Evaluative Analysis

Part One; Narrative structure of the short film.

What film had the biggest impact on you as a spectator?
- About a girl
- Wasp
- The Pitch-black Heist

From all of the short films we studied as a class, "About a girl" provoked the biggest reaction which made me have a physical and mental connection with the 14 year -old protagonist. Firstly, the manner in which the motion picture was shot intrigued me as it was filmed through a hand-held camera, with barely any smooth shots. This gave the film a documentary feel as if the audience was "living a day in her life". As a spectator, the pace of the narrative fell a bit flat in the centre of the film, this led me to not be as engaged or intrigued as I was previously. However, I can recognise that the pace had a subliminal meaning and was therefore used to build suspense and cultivate a bigger reaction from the audience in the penultimate scene. This differs from the plot of the motion picture as the audience experiences many flashbacks of encounters with her parents. The flashbacks give a vague understanding of her backstory and allows the audience to recognise and connect with the ideology of the film. The parents are perceived as the villains in the narrative by the way they treat the protagonist. The protagonist, who's name is never stated, is portrayed as the damsel in distress but defies the conventions as no one comes to save her.

As a class we also studied other short films such as; Wasp, Curfew and Pitch Black-Heist. In Pitch Black-Heist, we witness the two protagonists strategizing their proposal to rob a bank. As an audience we see how the two characters contrast each other through the use of two-shots almost portraying them as binary opposites. Towards the penultimate scene of the short film, the high-key lighting used through-out the film turns into dark low-key lighting which transitions into complete darkness in the final scene, with minimal dialogue. This scene influenced me more than any other scene in the film as it shows how effective dialogue and sound design can be without the use of any mis-en-scene. However, there is a lack of narrative resolution and the film doesn't conform to the conventions of Todorov's  theory of equilibrium.

Another film we studied as a class was "Curfew" this film influenced me through the use of mise-en-scene and iconography. The fist shot we see as a spectator is the protagonist submerged in a bath full of bloody water, adjacent to the bath we can see a red, old-styled telephone which is later on used through-out the film as iconography and almost acts like a saviour. The film also intrigued me in how narrative was told through performance, for example, when the main characters niece shuffles over and leans into her uncle. The exact shot breaks a barrier between them and tells a lot of the narrative through no dialogue. In contrast to Pitch Black-Heist, the film has a narrative resolution and links back to the red phone in the end scene. The iconography in this film influenced me the most because it inspired me to use a cassette player and tapes in my narrative.




talk about 2/3 more films that didn't influence you and why

talk about screenplays 1/2 and how they have influenced you - Lost in trasnlation by Sofia Coppola ( Francis Ford Coppola's daughter)