Wig'd Out Short Film - Rationale and Commentary

A. Rationale: ( A: 100 Word rational of the project)

My group and I produced a comedy about a guy who has a strange obsession with collecting hair. His target is an ordinary girl who goes to a cafe every morning. After she leaves her table, he scavenges the area for her strands of hair. When the girl confronts him for his strangeness, he presents her with a wig made out of her dead hairs, which cause her to run away in disgust. Soon after, a different girl with nice hair walks by, which continues his strange habit. Our working plan involved a different approach to comedy and this film followed the final script almost exactly. We were inspired by a youtube video that was set in one location. The short film had simple cinematography and was composed of dialogue instead of action. We wanted to experiment with Tom Tyker's use of CUs and manipulation of time. The target audience for this film is for the general public. A comedy brings joy to everyone, which was our goal.

B: Commentary: (1750HL)

My area of responsibility was primarily sound designer and editor (this role I shared with my group members). As sound designer I found sound effects and musical scores for our film. For our film, I realized that we needed some light-hearted music for the comedy aspect and some creepy/ intense music for the obsession shots with our male character. In class, I searched in GarageBand, Soundtrack Pro, and FindSounds.com to find sound effects and short scores. I also used Logic Pro for the first time. It is more advanced than other basic soundtrack programs because it has larger music library and has the capability to manipulate loops. Looking through the script, I searched for the moments or scenes where sound effects and music would enhance the quality of the film, such as adding the humor to the film. We were a little short on time with completing the film due to deadlines, so I teamed up with two other members (our cinematographer and director) to take on the responsibility of editing. We imported our raw footage, put scenes in order, and added video effects and transitions. The editing took about a week including adding the sound, which I was responsible for.

As sound designer I was expected to create "original music" for our short film, but lacking musical talent, I was stumped. I wanted to use a cover of a song or a instrumental song for the basis of our soundtrack; however, copyright laws prevented me from doing so. It was difficult to find the exact type of music that goes well with our film because I have never produced a comedy before and I did not understand what music genre would work with our story. As editor, I had the challenge of the footage being too dark and the audio levels being too low. These were the result of shooting near sunset and not recording the characters' dialogue with a close shot gun mic proximity.

Because it was difficult to not violate copyright laws,I got into the habit of overlapping sounds to create what you may say "original" music. To create the humor-like music, I found incredibly cheesy music such as French accordion music and dramatic orchestral score. As editor, my fellow editors and I color-corrected the footage that was too dark to pass for morning scenes by brightening the whites. This made the footage much brighter. We increased the volume levels of the dialogue scenes that we could faintly hear, but it was still statically. It was frustrating because for some dialogue a shot gun mic was not used and for the rest a mic was used. The difference in audio quality differed dramatically.

During pre-production, my group and I struggled to create a solid story concept. Our first treatment was shut down because of a lack of a three act structure. The treatment then was rewritten at least two more times. We were behind on our schedule because pre-production took longer than expected. Because students of the drama department was preparing or rehearsing for the school drama production, our actor choices were limited. We cast our good friend who takes drama class to be our protagonist. Unfortunately, due to her tight rehearsal schedule for the school musical and massive loads of homework, she was unavailable for the rest of the production time. Basically, all of our footage was useless and three days worth of filming was gone to waste. We were getting tired of our first original concept, or more like second, and wanted to write a completely different story in the little time we have (for some unknown reason). Our next rewrite script was, according to our teacher, a "bad teenage romance". We were devastated because not only did we have limited time to find actors and film, but also we had to go back to the drawing board. When we did rewrite the script; however, we had little time to create an adequate 2 column script, so the cinematographer scribbled shot descriptions on paper. Completely disorganized manner of production and I will most definitely avoid this catastrophe in the future. Finding last minute actors was a huge challenge because we needed friendly and committed people who were serious about the role. Also, working around the actors' and group members' schedules was a hassle. Lastly, there was a member of my group, who will remain unnamed, who did the least contribution to the film. She did not seem to fulfill her responsibilities and got side-tracked for the majority of the short film process. However, she did show up during filming days and contributed story concepts during the pre-production and performed minor tasks during post-production.

As a group, we addressed our problems in a professional manner. Our writing problems were solved by making the concept as simple as possible and adding characterization and details after. We first envisioned a strained relationship caused by a strange obsession with hair and the film went in that direction from there after multiple script/ treatment revisions. Despite of a lack of an organized 2 column script, the director and cinematographer knew the story well enough to shoot each scene. We were lucky to find a peer from IB Film class to be our main actress and also have her boyfriend be our other main protagonist. Because not everyone was as dedicated as I would have hoped, I took on the lagging roles that were left unfulfilled, as I have the tendency to tie loose ends. The pressure to meet deadlines motivated my group and I to rush through the last minute filming and editing.

1. Genre Connections/ Director Influences/ Influences and Narrative/Story
We were inspired by a Youtube video in which the storyline was extremely simple. There was one location, two protagonists, simple camera movements/ shots, and it was primarily composed of dialogue. The film has some humorous moment and awkward actors that make the film a comedy. Our director is usually humorous, so she was more inclined to write a funny story. The story is basically about a guy who has a strange obsession with hair. He 'stalks' this girl who goes to the same cafe everyday. When she leaves, he scopes around her table for strands of her hair. He collects these until he makes a wig out of her dead hairs. When the girl eventually confronts him about his problem, he presents her with the 'present'. She is repulsed and leaves immediately. Although the guy is alone, rejected, another girl with bouncy hair walks by and flips her hair. His obsession continues.

The story is presented in a linear fashion and has no narrative gaps; time is presented chronologically. However, there is a time lapse for the exposition. It is shown that the girl has a daily routine: going to the cafe. The story 'tells itself' because there is no narrator. It is up to the audience to interpret the story for themselves. The film shows that sometimes humans can be impulsive and do unpredictable things. I guess we were trying to experiment with a different concept that is out of the norm of story ideas.

2. Directing/Acting/Character
Amateurs actors are featured in this film. We hired our friends to be the actors. The director treated the actors as artistic collaborators because she allowed them to improvise the lines as much as they needed to make them feel comfortable. She valued their opinions and was open to many ideas. The actors aren't half bad for first time actors because they were able to recite their dialogue without a lot of cuts during editing. Because there are only two main actors, the film really highlights them with lots of close ups and funny situations. The guy, played by Matt, represents impulse and obsession due to his strange hobby. The girl, played by Jennifer, is very funny, but she can be serious when she is on camera. Jennifer's acting is realistic, but Matt's performance is considered stylized to some extent. People don't go to that much deal to collect hairs, but that was the point. To be honest, these actors were cast because the entire drama department was busy preparing/ performing a musical, so we had to cast people who were available.

3. Edit/FX, Techniques or Concepts
There isn't a lot of cutting throughout the film because the pace of the film was pretty slow. The most cuts (or transitions) is in the first scene where we were trying to establish that the girl goes to the cafe everyday. This is shown through the many outfits she wears (the different outfits alternate between each cut). Because of the slow pacing of the film, the shoots are relatively lengthy to focus on the actors' performance and certain important details. The images are presented in a manipulated way. When the girl leaves the cafe, the clip of her walking away and another of a close up on the guy's eyes following her is overlapped. This makes the audience to feel an awkwardness whenever the guy comes on screen. The presentation of shots are relatively objective and functional; they are presented to add characterization to the characters. Editing a major language system of the movie because the actors are amateurs and we didn't have time for reshoots. Continuity editing is represented in short film because the story is linear and events are presented in chronological order.

4. Sound FX/ Score
The first scene consists of French accordion music that transitions to a loop of a strumming guitar. In the second scene, the strumming guitar loop continues to play and then it transitions to an intense score of orchestral violins. The final scene has an upbeat rock guitar song that gives the audience anticipation. The score is mostly simplified to compliment the simple storyline. These scores are used only during action scenes because we didn't want the dialogue to be competing with it. The score is derived from outside sources mostly because the filmmakers do not have music experience. The dialogue is used sparingly (only the last scene) and is very literal (without much subtext). This made the lines seem scripted as of result, unfortunately. Because of microphone issues, some dialogue scenes have static sounds.

5. Cinematography
We used a lot of close ups and long shots. However, most of the shots were stationary, which made the scenes seem static. Also, there wasn't as much coverage as I would have liked. I don't necessarily like our establishing shot because we didn't have one of the cafe. The framing for the dialogue scene is different when comparing Matt's to that of Jen's.


6. Production Design/Mis En Scene
The lighting in the film was a difficult aspect to control. Because we filmed on many different days during different times of the day. As a result, some scenes are darker than the majority of the morning footage. I do like the fact that we filmed at a cafe outside. THe location was perfect because there were few intruders into our shots. Random objects and equipment was successfully avoided during the filming.

7. Your "objective" analysis of the film as a whole
Considering our time restraints, our film turned out not as bad as I expected. It is way to short to be a short film. We have some editing and audio issues that hindered our film from shining. The concept wasn't as compelling as it could have been; however, the actors pulled off their performances to push the film forward. Editing saved the film in many ways. Overall, I feel the film deserves a satisfactory mark.