Apollo 11 Internal

Introduction Todd Millars general intentions were to create an atmosphere by using suspense, sound, atmosphere and cinematography. I think Todd Millar successfully fulfilled his intentions skillfully by using specific camera angles, crisp cinematography and created the atmosphere beautifully. He did this by specifically placing certain parts that he had edited and filmed into the correct spaces so it made sense and had an effect.

Short overview This is a documentary about a successful moon landing and the process the director and the astronauts had to go through to make it happen. There are three astronauts wearing white full-body space suits who travel in a large spaceship to the moon. This film is about human accomplishment and how technology now allows us to actually try these things. They launched from the international space station in the USA and had a successful trip to the moon and then back earth. Close after they had to stay in a special room in case of catching and disease or unknown bugs.

The sound was used in this documentary to build intensity by adding diegetic and nondiegetic sound to the camera shots and angles to demonstrate communication. This makes the viewers feel as if they were present during this event and to form a way of making a connection with the viewer.

The way the director used the music in certain places was to create emotions and most documentaries have voice-overs and this one however didn’t and this was because they wanted to keep the film as real as possible. Todd Millar used diegetic and non-diegetic to create anticipation and suspense. An example when Todd used non-diegetic sound was when he used music before the rocket launch scene and the music would build-up until the countdown then there was nothing apart from the person counting down from 10 and the heartbeat sound. The heartbeat sound was added in to show the intensity of this moment and how everyone was feeling as their hearts were beating really fast and loud. However, Todd Millar also used diegetic sound in many moments during this film one very memorable part was when there was a voice-over by Eugene Francis Kranz who spoke about how good this achievement this was and he spoke in an convincing strong tone and this made it very powerful. The colours used when filming this was mostly the sky which was a crisp blue and the variety of shirts and dresses worn by the people who were fixated on what was going to happen and what was happening. The sound was also used when the astronauts were flying there Todd put heartbeat sound effects in the background to demonstrate how their hearts increased as the got more nervous.

The way Todd used cinematography was so exquisite it made it seem and you were present during this whole new human achievement. This was very appealing to watch and I rather enjoyed the way he used different camera angles and shots to create the emotion that became present and I liked where each shot was placed. It wasn’t how films are normally filmed and placed together. I found that it was very effective the way he used slow-mos in the rocket launch scene because it made it more memorable and exciting. It builds up even more anticipation than there already was. This suits the whole general film as it contrasts rather well.

Todd Millar used atmosphere and pace to create a feeling of being present in this documentary the reason you feel present in this documentary is because of how excellent Todd Millar has used speed and skill to create this atmosphere. This atmosphere puts you on the edge of your seat and creates surreal feelings. The atmosphere is how we feel and I felt like even though I don’t like movies about space I was still drawn into this particular one quite intensely. Todd created a connectable atmosphere where we felt as we were there watching. A famous Neil Armstrong quote is “one small step for man but one giant leap for mankind” and I feel that Todd created the atmosphere exactly how the quote stated as no one has done this until now, it makes you feel as you have not accomplished much in life and how Todd has tried to re-create this by using atmosphere.

Conclusion restates my opinion of the director’s intentions. I feel that the director’s intentions were fulfilled because Todd Miller used many techniques for many reasons, some of them being high shots low shots slow mos and long-range shots. Some shots were all up in the austrnauts faces but others were very far away and even thought the veiwer could only just geta glimce they were just absoluty fixated on the how big this event is actually. He used these throughout the film and I feel it improved the film in quite intently. So personally, In my opinion, I think his intentions were achieved by efficiently using many camera angles and pace/atmosphere. In conclusion, I think the director did achieve his intentions and created an intense suspenseful documentary about a successful moon landing and return trip back to earth.