Film Studies Extract Coursework

Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream is a 2000 Drama based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr. who also wrote the screenplay with the director by Darren Aronofsky.

The plot follows of four characters who have had their life's altered by taking drugs and how their life's will never be the same again. The four characters include Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto), his mother Sarah Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) , Harry's friend Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans) and Harry's girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly). The film covers three seasons, starts off in Summer and ends in Winter, at the beginning of the film it is evident that Harry, his girlfriend and his friend are all involved in taking drugs (heroin and cocaine), while Harry's mother resides alone in her apartment building, with few other elderly women friends who encourage Sarah to infatuate herself when she has been told she will appear on a game show that she is seen constantly watching 'Tappy Tibbons''; while it becomes apparent that Sarah has this much needed desire to fit back into her 'red dress' that she wore for her son's High School graduation, and what her apparent husband loved her in, she struggles on a diet of boiled egg and half a pomegranate, and remembers a suggestion from one of her friends about these pills that made the weight instantly 'fall off'. Once Sarah Goldfarb begins taking these pills it is evident that apart from the weight loss, it contributes with elated happiness and fits of energy for Sarah; pulling her into the world of drugs also. Harry and his friends find a way to make money through the drug world and continue their habit until things go wrong and Tyrone ends up in hold by the police, and it takes all the drug money earned (most of it) to bail Tyrone back out, the relationship between Marion and Harry begins to fall apart, money for drugs is short of hand, and Harry from unsanitary drug needles notices a raw infection on his arm. Sarah by this point is hysterical and under probable psychosis from the updosage of the amphetamine tablets she has been taking as just one tablet at a time had started the elated happiness to wear off, but also the upage had resulted in more hallucinations caused by the drugs resulting in the 'living fridge' coming to pounce on Sarah, this prompts Sarah to seek out 'Tappy Tibbons' after no contact is made from her filling in the applications in the fall season. Sarah manages to make it to the studio, but by this point Sarah was already not the woman of lost vanity she expected herself to be, a pill popping mess, security at the studio is called and Sarah is taken to a psychiatric ward. Harry and Tyrone eventually get caught out for skipping bail and whereas Tyrone is subjected to racism by the police, Harry is taken to a hospital where his infected arm is cut off. His mother after being taken to a psychiatric ward is undergoing medical treatment to see if they can restore her sanity, involuntarily. Sarah is then subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, proving unsuccessful this has produced Sarah to lose her mind completely. Meanwhile, Harry's girlfriend supplies her drug habit by entering the prostitution trade, performing in sex shows under her pimp, at the end she is seen curling up like the others in a fetal position, protectively holding her stack of money she earned. 

The extract shows Harry in one of his illusioned states, where he is on the pier with Marrion, as he gets closer she is not there, he walks backwards with close angle shot on his shoes to emphasise hat something is going to happen to his feat, in which does, he trips up, slipping from his illusion pier state, to falling from a building surrounded by colours of black and blue contrasting with the pier scene while he shouts marion's name; there is no sound in the pier scene to represent how unrealistic this scene is. Harry wakes up in a hospital, with a nurse at his bedside the nurse reassures Harry 'she was sent for you, she'll come' into which Harry replies 'no she won't', while upset the camera zooms out to show Harry's full body in a fetus position, where you can see that one of Harry's now ligatured arm is bandaged up obviously from being cut off, while the same reoccurring music is played to represent sadness in the film. The next scene cuts to a darkened room in which Marion enters, the scene is shot from a low angle to not only suggest Marion's position over the other characters, but it also shows the mess her apartment is in, to represent her character and how she might be feeling. The next scene quickly shows us Tyrone, and his position, it is probable that he is in prison or an institute, the men are all going to bed, and Tyrone's facial expression is that of ache and upset, another quick scene. Next, we are shown two women sitting in a room at a table, they both turn to stand at what it is they have been waiting for, an extreme close-up of one of the woman is recogniseable of one of Sarah's friends at her old apartment block, it shows how destroyed the community are by what Sarah has become, and things will never be the same. It is cut to a medium shot of Sarah who is almost unrecognisable, her hair is grey and short, her face is rough with a saddened expression and the non-diegetic music seems to be louder at this point, heightening the madness that she has fallen into. The two friends are shown at a bench bus stop, hugging each over, upset and distraught obviously at the meeting and visiting of Sarah, while the camera zooms out to show they are at the bus stop suggesting they will probably never see her again,  it becomes apparent to the audience that Sarah must of lost her mind completely. Finally, we are shown Marion, it is a birds eye close up, and she appears to be smiling, with smudged mascara it is suggested she has been crying, the smile does not look realistic or natural, suggesting to us that Marion may seem at first to be the most successful, her reality is not much different from everybody else's.The camera zooms out and in the scene marion takes out her money and smiles at it and then curls up into the fetal position, showing that it is all she has left, while she lays in the mess of the apartment. The scene cuts back to Tyrone, laying in a fetal position, sweating, while the scene fades slightly to a scene of him and his mother, it is apparent that this is what Tyrone is thinking about, suggesting he has let his mother down, because of the position he is in, and where he is. Another facedown shot is shown next of Sarah, lying in her hospital bed, she begins to smile and at that note, the audience and sound of the diegetic Tabby Tibbons host is heard amongst the sound of the non-diegetic recurring instrumental she turns also into the fetal position while the scene fades to the set of Tabby Tibbons showing that Sarah is lost in her fantasy world, in which her and Harry star in the show, in which Harry is a successful businessman, engaged, and Sarah looks as radiant as what she wished, while Sarah and Harry embrace and Harry tells his mother how he loves her, Sarah appears her happiest. and the set is blackened by the studio lights the silhouette of Harry and his mother are central and shown. The scene blackness out.

The whole scene suggests that all characters are in a fetus position and want to be reborn again, they feel distraught a their life's and it shows to us as an audience the devastating effects that drugs have on our body (the amputation of Harry's arm) but most importantly the effect they have on the people around us, and our person as a whole. Nothing or doubtfully will ever be the same or realistic again.

Insidious sound....

Insidious- Bedroom Scene- Sound

A couple are settling in bed, the mother is talking about how she had a strange and startling experience earlier today hearing unknown voices on the baby monitor, the couple are in mid conversation about why that could be, even when the woman checked on the baby and saw that nobody was there, when suddenly heavy knocks and bangings coming from downstairs startles them. 

The knocks being late at night make us feel something bad is going to happen, the stranger knocks again; the father question 'what the hell was that', this make us feel nervous and scared, the father questions this sound as something unknown and out of the comfort, making us and the characters feel on edge. Being 'the man of the house' the father tells his wife to 'stay here' giving us the near subtle impression that something unknown and bad might happen.

The following footsteps and creeks on the stairs of the father checking out what those noises were add to the suspense, each footstep at a time adds to our impatience and nervousness also. 

The dialogue of 'hello?' and 'who is it?' from the father to the mystery knocker comes with no answer. 

The next key sound element is when the baby starts crying, heard coming from the baby monitor, the mother and us as an audience wonder why the baby is crying, and instantly link it with something to do with the mystery person banging on the door; we get a feeling of dread.

 As we follow the mother from her room to the baby's room, we boldly see a man dressed in black standing behind the baby's cot, looking straight at the mother. A second later we hear the first non diegetic frightening sound, meant to emphasise our unexpectancy of seeing this man standing there, and frighten us to the soul (like it did me). 

The mother begins to panic, with the baby still crying, the father comes up the stairs, into the baby's room to investigate to find the man the mother has been panicking about has suddenly 'disappeared'. The crucial part here to analyse shows that while as an audience in our peak of fear from the unexpectancy of the man standing there, the mother pancking and on top of that a baby's cry, it overall furthers our thought that we have that something scary and terrifying is going to happen, as the father comes to the rescue, he goes into the room the same non diegetic sound fades, just like how the mystery man suddenly disappeared, this as a whole could be subtly saying that this is perhaps something to do with the mother, is she imagining this? (refer to the first few sentences) the father goes to check the window for clues near to where the 'mystery man' was standing, and the same non diegetic sound plays for an instance again which could mean that perhaps the man or ghost is still there, but we just can't see him which is a terrifying thought. 

The mother with screaming baby in arms proceeds to say 'he's standing right there, he's standing right there!' , the dad checks the bedroom closet, and then a non diegetic strange high but eerie pitched xylophone noise plays, the father tells his wife 'there's nobody here' the woman tells her husband 'she saw someone' followed by a second or two of silence which gives us time and peace to think about what just happened but not for long as the second of silence is followed by an unexpectant security house bell screeching, making us again jump, again.

AS Film Studies-Sound Exercise Evaluation

The sound evaluation exercise consisted of producing our own short exercised film that would include the varied sound structures used in film.
In our film we included both the diegetic and non diegetic strategies, for example the diegetic strategies that were used were door slamming, crying, conversation and water trickling. Non-diegetic music includes two songs played one at the beginning and the other at the end credits.
The sequence of our film was in a chronological order starting with the pregnant single mother being left by her boyfriend, to crying to her lover, to the pregnant woman unexpectedly having the baby.

Analysing scenes to show how various techniques were used, in the beginning, the door slam is diegetic strategy that shows to the cast and the audience that Ruby has been left by her boyfriend (which is evident as the phone call tells us this later on), and the non diegetic music that is being played highlights a theme of desperateness, in addition we included a high angle shot looking down on Ruby to conclude how weak she is. I believe this particular shot was very effective in cosplaying the given points.
Secondly, the scene where Ruby is on the phone to Emma is when the song stops playing showing to us as an audience how what Ruby is going to say on the phone is important and crucial to follow the storyline, and leads us to resolve a conclusion about what the scene before is about.  To follow the phone call, the lover of Ruby is to walk into the 'house' and try to resolve Ruby so here we did not use much sound technique as we wanted to show and suspense the audience as to who the 'lover' is. The third scene is where the lover is revealed to the audience and 'Emma' the lover, is counselling Ruby on how they will both work out their relationship difficulties, Ruby's sobbing is a diegetic strategy that highlights Ruby's vulnerable position. The last scene is where Ruby decides she has to leave, and diegetic sound of Ruby's chair sliding backwards highlights how the decision Ruby made to 'go' is unsure, Emma gets up and takes Ruby's hand while non diegetic song 'Love Story' plays in the background showing how Emma and Ruby's story potentially could be seen as a romantic love story to the audience, however another piece of diegetic sound is water trickling telling us and the characters that the baby is coming.

In terms of listing all the sound techniques our group used both diegetic and non diegetic sound techniques showing we have an awareness of what the two terms mean, and how to incorporate them at the right times in scenes and also how to incorporate them editing wise, our awareness of incorporation in the scenes are already shown when we incorporate music as a non diegetic sound to suggest to the audience themes we want them to feel, express and be a ware of what is going on in the film, i.e. when Love Story is played when Emma takes Ruby's hand to show she still wants to be with her; a sound bridge is used after that particular part which is the water trickling to focus on Ruby's bump where the baby is coming. On and off sound was used when the door was slammed and Ruby jumped at the sound, to show how effective the capture of on and off sound was. In addition our sound quality and use of the sound equipment was very aware and we knew how to use it, and what we was doing, the sound was captured effectively and to a great ability. Awareness of contrapuntal sound and parallel is present, however we did not use contrapuntal sound in our film, being that we are quite new to the video and film studies area, however to play on the safe side and get as much in as possible, we did include a parallel sound which was in the first scene the music used was rather depressing and down which highlighted and compared to Ruby's mood and physical visual composure.

On average, I believe we carried out the whole process of sound, editing, uses of theoretical terms and newly learnt sound techniques which add to the positive effect of the capturing of the film, which was a main positive of the film, was how well we captured, especially the sound. Improvement wise, there was one scene that was a bit glitchy where a scene is filmed but it is at a over the shoulder shot of the two people, and the shot is done twice, and in separate occasions they are done at a different angle which is a reflective mirror kind of shot; but apart from that I believe our storyline could of been handled more differently, as it was a quite strange storyline, not to follow but idea-wise; however I believe our ideas and thoughts about filming and plot and storyline will vastly improve in the future as we gain more knowledge about the film plots and theory behind synapses and such. 

First assignment

AS Film Studies- Written Assignment

 

In AS Film Studies, I have learnt how to use a camera, familiarise myself with working with a group of people and focusing on how we all work together to produce and direct a film, ours being called 'Unknown Calling'. We all have differnet roles we have to play, and how we all focus and work at various at different roles within the filming process and how we all at the same time are learning so much about the proceeding course.

 

Within the first assignment of film studies, the whole class split into groups of 4/5 to begin working on their own individual films; we learnt how to use a camera, edit, and began filming. Within my group were I (Ruby), Emma, Chloe, and Adam. Our film was like a cliché school horror film-but amateur; the films plot was that Emma and Ruby had entered school to meet a ‘friend’ who would help them with their home-work. The scene began with Ruby and Emma walking and talking about conversational matters when Ruby receives a phone call from the ‘friend’ to come and meet each other in the gym; however the friend is nowhere to be seen. Ruby and Emma take a seat and wait for their friend.