3FT152 - Fiction Production Assignment 2 Assessment Criteria and Process

Desmond
When understanding what a cinematic experience translates to, one might associate the term with the physical act of viewing a piece of audio visual material within a darkened room, with an enhancement on the size of the screen and amplified sound, ultimately tweaking the elements of a film to the senses of humans, tightly focusing the viewers attention onto the film rather than outside sources. The term does not however just relate to the physical distribution of a film, it can refer to the way a film is shot. For example applying anamorphic lenses to the camera to give shots a wider shot, or for similar effects, using the the letterbox technique, which is the application of black framing on the top and bottom of the frame to enhance the look of a wider shot, changing the aspect ratio. Finally one can apply the meaning of the term through screenwriting. Western ideologies of narrative form are normally presented with a clear beginning, middle and end. Avant-garde cinema may challenge this western norm of arrangement, however these decisive arrangements of narrative structure are all in aid of creating a cinematic experience.

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This critical look into the film Desmond (2014) will offer a comprehensive study of our companys aid to the production to complete a piece of film offering a cinematic experience. I will reflect upon our progress through the production in relation to our applied cinematic techniques, both practical and theoretical. Since nearly all of us are acculturated to expect certain types of experiences in movie theatres and on television, one of the valuable functions of the multifaceted independent cinema that has developed alongside the popular cinema during most of its history is to challenge our expectation. When we see a film that surprises or shocks us, we are forced to question the implicit assumptions about cinema our expectations encode. (McDonald, S. 1992)

During the beginning stages of co-writing the script with the director involved discussing the main skeleton of our idea based around the concept of a heist. Inspired by Pitch Black (2011) by its take on a heist concept, we discussed characters to involve and how and to what extent we should develop them within a ten-minute limit. We discussed setting a singular main character, as we believed 10 minutes was insufficient time enough to develop more than one. Short films usually have one main character and hinge on a single, sharp turning point that makes one moment resonate. (Rabiger 2013).

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Our visual intentions for the film were influenced films like 'Get Carter' (1971), 'The Long Good Friday' (1980) and 'Sitting Target' (1972). We wanted to incorporate universal themes of fatherhood, childhood and violence. However the director was taken by these themes being portrayed through applying stylistic choices and props that have a strong sense of British heritage giving the film distinct British overtones. We did this by utilizing the British countryside for our locations, having the characters wearing tweed and wax jackets and partaking in the hunting of British Game. The theme which was regarded most dominant in terms of the films social characteristics was our portrayal of brutal violence. We believed this to be quite a cinematic theme. As we have seen, violence is an essential component of the cinema, part of the deep formal structure (2003, Prince, S). Our story follows the character Desmond and his Journey on seeking admiration and recognition from his father. We wrote the character with serious suppressed rage, like a ticking time bomb ready to explode. It is a physical performance consisting of brute power and force ready to escape his body. He is an enigma, He doesnt speak, and he is very reserved yet there is this dialogue of rage being held back. The film is a psychological drama; it is a subjective from Desmonds perspective (almost surreal) rather than our previously intended heist epic. We had to portray these characteristics through use of convention, giving reason for us trying to relate our film to that of British gangster movies as previously mentioned. The performing !"#$%&'(')*+,-.'/01*2'3'$$445&$6%' !

characters that narrative texts present are fictional. In literature they are part of a linguistically constructed fiction; in film they are indeed visualized for us, but they are nevertheless part of a complex film form with aesthetic devices and characteristics of its own. Both in literature and film the drawing of characters is based on more conventions than on unambiguous historical references to real people (Lothe, 2000). To compliment this the characters rage we interwove a flash back sequence throughout segments in the film. During the second scene we see Desmond as a young child find a partially dead pheasant in the bushes whilst on a hunt with his father, who sees this as an opportunity to teach his son a lesson. Already here there is a lot of meaning to portray to the viewer. For this scene we needed to first of all make clear to the audience who the little boy was. This scene in particular has been edited through posted production and filmed in a certain manner in order to create a certain mystique of a flash back, using many techniques to replicate this type of look. First of all we began by introducing a black and white wash over the scenes, which were in the past, almost to mimic the look of a pre-Technicolor film, giving a past feeling to our colour photograph generation. One could almost argue the black and white mirrored a newspaper article black and white print, implying the scene in which is being presented is a past article. As black and white film has transitioned from being a necessity to an artistic choice, once Technicolor had come into existence, its use has been described as creating ulterior dimensional effects.

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A shot from the flash back sequence, depicting young Desmond. The decision to start the film in sepia was surely not just to heighten the impact of the first coloured scenes of Oz, but to differentiate the 'real' world of Kansas in the 1930s from the timeless 'fantasy' world of Oz. At a time when films were almost entirely black-and-white, monochrome was seen as 'natural' and colour was seen as 'unrealistic'.(2001, Mitchell). However as time has moved on the transition has meant rather than black and white film being the norm it has now reversed to represent the odd and separate world which is how I believe black and white film is able to translate on screen as portraying a different time period. We thought that this technique, matched with footage intercut with the young version of Desmond against the older would be enough information to give to the audience to offer an understanding of the connection. !"#$%&'(')*+,-.'/01*2'3'$$445&$6%' !

Throughout other points in the film, we decided to give further clarity of the relation of young and old Desmond. Later in the film we see a subtler visual clue, in the form of a shot composition alignment between the past and modern day. We see the father washing the blood off his sons hands in a basin, by pouring water onto them, which is intercut with similarly framed composition of the same situation, but relative to modern day.

The cinematic experience is also closely reliant on the presence of colour, which is used to shape and mould emotion and can depict reality as well as stylisation. The director stressed on creating the film to be stylistic early on in the pre-production process, through use of colour. An example of our use of colour amplification to enhance a shot sequence is evident during the ending scene, in which the director felt colour could be used at to its potential. During this ending scene we see Desmond confront his father, on his deathbed. There are several things we felt needed to be portrayed in this scene, for one !"#$%&'(')*+,-.'/01*2'3'$$445&$6%' !

we wanted to make a clear point regarding the narrative; of how much time had past, through ageing of the father, therefore we decided to depict the father character on his death bed. We knew this wouldnt suffice as an ending setting, as we indented this scenario to hold emotional presence, and a balance between tension and family comfort. Therefore we decided to intensify the concept of not just a human, but a dominant father and violent influence over Desmond on their deathbed. In order to create this powerful impression, production design created a meshwork of machinery growing around the father, including the use of ECG Heart monitor, and an oxygen respirator. This utilization of relevant and situation authentic hospital equipment, paired with the actors robotic strained breathing, delivered the impression of someone slowly grasping onto life by wires and equipment, yet at the same time holding years of pain and violence. We showed this social aspect of the character by our make up assistant developing the aged and majestic lines in the actors face and whitening his complexion to give him a ghostly appearance. Finally what was left for use to tie in to this scene was the bittersweet fatherson relationship to expose on screen to compliment the tension between the actors themselves. The costume departments decision to have Desmonds character to wear a leather jacket came in use, as originally it was simply to allow the audience to read this leather jacket as an item representing nihilism, violence and more subtly a tough outer shell, holding a softer inner soul. However the Jacket held many elements in differentiating the character from the frail, white and !"#$%&'(')*+,-.'/01*2'3'$$445&$6%' !

religious like depicted father. For one the dark shiny exterior of the jacket appears as a clear contrast to the fathers pale pyjamas, secondly, the material itself is made to withstand rain, and therefore liquid and as the coat is sprayed with the blood of his victims it appears to wipe off with ease, suggesting the murder of his companions was no apparent inconvenience. This pairs aesthetically with the tight bound sounds we receive when the jacket adjusts to the bulk figure sitting beside his Father. During the writing of this project, the director and myself felt strongly about creating a strong foundation for the character developments, which would then be passed onto the actors. This included creating backstories for the characters, so regarding the father figure; we wrote texts describing him for background material. The man of the house hold, like he is at work. He is very well respected and is represented through in the film through god like iconography, reinforced through lighting. Previously we envisioned the father, have a group of criminals including Desmond on a job and whilst they were going through the process when one of the Fathers best friends betrayed him, holding him at gunpoint. The Father threatened then backed off because he knew the money and the robbery item wasnt worth it. He respected his friends and recognised he was desperate. (An extract of notes made by the first assistant director and the director.)

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A scene in which we had most difficulty producing, or rather, which was set itself aside from experiences creating content for the rest of the project was the torture scene, which required us to portray the release of Desmonds built up inner tension and confusion. Within this we need to show a rise of both emotions and then the aftermath of release. We wanted to relate to other parts of the film and refer to them metaphorically, for instance, comparing his anger he shows in this scene with what we see in the abattoir, which is why we decided to intercut between both scenes. As we see Desmond Brutally with hunger and passion assault his accomplice Archie, we intercut Desmonds lunges toward half a cattles carcass, which we have perfectly timed, compelling the audience to compare both victims, thus relating to Archie as a piece of bleeding and beaten meat, to be practiced on or even eaten. Here we are using a similar technique as previously discussed, but in a completely different context. I am referring to our example of a Tertium quid, a term relating to Sergei Eisensteins Soviet montage editing techniques, in which he describes film montages and how they can create ideas and impact the audience beyond the individual images themselves. He describes how two separate images together can create a tertium quid which adds extra meaning. Kuleshov and his pupils conceived of montage as an expressive or symbolic process whereby logically or empirically dissimilar images could be linked together synthetically to produce metaphors (to produce, that is, nonliteral meaning) (Cook, 2004. cited by Valk, M, 2013).

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This managed to intensify the gore and graphic content, aiding to the directors intended vision of graphic and brutal imagery. Next was our attention to the speed and pace for this scene. During post-production we discussed racing through the montage, which in itself helped the tertium quid, by giving less imagery but more of an effect. This fast paced cutting also matched the wings of Desmonds swipes and swings, further complimented by his short bursts of martial art breathing techniques. The assistant and Director envisioned creating the scene to replicate an actual murder and to support each blow with supporting senses and elements. !i"ek relates this to some of Hitchcocks work, in Pyscho (1960). The act of murder is dismembered into a multitude of fragmentary close-ups which succeed one another in frenetic rhythm (the rising dark hand; the knifes edge close to the belly; the scream of the open mouth#) as if the repeated strikes of the knife have contaminated the reel itself and caused the tearing up of the filmic gaze#(or rather the opposite: as if the murderous shadow stands in, within the diegetic space, for the power of editing itself. (1992, !i"ek, 229).

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Intercutting between the abattoir and the forest assault scenes.

Desmond (2014) offers an experimental take on narrative structure; although it has a clear narrative structure, it is unclear of the characters motives, or indeed his ulterior motives. This may be due to the main characters name Desmond not once being mentioned during conversation, misleading the !"#$%&'(')*+,-.'/01*2'3'$$445&$6%' !

audience as to whether it is the father or sons name, which lead to further difficulty regarding the story and upsetting our work creating the flashbacks. We felt that we did not spend enough time binding the connection between the two counterparts to the stick-up situation, as they seemed in between relevant and untouched upon, meaning there was little character development. This was partially due to us cutting an entire scene, which involved a pink wall background, unfitting to the films aesthetic, which could not be corrected during post. Another problematic element of the structure of the narrative however was the relevance of the whiskey. When re-watching the film it is not distinctly clear of the meaning behind planning, rehearsing and carrying out a whiskey heist purely just for the main character to prove his self-worth to his father. The closest the film comes to even touching on this comparison is during the opening shot where we see an alignment of whiskey bottles adorned on a mantelpiece beside the fire. Besides being a very experimental storyline we believe despite this we have induced and influenced a level of thought and query, excitement and disgust and ultimately a cinematic experience.

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Bibliography Lothe, Jakob (2000). Narrative in Fiction and Film. United States: Oxford University Press Inc.. 76. Mitchell, David. (2001). Monochrome Memories - why Black-and-White did not fade away. An essay for 'Case Studies in Media Production and Interpretation' MA in History of Film and Visual Media . 1 (1), 2. Mcdonald, Scott (1992). A Critical Cinema. Oxford, England: University of California Press. 1. Prince, Stephen (2003) Classical Film Violence: Designing and regulating brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Rabiger, Michael (2013). Directing: Film techniques and Aesthetics. 5th ed. Burlington: Focal Press. 70. Valk, Mark De (2013). The Film Handbook. Oxford: Routledge. 125-6. !i"ek, S. (1991). Looking awry, London: Verso. Pg.226.

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Filmography / Psycho (1960) [FILM] United States, Paramount Pictures. Pitch Black Heist (2011) [TV] United Kingdom, Film Four.

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