakers really can’t find other, more animated people who played in the game. But I wonder if they could have done a better job at making the interviewees feel more comfortable and helped them bring their personalities out more.