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Reflective Essay

For my war/romance film I chose to begin my storyboard a couple of minutes into the film. The first shot begins with a medium long shot, to create the feeling of the scene, and introduce the audience to the setting of the film. The shot is focused on Ben, so the audience gets to know Ben as the main character, and begin to know how he is feeling from his facial expressions and his body language. There is only the sounds of sad music, to back up the Bens feelings, and the sound of things frying in a pan, the make the scene seem more realistic. The music is non diagetic, so the character cannot hear it, added in editing. But the sounds of the frying pan is supposed to be heard by the character as it is a part of the scene but can be added in editing. The lighting in all the shots are ambient because if further support the mood of the section of the film, as I wanted to display emotion in the shots.
After this short introduction to the main character, the shot fades, and gradually takes us to the scene where Ben is eating; the slow why he is eating, and his body language also show the audience of his unhappiness, also you can tell from the untidiness of the house that Ben is not at all a happy person. His clothes are creased but are nice, meaning that he once took pride in his appearance. Also the ambient lighting of the shots makes the house feel more homely, yet as it is dark it conveys that Ben is downhearted.
When the close up of the tear comes into shot, it seems very brightly lit, focusing on the tear as light is reflecting from it, the audience then begins to feel sorry for Ben, and the connection of the audience and the main character is made. When he returns to eating you see the ambient lighting again.
The shots are slightly lightened in the kitchen scene, as there is a light directly above Ben. This could be classed as hard lighting. The kitchen is also a mess, this again shows the disturbance in Bens mind. Again his facial expression and body langue shows that his mood has not improved since the last shot. There are bin bags on the floor full of rubbish, and what seems like unwashed pans from a few days ago which depicts to the audience that Ben does not care for a clean and tidy house. For a different shot size, I chose to focus on Ben’s hands in the washing up water, this is a close up, and the shot also seems brightly lit, compared to the scenes away from the kitchen. When the camera zooms out again as a transition to him washing up again you notice the change in his body language, yet still the unhappy facial expression. The lighting reflects off the sparkling plate that he has just washed; as the shot before lasted a long time of him washing the same plate, the audience get the feeling that he used to have pride in his house and the contents, but now, as he is sad, he no longer does.
As a last shot for my storyboard, I chose to use a long shot, to show the Ben’s home, and how it was still untidy, as he watches the television Ben is hunched over, again body language to show his unhappiness. Cushions on the floor along with cups and plates show again that he does not take pride in his house.
Overall the audience have made a connection with Ben and his emotions in the scene, however the mystery is still what is making Ben like this, this puts the audience in suspense as they want to know why their main character is so downhearted. They see the way he lives and their impression of him is made, hopefully they feel sorry for him, as this is my aim. Throughout the scene there has been a sad soundtrack been playing, this is the make sure the audience know the emotion of the film, yet the music is very dull in the background as the viewers are to concentrate on the actions of the main character rather than the music, the music is there just as a sound to fill in the quietness of the scene, as there is no dialogue and the camera is mostly static in the sequence, therefore making it more interesting.