Sarah – Reflective Analysis

Module: 162MC: Developing a Narrative
URL to Short Film: https://vimeo.com/94510612

Analysing and Reflecting the Impact of My Research on My Film Edit of ‘Sarah’

What is editing? Dancyger stated that editing is ‘“…to find a narrative continuity for the visuals and the sound of the film, and to distil those visuals and sound shots that will create the dramatic emphasis so that the film will be effective’ (Dancyger 2010). In this essay I will be depicting research on the British New Wave film style and delineating how they impacted on my film edit of ‘Sarah’ and reflecting the successfulness of this.

To commence, British New Wave emerged in Britain during the 50s and 60s. An important factor to look at is the socio-economic and political situation of Britain at the time. People were still in the mind-set of post-war and rationing. Class divisions were starting to resurface again. The only appearance of working class people in Cinema was for comedy relief (Brooke 2001).A very important movement at the time was the free cinema movement. This gave access to filming technology to ordinary people so for the first time people other than Hollywood filmmakers had the ability to make films (Thompson & Bordwell 2003).In terms of technology I could compare the conditions I filmed in similar to the free cinema movement. My film was shot on a DSLR and in the 21^st century DSLR filming has been making a movement due to it’s high quality motion image capturing capability quality and its low entry costs; an entry level DSLR costing less than £300 (Reid 2010). Amateur filmmakers from lower class divisions such as myself are finding themselves having access to more and more filming technology just like new filmmakers did in the 50s to 60s Britain.

In addition, as well as the conditions British New Wave emerged in, it clearly had it’s own conventions in terms of narrative and editing. Looking at films such as Billy Liar (1962), Kind of Loving, A (1962) and This Sporting Life (1963), the leading character is usually a young angry male who’s political opinions would be seen as a radical or anarchic and would disregard the hegemonic norm at the time. In my film the lead character is contemplating self-euthanasia. Euthanasia is still a controversial topic in the 21^st century where there is a very strong side against it and there are many laws forbidding its use. This style choice leads me to edit my film so that my leading male character was in most shots or if he were in shots with anyone else, he would be the main focus.

Moreover, another convention of the British New Wave film style was the simple, uncluttering edit style. Shots were static and handheld and sometimes ran a whole scene with just the one shot. In the beginning of my film where the lead character washes his face in the sink; originally there were 3 different angles; an over the shoulder shot, close up of the mirror and a long shot from behind. In my edit I chose to use the one over the shoulder shot for that entire scene and keep it simple and uncluttered just like the examples of British New Wave films I watched. Another style choice made by British New Wave films was the use of 16mm black and white film (Palmer 2006). Although there was the option of colour, black and white was still used. So adhering to this decision British New Wave films made back in the 50s and 60s, I made my film black and white in postproduction by taking away the saturation. Studies have shown that the use of ‘black and white films heightens the impact and highlights the duality of good and evil’ (Sparknotes 2014).

Also, most of the time in British New Wave films, a steady rhythm and pace is maintained. This is so that the actor’s performance and dialogue are heightened most because this style of film is more about the social realism and themes. This finding resulted in me cutting my film with a slow steady pace. Although it was filmed with many different angles such as close ups of facial expressions, I chose to primarily use just one or two shots for whole scenes. This made it so that the audience’s attention was primarily given to the actor’s performance and dialogue.

Reflecting on the successfulness of this research on my film piece, I can say I’ve adhered to the stylistic editing of British New Wave aesthetically in terms of black and white colour, the rhythm and pace and controlling the temporal space. But British New Wave wasn’t about aesthetics from what I have gathered. Capturing the social realism aspect was hindered since the script contained didactic dialogue from an unseen voice that could be interpreted as mysticism. Referring to Raymond Williams four rules of social realism (Caughie 2000), the first rule already being ‘firstly that the texts are secular released from mysticism and religion’. British New Wave films dealt particularly with themes such as unplanned pregnancies, drinking and adultery. Euthanasia was not an issue during post war Britain amongst working class civilians. If I were given the chance to write another contemporary script in the style of British New Wave, a social realistic issue I’d like to write about would be the tough economic times working class people face in this decade.

British New Wave was a brilliant style of film that didn’t adhere to the typical Hollywood conventions at the time and I applaud it for its courage. However British New Wave films may not have a place in 21^st century Britain due to the radical changes of the socio-economic and political condition of Britain today compared to the 50s and 60s. That isn’t to say films concerning social realism and working class people cannot be made. Just that our social understanding is very different to Britain during the 50s when British New Wave originally emerged. This is shown through my film aesthetically adhering to the rules and stylistic conventions of a British New Wave film but not the social realism of 50s working class Britain due to it’s contemporary setting.

Bibliography

Brooke, S (2001) Gender and Working Class Identity in Britain During the 1950s. Journal of Social History. Oxford University Press.

Caughie, John (2000) Television Drama: Realism, Modernism, and British Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dancyger, K (2010) The Technique of Film & Video Editing, History, Theory & Practice. Focal Press, Oxford.

Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell (2003) Film History: An Introduction. McGraw, Hill.

Reid, Andrew (2010) The DSLR Video Revolution. [online] available from http://www.digitalrev.com/article/the-dslr-video-revolution/NTgyNA_A_A [07 May 2014]

R. Barton Palmer (2006) Traditions in World Cinema. Edinburgh University Press.

Sparknotes (2014) Schindler’s List, The Impact of Black and White Film [online] available from http://www.sparknotes.com/film/schindlerslist/section2.rhtml [07 May 2014]

162MC – Script Final Draft

Here is the pdf file to the final draft of my script after I’ve taken on board the notes of the script report to my first draft: Clara Screenplay FINAL DRAFT

162MC – My Script Report on Zohair’s Script

Here is my script report on the script written by Zohair Raza: Script Report of Death

162MC – Script Report of My Script

Here is the script report by Zohair Raza of my script: Script Report of Clara

162MC – Screenplay First Draft

Here is a pdf file to the first draft of my screenplay to my short film idea:
Clara Screenplay FIRST DRAFT

 

162MC – Treatment

This week we have to write a treatment for our short film idea. A treatment is used because it is more detailed than an outline and allowed more directorial style details to be included. They often read like a short story but are told all in present tense.

Here is the treatment to my short film idea:

CLARA
Short Film Treatment
By
Sheikh Shah-Nawaz

RACHEL is a 30 year old single mother living with her 6 year old son, BEN. One night while they are asleep, they are abruptly woken by a hammering on there front door at 3am in the morning. Rachel is hesitant about opening the door but when she does, she is greeted by a distressed, out of breath young woman in torn clothes asking for help.

ACT ONE:

Manchester House. Night. An alarm clock is seen on Rachel’s bedside table showing that the time is 3am. A hammering on the door is heard. Ben staggers into his mum’s room half asleep and scared wearing a pair of ‘onsie’ pyjamas. His mum is also woken by the hammering. Ben tells her someone is knocking on the door. His mum gets up from her bed. She is wearing a woman’s night gown. She takes her bathrobe off the hook on the back of her door and puts it on. She makes her way downstairs hurriedly to see who is at the door. As she gets to the door she becomes very cautious. She shouts who’s there over the hammering. A woman’s voice answers her back. She sounds distressed. Rachel upon hearing a woman’s voice and feeling relieved, she opens the door. At the door is a young woman dressed in torn clothes covered in dirt. Rachel immediately invites her in to take a seat. Ben asks from the stairs if everything is okay? Rachel says everything is fine and to go back to bed and that she will be with him soon. Rachel asks the young woman who she is and what happened to her?

ACT TWO: CLARA’S STORY

The young woman informs Rachel her name is CLARA. Clara then tells her that she risked her life to talk to Rachel. Rachel takes a seat next to Clara on the sofa. Rachel is bewildered. Rachel then asks what she means by risking her life just to talk to her? Clara explains she is from the distant future where earth has been taken over by outer space creatures and has enslaved humanity. She is from a small rebellion that is dwindling in numbers that has risked everything to send her back in time to speak to Rachel. Rachel is outraged by Clara’s story that she believes is a lie. She claims she’s either crazy or a liar and demands Clara to leave her flat and will give her some food and money for her departure. Rachel goes to the kitchen to find her purse and pack some food to give to Clara. At this moment, Ben comes down after secretly overhearing Clara’s story. Ben whispers to Clara he believes her. Clara whispers back smiling and thanking him. Rachel enters the living room again. Just as she enters, Clara slips an unidentified object into Ben’s pocket. She shouts at Ben for coming down and to get away from Clara. Clara declines the food and money and leaves thanking Rachel and saying goodbye to Ben.

ACT THREE: CLARA’S DEPARTURE

Rachel orders Ben to go to bed instantly. As Ben grudgingly walks up the stairs to his bedroom, he feels something in his pocket. He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a futuristic looking device. We are then thought to believe Ben will grow up to make a weapon or prevent the incoming alien invasion some time in the future. Ben puts it back in his pocket and walks off screen.

FADE TO BLACK.

162MC – Outline

Last week I wrote a short pitch for one of 2 film idea stimuluses we were provided. This week we are now to take that pitch and write an industry standard outline. An outline is used to tell the story without writing the whole script and all the dialogue. It is to see the plot and an idea of what the characters are like and the location it is set in.

Here is the outline to my pitch form last week:

Rachel, a single mother and her only son, Ben are woken up by a hammering on the door. Rachel is reluctant to open the door. A woman’s voice is heard behind the door asking for help and shelter. Rachel invites in the dishevelled, out of breath young woman dressed in torn, dirty clothes. Rachel is inquisitive about the state of the young woman. The young woman tells her that her name is Clara and that she risked her life to come here to speak to her. Clara explains she is from the distant future where earth has been taken over by outer space creatures and has enslaved humanity. She is from a small rebellion that has risked everything to send her back in time to speak to Rachel.

Rachel is outraged by Clara’s story that she believes is a lie. She demands clara to leave and will depart her with some food and money. Rachel leaves the room to find money and pack some food for Clara. At this moment, Ben comes down after secretly overhearing Clara’s story. Ben tells Clara that he believes her. Clara smiles and puts something in Ben’s pocket really quickly. Rachel enters back into the room. She shouts at Ben for being out of bed and coming down and instructs him to get away from Clara. Clara declines the food and money and leaves thanking Rachel and saying goodbye to Ben. Rachel orders Ben to go to bed instantly. As Ben walks up the stairs to his bedroom, he checks his pocket to find some sort of futuristic device.

162MC – Pitch

This week we have started a new module aimed at the industry process on script writing. There’s more to script writing than just writing 3 pages of dialogues and sequences. This will net get you very far in the industry. The first process we were taught this week was to be able to pitch an idea. This is a crucial part before a script should even be written. We were given 2 stimuluses to base our idea on:

A: There is a hammering on a door, it opens to reveal a dishevelled, breathless person, why? How did they get this way… 

B: There is a hammering on a door, why? Dare the door be opened? If so what is revealed….

I’ve chosen to use the first stimulus for my pitch idea, and here it is:

A dishevelled, breathless woman hammers on the door of a single mother and her only son’s house at 3am. She claims she is from the distant apocalyptic future and here to save her world.