LGBT

   

LGBT is officially known as Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender which relates to the short film as the main character, Nathan, is a transgender. He was born a male but is currently undergoing hormone adjustment to becoming a female. In the film, it showcases the stereotype of genders as well as prejudice and discrimination against those who go against the norm. The short film reflects the struggles of being transgender from mockery to rejection which may lead to the fatal effect of committing suicide. Hence, the video's title is LGBT but it is an acronym for Let Go Bullying Today.

Firstly, the narrative element is the foundation of which the others are laid. According to Bordwell & Thompson (2010), narration is a process of developing a story. In film, a storyline is expanded by using the logic of cause and effect, time and space. Cause and effect explains a film by setting a scene to explain the next scene. It is the most important aspect of creating a sequence for the story. For instance, the lead in the short film attached, Nathan, wanted to suicide due to the constant complaints of his existence. Furthermore, manipulation of time can be used to explain a story through Temporal Order and Temporal Duration. Temporal order explains a story through flashbacks while temporal duration highlights the character’s life experiences. Lastly, space is manipulated in terms of setting to tell a story without actually visually showing the development

Narrative constitutes story and plot. These elements help us to make sense of a film whether they are being implicitly or explicitly presented (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010). They stated that plot is also a form of narration which is the all explicit presentation of audio and visual aspects including nondiegetic materials. The application to the plot of the short film was the blade thrown to Nathan which acts a catalyst to him killing himself. Diegetic materials are things assumed to be present in the film’s situation whereas nondiegetic materials are non-present. Examples of diegetic materials are physical setting and props existing in the film’s world while nondiegetic materials include words displayed on screen which are actually non-existent to the characters in the film but visible to the audience. 

Mise-en-scene defines as the things that appear in frame that assist in narrating the film (Moura, 2014). It consists of four elements which are setting and props, lighting, costumes and make up as well as actors’ movements (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010).

Setting refers to the decoration of the set, comprising mainly of the furniture, props, and the set’s background. Setting conveys intended messages by the film maker to audiences through the physical outlook of the film based on its theme (Moura, 2014). For instance, Nathan’s room comprises of lovely feminine colours. Props has a function of assisting in the narrative structure of a scene (Bordwell & Thompson ,2010). It is also stated that they can be used as motif such as cosmetic products to reflect his disassociation of identity with his sex.

The second element is lighting which consists of highlights and shadows. Highlight focuses on a subject; shadows conceal a subject (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010). It also stated that lighting functions to illuminate the subject, paint a certain atmosphere and capture texture within setting. Two main terms of lighting are low key illumination and high key lighting. Low key illumination was used to show high contrast background. During the bullying scene at the playground, there were bright spotlights hovering over the bullies and Nathan. The shot with the bright spotlights and dark figures of bullies was to create an intimidating effect.

High key lighting was used to highlight the surroundings despite the different times of day. In the scene where Nathan was in his room, high key lighting was used to show low contrast between him and the props as well as highlighting the surroundings. Subject being Nathan and objects being the mascara during the day and phone during the night.

The third element is actors’ movements which defines as actors performing their skill as a certain character in the film (Bordwell & Thompson  ,2012). Acting include wide range of skills such as a well-developed facial expression and physical positioning. Actor’s movements play an important role in narrating a scene without vocal guidance. For instance, Nathan shows the audience that he is panicking about entering the female’s toilet by blinking his eyes and breathing intensely before going in.

The last element is make up and costumes which acts as narrative content, but can be used to enhance actor’s features too. Examples include the dressing of the bullies whom dressed in black which portrays them as being evil and gangsters. Costumes acts as the storytelling tool for the audience to show the character’s personality and history (Costumes and Makeup, n.d.).

According to Bordwell & Thompson (2012), mise-en-shot helps in the narration of mise- en-scene. It is important to stage how the scene is going to be shot in front of the camera. There are five components of mise-en-shot such as camera movement, camera position, shot scale, duration of each shot and also the pace of editing which are commonly known as cinematography.

Camera positioning applied in the short film are establishing, handheld, tracking and dolly shot. Establishing shots were used at the beginning of a new scene to establish a space such as Nathan’s house. Handheld shot is used to create realistic shot such as following Nathan into his house. Tracking shot is a shot that follows the actor. Lastly, dolly shot moves the camera along the ground (Bordwell & Thompson, 2012). In the short film attached, there is a combination of tracking and dolly shot during the scene where Nathan runs out of the house to the playground after being cyber bullied.  It is tracking shot as it tracks the actors’ movements. While doing so, the camera is moving towards the left parallel to the ground.

In terms of shot scale, close up shots were used to emphasize the actors’ facial expressions. Particularly during the toilet scene, where a series of close-ups were used to emphasize the bullies’ reaction towards Nathan being a transgender.

Moreover, long shot was used as establishing shots as well as portraying the actor in the surrounding environment.

In addition, a variety of camera angles were used in the short film as narrative visuals.  The first type of shot was high-angled shots of subject to portray the subject as being submissive. Applications of high-angled shot were commonly used with Nathan the character was constantly being oppressed by other societal members such as the bullies and his mother.

 In contrast, low-angled shots of subjects were to portray them as being dominating. Low-angled shots were commonly used in the short film with the bullies as to portray them as being powerful.

Eye level shots were used to portray neutral shots that allows audience to interpret for themselves the meaning of the shot. For example, the shot of Nathan at the end dissolving into Natalie.

Proceeding to sound, audience tend to attach sound to visuals to enhance the experience of enjoying a film. Even with silent movies, there were orchestra to assist in provoking the feelings within the audience (Bordwell & Thompson, 2012).  In the Image and Video Retriever: 4th International Conference, it is stated that sounds that happen in the cinema is of three types: speech, music, and noise, also known as sound effects.

During the scene at the playground, the video employed sound perspective which defines as the loudness of a sound depends on its distance from the camera (Bordwell & Thompson, 2012). Along with the Point-of-View shot from Nathan’s perspective, sound perspective was applied with Nathan’s voice being louder to complement the shot.

Sounds effects function to provide rhythm. Rhythm enhances the mise-en-scene by setting the mood while watching a scene or tone of the entire movie. To further illustrate background music with an upbeat tempo will usually accompany light hearted visuals and vice versa. It also provides a guide for editing. The tempo of the sound sets the pace for editing by signalling the editor where and when to cut. Film makers also tend to link the rhythm of visuals with sound. In the scene where Nathan was applying his mascara, he blinked when there was a beat from the background sound.

Sound is further divided into diegetic and nondiegetic sound to manipulate spatial dimensions. Diegetic sounds define as the sound coming from actual sources in the film’s world. The example would be the sound of Nathan’s mascara hitting the floor and rolling away.

In contrast, nondiegetic sounds are sources of sound that are non-existent such as background music.  For instance, the scene where Nathan was about to enter the female’s toilet, complementary sounds of heartbeats were placed to allow the audience to experience Nathan’s nervousness as only he can hear his own heartbeat and the sound was to put the audience in his shoes by being him themselves.

The final element is editing which defines as creating a connection or linkage between two separate shots. There are two styles of editing mentioned in this report which are such as continuity editing and rhythmic editing. The main purpose of using different styles of editing is to allow audiences to fully immerse into the film and experience the film maker’s vision through the manipulation of physical conditions such as time, space and visuals (Bordwell & Thompson, 2012).

Firstly, continuity editing stresses the importance of similar camera direction and mise-en-scene to show narrative continuity (Bordwell & Thompson, 2012). It is also stated that by ensuring the consistency of elements such as lighting and actors movement, there is logical progression to narrating the story through the visuals of film. Applications of continuity editing can be found in the scene where Nathan’s mother was scolding him and threw his mascara to the floor. When she was yelling at him, she was positioned at the right of Nathan in the shot, and still continued to be on the right when the camera switched to a frontal view of her throwing the mascara.

Secondly, rhythmic editing sets the mood of a scene through the pacing of shots (Bordwell & Thompson, 2012). It is also stated that film makers extend or shorten the length of a shot to provoke a certain feeling within the audience when watching that scene. For instance, a fast-paced change of shots in a fighting scene through jump cuts or match cuts creates a sense of excitement also known as flash frames; elongating the shots in a scene slows down and creates a calming effect. An example would be the toilet scene where the bullies were gossiping about Nathan, there were a series of fast-paced close up shots of the bullies as well as Nathan. This is to provoke a sense of nervousness within the audience to experience the tension between Nathan and the bullies. Then, the pace of editing slowed down after the bullies left and Nathan was saddened by the prejudice against him.

The short film also used simple editing and transition techniques such as jump and match cuts, fade in and outs, as well as dissolve. According to Bordwell & Thompson (2012), jump and match cuts create an immediate while the others create a gradual change of shots.

As a summary, all the elements of film techniques act as a narrative tool. Narrative is the framework of story development; mise-en-scene sets the visuals which associates the environment with the actors; mise-en-shot brings the audience into a scene by emphasizing on certain visuals, sound sets the rhythm and tone that complement the visuals; editing ties all elements together to create cinematic artwork that is convincing to audiences (Connell, 2012). By applying basic theories of film techniques to the short film, one is able to understand the importance of each element to every shot.

References :

Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction, (9^th ed.), USA: McGraw-Hill

Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2012). Film Art: An Introduction, (10^th ed.), USA: McGraw-

Hill

Moura, G. (2014). The elements of cinema blog & podcast. Retrieved from:

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/directing/mise-en-scene-in-films/

Costumes and Make Up (n.d.). YMI Teachers. Retrieved from

https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/costumes_and_makeup_activites_guide.pdf

Connell, J. (2012). “Film tourism – Evolution, progress and prospects.” Tourism Management,

(October), 33 (5), 1007–1029.

 Group Members :

1. Chung Lay Woei (1502716)

2. Lim Wen Qi        (1601884)

3. Hoh Sook Yee     (1602438)

4. Ong Wan Qian    (1602595)

5. Natalie Tan Shern Ying (1603100)

6. Ong Phei Ying    (1603163)