English Assignment
Composers use many techniques in their texts to use images to portray, places and ideas. Director John Ruane in his film Dead Letter Office uses multiple camera shots to portray Alice as a hopeful young girl waiting for her father to come home, and then as a young adult determined to find her father through her letters. Banjo Paterson uses literary writing techniques and adjectives in his poem, Clancy of the Overflow, to give us vivid images of the relaxing and calming life of the drover Clancy. Through the use of the mise-en-scene of Frank’s house, Ruane decorates the house with outdated and sparse furniture to tell us that Frank is not very wealthy and the positioning of the house on the outskirts of a suburb also tell us that he is alone and dislocated. The Queensland country is strong depicted in Clancy and the Overflow by the use of strong adjectives describing the landscape such as ‘sunlight plains,’and ‘everlasting stars,’ and ‘ river on its bars,’ are examples of the writing techniques that Banjo uses in this poem. In Ruane’s film, the pigeon Punt Road is used as a metaphor for home and as a metaphor for Aclice and Frank being trapped inside themselves and the release of Punt Road symbolises their release. The idea of a romanticised Queensland bush is brought about of Banjos Paterson’s use of creative writing techniques that is used whenever the city person is talking about the place that Clancy is at.
Director John Ruane portrays Alice as first hopeful and then purposeful via the use of a number of cinematic techniques in the opening sequence. Ruane has used the close up image of Alice’s ballet slippers juxtaposed with the close up shot of Alice skipping to empathise Alice’s father will be ‘coming home.’ Ruane uses a montage of letters in the opening sequence to also empathise the feeling of loss that Alice feels towards her father, this combined with non-diegetic voice overs from a young Alice and adult Alice to