Directions Unit: Ideas for Director's Statement + Film

As mentioned in a previous post, for my part of this unit I have to write a 1000 word director's statement based on my 4 minute film. Below are some ideas which I am planning to discuss in my statement as well as ideas which I plan to use for my film.

Ideas for Director's Statement

As mentioned in previous posts, I am planning to show an opposition between freedom and trapment - showing the character becoming 'free' once receiving his results. So to promote this, I must make sure that the audience can recognise this opposition, which can be shown through numerous ways i.e. through the character, camera, muse-en-scene, etc. Therefore below are a variety of ways to show this:

Lighting - In my opinion, the use of lighting can be used to help reinforce the two occurring themes in my production. It conveys quite a literal meaning - for example, if a scene lacks lighting then it is dark, which signifies mystery, a disruption or being 'trapped', etc. This is evident in the scene below (taken from Breaking Bad) which I find to be quite effective, as the character is portrayed in darkness despite being in open and 'free' land. This works well with the plot as the character, Mike, attempts to escape his 'trapped' life and plans to leave town to move somewhere else. Such opposition of light is which I plan to use for my project which should remain evident until the character becomes 'free', where then naturalistic lighting should dominate each scene to show the character's change.

Taken from Breaking Bad, opposition between light

Awkward and 'uncomfortable' camera shots - Throughout the story (until the character becomes free), the use of unordinary camera shots should be used, to help create an uncomfortable feel for the audience. This should entice with the character's stress and idea of him being trapped - the audience themselves should be able to put themselves in his position. This can be done through a variety of ways e.g. unbalanced/dynamic composition (so that straight lines become angled), extreme close ups, the character being positioned to the side of the shot, etc. Below is an example of a couple of shots, taken from Breaking Bad:

Although the composition is symmetrical, you can tell the tension
within the shot due to the positioning of the characters - the mother is literally
 'in the middle' which also works metaphorically

Positioning the character, Lydia, to the side of the shot plus an extreme close up
reinforces the intensity of the plot, as well as her NVC

The positioning of the two characters as well as the close up of  the
 character, Skye, reinforces the disruptive relationship

Use of focus - Following on, this idea of tension also links to the use of focus. The shot above shows how the blurring of characters can create an emphasis on the opposition between the two characters in this shot in addition to the character in focus. This could be used to show how my character is being 'trapped' e.g. shots could have selective focus on the character having everything blurred, showing that he is trapped and vice versa for when the character becomes free.

Using mise-en-scene to hint towards the narrative + the character - Here, the use of props and the surroundings could be used to hint towards the plot (getting A level results) as well as the type of person the character is. For example, props referring to school could be evident around his room, such as a calendar with rings around a certain date (the results date), books, pencils, revision guides, etc. However, these could also link to the stress of the character e.g. books thrown on the floor and screwed up pieces of paper near a bin could show the character stressing about revision, thus linking to the plot.

Costume Design - although this doesn't play as much of a significant role compared to the ideas above, it is essential that the character's clothes relate to the mood of feeling 'trapped'. For example, the character shouldn't wear anything vibrant and should basically wear bland clothing and bland colours to reiterate the idea that this 'stress' is repetitive.

Colour Palette (tone) - similar to the costume design, the general colouring within the film should also be bland, to signify this idea of being trapped, and how there is a lack of freedom. This should change when the character reaches freedom - everything should become more vibrant and colourful e.g. the sun could come out (as it should start with the weather being bland and perhaps 'cloudy') so that the audience can identify this change once he gets his results. I've chosen not to add any artificial tone and instead rely on naturalistic lighting due to it being generally easier to edit and in my opinion more efficient.

To conclude, these are some of the stylistic approaches I am planning to use for my film, which I will incorporate into my director's statement.