HANNAH ALFRED - RESEARCH

Two cars one night

Taika Waititi (2004)

• To me this film is a hybrid of romance and comedy. Romance because of the relationship that forms between the two main characters (despite their age), however it’s more a story of friendship perhaps rather than love. Comedy because of the subtle jokes throughout. Maybe also touching on social realism.

• Characterisation – it shows relationship form as they start of not liking each other but they end up as friends.

• The genre could be a reason they chose such a simple MES so that we can focus on the characters growing relationship.

• There are a lot of close-ups so that we become intimate with the characters emotions and allow us to pick up on their changing opinions of eachother.

• The story is suitable to the genre of romance with a emotional ending with her giving him her ring and saying ‘so you remember me’.

• Comedy is well executed I feel as the jokes are incorporated well in the general dialogue. We see some examples of this are when the boy winks at his brother quite indiscreetly, when he says ‘Johnny Depp is a gay too’, when she shows her middle finger and says ‘sucker,suckerlucker’ and when he says ‘too much girl too much’.

• Something I find makes this film stand out from other films of the romance genre is the fact that instead of the predictable happy ending, they will never see each other again and instead of ending up ‘head over heels’ she says as she departs ‘and we’re not getting married’ just to lower the tone of the situation.

• It uses a very simple idea, in both storyline and in MES that what I think sets it apart and makes it so successful. 

• These characters wouldn’t often be used in this way for romance or comedy's because of their age. Opposite sexes at this age normally, act as they did at the beginning, as though they don’t like each other, so instead of going for the easy option they took on a challenge.

• It’s almost like a new take on a RomCom they thought outside the box.

• To me it was a ‘slice of life’ – it seemed a significant moment for the character.

• The opening starts off with a time-lapse showing time passing by representing that the boys have been in the car for a long time, coupled with the main boy playing with the car wheel, this paints the picture of the boy being bored. This allows us to reason why he starts to pick on the girl as she arrives.

• The narrative structure is about both the girl and the boy, it isn’t from one particular perspective.

• However it both starts and ends with the boy to show how his view on the girl changes, demonstrated through facial expression.

• It is chronological but they have fast forwarded bits to show that the time together was longer than would otherwise be indicated.

• I noticed that it only focuses really on the two characters ,  this could be a convention of short films because most likely if it was longer they would need to introduce some more minor characters perhaps. Although the younger brother is only a minor character he plays a big role in enhancing and helping to convey the personality of the main characters. Something I will think about for my own film.

• Interestingly this film works without anything dramatic happening really at all, its a simple idea and I think I would like to do something that is simple (not a cliché).

• There is very light non diegetic music which sometimes combines with the also light off screen sound to sculpt the atmosphere.

• At one point despite the genre there was some thriller-like music, which gave the film a sort of eerie feel at times, somewhat contrapuntal, I liked that personally it added new depths to the film.

• Although the background sound was subtle the foley's were very loud giving an intimate feel, as though we were closer to the characters, makes us focus on their actions.

• The music is kept at a minimal in this film I noticed, I think they chose to do that so not to distract. A particular tip that I noticed as well was in the last scene the music fade in very slowly from quite far back indicating the end. In a way this built emotion.

• The dialogue was unconventional. It was unique in the way they had the girl swearing, lying, ect, but again I liked that.

• I noticed that all the sound in every way was controllable and that is something I’m going to have to consider when choosing my location perhaps.

• Despite the limited setting I noticed that they still made sure and had a large range of camera angles and shot sizes.

• They chose very simple location which was more controllable short term, and also they shot at night so the lighting was also controllable long term.
• I noticed a particularly nice slow track in which alternated between the two characters , it brought them together despite their actual distance and built suspense, indicated something was going to happen. It was particularly unique.

• There was a lot of 2 shots to show the characters in relation to each other. In the car there was an especially long MS 2 shot of the pair having a conversation lasting about 15 seconds, this was unusual but worked by contrasting and highlighting the proceeding CU of the girls face.

• Body language – the head nods throughout the film between the male characters are a very masculine way of showing mutual respect, when the girl nods to the boy at the end, it is the last conformation that the masculine feminine barriers have been broken.

• They chose to use a pan to reveal the first time we were shown the boy was in the car, I think this was really effective it wasn’t what we were expecting, built suspense – was innovative and different.

• Shallow depth of field was used not just for aesthetic reasons but also for purpose. As they wanted to highlight the ring the girl was playing with in her hand.

• The film makes us come down to the level of the children almost making adults seem alien.

• It deals with both characters by swapping between his and her perspective.

• A lower class is represented here as you wouldn’t expect someone of a higher class to leave their children alone without supervision for so long perhaps. It’s also indicated with the dialogue as the girl says things like ‘Bull, you’ll sell it’ implying he’d prefer the cash.

• It stereotypes gays as being successful rich people, but doesn’t make any further controversial comments on them.

• Masculinity is represented here as very traditional, the main male is extremely macho. This could be learnt behaviour because of the social context.

• Femininity is represented in an untraditional way. Although she starts off being quite passive, we see her evolve over the course of the film to actually almost become the dominant one, it’s symbolic how he ends up in her space, in her car. She swears and winds him up, which is not stereotypically feminine but this is how she asserts her way to be respected by the boy.

• I have learnt:

Simplicity is key

Think outside the box

Chose a controllable environment (both sound and setting)

Be particular and innovative with music choice

Be different and challenging with script writing

Reveal specific events with unique camera work

Shallow depth of field to focus on specifics

Use black and white to stress focus storyline

Think specific roles of characters (even minor ones)

                                                                                                                                                                                      

Leave me

Ryan Dunlap

Daros Films

• It is obviously a romance because of the storyline being an example of the length people go to for their lovers. There is slow sad music, MES as it is romantic and camera work like CU's, as well to complement this genre. 

• Could possibly also be fantasy because it is outside the laws of physics but typical to the genre they make it appear somewhat feasible? This is enforced with the light MES and overexposure when not in reality. A lot of long shots have also been used as i shows just how isolated the man is in the picture.

• Combining fiction with reality has been done many times before but they have done it in a unique way I feel as they have woven the two together to almost bring the fiction into reality.

• It puts a new edge on the typical romance.

• Instead of the plot being about the romance and then the girl dying which is very common, they start at the end and then bring it to another unexpected level.

• It hard to describe what is happening in terms of the structure if it is chronological or not, it is very unconventional but I think it is happening chronologically as the main character seems to be aware of what is happening in order.

• Opening – sets the scene and tell us the information that we need to understand without giving anything away.

• It is a classic narrative, but obviously condensed as it is a short film. It has the setup as we are introduced to the scenario that she is dead and he wants to be with her, then the disruption as he becomes trapped inside the camera and then the resolution as he can now be with the girl again.

• I need to think about what I want; do I want a happy ending? Can it have a happy ending with a twist, similar to this, as he ended up being with the girl but then leaving everyone else behind?

• Something I found interesting was the fact that we knew what was happening before the characters, building tension and then when they realised we then didn’t know if the father was going to be able to get his son to his lover in time, building suspense.

• The music is quite conventional, sad piano, parallel sound helps to create the gloomy atmosphere.

• Sound bridges are essential here to tie the two worlds together. This is something I need to think about as almost a necessity if cross cutting in mine.

• Loud Foleys have again been used to make us focus on the actions of the characters by almost bringing us into the shots.

• I noticed that they probably used automated dialogue replacement to get better sound quality as they were in hard environments to record. 

• Editing – there are a couple of fade to blacks, one at the beginning and one at the end, they have really helped in portraying time passing and the choice of fade to black over just a fade really lowers the tone as there is a death.

• CU’s at the beginning has been purposefully done not only to restrict view so we focus but also so we are able to read the text in the images, as well as them intensifying the emotions of the characters.

• Parallel cutting is key in this film as it is used to make sure we know both events are happening at the same time and so to not get confused that we are going back to the past.

• The setting is very dreamlike that is purposefully created through brightness and desaturation; doing this really contributed to making the fictional shots seem alien.

• The main character (jack) whom we follow, is grieving and the film deals with the fact that a lot of people would do anything and give up everything to be with their deceased loved ones. But would they really if they had the chance? And that’s what for me the message is about.

• I have learnt:

Incorporating fiction with reality is effective

Start at the end perhaps, take it to a next level

Play with the structure

Think about editing the exposure

ADR for hard to record environments 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

 Scrabble

Mathew Robson

• It’s a comedy as it has intended humor.

• The characters voice is very monotone and blunt.

• Body language – woman taps her fingers which annoys him – watching someone get annoyed is a convention of comedy.

• It has a similar concept to ‘Two cars one night’ in the sense that the relationships between the characters start negatively and end up positive. However ‘Scrabble’ failed to fade into the concept, instead there was a rather sudden jump to the man loving the woman which I think they could have done better.

• It is a ‘vignette’ I suppose because the classic narrative doesn’t apply. It has the setup as we are introduced to the problem of the man hating the woman however there is no particular disruption to this therefore no resolution either it seems he just loves his wife randomly. I need to make sure I have a clear point to my story.

• Throughout my research so far, I have noticed music (however little of it is present) is in most of the short films I have watched – the complete lack of it seriously affected this one negatively.

• Dialogue – is too cliché, and although I always knew that was a bad thing, I now realised just how badly it can affect the overall film despite other areas being good. It lacks creativity, it is too obvious as it ‘tells’ us too much instead of showing us and let us figure it out ourselves – thus making it less satisfying for the audience.

• There few foleys, which was another thing that I noticed was present in a lot of the other films I watched. These are things that take a film to the next level and the lack of them just seems lazy.

• There was not enough variation of different shots in this film which became apparent as it progressed because the CU’s they kept using of the man’s face got repetitive.

• There wasn’t much preparation in choosing the MES especially the settings. The flashbacks were simply boring, they haven’t gone to any lengths to help in creating their desired atmosphere, not aesthetically pleasing at all.

• However I did like how they used the scrabble board as a prop to assist the storyline.

• There is some post production special effects in this film, which I felt was unnecessary and poorly done. It is hard to make special effects appear real unless it’s at Hollywood level; this meant the audience was drawn out of the film.

• The first person narration positions us in the characters view, I liked this style as it meant that less acting was involved, and as we don’t have professional actors that something to consider.

• We are being put in the position of the husband, as he is narrating saying how much he hates his wife but I think the visuals should have shown us why he feels this way better. To me the wife hasn’t been portrayed to be as bad as he is making out, making it pointless. However, maybe that was what they were going for but which ever view they wanted us to take should have been clearer at least by the end.

• This film appeals to married men as it is quite a common assumption that men feel like they hate their wives, so they might relate to this short film. Kind of stereotypes marriage. At least it has a clear audience who it might appeal to.

• I have learnt: 

To think about how I’m going to make sure I portray the point of my film

Dialogue can easily become cliché with unprofessional actors.

Music is essential

It’s worth the effort to choose aesthetically pleasing settings

Could use props to assist storyline

Attempt special effects at a risk

Narration could mean less acting is necessary

Have a clear audience

                                                                                                                                                                                            

Winter

Central London film school

• This film was to me a brilliant example of social realism. The themes and issues of this genre often surround the lower class – as it has shown here with a clip of the brutal reality for a homeless man in winter.

• A convention of the genre is displayed here as social realist films often portray how people are less fortunate, in the hope to evoke compassionate emotions, which this film has done successfully.

• The MES is simple and brings us into ‘normal life’, the location and costumes allow us to feel at home in a typical British surrounding.

• There is an un-happy ending, which is unsurprising as the chosen genre says in the word itself, it is realism and it is portraying that a lot of the time life isn’t a happy ending.

• It is chronological as it is a ‘slice of life’, the length of the film and the length of time in the movie is almost the same. We aren’t told any background information about either of the characters, we are just observing a meeting between two people.

• We aren’t positioned to take any particular characters perspective but instead we just observe as the audience to watch their relationship form; however we are left with the man, outside in the cold, so that we can see the brave front he puts on life.

• Once again, loud foley effects were used to bring us closer to the characters.

• No non-diegetic sound or music was used which is unusual as films normally use music as an aid to create a certain mood. In this case however it would have taken away from the mood they have created without it, it seems much more realistic.

• Dialogue – has a lot of swearing, which they have used repeatedly to create an uncomfortable, harsh environment. It is also key in painting an unfriendly, dislikeable picture of the homeless man

• Even with only one simple setting and lack of movement from the characters the film still uses a huge variety of shots which makes it much more interesting to watch.

• There is a particularly nice example of match on action in the beginning using the birds, which are unpredicatable, uncontrollable props so it much have been hard for them to do, but it was obviously worth as it was really effective.

• The MES in terms of setting is really simple but it is nice as it isolates the characters, although it appears to be just an ordinary park, you can tell thought has gone into picking the location.

• CU’s of one man is followed by a CU of the other which brings the men together.

• The film deals with the representation of the very low class – the homeless – it positions us to not like him at first as he is harsh and rude but we grow to feel sorry for him by the end as he says heart touching things like ‘I have a bad day every fucking day’, ‘it keeps me warm’ and ‘it gets me through’.

• It has represented this class in a bad light as the old man swears, drinks, is crude and unfriendly,  this is somewhat a stereotype, however it has been done purposefully to highlight why the man behaves how he does as he has obviously had a hard life and we come to feel sorry for him.

• It makes the audience think about how they treat people like this man and makes us question if we stereotype him the same. They have inspired this thought in us by choosing a second man that unlike us has no preconceived views on people and is friendly despite the abuse and then contrasting it with a woman who has discovered the social prejudices, whom shouts at him for socialising with the homeless man.

• I have learnt:

Music takes some of the realism away

Unhappy, but meaningful endings work really well

To think about how the dialogue not only contributes to the story but also to the formation of the characters.

Possibly think about having a meaningful message within my film

To realise that simplicity isn’t easy