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Christmas 2013

Christmas is a time for family and friends; a time for peace and love, to relax and spend time together. It’s a time to remember those we’ve lost and those we have the privilege of living with, those far away and those less fortunate than ourselves. It is not so much about receiving than giving; an opportunity to make someone else smile and feel loved. For some it’s about remembering the God who loves us, and what he did for us and still does today.
 
(For the finished film see here: https://vimeo.com/86304357)

The purpose of this film was to capture one family’s experience of Christmas, from morning till night, and to convey a positive and uplifting atmosphere in which the audience can participate.
"Christmas is, of course, the time to be home - in heart as well as body" - Garry Moore.
The opening sequence of the film is compiled of pull focus shots that fade from one to the other. This was intended to create a ‘sleepy feeling’; the moment in which the mind is waking up, the eyes are trying to focus and all is still and quiet before the excitement of Christmas morning truly begins. 
The film was intended to have a documentary feel to it in that the closeness of the camera would create a space within the video for the audience to exist. This therefore enables the viewer to personally observe and to some extent take part in the proceedings of Christmas. There were no tripods or grips used because to create this feeling the camera needed to be completely handheld.

The pacing of the film follows the music (It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Michael Buble. No copyright infringement intended), and is cut to the beat. The pacing does become faster when the singing begins and a consistent beat can be clearly heard and followed.

Several other techniques were used such as jump cuts (sequences like the Christmas cake and breakfast tray), and match cuts (the present opening sequence).
The main influence for this film was the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert of 2013.

See here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49sKKbmuQCg

The advert has a deliberate non-commercial feel due to the fact that it is made up of family home videos, and is perhaps rather humble and subdued compared with the other commercials shown at the time. Whereas the advert (which was in fact a trailer for a documentary: ‘Christmas in a Day’ directed by Kevin MacDonald) conveys every emotion from birth to death, from comical to melancholy, this film focuses on only the positive aspects rather than combining them with the negative. 
A widescreen overlay was added to the film, and the footage was captured on a Canon EOS 7D, then edited on Adobe Premier Elements 11.

Here is the finished film: https://vimeo.com/86304357

In conclusion, perhaps the message that this film conveys most is this: that although some people find no purpose in Christmas at all, it is much better to spend it with others than alone.

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