Week 8 Screening 1.

The Four Year Plan (2011) Mat Hodgson.

Tracking the story of English football club QPR’s attempt to climb back into the premier league, this documentary film opens with expository text to bring the viewer up to speed with the story. Although a useful method to impart information quickly it also quickly creates a specific perspective of events as there is no other information to go on. The images that follow this text introduction embellish further a perspective of the club and its financial position. Montages are used prolifically to illustrate the changes that occur at the club, considering that the documentary is filmed over a four year period there was always going to be some instances where a synopsis would be required.

The editing is used very effectively to give insight to events and to reinforce what the filmmaker would like the viewer to focus on, this gives the film a strong narrative. An example of such reinforcement is when a comment is made by Flavio Briatore in the stands and then unbeknownst to Briatore a reposite is filmed from the dugout. The viewer can observe the two sides to the debate, while neither party would have been aware of the other comments they are edited in such a way as to give the viewer a sense of omniscience. As a viewer you are privy to more information than the participants.

The documentary is able to thread togheter the storyline as it sees fit due to the lenghty period of time that they were filming for. This results in a very strong narrative and a satisfyingly speedy development of the story. The editing of the film is done in such a way as to make explicit any developments in the story. The editor had a lot of footage to choose from (from four years of filming), but he manages to stick tightly to a central narrative. Adhering to a specific narrative excludes everything extraneous to that narrative, to the benefit of the story but to the detriment of the truth. This documentary was made in the editing suite.