"The Office" - a graffiti documentary

"The office" is quiet an unconventional documentary in the sense that it's not the type of documentary we would initially expect. "The office" is a very personalised documentary where the presence of the film maker is enforced and made apparent since he feature in his own documentary. (Moore in Bowling for Columbine) This documentary is about a man, who leaves his apartment door open for graffiti artists to come and graffiti on a particular wall on the corrider of his apartment. He puts up huge sheets of paper allowing the to graffiti on that and takes it down every now and again, replacing it with new sheets. "The Office" talks about the emotional and mental aspect of graffiti and why people do it.

The opening of this documentary launches the audience straight into graffiti being done. An extreme close up shot of graffiti being done is fast forwarded to give the impression of speed as if reflecting upon the nature of the documentary. The camera focuses upon the 'Crayola' markers which the artist uses to graffiti with to illustrate the normality of the craze. The fact that they also work in the lavatory in this man's apartment provides a clash with the level of artistic experience we see on screen.

The emotional reason's that this documentary explores is important to analyse since our documentary is also aiming to educate people, on why people graffiti. The conclusions which are formed from investigating the 'why?' are as follows:

* Some of the graffiti produced simply doesn't make sense for the reason that it doesn't need to make sense.
* Graffiti is a route of 'escapism' - to illustrate emotions that most people find difficult talking about.

Obviously, the interviews, through which these factors are investigated go into more detail but for the purposes of our documentary, it's only the actual reasons that we need to consider.

There are many interviews used in this documentary, but unlike "Kings and Toys" and "Painting with Permission" these are ordinary, normal graffiti artists who speak about the reality of their work.

The music used in this documentary is quiet up beat, and sounds as if its rock and roll. There are very few lyrics being heard concentrating more upon the musical instruments to highlight the skill of the artist's work. On some occasions, interviews cross over as voice overs where graffiti shown being actually done, alongside stills to draw emphasise on certain points of the documentary such as "it doesn't need to make sense."

The important aspects of this documentary which are crucial for us to consider in our's are:

* Looking at EMOTIONAL aspects of graffiti - this would also create sympathy within our audience who would perhaps understand the full extent of the 'hows/ whys'
* The choice of music we use will reflect upon our views of graffiti, so parallel music may be better suited to reinforce some of the finer points in our documentary.

Vishna