"Virago"- Final Cut

This is the final cut of our film "Virago".

Radio Trailer

This is the first draft of our Radio Trailer for "Virago". Changes will be made according to feedback peers give us on it.

Final group poster

 

Poster

As a group, we have decided to make this poster the final group poster. This is because we feel like it attracts the viewers attention but also does not give too much away about the film. it also includes the production details of our film, such as the production companies etc.

New Logo

Evaluation 1

1  In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Virago is a psychological thriller so we decided that following the conventions and codes of this genre would aid to achieve a successful short film. Firstly was tackling the shots, one theme that we found throughout many similar films were isolating shots where the protagonist is shown alone in a wide shot when it is not necessary.

For this we began the film on a wide shot to create a symbolic impression of loneliness, however this also shows the protagonist visiting the location of his wedding which is foreshadowing a later scene in the film. Foreshadowing is also a very key convention to psychological thrillers and can be seen in many of films. For example, the film psycho feature a taxidermist and the use of crows can be seen through out the film, this connotes death as an arching over figure due to the placement of these crows often being placed higher in the room as seen below.

During this introduction, short shots are edited into a fast pace. This relates to Richard Dyers theory of utopia, one dimension Dyer states is energy, since this short film will lack physical energy due to the plot and story constraints, we had to incorporate the energy elsewhere which is why we felt editing is the next best platform to display this.
After this establishing scene, we used a focus pull to contrast between the protagonists helmet and where he is heading, again foreshadowing that there is a conclusive end to the film (Eddies suicide). As the focus shifts from deep to shallow, we are shown an emphasis on Eddie looking straight forward which insinuates that he is heading into his own inevitable end voluntarily and embracing it which is conveyed by Eddie riding his motor cycle which is a large pass time for many people.

Mise en scene elements such as sets and props were also inspired by films. One of the most notable examples is the similarities to the thriller John Wick, John loses his wife and turns to his muscle car as a form of escapism to get away from the stresses. Similarly Eddie is in the same position but has motor cycle which is highlighted throughout the intro to the film.

As we approach the act within Eddies house, we begin to engage in the more person and up close shots of our protagonist. The reasoning for this is that creating person scenes allows for the audience to empathise and identify with the characters, this links to another utopian solution of Richard Dyer known as "transparency". This states that honestly and openness of a character allows for an audience to feel forced into pairing with the protagonist and instead to decide that themselves.

We accomplish this by using close shots when Eddie can be seen drinking and smoking as it gives a personal and up close observation of him during this time of addiction and escapism.

As we approach the final act, we begin to interject fast paced editing as Eddie takes his life, showing his memories as. Again this was in line with Richard Dyers theory of utopia however the utopian solution used here was the dimension of intensity that is key for enticing drama pieces within film, this section of virago is objectively the most intense part so we find this combines perfectly with the intense dimension.

As we enter the suicide scene of Eddie, there can be clear influences seen from "The Royal Tenenbaums"

This scene is what could bump Virago from a 15 to a 18 as it includes self mutilation and suicide. The film did not dwell too much on this scene as we wanted to include it as a final act to conclude the film to and thought 20% of the duration was fitting.
Sound
During the editing process, we made a conscious effort to remove the raw audio from scenes, this is because there is no dialogue and the audio from the camera is just producing back ground noise and wind. Since we did not have the time to do ADR (Automated dialogue replacement, where sounds on screen are re-recorded at a higher quality in post production), we had to resort to non diegetic music that was synchronous to the mood and atmosphere of Virago.

During editing, I sampled around with soundtracks and could not settle on one. I decided to look around at other films and found a common theme of no more than 4 to 5 tracks on each song, this creates a rather simplistic sounding song. For instruments, the songs tended to have distinct beginnings and ends to each not, for this I found a piano will be most fitting to match this theme.

Since we did not have the resources or time to compose our own sound track, we found non copy righted songs that we would be legally okay to use from sites such as YouTube. For the Title sequence, there was slow transitions from one note to the next, this was so that I could include a form of arrhythmic editing so that cuts felt natural and were not jarring.

Evaluation 1- In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our short psychological-thriller film, "VIRAGO", both challenges and conforms to the conventions of traditional short films in terms of its genre, narrative and editing techniques. We chose to challenge and conform this criteria because we didn't want our film to be overly generic and formulaic to other short films, while still maintaining its significance in its genre and style. The story of our film is simply an insight into the mind of our biker protagonist, Edward, and how he copes with the recent death of his wife. His increasing volume of visions of her in his dreams and of her in bandages in his reality result in his demise at the end.

The story and cinematic style of our film was inspired by many other feature films. The most prominent of these being 'The Place Beyond the Pines', 'Drive' and 'The Royal Tenenbaums'. 'The Place Beyond the Pines' and 'Drive' influenced our films protagonist- a man who is perceived to be masculine but is struggling to escape the past and a woman who he can't get over. The main influence for Elizabeth was "Eyes Without a Face" in terms of her costuming and angelic mannerisms and persona. 'The Royal Tenenbaums', however, influenced our cinematography in terms of our shots symmetry and movement. There's a scene which was a direct reference to a specific scene in 'The Royal Tenenbaums' that we tried to recreate in our tragic ending (where the protagonist cuts their wrists over a sink). This recreation is similar both not only in subject matter and camerawork but also in the way it was edited (e.g. jump cutting to visions in the protagonist's head).

  High Angle shot in "The Royal Tenenbaums"

   High Angle shot in "Virago" 

 

 Long shot of bike "Quadrophenia"

Long shot of bike in "Virago"

  
Close-up shot from "Eyes Without a Face"

Close-up shot from "Virago"

Some of the shots we got of Edward on the motorbike were also quite similar to likes of 'Easy Rider' and the opening shot from 'Quadrophenia'. One could argue that the costumes used in "VIRAGO" conform to the conventions of biker culture and biker films. In fact, Edward's costume were influenced by Mel Gibson's in 'Mad Max' and especially Marlon Brando's in 'The Wild One'.

In constructing this gothic and intimate story, we utilised the three common continuity editing techniques used in many feature films: 180-degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. These techniques are used in films so that the audience can understand the layout and stage directions of a particular scene; so that the characters interactions with objects or other characters make sense and the editing will not confuse the audience. In our film, we used all of these techniques successfully in our film's dream sequence, whiskey sequence and staircase sequence.

The whiskey sequence opens with a long shot of Edward entering the kitchen and sitting down at the table. He grabs the whiskey bottle from the bottle stand and there is a cut to an over-shoulder shot of Edward putting the bottle up to his face and drinking from it. The cut syncs up with the movement of the arm bringing the bottle towards his face and hence creating a match on action. If we were to not sync up the action between Edward and the bottle it would have broken continuity and would leave the audience wondering where the bottle has gone from the previous shot. The same technique is used on the bottle when Edward knocks the bottle off and onto the floor.

Later in the scene, in Edward's dream reality, there are multiple cuts back to a medium shot of him, his dead wife and a vicar all centred in the middle of the frame. This shot gives the audience a signal that this line should not be passed- the 180-degree rule. In other shots of the dream reality, we abide to this rule and do not pass it; despite having the freedom to do so because it was a dream sequence and did not necessarily require accurate continuity. This is shown through the medium shot of all three actors, the close-up of Edward's face and the long shot of Edward.

Shot Reverse Shot, on the other hand, was achieved in the staircase sequence, where Eddie has a vision of his wife in bandages, staring at him through the bannister. We used cuts back and forth from Kurt and Hannah's face in editing to denote to the audience that they are having some sort of connection/communication with one another, even though Elizabeth doesn't actually exist. If this sequence didn't have shot reverse-shot, it might not have conveyed that they are forming some sort of connection but would have instead portrayed a jump-scare, as seen in many horror films; changing the genre of our film entirely.

I feel our film was overall successful in portraying the psychological thriller genre, despite us sometimes subverting from it into more of a horror (e.g His wife bandaged up, the bloody gore at the end). These scenes of almost horror-like iconography were used because we wanted to convey Edward's slowly disintegrating mental state. The dark imagery is necessary for us to convey his dark thoughts. Doing this was constructed in way that was supposed to encourage our audience to be disturbed and have empathy/sympathy for Edward. Our audience, who should be between 15-18yrs and above, will have hopefully had a visceral response to the graphic ending and gain an understanding of our protagonist's visions and why they are important to him and the narrative. When showing our film to a few colleagues, they reacted exactly as I have just stated. While the film is quite tragic and mournful, the audience gain pleasure from it through its escapism, subjectivity and perhaps even make them learn about depression and loss.

Evaluation one: in what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?

Evaluation one:

 in what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products? 

Our short psychological thriller that we named 'virago' not only conforms to stereotypical conventions of traditional short films; genre, mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography but it also subverts these too. We decided as a group to subvert these techniques as we wanted to produce a film that stylistic and that was able to capture reality in a sense were those watching would achieve emotional gratification i.e. we displayed mental health as a key theme throughout which is highlighted in the end scene on Edward self harming. Moreover we also wanted to not make the film overly generic to other short films, therefore we took inspirations from a variety of films that we all talked about as a group. Therefore our key influences are not situated to one particular film but are from a large demographic, consisting of independent, foreign, mainstream and short films. 

The story of our film follows the blurred emotional view of our biker protagonist 'Edward' and how he is coping with the loss of his wife that he continually has repetitive dreams and visions about. This torture leads him to abuse his body by alcohol and leads to his final death in the end scene. We decided to subvert traditional male protagonists as we wanted to highlight that males are able to show emotions in the same way as women and that it is natural! Therefore this gives the film details of verisimilitude. For instance the 2016 short film 'home' directed and wrote by Daniel Mulloy who brought to the light the issue of how 64% of refugees who were seeking asylum in 2016 were denied entry. Mulloy bought such a level of verisimilitude to the roar emotions of what the lives were and are for the refugees that he beautifully captured the real truth. 

Within the pre-production stage of the film, there were three key influences that aided us throughout cinematography; 'The Royal Tenenbaums', 'Drive' and 'The place beyond the pines'. They were particulary key influences as the films successful executed scenes of emotional turmoil and mutilation. Due to these factors being considered controversial, we wanted to both carry out the scenes with justice but also not proliferate in glorification to board along the lines of the horror genre. Whereas within the construction of our protagonist's character profile and costume we also took influences from; Patrick Bateman in American Psycho demeanor and personality, Mr Humbert Humbert from Lolita and Max from Mad max. Patrick is shown to be overly clinical a perfectionist within his profession. One instance is his 'morning routine' which is executed with vast detail. Edward will be adhering towards the clinical side of Patrick,  however flaws in his character start to arise within the contrast on his biker suit, which expresses all is not what it seems. Moreover we took Max's backline story and emotional battle he faces through the loss of his wife and son and then for Mr Humbert we took the obsessive side of him and displayed it with how Edward is with his bike. 

 

Edward with his bike that he named Virago, which is his last name. Takes possession over his property)

One of the most prominent influences in terms of cinematography for our film was 'The Royal Tenenbaums'. We tried to re-create the scene of where the protagonist appears to be slicing his wrist over the sink from a point of view high angle and shows how the act was carried out where he grooms himself. Within our film we re-created this scene but decided to just focus specifically on the knife and to not entirely take advantage of this beautifully created shot we also decided to using numerous jump cuts to subvert the scene and to almost allow the narrative to why Edward had chose to take his life through showing prior and present flashbacks. As featured below are two direct shots from the original film 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and how we decided to portray this within our film.

HIGH ANGLE SHOT FROM THE FILM ' THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS

HIGH ANGLE SHOT FROM VIRAGO 

In the construction of Virago, we decided to keep to the 3 basic cinematography rules when filming: 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. Within films these techniques are used to allow for continuous continuity and to allow the audience to almost forget they're in fact watching a film and to reiterate the importance of verisimilitude so i.e if someone is having a conversation the camera will directly show the one who is speaking. Within Virago we displayed these throughout especially within both the staircase, whiskey scene and the dream montage.

match on action of Edward drinking

WHY MATCH ON ACTION'S MUST BE FOLLOWED I.E.... 

Within the whiskey scene, the scene begins with a wide-long shot of Edward entering the kitchen and heading over to the table to sit down on the left hand side. When Edward grabs the whiskey with his left hand, the camera then moves to a match-on-action of an over the shoulder shot of him drinking the whiskey. If the rule of match of action wasn't followed here and he picked up the bottle with his right hand and then drank from his left, it would not only break continuity but the audience would also be disrupted when watching the film as the shot began with the whiskey in his right but then some how appeared in his left. Therefore we felt the accuracy of the match-on-action was appropriately used here to achieve continuity throughout the scene and narrative and conformed to other short films use of cinematography.

Later on in the scene we cut to a montage medium-close us(flashbacks)of Edward with his wife in the church yard of their wedding day. We decided to show all the characters using the 180 degree rule as it gave them equal status and would disorientate the audience at all. Throughout the flashbacks we decided to stick to the 180 degree rule whenever two characters were in a shot, however we subverted the continuous use through numerous close ups of Edward and extreme long shots to reiterate the scene was a flashback/dream that Edward was having through being unconscious by the alcohol. This scene is also accompanied by non-diegetic score of that connoted a sense of an emotional arousal and infers that the scene is created to be emotional as Edward is coming to his final minutes on earth. This  score of incidental music also builds up throughout the short film.

Richard Dyers Theory of Utopia in relation to Virago

Outline of the theory: Audiences consume media products through their own desire(s) to escape reality. However it can also provide the means for the individual to diverge away from their ordinary, simplistic mundane lives and indulge themselves into how human life could have been. Essentially offering them a form of satisfactory entertainment through their gratification. According to Richard Dyer there are  Five 'Utopic' categories:Energy,Intensity,transparency,Abundance and Community . 

Within Virago we only able to reference Engergy, Intensity and transparency. 

Transparency: (character building) Due toVirago being a psychological thriller, it was rather key for us to create a rapport with the audience, due to the unconventional and niche narrative. We were successful in creating this are through the use of flashbacks, we were able to highlight Edwards past and allow the viewer to place themselves within his emotions and show remorse for his grieving state. Even though Edward is a fictional character we felt the themes that were conveyed were also a strength in portraying him as a real character.

Overall i feel our end film final product of the film Virago was successful in displaying our chosen hybrid genre:Psychological-thriller, even though it could be argued that we subverted from some traditional themes and conventions within that genre to more 'horror' (Elizabeth displayed in bandages, blood at the end) or 'romance'( wedding ceremony between Edward and Elizabeth, denoted by the vicar). We felt these were necessary to include as the specific inconography allowed the narrative to have space and highlight how they all played a part within Edwards final moments. We also felt they would allow the audience to feel empathy towards Edwards for the loss of his wife and how he felt he was suffering alone.  One could even say the short film is overtly saddening and emotional however we wanted to create a roar emotional film that we all can relate to in terms of loss, everyday situations and mental health. We felt the film was able to convey a fraction of what suffering from depression can do to someone and how it effects the outlook upon life. When we showed the film to a number of peers they reiterated that even though the film was emotional it was great to see a film that shined in natural human emotions rather than covering them up.