3. Budget Analysis and Rationale
Misconstrued is a short, crime-mystery film achievable on a microbudget due to conscious constraints placed on the film during development.
One of the most apparent constraints is confining the script to two locations. One location is my own suburban bedroom (within 10km of the CBD), which will be free to use, and has all the requisite facilities.
The second beach location is costlier, although, decisions have been made to minimise these costs. The creative and cinematographic decision to make all scenes POV shots – means they can be filmed with a handheld camera. The absence of characters in this location also allows production to strip down to a skeleton crew. This, coupled with the nature of hand-held filming (and a short shoot duration) means that the production is eligible for a low-impact filming permit. The cost of this permit the City of Port Phillip is $965, whereas in the adjacent City of Hobson’s Bay it is free. For this reason, Hobson’s Bay would be chosen. Both councils will also require public liability insurance – which is provided at no cost to RMIT students while undertaking RMIT-related activities.
As the bedroom location is belongs to the production, all props and set dressings are already in place, with only minimal costs involved in moving furniture around and out of the way of the lighting and camera. Additionally, the location is secure and a Hollywood wrap can be used at the end of each day, saving the crew from packing down. As a result, a realistic aim for the production schedule would be three days, with the first two and a half being at the residence. The final day should have a later start time, allowing the skeleton crew to go to the beach location to film the night scenes.
There will be some restrictions imposed in the beach scenes – mainly that the screams, party voices and techno music cannot be played on location as not to disturb the peace. This means that they will need to be recorded/downloaded at the residence and laid over in post-production. The techno music will be downloaded from a creative commons attribution license, with a sound editor warping it to sound diegetic. The sound editor will also be required to emulate the sounds of Azra’s breathing and the waves drowning out all other sounds.
Finally, the film’s cast requires three lead actors (Azra and two officers) and two bit players who remain off camera (the reporter and Berrak). As the main cast are all aged under 30, they should easily be found through a drama school and would likely be willing to work for travel costs and catering. Young drama school actors may not be willing to voiceover Berrak and the reporter, as they will not be featured. However, member of the crew may be willing to record these lines, or an aspiring voice actor can try to record two different voices. Costuming would remain the final cost – while Azra can be costumed for free, the two officers will require police costumes. As the production is unlikely to get permission from Victoria Police to use uniforms (as the script does not offer a favourable view on police) a ‘realistic’ rental is our best bet.
4. Creative Statement
These constraints were not made without considering the creative impact they would have on the film before committing to them.
The genre of the film, crime mystery, is fortunately one that lends itself to a microbudget production as some of its core elements, such as dramatic tension, justice and intrigue can be all built with little money.
Various devices can be used to build this, especially cinematography and sound design. The cinematographic decisions for the beach scenes not only allowed allowed a low-impact permit to be used, but also afforded greater creative opportunities. The hand-held camera and shaky shots instil a sense of instability and anxiety in the audience, making them uncomfortable and tense. Further, filming the beach shots through the POV of a panicked witness who did not actually see the perpetrators and who has missed vital information reflects the confusion and frustration of the officers, which similarly leaves the audience wondering what really happened. Initially, the simplicity of filming in Azra’s bedroom juxtaposes this, but as the scene progresses, and the audience remains in the room while Azra is arrested in the hallway, with only the audio of the final struggle being captured, the building sense of helplessness and injustice takes over – which supports the film’s message.
The cinematography is supported by the sound design. The film only has diegetic sounds, even if some of these sounds need to be added in post-production. The silence in the bedroom is imperative in building the tension and mystery. A similar effect is used in the Coen brother’s 2007 ‘No Country for Old Men’, when in the final scene, there is no soundtrack under Sheriff Bell’s voice as he describes two dreams to his wife. The silence in this scene successfully builds mystery and curiosity, as the audience wonders what the meaning between his two dreams are. The benefit of silence, of course, is that it costs little to record.
It might initially appear that the limitations placed on location don’t make creative sense, as a police interview would usually occur in an interrogation room. This is where Azra’s disability (only revealed in the end of the film) can be used to creditably explain it away. Azra would be too distressed in a police interrogation room, so is interviewed in her bedroom. Transforming Azra’s bedroom – a place where she feels safe – to a place she is arrested also adds dramatic tension. Likewise, potential shots at the beach of a body being dragged were compromised – but they simply would not be possible on a microbudget. The loss of these beach shots was offset by the mystery of the more obscure shots – rather than knowing Azra is innocent, the audience is left to wonder if she is guilty and how reliable her story is (especially as she cannot remember hearing any noises).
The benefit of using my own bedroom with its furniture and props extends beyond budget. The items used are my real belongings – meaning they have place in an Autistic person’s life and are genuine objects that have been used. This helps to set the scene in the bedroom – it’s an environment Azra feels safe and secure in – which is then juxtaposed by the dialogue and acting. For most of the film, only three characters are present – and little time is spent introducing these characters. This is done purposefully, the audience is thrown in with characters who have already (although recently) met each other. This gives the audience little time to get their bearing and builds on that sense of insecurity.
5. Reflection
I came into this studio with a very firm idea on what I wanted to produce – but quickly learned that while my idea was strong, it was not a short film (and thus not achievable on a short film microbudget). I initially rigidly stuck to the idea, working on a scene that might be able to take place in the film – but with the constraints (in particular, cast/character constraints) the short was no longer ringing true. The dialogue was becoming strained and contrived, and I was not happy with the resulting scene.
I returned to the initial message I wanted to send through the script, and rethought how to make this happen. The result was abandoning the original character as a non-speaking Autistic girl, and instead having her speaking – but with dramatically impaired pragmatic skills. The result was the officers believing her to be guilty when she was in fact innocent, due to the predefined expectation police have when interviewing a person. I believe that the message of difficulty between Autistic people and the police was clear.
I was a little surprised that although I had learnt so much in theory, the first script still ended up something that was not a microbudget production, and then it’s adaptation I ended up constraining my creative voice. To me that just demonstrated how practical you need to be; and how you need to be willing to accept change to your initial idea (something I, as an Autistic, am not good at doing). I was very satisfied with my final script then, when it not only was microbudget but also amplified rather than constrained my voice. I was also very happy that the message was clear without too much in the way of direct exposition.
At this point, I think that improvements in the script might involve expanding it, allowing more Autistic traits to be demonised by the officers. I’d also want to experiment with the beach scenes – potentially have them changing as a way to question Azra’s recall of events. However, this might get in the way of the message (as the message is not whether she can recall events accurately, but whether the officers believe her) so it would just be experimented with in a draft.
Finally, I want to put more research into particular cases where Autistics were treated unfairly (and have since been acquitted) to add to the superimposed text at the end.
