Contextual research 3 short dramas watched, reviewed and contextualised.
"Boy" Link to video
"Boy" is a 16 minute long film directed by Lucas Helth Postma and the screen play is by Olivia Karoline Fløe Lyng & Lucas Helth Postma. Among many awards it has received "Winner of the Jury Prize at Seoul International Youth Film Festival" and "Winner of best international short film at fresh film festival".
I chose this film as it closely relates to my idea for my film, I was particularly interested in the relationship between the mother and her daughter as I wanted to explore how someone who is close to a person transitioning would react. I wanted to see how other people wrote a character going against what was normal for them and showing such distain for someone they loved, this is because the relationship between my two characters will be similar to a family one instead of just friends (people who are family tend to have a much stronger relationship then that of friends, my characters are friends who consider each other family).
It's about a young girl and her struggles to make her mother realise she wants to become a man, it looks at both positive an negative reactions to transitioning. Positive reactions coming from her brother "Simon" who is the person she runs to after she and her mother have a fight (showing the audience that she feels safe in his company), negative reactions coming from her mother who calls her weird and insists "Emilie" needs professional help.
The girls mother goes through the biggest change in the film her and Emilie start the film by butting heads over clothing choices and Emilie's behaviour eg. binding (a common practice for women transitioning to try and flatten their chests).
The film builds up to a confrontation between the two characters over dinner where Emilie has cut her hair and changed her clothes, after a fight between them and Emilie's brother intervening we see the change in their mothers behaviour when she puts Simon's tie on Emilie.
The film only uses a soundtrack at two points, when Emilie has bound her chest and when the credits are rolling. I found this interesting as it allows for dialogue and general noises such as plates and cutlery to be heard more intensely, I felt this added to the tense relationship between mother and child. This something I will be seeking to be including in my film.
As well as this the way Emilie's character was written to be a quiet and timid person allowed for her later outburst to be that more out of character, this really emphasised to the audience that she had reached breaking point.
The film also played with the audience's expectations of the mother, looking through comments on the video it's a varied reaction of people hating the mother and how she handles everything, or people are happy that she accepted Emilie. Personally I was not expecting her to accept everything, I thought she would resent her and Emilie would go to live with her brother. I was pleasantly surprised that she welcomed her new son.
This film has allowed me understand how I can show the strain on both sides of the friendship (this is something not commonly done in mainstream films and TV shows). It has also given me ideas for how my lead character can come out, in this film Emilie disassociates herself from her mother and this seems to make things easier for her which is something I could consider using in my own work.
"Love and other mental illnesses" Link to video
"Love and other mental illnesses" is a 14 minute long short film, it was written and directed by Jim Del Brocco and was produced by; Alex Griffin, Dave Mack and Kate Riccio.
The film follows Jack in his video diary for his group therapy sessions, Jack has anxiety and the video diary is supposed to help he deal with his anxiety. Jack has a list of "Rom Com Clichés" that he aims to complete.
I chose this film as I liked the fourth wall break between Jack and the audience, however unlike more traditional uses of this technique "Love and other mental illnesses" actually allows its other characters to know that Jack is talking to what seems to be nothing and react to that. As well as this many people who are transgendered suffer from anxiety and other mental illnesses and need to take medication for it.
I found the character of Sally particularly interesting and liked how the writer had the two characters work so well together even though at first glance they seem to be complete opposites. Sally's behaviour became a point of interest for me because the audience isn't told 'what's wrong' with her as they are with Jack and yet through subtle behaviour choices in the writing process it's clear she isn't fully at ease socially.
(This subtle writing style is something I'd like to try and use for my characters so my film doesn't become a cliché transgender film where everything about the lead is glaringly obvious for the audience, I'd like to make who ever watches my film to think about the character instead of having the thinking done for them in the description of the character.)
In the film both characters arguably go through a change (although because it's Jack's diary it focuses on him), Jack's change through out the film is that he learns to stand up for himself (through Sally's influence) he also expands his socialising abilities through his time with Sally (after he tells her that "It's obvious you're like crazy whatever, you know maybe you should just get used to the fact now that no one is going to want to spend time with you once they spend more then a minute with you." he recognises he needs to go an apologise to her.) he learns how to deal with her overbearing personality.
The conflict in this film is built up through out the film, staring with Sally taking Jack's pills because he doesn't think he needs them, that they'll make him a "zombie". Ultimately this builds to Jack saying that no one will want to hang around Sally and that she is crazy, the conflict is resolved through the completion of Jacks "Rom Com Clichés" by kissing Sally.
This film has allowed me to understand how effective subtle writing for a character can be, it's also allowed me to see one way a conflict can be resolved between two characters.
"Sam" Link to video
"Sam" is a 10 minute film written and directed by Sam Bardo (an award winning director and writer whose films as well as music videos often tackle issues affecting the gay and LGBT communities), it's about a young girl who's come home from school after being bullied for dressing as a boy and her eventual decision in who she wants to be.
Synopsis straight from video- "After being bullied at school for dressing as a boy, Sam escapes into the fields surrounding her house, where she's forced to choose between who she is and who society thinks she should be."
I chose this film for a few reasons one being it closely relates to my own film idea, the other being I found it an interesting way to tell the story of a child who is confused about their identity.
The films use of dialogue or lack there of I found made the visual signifiers more powerful, for example Sam's blue dress is seem with a blood stain connotes to the audience that Sam's famine way of dressing has metaphorically died. As well as this the actions of Sam crumpling up the note that her guardian left her denotes to the audience she angry with them for some unknown reason.
(I'd like to use subtle signifiers like this for my lead)
As well as this I found the meeting between Sam as her famine self and Sam as dressed in a more masculine way was an interesting and unique way of showing the internal mental struggle between how she wants to dress as to how society thinks she should dress.
This film had helped me realise that a film about these issues could be just as if not more powerful through visual imagery rather then a lot of dialogue. It follows the rule of show not tell for the audience.
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