Short Documentary/Urban Story film
Targeting 16+ middle class males and females, knowledgeable about urban story conventions
2 - 4 minutes long
Key stylistic elements - Montage, urban story themes e.g representing the minority, strong soundtrack, singling characters out with framing
Niche, reality, new wave, key theme of loneliness
Based on La Haine
The film sequence that me and my partner have produced is a short Urban Story with experimental stylistic features called "Downpour", which has taken influence from films such as Mathieu Kassovitz' La Haine. Originally, our intentions were to produce an Urban Story which stuck to traditional conventions, however after studying Experimental Cinema, I decided the best outcome would be to add elements of experimental cinematography, making more of a high brow film which would attract a more niche, active audience. To focus on my philosophical reasoning in more depth, the message I intended to get across to my audience is the consequences of alcohol, and how they effect yourself and others around you.
My original primary influence was 'La Haine', in terms of the camera shots used. My film is very slow paced as there are numerous long shots used of the main character walking, adding to the effect of realism. 30 seconds in, we used the well known opening shot in La Haine, where the camera zooms in on Saids face and as he opens his eyes we hear the diegetic sound around him, this is used in our film and worked very effectively, to show the character is trying to shut out the world around him. During the close up, the experimental elements start to come in, with very quick, short, black and white flashbacks, with bursts of white noise behind them. My reasoning for this was to make my film non-linear, enabling my film to attract a much wider audience as it is a very mainstream convention. The clips consisted of things such as a close up of a bottle of beer, showing our audience that our film will involve alcoholic references like within other Urban Stories such as Princesses.
The opening scene of our film shows the main character in a drunken state, a close up of him was used and he held the camera himself to enable us to get the shaking movement of the camera effectively, as editor of the film, I wanted to really get across the experimental elements and make it look as unusual as possible, so I used jump cuts within the 2 minute clip which created a stutter effect, then I added a delay video effect to the clips, this made the overall effect of much more unusual, and more surreal, relying more on imagery to tell the story and the characters background.
We then placed the camera on a tripod facing the back of me as I walked away. 3/4 seconds into the clip we used an overlay of a close up of the other character lighting a cigarette, this is the usage of both an Urban Story and Experimental Film, as the long walking clips and usage of framing to make the character alone is used often in La Haine and Princesses, and unusual effects such as overlays are often used in Experimental cinema. About 30 seconds on, an extreme long shot is used, the camera pans and follows the main character, it is used for around 5 seconds, this is a huge convention of the Urban Story genre, the usage of slow paced editing, the framing emphasising the loneliness of the character, often done in La Haine and Princesses, I personally think it is a key clip throughout the whole film. Another La Haine reference included into the sequence is a low angled long shot of once again the character walking, however the camera was placed behind a set of bars, this was done a couple of times in La Haine but also in films like City of God & Princesses, it shows the audience that the character is trapped, the character in our film is trapped via alcohol, bad things will continue to happen to him and others around him if he continues to drink, but he can't stop himself, thus the usage of the subtle trapped reference.
Whilst walking, the main characters physical performance was something I took into consideration, Maya Derens 'Meshes of the Afternoon' has her main subject walk throughout her house, but she doesn't over act, it's almost as if she is sleep walking, this emphasises a more subtle experimental performance, a huge reason to why the character in my film isn't focussing on facial expressions.
A key shot used in the film is a fixed mid profile shot of the character walking passed and behind him is a wall covered in graffiti, the graffiti connotes the characters background and the kind of place he grew up, influencing his lifestyle choices, such as drinking.
The ending of the film is most significant, but also goes against the common conventions of an Urban Story, it's what many would consider a happy ending, a typical ending of an Urban Story would show the constant cycle of violence and the problems shown within the film, like the ending of La Haine shows Hubert being shot, there is no solution, just the starting of violence once again, the ending of my film shows the character give up his drinking problem, the audience learns he has gave up, and these problems will no longer occur, the opposite to a typical Urban Story.
I do have a few criticisms of the film and things we should've included and things we shouldn't have. First off, I was a little bit annoyed with myself that we didn't film it all on one day, as certain shots that are filmed outside are sunny, and others are dull, which in my opinion makes the overall outcome of the film seem slightly amateur, so if I were to do this again I would manage my time better. Another criticism I would have is we intended on using time frames, like Kassovitz did in La Haine, however, because of the lack of time management, we ended up rushing slightly towards the end and completely forgot to add them in, which in my opinion really would have boosted the quality of the film and made it a lot more obvious which genre it falls under and what my influences were.
The opening scene of our film shows the main character in a drunken state, a close up of him was used and he held the camera himself to enable us to get the shaking movement of the camera effectively, as editor of the film, I wanted to really get across the experimental elements and make it look as unusual as possible, so I used jump cuts within the 2 minute clip which created a stutter effect, then I added a delay video effect to the clips, this made the overall effect of much more unusual, and more surreal, relying more on imagery to tell the story and the characters background.
We then placed the camera on a tripod facing the back of me as I walked away. 3/4 seconds into the clip we used an overlay of a close up of the other character lighting a cigarette, this is the usage of both an Urban Story and Experimental Film, as the long walking clips and usage of framing to make the character alone is used often in La Haine and Princesses, and unusual effects such as overlays are often used in Experimental cinema. About 30 seconds on, an extreme long shot is used, the camera pans and follows the main character, it is used for around 5 seconds, this is a huge convention of the Urban Story genre, the usage of slow paced editing, the framing emphasising the loneliness of the character, often done in La Haine and Princesses, I personally think it is a key clip throughout the whole film. Another La Haine reference included into the sequence is a low angled long shot of once again the character walking, however the camera was placed behind a set of bars, this was done a couple of times in La Haine but also in films like City of God & Princesses, it shows the audience that the character is trapped, the character in our film is trapped via alcohol, bad things will continue to happen to him and others around him if he continues to drink, but he can't stop himself, thus the usage of the subtle trapped reference.
Whilst walking, the main characters physical performance was something I took into consideration, Maya Derens 'Meshes of the Afternoon' has her main subject walk throughout her house, but she doesn't over act, it's almost as if she is sleep walking, this emphasises a more subtle experimental performance, a huge reason to why the character in my film isn't focussing on facial expressions.
A key shot used in the film is a fixed mid profile shot of the character walking passed and behind him is a wall covered in graffiti, the graffiti connotes the characters background and the kind of place he grew up, influencing his lifestyle choices, such as drinking.
The ending of the film is most significant, but also goes against the common conventions of an Urban Story, it's what many would consider a happy ending, a typical ending of an Urban Story would show the constant cycle of violence and the problems shown within the film, like the ending of La Haine shows Hubert being shot, there is no solution, just the starting of violence once again, the ending of my film shows the character give up his drinking problem, the audience learns he has gave up, and these problems will no longer occur, the opposite to a typical Urban Story.
I do have a few criticisms of the film and things we should've included and things we shouldn't have. First off, I was a little bit annoyed with myself that we didn't film it all on one day, as certain shots that are filmed outside are sunny, and others are dull, which in my opinion makes the overall outcome of the film seem slightly amateur, so if I were to do this again I would manage my time better. Another criticism I would have is we intended on using time frames, like Kassovitz did in La Haine, however, because of the lack of time management, we ended up rushing slightly towards the end and completely forgot to add them in, which in my opinion really would have boosted the quality of the film and made it a lot more obvious which genre it falls under and what my influences were.
