evaluation

Evaluative analysis

My production is the screenplay “Common People” – the main intention for my film was to show the importance of sincerity and being open. This is something humans have never really mastered. I wanted to create something that people could relate to and I wanted to comment on the world around us, I wanted to show a pessimistic view of the world but give a spark of hope at the end- which was my narrative twist. I want to use a mixture of cinematography to show through my theme but keep a quite drab and realistic aesthetic.

The films I have studied for inspiration are When the Day Breaks (Forbis/Tilby, Canada, 1999) , Curfew (Christensen, US, 2012) , La Jettée (Marker, France, 1962) , The Gunfighter (Kissack, US, 2014) and Wasp (Arnold, UK, 2003) . These films are quite different in terms of genre however they all somewhat study and analyse different parts of the human condition and some of them such as La Jettée are much more fluid in terms of genre. Also, many of the cinematic techniques are quite similar. I will be analysing 4 of these films they all have metaphors included in the narrative and parallels that make the films more hyper-real. 

The most obvious example of unorthodox techniques is in La Jettée. It is made almost entirely up of still images which I thought would be a very interesting way to add a two-dimensional aspect to the film, almost a reminder that it isn't real. I thought it would be interesting to put in stills of all of the buildings in my script. A very important aspect of my film concerns what is real and what isn't real. The shots of the buildings are there to show that things like alcoholism and suicide can affect everybody no matter the postcode or the situation, and keeping the shots of the buildings still would emphasise this and make it a major theme of my script. 

The narrative themes of Wasp were what influenced my film the most, the idea of hidden struggles and putting on a front really gave me the idea to use masks in my film, and show that everybody has a social mask. The social issues and themes that were discussed and presented in the film such as neglect gave me the idea for the first intertwining narrative of the girl who's father is an alcoholic. The idea that Zoe (Natalie Press) felt like she had to lie to Dave (Danny Dyer) about her kids and her money situation really influenced the decision to make my film about what is going on behind closed doors.

Curfew was the film which gave me my initial idea which was to focus my film around an inter-generational friendship, and how unlikely people can become friends however when I changed my narrative to become more expressionist the deeper themes of the film effected my work, such as camaraderie and how important it is to be there for one another. Another theme showed in curfew that my film took great inspiration from is mental health issues and the stigma surrounding them. The audience makes assumptions about Richie because the first impression we get of him is him self harming. This gives the image of him being dead-beat. The film challenges this stigma by creating a meaningful relationship between Richie and Sophia. My film similarly challenges mental health stigma by the removal of the masks at the end.

When the Day Breaks provided a lot of influenced to my film, firstly for the focus on diegetic sound. In my film the sounds and whirr of the world can be heard in various shots throughout. This is similar with when the day breaks when the pig goes out to the city to buy milk, all of the sounds can be heard like cars beeping and people walking. This technique being used to represent routine helped my film’s theme of breaking the routine much more prominent. Also, the use of song and multiple characters linked to a song was something really important that I wanted to include in my film to show that all things and people are connected. Also, in my film the news reader begins to say the lyrics of the song my film is based off of. This idea to incorporate comedy came from When the Day Breaks and the use of farm animals.

The fact that all of these films provide some sort of social commentary and include some kind of lesson, but they use expressionist techniques to shows exactly how I got the ideas and influences for my film: from films that make a change.

The idea of making my female almost a study on people came from the film Anomalisa (Kaufman and Johnson,US, 2015). The most interesting part of this film for me came from the fact that voicing all of the characters there are only 3 people. Playing Lisa and Michael are separated and played by two different actors (David Thewlis and Jessica Jason Leigh), however “Everyone Else” is played by just one person in the same voice (Tom Noonen). As I was already brain storming the idea that all people have struggles, we are just good at hiding them, this concept introduced the idea that everyone is the same, humans are a body when it comes to their psyche, not individual and it encouraged me to focus my film highly on “The Human Condition”. The fact that the film is stop motion and the characters all wear masks again gave me the idea to use simple means to create a significant statement the way Kaufman does with his meagre $8,000,000 budget. The most hard-hitting part of the film is at the end when Michael’s long-awaited customer service speech takes place and he ends up abandoning his script and talks about the true importance of sincerity and seeing people as individuals. A similar thing happens at the end of my script, the character’s removing the masks.

About a Girl (Percival, UK, 2001) has a very conversational nature, the audience feel incredibly connected and involved with the girl and her life, I wanted to achieve this affect but I a slightly different way. The film inspired a lot of the shot ideas, in one scene as the mask goes over the girl’s head it looks as though it is going over the camera. For me this makes the audience feel examined and just like About a Girl, the reaction of the audience is an important part of the film. There are also a lot of over the shoulder tracking shots in my screenplay which again puts the audience into the action.

I wanted to incorporate a strangeness into my screenplay that had humorous undertones however the lesson still remained. The song in my script provided this comic relief as it was incorporated into every scene, sometimes inappropriately, for example the news reader goes from talking about teen suicide to saying the lyrics of “common people” by Pulp. This dark humour mixed with perhaps an examination of human nature came from when I watched Being John Malkovich (Jonze, US,1999), the film’s undeniable however unorthodox humour runs throughout however interestingly there is a paradox that Malkovich doesn’t really play himself in the film, he plays the public image of himself, and when he enters his own brain through the portal there is the question of whether he or anybody really knows themselves. I wanted to project this kind of message from my film, and base it around nor only truth and sincerity to others but also ourselves.  

My intention was to create a film about sincerity and examining the human condition and more importantly human failures. I originally wanted tot do this however in a more naturalistic way however. Like curfew, I wanted to form an intergenerational friendship. I wanted to use the innocence of children and their lack of agenda to break down the stigmas of mental health issues and show that connection can remove the struggles of life. To find actors or people to be in my storyboard however proved too difficult, and I wanted to be able to put across my message as successfully as possible. I decided to turn the narrative’s attention more down the experimental route, using masks so that the audience’s attention is turned to the action rather than the characters.

I decided also to focus on multiple different characters, similarly to When the Day Breaks. I wanted to show that the situations – a drunk dad, a disconnected family, an abusive relationship- shown in the film are relatable for everybody, an no matter the situation it all boils down to talking about it. In When the Day Breaks the multiple characters are used to show the fragility of day to day life, I think my film also reflects this at the very end when the routine is broken and the characters remove their masks.

In terms of the way my screenplay would be shot I feel I have achieved my aim. The stills in between the scenes – influenced by La Jettée  - makes my narrative much more hyper-real as the contrast between the experimental scenes and the stills is so drastic. I feel I could have played around with the shots implied some more, for example a very strong shot is where it looks as though the audience is putting a mask on as it appears over the camera. I feel having more shots like this could hint much more at the relatability of the topic and perhaps make the audience think more about their own lives and their own connections in relation to the film.

I feel that my film was successful in fulfilling the brief and my aims, I have an enticing enigma of the two mysterious people walking towards each other and a twist at the end that sparks hope. Although I had difficulty picking a narrative that would best represent my message, going through the process of having ideas that weren’t as good helped me to come to a better end result. I would choose to pick some more creative shots as I made my story board if I was able to as I feel that this narrative needs a lot of unorthodox cinematography to really do it justice.