Faster

So the first unit of my Film and Television Production university course focuses around the film genre of documentary, with the aim of creating my own 3 minute documentary within a group. Naturally, to prepare we were advised to increase our viewing of documentary film and TV and what better place to find this than Netflix! My first step was to look at the material in the documentary section of Netflix and add to my watch list all of the films that grabbed my attention with the aim of eventually watching them all.

I began with Mark Neale's 'Faster' (2003). This is a film that explores the world of Moto GP, narrated by Ewan McGregor, particularly focusing around the rivalry between Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi, the injuries of Garry McCoy and the rise of John Hopkins. This sparked my interest as from the age of around 7, I remember sitting down on a Sunday afternoon with my dad to watch the Moto GP. When I was 12, I was lucky enough to go to watch one of the races at the Donnington circuit, complete with paddock passes!


There were lots of good things that I liked about this film. First of all, particularly during the beginning sequences, fast paced editing creates a  sense of thrill and energy reflecting how I imagine riding a bike at high speed would feel. This fast pace was also inter cut with contrasting slow motion shots which built a sense of excitement as it highlights the immense power of the GP bikes. Further to this, there is a scene roughly 10 minutes before the end of the film that uses a montage of narration - the names of Biaggi and Rossi can be heard building up the idea of the rivalry between them.


Overall,  I really liked this film- the content and the structure, however there were parts which personally I found did not fit the rest of the film. Specifically,  two of the truck drivers are interviewed which I think is an interesting point of view to include, they give a real insight into the world of the Moto GP, however the interview is filmed as they are driving along in the cab of their truck. In my opinion, this was quite distracting and reminded me of trucker programmes screened on television.

I love the mix of techniques in this film. Archive footage, in-car/ outside interviews, subtitles and the experimental feel of the editing (i.e. split screen). This film is well made, and explored a topic that I took great interest in.