Reflective Analysis.
In our film ‘An Average Day?’ we wanted to induce a feeling
of empathy from the audience for our main character. Our film was an enigmatic
drama, set in the present day, about a man named Eddie Taylor. Eddie works in
the finance section of a motor company, he is seeing a beautiful woman - she is
a model. Just before our film starts, Eddie finds out that she is also seeing
other men on a regular basis. In our film you see Eddie arriving at work and getting
very agitated because of what he has found out about his girlfriend, in the end
he destroys a computer monitor in his anger. We were influenced by many
different films, but two main influences came from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
and a trailer for a video game entitled ‘Dead Island’. The Shawshank Redemption
influenced us, because there is a scene in it where Tommy (a very aggressive character)
is doing an exam and runs out of time. In his anger, he then screws up the
paper into a ball and throws it in the bin. I found this scene quite moving as
it showed me exactly how agitated he was at the exam. The Dead Island trailer
features a scene you may see in a ‘zombie apocalypse’, the difference is, that
it is in reverse and slow-motion. This is a very moving trailer, as the slow
music in the background, and the slow movements of the characters, contrast
greatly with what is actually happening onscreen. My role in the film making
process was the actor, editor and music producer – I played the role of Eddie
Taylor, helped edit the film, and I recorded the music we used in it. We tried
to use many different micro-features to our advantage in the film.
Camerawork.
We didn’t want to use a tripod when filming; this was
because we thought that it would help convey the uncontrolled aggression that
Eddie had in this film. We tried to use a good mixture of shots, for example: we
had some close ups to make the audience focus more on Eddie’s sad emotions,
this would hopefully make the audience to feel a lot of empathy towards him.
Editing.
We slowed down the video footage at the end of the film - we
hoped that the slow music and slow video would make the audience feel even more
empathy towards Eddie and his problems, which weren’t clear in the film. This was
because it gave the audience time to think about what Eddie must be feeling
like, and they are then put in his situation.
We didn’t want to have any different transition effects, so
we only had cuts and a few very fast fades. This is because we thought that it
would remind the audience that they are watching a film, and this would
separate them from the emotions of the character. If this separation occurred,
we thought that the audience won’t be able to feel empathy for Edie as much as
if there was no separation.
When we first showed our film to the class, most people
thought it was very good. There was one bad thing that stood out though. When
Eddie was typing things into the computer, the typing was very loud compared
with the rest of the film. So when I got back that night, I quickly made these
scene’s quieter, this seemed to remedy the problem, no-one noticed the change
in volume the next time we showed it, so the volume change must have worked
well.
Sound.
We decided not to have any sounds, except Eddie’s ‘grunts’
when he was throwing things around and getting very agitated. This would
hopefully make the audience concentrate on Eddie’s agitated emotions and what
he is doing, rather than some speech. I recorded my own version of the song in
the Dead Island game trailer and we put it on at the end of the film (while
Eddie was destroying a computer monitor) this would hopefully contrast with
what is actually happening on screen, as it is
very hectic, while the song is very slow – like the trailer did for Dead
Island. We took out all of the sound from the actual recording of Eddie, as we
thought that there would be too much sound, and it would ruin the sad emotions
that we were trying to create in the audience.
Mise-en-scene.
We used my dad’s garage to shoot the film and this made the
film more accurate – we hoped that the audience figured out that Eddie worked
in the financial side of the motor trade. This was because he was sitting in a
garage, but was wearing a shirt and tie, and he was putting information into a
computer. We destroyed a computer monitor as we thought that Eddie would need
that to work (so it was very valuable to him), we thought that destroying it
would show the audience how worthless Eddie thought his life was after what he
had found out.
Overall I think our film worked very well at creating a
feeling of empathy in the audience. This is due to the different micro-features
that we used and the good feedback we got from our audiences.
Post by: Kieran Tyler.
