A Portrait of a Place

For editing practice, you’ll be putting together your portrait of a place. For some inspiration, here are a couple of examples. This piece by Andrea Pecora about an isolated village in Sardinia makes very good use of close-ups, and shooting from a variety of different angles. Notice the close focus, and lack of wide shots.

For contrast, this piece by Catherine Hyland, on a place in Mongolia where there is a massive monument to Genghis Khan. This breaks the rules by using very, very wide shots almost all the time. Why do you think the filmmaker has chosen to do this? Also listen carefully to the interplay of music, natural sound and dialogue in this piece.

The filmmaker wrote that, “The video focuses on a 131 ft. statue of the Mongol Empire founder on horseback, wrapped in 250 tons of gleaming stainless steel. It is the latest in a horde of monuments that have appeared in Mongolia since the country threw off communism almost 20 years ago.:

“Looking specifically at Khan’s desire to conquer and dominate, I wanted to show the opposing ways in which we psychologically manage a landscape that we are both part of and alien to.”