Evaluative Analysis

Narrative structure 

‘The Wrong Trousers’ (Park, UK, 1993) uses a traditional three act structure. For my film, although it’s only five minutes long, I wanted to have at least some form of a three act structure, even if each act isn’t very long. The acts of my film go as follows: Jack is established to not care about school and be going through the motions; Jack has an argument with his mother; Jack talks to Tyler (a figment of his imagination) about his passions and what he really wants to do with his life to gain motivation.

Easily the most strange short film that I watched before making my own was ‘The Grandmother’ (Lynch, US, 1970). The narrative of this film can best be described as surrealistic, where the plot is fairly difficult to decipher in just one viewing. I definitely found it interesting, but I found myself not fully understanding the characters and setting to the point where I didn’t care as much about the characters as I feel I should have. For me, ‘The Grandmother’ gets away with this by having a long enough runtime and aesthetic that it works. However, I knew after watching this film that characters as stripped back and undefined as this wasn’t something I could get away with in just five minutes. As a result, I knew that what I needed to do was write a story in which the main character is established in the first act of the film.

‘High Maintenance’ (Van, Germany, 2006) has a narrative where we are lead to believe that the main woman character is a real person, but it’s revealed at the end that she was also a robot when she is turned off. For my film, I wanted the film to end on a reveal that changes the way in which you view a particular character. In my film, you are meant to believe that Tyler is a real person that Jack is talking to. At the end of the film, the true nature of Tyler is revealed as he disappears, and it’s implied that Jack came up with Tyler as a way to help himself to believe in himself.

I knew from an early stage that I wanted my film to be grounded in reality, and one short film that gave me a good idea on how to do that was ‘Wasp’ (Arnold, UK, 2003). This film has a linear structure, where everything that’s shown is shown in a chronological order. This makes it so that it feels more like we are following the characters naturally as opposed to interacting with them and the story in a more unrealistic manner. The main thing I took from ‘Wasp’ in terms of its narrative structure is that my film should also include a linear structure, where everything happens in order. The final result is that my short film feels more grounded in reality as a result.

Cinematic influences

I didn’t want the title of the film at the beginning to be put over a black screen with nothing else on screen. This meant that I knew I wanted for there to be an opening shot which could also feature the title of the film within that shot. Of the short films that I’ve seen, none of them open on a shot of that kind of nature. Instead, I found that the best thing to do would be to just take inspiration for a general establishing shot to open the film with, but then film that shot in such a way that there’s room to put the title in it. The film ‘About a Girl’ (Percival, UK, 2001) opens with a shot of the girl dancing outside, establishing the location in which the majority of the film takes place in. I felt this would be something good to open up my film with. Thus, I decided to start my film with a shot looking up towards the sky though the trees, establishing the location for the final scene of my film. However, I framed this shot in such a way where I could get two separate areas between the trees where I could put in my title cards, so that I could do what I had originally envisioned for my film.

In the short film ‘Connect’ (Abrahams, UK, 2010) the music in the film is used as a method to showcase the change in the main character’s world view before and after a positive experience. When she has her headphones on (diegetic score), she views the things around her negatively. After she has a positive experience with a stranger on the bus, the score switches to being non-diegetic and the other passengers break out into a dance routine. For my film, I wanted the change in Jack’s perspective on his life and future to be represented by the music at the beginning and end respectively. Where my film is different, is that the music is non-diegetic in both cases. The opening features the song ‘Daydreaming’ by Radiohead, a very sombre song which sounds very floaty and aimless, similar to how Jack is going through the motions in his life without caring about it. The film ends off with the song ‘Resonance’ by HOME. The major reason for me using this particular song is its chord progression, which is specifically designed to feel almost nostalgic, while also looking towards the future. I find this fits really well for the conclusion to Jacks character arc, as his outlook changes to being hopeful for what his future holds for him.

My favourite ending from all of the short films that I watched was from ‘About a Girl’ (Percival, UK, 2001). This film ends with the girl throwing her baby into a river. What follows is a final shot of the river from above, which gives the audience some time to reflect on what was just revealed. This shot also puts extra emphasis onto the river as what is normally just viewed as a normal part of the environment is portrayed as having a deeper story hidden within it. This singular closing shot had such an impact on me that I knew I wanted to end my film on a final shot which has deeper intentions/ meaning when you look a bit more into it. My film ends on a shot of the rural landscape with the sun starting to set, with this actually being a point-of-view shot from Jacks perspective. The idea behind the shot is that it’s Jack looking toward the end of the day, and with that a new day will begin. Jacks change in his outlook on his life is shown through this, as the change to a new day is representative of a change in Jacks attitude towards his future.

Probably one of the most important aspects of my film that I had to think about when making it was how I was going to establish the main character, Jack. In the short film About a Girl’ (Percival, UK, 2001), the main character is established through both the story of her life which she is telling as well as the visuals of what she typically does with her spare time. Of these two methods of establishing the main character, I took more inspiration from the visual side of it. The start of my film showcases what how uninterested Jack appears to be in his life, from making his morning coffee to his reaction to getting his maths paper back to him. This opening establishes that Jack is just going through the daily motions, while not caring about any of it. Furthermore, it establishes the main cause of conflict in the film, that being the maths test which he did poorly on, that leads to the argument with his mum in the following scene.

Creating meaning and effect

I have a personal bias towards films which have positive conclusions, just because I mostly prefer to have gained a more positive and hopeful overall outlook on certain aspects of life after watching a film than a more negative/ cynical one. For me, the film ‘Connect’ (Abrahams, UK, 2010), perfectly embodies this kind of positivity. I particularly resonated with how such a small incident in someones day can have such a profound and important change in their view on the world. This led me to want to make sure that my film would also have this kind of an effect from watching it, where just trying to find yourself, as cheesy as it sounds, can potentially have such a massive impact on your life. As a result, my film also goes from the main character feeling disillusioned and cynical to happy and hopeful.

The short film ‘Wasp’ (Arnold, UK, 2003) has characters which feel very grounded within reality, with everyone acting naturally towards each other. The effect that this film has as a result is that the characters, story and setting all feel believable. The main way in which the film achieves this is through its use of natural dialogue/ conversations between the characters. I knew that I wanted the characters in my short film to also feel believable and grounded in reality. I felt the best way to do this would be by taking inspiration from the natural character interactions in ‘Wasp’. I tried to make it so that the characters in my film all interacted in a way that felt believable. For the argument between Jack and his mum, I made it so that his mum clearly has the authority in the scene. With Jack and Tyler, however, I wrote the scene so that it felt more easy going and well-flowing, as in essence Jack is basically talking to himself. Even for the stranger at the very end of the film, I wanted his line of dialogue to feel as natural as possible. I ended up going with the line “Are you talking to me?” as opposed to “Who are you talking to?”, as I feel that the latter doesn’t sound quite as realistic as the former. This is a detail that was easier to spot and change as a consequence of watching ‘Wasp’, as it made me think more about how the dialogue comes across in the film.