'The Wanderer' Analysis;

'The Wanderer' (Dramatic Narrative) by Navajo Joe Films. Dir. Harrison J Bahe.
Synopsis: 'A man wanders aimlessly through life regretting the decisions he made that lead him to this point in his journey.'

I chose to analyse this short narrative as I had done so for another film from the same director and felt it emanated the same emotional response as I want my short film to show.
 The film starts out with an establishing shot of an American country road, the shot is filmed in black and white which I believe strengthens the isolation of the location (desert surroundings(black) with the flow of modern cars on the road (white). There is no traffic going past on the cameras side of the road, whereas on the other side there is a steady number of vehicles, The character then walks into the shot and as he does so an extremely large lorry drives past him, symbolising that the characters world is just passing him by in both directions. Non diegetic text then appears in the lower left hand corner with the words 'The Wonderer', establishing that the film will be about the character who is a wanderer.
The use of non diegetic sound is very important to the effectiveness of the film as without it the shots simply show a man walking along a road and there is no purpose. The script is implied to be the characters inner monologue as he describes his situation. The first lines of the script are 'There was nothing, but the road before me', these words contradict with the mise-en-scene of the scene as there are cars, mountains and trees around the character but they also emphasise the isolation that the character is feeling, all he sees is the road, he is completely oblivious to the world around him and this is again strengthened with the close up shot of the characters face, he shows no facial expression and he is simply looking straight forwards, it gives off the effect that he is empty, and reborn into the world trying to find purpose, he says 'I had no idea where it would lead me, but I knew it would lead me to where...I at least wanted to be' implying he does not know where he is going or will end up, but wherever it is, he will want to be there.

Although my short film is not based outdoors or about a wanderer, it does carry the same element of being lost within society. As Tam is deaf, I want to use similar techniques within the sound editing that 'The Wanderer' uses such as a sense of silence until an overly loud thing passes (e.g. the lorry in 'The Wanderer' and the Kettle in my film)

Genre Conventions;

Drama is one of the most popular genres used in film and television as it is very broad and allows a lot of narratives to fit to its conventions as they are so common in relation to real life and the struggles/hardships of real life. There are two main areas of a dramatic narrative; the story and how the story unfolds. As the genre is so generic, a lot of sub genres are placed within it, some of the most popular being: Period Drama, Family Drama, Teenage Drama, Social Drama etc.

A Period Drama is usually based upon a different era to now e.g. 18/19^th century, and they are commonly British as a lot of actors are classically trained for theatre performances which period dramas are very similar too. As a spectator, I would expect a period drama to have the following conventions: Appropriate Mise-en-scene (no shots in a modern city as it would not be realistic to the sub-genre), appropriate costumes and props (again, it would not be realistic and believable if the characters were wearing modern clothing for a film set 200 years ago), I would also expect the beliefs and actions of the characters to be relevant to the era in which the film was set for authenticity.

The sub-genre I will be basing my film around is Social Drama. I believe an audience would expect my film to fit to a realistic Mise-en-scene relevant to the time the film is set (Present day), a narrative which is mainly focused on character development and a wide range of emotions throughout the narrative which represents some of the struggles in real life.

With my short film fitting into this genre, I am going to make sure my protagonist is easily relatable to my audience through the use of key stylistics: Cinematography, Mise-en-scene, sound and editing.  

I have chosen a dramatic-short by a “Navajo Joe Films” entitled “Memories” (dir. Harrison J. Bahe, 2010) to analyse to help me understand how to structure my short film.

As soon as the film begins, a sense of confusion and curiosity begins through the use of the non-diegetic sound and the use of close ups. By using the soft , eerie music in sync with the characters performance we are given the effect the character is going through some form of hard ship, however, through the using the technique of having a blurred background (Laptop the character is looking at) we are not shown what he is finding difficult. The cinematography also highlights the fact that the character is isolated; it establishes him to be sat in a dark room with only a laptop for light. The suspense begins to increase even more when the cinematography changes to show what is written on the laptop. We see that the character is struggling to write a letter, the struggle is again emphasised through the cinematography as it shows the characters hand in an extreme close up curling away from the keyboard. We are shown that the character is beginning to overcome his difficulty through the use of the sound. The soundtrack changes from the soft, eerie music to a slightly more upbeat piano, and as it changes the character begins to type.

The film shows a lot of flashbacks to reveal the narrative and it is shown through the use of editing alongside cinematography; a lot of gentle fades are used between scenes and the camera pans/tilts away from the character into blackness. In all of the flash backs, the non-diegetic music (Piano and Violin) continues to play but it also has a voice over of the character playing with it; the voice over is used to let the audience know what the character is typing on the screen without having to look at it. There is no diegetic noise in any of the scenes to indicate it is past tense. The use of this technique will help me greatly in making my short film as it will emphasise the difference between my theory of dreams and reality.

More of the plot is revealed through the characters voice over; he talks about his friendship with “Teran” and as he does, the flashback coincides with the story. The volume of the over playing music decreases when the character reveals the next part of the narrative, indicating to the audience that it is the next part. Shots of the character typing again reveal that the next part of the story is not going to be a happy one as he begins to struggle to write again. The editing then reveals scenes from Teran’s point of view of the present day in sync with the flash backs being described. The story is then revealed that the main character died to protect Teran. As the film comes to an end the voice over finishes and the cinematography shows the laptop screen again to reveal that the character did not actually type anything.

This short film demonstrates a lot of useful techniques that may help me with my dramatic short. It fits fully to the conventions of social drama as it builds the characters and narrative up throughout the entire film, it has a lot of emotion within it as shown by the characters performance and the use of non-diegetic sound.

Synopsis;

Tam is an aspiring ballet dancer who struggles to hear her music as she is extremely hard of hearing. She teaches herself to hear the vibrations of the music and dance along with them. She begins to master the talent but one night as she practises her routine at home, whilst imagining she is on a large stage performing, she slips and falls, banging her head. The thud miraculously brings back her hearing, however, her injury is fatal.

Structure of the Story;

Story Type: The Gift Taken Away - The character has a gift which she loses and seeks to regain. The pursuit of the gift leads her into a new situation to which she becomes reconciled.

What and Who is your story about?
My story is about portraying the difficulties of achieving dreams and dealing with insecurities. My story is based around a young woman (18) who aspires to be a professional dancer, However, she is almost fully death and struggles to hear her music so she teaches herself to dance to the vibrations of the sound.

How does it end?
She imagines she is on a proper stage dancing to an audience, when in reality she is dancing in her bedroom. She accidentally slips and falls, banging her head as she does, as she begins to realise she is going to die, she can hear the music perfectly.


Protagonist: Dancer
Antagonist: Disability
Equilibrium: Dancer practising
Dis-equilibrium: Dancer slips
Re-Equilibrium: Dancer hears again but dies.

Possible Genres;

1. Action and adventure
2. Bollywood 
3. Comedy 
4. Crime 
5. Documentary 
6. Drama
7. Family 
8. Horror 
9. Music documentary 
10. Musical 
11. Period and historical 
12. Romance 
13. Science fiction and fantasy
14. Thriller
15. War
16. World cinema 

For my short film, I believe the genre which fits the narrative best is Drama.

Films in this genre tend to be very engaging for the spectator and usually consist of shocking narratives.

I am going to research some existing dramatic short films in order to help me with making mine.

Some of the films will be the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTZtmVrB0Pk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7CfJn_VH2s&feature=channel_video_title

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qme3bjclsTo&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL0454931B8DCCDB13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxY73lkU2KM

Brief;

For this section of my coursework of FM3, I chose the brief of a "Full Short Film".
This blog will be regularly updated following my progress into making my film.