Steel Homes - Eva Weber (2008)

After I watched Eva Weber's short film, Steel Homes, I found the main theme to focus on the possessions of certain people. The narrative of  the film was told through each individual's story as they told the audience about the reasons for keeping their possessions and related memories to these objects. I believe Eva's primary aim was to show the audience how regular objects from home or relationships, that many people may take for granted, can bring a lot of importance to an individual. This may cause the viewers to think about possessions they may wish to keep in a similar way to the storage units; holding on to certain memories.

I had to watch the short film a couple of times in order to fully understand the whole concept of the steel storage unit but overall I did enjoy this film. I found it moving listening to each individual's past stories causing them to keep certain items, for example a male narrator explains how keeping his possession reminds him of 'the good times as well as the bad'.

The opening scene of the film begins with a steel door slowly opening, which could represent the people involved in the film allowing viewers into their 'steel homes'. Although the monologues reveal parts of their past and reasons for certain possessions, the camera never films the inside of the storage cells; with only a side view of the person opening the unit. This is to keep a sense of privacy for the individual, as if the director is deliberately allowing them to keep their world to themselves rather than letting the whole of the audience into it. I found it interesting how the steel environment creates a harsh atmosphere despite the main focus of the film being memories and loved possessions. This juxtaposition causes the audience to believe that despite first impressions that may seem untouched and not fully drawn into, many memories and interesting stories are hidden behind each metal door. This may represent the individuals as they will always have these memories in them, no matter what their first impressions are.

One of the techniques I found fascinating was how the camera never fully focussed on an individual's face. The audience would either see a long distance shot of them moving items in and out of their unit or in certain scenes, the camera filmed over their shoulders to allow viewers to see their objects. My favourite scene using this technique was when the camera filmed a lady's hands holding three photographs of herself at different ages. The camera then reverts to a long distance shot of an old lady, in the same red coat, holding the photographs and this makes the audience feel curious about her past and the stories behind the photographs.

Another technique I found interesting was the use of individual monologues to carry the narrative of the film. There is no narrator explaining what the film is about or who the individuals are, just the unknown voices  telling their reason behind the value of their objects and the memories. The only music played was at a monotonous level so the audience could focus mainly on the monologues and this was also used with the sounds of the setting, such as footsteps and shutting the metal doors. This created a realistic atmosphere for the film rather than editing any music over the scenes.

I believe the film's structure and style did relate to its content as it filmed the individuals as the monologues were telling their story, giving the audience a slight visual of who the narrator is without revealing their whole identity. In addition to keeping their faces hidden, through the use of not filming inside their storage units, this relates to the film's theme of individual memories and often this is seen as a private matter that only the individual wants to have control of rather than letting the whole world involved. It was a very interesting way of presenting the idea of surprise by revealing the use of a location that many would assume was related to work, was in fact the storage of many memories.