Neil Blomkamp's Alien Alive In Johannesburg

There is use of hand-held camera movement throughout this short film by Neil Blomkamp. This is done in order to establish an atmosphere of disorder and chaos in Johannesburg that is teeming with aliens. The chaotic and on-scene feeling is amplified by the general use of short takes that are constantly shifting between interviews, shots of aliens, fights, random things, landscapes and so on. The long-shot framing when flying in the helicopter and looking out on the spaceships and the city, for instance, is done in order to give the viewer an impression of the consequences that the alien invasion has had on the townscape. Seeing it in this angle and perspective might make viewers realise the magnitude of the situation in Johannesburg and just how far the conflict between humans and strangers has gone. When interviewing the people strongly against aliens,
The hand-held camera movements could have been used in both documentaries and movies, but because the cameraman does not take part in what he is filming, he becomes a fly on the wall which is a trait in documentaries. By showing news reports and accompanying the soldiers and officers on their jobs, the conflict about aliens is clearly being treated as a very serious, and very real issue. Therefore the expression of the short film is very much like documentaries, and carries many traits of fact. This is though the actual story about aliens being a burden on the South African society is a metaphor. Using this conflict between humans and aliens as an allegory for the apartheid or other cases of systematic racism is frankly great, as it makes it possible for the viewer on one side to acknowledge how strange the aliens might seem to the xenophobic humans. And on the other side the viewer is also presented with an insight to just how all-embracing racism can be and how strongly it is