Carl Tyler Reflective Analysis

My Film is called ‘The Flashback’ and is a drama; I liked the genre drama as I felt it held the potential for creative camera work and lighting. The film is about a woman who is thinking about her past life with her boyfriend, so the film flashbacks to show scenes of their life. However he abused her and she ended up murdering him so we discover she is in fact at his funeral. This story differs from the original pitch because in the original story a wife murdered her husband and she is standing over a fire that is burning photographs of her and her husband together; she was also in her wedding dress. This plan changed however due to health and safety and we couldn't get a wedding dress. I took the role of director, camera crew/cinematographer and casting director.

Casting

My aim as the casting director was to pick actors who I felt best suited the role, I chose my friend Toby to play the abusive boyfriend as I felt he could portray a good love interest for the start of the movie but he also had a dark quality about him which I thought worked well for the abusive part. In my original casting I cast my friend Freya as the girlfriend, I chose her because I felt that if she took her nose rings out I could style her to look really innocent and play the romantic part at the start and for the end add the nose rings and style her to look more ‘punk’ like someone who has gone through bad times. However she dropped out last minute and I needed to find someone, anyone to play the part and I landed with my other friend Rhiannon (who, considering I sprung the role on her last minute, I felt she pulled of the part really well)

Cinematography

My aim as the camera crew/cinematographer was to reveal the story in a stylized way. I used a slow panning to reveal the characters as I felt a slow reveal would allow the audience to take in what they were watching and understand the relationships and information they were given. I also used close ups to show emotion on the faces of my actors and to give narratives like the poison and the rest in peace sign. Finally I used an upwards tilt and a push in to slowly reveal the death of the boyfriend so the audience can again process what has happened and so they can collectively come to the conclusion that she murdered him. The shots of the hit I chose to do two high angle shots, one facing the girl just before the hit and the other facing the boy as he hits her. I used high angle shots so the characters are inferior to the audience and therefor the audience doesn't feel like they’re in the action and feel threatened but as if they are spectators to the action and feel powerless in helping the situation. I considered doing a POV shot from both characters points of view but decided against it as that would put the audience in the character shoes and I wanted them to remain spectators to the entire situation throughout the movie.

Sound

In regards to the sound of the movie I didn't want any speaking, just a song to carry the mood of the film along. I did this because I feel that music is better at structuring and conveying emotion than speech, unless there is a brilliant script writer of course but neither me or my partner were skilled script writers and  I didn't want bad speech to distract from the emotion of the film. I was originally going to use the song ‘Get It Right’ by Adam Anders but after creating the movie I found that the tempo of the song was too fast and didn't match the mood of the movie. The song I ended with is called ‘My Immortal’ by Evanescence, this song was better suited as it was much slower and it builds but doesn't lose the emotion behind it like I felt ‘Get It Right’ does.

(word count 693)

The Final Product

Maddy Film Analysis

Introduction

My film ‘The Flashback’ is a short drama film. It is a silent film where the main character, the girlfriend, is flashing back to distant memories with her late boyfriend. It starts of with happy memories of their time together then we see that he starts to become violent. This is when he gets poisoned by his girlfriend and dies.

When I first started this project the storyline was slightly different; the girlfriend was a wife and she was standing over a fire burning photos and her wedding dress but it was changed due to health and safety risks of having a fire and being unable to obtain a wedding dress. However I stuck with a silent movie to emphasise the emotion that the girlfriend feels throughout the film and I thought that have dialogue would not achieve this. I went for this type of drama because it is a simple yet effective storyline.

I had the role of editor, cinematographer and co-director. I worked with Carl who was co-director, cinematographer and mise-en-scene.

Camerawork

As one of my micro-features, camerawork was important for my film. I used different angle shots and zoom so that it looked like we are following the girlfriend’s feelings and reactions to her boyfriend and so the audience felt sorry for the girlfriend and relieved when the boyfriend was out of her life. I used canted angles when the girlfriend walks into the lounge and walks past her dead boyfriend, I used this angle for the scene because she walks past him like nothings wrong but the audience knows he is dead. I used close-ups of the girlfriend when she is angry reminiscing on how horrible her boyfriend was, but the audience don’t know why so they want to know more. There were no long takes in my film because I felt that the sudden change in scenery would keep the audience intrigued as to what had happened. I kept the girlfriend standing still for the master shot right up until the end where she walks away like she walking away from everything that’s happened.

Editing

When I started editing I made sure that I included every single take I did so I could look through all the bloopers and re-takes that might have something I could add to the main piece. Also I tried to make sure that some shots faded into the next one so that it didn’t look like a rough cut. Although with having to go back several times to the master shot it was often difficult to tell which ones I needed to use which took up time having to re-watch some clips to make sure they were right. Whilst editing I cut some scenes down which may have been too long to make sure that it was sudden changes throughout the film.

Sound

The music playing in the background was a significantly important part of my film. I had to find the right music that portrayed the emotion perfectly and then cut it down to fit the length of my film. The only time we see the character speak is when the boyfriend is just about to hit the girlfriend but don’t know what he says. Being a silent film helps the audience be engaged with the film because they want to know what is going through her mind right up until she kills him.

Mise-en-scene

I chose casual clothing for both the girlfriend and the boyfriend so that everything looked normal and happy between them until the murder so it is more unexpected when the rat poison jar is shown the audience but hidden from the boyfriend. The two locations used were a park and a house. The park was quiet but peaceful looking as the two characters were lying down relaxing next to each other. The house was neat and tidy and you could easily tell what room they were in. Both of these locations make it look like there is nothing wrong between them and they are happy. This re-enhances the sudden unexpected murder of the boyfriend. On the days I filmed it was good weather and lighting so I didn’t have to edit how bright the shots were.

(Word count: 698)

Actors/Roles

Carl Tyler: Co-director, producer, writer, music, cinematographer

Maddy Anderson: Co-director, make-up, costumes, props, editing, music editor, cinematographer

Rhiannon Trustcot: Actress, wife

Toby Saddleton: Actor, husband

Pitch 1

Genre; Drama/Thriller

Micro-features; Cinematography, Mise en scene, Sound

Settings;

Chatham for opening and ending scenes in the late evening and Carl’s house for argument and embrace during the day for flashbacks

Target audience; Middle aged audience

Age restriction; Rated 15 (due to the mild violence, murder and upsetting scenes)

Plot outline;

• Background goes blank and shows the title ‘The Flashback’.
• Low angle shot, gradually zooming into wife with low volume music in the background and the sounds of her crying slightly.
• Changes to slightly more to the side still zooming in with a better view of the wife on screen. Both she is centre of the camera.
• Wife is wearing ‘rebel’ clothes with piercings and her make-up is running down her face because of the tears.
• Flashback to wife meeting husband first time before marriage
• Back to opening scene
• Flashback to happy first date with visual cues of a good time
• Back to opening scene, zooming into the wife’s face
• Flashback to proposal
• Back to opening scene and panning up from floor to see what the wife is wearing (rebel with piercings)
• Flashback to happy eventful wedding (everyone’s happy)
• Back to opening scene close up on her face, piercings and make-up
• Flashback of heated argument
• Back to opening and close up on eyes filled with emotion
• Flashback to the incident where the husband pushes the wife and falls over and hits her head
• Her looking into the fire and we see the wedding dress and photos burning in the flames
• Flashback to when the wife poisoning the husband in his drink to accompany his dinner she has prepared
• Her wiping away her tears then looking at her wedding ring then throwing it into the fire and walking away.

Unique selling point;  Emotional drama that sums up a relationship once the initial love has faded and turns sour involving the death of the violent husband and involves domestic violence and upsetting scenes.

Song; Get It Right – Glee – 3:55 needs to be cut down for two minute film using iTunes

Scheduling;

Scene	Location	Props/Dress/Equipment	Notes	Cost
Scene 1 – Freya over the fire	Chatham	Fire/Rebel clothing/Camera, fire extinguisher, camp fire lighter	Film day one – late afternoon for lighting	£10 – fire extinguisher
Scene 2 – Date, Toby invites Freya over for dinner	Carl’s house	Wine glasses, flowers, food/Casual wear/Camera	Film day two – Evening for normal setting of dinner time	£ for food
Scene 3 – Wedding	Place found, exact address unknown	Camera, extra/Wedding clothes/Camera	Film day two – Day time for lighting	Unknown
Scene 4 – Argument	Carl’s house	-/Casual wear/Camera	Film day three – Afternoon	–
Scene 5 – Poisoning	Carl’s house	Medicine bottle, rat poison bottle, food/Casual wear/Camera	Film day three – Afternoon	<£5 for rat posion

Checklist;

Brainstorm

Research ideas

Write scripts – Not needed, no dialogue

Pitch ideas and projects

Create storyboard

Budget – minimal

Create shooting schedule

Survey and select locations

Create shot list

Create scene breakdown

Obtain equipment – Mr Lewis for camera

Film required scenes – three to four days

Review footage

Create paper edit

Edit footage

Import footage to computer

Present finished film