Jo Webb - Applying 5 Key Concepts to 2 Short Films

Good Morning Mrs Tucker

http://filmchallenge.org/2011-Finalists/2011-finalist-good-morning-mrs-tucker.html

Unrendered Productions: George Kotelnikov, National Film Challenge, 2011 Finalist

I chose this particular film to analyse because I found the subject of homelessness and genre of romance an interesting combination. Another interesting aspect is one of the characters lack of memory, leading her to believe such things as having a home to go to and daily chores to complete. 

Unrendered Productions http://unrenderedproductions.com/“Independent Production Company focused on competing in local film challenges based in Denver, Colorado.”        

• Un-familiar relation between the bottle of juice and wine glasses = reflects the characters lack of wealth and sarcastic approach –later on he describes it as “2010 red vintage” to sarcastically imply the distant life they have from characters that would normally say this  

• ·         Judging by his and hers costume of warm layers in a reasonably sunny atmosphere, it is obvious they haven’t come from a central heated home in the morning
• ·         The off screen soundtrack that starts the film doesn’t suggest the beginning of a happy, comical film ahead, rather a sense of social realism for the audience to engage in
• ·         Straight away we as an audience can recognise the ideologies of homeless characters judging by the stolen trolley full of carrier bags and one of the characters waking up on a bench in the introduction to the film
• ·         Camera work defers from hand held (to create an un-controlled effect) and to establish a conversation from a distance to view both characters response’s
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• ·         Portrays traditional values of the husband taking care of his wife, through repetitive dialogue sequences of his reassurance and suggestions
• ·         He respects her no matter what her situation is, but his anger releases through an unexpected action of him kicking the trolley that is provoked by a sound bridge. There is a pause from the previous off-screen soundtrack when he kicks the trolley, then an earry sound is placed to show the sudden change in mood.
• ·         It was also filmed hand held to possibly suggest the lack of control from the character, and his sudden change in mood from calm (that was filmed on a still).
• ·         There is not many editing techniques throughout the short film but involves a lot of straight cuts – mainly represents shot-reverse-shot between the characters conversation for continuity
• ·         The film deals with memory loss that some viewers may relate to with family members or friends. I think the film has a successful representation to fulfil the matter by introducing the characters calm approach
• ·          Genre isn’t often easy to identify in short films, but ‘Good Morning Mrs Tucker’ is titled as a romance which is recognizable by the characters close relation and the way they address each other, the film’s title, for example, is a common dialogue used. I think the text challenges conventions expected from a romance due to breaking boundaries of what we expect to see as an audience. 
• ·         Steve Neale’s theory of repition and differences has a lot of relation to ‘Good Morning Mrs Tucker’. He argues that “difference is essential to economy genre”, in other words, for it to survive. Texts will repeat some of the codes and conventions for recognition but may be altered in an unfamiliar fashion to be unique. 

The Plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGX8iYBBCE&feature=related

Written, directed and edited by Matthew Kalish, released roughly four years ago. It stated as an award winning title.

I came across the film on YouTube alongside other award winning short films. It drew my attention from the retro looking icon of a girl edited in black and white. Furthermore, I chose to include it within this assignment as the whole piece of text was filmed in black and white. It creates an historical aspect which is reassuring to watch from the calm lighting and continuity editing.

·         Young males approaching the adult world may be considered a relevant social group from wanting to experience gambling, which creates issues

·         The films character isn’t a good role model for viewers by being irresponsible with money, but may have social realism for people that have involved themselves with money issues

·         I can’t recognise the film’s genre, which is a good technical code Matthew Kalish has used.

·         I can refer to Steve Neal again for the text not using repition of familiar elements to reassure the audience

·         I can also relate to Rick Altman’s theory of semantic & syntactic structure of narrative based on audiences using their knowledge to recognise codes for understanding a film. In this example I think the main focus of Altman’s theory is the semantic approach of how we expect certain conventions and ideologies. For example, a main prop in the text is a film camera. It could appear in any genre but not necessarily summed up to one in particular.

·         This crosses genre boundaries which may result in hybridity of not having a clear categorisation.

    

·         The narrative does appear in chronological order as we are aware right from the start that the character is dropping his life to gamble in Vegas. From knowing this the audience does have a vague idea of what could happen to our character, there is only two options: win a lifetime or lose everything.

·         I think another possible audience received from the film are photography students based on the editing technique and plot point created by the main prop of the camera. These two points I have pointed out have a strong relationship which draws me to believe Kalish may have completed the whole film in black and white to put the audience in the characters perspective of looking through a black and white film. You don’t know what the outcome is with a film camera, but neither did our character when he placed all his money on one bid.