Annotation of Amnesia

Amnesia - Short thriller film. Created by Dan Allen on the 4th October 2010 (Date posted on youtube)
               - Directed/Written by/Edited: Dan Allen
               - Starring Lily Staff & Mike Allen

The reason why I chose to annotate this film is because of one of the location used – a forest, which is the same as the one that I have chosen for my short film.  By analysing the techniques used to produce the film, I am hoping that it will give me a few ideas to assist me.

Summary

The film starts off showing scenery within a forest.  It is a warm sunny day, and the images of the trees, grass and shrubbery gently moving in the wind gives a peaceful feeling.  The next scene is of a young white girl lying fully dressed on a bed.  It is day light outside.  As she begins to wake up, we then see a long shot of a wooden cabin in the middle of a forest.  It then cuts back to the girl who is now hearing voices whispering to her.  The voice appears to come from all over the room and she is seems to be disorientated and looks confused.  She then walks slowly to the kitchen still looking confused quickly taking in the view - which gives the impression that she doesn’t recognise where she is.  A white man, approximately in his late thirties, is standing halfway down the stairs.  She notices him and picks up a knife as he starts walk slowly towards her.  He continues to approach her even when she asks him not to, and she drops the knife and runs outside.  She runs for some distance and the only thing that she can see is open land and a forest.  Looking lost and confused, she turns around to see the same man standing just yards away from her.  She shouts at him to keep away, but he then tells her that he is her dad.  Back in the cabin, over a cup of tea, the man tells her that she has amnesia and that her mother is dead and that her brother still lives with them.  He shows her a picture of all four of them together standing on the stair of the cabin.  She accepts his explanation.  The last scene is of the man sitting in a darkened room typing on a laptop, stating that phase one of amnesia is completed and that phase 2 can now start.  The film ends with him closing the lid of the laptop.

Narrative Structure

As there are no flashbacks, the film is non-linear.  It may have been helpful for the film to have had a few fragmented flashbacks to help with the idea of having amnesia, and would add more tension/ suspense to the film.

How Are The Characters Represented?

The girl is a young white teenager who is first seen fully dressed in day wear, lying on top of her bed. This is used to represent someone who may have woken up after a short nap or had fallen asleep at night time and had not changed into her nightwear.  She uses a lot of facial expressions to give the impression that she is confused.  This is seen when she hears the whispers and quickly turns her head to where she thinks the sound is coming from, and also when she is out in the forest turning her whole body around in different directions while trying to get her bearings.  She is portrayed as someone who is anxious/ scared as her movements are either moving very fast, or slow and wearily.  Her voice also gives this impression.   The character is only seen to be calm when she is sitting in the cabin drinking a cup of tea. 

The man is a male dressed in a dark t-shirt and trousers.  He is seen to be calm and in control throughout the film, as his facial features seem relaxed and his voice is used to create calm and reassurance.  Throughout the film he is seen to be in control of his feelings and the situation as he never moves quickly and he talks in an even tone.  Even when he closes the lid of the laptop, he is calm and in control. 

Use Of Camera

 

Mise-En-Scene

Location

In this short film they use two different locations. One being inside the log cabin and the other being outside the log cabin in the forest. 

It is a good choice too use two different locations as they link into each other, also by taking the film outside it allowed the film to involve a chasing scene. This is very effective as a chase inside a small log cabin would be very boring as there is nowhere to hide. Whereas outside as shown in their long shot, you can run for miles and still be in the forest, which gives a realistic chase effect.

Costume

The clothing choice for both actors (Male and Female), are casual everyday clothing. This gives a representation of a normal life and normal people from first glance. 

Props

the main props that was used in this short film was a knife which she tried to defend herself with; cup of tea which the man passed to the girl (which I'm guessing contains drugs inside); laptop which her writes information on which is in the formant of a computer script. Other props are what you would normal see in a house and around the outside of the house.

Editing

They use a shot reverse shot when there is conflict between the girl and the man after he caught up to her after the chase which left them yards apart from each other. This is a good technique to show the audience that the actors are looking at each other while they are talking, even though in reality they are looking through the camera.

A eye line match is used while the man is typing on the computer, they then use the eye line match to show what he is looking at on the screen of the computer. I like the use of this technique as an audience you are wondering what the man is doing on the computer as it did not give an over the shoulder shot for us to see, but as they did the eye line shot it allowed us to see everything he is doing on screen.

They used a cut in when it was night time. From outside the cabin to inside where it is bright and you see the man on the computer. A cut in is a good way to just put different clips together, as it is just a simple cut without using fade to black which does not work for everything.

Sound

In  the short film they use a lot of dialogue which allows the audience to  be put into the scene as it gives a direct insight into what is going on. It also can help show the changes of emotion from an actor as when there scared they have a different tone of voice to when they are neutral. 

They se volume control after the run through the forest, and the girl is struck in a big, wide, open meadow. The use of volume control here intensifies the scene as it went from a movie score to silence.

At the beginning of the film they use ambient sound, this gives a natural feel to the film as you can hear the river flowing, the bird statue moving in the wind and also the trees rustling.

Target Audience

I would say the film is directed around the 14-15 a range and older, as even though nothing bad happens within the film which could stop younger children from watching it. It is because they may not understand what amnesia is, thus they will not know why the girl and the man is acting like this through the short film. 

What ideas can i use in my film?

• I have learnt that i will not always need a tripod and that the camera would mainly be done by hand, as in my ideas 2 & 3, there are a lot of quid action scenes, which the camera would need to move quickly for. Whereas in idea 1 i would need to place the camera on the tripod, as this short film idea is kind of slow, because the film is trying to focus on  the actors emotions.
• The film sets a scene by using natural everyday settings, which are around the cabin. This would be a good idea to use for my film as it shows that even though these events are happening, life still continues normally as if nothing has happened. To get this effect on the audience i would use this natural scenery at the end of my  short film.

Annotation of the Open Door

           

The open door - Short film thriller. Created by Dan Allen on the 11th of February 2011 (Date posted on youtube)
                       - Directed/Written by/Edited: Dan Allen
                       - Original Music By: Christopher Hanson
                       - Starring: Lily Staff & Mike Allen

The reason why I chose to annotate this film is because of the location that it is filmed in - on a quiet deserted street and within a secluded house, and to compare it to my own idea of where I will locate my own short film (within forest, just out of sight of a public place).  

As this film is completely different to what i want to do but at the time it focuses on the same theme i have set myself which is thriller. Where i want to use mainly handheld camera techniques as it gives a chase effect as with handheld you can act quickly to fast action scenes. This film shows how you can still create thriller films while using a tripod, because not everything would be in a fast action scene.

Summary: 

This short film is about a young women coming home.  It is daytime, and she is the only person seen in the scene while she is walking home.  She appears to be happy and carefree.  When she enters the house she is the only one there and she has forgotten to shut the front door.  She is seen in the kitchen cutting up food, and then lying on a double bed wearing different cloths with a face mask and sliced cucumber over her eyes.  It is still daylight, and someone in dark clothing enters the house and then her bedroom.  She calls out a male person’s name – looking relaxed and not changing her position on the bed, he quickly appears right beside her bed and speaks.  She now realises that there is a stranger in her house.  In the next scene it is night-time, and the same women is in bed dressed in her pyjamas and suddenly awakes.  She appears to be confused – did she have a bad dream or was it real?  Scared, she slowly made her way downstairs to the front door and realises it is slightly open.  Just as she goes to close it the same dark figure is seen behind her rushing towards her.

Narrative Structure:

The film is non-linear, if you believe that all events happened in real-time and she had woken up after the intrusion. On the other hand, it could be linear, if you believe that she had a bad dream and then woke up.

How are the characters represented?

The stranger is a white male – based on the tone of his voice as you never get to see the face.  This all adds to the impression that the man is an attacker/ robber/ killer as it is unclear how the story will unfold – but you do feel that he is there to do her harm.  The dark clothes and the tone of the voice makes the character appear menacing.  The music playing in the background adds tension to the scenes whenever he appears in the film.  He is either seen creeping slowly, during daylight, in the house or quickly approaching her in the dark.  The camera is always out of focus while filming him in the background which also gives the impression that he doesn’t want to be identified. 

The women is white and young – she is represented by being seen to do everyday activities while walking home and being alone in a house and waking up from a bad dream – swinging her bag as she is walking home, using keys to open the front door, being careless about not shutting the door properly, cutting up food in the kitchen, lying on the bed pampering herself with a facial mask, being in the house alone and waking up from a nightmare, being cautious and checking that if she had shut the door. 

Use Of Camera

                

Mise-En-Scene

Location
The director used two locations.  The first location is of a quiet street near a canal/river.  This is a good location for the short film, as it makes you think that it is a quiet neighbourhood with very few people living in it.  It is the type of area that makes you think that you are safe and there is very little crime.  As the short film is a thriller the location is ideal, as there would be few witnesses around, if any, and a river nearby to dump any evidence such as equipment used to kill or harm a person, or even to dump a body.  The second location is a house.  This is a good place to set a film as the weather does not affect filming.  To improve the tension in the filming it would have been better if weather did play a part in the film e.g. heavy rain or lightning.

Costume

He is wearing a hoody that covers most of his head, and is dressed all in dark clothes.  It is used as it is often the costume that is used in films to portray a negative image. 

Her clothing changes throughout the film – dressed casually while walking home and wearing the same clothes while chopping up food in the kitchen; wearing baggy clothes while lying on the bed; wearing pyjamas during the night scene.  The change of clothing is very important as it gives the impression that time has gone by – she changed her clothes for the face mask during daylight, and then changed it again to go to bed and it was dark. 

Props

The props which was used in the short film was a grocery bag which contained the cucumber, the keys she uses to open and lock her door, knife which was used to cut the cucumber, normal household items such a bed and kitchen equipment such as kettles.

Editing 

Black and white scenes where used throughout the first half of the film, it could been used to set many different moods. One mood being to cause tension as black and white can be related to different old fashioned thriller films such Dracula and Frankenstein. Another way could be to set a calm atmosphere as some people may see black and white as relaxing as they can relate it to comedies such as Charlie Chaplin.

Jump cut is used from when she was cutting cucumber to when she was lying in bed, this could of been used to cut out time, but for an audience perspective it could have been seen as a matched shot as the scene in the bed involves the cucumbers over her eyes.

Sound

Sound bridge is used to add effect from the very beginning as the sound bridge was from the title scene straight into the first scene.

The majority film is used of film score which they mainly use a string instrument or a piano, these instruments are main items to use in a horror film as background to cause tension, which makes people want to hide, but wanting look at the film at the same time.

There is many digetic sounds within this short film, this brings a realistic feel from the film as you can hear the keys rustling; cucumber being cut; bags rustling as she carries it to the kitchen.

Dialogue is used which in my film i will keep to a minimal as in this film it works as it helps cause effects and realization to the woman, whereas in my films, dialogue can stray from when i am trying to portrays as some voices may not fit into these types of films.

Target Audience

The short film is a thriller, and due to what is implied that has or may happen it will be aimed at teenagers and older, who enjoys watching mysteries.

What Ideas Can I Use In My Film?

                  

Short Film Idea 3

This film idea i created to follow around special effects which i have taught myself to do. The special effects i would like to do for this film is to create a burnt hand making it look as if somebody has been burnt badly in a fire. An example of what i can do is shown below.

The film is a bit like the last one were it involves a forest but this time it is just a thriller there is no comedy involved at all. This film will also use major it handheld for camera as it represents fast action and it intensifies the film causing more tension on the audience making them want to keep there eyes away for the gruesomeness but also keep watching to find out what happens next. As the film will be filmed in a forest there will be a lot of shots behind corners to portray the audience being the killler even though the audience will see the killer, but they also get put in the shoes of the killer. 

The key points of the film will be:

• The girl walking through the forest
• The man approaching the girl
• The girl trying to escape
• The news report
• The fire scene

There may be problems lighting a fire in a forest as it can be represented as us trying to create a forest fire, so we would never actually see the girl light the match on fire. We would see an extreme close up of the girl attempting to light a fire but before the match touches the box the scene will fade to black, so no fire would actually be involved in the scene. 

Short Film Idea 2

This film idea i created follows a T mobile ad which I always see when i go to the cinema. The reason I would like to create a film following the basics of this short film/ ad, is because of the expressions i witness on the audiences faces while they are watching it. Throughout the ad they are intrigued as the film has not started yet but they believe they are watching a trailer to a scary film which they can potentially watch in the future. This straight away grabs the audiences attention as they believe it is something to consider watching, so they would have to watch the full ad to find out when the film will be shown in cinemas. While the ad is on screen it causes tension to the audience as they they think something scary is about to come out of nowhere to scare them which makes the audience nervous, but intrigued at the same time. When they eventually see the ending of the ad everybody starts laughing as they find out there was nothing for them to be scared of, as it was just a T mobile advert.

I think this is a good idea for a short film concept as people will be scared from the very beginning and in their mind set this film that they are watching is a horror and they have be on the edge of their seats as something could happen at any given moment in time.

For my film idea i have gone for a forest theme as instantly people portray forest as a murder scene or  a scary atmosphere as it is dark and there are thousands of places where a potential murderer can hide.

In my film it will show a person jogging on a daily routine, but on one of there days, they don't feel like their normal jog, they feel like they are being followed by someone. Which in reality they are not being followed by anybody (but the audience will not know this), the camera will be handheld in the majority of the scenes. As this gives an effect of chase which the audience will believe someone is behind them chasing them, hiding in trees and hiding in bushes. The comedy part of this film could of two ways a dog comes out of no where (This dog could be showed at the very beginning, being showed as a friendly dog which she gets on with and the dog followed her, or it could be her jumper was falling of so every time she passed a tree there is a delayed rustling noise from the trees which was created by her jumper scrapping past it after she passed the tree.

Short Film Idea 1

This short film will not actually be a documentary as it is not a true story.

The reason i wrote documentery is because I want it to be set out in such a way that the audience feel like it is so real they believe the film in front of them is in fact a documentary, as hopefully the feel the pain the actor is portraying.

In actual fact the film will be classed as a drama, as it is based on a fictional story which I have made up, as it will be hard to find a non fictional story, recreate it, and portray the emotions and feeling which the actual person 'whose story it is' went through. If we were able to find somebody who would like us to share there story it would have to be turned down, as we are only ammeters. By us being ammetures we do not have the money, time or experience to suit the needs of the person which wants to share their story.

The reason for the idea I came up with, was based on what BBC 3 does, which is gathering non fictional story information and turning it into a drama to suit the needs of their audience. The reason I looked at BBC 3 dramas is because there target audience are around the same ages i plan to target my film at (15 +), The reason for this is because there are emotionally effective and physical scenes which young children should not be allowed to view as it is not something they should be watching.

A film which helped me come up with this idea which was created and shown on BBC was:

• Glasgow girls - A non fiction story which is based on the life of immigrants in Glasgow. What BBC have done with the film is created it to be interesting for younger audience so they are in touch with what people older than them had to go through when they was the same age, so that they can get their rights in this country. I believe that there may be some fictional aspects in the film to grab the attention of the young audience and older audience. Which for my film will not really matter as it is a fictional story but I would need to do from this like BBC have done, is to not drift away from the main story line as the main point of the film is the grasp the audience attention, to make them feel apart of the film getting affection off the actor and getting emotionally attached to the actors scenarios. Which allows the film to get there story known by the audience, in which they have their full attention by adding extra scenes which allows the film to grab the audiences attention.