Month: December 2021

A5 p2 Studio Review

Deconstructing/Reconstructing Genre Studio 1 Reflection

The deconstructing/reconstructing genre studio focuses on how different stylistic features of a film can be used to influence genre. Throughout the studio we have employed this into our own work through lighting, sound, and camera angles to reflect genre or subvert genre expectations. The work this semester has helped me develop as a media-maker and taught me a great deal about the pre-production, production, and post-production processes of making a film.

The two films I will be exploring in my reflection are “Spiral” and “Let Go”.

Spiral

“Spiral” by Annabel Cohen, Sarah Menegon and Courtney Joyce is an experimental horror film. Watching their film, I was drawn to their use of colour with the contrasting blues and reds (reminding me of the film Suspiria, which if I recall correctly from their presentation was an inspiration). These two colours that made up majority of the lighting within the film are often used to represent the conflict between good and evil. This plays into the narrative of their film, which leaves the viewer questioning whether the main character killed her husband or is simply spiralling into insanity. Another aspect that I was drawn to in this film is the sound. The combination of music, background sounds, and the news reporter- all work together to build suspense and the horror genre.

Let Go

“Let Go” by Jack Bailey, Jack Holland and Jonathon Christian is a drama and thriller film. I particularly enjoyed this short and could see the amount of effort that had been put in, in terms of the camera angles and editing. Watching the film, the cuts between shots with and without the ghost ran smoothly and didn’t affect the viewing experience at all. Similarly to Spiral, the piano music in Let Go played a significant role in reflecting the genre and pushing a sombre atmosphere- particularly in the first scene of the film where the main character entered the apartment.

 

 

Directing Performance Reflection

Based on what I’ve read about the studio and the final projects on the studio site- the directing performance studio primarily focuses on the communication and relationship between a director and an actor to produce the best performance.  Looking at their studio website the films that I’m drawn to are “Long-Distance Relationship” and “The Pier”.

“Long-Distance Relationship” by Bronte Hall was the first short film that I was immediately drawn to from this studio. Feelings of boredom, isolation, sadness, and frustration that we all experienced during the COVID-19 lockdown are demonstrated through the actor’s performance as they’re stuck inside. The short film “The Pier” by Cem Belici, explores two different personalities and completely different people having a conversation. This is demonstrated not only through the script, but through their costume, their facial expressions, and their mannerisms.

Overall, although this was a studio that I would be least likely to pick, I’m able to see its value. Both short films from the studio were brilliantly made and driven predominately by the performances of the actors.

Link

Assignment 4 Reflection

Assignment 4: https://vimeo.com/655747872

“Life is not a party” is a short coming of age film of a girl celebrating her 18th birthday during a COVID-19 lockdown. The film is shown entirely through the desktop of a teenage girl’s laptop and the footage shot entirely through a laptop. We all decided that setting a coming of age type of film in lockdown could be an interesting exploration of isolation and loneliness. Along with the social isolation from their friends and family that adolescents typically experience, there’s also the physical isolation from all your friends and family during lockdown. Additionally, we contrast these themes of isolation and loneliness with the bright and fun nature of adolescents- shown through the layout and aesthetic of the film and the soundtrack.

 

Genre

The coming of age genre is usually marked by a number of different tropes. The soundtrack/music, social gatherings/ friend group, some form of symbol to mark their transition from adolescence, and in more recent coming of age movies- the impact of technology.

The Soundtrack

One of the most important aspects of a coming of age film is the soundtrack, so we decided that a lot of focus had to be on deciding what music we were going to use in our short. Ultimately we decided on an upbeat fun song- which reflects the bright and fun nature of teenage life, and also contrasts with the boredom of lockdown that the main character is going through.

Social Gatherings/Friend Group

The main protagonist in our film is an unnamed girl celebrating her birthday in lockdown. As the short is set during lockdown we couldn’t showcase the typical friend group that you see in the coming of age genre. However, the film does show the minimal social interaction that could occur during this time through a zoom birthday party with her two friends.

Symbolism

At the end of the Zoom party, the main protagonist brings out a birthday cake with candles in it, the film ending with the singing of happy birthday. This represents the character coming of age and growing up during this extremely weird time of isolation and lockdown.

Technology

More recent coming of age movies, such as Eighth Grade, also showcase the importance of technology in adolescence and while growing up. An idea that became true for all of us during lockdown and had many of us living through the internet. This is a focal point of our short, with the entire film shown through the desktop of a laptop. The graphic and bright layout of the laptop was inspired by Gen Z and the e-girl aesthetic and gives the viewer an insight into the personality of our main character.

 

Production Process and Finished Film

When beginning to work on the assignment, after planning out what we wanted to do, we assigned each member to a different role and outlined a production schedule for shooting and editing the project. Although the team roles remained consistent throughout the project, due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to remain fixed to our schedule. The main challenge was internet difficulties- the shooting for the film (primarily done through Photobooth) wasn’t uploading to Google Drive in a format that was accessible to the other team members. Additionally, Zoom wasn’t working for Nina on the day they were planning to shoot the final scene (unable to start a session or join one). As a result, by the time all the shooting was complete and accessible to everyone, we didn’t have enough time to edit the project before the final deadline. However, in the beginning of this project we had an idea of the type of film that we wanted to make and a plan to get there. A coming of age movie, that explores themes of sadness and isolation in association with the fun and liveliness of teenage (often gen-z) culture.  Visually, we were inspired by films that are based in online culture and technology, like Unfriended or Searching- and decided to set our film entirely on the desktop of a laptop, a concept that would be visually unique and also relevant to teenage culture, as well as the coming of age genre in general. Although it took longer than we planned to complete our film, I believe that we hit all the points that we aimed to and I’m happy with the final product we produced.

 

Final Reflection

Overall, this assignment re-affirmed how much I struggle with working online, as opposed to in-person. I find that the gap between you and the other group members makes it difficult to communicate ideas very clearly and maintain a consistent schedule. However, I’m definitely happy with how we worked together to turn this assignment out. In the future, I would like to learn how to collaborate better over the internet, and perhaps to also encourage more face-to-face interaction with the other group members on an assignment.