Final Evaluation

 A-level Film Studies - Coursework Evaluation 

 

Comparison with professional short films 

 

Whilst generating my ideas for my film I was drawn to the short film ‘Over’ due to its being in reverse chronological order. It essentially started at the end following an investigation backwards. As it went along, more and more information is revealed through evidence. The film started at its end which I found to be a very intriguing twist. This is what inspired me to create my film in the way that I did with its unconventional narrative. ln ‘Over’ the narrative makes the audience feel like an almost detective as the film unravels itself, for example when you’re shown evidence and also the snippets of people wandering throughout; as well as when things appear to the audience. An example would be when the police arrive and as the car is being taken away, these make you think it could be a car crash. I applied this in my film as I liked how it immersed me into the film, especially the shock at the end which explained everything. In the sense of editing, I really liked how it jumped from the main story to the pieces of evidence which further helped us to try and figure out the story. I therefore decided to use jump cuts to create confusion as the audience are trying to figure out what’s happening with the psychological state of the main character. An example in my film would be where in one scene she is dead and the next she’s at the start of her journey. Another would be when she screams at two different occasions which the jump cuts create that confusion as it makes the audience wonder why she’s screaming and how she’s reached that point. 

 

In regards to cinematography I really liked how 'Over' used close ups and static shots. The close ups were of evidence police had collected which allowed us to focus in on what was being specifically shown to us. The static shots were mainly of the police officers as they investigated the scene, it gave us a window to look through instead of tracking the subjects. This makes me feel like a watching stranger rather than being told a story, it feels more like I'm immersed into the scene. I used a couple of close ups when showing the death of my character as well as the final stage of her downwards spiral which I think was very effective. The death is a big part of my story so the close up I feel is very important. I used it so that the audience would feel like they’re there with her. 

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Another close up I used is of her breaking the fourth wall as her thoughts talk to the audience, which is what helps show her lack of sanity. 

  

One of my favourite shots in my film is where I walk backwards from the tent, making sure to keep it central until I finally stop. This is where it develops into a static shot showing the isolation of my character, really how alone she really is. 

 

I did this twice in my film, at the start and at the end as I really wanted to, again, emphasise being alone. 

 

Critical approaches 

 

In my short film I decided to have an unconventional narrative because it’s a nice change to break the rules sometimes; it leads to the unpredictable, leaving the audience wanting more. I decided to use the three-act structure but chose to muddle it all up. Conventionally, the first act would set the scene, the second would have some kind of disruption or trouble occur, and the third consisting of some kind of resolution. I changed this by having my first act be in the middle, setting up what was to come in the final act as a flashback in some sense. Act two was first with the main character still having a bit of sanity but this degraded especially in act three leading to the death. Creating this in a different order allowed me to play with what effect I wanted it to have on the audience as it was tailor made to the story. Whilst being different I still managed to set up my story, include a turning point when she starts talking to herself and losing more sanity, and create tension with jump cuts. Finally having the resolution as her being dead; overwhelmed by insanity and isolation. This postmodern element affects the audience as it creates a sense of confusion throughout. I decided to do this as I wanted my film to make the viewer have to think about what’s going on. For example, using jump cuts and flashbacks enabled me to give snippets to the ending at the very beginning which I think was very effective as it makes you curious as to what could've happened. Another example is by showing the death first, I could lure in the audience as they’ll feel like they need to know what the cause is. The chaos of the film is supposed to represent the downwards psychological change in my main character, I deliberately made decisions that helped to confuse the audience such as the scene where it shows her dead right at the beginning and then alive in the next.  

 

Spectatorship refers to how the audience views something, if they were a passive spectator, they would absorb everything as they see it, but I wanted the audience to engage with this film in any way they wanted as an active spectator. I wanted them to generate their own meanings. So, to also break convention I broke the fourth wall in one of the end scenes. My main character looks directly in the camera, whilst she herself doesn't speak, her thoughts do. I decided to approach this in that way in a means to immerse the audience into the experience she is going through. Everything I have done is to try and create that immersive experience. The fourth wall is what separates the film world and the real world, when it’s broken it generates a link between the character and audience in a way that wasn’t there before. This link can then help the audience to understand the character more than they did before which helps them comprehend what is actually happening within the film itself. If people don’t make the links as to what’s happening, they may not fully be able to understand which you could class as a flaw within the film project. However, I don't think this should be an issue for the most part, because even if people don’t understand that's kind of the whole point. I didn't want my film to be conventional as I think that's boring and uninteresting in many senses. This film is chaotic to represent chaos of people and emotions. 

 

 

Preferred and alternative readings 

 

The preferred reading for this film is that isolation and loneliness can be detrimental to people's health and wellbeing, and that you should take care of people you think are vulnerable instead of letting them slip away. Throughout the film my character is alone, and that loneliness is what causes her to lose her sanity. She’s in a place that's desolate from any kind of infrastructure at all, which is represented by the deserted field. The diegetic sound I used was a forest soundtrack that has high and low pitch tones which create a sense of fear for the character and audience; the kind of fear that makes you want to not be alone. The lack of nature and people around also help show and emphasise the isolation, which is shown by my use of wide static shots of the tent (you can see nothing is near). These things all make the audience feel for the character as maybe they know what it feels like to be lonely. The degrade of her mental state is designed to make the audience feel sorry for her as well as kind of scare them by showing how badly she’s been affected. I also used non-diegetic sound to generate that creepy feel. The costuming is very basic on purpose to show a lack of prep for the trip. The lighting, changing to night, makes the audience feel like that time is more dangerous as that's when she dies brutally and alone. The preferred reading for this film is that the audience should have a sense of confusion surrounding the understanding, but they should still be able to have generated some sort of emotional response from it. 

 

I suppose an alternate reading could be about the negatives of camping. For example, how it's cold and boring. As well as being dangerous if you’re alone which is what my character was. Other than that, I don’t think there’s that much of an alternate reading as whilst it seems like a complicated story, its actually quite straightforward if it was in the right order. I think that people may get confused on the narrative structure which could be how they get any alternate readings. 

 

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