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)

Paper 2; Silent Film Movements

"One Week"- Buster Keaton 1920

- Prefigure of Postmoderism as he already breaks conventions such as breaking the 4th wall (bathroom scene).

- The narrative of "one week" is based off of early adverts from the newspapers and in the narrative Keaton plays the "Everyman" as his persona.

Cinematography;

FRAMING: Close ups, wide shots and the circle frame. All of these shots reinforce the gags and jokes in the narrative.

LIGHTING; All lighting is natural and non-artificial, this makes the audience feel like the narrative is reality and relate to it more.

EDITING; Editing is only used when needed such as , to reinforce the humour in the jokes.

MISE-EN-SCENE; Contributes to the narrative and set pieces. Built and adapted props.

PERFORMACE; Body language , expression + movement and size.

TECHNIQUES;
- Stunts
- Use of mise-en-scene and physical objects
- Dead pa expression
-Layering of jokes
- Breaking the 4th Wall.

REPRESENTATIONS;
 -Marriage = Equal partnership
- Lower- Middle class aspirations
- The police are seen as figure of humour.

CONTEXTS;
- Silent comedy conventions
- Slapstick
-Post Modernism Techniques ( Breaking the fourth wall, intertextuality)

The sets in Buster Keaton’ shorts can function as characters. The house in One Week seems to take a life of its own. On Wednesday, the house takes on a cubist appearance, a visual gag that references the cubist movement, popular in the early 20th century and typified by objects and figures that appear abstract and fragmented.

Keaton was a visual director – he avoided title cards and focused instead on gesture and action. His comedy is rooted in his Vaudeville background (where he performed as a child), and gag-based slapstick comedy popular in the 1910s. Keaton’s trademark deadpan expression serves as a blank slate on which the audience can project emotions.

Props are an important element of Keaton’s films. Houses often feature secret doorways or specifically designed elements. The trick house in The High Sign with trap doors and escape mirrors exemplifies Keaton’s trademark ‘mechanical comedy’ – the use of traps enables the audience to guess what is going to happen, while Keaton’s deadpan responses and mastery of his stunts elicits surprise. The props in the kitchen sequence in The Scarecrow all have a duel function – the bookshelf is a refrigerator and the salt and pepper pots dangle from the celling.

"The Scarecrow" 1920's

REPRESNTATIONS;

- Dancing for herself rather than the pleasure of anyone else.
-Marriage is treated unseriously and is mocked.
- Lower class (The one room house)
-Women are perceived as independent ( first on the horse) Post WW1?

EDITING;
- Dog chase scene is heavily cut- difficult to work with animals but is also a convention to chase scenes.
- Second half of the film is more edited then the first.

PERFORMACE;
- Body language; the brother is clumsy but at the breakfast table, moves almost like a dance.
-Size; Brother in the car, portrayed as fat as the car topples over- shown through framing.

Keatons persona is the suitor.

CONTEXT;
- Vaudville theatre
-Modernist technogly

 Institutional

1. These films are four of 19 shorts produced for Buster Keaton Productions between 1920 and 1923. Film executive Joseph M. Schenck set up Buster Keaton Productions in 1919 and gave Keaton complete creative freedom in writing, directing and acting. The star system had become institutionalised by the 1920s, with Keaton one of the great silent comedians, alongside Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Each of these silent comedians had a distinct persona and style

Trainspotting Section C; Film progression exam revision

Trainspotting; Baby scene

- How are the elements of film form used to create aesthetics effect in this sequence?

Lighting;
The blue flood lights in the hallway are used to connote the aesthetic of the sequence by contrasting against the warm rooms at the end of the hall, the room that the drug use takes place.
Blue portrays the sombre tone of the next scene, where the baby is found dead but is also used to show the after effects of the drug use and the consequence.

Sound;
Before the audience even gets placed in the narrative, we hear a female screaming in distress.
This sets a horrible tone to the scene as the audience doesn't even know what is going to happen.
The female scream, overlaps with a babies cry, which is later explained in the narrative.
Renton's voice over, that is used through out the motion picture, tells the story of the distressing events that are about to take place and he even says that " Alison has been screaming for days",

Shots/ Editing:
The camera pans from the blue hued hallway to the warm drugs room, in a handheld tracking shot, which shows how fast paced the events seem but also portrays the high that the drugs are giving them. this contrast to Alisons lack of time keeping as she has later realised she has malnourished the baby to death and has left it to die in a dirty nappy and clothes. It then jump cuts to Sick Boy suddenly sitting up out of his own drug trance but then cuts back to the tracking shot of Alison screaming in the middle all the characters. We then see a montage of close-ups of the characters reaction.

Mise-en-scene;

At the beginning of the scene we see a brief look into the rooms in the flat, they are covered in peeling red paint and bricks crumbling from the walls. This shows how fast drugs can deaerate their life style and also shows that they aren't that bothered about it. Later on we see Renton laying on a dirty, broken mattress on the floor that has no bedding and yet again he isn't bothered about it. There is no wall sperating the kitchen and the "living" room and we briefly see that there is wires hanging out of the walls and the windows are boarded up with some sort of plastic. The clothes that the characters are wearing are old and scraggly which reflects their mental state throughout the film.

This Is England;


Mise-en

Silent Cinema

4 Short Buster Keaton shorts;

Silent Film;
 1890's - Approx 1930's
1927 was when the first film came out with sound.

Silent Comedy;

1910's-1930's

Aesthetics qualities and conventions

Representation

Buster Keaton;

Background
Persona
Techniques
Use Of Film Form

Social And Cultural Contexts;
Vaudeuville Theatre/ Audience Expectations
Technology and consumer culture
Social attitudes
Art and Culture references

1895- Lumiere ( Cinema of Attractions)
No Narrative, more about audience sensations. Normally Realist.

Soviet montage Theory
Expressive.

Ideologies ;
 Editing is deemed as manipulative towards the audience.

Narrative film making evokes ideological views

Silent comedy;
Physical/ visual comedy, often violent.
Occasional visual gags (Title Cards)
Chaplin Keaton could be perceived as early auteurs.

SCREENPLAY- COURSEWORK

EXT. Garden - DAY

As the film opens, we hear a non-deigtic music as the clouds are passing by through a time lapse of the sky. The clouds represent the passing of the time and how easily it is to ignore and forget this. The title appears "The Cassette".

INT. living room - DAY

The shot of the scribe board transitions from the title to the scrabble board. As Emma places the tiles on the board, her hand begins to tremble as the realisation hits that there is a subliminal pattern in the words. Shock takes over her face as the words betrayal and family intertwine. Her thoughts rushing through her brain like cars on the motorway as the puzzle connects like cogs in a clock. As her mum exits the room on a phone call, Emma's curiosity gets the better of her and she reaches for the last 6 tiles. Tile by tile the word "Arnold" spells out.

EMMA V.O

"Grandad's favourite author?"

INT. Living room - DAY

Warily standing up, Emma stumbles over to the white bookcase and drags her finger over the dust ridden edges. Leaving an indent in the dust behind her.She looks at her finger in disgust and then proceeds to glance up at the books in admiration. Using the same finger, she cresses the spines of the books, before coming to a stop when Arnold appears, rubbing off the dust , she pulls out the book. A violent buzz comes from the bulb in the centre of the room and her head turns in confusion. The light flickers and turns cold, she shivers as the temperature drops.

INT. LIVING ROOM - DUSK

With a cherishing touch, Emma opens up the front cover of the book to see the age stained pages. As her mind reminisces to memories of her grandfather, the screen dissolves to a black and white shot of her laying in bed, listening to her grandfather reading bedtime stories. The screen then jump-cuts to Emma day-dreaming into the book. Using the same dust covered finger, Emma continues to flick through the yellow pages of the book, until she comes across a mangled page. With confusion in her face, she inspects the book more until a creased note falls onto the floor and the camera follows it to the floor.

INSERT - The Note

" Within this book lies,

The clues to all of the family ties,

To all the secrets we hide,

And how the past has died.

In the loft you will find,

That our family secrets are one of a kind."

INT. LIVING ROOM- DUSK

Emma V.O

"What does this mean?"

Genre Theory

Genre Theory

A film genre is a motion picture category based on similarities in either the emotional response to the film (namely, tragic, comic, etc.) or the narrative elements. Most theories of film genre are borrowed from the literary world. The basic genres include fiction and documentary, from which subgenres have emerged, such as docudrama. Other subgenres include the courtroom and trial-focused drama known as the legal drama. Types of fiction which may seem unrelated can also be combined to form hybrid subgenres, such as the melding of horror and comedy such as in the Shaun of the Dead. Other popular combinations are the romantic comedy and the action comedy film.

Steve Neale’s theory of Repetition and Difference. Steve Neale states that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference, difference is essential to the to the economy of the genre.
Neale states that the film and it’s genre is defined by two things:
How much is conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes. A film must match the genre’s conventions to be identified as part of that genre.
How much a film subverts the genre’s conventions and stereotypes. The film must subvert convention enough to be considered unique and not just a clone of an existing film.

Neale states that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two functions:
To guarantee pleasure and meaning for the audience.
Popular cinema relies on audiences finding pleasure in difference and repetition i.e. recognition of familiar elements and the way those elements are linked in an unfamiliar way or the way that unfamiliar elements might be introduced.

Genre is constituted by specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.

Moral Panic - Cohen 1972

Moral Panic ; Cohen 1972

Moral Panic occurs when someone or something is defined by the media as a threat to the values or interests of society.

The key moral panic theorist is Stanley Cohen. Cohen suggested in his 1972 book ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’ that a moral panic occurs when “condition, episode, person or group of people emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”.

Stanley Cohen believes the media play an important role in enforcing moral panic, even by just reporting the news.

In Cohen’s view the media overreact or sensationalise aspects of behaviour which challenge social norms. The media’s representation therefore then helps to define it, which can then lead to outsiders adopting and observing the behaviour based on the model they see in the media. The moral panic depicted by the media fuels further unacceptable behaviour.
I
n extreme cases moral panic creates mass hysteria within society. The general public start to believe whatever is being reported on is occurring everywhere in society.

Cohen defined his five stages of moral panic as:

1. Something or someone is defined as a threat to values or interests

2. This threat is depicted in an easily recognisable form by the media

3. There is a rapid build-up of public concern

4. There is a response from authorities or opinion makers

5. The panic recedes or results in social changes