Mayra Nassef

Reflection on Preliminary Tasks

The preliminary tasks I have completed aided in providing me with adequate intel about
screenwriting and filming in a way that going straight into filming wouldn’t.

Analyses of existing films:

I analysed quite a few film openings as the best method of learning (for me personally) is observing
and analyzing how a certain director has achieved a certain effect, etc. I analysed a few in class (such
as Looper, The Maze Runner and La La Land) and ones on my own such as Lady Bird. Analysing a
genre wasn’t a necessity to me as genre conventions of teen dramas/coming-of-age films were quite
familiar to me. However, I learned how to introduce narrative, relationships and tone through
various shots. Filming places perspective in the hands of the director rather than the beholder and
therefore I crafted my opening scene un a way that would provide adequate information about the
character and provide the inciting incident. I learned that no time must be wasted in the opening
scene as audiences can easily be swayed and turn off the film. Through Lady Bird for example, I
learned that audiences enjoy more realistic relationships where both sides can be explored; I tried to
integrate that with the character of Lisa and Anna in my opening scene. La La Land presented an
interesting use of the long take (a technique which I ended up using in my film.)

Additionally, after having trouble trying to introduce my character; I analysed how existing films
introduce theirs (I analysed how the protagonist in Juno was introduced in an in-depth analysis) and I
found that it is actually much simpler than I previously thought. I integrated the idea of introducing
character through action (the way Anna talks and how she deals with things). I was also pleasant
surprised after analyzing The New York Times’ Anatomy of a Scene as it is quite personal and
intriguing to listen to a director analyse their own scene and I tried to include a few aspects of the
videos in my own opening scene (e.g representing impact of parents in a film and the art of the long
take)

Market Research:

I actually found my market research quite helpful as there was some surprising information that I
didn’t expect (e.g audiences preferring clichés and adolescents not really watching many teen
dramas). Even though there were some flaws in my survey structure and question wording I still
received some information that impacted my thought process during screenwriting: I thought to
myself, how can I make a film that adolescents actually want to watch?
Some of the answers were still lackluster and very restrictive to the confines of my school (which is a
diverse international school but still is in the same location) despite having a few respondents living
in various different places around the world too.

Narrative Theories:

Surprisingly, I didn’t focus too much on narrative theory. To be fair, Todorov’s narrative theory was a
must but could not be integrated into an opening sequence as its’ a theory that refers to the whole
film. Propps’ Character theory was not one I wanted to use as many of my respondents did not like
the idea of clichéd/stock characters. I believe all opening scenes have an element of Barthes’ Enigma
code as enough mystery must be created (not necessarily the mystery seen in the mystery genre) to
attract audiences and compel them to continue watching. I used some symbolism (Barthes’
Semiotics code) in order to introduce some themes throughout my opening scenes (e.g lockers for
uniformity). All the opening scene is filled in “Int.”(Interior) places, all inside rooms to create a
Mayra Nassef

claustrophobic effect when it comes to the routine of life. Levi Strauss’ Binary opposites theory
wasn’t really of use as in my film, characters aren’t really ambivalent but rather complex and it could
be quite off-putting to represent the world in an unrealistic manner to an already fed-up audience
(when it comes to teen dramas). However, there is duality with themes (such as uniformity and
diversity).

Technical aspects of filming:

For filming, I decided to use my phone and a stabiliser. I thought it would be an interesting
experience to use an IPhone’s camera has even though there are setbacks such as lighting, it still
serves as a high-definition and camera and I personally wanted to see how phone camera quality is
like in comparison to a normal one (as I filmed with a normal camera before). Having a stabiliser
gave me the opportunity to have more stability and try interesting shots and hidden cuts that I
wouldn’t have been able to do without it. It has functions that allow for different types of panning
and therefore gave me more flexibility to try out different angles and shots without the fear that it
would turn out shaky (e.g the long take looked quite fluid when using the stabiliser when it wouldn’t
have without). At this point, I am still yet to edit my footage, but I believe that I will be using IMovie,
it’s quite a simple editing program but I am confident that I will be able to add elements that I want
to add (sound effects, non-diegetic music, L-cuts, etc.) I also learned a little bit from Youtube on the
tricks of hidden cuts and how to produce them (through motion blur, etc.) which wouldn’t require a
professional editing program. However, I am worried that the quality of the footage might be
reduced after the editing process.

Problems I faced:

I referred to the problems I had regarding introducing characters and how I managed to resolve
them. I also had problems with locations as I didn’t have the selection of locations that I would have
preferred. It’s awfully restrictive as the vision I had did not correlate with what was available.
However, I found that those locations can be used to actually further the idea of the story (of a
boring and rather claustrophobic life) and felt more optimistic. I also lacked confidence when it came
to my script and therefore tried to re-draft it a few times as well.

What I enjoyed/didn’t enjoy:

It’s hard to say what I didn’t enjoy as I whole-heartedly enjoy analysis and learning from other
people’s work and trying to find solutions when a technical problem arises. I try my best to make
every part of the process an experience that I can learn from now and when I continue producing
film in the future. I am ready to learn from my mistakes as that is how I learn best. When it comes to
what I didn’t enjoy, it would just be the lack of professional editing programs, but I am planning to
work around that. I also had a change in the coffee shop location (to another coffee shop) which
held me back a little bit but I decided to work around all the issues I have no control over in order to
focus on editing the footage I have as best I can in the next coming weeks.