Reflective Analysis

It needs to be 750 words and should be reflective analysis to your contribution.

To highlight Doug's tripping, we use a series of transitions which distort reality, reinforcing the genre of a psychedelic and . For example, we usea range of colours as

Reflective Analysis

Without doubt, our genre for our short film ‘Disorder’ is a psychedelic and slightly horror. The genre has heavily influenced the decisions we made for our short film as to reflect the hallucinogenic nature of our film, we heavily focused on transitions that emphasise tripping effects to highlight the interference that these drugs have on humans. However, there is a greater message that we wanted to highlight. A film with a vaguely similar narrative is Darren Aronosky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000) and we wanted to portray similar message of how a drug can consume an individual and leaving them isolated to become a distorted figure which is ultimately living inside a human body. In addition, what our group really wanted to achieve is through cinematography to imply his isolation from the real world and that our protagonist is in the wild and disturbing world in which his senses are altered to highlight his slightly shocking trip. We deliberately did this to show how a drug can consume and can make anyone succumb to the ugliest trips making the spectator bare witness the true effects and eradicate the perception of reality when we follow the actions of Doug (main character).

The intended audience for our film was mainly 16-25 year old male (demographic B-C2) but also female as well, but we focused more on the male demographic hence we used a 17 year old male as our main character for our film. Furthermore, I believe that this demographic would engage with this the most and with some of my friends in this age group stated that they enjoyed and connected with our film.

In addition, the psychedelic genre of our film, we really wanted our sound to emphasise the intensity and perhaps the adrenaline that Doug is experiencing only but the spectator bears witness too as well. Furthermore, the beats of the drum become more vigorous, prominent and intensive; it reflects the narrative as it represents the demonic visions in the film as well. I wanted the spectator to appreciate yet understand the subtle messages which were portrayed in film, for example I wanted my spectator to recognise and acknowledge the change in beat or the reasoning behind the changes of music from heavy and powerful music and when it gradually becomes more forceful, I would like my spectators to make the link that an action moment or ‘Hollywood’ moment is going to occur when the sound becomes distorted. An example of when this powerful use of sound was when we used the grass to dominate the frame to demonstrate intrusion and to highlight Doug's intrusion and disturbance of nature we used a high frequency noise which is a signifier for Doug entering the unknown where he is not welcome therefore by using the high pitched sound only reinforces Doug's unwelcome. 

Our group was only composed of two people; therefore we could effectively agree and compromise with one another as well as effectively establishing narrative with us both focusing on our separate micro features. As I focused on the micro elements which are associated with post-production, I was still able to work on features such as mise-en-scene and help shoot the film as we would have liked it. Furthermore, because I worked heavily on the script, I was able to shape and help the mise-en-scene for the party scene in which I was able to provide the lighting and a suitable location in which to film in.

My understanding of editing and sound has improved as not only have I improved my Final Cut Pro skills but more importantly I have learnt how to appreciate editing and its value. I think that without the editing we couldn’t reflect the narrative.  I understand the importance of sound as well as we use sound to create emotion as well as intensity of the film as well. Furthermore, the messages we wanted to convey to our spectators through editing and sound was that the hallucinogenic effects of unknown drugs and the disturbance or ‘disorder’ that they bring.

Initially, our group hadn’t considered the use of deer in our film however we adapted to the situation and location, (Richmond Park), therefore we added the deer because we felt that it would add to the deeply disturbing visions that the spectator views. In addition, the addition to the deer highlights that the disconnection of nature from our main character because through the editing by changing the saturation of the deer scenes as well as making the picture more vibrant throughout these scenes indicate to the spectator that it is still part of trip or a greater meaning that the main character is suffering from his own troubled problems and maybe he has reached his own personal hell in which he has no control over his actions and the drug has completely overridden all of his control over himself. To highlight that he is suffering from an outer body experience, we use the effect of a shadow to highlight that he is no longer in control of himself anymore and that he is overtaken by disorder, powerless to stop himself from the consequent actions. Furthermore, the long shot used of Doug cleaning his face in the lake was not anticipated or planned however we included it as it can be interpreted to signify that Doug is attempting to cleanse himself from the drug by essentially 'washing away his sins' in an attempt to end his never-ending nightmare.

Overall, I think that I managed to develop my micro elements (editing and sound) to really create a short film in which I am rather pleased with the outcome of the film as well, as our group managed to expose and utilise micro features to the best of our ability meaning that ultimately we were happy with the final outcome.