Reflective Analysis

With my partner Aidan, I created a short dark comedy film called 'Advanced Car Hit', which follows the story of a nerdy teenager who is dumped by his girlfriend, Lisa, stalks her with the intention of killing her as revenge, but is stopped when she is hit by a car instead. Rather than being upset by her timely death, the nameless protagonist is delighted that justice has been served. Before making my video, I watched existing short films, both professional and student-made, to help inspire me and ensure that I knew the conventions of the type of film I was making. One of the things that we took into consideration when creating our film was using the micro-elements to create meaning. My role in the film making process was camerawork and special effects editing, whilst Aidan dealt with the scriptwriting and craft editing. We shared the job of directing between the two of us.
 Throughout the film we tried to vary the distance and angles of shots to encode meaning that the audience could decode, as well as demonstrating our technical ability. We filmed the entire film on two cameras, both Canon 550Ds, allowing us to shoot in shallow focus to draw attention to different aspects of the shot. The film begins with a close-up shot of a park gate whilst the protagonist approaches, slowly coming into focus, until he too is in the close-up. This shot introduces the audience to both the setting - acting as a establishing shot - and the boy, ensuring that he is represented as the main character, and not Lisa. The following shot of Lisa sat at the park bench further establishes the scene and also introduces her character too. Throughout their conversation we used close-ups and point-of-view shots to display the actors' emotions: Lisa's discomfort and boy's ignorance to it. It also created an intimacy in this scene that heightens the comedic performance given by the main character. Close-ups were also used later in the film to highlight the characters' actions, such as when the protagonist picks up a large stick. Additionally there are examples of over-the-shoulder shots to show both the foreground and background action in a single take. When he begins to stalk Lisa, a continuous tracking shot was used to build tension as he approaches her and provoke a somewhat worried reaction in the audience.
 The mise-en-scene of the film was also vital when creating meaning for the audience. The protagonist was dressed in a tweed jacket, bow tie, paisley shirt, and over sized spectacles to connote the stereotype of a nerd that would be recognised as soon as he appeared on screen. The character of Lisa presents a contrasting image by dressing in stylish, feminine clothes and jewellery that ensure she is seen as conventionally beautiful. The lighting throughout is high key and natural, although towards the end of the film it becomes darker as the characters walk through some trees, suggesting the darker turn that the narrative has taken. The setting of a park was chosen because it is typically romantic due to the bright colours and imagery of flowers and sunshine, which accentuates the morbid ending.
 In terms of the sound of the film, it is relatively dialogue-heavy in the beginning, where the audience learn of the situation and the relationship between the two characters due to the conversation they are having. Diagetic sound of birdsong was also recorded in order to set the scene further and create an idyllic atmosphere which contrasts with the protagonist's devastation, meaning that although the subject matter is negative, it is dealt with in a lighthearted manner. In the opening shot, 'Peter and The Wolf March' by Prokofiev is used as it introduces the film as light, which is in stark contrast with the final scene. In addition, sound is used to create humour such as when the protagonist is mourning the end of his relationship and the song 'Time After Time' by Cyndi Lauper is used. Again this ensures that rather than feeling sympathy for him, the audience should find his display of emotion excessive and entertaining, as enforced by the record scratch used to end the song. Another example of using sound to create meaning is when the audience The final song that is featured is 'Battle Without Honour or Humanity' by Tomoyasu Hotei, both during the protagonist's pursuit of Lisa, and again after the car hit. The use of this song not only presents the protagonist as an evil, twisted character, but also creates a contrast between the slick, cool music and the image of the nerdy character, adding to the humour.
 The film is shot in real time with continuity editing and regular cuts - done on Adobe Premiere Pro - as this is conventional for such a narrative because it helps to tell the story. The protagonist was privileged in the editing process to highlight his role in the plot; it is clear that his character is more important to the audience than Lisa's, although he is not necessarily supposed to be likeable. I created the car hit at the end of the film on Adobe After Effects, which involved cutting out Lisa's body, using the puppet pin tool to warp her figure, and create key frames of her moving along with the car. I later sped this up in Adobe Premiere Pro as we wanted the death to be as sudden as possible, in order to shock the audience.
 Although I am pleased with the way in which the film uses these micro-elements to connect with the audience, we did face some difficulties when it came to time management. Due to the fact that we changed our ideas several times in the planning stages, we were not left with that much time to shoot and edit the film. However, we still managed to follow our plan and included all the things that we had hoped to.