Comparing and Contrasting two short videos

‘Linking Gaza to the outside world’ and ‘Barbers tales’ the two have very different way of telling a story and for obvious reasons. Linking Gaza to the world addresses a serious topic, mainly because it talks about the problems the Palestinians face and after the hostile occupation of Israeli settlers on their land they have found desperate ways of survival. The tunnel in the title refers to the tunnel linking Gaza to Sinai in Egypt as a means of getting in products of everyday use and how Israeli consistently bombards as it sees it as a threat to the security of Israel. Construction material has been banned by Israel to reach Palestine because it sees the reconstruction of Palestinians as a threat to their security, each sees the other as the demon meanwhile the Palestinians suffer and are left with no choice but to continue smuggle in products from Sinai as a means of survival. Since the story is serious, emotional and represents the hardship of one group of people the tone used by the narrator is to the point and significantly serious and without the use of music, instead natural sounds are used. For example, the sound of footsteps of the tunnel workers while the camera follows them and shows the hostile conditions they have to work in everyday and the threat of death that is always lingering. In such a story the reporter has to abide by the facts and cannot represent in a way that takes away the seriousness of the story. On the other hand, Barbers tales has a very soft approach of representing the story. The title gives a sense of what the story is about, ‘Barbers’ ‘tales’, the reporter takes us to barber shops from London to Honk Kong and the interviews these barbers from these from diverse backgrounds. Each has a unique story, each has a unique way of running their business but we clearly see how important their profession is to them and that they truly believe in the concept of a barber shop. The video just discussed has a very light hearted content so therefore the use of music, the voice of the woman narrating makes the documentary even more soothing which is completely different way of using the camera, lighting and story telling from ‘Linking Gaza to the outside world’ documentary.