Evaluation: Question 2/3

·         How have the short films that you have studied/researched influenced your own production? Be specific; think about use of cameras, music, titles, narrative structure etc.

·         What were your other influences? Music videos, films and news story, personal incident?

On watching the short film Beyond Words, I was struck by the way the director removed sound and the subsequent powerful impact that its absence created. The tap dripping as we see Raine’s slit wrists is one of the few diegetic sounds within the short, which separates and highlights its importance because the sudden nonexistence of sound places more emphasis on the protagonist’s suggested tragedy and the repetition of this soothing echo is a direct contrast to the visual, which is design to shock.

By beginning the short as though it is a full-length film with titles as is done in Mud Boy, the audience is deliberately led into the false expectation of security, and this works well because it allows us to produce a short that leaves the reader without security, using something as tangible as the subconscious state.

It can be suggested that every good narrative must have a turning point, and we represent this in the ‘proposal’ of the lipstick and the next of the camera zooming in on Raine’s shocked expression, allows us to bridge the gap between our two ideas. This is the point that lightening (see example Scarlett’s Witch),within both the filming and editing stages become integral as it supports this transition by using bright, exaggerated colours symbolic of happiness and then dark, shadowy ones, symbolic of the change in the character’s emotion – the breaking of her heart.

The shots that stand out in my memory are the ones of the protagonist’s eyes, which are influenced by the film Pan’s Labyrinth. The way the camera zooms into Ofelia’s eyes is a poignant shot as it represents the movement of the protagonist. In my opinion, the shot of the eye in Raine is also representative of the audience’s ‘invitation’ into Raine’s mind and thus her emotions, which we also try to depict in the camera angles as during the dream sequence a long of them are from her point of view.