Boy 1.5

In Taikai Waitis film “Boy”the director uses a number of film techniques to portray his intention some of these are, camera angles sound and music and flashbacks. All of these techniques helped portay the directors intention which was to show the importance of a role model, who in Boys case was his father who was absent for most of Boys life.

One of the main and most efective techniques used in the film was camera angles, I think that the director used this technique in a very effective way like when Boy was on the bridge and he was looking over the edge. The angle used was an extreme closeup on Boys face, focussed on his facial expressions that were pain and suffering.  He had just realised that the person he had been looking up to as a role model his entire life, his father, was neglecting him and had been absent his entire life.The extreme close up on his face clearly showed his distressed realisation of this fact.

Another effective technique that was used in the film was flashbacks I think that the director used this to portray the fact that boy had lived his whole life beleiving that his father had been present at his brothers birth and other important times before that but in reallity he wasn’t. I think that these techniques were effetive because they shoed howhis father had been negecting him for his whole life. Earlier in the film they showed the same flashbacks, as Boy had imagined them, with his father, leading a happy life.  The director showed that this had in fact just been the Boys imagination by repeating the same flashbacks, this time without the father.

The last way that film techniques were used to portray his intention was music. I found this technique effective because in the lyrics of the song amazing grace which plays over the bridge scene, the lyrics sing “i once was lost but now Im found” this shows how boy was lost becuase he thought that his father was present but boy found the truth and now knows that his father was not present in his life. another part of the song that helped portray the directors intention was again the amazing grace song where it says “that saved a wretch like me” this shows how Boy thought negitavly about himself. He wanted to be more like his father, who he looked up to as a role model even though he had not met him.

In conclusion i think that the director used film techniques effectively to show how inportant a possitive role model is in a childs life and the effect that neglect can have on that childs life. This is a very relevant issue to nz, as the Guardian says “23.5% of children had had at least one report made regarding their welfare to child protection services” this just goes to show how important of an issue it is in our country and how things need to change.