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Film studies film

Film studies evaluation

Film studies was a tough unit, despite having no other units to work on simultaneously the work film studies brought alone was enough to keep me busy. To start off with my research on the theories understanding them was simple enough but applying them to other films was something I initially struggled with and even now wasn’t able to do perfectly, I believe my 1 2 1’s with john as well as the lessons taught by billy helped me greatly here as they recognised I understood the theories and thus taught me how to apply them ,which would later help when making my own film, as well as introduce me to various films which I could easily apply the theories to. When initially brainstorming for my idea, I greatly took inspiration from the film whiplash which focuses on someone obsessed with drumming to the point they reject all other aspects of their life, the film serves as a perfect example of Lacan’s theory of lack which is the theory, I settled on using. I took the bare bones of whiplash and switched out drumming for something else. Initially I was unsure about what to use in place of drumming, I initially was going to simply have the character be obsessed with being the best but after a catch up with billy who advised me to simplify the story as much as possible, I decided to make gaming the central focus. Early on in production I was asked to sum up my film in one sentence, now id say that sentence would be “man forgets it’s only a game.” Other inspirations I got was from the short story the run which is about an athlete who becomes obsessed with fitness, this story is where I got the idea for the author character featured in my film, additionally I took inspiration from my father when his football team is losing and my friend George who is something of a raging gamer himself, I used these experiences when directing ollie when he was rampaging as his character Roy. I believe this film saw a jump in quality for my audio work with the exception of one shot roughly mid-way, for whatever reason the microphone must have been muffled whilst filming as the shot came with a static screeching sound, I didn’t realise this until it was to late and thus was forced to have a noticeable dip in audio quality for one shot, despite this my mic set up for all the other shots worked fine and there was no other large drops in quality. I attempted to try new angles with this film, I was constantly conscious of trying to avoid the same static shots being repeated and tried a few experimental angles and shots whilst filming, a majority of these went unused but it was a learning experience. As for lighting I specifically chose a room with little natural light to help control light better, one shot with excess natural light was the hallway shots which had to be done multiple times from a few angles to get the light to balance nicely. The theory itself was presented through the character of Roy in my film, his inconsiderate nature shows how he only cares about the game, the mis en scene used with him was also specifically chosen, when he is not at a tournament he is in a dark room alone with the only light being from his games, this is to show that he has no other light in his life and only lives to play, his physical appearance also supports this, he has bags under his eyes and sore hands, this shows his inconsiderate nature to anything other than games not only applies to those around him but also his own wellbeing. Other aspects that could be improved are more shots other than just the key ones, I also feel more background music could have been used to add to the conversations and make them less bland and finally more focus on the other half of Lacan’s theory as whilst I’ve done the obsession part I feel I could have delved more into the idea of never being satisfied,