maryhanna

[maryhanna]

Something I made for advanced documentary practice. I wanted to create a moving moodboard that encapsulates my vision for the film, also sorry this is so self indulgent.

[maryhanna]

INITIAL THOUGHTS

When watching past years cine-haiku projects i was really inspired to do something we've not really seen on our course...gore. I love horror films so much and I wanted to make something gory yet melancholic to make the most of the 30 second time limit. I thought of many routes to go down, the typical gory film stuff. I had recently approached my love for sfx makeup so I wanted to incorporate that into my initial ideas. So I decided that a zombie film would be excellent for this.

 The prompt nightfall was also very inspiring for this choice as melancholic horror would link great. Things happening in the dead of night sort of idea. I had also really wanted to use my background in sfx makeup design from high school and adapt some really interesting looks. I was quite nervous to pitch this idea with my group, i'm not the most self assured person so I needed to come up with a compelling narrative instead of a vague idea.

DEVELOPING NARRATIVE

I wanted the story to be very clear, especially with the 30 seconds we had to use, but I wanted it to be emotional but still be a little lighthearted. I feel it's hard to write horror and not get carried away with melodrama and cliche tropes. So I developed on this and came to the idea of a boyfriend who's struggling with his girlfriend turning into a zombie. It was sweet and sad, it could be visually represented very well. I thought it would also be quite deep in a way, boyfriend loving his girlfriend but she's there anymore, just a shell of who she was, maybe a small part of her does know whats going on. 

So I brought this to James, Jack and Alex and we discussed how we would break this idea up into 3 thoughtful shots. We discussed the possibility of having her arm being taped back together as well as him feeding her, but the idea we came to was him returning to their desolate apartment with a bag of mysterious meat for her to savagely consume.

PRODUCTION DESIGN IDEAS

THE DISAPPOINTING THING

I was away for the majority of the week of shooting. I had been abroad visiting family from Iraq, honestly it was a bit of an emotional whirlwind. With everyone abroad getting sick myself included and seeing immediate family members for the first time in my entire life was heartbreaking. I was very caught up and sidelined this project. Stupid brain thinking my contribution could be done whilst i was away but when i missed the shoot on my flight back home i knew i had messed up. My ideas for the film had to change and the guys adapted the story around two male friends instead of the couple. I loved what they did but I'm so upset with myself that I couldn't be there. I had so much makeup and props bought in for the shoot which I can still use of course but I felt like a total let down. Even had me in such a funk on top of the family shit that I considered taking a gap year. This was also on top of a lot of doubt I had within myself on this course, but after speaking to Zoe I felt hopeful I could still contribute to the post production process.

POST PRODUCTION

I really enjoyed working with Jack and Alex in post production and I loved the work they had done with the film, everything looked wonderful. So we proceeded with sound design! 

We got to be incredibly creative with foley. We discussed our options and what we needed to achieve this included footsteps, bag rustling and the most enjoyable crazy frantic eating noises. So I set off to gather supplies, we're talking whole heads of lettuce, oranges and a very sad banana. We also tried to capture the noises from the zombie which included my smoker lungs making an appearance. 

We also explored the idea of having apocalyptic chaos going throughout the entire film. People screaming about zombie's and gunshots firing. We recorded audio of this chaos.. the process being myself, Alex and Jack screaming in the recording booth about the end of the world, this never made the final cut however. With all the foley recorded we talked about what choices we would make that would best suit the tone of the film. We wanted it to be quite intimate. This included an emphasis on the heavy breathing noises from the zombie. Alex did an amazing job with the edit of sound, me and Jack gave notes when needed but Alex's work was great.

CRIT AND REFLECTION

Overall I think the crit went well and the response from the class was quite positive. We had notes that we used our 30 seconds really well, with lots of breathing room and time to understand the space. The colour palette was also something people touched on saying it heightened the tone of the film. The lighting also set the scene very well as we used mainly natural lighting and small LED's, however it could have been more creatively used with more contrast and luxuriant light in the final shot. Something I do agree on is that the story is very linear in terms of how we used our 3 shots. I see now that the 'haiku' idea could have been something more creatively represented instead of a 30 second film that happens to have 3 shots. With this the effect of the film had a lack of revelation and change as the events seemed too chronological.

 Looking back on this note I really think that the final establishing was good but it could have been so much more. I wish there were smaller details included in the shot and the choices made were more abstract. But the narrative was clear and people understood that which I am happy with. In terms of our notes on sound design I do agree that maybe there could have been more elements included in the final cut however we really didn't want to distract from the intimacy of the two characters.

 I do feel like the world building aspect would not have been entirely clear if it were not from the title of the film showing up before the screening which was not something we had considered at the time of naming the project.

 The general note from the crit was that the film seemed a little bare and the narrative was very linear. It was clear but our achievement in fulfilling the cine-haiku brief was a little missed due to this. I'm happy with the film, my group was great and very supportive of helping me visualise my idea.

[maryhanna]

The Sound Project

https://vimeo.com/731115984

When my group started the sound project for personal reasons I wasn't able to fully participate. Zoe very kindly allowed me to create my own version of the sound project and work on it in my own time. I wanted to use the same clip as my group as I felt there was a lot of emotion behind it. I really wanted to bring this out with sound. The clip chosen is the one where the woman follows close behind a monster through the streets and into a large busy park. When first watching this clip I had no prior knowledge of the feature it had come from so I looked at it from a fresh perspective.

I wanted to centre around their relationship and bring that out in the sound, as well as the actual sounds of the clip. The clip brought up feelings of nostalgia and childhood, especially in the woman's performance. So when considering how I would edit sound with this clip I wanted to keep that in mind. I first created a list of shots that would help me understand the structure of the edit.

Shot list

Walking fast down busy streets

Entering Park at slower pace

Shot of her reaction so seeing monster

Monster leisurely walking as man approaches

Woman passes bushes as she follows monster

Gravel path and child playing and interacting with monster

Woman questioning if she will approach the monster as she paces around patch of grass

I then figured out the sound.

Sounds

Street sounds, cars, sirens, footsteps, people taking, motor bikes, people walking

Park sounds, grass breeze, gravel being stood on, bike bells, children playing, dogs barking, old men talking, birds singing, women talking

Footsteps of woman, gravel, concrete pavement, grass – woman’s silk dressing gown brushing

Footsteps of monster, gravel, concrete pavement, grass – monsters hair brushing against itself, monster humming a tune

Additions

Woman humming inside her head and monster humming out loud

What can I record myself and what sound effects can I gather in the sound library?

Footsteps must be recorded. On my first trial of doing this Ben Mcmorran helped me massively in the sound studio, we were able to sync up the sound of her footsteps along with the action. This allowed for an idea of the pace she was walking at and ultimately emphasised her growing intrigue and attention. I also recorded Ben humming several different tunes to go along with the monsters walking. Ben was very helpful in showing me the basics of pro tools. I took all of this on board when recording the sound at home. Taking into account the work me and Ben had done in the screen academy I wanted to replicate the same energy I got in the first edit.

In the final version of the edit I recorded all the footsteps using an external mic connected to my iphone. I also recorded birds singing, the occasional dog bark and the brushing effect on the clothing for the monster and the woman. I also collected atmos from a park that I work at which pulled together the sound as a whole. I also collected lots of sound bites from YouTube such as the car and street atmos as well as the monster's lullaby he hums.

I went through many versions of the edit, adding and subtracting certain elements of sound that I believed were overpowering. I wanted to grasp the atmosphere of the overall clip but not go overboard and distract from the narrative playing out. The use of the humming sound effect I believed to be very thought provoking and I loved how it brought out a sense of character in both the monster and the woman

[maryhanna]

days dos and tres

Film Adaptation - Skylight Room Shoot

Day two was difficult not going to lie. Personally I don't think morale was high with some of us including myself. We weren't shooting very exciting shots, we shot the stairwell scenes which were heavily dialogue based and quite flat to be honest. The day started with us meeting at Jenny’s flat and getting set up. To be completely honest this day was lost on me. I wasn't happy with the shots I was creating, the lighting was poor, the shots were not visually interesting and it was hard to navigate around how to improve the quality visuals. It was a frustrating shoot for a lot of us. Jenny was also having problems with sound which when looking at the final film you wouldn't even notice, but everyone was quite exhausted.. or maybe that was just me.. who knows. We did have lovely George to help with ADing which made me a bit more relaxed and happy, the chat man was a great morale boost for me.

I did enjoy elements of this day! Just wished I had been more enthusiastic on set. BUT DAY THREE WAS SO FUN.

Day three, final shoot day had arrived and I was thrilled to be shooting outside in the sunshine and garden area. Day three consisted of the outdoor shots, the primary shot of James and shots of the outside of the building. There was something really positive about this shoot, the sun literally brought everyone’s excitement up which was lovely.

the cast seemed really happy on set too which was v cute

I feel I had got the hang of using Ben's camera at this point so I felt more comfortable setting up shots and creating some cute aesthetic shots. Throughout the whole project I felt a lot of my ideas for framing had kind of been forgotten or redirected into something else, which had been quite disheartening but with this final day I really wanted to get the shots I wanted, even if that meant pushing my ideas a little harder. I got some of my favourite shots of the film on day three.

Something i really enjoy outside of this course is taking filming my friends in the sun and the grass, its weirdly something that brings me a fuck ton of seratonin, so being able to do something similar on day three was quite rewarding. I had so many ideas for how i wanted the grade to look based off of this shoot. I do love my saturated greens and making certain colours stand out against the backdrop of this miserable looking (no offence jenny) interior stairwell added a lot to the tone of the film, i think. I wanted to really make the inside contrast with the outside.. revolutionary filmmaking, i know… I had this initial idea ages ago in pre production, to emulate a bird trapped in a cage, resembling Anne being trapped in this apartment block. I feel certain shots really capture that idea, so I am quite happy with that.

[maryhanna]

Day Uno

Film Adaptation- Skylight Room Shoot

Having helped set up the production design the day before, I was very excited to begin shooting. I was very happy with how Anne's room was looking and it really brought out elements of her character that I wanted to portray visually. As cinematographer I worked closely with Sofia, the director of our project. Being on set and in the space before the actors arrived allowed us time to scope out some shots we’d like to get as well as explore the lighting of the room. Ben McEggMorran was excellent in organisation during the first day. As first AC and producer he really went above and beyond in keeping everyone on schedule and prepared for when the actors arrived. He also taught me the ropes when it comes to using his camera, which I haven't used before. I had been very nervous beforehand as it was his camera, twas a responsibility I dreaded, I am clumsy, I am not stable HOWEVER I shall pat myself on the back for not dropping it and also learning quickly how to adjust shots and so on.

Before we began shooting Sofia gathered all the cast and crew together to introduce ourselves which made the initial on set environment very warm and friendly. I was so happy to see our cast in person, they were all such lovely people.

Day one, we shot the interior of Anne's room. This involved the moments of Anne looking out the window, Anne moving in and decorating her room and climax where Anne passes out and is rescued by the residents of the building.

I really enjoyed how much there was to shoot in terms of the inside of Annes room. Lucy, Sofia, Jenny and Jack had brought certain key items to create mise en scene. There was also so much light to work with inside the room. We used Jack's bedroom and completely turned it around. I wish I had taken before and after pictures, but the room had been completely transformed. Anyway, light. The amount of light that came into that room was wonderful to play around with, I will discuss more in my reflection however as many shots were over exposed and too bright. Could’ve been diffused if I had paid more attention, but considering this was my first time working with this camera I won't be too mean to myself.

The climax however I can be mean to. In hindsight those shots I had framed were ugly, boring and not creative. I had a hard time with some points on set. Some creative differences or the time pressure, but I wish I had developed more interesting shots. There was also an apparent timidness the actors, which is COMPLETELY understandable. They had just met a few hours prior and were shooting an intense scene where each character was deeply connected to Anne. It's fine tho, I think having the cast meet up before the day of the shoot would have been beneficial but hey ho, lesson learnt, still an amazing cast to work with. Day one was good!

[maryhanna]

Critical Reflection

Documentary Film - In My Room

‘In The Room’ , a documentary film I directed, explores the connection people have with their bedrooms and how culture and family grows through hardship. It shows a personal account of three contrasting individuals all in the same family. Rania; a new mother, Eli; a four year old boy and Ramza a ninety year old great grandmother. Having fled from a war torn Iraq in the late 80’s Ramza and her family grew their families in Scotland. I found this fascinating as Ramza is my Nana, having never spoken to her due to language barriers I was able to finally ask her the questions about her past I've always wanted to ask.

Directing this project was very exciting for me, being able to write the script for the shoot and translating the footage was quite an emotional process. I wanted to tell a truthful story about family and trauma, how a person can be connected to a place and what happens when that place is taken away from you. My Nana’s story was especially captivating to go over and I wanted to portray her strength as well as her sadness due to her leaving her home in Iraq.

As director I understood it was a personal project and I wanted to keep other members of my crew engaged and excited to be part of this. With this, the cinematographer James Stevenson was excellent in capturing the atmosphere of my family members homes, highlighting the subjects individuality and personalities whilst also establishing the familial connection between one another.

I think having some group members meet my family was a very important element of how our film came out, I think if more of the crew were able to also meet the subjects they too would feel attachment to the narrative a bit more and possibly be more enthused by the documentary. I myself struggled with a lot of self doubt and embarrassment in asking people to help tell my family's story therefore I also lost enthusiasm at times. This purely was due to a lack of confidence in myself as director.

My film ‘In My Room’ doesn't correlate heavily with the essay I had written. My essay on observational films and its portrayal of truth was a very exciting essay to write. I was very inspired by the documentary films I had chosen to write about, ‘The Devil and Daniel Johnson’ and ‘Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics’ as the style and format used is something I find a deep relation to. The essay talks a lot about how personal experiences can be presented in imaginative ways. With this documentary I wanted to focus on the person telling the story, not so much the story itself, therefore using that technique would not be beneficial with the narrative I was trying to show.

If i was going to give myself a grade based on participation i would give myself a B. I believe at a lot of points during the production my self doubt got in the way and I held back a little. I was a little hesitant to come back to the project after shooting as I was very doubtful of the film overall, but after hearing positive feedback I realised a lot of my worries were just in my head

[maryhanna]

Critical Reflection Time

Seeing everyone's films was so unbelievably fun, seeing everyone in the same room equally as fun! I really wanted to engage with the crit as much as possible even if that risked hearing my own voice in other people’s crit recordings. I found the whole process of listening to everyone’s film feedback extremely helpful. There’s elements in everyone's feedback that that I want to use and apply to my future projects, things I’d have never picked up on if not pointed out whether good or bad. Reflecting on the crit, I was so shocked to hear positives about Cherry. I think when we were making our film preproduction and post, there seemed to be flaws everywhere, but I guess that’s from picking out finite details that in the end didn’t cause problems with the overall film. People liked our film, it felt nice to have contributed to something that got a positive response and im really happy with my group for being supportive and patient when problems came up.

The feedback we received as a group was mostly positive when discussing visuals, aesthetics, script, character and production design. Where we fell was the sound. The sound design was such a long saga, poor Matt did everything in his power to salvage it, Katie-Jayne and John worked on the sound as well and were amazing in their efforts to help Matt with sound design. In retrospect it could’ve been sorted if the sound equipment had been tested before the shoot but oh well, we learn from these mistakes.

We got a lot of feedback from the class that the comedic campy tone of the film worked well in contrast to the serious story. I found this such as a relief as most of the comedic blocking, framing and shots were improvised on the day of the shoot. That pull aside where we discussed tone and me and Natalia decided, ‘this has to be more camp.. It just has to be.. It can't not be’.. was necessary and translated really well on screen.

I took lots of notes on the critiques I would apply for my role as production designer and watching the film back I can so clearly see where I could’ve improved certain things. Small things tore me apart! Of course, a black jacket would blend into the background of a nighttime setting, what a stupid decision. That will haunt me. Its frustrating that these little details could be fixed by lighting things better. Lots of feedback was given telling us that it was too dark and there wasn’t much contrast between the lighting and the costume which I can totally see. The actors did seem to blend into the background too much, there wasn’t much backlighting either which I wish I had added, just for some texture or to make it more mysterious and noir-ey.

I wish I had taken the design further, but I was conscious of the simplicity of noir, with minimalism and shadows, but it just could’ve been bigger. I wish I had added more shape to certain frames with lighting. Both me and Natalia set up lighting and thought it looked good at that time however it didn’t stand out as an interesting part of the film like I wish it had, and there were so many problems with exposure that meant we had to compromise our initial idea of the red colour seeping through the black and white.. very disappointing for me but I was relieved to hear list of people thought it would have looked great anyway.

Side note- In being the postproduction supervisor I feel I did a good job.. I hope. I wanted us all to really come together as a group and work on everything efficiently and as in person as we could be. Before the shoot our group rarely met up and only spoke briefly on video calls.. I REGRET THIS ENTIRLEY. I think our film could’ve been amazing if we all interacted more with each other, especially myself. Putting aside personal issues sometimes is best when trying to work collaboratively, and I wish I had been more of a present team member before the shoot.

I wasn’t confident in our film, but to be fair I'm not confident in a lot of things but listening to people say positives about our film gave me a sense of achievement ! Woo hoo!

Everyone’s films were great, I cannot say I didn’t dislike any film I saw. I was worried I was talking too much in the crit, but I really wanted to give praise to my classmates for their creative genius brains! Amazing job everyone, such cool stuff to come out of this module <3

Reflecting on Film Genre Module

I’ve always found it hard to write blog posts because I don’t want my classmates to see it. I think it’s a testament to my worry that I'm taking myself too seriously and I don't want people to perceive me that way. It’s purely an insecurity thing… do my sentences make sense, do I repeat myself? Is my grammar correct? Do I structure paragraphs wrong? Do repeat myself? Do people care? Do people think I’m bullshitting? Do i repeat myself? Am I fumbling my way through this course? Does Zoe and David hate me?!

I love film and I have so much to contribute to it and I love creating it, but I have found this module tough. With this dumb insecurity I feel im not doing enough to get myself back into my pAssiOn of filmmaking and its only myself that can fix this… Not sure if others feel this way. I have to keep telling myself that I worked to get into uni, especially this course and I don’t want to be a dafty and make the mistake of not trying as hard as I can. For many people on our course who struggle with mental health problems, neurodivergence or the overwhelming stress of everything, this first semester has been difficult. Speaking for myself I guess, but it causes me to feel less engaged with certain things, purely because of self-doubt…

mid-vent-comedic-festive-relief

Who lives in the north pole, who has issues with being sad and trying hard to produce good work in uni whilst balancing social life and desperately trying to keep their blog up to date…? A person with elf esteem issues… holds for applause.

I get the feeling, and I know a lot of people do, that everyone else on the course is ahead, which just isn’t a helpful thought process to adopt, but it’s something, again speaking for myself, I must reflect on and work harder to push aside. I want to be more present; I want to engage more! I am in a class full of cool groovy, lovely, epic, bodacious, creatives on this module I really want to push my ideas harder and get over the ‘elf’ doubt. Of course, silly bad brain can really get in the way, but I just want to try as much as I can to make work im really proud of.

[maryhanna]

cherry pre production things

[maryhanna]

the shoot :)

I felt our shoot went well, we had a couple of bumps with sound and batteries dying but apart from that I really enjoyed it. I went on to set with a lot of worry as it seemed a lot of groups faced big problems with their shoots, so I was hoping we were prepared. Whilst setting everything up before our actors Chloe and Lara arrived, we discussed how everything would work out. This was stressful.. Our sound wasn’t working.. But to our relief the oneand only Sam Tabotta came to the rescue with lav mics, and we could now focus on shot composition, blocking, lighting and framing.

When we finally relaxed after the mic fiasco myself Katie-Jayne and Natalia went over the shots and collectively thought we wanted to use the location more. We were naturally litwith one streetlamp with I wanted to use for in the film as the main light source. We set up our LED’S and went with this idea. I was very nervous to give input, purely a self confidence dumb issue thing.. but I was so happy to have a lot of input on the shootespecially when it came to framing and taking advantage of the set/lighting.

Midway through this run through we discussed the tone of our film and became conscious of how it may come across too serious. Me and Natalia pointed out how there were extra comedic tropes we could throw in to make it more lighthearted. I suggested throwing a few extra shots of the character Calvin standing in the corner and to indicate this we could have a shot from his perspective. This worked well and seemed to give the dialogue a bit of breathing room as well as set the scene.

When the actors arrived we went through everything, including the changes to blocking and overall comedic sPin on the script.

I annoyingly suggested a lot of changes on set, which wasnt fair on natalia who had worked on shots that featured the blocking but I had some ideas I thought would be fun to throw into the film. This also overlapped the directing which again I annoyingly wanted to help outwith. I really liked my ideas, I thought wow fun cool what about this… and to my surprise my group liked them. I wanted Charlotte to come out from the darkness instead of waiting for Avery, it looked cool! In retrospect the lighting was not great but I just really liked the idea of her emerging from the shadows.. Very noir-ey.

I really enjoyed helping Katie-Jayne direct some lines and contribute to the blocking. Was very nice to feel present during the shoot, like I was really getting sTuCk iN to filmmaking!!!11!! Anyway

It for me was a successful shoot, not sure others in my group would say so considering our “small bump” of our sound being complete shit, BUT in the moment we were positive that it went as well as it could’ve.

[maryhanna]

[maryhanna]

'Snap' script

■I wanted to write a comedic script, but I had to make it work within the noir genre. I had previously seen a couple short noir films made by students and the one thing that stood out was how dramatic and over the top the writing was. The seemed to unintentionally create comedy within their drama and this got me thinking that a noir parody would be perfect to base my script around. I started looking at some sketches writing by Jack Howard and Dean Dobbs as well as Sammy Paul and Bertie Gilbert, which gave me lots of ideas on how to structure a comedy sketch in a short period of time. All of them take on this absurd approach where the campier and more melodramatic the better. Many of their films include the comedy duo dynamic of the straight and the funny and I loved this idea, so I ran with it.

■I wanted more of this absurd dead pan feel for the characters so I rewatched films like ‘Airplane’ 1980 and ’The Naked Gun’ 1988 for some inspiration. I'm a huge fan of Leslie Nielsen's comedy and how he uses this dry wit humor to guide you through storytelling. Meshing that together with Phoebe-Waller Bridge’s deadpan writing gave me so many ideas for my script.

■I feel like using a classic black and white noir aesthetic would add comedy to the script, it adds another layer of parody to the film. I imagine everything looking so over the top “serious” noir, it would add a contrast to the comedic dialogue between the two characters which you see in a lot of comedy films. Serious setting – dumb characters.

��As a group very early on we discussed what type of characters we wanted to write, and we all wanted two women as there is almost always a male lead in noir films and we wanted to make something different.

■Getting feedback on the script was very helpful. I knew I’d rushed into writing and could've done more with the characters but getting my first draft back with notes made me really want to add more jokes and make the characters more of a purpose.

[maryhanna]

Cherry

very very late response (sorry Zoe and David) to the pitch, thinking about aesthetics in production design.

When I first read the script for Cherry I immeadiatly got queer vibes for it and I wanted to design the characters costumes around a sort of grunge femme fatal aesthetic. Im not obsessed with lesbians I just loved these two women portraying strong feminine sexuality and being objectively seductive.

Some mood boards I used during the pitch...

Set and Location

I found it challenging to pick a location to shoot at since I had to fit the criteria of a quiet place we could spend hours inn and not be interrupted. Most Importantly I had to factor in the aesthetics I had chosen..

...Some more mood boards

This is just a quick and late reflection on the pitch and how it went..

I felt our pitch went really well, I went into it expecting to fumble over my words causing me to not show what styles I wanted but I'm glad overall people understood the aesthetics I envisioned. I really enjoyed hearing feedback on the script as well, it gave me more ideas of what I can play around with in terms of how framing can really show off the set chosen. I also really enjoyed hearing everyone else pitches, it gave me a lot of inspiration in terms of writing, for example Ben’s fantasy script really made me want to expand more into fictional films that are creative and out of the box

[maryhanna]

Film Production Management - Treatment

Warm -

logline

Will, newly out of an abusive relationship with his ex-Mark, recounts his relationship whilst walking home, however a figure behind him poses a threat, upon being attacked by said figure Will reclaims his power, releasing him from his past.

synopsis

Warm is an awareness film about male victims of abuse in toxic relationships. It takes place in Edinburgh at night as we follow Will, a young man recently out of an abusive relationship with his ex-Mark. As Will walks home smoking he recollects the highs and lows of his relationship; in flashback sequences, from Mark giving Will a jacket to Mark abusing Will. As the memories of red flags build up Will continues his walk, and the scene becomes tense as a shadowy figure behind him appears to be following him. Will is then jumped by the figure who is revealed to be Mark, he is left gasping for breath and badly beaten to the floor. With no energy to yell for help in the distance Will pulls out his lighter and sets fire to the jacket previously given to him by Mark. The scene pulls out to people spotting the fire and rushing over to the aid of Mark. A bittersweet ending showing personal empowerment and the upsetting reality of abuse.

statement of intent

Initially I came up with this idea from the perspective of a woman. Understanding the female experience myself I wanted to reflect the threat of the male gaze and the fear of walking alone at night. I wanted to make an awareness film about abusive relationships and highlight some early red flags that could help people facing toxic behaviour. However, upon my research I found that male on male violence is more common than male on female. I began looking into abuse within non heteronormative relationships and saw there was a lack of awareness around the violence inflicted upon men. This unspoken issue made me want to work around this topic more thoroughly. I came to find the lack of representation of queer men being abused in relationships as a result of internalised homophobia. I set out to create an awareness film with a hard-hitting message, much like Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’, I wanted to show the audience the empowerment of the protagonist whilst also showing their vulnerability as a queer man. I want to make this film as a response to my own assumptions about assault victims and present a topic that people can reflect upon. The choices I’ve made in terms of portraying abuse in queer relationships is no different or less important than portraying a heteronormative relationship however it demands more awareness.

Treatment

We are introduced to Will, against a dark backdrop of misty weather, autumn trees and the faint glow of streetlamps he walks alone through a quiet park. Shadows around him there is an uneasy feeling as he is completely isolated. The sounds of trees brushing, and his footsteps walking slowly set the tempo for the pace of the first scene. He lights a cigarette creating an orange glow on his face, he looks sad and thoughtful, introducing him as the protagonist. Will checks his phone to see many missed calls from Mark. It’s this image that triggers a flashback to Mark playfully grabbing Wills phone and demanding he pays more attention to him; they tussle and kiss and suddenly Will shakes off this flashback. Showing Wills discomfort to his relationship we begin to understand that something is off about it. The introduction to Mark shows early red flags of toxicity however Will’s isn’t aware. The contrast in flashback and real-time are presented with a slight glow and warm tone, taking place during the summer showing time has passed as the present is set in late fall early winter.

Will continues to walk and whilst smoking he is taken back to a memory of Mark verbally abusing him calling Will disgusting for smoking and demanding he quits.

Will again trying to shake off his flashbacks he puts his lighter in his oversized jacket pocket. This jacket holds significance to Will as we see in another flashback Mark gifting it to Will as an apology for hurting him and “losing his temper”.

The flashbacks become cold as Marks aggression rises. The tension building, a dark figure behind Will emerges and seems to be following him. This unknown threat looms over the scene however Will is unaware of the shadow’s presence.

Will now upset he walks faster and drops his cigarette packet on the ground. Upon picking it up he is triggered by the memory of picking up broken glass and looking up at Mark in an enraged episode. Will cuts his hand on the broken glass and begins to cry. The pain of his bleeding hand and his relationships damage catching up to him he continues to cry.

Coming out of the flashback again trying to shake off his upset he is taken back to the same flashback where Mark mocks his for crying repeating the words-

“Will, hey Will, are you fucking crying?

Are you fucking crying?

Will? Will? Are you serious right now? Will?”

It’s these words that haunt Will in real time as he hears them over and over playing in his head, until he suddenly realises, they are coming from behind him. His name, aggressively called out to him from the shadow he stops and tries to make out who it is in the fog. Mark appears and pushes Will.

“Where the fuck were you? Have you seen your phone?

What the fucks wrong with you? Will, can you hear me?

Will backs off stunned and afraid he’s speechless and with tears still rolling down his face Mark repeats the phrase that traumatised Will.

“Are you fucking crying”

Mark repeats this staggering towards Will. The scene becomes erratic and gradually more violent, as Mark pushes Will to the ground kicking him in the stomach repeating the phrase which takes Will in and out of more violent and disturbing flashbacks.

It stops suddenly, a high-pitched tone fills Wills head as runs off into the fog.

Will, with little to no energy, unable to call out for help he is left alone. He lays there with mist surrounding him, all he can see is the faint glow of streetlamps. His lighter lays on the floor. Will figures out the only way to get help is to attract attention, he does so by setting alight the jacket once given to him by Mark.

This scene reflects his vulnerability and his own anger towards his abuser, the fire represents his releasing of the relationship and the warmth he once gave to Mark is now an strong fire.

We pan out to the glow of the fire and people running over to see what it is. It is assumed he is saved and is stronger than before.

Will’s character is a cisgender gay male between ages 19-23. When first seeing Will he appears quiet and thoughtful, with a hidden sadness. He suffers from depression and anxiety due to trauma from an abusive relationship with his ex-Mark. His relationship has isolated him, and he spends a lot of his time alone. His appearance is simple and non-expressive as the abuse inflicted on him has caused to be insecure with little to no self-confidence or value. His clothes appear to reflect how he feels though as we see a stark contrast when we see early flashbacks of the beginning of the relationship. He previously wore warm tones colours however now he wears neutrals and greys. The upsetting nature of his trauma has caused him to close off to people. We see several missed calls from Mark and a number or texts from friends checking in, however he doesn’t reply. He is emotionally drained however is too kind to accept any support from people. His early love for Mark and his forgiving nature leaves him stuck in an abusive cycle. He clings on to the past and finds it hard to live a normal day to day life without the consistent flashbacks due to his trauma. His trauma is seen to take a toll on his life dramatically, he appears exhausted and weak as he constantly relives the abuse. His connection to the past is unhealthy and in seeing him burn the jacket shows he is trying to gain control and take back his power.

RESEARCH

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-56365412 - article from the BBC on assault statistics in the UK.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292/ - Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ imdb

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/a-same-sex-domestic-violence-epidemic-is-silent/281131/ - A Same-Sex Domestic Violence Epidemic Is Silent, Article, By Maya Shwayder

https://youtu.be/XLwCijEQtRQ - Eric Attacked Scene, Sex Education

[maryhanna]

Master shot

Film Genre - Noir

[maryhanna]

Rounders 1998

I haven’t seen this film so my initial thoughts on this film still from Rounders (1998) directed by John Dahl, was that it was a drama. Breaking down this film still then reading Findlay’s analysis I can understand why this shot holds suspense, however initially and without context of the film I thought it was a drama.

There isn’t much to analyse in the way of production design as the frame is built of purely people. There is no empty space in this shot as we see a close up of Matt Damon’s character looking past the camera and possibly to someone sitting opposite him. In the background the space is filled with people standing behind him, no faces are shown which clearly shows Damon is sitting down, but possibly that he is in danger as there are people over his shoulder towering over him.

The use of lighting is interesting in this still, with Damon’s face being lit he stands out against the background. It adds depth to the shot and this pulls focus on his pensive/thoughtful expression as well as the makeup. The sfx are important in this still as they show violence or threat within the story, however his expression is calm and makes the shot seem less tense.

Without much context I saw this film as a drama mainly because of the framing of people and the casting. I keep finding myself a little distracted by casting in some stills as I know Matt Damon acted in a lot of young adult Dramas in the 90’s i.e; Goodwill Hunting (1997) School Ties (1992) etc. I think in the future I should reflect on stills with a fresh perspective, not immediately associating actors to genres.

[maryhanna]

watching a man window cleaning an automatic door, he is frustrated