Reflective Analysis - Kieran Tyler

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.