Christmas with Dad

We then watched Christmas with Dad.


Christmas with Dad is aimed to show the lifestyle of a father of 8 building relationships with his step children. The main focus of the documentary is on him and how he got to where he is today. I liked it because it gives a good insight into how other people live. I think it is successful in showing the dynamics and diversity within the family and the progression in the family relationships. The element of the film that stood out to me was the mise-en-scene and how the director purposely chose to film in the family home and not hide how they live to the viewer, which keeps the documentary gritty and realistic. The documentary also uses actuality in the fact that the narrative shows the progression of the story, along with what images are shown on screen. 2 techniques that i found interesting were how the documentary was filmed, as in it is done in a realistic way on a hand held camera, making the action more natural. This is also mixed with interviews with the kids and the dad which is once again common to the documentary style. As well as this, the Christmas music that is chosen at the start matches up to the images of things that are assiociated with Christmas.