Evaluative Analysis

The short films I chose to influence my short film are : Stutterer, La Jetee, Meshes In The Afternoon, Wasp, Connect

My creative piece “Massacre” falls within the dramatic crime fiction genre. I wanted to explore the issues that having an unhealthy experience in life can cause, especially how living under a bad abusive household and bullying affects the mental health of a teenage boy. I wanted to explore what goes through the mind of a teenage boy living under those conditions, and how his thoughts are overflowing with getting rid of those abusive people in his life. The main goal of this short film is to see what goes through his mind and what his struggles are during his daily life which lead to him having those type of thoughts, and how he plans on to take action. 

 “Stutterer” heavily influences my short film because in Stutterer we go through the life of a man who can’t speak without stuttering, hence why he chooses to not speak so we go through the daily life of this man through his thoughts and what he thinks of in response to stuff that happens in his life even though he can’t speak properly. In contrast to my short film which mirrors Stutterer since the short film follows the life of a teenage boy, and we hear his thoughts and how he plans things out. In Stutterer I believe there is a passive audience since you rarely have to assume anything in the short film, straight off the bat with the title we are already told that the main character has a speech problem, and we don’t need to get involved with anything since we are told a lot. In comparison to my short film, Massacre, the audience would be a lot more active as we aren’t told much about the teenage boy Isaac, or anything about his bullies or his abusive dad. This makes it a lot more intriguing for the audience as they have to fill out the missing gaps or assume things. 

 The original plan for my short film was to hold out a scene where the boy takes action and attempts what he thinks about, and essentially have a crime scene, however I felt like it would’ve been better suspense if I leave it at the scene where the boy is prepared to take action in order to leave a sense of mystery and as like a cliff-hanger. I also was planning to have a narrative twist at the end however the cliff-hanger I believe is a better outcome since the aim for my short film was to show what someone could go through which can lead them to having these thoughts.  

Furthermore, I chose to influence my film with "La Jetee" because I planned on to making the film purely in just black and white, this is to reflect Isaac's emotions throughout the entire short film, not one bit of happiness or positivity, only emotion he ever shows is through his serious poker slight frowned face and pale skin. The only time I want there to be shown any sort of colour in the short film is towards the end when Isaac glares into the camera as he clicks his gun through his pocket, with a sinister menacing look I want there to be shown some sort of red highlights along his outline to reflect his pure anger as he thinks about the massacre he wants to commit.

In addition, La Jetee can also reflect into Isaac's character since it essentially shows what goes on into his head, just how in La Jetee the man goes back into time to find himself into his childhood looking at the past, Isaac on the other hand dreams about a future where he kills his father, in a sense La Jetee influences my short film in this way, showing what both characters desire inside their heads. The man that desires to be with the woman he saw that day, and Isaac with the desire to kill his father for being so abusive towards him.

Likewise, "Meshes In The Afternoon" also influence my short film heavily with the black and white filming. "Meshes In The Afternoon" explore what is called abstract filming, or experimental filming, from doing this the film explores an "emotional experience" which is something that influences Massacre heavily as the adrenaline and impact from the dream scene in my short film presents an emotional experience that Isaac wants to experience, the last film also displays this feeling but in a much more sinister way as we actually see Isaac has pure intentions of taking action.

Additionally, "Wasp" influences my short film in terms of how bad parenting is displayed in "Wasp", Isaac goes through an abusive relationship with his father and in Wasp how the mother left her 4 children alone just to get with an old acquaintance. This also portrays bad parenting but also displays the emotional experiences the children have whilst they wait for their mother to come out the bar, in contrast to Massacre of which Isaac's only emotion towards his father is hatred which is displayed through his thoughts and dreams. 

Moreover, Wasp also influences my short film through the use of hand-held camera, in Massacre the usage of a hand-held camera is important because I want to present a natural feeling in the short film, just how in Wasp it is used to add an "organic" feeling to the film in order to make it feel more realistic as this presents views of social realism, just like in Massacre which presents everyday issues that others may experience too, the display of this "organic" feeling helps employ that feeling.

Lastly, "Connect" also influences my short film heavily through the use of point of view and sound usage, for example in Connect every time the music fades (the girl takes off her headphones) she is almost like put back into reality, whereas when she does have her headphones on the music fades back in and she starts imagining things like the businessman killing the old lady, almost as if presenting that the girl wants to take a seat since the businessman sits down on the lady's seat. This can kind of present the girl's true desires, in this case being that she wants to sit down. This heavily is displayed through Massacre as Isaac's true desire is displayed through his dreams in contrast though he actually takes action.