I will just quote an e-mail message I sent to a film maker friend of mine:
I have to tell you about this movie I've been watching on iPlayer. It was on BBC4 last week. Maybe you've seen it, it's For All Mankind about the Apollo missions, produced and directed by Al Reinert.
What is remarkable about it – and has a parallel to your work – is the way it tells the narrative, weaving and compressing all the Apollo missions into one 'storyline' starting on Earth, going to the moon and back again.
There is no narrator, just voiceovers by various astronauts who travelled on the moon, including Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, and the 'radio' voices of the astronauts and Mission Control from the recordings of the missions.
It is a superb piece of documentary film making. And the way the music is used, I can't find words to describe it. There are tracks from 'Apollo' the album of ambient soundscapes by Brian Eno.
The music that keeps recurring is the ethereal and moon-like 'An Ending (Ascent)' and it is utterly spine chilling particularly at the very end. Phew, it really gets to me!
I'm a great admirer of Brian Eno, and saw him interviewed by Tony Wilson at In The City in 2000.
I think I will buy a DVD copy, as I just want to own it and replay it loads of times!
I think every documentary film maker should watch it!
Thanks,
Aidan
I have to tell you about this movie I've been watching on iPlayer. It was on BBC4 last week. Maybe you've seen it, it's For All Mankind about the Apollo missions, produced and directed by Al Reinert.
What is remarkable about it – and has a parallel to your work – is the way it tells the narrative, weaving and compressing all the Apollo missions into one 'storyline' starting on Earth, going to the moon and back again.
There is no narrator, just voiceovers by various astronauts who travelled on the moon, including Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, and the 'radio' voices of the astronauts and Mission Control from the recordings of the missions.
It is a superb piece of documentary film making. And the way the music is used, I can't find words to describe it. There are tracks from 'Apollo' the album of ambient soundscapes by Brian Eno.
The music that keeps recurring is the ethereal and moon-like 'An Ending (Ascent)' and it is utterly spine chilling particularly at the very end. Phew, it really gets to me!
I'm a great admirer of Brian Eno, and saw him interviewed by Tony Wilson at In The City in 2000.
I think I will buy a DVD copy, as I just want to own it and replay it loads of times!
I think every documentary film maker should watch it!
Thanks,
Aidan