Evaluation

My Evaluation

For my evaluation, I will be discussing the process of making my short film. I will be going through the creative development of my ideas, inspired by the set short films, my screenplay and my story board.  

  A lot of my first ideas were quite demanding considering the budget, location or time we had to complete the work.

One of my first ideas was about a girl who would dream of the ideal life she wanted. That life would be considered plain, ordinary, mundane and therefore boring to the audience. But she wanted that lifestyle because she was homeless and living on the streets. I soon realised that location, props and cast would be really difficult to use not only correctly, but effectively. So after a lot of deliberation, I decided not to make my own short film but to just write a screenplay as I was also spending my time making a music video and because I enjoyed the skill of writing a script/screenplay and wanted to explore and improve.

Here is an example of the start of a screenplay we wrote in small groups, that’s based on a folk legend called ‘The Vanishing Hitchhiker.’ This was the first draft of the screenplay that was two or three pages long.

We also created a character, generating a random name and age to practice the techniques of introducing characters.  

  Filming or editing was something I was learning to do elsewhere so I wanted to focus on a different skill. I also decided to keep my cast to one or two people maximum, with settings being easy to find and use for my storyboard. The rest of my ideas I gave to other peers to work with and adapt to their own personal preference or style.

  My final idea is based around a girl who has seen someone die. We watch her live after this event and soon learn that she knew this person. We continue to see her take part in basic everyday activities to then find out she was in a relationship with the victim and then that she was the one who killed him. My aim was to create a suspenseful short film full of enigma until the end, with slight hints along the way

A lot of the shots are uncomfortably drawn out in duration, to make it almost unbearable for the audience to watch, used as a representation of the psychological effects the protagonist is having after committing this murder.

  

  I used my film blog page to present the short films we watched and comment on them, the techniques I liked and what inspired my ideas. The film I rated the highest was The Arrival (Daniel Montanarini, 2016) as I really enjoyed its features, such as the internal monologue used as narration. I played around with this idea and decided to use it in a similar way. There is dialogue in my short film but is mostly off screen and muffled to contrast with the narration. My protagonist, Claudia, only begins to speak after she’s written in her diary, the idea being that she is reading her entry aloud so the audience can gather relevant information to pair with the visuals. The Arrival has returning themes, like the coffee order, which is something I used to create emphasis on certain items, like the ring, or locations. I also used a cyclical narrative so it starts and ends in the same place.

Something I disliked about this film was the cliff hanger in it. The audience is automatically aligned with her character after listening to her internal thoughts so not being able to see how the conversation turns out is really frustrating however, I used this feature in my own short film so the audience never finds out what happens to our protagonist.

  I think that my idea is pretty good, it actually would’ve been interesting to see what it would’ve looked like as a short film rather than just a screenplay and a storyboard. I like the darker tones with the added enigma and uncomforting nature throughout. I also really liked the feature of not seeing her face until the very end. Her character is conflicting for the audience as they’re aligned with her because they can hear her internal thoughts but can’t see her face, as well as watching her life to then find out she’s heartbroken and been hurt, which can be easily empathised or sympathised with, but it causes her to go to the extremes of murder.

  Micro-elements that I used within my screenplay to help with the aim of my short film were, naturalistic sound to create a genuine atmosphere for the audience to relate to, the use of long duration shots to draw out the tension until it becomes uncomfortable, a lot of dark lighting in combination with the protagonist’s face being concealed to prevent audiences from being in any sort of a privileged position/perspective.

  Personally, what I think I could’ve improved on was my storyboard because I don’t think I spent enough time really planning out what I wanted to see and the angles used. I think if I had put in that time, there would’ve been a variety of shots that would’ve been constructed better to be more effective.  

What I found most difficult was filling the gaps between the catalysts of the piece. I knew how it started, I knew the moment the audience find out they’re together and that she murdered him but I didn’t know what to put in between. I spent a lot of time writing and rewriting those parts because I felt like they either didn’t fit or were irrelevant or just weren’t as good as I wanted them to be.

Overall, this process was also really enjoyable as I got to learn and pick up a new skill of writing a screenplay.