Short Film Analysis - "Stalk"

Stalk, Campus MovieFest 2010

This short film was made for a movie festival hosted in the United States. Although the film quality isn't as up to scratch as most short films I believe the theme and several of the shots used could be beneficial to revise for use in our film. It depicts a young female character, probably in her late teens, depicting stalker like behaviour towards a male character at a park, the film plot is odd and has little sense until it begins to repeat and shows a sense of routine.

The film starts with a cut-in shot of an empty jar and the pace is immediately set by jump cuts of a female adding bread, peanut butter, brown letter and a pen into the shot; it is not known at this stage but these items become symbolic in the film showing a constant routine of the character and the passage of time. The jump cuts then continue as she puts a pebble into the empty jar, triggering the major toned music which strangely gives positive connotations, for the story of the film this doesn't really give a happy theme to the setting but rather a strange tone that gives off a delusional image, similar to the personality of the main character. The same song is played throughout. The character then writes the day on the brown bag, places a peanut butter sandwich into it and then leaves the house; this routine seems planned and so it is implied that she has been doing this for some time, all the time the jump cuts are often used to show the strangeness of the character. The main bulk of the shots in this part are close ups and mid shots set from eye level to high angle; This shows a neutral eye level view throughout this part of the short film.

The next scene is where the plot begins to unfold, it depicts the female character sitting on a bench and watching the male character who she is "stalking" avoid a hole filled with pebbles and then takes a picture when his back is turned. She then takes a pebble from the hole and puts it in the jar that was empty in the first scene. This plot line makes the audience think what is going on because it is unclear as to why she is doing this. The characters confidence in doing this could also indicate that the storyline has gone on before the film even began, her body language and frequent smiling shows this confidence. Her smiling doesn't give off a nice aura for this particular style of film but instead gives a creepy aura which fits in well with the "stalker" theme. The thing that changes in this scene is it's all shot from one shot, a long shot of a park bench looking in on what's going on. This makes the audience believe that they are actually stalking the character because there is little camera movement it is in a fixed spot.

The next sequence mirrors that of

the first scene giving it a sense of routine because she is doing the exactly same thing again, the audience know it is not the exact same twice because the character writes Tuesday rather than Monday so it is implied that a day has gone by since we last saw the character. A certain part of editing starting at 1:17 is used to shorten the time on the screen but it is the same time as last time for the main character. The editing used is where they split several shots onto the same screen in a split screen fashion, creating parallel timeframes, this keeps the viewer ensnared into the film, similar to that of the main character being ensnared to the person she is stalking, because there is so much happening on the screen at once. She then repeats the same as Mondays scene by sitting on the park bench, watching the male step over the pebbles, taking a picture, then taking a pebble, all the time with the same smile that shows she is strangely getting pleasure from what she is doing.

Short film analysis - Gone Goodbye

Gone Goodbye is a short artistic film which was made in 2009. This short film explores relationships and instances in an unusual way. The film follows a man on his journey; although it doesn't really show why he's gone there specifically. The main focus of this short film was to make it highly stylistic and to create a pleasant viewing experience for its audience.

Its use of long scenes adds emphasis to the dramatic voiceover, increasingly adding emotion by telling you a story. It starts with a overhead shot of a car driving on an empty country road, this symbolises loneliness. We (the audience) assume that the person who is driving the car is the person who is also the voiceover. Roland Barthes suggests that 'enigma' keeps the audience guessing and questioning what is happening and why, this is shown in the long cut as the viewer doesn't know the entire story and are guessing as to what has happened to the voiceover character. The soundtrack throughout is quite ominous which grips the attention of the viewer. The first cut itself is in 1:40, the length of the cut is to show that the entire story has been happening much longer than the actual film; increasing the emotions. The use of long cuts and slow, gripping music entices the viewer to keep on watching. The numerous number of shots showing empty planes on land, panning views of seemingly empty and solemn forest areas further accentuate the feeling of loneliness, throughout this short time we feel a sense of sympathy for the character. The balloon is used as a visual metaphor for his life which gives a powerful idea of how his life is left shattered when the balloon pops.

Character Profiles

Connor Stenton - A 17 year old male, born 27th March. He's currently studying English literature at college, his love for books, poems and philosophy motivate him to attend college although he is sometimes unable as his parents are financially troubled and had to move into a smaller house quite far away from college, but close to the girl who he has taken an interest in. Although Connor himself isn't a mentally unstable person, his naivety and inexperience with the opposite sex leads him to doing things which isn't socially acceptable, the audience can feel a sense of sympathy with this character, or they may just portray his actions to be perverted.

Lauren Heigl - A 16 year old female, born 17th of July. She's currently studying in college to become a vet. Her shy nature leads to her not making many friends at college and her attendance begins to deplete as she feels less and less motivated to go. She starts to become distant from her friends and parents and spends the majority of her time with her books. Although this character holds a sense of mystery as we do not follow her steps in the movie because the film is focused on the male; the female only becomes the focal figure in the camera in the final scene.

Short Film Analysis - 'Hello Again'

"Do you ever feel like the world around you is trying to tell you something? If we don't listen, how loud does the world have to shout before we will pay attention?"

'Hello Again' is a short psychological thriller by Session7Media. It follows a young woman who is wandering through the woods when her scarf/shawl blows away in the wind, though it is implied by the narrator that 'spirits' are all around us.

She follows the scarf which falls into a hole in the rocks. Unable to retrieve it, she heads back. Whilst she is walking, several scarfs of the same colour and size are seen scattered around the woods. The girl eventually notices them and runs through the woods, arriving at a beach where many scarfs are spread all over the tree stumps. The setting of the film is in a forest therefore it is a naturalistic set with no alterations other than the shawls which are placed around.

The lighting is also very naturalistic with an edited grey-looking filter.  It has many shots of scenery which help set the mood and reflect on the genre of the film as a forest is seen as typically 'spooky' place.  In terms of sound, I admire how the music matches the pace of the physical movement and plot. As more is revealed in the plot, the music picks up pace. It also does this when the woman is running through the woods. This technique is something which I think we could use, as the twist in the story is revealed i.e. the girl is also obsessed with the boy. It has mainly non-diegetic sound using a narrator and music which sets the mood. In terms of editing, the use of slow-motion reflects on the story and genre as ghosts are often associated with slow, 'eerie' movement.

The panning shots of the film are continuously slow-moving throughout the film, even when the movement in the scene is quickened. I like this technique as I think it gives the impression that someone is watching carefully, which ties in with the narrative of our film. In terms of mise-en-scene, I like the way the scarf/shawl in the film is representitive of something, in this case, a 'spirit'. With our film, we will do something similar in order to reflect on obsession and fixation with something. For the boy, he is obsessed with the girl so the perfume, scarf, or pot doll could represent her, therefore he is fixated on that/those item(s) too.

Single White Female (1992)

Single White Female is an erotic thriller centred around obsession. Similar to the story of our film, though our film does not involve violence or anything overtly sexual. This film shows the point of view of someone who is being stalked/obsessed over, whereas our film shows the point of view of the obsessed. Like we plan to use in our film, it uses many shots which focus on the obsessed, or victim. In this case, Alison. It uses many close-up shots to show fear. It also uses shots of Alison where Hedy, the woman obsessed with her, is watching her, with Alison unaware of this.

Possible Script Ideas

Boy:

"My name is ____. I enjoy reading, writing and photography. Oh, and I'm in love. I'm in love with the most wonderful person. She's not the prettiest, or the smartest, but she's mine. She just doesn't know it yet."

This would be the opening 'diary entry' and opening to the film. Unlike most obsessions portrayed through film, the boy doesn't claim she is the best at everything i.e. in attractiveness. This avoids the cliché often associated with love.

"She forgot her scarf today. I'll keep it safe for her. I'll return it eventually but not just yet. It smells of her. One day soon, I'll have that smell in my arms."

(After buying perfume which the girl uses)
"The lady at the beauty shop asked me if the perfume was for my girlfriend. It was. I plan on sending it to her as a gift. Not just yet though. I want to spend time with it first."

"I followed her home today. It was quite difficult keeping up with her: she's a fast walker. I stood outside her house and watched her through her bedroom window. Everything about her called out to me. Her hair, her smile, her cheeks, everything."

Girl:

"My name is _____. I like to read and write and walk. I'm in love. I'm in love with a boy who is invisible to the rest of the world but to me, he is the only one in the world. He's special and he's all mine."

"Today I left my scarf for him. I hope he picked it up. I wouldn't mind if he held onto it for a little while."

"He said 'hello' to me today. I could've screamed with excitement."


Each spoken thought may start with "Dear diary".

Obsession (1976)

This trailer from the 1976 film, 'Obsession' frequently uses an extreme close-up on the eyes of characters. This technique can relate to how the boy focuses all his attention on the girl and in return, how she focuses all of her's on him. This is reflected in the use of the shot as the camera is focusing on one particular thing. 

The trailer of the film attempts to create suspense and tension with the use of music and with the shots used. Our short film won't use this style as we feel it doesn't work with the plot as the characters aren't trying to be intimidating or threatening, despite their fixation with each other. As the male character in this film is obsessed with an incident, not a person, his behaviour is erratic and incautious, whereas the male character in our film is careful and takes his time. This is much more chilling characteristic we wish to incorporate.

Use of Shots

In terms of shot types, we want to use actor positions in the shot to show similarity between characters. We plan to present the boy in an over the should shot on his right shoulder and the girl on the left shoulder to represent a mirror image effect. This will show how the characters are alike in their obsession and that they mirror each other in terms of their personality.

Girls' over the left shoulder shot.

Boy's over the right shoulder shot.

In the opening scene of the film, we will open with a shot of the boy writing in a diary. The shot will go from the boy writing and move to a close-up of the diary through zoom. In the closing scene, we will use the same technique but with the girl. Instead of closing in on the diary, it will go from the close-up shot to the medium shot of the girl writing. This will use the mirror effect also.

Other Film Ideas

When creating film ideas, we came with similar ones relating to obsession, though we eventually chose our final film idea.

One of the ideas we came up with was about a boy who was unusually interested in crime/horror books. He would take a lot of his advice on real-life situations from the fictional stories and eventually it would turn into an obsession where he acts out what happens in the books. We decided this would be difficult as we would have to find a number of books to adapt the boy's actions from.

Another idea we had was about a person who suffered from a rare memory loss/amnesia illness which caused him to forget certain things which happened in the day. In order to keep track of his life, he wrote a diary and would refer to it when needed (we adapted the idea of using a diary into our final film idea). The twist in the film would be that his memory loss would be due to him blacking out and taking on another personality which would do unusual things and eventually something dangerous. The other personality would also erase things from the diary to confuse the boy. Though we liked this idea, we preferred our final one due to the twist in the plot.

Film Synopsis

The idea for our short film involves two characters. The main character, a male, is obsessed with the second character, a female. the male follows her around the village where they live. He spies on her in her home, takes of photos of her and collects items she has thrown away. The male is completely delusional and thinks the girl has feelings for him also, though she doesn't acknowledge him at all when he says hello to her in the street.

The male also has a 'shrine' dedicated to her filled with her photographs, used perfume bottles as well as items of clothing he has secretly taken from her. He may also have a pot doll which looks similar to her and cuddle it when he is at home. We are using the pot doll which can be seen as a scary or eery object in order to reflect on the male character's personality. This uses semiotics and iconology because it may be a fear of the viewer. This also adds another ominous effect, further adding to the eeriness.

The climax to the film has an unexpected twist where the girl is actually in love with boy and has an obsession with him. She leaves him an item of clothing on purpose and when the boy says hello, she smiles after they have passed each other. This will be shown as a flashback. The girl also has a diary which her spoken thoughts are actually from. The use of the pot doll will also reflect on her.

Fatal Attraction (1987)

Extract: Fatal Attraction Trailer
Fatal Attraction is similar to our film because of the stalker element after "Alex" has a weekend fling with the main character, she develops an obsession with him, eventually building up to violent acts. Some ideas we could use in our film is that throughout the course of the film Alex does certain acts such as meeting him whenever she can, trying to commit suicide when he resents her, stalks him in a car park and follows him home. I don't believe we require for the obsession to escalate into violence, but it is there as an option.

Skins (Sketch)

Extract from: Skins Season 2, Episode 2.
Edited by someone else for youtube.

This particular episode of skins relates to our main film idea because of the stalking relationship between Sketch and Maxxie. Although it doesn't include the same theme where the two stalk each other in our film idea. But instead Maxxie hates Sketch for being a creep. The ideas of Sketch taking photographs and Maxxie noticing and getting creeped out could be a good idea for our film because it creates tension, also the wall filled with pictures of Maxxie to give the theme of obsession and it quickly builds character and shows the audience Sketch's real intentions.