Reflective Analysis

My primary focus was to produce a mocumentary that would provoke the audience to laugh, but this was going to be a difficult task as I had never created a documentary, mocumentary or produced a media product by myself. However, I think I achieved what I set out to do and here is how…

The creative process wasn’t quite as time-consuming as I had originally predicted in terms of planning, shooting and editing. In total it took around three weeks to get from shot lists to a finished product, which was helped greatly by my surprisingly reliable mocumentary cast (or actor).

I shot the film on a standard Sony handy cam and uploaded the raw footage onto an Apple Mac which allowed me to use great software programs such as iMovie, Final Cut Express, GarageBand and LiveType to edit and create my final product. I would say that due to spending quite a lot of condensed time using these programs it allowed me to become quite competent at using them which in turn allowed me to be more creative as I had the knowledge of how to use more complex or advanced effects or gadgets that the programs had to offer, for example, split screening in Final Cut or manipulating the titles in LiveType.

In terms of creative boundaries of a mocumentary, it would be fair to say that there weren’t many things that I couldn’t do due the medium. Therefore this allowed me to be quite creative by mixing up a usual documentary style edit and throwing in sections such as the ‘Rocky montage’ which in some ways is similar to a music video or cinematic montage.

This is something that attracted me to creating a mocumentary as I loved the idea that you can do unusual things and arguably this sub-genre is still relatively new so there are not many ‘rules’ or genre conventions that you HAVE to stick to. Moreover I have always wanted to produce something that mocks the mind numbing and relentless reality television shows that have infested the airwaves for the past few years.

Sound is something that was either going to make or ruin my product as documentaries rely heavily on interesting dialogue involving the characters/people and voiceovers to narrate what is going on or to tell the story, therefore this was something that I worked hard with to make sure that there were no gaps of inappropriate silence (or similarly no moments of inappropriate dialogue, which was similar to the visuals) and that the sound related closely to the visuals and pushed the edit along swiftly to keep the audience interested. Mise-en-scene for my production was really quite simple, it involved a few trademark items for my actor such as the wig and glasses (and tracksuit for the training scenes), and as for the settings, because it is a sub-genre of documentary all of these were natural, except for a small number of set-ups such as sweet wrappers in his bedroom for example.

The most difficult scenes to shoot were in KFC due to a momentary lack of confidence from my actor as well as making sure that we didn’t offend the public or staff and get thrown out because of the guerilla style filming.

Editing was more complex than I had originally expected because of the many layers of sound that I had to edit as well as putting together the ‘Rocky montage’ which took a very large amount of cuts and careful editing to time it correctly. Other than that it was reasonably easy due to the synergy of the programs featured on the Mac’s allowing automatic compatibility of files between them.

The main narrative of the film was originally to follow an overweight individual as he changed his life and the story changed over six times before I finally decided on the plot. The film is designed to mock or parody popular television shows such as ‘My Big Fat Gypsy wedding’, ‘The Biggest loser’ and ‘Supersize Me’ (plus many more) but is compressed down like a ‘three minute wonder’ style edit rather than a full length episode.

There are many more shots that I captured during the production stages that didn’t make it into the final edit as these were either irrelevant to the final plot and had to be discarded to speed the narrative along or were simply funny at the time of shooting but just too stupid to put in the final cut. An example of this would be some shots I have of my main character ‘learning’ to ride his bike which was originally going to be placed close to the end of the montage where he falls off a lot in a variety of spectacular ways. However, as I said these shots were just too dumb for the final cut.

I first showed my original cut to a handful of people who gave me some useful feedback and constructive criticism which definitely helped me to produce a more effective final cut, of which I have now shown to around 20 different individuals and they all seemed to enjoy it, some laughing out loud more than others therefore it is fair to say it had a mixed reception overall. However, even a few people laughing means that I have achieved the aims that I set in the first place. I think that some of the reason for its relative success is because people can relate to the topics addressed in my production and because of the obviousness in the way that I am addressing these topics it’s very difficult to miss a gag or joke.

Personally I’m very pleased with my mocumentary as I have achieved everything that I set out to, I learnt a lot of skills along the way and generally had a good time producing it. One of the things I am most pleased with for my film is the way I actually got a physical and positive audience response through laughter which is something that I have wanted from the start, or even to get the audience to respond in any way whatsoever.

J.

My Big Fat Happily Ever After 1st Edit

Here is the first edit of my A2 short film... enjoy!

Hurt Locker Notes

Here a some notes regarding a few of the key scenes form Kathryn Bigelow's multi award winning film.

Key scenes:

• Sniper scene whilst in the desert
• Scene after the snipe-out
• Tanker blast scene
• Their 2nd ever mission together with Sergent William James
• Breakdown scene of Sergent Sanborn
  

Key characters:

• Seargent William James (Jeremy Renner)
• Sergent J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie)
• Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty)

Scenes to relate to key characters:

In my opinion the sniper scene is important to showing who two of the key characters really are, Srgt James and Specialist Eldridge. For example, lets talk about Srgt James, during this scene we get a taster of his leadership qualities in the way that he quickly takes control of a disasterous situation and in partciular the way that he directs Eldridge in an unfamiliar situation to him, where he shines through and helps protect the trio of soldiers, plus the indivudal Brit mercenary who is left after the Iraqi sniper wiped out the other three. In context to the question that my research project is based around I think that this is a positive representation of the soldiers as it shows competant and considerate leadership qualities towards their fellow men and also shows a calculated and calm side. However, it could be argued that this is juxtaposed in the 'tank blast' scene (which i will talk about later on).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEgYrjH_xNw

A scene that shows Srgt Sanborn's true colours is one that I have spoken about previously on this blog (refer to, 'Hurt Locker: Breakdown Scene') where we can see a point in his life where he has been forced to assess his existance and question hgis motives and directions in life, and what will come in the future of his time in the Gulf and his time when he leaves to return back to normality. I think that this particular scene expresses a hidden emotional side which undoubtedly a large number of soldiers probably have. A quote from Sanborn, "I'm not ready to die James", shows that behind the battle hardened exterior there is a sentimental and evaluative layer to the troops. This can also be backed up by a scene that we see earlier on the film when Sanborn finds a box of James' possessions underneath his bed which remind him of I.E.D disposals, "these are things that nearly killed me". However insane that sounds, on a certain level it is still sentimental to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqh17ydxYNA&feature=related

As well as the sentimental side and the calculated leadership qualities, the three main characters in this film can also be seen to build up a very close and tight relationship with eachother which helps them to stay safe (for the most part) in the line of fire. This tight relationship is exemplified by the tight framing that Bigelow uses, especially during the 'sniper' scene which is the first that we can see of there developing friendship.

However, in contrast to all of these positive representations, there are also a number of negatives, mainly one thing that I have touched upon during the note taking of 'Three Kings', this is the frequent suggestion of the Recklessness of soldiers, and this recklessness comes in many forms. For example some of the troops' rowdy and very uncalculated moves put themsleves and their colleagues at risk, and usually this is totally unecessary, for example Srgt James' constant need for an adrenaline rush leads him and his colleagues into a number of tricky situations that put their lives at serious risk. This is similar to 'Three Kings' were their reckless endeavours put one another at risk all in pursuit of needless necessities, whether it be Kuwaiti gold or pure adrenaline. An example of a reckless scene from 'Hurt Locker' might be the 'tanker blast' scene where James leads them into a dangerous pursuit of terrorists that nearly costs Specialist eldridge his life, and even though they manage to save him their reckless shooting results in accidentally shooting Eldridge and shattering his femur.

Interrogation scene from 'Three Kings'

Here is the scene that I have mentioned below in the previous post.

Three Kings Notes

Here is a list of notes that I have compiled detailing the representations of troops from David O' Russell's 'Three Kings'. I have chosen two main scenes at present, however this may grow to three or four with more viewings.

The first scene that I would like to write about is what I would call the 'Expedition, setting off scene'. Basically, starting as soon as the four soldiers leave camp to hunt down the missing Kuwait gold.

• Bart Simpson and an American flag attached to the front of the Humvee shows the soldiers to be extremely patriotic and proud to be American. They can be seen throwing american footballs around and shooting at them, which brings me onto my next point.
• They are shown to be extremely cowboy like by their rowdy behavior and the way they play with the weapons and explosives such as C4 like toys, with little respect. For example using the footballs as make-shift clay pigeons and then shooting at them with an assault rifle and handguns, plus Spike Jonze's character who actually straps C4 to a football and blows it up.
• George Clooney's character 'Archie Gates' is represented in a stereotypical American way, sporting micro features such as rolled up sleeves, aviator sunglasses and perfect white teeth.
• One of the most apparent and clear cut representations is that of their recklessness. The portrayal as gun-wielding cowboys, wasting ammunition on playing dangerous and irresponsible games whilst truanting from camp is a very stylized stereotype but it seems in some ways this is a common view from the rest of the world.
• One way of describing this recklessness and 'laddish' behavior could be that the troops are like jocks in the desert.
• Other things such as just the four of them taking on an entire village to search for the gold and no hurting anyone is an unrealistic attempt of trying to be heroic.

The second scene of this film that I have looked at is what I would call 'Wahlbergs interrogation scene'.

• This scene shows yet another side of the soldiers, it can be seen to represent them as racists, not just soldiers but Americans in general. For example, a quote from an Iraqi soldier, 'Captain Said' says "you're f***ing country makes the black man hate himself, just like you hate the Arabs and children over here". This is making a huge statement about Americans and could in some ways be justified, however in many other ways it is quite unreasonable.
• Said describes how bombing villages in the gulf killed many women and children which again represents them as reckless in the war, this is a much darker side to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Captain Said also brings out Wahlberg's emotional side, which is completely opposite to the previous scene that I have talked about. However this scene is quite similar to the emotional scene from 'Hurt Locker' which displays an often unseen side to the soldiers.

David O' Russell felt that the soldiers and the war was basically (in some ways) a party, he explains in his directors commentary how some soldiers didn't take it very seriously due o the fact that they didn't see much action whilst out in the Gulf. However this did not take away from the fact that he believed anybody in the army in the line of fire is/was still a hero.

Catalogue Items: Films

Item 1: Hurt Locker (Voltage Pictures, US, 2008, Dir. Kathryn Bigelow) This is extremely useful as the style of the film shows various sides to the soldiers as well as a small insight to the views of the Iraqi's. The film does not dictate to the audience who the protagonists or antagonists are as well as the fact that the film is not stylised or pro-war or pro-american.

Item 2: Three Kings (Warner Bros, US 2000, Dir. David O' Russel) This is also very useful as it hows an unusual side to the troops in the gulf, however it also gives the Iraqi's a chance to voice their opinions and stories about the Americans (even if this film is based around the 1st Gulf war).

Item 3: Battle For Haditha (Channel Four Films, U.K., 2007, Dir. Nick Broomfield) Very useful again because it shows an unbalanced view of troops in Iraq, some people may see it negatively, some may see it in an understanding way based upon the situations and predicaments that the troops encounter whilst at the front line.

Battle For Haditha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv3LIXzv9lc&list=SL&has_verified=1

Embedding was disabled but the section starts at 52 minutes.

This section is very contradictory to the section from 'Hurt Locker' in that it represents the soldiers as everything that the 'breakdown' doesnt, patriotic killing machines.