Moving Narrative - Evaluation

The Moving Narrative module was one of my most preferred modules. With the other modules, I would have to shoot a film which would always lead to a problem that is beyond my experience and therefore proves much more difficult while Moving Narrative taps into what I very much prefer doing. We were given free rein to come up with a film idea and, since we didn’t have to shoot it, it could be anything. I had my idea for years, specifically the characters and the general direction that their story would go, prior to this course however I was only recently able to ground it into a manageable format. My original plan for my ‘Slade’ universe was as a TV show however I whittled it down and managed to fit it into a number of different films as a franchise.

For the project, we had to show our research into our desired film idea with both written work and a mood reel/poster that capture the tone or inspiration. My biggest inspiration was the ‘Lupin III’ franchise, specifically the second film ‘The Castle of Cagliostro’. My characters and scenarios were inspired by said film so a spend time looking into the history of the franchise and what it entails overall. My most interesting discovery was the live action version of ‘Lupin III’ that was released last year as it is close to what I was envisioning based on iconography and aesthetic.

The area that I was most proud of was my mood reel. I feel that it came together really well. It began a bit hard as I had to pinpoint which footage to use and whether I could actually find it or not. However, once I did, it was a fun process of putting everything together. I knew from the very beginning that I would use a song from the score of ‘The Castle of Caglisotro’ which is why the mood reel began and ended with the song so that it could start and end naturally. The clips were also timed perfectly with the music which especially stuck out to me.

I found the biggest difficulty with making a poster. My Photoshop skills are very limited and, while I did incorporate some aspects I picked up from complementary studies, there were still some things that didn’t work so well. The good things include meshing together two separate people to create Slade’s silhouette while Drake’s was the perfect look by default. I had to splice the 10^th Doctor’s head from ‘Doctor Who’ onto a model’s body for Slade. As it was in silhouette, the detail didn’t matter so I could get away with not cleaning up the neckline. The background is also very generic and couldn’t find anything else more fitting. I do like the font however and I believe that my use of institutional information is strong. The actors listed wouldn’t be my final choices but act more as a guideline for what type of character they are trying to portray.

The script writing process was very erratic. When I got around to starting the piece, I got so enthralled in it that I managed to turn out a seven page draft after one writing session. I believe that my experience with these characters that I’ve had in my mind for so long as well as finding films and shows trying to hit my desired tone, such as ‘The Lone Ranger’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. However I found difficulty trying to convey what I wanted while also making it believable as the first ten pages of a feature length film. For example, I wanted to show off my characters but I feel that the pacing suffered as a result. Within the first ten pages, five of the main characters are introduced including the villain. This seems a bit rushed. Luckily, I spread it out a bit in later drafts and gave more time to chill, evident by Slade and Drake’s conversation in the hotel room and a look at Amos’ personal life.   

Overall, I enjoyed this module. It allowed me to focus solely on the idea stage of film and create our own characters and narratives without the limitation of having to make the film ourselves. I appreciated that I could finally ground my ideas that I’ve had brewing in my brain for years and work them into a thought out narrative. It also gave me an opportunity to use my favourite film in my research as it acted as my biggest inspiration. I’m proud of my mood reel and feel it’s one of my strongest pieces of editing through both visual and audio however my poster needs a lot of adjustments.