13. Evaluation

Representation: 

I have created a short film showing the contrasting lives between that of a wealthy individual, and someone much worse off. In order to portray to the audience the severe differences between my two characters, I made use of the microelements of film form. The setting is the most prominent part of mise-en-scene that helps me show the difference between their lives. With one waking up in a horrible, abandoned building, and the other in a warm looking double bed, it is instantly clear that they are two very different people.  

 

In a similar way to this, I have used costume to put one character in a clearly more privileged position (by wearing a suit) whereas the poor homeless man is wearing scruffy looking, dirty clothes. In one part of the film, I attempted to use both props, and character expression to show the more specific differences between their lives, the rich man had to drink tap water as he had run out of juice and was clearly not pleased with it. I then cut to the homeless man, who was happily drinking from a dirty crumpled up water bottle. The fact that he is happy to drink from this goes to show how much he appreciates everything in life, unlike the wealthier man. 

I used some aspects of cinematography in order to help give meaning to my film. I have used pull focus at times, this enabled me to dictate to audiences what they should be focusing on and when. For example, when the homeless man leaves the building, the focus changes onto the water bottle that he drank out of, showing the dirt down the side of it. If it wasn’t for this then the audience may not have noticed and would think it was normal water. I also use the focusing technique elsewhere in the film, as Martin (the rich man) tells the poor man (Dan) that he doesn’t like him, Martin then walks forwards out of focus, putting the audience on Dan’s side. When filming the sections with the poor man in, since I want the audience to sympathise with him, I use a lot of close-ups to show off his facial expressions. This was used in a similar way in the short film Echo, to make the viewer feel bad for the main character whilst she is on the phone, showing the sheer emotion on her face. 

Interesting transitions to keep the audience captivated as I did not want to lose their concentration before the film is over. Another piece of editing that helps with the representation of the characters is the time between cuts when we are with Dan, the cuts last for longer, unlike the very short shots with Martin. The reason for this is that I want the audience to be more on Dan’s side. Invisible cuts show how the situation between the boys may well be drastic, but at any point, situations can change.  

The most prominent part of the sound in my short film is the non-diegetic music in the background. There is a clear difference in the music in the background whilst we are with each different character. When we are seeing the homeless man, the music is actually quite happy despite his situation, this was to show how he is a happy soul, unlike Martin, who has relatively serious music that, along with his constant straight face, shows the audience that he is not an overly nice person.  

Genre:   

The genre in my short film quite easily identifies as a drama. This is because it focuses on two realistic characters and their stories. There is no action or comedy in it, it is relatively serious, which was a challenge when making it due to acting quality. I have used different microelements to help present this film as a drama, for example, with the cinematography, I used over the shoulder shots to show the point of view of the different characters, helping show both sides of the story, the short film Slap uses the exact same over the shoulder technique, for example, when he is looking in the mirror. 

 

 This genre conforms to the norms of many short film dramas, for example, other than the invisible cuts, the editing is simple, this makes it seem like a real, unobstructed view of the characters' lives. Dialogue is also a key aspect of a drama, there is not a huge amount in my film but the dialogue between the two characters at the bus stop is filmed in a similar way to the conversation in the kebab shop of The Ellington Kid in the way that it is shot: 

 

Narrative: 

The narrative in my short film does not quite conform to that of a conventional drama, this is due to its slightly non-linear structure in the first few minutes; I cut between the morning routines of the two characters, which are happening at the same time. This does, however, become more linear later once their paths cross. Another film with a non-linear narrative that I took inspiration from is Over which actually goes backwards in time throughout. My class and I were impressed by this technique and it stuck with me while developing this idea. One contemporary narrative technique that I do make use of is the Kuleshov effect, this is where you show a character's expression and then cut to an image which helps the audience know what they are feeling. An example in my short film is where we see a sad expression on Dan’s face, and then cut to a shot of him with very little money, and the jigsaw that he wants in the background; the audience can put these two together and know that he is upset that he cannot afford the jigsaw. 

 

The Kuleshov effect is used also in many of the short films that we have studied. The film which does it best, in my opinion, is Tight jeans. It has a shot of the three friends all looking over, seemingly quite confused, the next shot is clearly focused on a man walking past. We can put these two shots together and take away that they are confused about something that the man is doing or wearing. 

 

Binary opposites are a key feature in my film that helped drive the narrative forward. The whole story is about a rich man, and a homeless man, this is a very conventional narrative, where two opposing situations meet, and plots develop accordingly. For example, the strength associated with boxing and the softness linked to cross-dressing in Slap, and the aggression of an armed robbery alongside a single fly in The Fly. 

Audience: 

The target audience for this film is other A-level students as, apart from a few exceptions, they are the only ones who would even consider the proposition of a short film created by myself. The main aim of this short film is simply just to entertain, in order to try to make it entertaining, I used certain micro-elements. For example, I used quite an extreme setting, an abandoned farmhouse, with graffiti everywhere, in order to make the audience engage with how horrible the homeless man’s situation really is. This is a lot more interesting than just sitting on a normal street corner and adds an extra element of entertainment. 

I make use of editing to make the short film a little more interesting as well when cutting from one character to another, I use different transitions to add an extra touch, for example, an invisible cut when a character walks past the camera.  

The preferred reading for an audience to take away from this is that they should not judge people by their financial, or social situation, and support the homeless man, however some may take the oppositional reading and, despite knowing what I was attempting to do, have an opposite opinion, in this case, preferring the character Martin. I think that an oppositional reading would be unlikely, however, due to certain elements, for example, character expression. The expression on Dan’s face in certain situations is what I think will make the audience side with him, for example, that he is not overly concerned by drinking water from a dirty bottle, which heavily juxtaposes Martins annoyance for having to drink tap water, instead of juice. Similar to target audiences of Slap, Tight Jeans and Echo, this 15-18 demographic is old enough to understand the story, but also make their own readings whether my preferred or indeed their own negotiated readings. If a spectator can go away and make one positive contribution towards homelessness, then that is great. My own class went further when watching Over, by researching the real-life story that it is based on, and several were saddened by the man's situation. This engagement was through no dialogue, let alone actually seeing the man himself, just the effect on the neighbourhood that he was found in. The filmmaker was able to do this well and it led me to want to do something similar with my film.