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s0023061a2filmstudies · 6 years

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Evaluation

Also looking at my planning and research for my short film, I have used each planning post and section carefully so I am aware of how I want my film to look. Even from planning out my initial idea and developing off of that. At the start I knew I wanted to create a Christmas themes film but I wasn’t sure how I would tackle the film in the sense of creating a Marshall themed film following the aspects of Christmas, even though he never made one based on Christmas. I think whilst I was planning and conducting research for my short film I was able to see how I wanted my film to look, through cast, location and I think I stuck to my plan and even though I went against some of my original ideas or plans I think the decision not to include something in my final product worked out better than I was expecting. For example I didn’t end up following my script exactly because when looking back over it and having my product in front of me with small adjustments and additions left I knew that certain parts such as my voice-over wouldn’t work and I chose to use different music rather than the same song throughout to allow for the idea of time changing in the film. Though I went against my own script and plan, I think that I have created a great end product that works better without the original plans and ideas that I could have added.

Garry Marshall is seen as an auteur in his field of work. And I can concur that I agree that his is the auteur of his work because he takes every single part of the films creation under his wing, he is apart of it all from direction to editing, he is involves with it all and I whilst I was creating my film, I would class myself as the auteur of my film because like Andrew Sarris says, “The first premise of an auteur is the technical competence of the director”, andI follow all his auteur theories because I created the film, wrote it, directed it, starred in it and then edited it. I am the most credited person working on the film and apart from the cast I am the only person working on the film in all fields. Having studied the art of known auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock, I am able to see what it takes for someone to be classed as an auteur and how many directors in the past have based their whole career off of trying to be seen as an auteur.

Looking at my short film I don’t think my camerawork, matched my genre or idea and theme of Christmas in my film. Within my short film I used different shots from over the shoulder two shots to wide shots coming together with medium shots through the use of zoom and character placement. The most shots used in my film is from the opening montage sequence because I was able to experiment with shot types and techniques to blend the different shots and scenes together.

In the opening scene one of the shots uses two different track shots, a track across (left) blended into another shot followed by a track down blackout fade through the floor and continued all the way down. In this montage there are four clips merged with two shots, over the shoulder shots, point of view shots, wide shots, close ups, and tracks. Merging these clips wasn’t particularly hard the hard part was having to create each clip separately and then line them all up perfectly to match the music and create the right overall tone of the film.

The triple track shot is inspired by my focal film and auteur theory investigation on Garry Marshall. He uses similar shots, especially tracks to help create the blending technique of two storylines coming together. Looking at the work of Garry Marshall and what made his signature style his, I have studied his techniques within my three focal films and used that to portray within my short film. For example I have looked at Marshall’s use of montage sequences in my three focal films and using this style and method I have used a similar method at the start of my short film in the first 40 seconds allowing my audience to link Marshalls work to montages both in the opening scenes and closing scenes of his film. I used my montage at the start of my short film and Marshall has only done this once. Between the two dual narratives I have used a cross cut on half of the clip with the dialogue moving across into the new clip so we (as the audience) can see the reality of what they are talking about, even though the characters don’t know the truth about their granddaughter, they seem to have expectations of her live, as if she is successful and forgotten about them when in reality she is trying her best to get back home.

My film conforms to appropriate mise-en-scene in the topic and genre theme of this film. With my film being based on Christmas, it was important that I conveyed this idea and feeling in the film by using appropriate mise-en-scene. In all of the main sequence shots there is a reference to Christmas, through outfits and props and set. Doing this was necessary because I was able to see imply this theme and idea of Christmas in my video to my audience.

Doing this is a generic code of making something within the scene relatable for the video. I wanted my audience to understand the basis of the film just through the mise-en-scene in every shot.

Conventions of genre and narrative are often created through the mise-en-scene and the codes of that genre are created and portrayed through the mise-en-scene and I think that in my film that is clear because I am portraying a Christmas film and the mise-en-scene through the shots help carry that ideology and narrative of Christmas. I do this with the use of Christmas trees, stockings, mini Santa’s, fire place and Christmas films on TV, which is post modern because I am referring to another media text of the same format as what I am creating.

Creating the narrative of the homeless women and making sure her mise-en-scene matched the scenario and time period was hard especially filming it so far after the time the film is set, which is Christmas. I wanted to make myself look homeless in the scenes by dressing like I was homeless and using make up to make my face and hands look dirty as if I have been living on the streets for a while. Doing this created the idea what this character is homeless and has been for a while, I want my audience to know this about her and see the desperation in her. This is also done through the cinematography; I have used different shot styles whilst filming the scenes for the homeless narrative. During these shots the character is dressed in all black, because the colour black gives off the connotations of death, depression, sad, lonely, isolated, having these connotations be portrayed alongside a bright happy narrative from my happy family at Christmas, creates a huge juxtaposition in the film.

As you can from the images above, the character of the young homeless women fits the idea of someone who is homeless; they look dirty and sad, laid down on the side of street or railway, which is typical of a homeless person. And the sign that she is laid behind/ next to, is very typical of homeless people especially in America, which is were she is located and the sing links back to the idea of the dual narrative because she is trying to get home to her family.

The sound in my video is mainly diegetic with snippets of dialogue about a minute in between the two main characters of my film. There are only three main scenes with scripted dialogue between my characters and they stuck to their lines. Some of them weren’t in the scripted correct order, mainly during the scene where the whole family arrives at the grandparent’s house. This part was hard to film as there were many lines and though they were said fluently and almost as if they weren’t scripted, not all of them were in the right order and lines were adlibbed in. But overall the dialogue in the film worked. The majority of the film has non-diegetic sound at the start it opens with the intro of the song “A Spaceman Came Travelling” and you hear that throughout the film. It cuts off at then end of the opening scene to allow for the dialogue to be presented prominently and then picks up again before the main family arrives, which it then cuts again. The next set of dialogue sounds is a guitar instrumental of the classic Christmas song “Holy Night”, which is behind the ambient sounds of laughter and a fire place, creating that Christmas feel.

During the dual narrative split, the diegetic sounds are extremely different. In one we have a happy dinner setting full of love and laughter and then it cuts to the next scene and we see a young homeless girl, and hear the diegetic sounds of New York City and the trains and loud city sounds. The two differences helps play out the narrative and how the family is split and in two very different situations. In the last few scenes when my homeless character is finally returning home to family, there is no added in sound, all you hear is the ambient sound of the birds chirping and the reason I didn’t add any sound in because I felt like the end of the video was the most important bit and I wanted it to feel very real, because in real life there isn’t any added sound and I wanted the audience to feel that when they’re watching it, almost like they’re there.

Garry Marshall influences the editing of the short film, from the three focal films that I have studied to help me create this short film. Especially through the montage scene and the dual narrative throughout the film. Without his skill in his films, I wouldn’t have been able to replicate his film and the level of his work without studying his work in depth. I have looked at his style and wanted to have a part of his style in my film since h was the inspiration. In the short film the opening montage is made up of four different clips and I have merged them all together so all four clips are playing at the same time during the opening scene, each one starting slightly after another.

Through the use of fades I was able to stagger the starting of each slip, not by much but you see them all start at a different point. I have used fades and cross cuts to help portray the dual narrative; the first cross dissolve fade is seen after the second set of dialogue between my elderly couple, there dialogue continues into the next clip because they’re questioning what their granddaughter is doing.

I have a strong use of fades in my film because that is how I have changed between my two narratives. Within my film I have two eye-line matches feature in the film, the first one is in the scene where a women passing the young homeless women asks if she is okay, we see this exchange happen from the passing women’s point of view. The second eye-line match occurs when she is looking at her house, she is stood in front of the house gazing up at it, symbolising she is finally home.

Also within my film I feature a match on action of my character opening up the front gate of her house. I used this shot to show that is she is finally home; I wanted to represent this by emphasising the fact she is home. She finally is back with her family; she doesn’t have to be scared anymore. The shot is almost like she is opening the door to her old but new life where she doesn’t have to be scared anymore.

My film fits into the romantic drama hybrid because the film is based around an old couple that are alone at Christmas and their family coming to see them. Though this isn’t a typical film romance it’s the love of family and how family is the most important aspect of life and it is some of the characters method of survival. The film is part drama as well because the film is dramatic and heart-felt in the way it explores the two lives of one family, the high expectations they have of their granddaughter and the reality of her life. The film explores the life of a young homeless women and the themes binary opposition between shelter/ love and homelessness.

The Two images above are what creates my dual narrative and the binary opposition in the film. We see a happy family and then a sad, young women who

is homeless and alone. I wanted to explore this in the film by having the dual narrative, which I didn’t originally plan on carrying this out throughout the film but after audience feedback from my potential target audience I looked into furthering another one my opening sequence narratives. With my film being based off of Garry Marshall’s work in his later career I looked back on early drafts and knew I needed to add in more of a dual narrative to make it relate to his style and film concepts. Narrative was very important for my film because I was basing my film off of the work of Garry Marshall and his is known for his classic dual narrative films. The opening montage scene is my main look and reference to Marshall’s work because he was known in Hollywood for making great montage scenes that brought all his narratives together, much like a jigsaw coming together piece by piece. I think that my film does show the development of my findings from my planning and research as I have studied the auteur work of Garry Marshall and how he has used his distinctive style and how I have followed that theme and portrayed it in my work. I used my planning and research of my film and my three focal films I studied to understand how to create a multistrand narrative and even though the film wasn’t initially having a dual narrative throughout, after audience feedback I re-filmed scenes and added in new parts to create this dual narrative, which makes the idea and theme of family stronger in the film because the film is about the power of family and how no matter what and where life takes you, you can always go back home and I think this message is a lot clearer through the new added scenes. Especially with the new ending to my film as she is finally returning home to her safe and loving family.

When creating my film I wanted to represent many different aspects of peoples lives and I wanted to do this through the main two characters but as my research went one I soon released that I needed to represent more than just two characters if I wanted to portray this idea of family and the aspect of peoples lives at Christmas. That is why in my short film there is a dual narrative, which has helped me represent the idea of different aspects of peoples lives but also it has helped me create a link between my short film and the work of my focal film director Garry Marshall. I think I accomplished my original aim and initial idea for film, even though I have changed my concept and added new scenes, I think with my additions to the film my message of family comes through and stand out in the film.

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