AS Film Reflective Analysis

AS Film Reflective Analysis

We decided to create a sequence from a sci-fi drama film. It is targeted at adults, around 16-40 years old, due to its scary nature. We created a victim and an antagonist, and an atmosphere of loneliness, fear and action as the sequence developed. I took responsibility for editing.

The initial narrative began with no montage at the start, for the girl to simply shoot the mutant from a distance. We decided that this was too short, did not establish the premise of the narrative, and had limited conventions of drama due to lack of tension-building. The addition of the diegetic moaning shows conventions of classic sic fi genre films by dehumanising the figure. The shot where the mutant looks downwards as he presses the barrel to his head shows where we emphasised the dramatic side of the genre. I felt the character choice was appropriate because a young girl would typically create more sympathy in an apocalyptic situation than someone older or a boy. Audiences feeling sympathy for a character was one of the key aspects of the initial ideas and we feel we accomplished this. An improvement would have been to concentrate more on the narrative, as the narrative screen time was equal to montage.

The opening montage consisted of a variety of shots depicting the environment and the nature of the protagonist. I used ambient continuous music to illustrate the loneliness and bleakness of the situation. This relates to the title sequence of the film '28 Days Later' which shows a montage of media and events that establish the premise of the film and gentle piano music to build the tension. Initially I had the music very quiet so you could still hear the diegetic sound, but I felt that this did not illustrate the fact that it was a montage, and made the music sound unnecessarily diegetic. Previously, I had cut all view of the protagonists face until the last minute, and although it worked well to create tension and mystery, it did not conform to the genre conventions we were aiming for; drama and sci-fi; creating tension/mystery by hiding the protagonists face would have drawn attention from the dramatic aspects of the young girl who has to euthanise (here’s the sci-fi convention) mutants. I made the two characters appear completely different by manipulating the view of each one. I stabilised all shots with the girl in, and kept the sound neutral, with no effects. Whereas the mutant has a darker hue in its frames, and an ambient growl in the background as diegetic sound to represent him as chaotic. I felt that this effectively portrayed to the audience that this mutant was a threat to this girl, and evoked sympathy and worry in order to achieve more conventions of drama (surprise/tragedy/betrayal). By using the hues and greenish tint, I showed conventions of decay and death, which relate to the post-apocalyptic and sic fi genre. The main inspiration for these conventions was the intro to 'The Road'. A montage of long duration establishing shots in a wasteland, with green hues and dark tints, and light echoey piano music in the background. All of these are huge conventions of loneliness and desolation which I used in my editing.

I feel the montage was effective in setting the scene as a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I stopped the non-diegetic music, but with a slight echo on the end so as to sustain the convention of seclusion. By stopping the music it becomes clear that the narrative is beginning. Although the opening long shots were filmed at different times, I managed to trim them and edit the brightness to make them similar, using continuity editing to make them all smoothly fit together, however I should have used a clip to put between the first two shots of the narrative, so that the girl doesn’t suddenly appear on the other side of the area. The part where the mutant is running towards the girl was important to make as smooth as possible, because it had to be made obvious that it was gradually picking up the pace. To do this I cut from long shots of the girl, then close up of the mutant, until they reach each other and combined cut in/cut away to give the audience a more personal (gradually closer) experience of the mutant. I felt that making these shots short in duration increased the pace of the narrative, following this with the much longer drawn out contemplation period was effective in putting the audience in the perspective of the protagonist. By slowing down the clip of the mutant pushing the gun to his head, combines conventions of both sci-fi and drama. I used elliptical editing to not show the actual killing, as a convention of drama. This relates to 'World War Z'. In a scene where hordes of zombies are attacking people, no blood or gore is shown, and the terror is shown through cinematography. By not showing the mutant going down I allowed the viewer to become more involved, and assume the worst.

Badlands Opening Scene

Badlands

Opening scene

04:00 minutes

 The first thing we see int he shot is a large bed, and a large dog in comparison to a young girl. The disproportionate contrast suggests that she’s out of her depth, or naive in some way throughout the story  - or in what she’s saying. The monologue talks of her past, the absence of a mother, and the un-fatherly father she grew up with. this may relate to the sense that her femininity was always overshadowed, and she never fully grew out of childhood because of this. The music in this scene is childish, and sounds like a nursery rhyme which reinforces this point. The low key lighting in the room despite the window being open and the decor representing the ideal ‘American Dream’ suggests that this girls idea of the ‘American dream’ does nit fit in with her ideologies, relating to the premise of the film as a whole, how she doesn’t fit in. I feel that the pan around the room was effective in illustrating the short development of the character. As we gradually saw more of her surroundings, we learned more about her background. The fact that She speaks of her father and her leaving the past behind them and starting afresh, relates to the story also, in the conventions of the ‘Road’ genre; She leaves behind her problems and runs away somewhere else.

 There’s a jump cut from This room to a long, straight dirt road, strewn with ‘garbage’ cans. This illustrates the ‘long road’ ahead of Holly (the road trip), following her monologue. the cinematic shots show the quiet and empty suburbs they live in. The fact that theres nobody around portrays Kit as a lonely Character from the start, showing conventions of rootlessness already. The first time we see Kit he’s next to a dead dog, this contrast between Holly and her live dog and kit and the dead one not only illustrates the polar oppositions between them, but also associates them, tying them together before they even meet. We see nobody else in the neighbourhood except Kit and Holly at the beginning, suggesting that they’re in their own world, foreshadowing that they need nobody but each other.

 The fact the Kit goes through the rubbish, making comments like “This lady never pays her bills” Suggests that he regularly looks through peoples things, and that he makes judgements on people, this theme is continued throughout the film with Hollys belongings, and various people they meet on their trip. This tell us a lot about his character, that he’s intrusive and rebellious, and perhaps not fully sane. Kit is seen in an establishing shot walking along this long road from the beginning, kicking rubbish around and smoking. The first shot of his face is a mid shot/close up of him with a cigarette in his mouth. This is the first time we actually see his face properly and his expression is that of bewilderment as it’s the first time he see’s holly. She is in white and blue clothes with red hair. this is a connotation of the American theme, and associated with Kits character as white trash, which is another link between the two.

531 words

Willow Collins