Genevieve Hill 10802 NEA Evaluation

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, a short film is defined as
being 40 minutes or less in length. But while often defined by their length, they can also be
defined by their content, most aiming to address more concentrated stories. Jane Campion,
summarised short films stating that they ‘give a freedom to filmmakers… They can be more
like a portrait or a poem’, where a short film can be the effective realisation of one idea, a
carefully considered emotion and a refined creative text. Due to both the smaller time frame
compared to feature films and the ideas that are portrayed, micro-elements and changes on
generic narrative styles are used in order to create creative and compelling stories. For
example, cinematography in ‘Over’ is powerfully used in order to propel the story due to the
lack of dialogue, consisting of long static shots in reverse chronological order. While Stalker
does not use a reverse chronological narrative, I attempted to replicate the powerful use of
cinematography with the use of long wide shots, watching the girl travelling home and the
story unfold.

‘Stalker’ follows the journey of a girl, Mia, travelling home late at night, being followed from
when she leaves her friend’s house and throughout her journey. She later realises that this
man is following her, sprinting to the safety of her house. However, once Mia gets to safety,
it is only for the man to realise that it was all set up, in order for the girls he has previously
stalked and haunted to get their revenge. I chose the title ‘Stalker’, a single worded title,
similar to ‘Slap’, ‘Echo’ and ‘Over’, as each have a simple title that links to important themes
that are relevant in each short, which I also thought would be effective. While at first, I
thought the title would immediately ruin the tension that builds throughout the film, I realised
that the twist at the end of the story is still left to be discovered by the spectator.

Genre can be defined as ‘groupings of films linked on the basis of common themes, styles
and iconography’, while short films have the freedom to cross boundaries of genre, Stalker
Genevieve Hill 10802 NEA Evaluation

can be categorized as part of the Thriller genre. Genre can be understood in two different
terms, syntactic and semantic elements, stated by Rick Altman. I relied heavily on the use of
semantic elements, which are the expected visual elements that are present in the film. in
order to centre Stalker in the Thriller genre, with the use of lighting and costume. Throughout
Stalker, the lighting used is dark and dingy, Mia is often seen walking through dark streets
that are barren and creepy, with the stalker following behind. The dark lighting allowed me to
create a silhouette of the man in each shot, keeping him mainly faceless throughout the film.
His character is left ambiguous, with only his intensions to stalk the girl known, influenced
by the similar use of lighting used in ‘The Ellington kid’, the use of silhouettes in the dark
alleyways in order to build tension.

The use of creative sound was important in Stalker, allowing me to also add some comedic
effect to the tension. In the beginning, Mia
begins to play music through her
headphones, I felt that it was important to
find music that was parallel to the danger of
her situation, in order to create building
tension from the start. However, people who
had viewed my film stated that it did not fit
the film correctly, so I later decided on a
contrapuntal song that also had a deeper
meaning behind it, ‘What you won’t do for
love’ by Bobby Caldwell. A happy go lucky song, that was juxtaposing to the voyeuristic
nature of the cinematography and situation, creating a sense of comedy. On top of this, the
lyrics have a parallel meaning to the story, for example, ‘got a thing for you and I can’t let
go’, the mans’ feelings towards Mia as he stalks her home. When perfecting the sound with
Charlie, I made sure that different elements were in place to create a creepy aesthetic to the
song and score throughout. The use of different effects allowed the song to sound as if it was
coming for Mia’s headphones and reverb created a more eerie aspect to the happy go luck
song, which is later amplified by the orchestral threatening score used when she realises that
the man is following her. The score builds tension throughout the scene of Mia sprinting
home with the use of rhythmic reverb, however, is sharply cut off once the man realises that
it is all a trap and ‘What you won’t do for love’ returns, similar to the sharp cut off of score
used in the ‘Ellington Kid’, once Nathan reveals to Beefy that the story is a ‘joke’, creating
comedic value.
Genevieve Hill 10802 NEA Evaluation

The aesthetic that I wanted to achieve in Stalker was urban city realism, with the setting and
costume being key in the ability to do this. It was important for Mia to be dressed in a small
skirt or dress in order to follow the ideology and belief that what you are wearing means that
you are ‘asking for it’ or attracting certain types of people. This enabled a comment to be
made on this type of statement but also be played with as the girls were using this stereotype
to their advantage. On the other hand, the man was dressed in dark clothing, with no badges

or logos, with a hood obscuring the man’s face, leaving him unidentifiable. Both characters
were to wear large coats and Mia, tights, to indicate the cold season. When casting, I made
sure that Mia was a young looking and innocent girl, who fit into the age range of 16-18,
where the man was to look older and creepier to fit the stereotypes that are made about
stalking cases. By using a setting that fit the city style, the train station, and dark streets,
influenced by ‘The Ellington Kid’ and ‘Echo’, and a struggle in being able to create an empty
train station to indicate the late time, I was able to achieve urban realism aesthetic that was
needed for Stalker.

In relation to narrative, Stalker somewhat follows Todorov’s three act structure. The film
begins as Mia begins her journey home, then realising that he is following her and finally the
sprint home to safety. These sections of events follows the three-act structure of equilibrium,
disequilibrium, and resolution. However, the use of flash backs of the girls watching Mia
throughout her journey home at the end creates disruption to the equilibrium already
established as the story reveals that it was all a set up for revenge. The use of the text
message at the end allows for a new equilibrium to be established and the story is able to
come to a closed ending. The two texts messages used were key to driving the narrative, due
to the lack of dialogue. I opted for no dialogue to be used, as at first, I struggled to write
dialogue that was natural but also didn’t disrupt the tension that was built. However, I
realised that limiting the dialogue was a strength as it added to the creepy nature of the film
and built fear throughout. To drive the narrative, I worked upon the shot of Mia texting which
I knew I wanted to include, while scripting each text was difficult in order to not reveal the
Genevieve Hill 10802 NEA Evaluation

twist in the story immediately, I found a balance that somewhat indicated the twist but also
kept it unnoticed when you first watch the film.

Taking inspiration from ‘Over’, I placed timestamps throughout Stalker at each pivotal
moment or change in location in order to drive the narrative. By doing this, I was able to
combat a mistake that was made in the shooting of Stalker. During the train station scene,
Mia is seen without wearing a scarf throughout, however, once on the dark street she is seen
wearing one. In order to combat the sharp change of costume and location, I used a jump in
time, signified through the timestamps to show that it had gotten later in the night, it had
gotten colder, and she had put it on in the journey that was not seen between the train station
and the street. While this
was an error that could
have been avoided, the

use of timestamps allowed me to efface the error.

In conclusion, there is clear inspiration taken from many different short films, but most
notably the aesthetic, mise-en-scene and lighting have clear influences from ‘The Ellington
Kid’ and ‘Echo’ while ‘Over’ has influenced the narrative elements with the use of
timestamps and cinematography, allowing Stalker to have a coherent story and come to a
closed ending, where the girls get their revenge on their stalker and the audience can be
comfortable in seeing the safety of Mia.

Word Count: 1500