Evaluative Analysis of My Short Film

As my short film only has one central character, there is very little dialogue, with the exception of some voiceover of the detective reading some documents. This means that the film will be mostly silent, so I must focus on other aspects of film form, including cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, and other aspects of sound and performance to convey the film's narrative, themes and tone. One of the ways I plan to do this is by the use of colour and shifting between colour and black and white; while in the scenes set in the evidence room will be in colour, the "visualisation" scenes will be in black and white, this is to capture a feeling similar to that of dreams.. Another way I want to capture this feeling is through various unconventional editing techniques, especially fast cuts, and an ending with a fade to white rather than fade to black. Also to capture this ethereal, dreamlike feeling, I want to use a complete lack of sound during the visualisation scenes, with the exception of possibly ominous ambient music; in the evidence room, only diegetic sound will be used. In the scenes set within the evidence room, I will aim to capture a tone more grounded in reality. These scenes will be in colour to indicate, however I want to use a drab, dull colour palette to make this appear grounded and to evoke a feeling of boredom from the main character, I will achieve this by using low key lighting. I will also use a lot of long takes and will not use any non-diegetic sound (with the exception of voiceover). As there is no dialogue, I will also have to heavily rely on the actor's physical performance to display emotion. Despite this more grounded tone, I still intend to capture some dreamlike elements, especially towards the end, in order to capture the detective's state of mind and loss of grip over reality, this will be done by carrying over certain unconventional editing techniques from the visualisation scenes back to the evidence room scenes; the dull colour pallet and lighting of these scenes will also help these scenes gradually blend together with the visualisation scenes. In the final scene, after the detective reads the mysterious letter, he appears at the scene of the crime without having to visualise the event, this scene is also in colour unlike the visualisation scenes, to indicate the complete blurring of the lines between reality and imagination. 

Of the short films that I studied in class, leading up to writing this short film, the main three that influenced me when writing this were Meshes of the Afternoon, The Grandmother and La Jetee. The surrealism, dreamlike atmosphere and overall tone of Meshes of the Afternoon especially influenced me in making my short film, especially in the scenes in which the detective visualises the murder. Surrealist cinema and art in general has interested me for a long time, especially by using unconventional ways of evoking emotion and using a narrative that may not make complete coherent sense on the surface level, but will instead use imagery that can be interpreted in many different ways. I am heavily influenced by The Grandmother for many similar reasons. The Grandmother is one of the earliest short films directed by David Lynch, who is one of my favourite directors, so it was influential in the sense that it shows how one of my biggest influences in general operated on a much smaller budget and with many limitations, and how his style has adapted from that. Another reason, and the main reason that it is so influential to my short is the strikingly disturbing, haunting and nightmarish imagery and use of sound, that has left an impression on me since I last watched it. I also feel tat  I am influenced by the use of allegory in The Grandmother, as it uses it's surrealism in a way that represents real world issues in an otherworldly, ethereal way. While I did not particularly the presentation of La Jetee, using just still photos to convey the narrative, but out of all of the short films that I studied in class, the narrative of La Jetee struck me the most, especially since it's minimalist style allows it to convey such a large scale narrative in such a small amount of time. The fact that La Jetee's narrative focuses on an enigma, with more context slowly being revealed as the film continues despite never fully being explained to the audience, which is the type of narrative that I am hoping to develop in my short film. Asides from the short films I studied in class, one of my main influences was Twin Peaks. Similarly to Twin Peaks, my short film focuses on a murder mystery that quickly becomes increasingly surreal, and spirals out of the control of the detective investigating the crime. The unnamed detective in my short also relies more on his intuition and gut instinct just as much, if not even more so than hard evidence, through "visualising" the event of the murder, comparably to Twin Peaks' Agent Dale Cooper. David Lynch was also a co-creator of Twin Peaks alongside Mark Frost, as well as the director of it's prequel film, Fire Walk With Me, and third season, The Return. While a lot of Lynch's work focuses on enigmas and noir-esque mysteries, Twin Peaks is the best example of this when it comes to intricate, interconnecting details coming together, especially as it is from the perspective of a detective. Another strong influence I applied to the script of my short film is Hitchcock's 1954 classic Rear Window. This is because Rear Window takes a minimalist approach to Hitchcock's usual suspenseful formula, as it is from the fixed perspective of James Stewart's character, who has a broken leg and can't move from his room, looking through his window. I used this as an influence to learn how to build strong tension using as little resources, and as simple techniques as possible. Bresson's A Man Escaped, and Nolan's Memento are influences for similar reasons. Tarkovsky's use of colour and black and white, especially in the first film in which he used colour, Solaris, is an influence on my short. He uses different colour tints, including natural colour, black and white, sepia and a very cold, desaturated blue. These tints are used to evoke different emotions and tones; especially when evoking the feeling of dreams and memories, which I want to replicate in the visualisation scenes of my short film. Another film that I am influenced by is No Country For Old Men, which I also studied in class. This is because of the ambiguity of some of the events of that film, allowing for many interpretations to be made, adding to the puzzle-like element of my short, making the audience fill in many of the blanks and answer some of the questions that are left open-ended. An example of this in No Country For Old Men is Chigurh's interaction with Carla Jean near the end of the film, in this scene, we are not shown the result of this interaction, and while it is hinted at that he killed her by the way he looks at his shoe as he leaves her house, continuing from other scenes in the film where he seems to do this after he kills his victims, though there is no way to be certain about this, and leaves it up largely to whether the audience member is an optimist or a pessimist. As for the distinct editing style I would like to achieve, I was mostly inspired by the films of Wong Kar-wai, especially In the Mood for Love. This film, among some of the others by Wong Kar-wai such as Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together and 2046 are some of the only films where the editing is noticeable, and contributes greatly to the film, by creating a trance-like atmosphere. Another influence on my short film is  Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, which depicts West Berlin in the late 1980's from the point of view of angels. In this film, the angels watch people's daily lives out of interest, but are completely helpless and unable to interact with the world around them unless they become human. The scenes that are from the point of view of the angels are in black and white, similarly to the visualisation scenes in my short film; I would also like to capture a similar tone of helplessness and inability to interact with the events that they witness in these scenes. Another film with similar sequences to the visualisation sequences that I describe is the 1974 film by Jacques Rivette, Celine and Julie Go Boating, where the two titular characters are able to view the events of a house before a murder of a young girl occurs; however, in this film, the characters are able to interact with the world, and use this as an opportunity to save the young girl. The final shot of the film is influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky's penultimate 1983 film, Nostalghia, in which the film's main character (also named Andrei), a Russian exile living in Italy lays on the ground in front of a ruined monastery, but it is unclear from the architecture whether he is in Italy or Russia, showing that he is forever stuck between his homeland and new home; I would like to capture a similarly melancholy tone from the final shot of my short film, showing the detective as stuck between reality and his imagination.

With this film, I want to create a tone which has an underlying sense of darkness and eeriness that has yet to be uncovered and revealed, and never will be completely. One of the ways I aim to do this is by leaving many plot details ambiguous or cryptic, constantly leaving the audience a step behind the detective in the film. Not only does this add to the underlying tension and dark tone, but also it adds to the mystery and enigma of the film. Despite the underlying eeriness, the tone I want to create during the scenes based in reality is that of boredom and melancholia, whereas in the nightmarish visualisation scenes, the overwhelming feeling that I want to create is that of tension and anxiety. This is due to it being shown from the detective's perspective as he slowly loses his grip on reality, but it's never made completely clear to the audience why this tone is prominent throughout the film, due to the ambiguity of the film. The reason for the film's ambiguity is partially to keep the audience guessing and theorising as to what could have happened during the murder and partially to portray the detective's descent convincingly.