EVALUATION

                                               Evaluation

I chose to create a short film for my coursework. I picked to create a drama piece, with an Achronological order. My work was inspired by a variety of short films that I have studied over the past few months. I aimed to create a film that would shock the audience and sadden them. I wanted to face the difficult subject of loss through and emotional film without using gory scenes. I chose to create a film with voiceovers instead of any live diegetic dialogue. I was inspired to do this from watching The Arrival by Daniel Montanarini. In this short film the story unravels via the internal monologue - while the editing, camerawork and performance support it. In the film the camera is placed to capture a Medium shot as if you were sat facing the main character. It means we are intrigued and welcomed into her internal thoughts. I took this idea for some of my shots in my film, my take on the idea can be easily seen when watching my closing shots, our character seems vulnerable and we feel quite intrusive. The medium POV shots in my flashbacks add a personal feel to the drama and allows one to, like in The Arrival, feel as if they are invading the characters privacy to some extent.

Still being inspired by The Arrival, the absence of the father is implied by the way the camera is positioned. One of my key ideologies was loss, so I used similar camera angles at points to emphasise the loneliness of the girl. In the flashback my aim was to highlight the loss by contrasting the boy’s seat to a later empty chair. By having the boy present in my flashback sequence, and his chair empty in one of the later POV shots, it clarifies nicely to the audience that she is yearning for him. If I were to edit my film again, I’d like to have a crossover fade showing when he was there fading into just the chair - lacking the deceased character. I would do this as it would give a greater impact of loss to the audience. Like in The Arrival I’ve positioned my table under a glow of lighting, that I think reiterates the emptiness and loneliness. It’s like a spotlight and the use of lines draws the viewers eye to the main character. It highlights that she is the most important aspect of the scene.

In the short film Echo by Lewis Arnold the mise-en-scene has changed the colour of the film to give it a colder tint altering the viewers emotional response, we are chilled to the core and slightly more alert. This is something that I took inspiration from because, I knew for a drama this would be able to easily change the viewers emotions. In my flashback I have added a slight blur to the edges of my frame to make it dreamlike, it is slightly lighter this has been achieved both via editing and the natural light that I chose to film in. Like in Echo, this boldly displays a change in state, in my case change of time. If redoing the film, I’d certainly allow myself some more time to edit the colour palette a little further and perhaps experiment a few alternatives. I am happy with mine but due to lack of time I don’t know if I would’ve been happier with another colour or a few slight changes.

To make sure the drama element of my film was dramatic enough I took the idea of a police phone call from Caroline Bartleet’s The Operator. It allowed me to have sirens and drama without having to go to extreme measures to film all the action – which was just impossible in my time frame and budget. This use of non-diegetic sound just made my film so much more sophisticated in a minimalistic way. Of course, the voices in The Operator are diegetic but just off screen, I made sure I thought about who was doing my voices a lot, even rerecording some voices when I felt they didn’t seem realistic enough. When watching Operator, I could really picture the panic and fire and I’d say I am happy that you can picture the chaos of the car crash and the daughter finding out quite well in my own film.

Mise-En-Scene was important to me, I put a lot of thought into my costumes to try and give the idea of time passing in my flashback. I wanted it to seem as if the characters had shared a lot of memories together. It was from watching films like SLAP that I noticed costume to be so important. The idea of him both dressing in boxing attire and then a dress really makes the audience see him in a bold position contrasted with the vulnerable one. Similarly, I have worked with my main characters makeup to show not tell how the death has affected her. She looks tired and distressed while in the flashbacks she looks well put together and loving life.

This project was also a fantastic opportunity to practice with new camera angles, two I wanted to talk about were my close ups and then my birds eye shots. With a bird’s eyes shot it gives the implication that the character is lesser than something else – they are lacking power and control. For me I felt that this shot showed her mental decline. When we are watching the flashbacks the two of them are constantly on an equal level it isn’t distorted or shaky. However, in the later stages the camera shows she’s at a loss. We see her table as if we are seeing it through the deceased characters eyes up in heaven. This can be interpreted as she has lost control as he is without him. When discussing these ideas with my first viewers they agreed that they felt the change of angles showed discomfort and weakness for the girl.

Moving onto the close-ups, I intended to illuminate how her memory of licking sugar from her finger was a fond memory she shared with her late boyfriend. In order to do this in a stylised manner, I chose to do a close-up on the actions involved. Moreover, the placement of these shots in my timeline meant that they lead us immediately into the flashback sequence, further clarifying that this action reminds her of him. Close-ups are known to be used to prove the importance of certain acts, people or objects. So by using this technique I’ve made the audience know that it’s moments like this they should focus on. It gives an emotional flutter in the viewer when they put two and two together. Other parts I felt needed to be extreme close ups were the eyes looking at each other and the ring. 

                                                                      

In all the short films I watched there were establishing shots of some kind. I decided for my achronological structure, I would begin in the café with a mid-shot to establish the scene with the title, however then I’ve plunged immediately into the close-up. I think this shows that the characters emotions are more important than the setting. After the flashback I then have more panning and establishing shots to give context to the whereabouts of the character. Initially I hadn’t planned to do this however, it allows my film to unravel in a smoother way and keep the audience engaged, while the initial timeline was lacking a hook. This was something I was desperate to make sure my film had as films such as Fly didn’t grip me at all. If I were to go back and do it again, I think I’d have another look at my timeline, I am happy with it but perhaps it could be slightly tidier. For example there is a very amateur zoom onto the note later in the film and there is a shot of the coffee machine that seems out of place.

I’ve also ensured that my sound and voiceovers fit in time to the changes of my shot. For example, I’ve made sure the past couples conversation begins as we enter the Café with Lucy. This is a very simple way of reminding the viewer that the Café brings back her memories. I think it’s little moments like this that hopefully make my film powerful.

When I have shown my film to people, they have all understood the storyline and have been slightly moved by the end of the piece. This gives me the implication that the above techniques I attempted to use have worked pretty well. For continuity I wish I could’ve refilmed some shots where I can be seen in the reflection or where pieces of rubbish dot around the tables. Overall though, during filming I would say I was very good at making sure my filming was going to be able to be pieced together naturally.

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