Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This clip shows Cos telling the story of how his eyesight was restored through a cataract operation, enabling him to successfully resume his sport of competition rifle-shooting. A split screen is used to combine footage of Cos in interview with footage of his eye examination and later at the rifle range. An amusing scene with Cos and his wife illustrates one outcome of his clearer vision. His wife describes her feelings about the operation and Cos displays the array of medals he has won since the operation.

Educational value points

• The clip reveals how a simple surgical procedure can transform a person’s life. Lenses clouded by cataracts were removed from Cos’s eyes and replaced by permanent artificial lenses in an operation performed under local anaesthetic and taking about one hour. Recovery from this operation is usually rapid, complications are rare and cataracts do not recur after surgery. Of those undergoing the procedure 95 per cent report significantly improved vision.

• As discussed in the clip, cataracts lead to clouding of the lens in the eye, creating poor vision and can eventually lead to blindness. The condition is the world’s number one cause of blindness – of the estimated 37 million people in the world who are blind about half of them are blind as a result of cataracts. Cataracts are the result of a build-up of proteins in the lens of the eye and are associated with the ageing process.

• The re-enacted eye examination seen in the clip shows part of what typically occurs in an eye examination when cataracts are suspected. In such examinations the internal and external structures of the eyes are scrutinised, mostly under magnification. If, as in Cos’s case, cataracts are detected, the ophthalmologist assesses the rate of growth and severity of vision impairment to determine whether surgery is advisable and, if necessary, when it should occur.

• The operation that Cos underwent is one of the most common surgical procedures in Australia, with 180,000 such operations conducted in 2005. This number is likely to increase as people live longer and the proportion of older people in the community increases. Cataract development is thought to be a normal part of the ageing process and by 70 years of age almost everyone will have some degree of cataract formation.

• The ‘split screen’ technique is employed in two sections of this clip to enrich a talking head interview with reconstructed scenes that depict what is being described. This technique is more often employed to portray an event that occurs concurrently but at different locations – such as a telephone conversation, or to portray, usually to comic effect, different responses to the same subject.

• Film techniques such as extreme close-ups, soft lighting and static camera shots, a gently accelerating harpsichord and violin score, and interviews set in their home all combine to encourage a sense of intimacy between the audience and the subjects of the piece – Cos and his wife. Their relationship is explored with a visual depiction of one of the side effects of Cos’s eye operation acted out, with humorous effect, to camera.