‘A Life of Service’ captured in short doco
When tasked with developing a short documentary as part of her studies at AIE, Canberra film student Ruby Richardson, knew that she had to tell the inspiring story of her father, Ian Richardson and his life serving in the Navy.
Together with her classmates, Ruby travelled from Canberra, to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, to film her documentary. The completed 4-minute documentary, titled A Life of Service, was officially selected to screen at the 29th Canberra Short Film Festival in November 2024. The film’s selection at the festival also received some media attention including an article in the Navy News publication.
We asked Ruby to share with us a little about her experience attending the festival and about her process making the film.
Q: Your documentary explores your relationship with your father. This is obviously very personal and very special! What were his initial reactions to seeing the film for the first time?
Ruby: As a budding filmmaker & editor, my family is very proud of what I have been able to create, and of course, for my film to be officially selected at the Canberra Short Film Festival. When viewing the film at the festival, my Dad felt moved to hear my perspective on how his service had effects on my growing up and that this part of a service person’s story isn’t always heard. He believes the film highlights just as equally my ‘life of service’, not just his, considering I have been impacted by his career choices for my entire life, including moving to the opposite side of the world.
Q: Filmmaking is hard – we often talk about this in the film course and what it’s like to be a filmmaker. What would you say was the biggest challenge you faced to make the film from a creative point of view?
Ruby: The voiceover elements were the most difficult for me to do, especially when writing the script, where I had to put in my own thoughts and feelings. I had to think hard to summarise the way I felt about my dad’s service and how it impacted on me from both the good and bad aspects. When recording the voice over, I was also highly conscious of the sound of my voice on the screen, which was also another challenge I had to overcome.
Q: What part of the filmmaking process do you enjoy the most and why?
Ruby: Editing is my passion! I enjoy spend time editing videos for my YouTube channel. I like being able to control through an edit, how the viewer can feel a range of emotions, and making decisions about which shots, storylines and sounds to achieve this. I also enjoy that filmmaking allows me to get my own ideas out there for others to see!
Ruby’s documentary A Life of Service can be viewed in full below.
You can learn more about our filmmaking courses here.