Effect of Raw Video Footage
by Connie Tam ~ November 17th, 2010. Filed under: Uncategorized.For me personally, I can’t watch anything gruesome. The sight of blood makes me cringe.
The animation consisted of many scenes of slaughter and deaths everywhere but yet I was able to fix my eyes on the screen. On the other hand, once they put in raw video footage at the end, i was left speechless and had to turn away at one point. The impact that this median had was dramatic. With animation, we know that it isn’t real but once we are shown footage of real people, it brings us back into reality and we know that the horrendous event actually took place. The sudden shift leaves everyone with many thoughts racing through their minds. It also leaves an lasting and powerful image in our heads.
November 17th, 2010 at 10:54 am
I could not sleep last. The horrible images of the raw footage stayed with me throughout the whole night and I could not get myself to forget them. Just like Connie, I guess I am not “strong” enough to see such impacting images. I think that throughout the whole film, I became accustomed to the colorful nice images of the animation. In the animation the women crying through the streets did not have such a big impact on me because I remember how the music played over their crying and wailing during the animation. It was not until the end that I began to hear the women’s cries and wails that I felt that I was beginning to lose it. Had I been given a warning or at least told that we would see decomposing bodies of the massacre, I would have left the classroom and waited for it to end. I may be seen as weak for thinking like this but the word massacre itself says it all for me and depicts the images clearly for me. Even though Ari Folman’s intention was to make us aware of what happened in the massacre and to make us see “behind those beautiful drawings…[that] there were real people…” I honestly have to say that I’d rather read about these accounts instead of seeing them on the big screen.
November 18th, 2010 at 10:54 am
I agree with Connie, in that Ari Folman’s goal was to snap the audience back into reality and allow them to realize that this animation is just a artistic representation of reality. I do not cringe at the sight of blood nor do get affected by gruesome images, but the effect this film had on me, caused me to slightly cringe. This was only because i became accustomed to the film, as an animation, and not as physical/human portrayal of the reality. But once it snaps back into our lifestyle, I began to see the whole animation as a physical/human portrayal which, in effect, opened my eyes to the true menaing of this film. Personally, I feel as if this film allows the audience to understand that War is nothing but a concept until it reaches your home. Once it reaches your home, thats when it becomes reality.