Hannah's media/film/tv blog


SIGNS: a short film by Patrick Hughes
April 15, 2010, 6:02 am
Filed under: tv1 | Tags: , ,

Eliza (our director) brought our attention to a shot film called Signs that I think encapsulates a near perfect example of our main character Bernard, except with one exception he lacks the murderous quality that we need to capture in Bernard. Jason the main character in Signs is obviously over the monotonous pain of going to work everyday highlighted through the bleak sad expression on his face as he goes through the process of going to work (captured through a montage of him getting to work). Once at work it is obvious that he is an outcast they laugh he doesn’t, when he falls over everyone laughs. It is Jason’s bleak face that would be perfect, especially this beautiful shot where Jason is positioned in the centre of the frame with a look of total unhappiness on his face, which cuts to a panning shot of people at work in confined cubicles. It is this cut that expresses explicitly the isolation Jason feels at work. Everything about Jason’s acting perfectly shows his unhappiness through the dragging of his feet across the ground to the sigh and frown that spands his whole demeanour when he sits down at his desk, the camera close-up to this obvious example of misery. This is how I would imagine Bernard’s demeanour around the workplace, where I think the key, which Signs captures so precisely is the contrast between Jason and his co-workers. Elly the writer of our script went even further with Bernard’s character by making him older- left behind by his generation and also the advancements in technology, there is more at stake- people have lost respect for him.

The charm of Signs is the way so much is conveyed through action; the dialogue at the absolute bare minimum, which is also captured by Elly in this script, especially in the last scene as I have discussed previously. I went on Elly’s blog and also saw that she had made a comment about Signs saying the things she liked about it was the thwarted desire when Jason’s love interest disappears. Instead of love Elly uses gluttony in her script, which represents routine in Bernard’s character disrupted by Jonathan, who’s motivation is to mock and destroy Bernard’s happiness.

I will continue to look for short works as well as longer works in terms of getting ideas for our production. It’s not about stealing ideas it’s about gaining knowledge and researching. Thinking about what is the best way to do things in terms of turning Elly’s script into sound and vision.


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cheers.

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