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Amy: Amy Winehouse documentary


Amy: Amy Winehouse

It is a 2015 British compliation and musical/biography documentary film about the life and death of British singer- songwriter Amy Winehouse. The film covers Winehouse's life and her struggles with substance abuse, both before and after her career blossomed, and which eventually caused her death.

A once-in-a-generation talent, Amy Winehouse was a musician that captured the world's attention. A pure jazz artist in the most authentic sense- she wrote and sung from the heart using her musical gifts to analyse her own problems. The combinations of her raw honesty and supreme talent resulted in some of the most unique and adored songs of the modern era. The documentary shows the songwriter's life from early childhood, to her music career, troubled relationships, self harm, bulimia, controversial media attention and downfall with her drug and alcohol addiction.

I think this camera shot represents the happy, healthy and full of energy person Amy was, as she was successfully creating her passion and talent which was her music. This representation is evident by the medium close up shot capturing her laughing. Furthermore, the lighting is bright matching her mood and persona. The camera shot shows a wide angle view of the background behind her, which is the 2006 music awards. The background highlights her incredible talent across the nation and her glowing expression. The camera angle is straight and head on giving the impression to the audience that her expression is completely true and that she is truly delighted with her life and career. In this shot, Amy is wearing her style with the classic and traditional makeup and hair conveying that she is being her quirky self portraying her message of individualism, creativity and uniqueness. The editing is slow as the shot is in slight slow motion; this is to show the flashes of the cameras on Amy expressing her clear popularity and success.

This camera shot harshly contrasts from the first shot because it portrays different representations of Amy. This extreme close up is shown when the narrator in the documentary is talking about her substance and drug abuse which correlates perfectly with the shot. This puts her in a very negative light to the audience portraying her as a bad role model to her fans, rebellious, afflicting pain and negativity, psychologically mad and mentally unstable. I think this is mediated by them using an extreme close up to in a way zoom in on all her flaws, physically, emotionally and mentally. The media want to invade and corrupt her by exposing all negative insecurities and flaws so, use these camera shots to exaggerate and express them while she is at most vulnerable. The lighting dramatically changes by using harsh artificial lighting to create dark shadows portraying that drug addict appearance. Furthermore, they change colours to darker tones of browns and grey making her look ill which maintains the media's negative false representation of her portraying her as a weak and bad person. The shot presents the background as a plain brick wall boldly contrasting the music awards background; this makes the shot dull, miserable and dingy which is exaggerated by the dark lighting. Amy's sad and cold expression contrasts her warm laughter in the first shot suggesting how substance and drug abuse and bulimia has transformed her bubbly character. In addition, her hair is not styled as the classic and traditional Winehouse style but pulled back and bedraggled which also suggests how her self abuse from drugs and alcohol has affected her physically as well as mentally. The editing of this shot is quick and harsh using snappy transitions to match her disorientated state.   


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