Evaluation:

Aims and context:
The aims and context must be made clear. Aim of the extract/short film and the context of the production


A creative product (a short film or film extract) (45 marks):This is a film extract or a complete short film (3-5 minutes) which engages with the issues raised in the production of meaning and the study of film stylistics and theory


And a reflective analysis (15 marks including aims and context):
The reflective analysis should select key features of the creative product and reflect critically on both the creative process and the product

Figure 1

My Film Studies coursework consisted of the pre-production, production and post-production of a short film which consisted of me researching my chosen genre’s conventions, planning my product, highlighting what I wanted to achieve and then creating the product using what I had learnt in pre-production. I decided to work alone, giving myself the role of director, cinematographer and editor, however, I chose actors to play the parts of my characters. All of my work was placed on a blog, using Blogger; the URL of which is www.arronbassfilm.blogspot.com,  My aim was to turn the audience into voyeur-spectators, placing them in the shoes of antagonist, subjecting them to a particular point of view. In addition to this, I also aimed to use stylistics of the psychological thriller genre, and to put the audience in to a state of suspense, through restricting the narrative, in this instance by restricting the audience from seeing whose eyes they’re looking through (the antagonist) creating a mystery which is slowly resolved through the flashback sequences.

                         I began my project by first outlining my genre (psychological thriller) and narrative style (The Spider and The Fly (in which the antagonist would prey on the protagonist by setting a trap for her, through a series of intricately designed events). After this, I began researching my chosen genre, looking for key features and the conventional macro features which would need to be found in my film. The narrative, I found, was often non-linear, either starting at the end, or ending at the beginning, or featuring flashback sequences. For example, ‘Memento’ (Christopher Nolan, 2001, US), a psychological thriller, begins at the end and continues to reveal the narrative backwards, with black & white scenes intercut between the colour scenes, which take place in the past. The film eventually ends at the beginning. I opted to use flashbacks in my short film, making a linear narrative with non-linear features (so to conform to the conventions of the chosen genre), such as flashbacks; creating a sepia look in post-production to allow my audience to recognise that it wasn’t in present time (see figure 1). I also found that a narrative feature of the psychological thriller was the preying of men on women, the outcome usually being the death of the female protagonist. This allowed me to define my characters as a male antagonist and female protagonist, who would eventually be killed, as the conventions called for this conclusion. The antagonist usually has sexual motives, however, I found this subject uncomfortable to deal with, and so the motive of my killer, who is psychotic, is to merely take revenge on a former lover, which is found in some psychological thrillers. The madness is his motivation, rather than sexual motivation. My narrative consists of a female college student walking home through a forest, a shortcut, only to be hunted down by her ex-lover. The realistic setting and back-story gives the feeling of the possible, striking fear in to the audience as this could easily, hypothetically, happen to them. It became apparent that voyeurism was a large theme found in psychological thrillers, created through the use of cinematography. This is especially found in Alfred Hitchcock films (Psycho, 1960, USA, for example, in which the use of POV shots place the audience as the voyeur director, looking through the eyes of the killer). To achieve this voyeuristic feel, I used extreme long-shots and pans, the latter mimicking the movement of the head as the protagonist walks by, as well as adding the diegetic sound of heavy breathing which would enhance the voyeurism.

Figure 2

I aimed to create an alignment with the protagonist, who is represented through the antagonist’s point of view, by making the audience feel worried for her. This preferred reading is seen throughout my short film, as the restricted narrative means that we are bothered about someone watching her from a distance. Towards the end of my film this preferred reading changes, as I want the audience, when she is about to be killed, to be distanced from her. This is shown through cinematography and mise en scene, with the pan to a low angled medium close-up of the antagonist taking our attention from Holly’s distressed body language. Furthermore, the usage of a cut edit, to an extreme long-shot creates distance between the audience and the two characters, making what the antagonist does less shocking. However, audience feedback contradicts this aim, with one audience member, who was filmed in an interview, said “especially when she was killed, I was absolutely gutted for her, because it just wasn’t what I expected at all”. I decided to distance the audience from Holly, after the revelation that she broke his heart, to create a negotiated reading. The audience would have to choose their alignment; having to negotiate the morality of John, the antagonist, being violent towards Holly and the morality of Holly breaking John’s heart because “it just isn’t working” – the only reason given in the narrative, with no mentioning of domestic violence beforehand. My narrative style, as aforementioned, consisted of a linear structure interrupted by brief flashbacks. Was it successful? I believe so. I say this because one setting, the present day, was set entirely in the woods, where the antagonist would stalk Holly, the protagonist. I chose a forestry setting because it is secluded, connoting that the protagonist will not easily escape the antagonist, but it is also a setting which features in the audience’s everyday lives, as the location I filmed at was just down the road from me, making the setting very real for the audience, and therefore very scary. However, conventionally the protagonist and the antagonist would have had a previous love encounter, so taking note of this, it became obvious that the past needed to be brought up in order for the present to clearly make sense. However, at some points in the film, the narrative doesn’t convey itself clearly to the audience, such as at 00:02:00 where Holly sits down, she is supposedly disorientated by the finding of her keys (shown through the use of slow-motion) but audience feedback, in the form of a filmed interview, has revealed that it is unclear as to why she sits down, with one audience member stating “yeah it did get unclear, like, when she was sitting down against a tree; I didn’t quite understand why and what effect it was meant to have”, when asked if the narrative became unclear at any point. In addition, the climax where she is sat down again, following another flashback, was intended to show that she had given up, she was being submissive. However, some audience feedback suggests that this wasn’t made clear enough, stating on a feedback form “she (referring to Holly) sits down twice, randomly, and I didn’t know why”; although some understood this, the majority of the target audience had guessed this conclusion, such as another audience member on a feedback form who stated “she sat down at the end but I’m guessing she was giving herself up”. With a passive audience in mind, rather than an active audience, it is clear that these plot holes needed to be made clear, perhaps through re-shoots, which simply wasn’t a possibility. Overall, however, I believe the narrative flows nicely with props being found in the mise en scene triggering a flashback to John and Holly’s relationship and the significance of that item to the relationship. A cause and effect pattern. This brings up another narrative flaw, which, when taking audience feedback, didn’t come up. The items found in the forest, by the protagonist, were intended to be placed by the antagonist, as he planned to lead her where he wanted her, whilst also bringing back memories of the two together. However, I believe that this is not obvious enough to the audience. The audience, however, did seem unaware that they were looking through the eyes of the antagonist, at the beginning. I showed Holly walking in to the forest, through a POV shot, but even with the diegetic sound of heavy breathing, the audience took a little while to realise it was a POV shot. Taking this in to account, I don’t possibly know how I could have made it more obvious, without physically showing the antagonist first, something which I didn’t want to do. As the camera pans to follow her, the heavy breathing getting deeper, Holly goes from a clearing in to thick forestry, obscuring the view of the voyeur-director audience (see Figure 2). This connotes that she is getting tangled in a web, a trap set by the antagonist, and is a metaphor as the person who is laying the web (the trap) is the spider, the antagonist, and the prey gets caught up in the web; in this case Holly is the fly. This refers back to the narrative style of my film – ‘the spider and the fly’.

Figure 3

I initially aimed to use lots of quick-cut edits, but decided to change this aim and use lengthy shots, to create suspense. My other aims, such as turning the audience in to voyeur-spectators were successful, in my opinion. The use of extreme long shots and the protagonist looking in the direction of the camera at the hearing of a branch snapping, coupled with the diegetic sound of heavy breathing, turn these shots in to POV shots, and because most of the short film is shot through the antagonist’s POV, the audience become complicit and are forced in to the particular viewpoint of the antagonist. The first scene in which the antagonist is shown is near the end, after a series of match-cut on actions with Dutch angles (see Figure 3), connoting that Holly is disorientated. She is disorientated because she doesn’t know why she’s finding her possessions in the forest, which constantly remind her of John, the antagonist, and her ex-boyfriend. When she comes out of the thick forestry, the Dutch angles are juxtaposed with a steady over-the-shoulder shot, with the antagonist in the background. The narrative is restricted, as the audience only know what Holly knows, which isn’t a lot as she is confused and scared. So, when the audience are finally shown the antagonist, we ask ourselves questions; who is he? What is he doing there? What are his intentions? However, if the audience was to look further in to the semiotic landscape, they would realise that the character in the distance is the antagonist, due to the dubbed in diegetic sound of an eagle, which connotes that he is a predator; Holly being the prey. This particular feature was influenced by ‘Psycho’, were there is an eagle constantly looking over Norman’s shoulder, in an attacking pose, before he kills Marion. The diegetic sound of an eagle, in my short film, was simply an aesthetic choice to show that the male in the distance isn’t a saviour, but an antagonist. The eagle was also influenced from the final scene in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, in which an eagle can be heard during the final duel in the Western.



Figure 4

                        My main aim was to create suspense, a convention of a psychological thriller. I believe I achieved this aim, with 20% of my target audience stating, through digital feedback forms, that the film was “very suspenseful” and 60% thinking it was “suspenseful”. Furthermore, 30% said they were scared (with 40% saying they were a “little scared”). The horror aspect, according to my audience feedback, came from the final scene (see Figure 4), as they didn’t expect the protagonist to die, and ultimately shocked and frightened them. It became obvious that some re-shoots had to be done, to clarify parts of the narrative in certain parts. However, this could not be achieved because I shot my footage in autumn, and a week later the leaves were gone and snow covered the ground. I decided to leave my film as it was, as I liked it, although some narrative clarification was needed, continuity was much more important. My locations, however, were perfect. I believe I got the setting and mise en scene just right as prior to the main shooting schedule, I went to possible locations, taking photographs and linking them to my narrative and the micro features that I wanted to use; creating dutch angles (the final dutch angle was inspired by this image, taken from 'The Blair Witch Project', Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez, 1999,US) to see if they looked good, for example. Furthermore, the post-production went smoothly for the simple fact that I had made a storyboard and animatic, which helped me to put together the pieces of my short film. The pre-production phase made my post-production work much easier. Another of my aims was to use the stylistics and conventions of the psychological thriller genre, which included extreme long-shots and POV shots, both of which played a large role in my short film, as the point of view of the antagonist was key to creating suspense, another of my aims, and the extreme long-shots put distance between the audience and the protagonist, creating the impression that the audience, as voyeur-spectators, were stalking the protagonist; following her and looking at her when we shouldn’t be.

                It appears, from audience feedback such as digital feedback forms, print feedback forms and video feedback interviews, that my film was enjoyable to watch. The audience were interpolated into the film, with them wanting to know what would happen to the characters, and what would happen at the narrative resolution. I am very happy with the finished product, as I believe it fulfils the majority of its aims, minus the usage of quick-cut editing which I later decided not to widely use. However, I am aware that some shots look shaky, as some were hand-held tracking shots, for example, making it difficult to focus on the protagonist who is running. Unfortunately, as previously stated, re-shoots could not be done, due to the seasonal changes which would disrupt continuity.

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