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Table of contents
Film Production Role 1: Screenwriter……………………………………...……page 2
Clip 1: Dogtooth (2:03)
Clip 2: Aquanaut at 3 AM (0:49)

Film Production Role 2: Editor……………………………………………………page 5

Clip 1: Siu Mai (1:44)
Clip 2: The Train Film (1:00)

Film Production Role 3: Director………………………………………….……..page 8

Clip 1: Rollercoaster (3:00)

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….…….page 11

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Film Production Role 1: Screenwriter

Clip 1: Dogtooth (2:03)

Film Noir is described by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton in their

book “A Panorama of American Film Noir” as “oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent,
and cruel” (Borde, Chaumeton, Naremore & Hammond, 1955). Reflecting the
pessimistic views of society developed by Americans in the midst of the Cold War,
Film Noir soon came to be known for distinct character archetypes such as the hard-
boiled detective, the femme fatale, and the corrupt politician.
In my film “Dogtooth”, my filmmaker intentions were to emulate Film Noir
through the use of character archetypes. To that end, I was inspired by the film
“Psycho” (Hitchcock, 1960), for its use of long monologues for characterization and
exposition, and the film “Sin City” (Miller, Tarantino, Rodriguez, 2005), for its
hyperviolence and its characterization of the archetypes of the hard-boiled detective
and dirty cop.
In the pre-production phase, I brainstormed around the idea of basing the
short film around a conversation, taking advantage of long monologues, a staple of
film noir, which would serve the purpose of fleshing out both the characters in my
film and the world around them. In the end, I decided to center the first half of the film
around a conversation between the hard-boiled detective and a dirty cop while the
second half of the film would center around the description of a murder, serving to
further characterize the hard-boiled detective.
Next, I began to consider how I could best present these character archetypes
through their dialogue and actions. Taking inspiration from “Sin City”, I attempted to
fulfill the qualities of an archetypal dirty cop through my character of the Sergeant: an
abundance of power, and a willingness to abuse said power, with abuse of power
being highly conventional of Film Noir. To that end, I gave him the qualities of an
unlikeable character through the usage of ultimatums in the line “If you don't get
down to the crime scene in 5 minutes, I expect your badge on my desk by
tomorrow.”, just as the character of Bob from “Sin City” did in the line “Sit down and
stay down, I’ll kill you if I have to.”. This usage of an ultimatum establishes a power
dynamic between the protagonist and the issuer of the ultimatum, as well as
illustrating an abuse of power. As such, this allowed me to portray two key aspects of
the dirty cop archetype, an abundance of power and a willingness to abuse said
power. Furthermore, I expanded on Sergeant’s motivations through the line “He
hasn’t caught a single perp since he joined the force, but with a breastpocket full of
cash, why bother?” from a monologue from my protagonist, Dresden. The pursuit of
monetary goals is a common trait of the dirty cop in Film Noir, and provided a
reasoning for the Sergeant’s abuse of his power.

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For the character of Dresden, I attempted to turn him into the archetypal hard-
boiled detective, espousing the following qualities: Bravery, stylised dialogue, and a
disdain for those in power. Dresden’s stylised dialogue is present in the opening line
“You know what they say about killers? Dark as ink and twice as slippery.”.
Additionally, I attempted to employ the technique of showing and not telling to
display the other two qualities of the
hard-boiled detective. To showcase
Dresden’s bravery, I used the classic
motif of danger of a gun being pressed
against the back of someone’s head,
and used Dresden’s response to
emphasise his lack of fear (Fig. 1).
Figure 1
This demonstrates to the audience
that Dresden is in control of his
situation and unafraid of the danger surrounding him. Aside from this, Dresden
hangs up on the Sergeant mid-sentence. Not only does this further demonstrate
Dresden’s bravery, but it also illustrates Dresden’s disdain for the Sergeant, and in
turn, those in power.
Overall, I feel that I fulfilled my filmmaker intentions of using screenwriting to
communicate Film Noir character archetypes. I believe that my characterisation of
these archetypes was sufficient in communicating the political and societal views of
America during the Cold War. However, I feel that perhaps I should have covered
the other famous Film Noir archetype of the femme fatale as well. The main barrier
to this was the exposition-heavy nature of my script, which did not allow for enough
time to introduce additional characters.

Clip 2: Aquanaut at 3 AM (0:49)

Hollywood director and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman when asked about his
writing process once answered “I want to write something honest to me.” (BAFTA,
2017). It is on this basis that he writes his screenplays, famous for their examinations
and confessions about certain parts of the human experience.
My filmmaker intentions within “Aquanaut at 3 AM” were to examine and
express aspects of the human experience. In preparation, I watched “Un Chien
Andalou” (Dali, 1929), “Destino” (Dali, 2003), “Anomalisa” (Kaufman, 2015), “Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (Kaufman, 2004), and “Synecdoche, NY” (Kaufman,
2008), as well as a lecture from Charlie Kaufman held at BAFTA on his writing
process. While Salvador Dali and Wong Kar Wai’s films inspired me to express ideas
through symbolism, Charlie Kaufman’s films and lecture inspired me to write a
screenplay that used surrealist ideas to express common human experiences.
I attempted to apply what I had learnt from Charlie Kaufman’s lecture, writing
about something that was true to my own human experience. To that end, I wrote
about one of my own recurring dreams, and recontextualised it to take place
underwater. Similarly to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, most of the
exposition was done by the protagonist via narration. After some thought, I came to
the conclusion that the driving force behind the dream I based “Aquanaut at 3 AM”

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on was the fear of being surpassed by my peers, as well as the fear of a lack of
control. Surprisingly, this came quite close to the subject matter of “Synecdoche,
NY”. I made sure to give these ideas significance within the monologue of the main
character, Bucketboy, such as in the line “Maybe it was just shame – shame of my
inability to walk properly made public for the whole world to see.”.
Aside from monologue, I also attempted to use more abstract methods to
express aspects of the human experience. For example, I experimented with the loss
of certain senses in the opening, such as the loss of hearing in the first half of the
opening, as the conversation is muffled, and the loss of sight towards the end, as the
girl that Bucketboy is conversing with slowly loses her facial features.

Figure 2

The attire of Bucketboy, finally, was inspired by Salvador Dali’s “Destino”, a

surrealist, experimental film. In particular, the shot from Fig. 3, where the main
character’s head is replaced by a dandelion, was my inspiration for covering up the
main character’s head with a bucket, as I was fascinated with how much of one’s
identity was assigned to their face or head, and how quickly covering it up or
changing it could affect one’s view of a character. In this case, unlike the life
symbolised by the dandelion head in “Destino”, the bucket on Bucketboy’s head
symbolises entrapment, contributing to the fear of a loss of control established within
Bucketboy’s monologue.

Figure 3 Figure 4

Overall, I feel that I have effectively written a screenplay in an experimental and

surrealist fashion that conveys certain human experiences.

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Film Production Role 2: Editor

Clip 1: Siu Mai (1:44)

My filmmaker intentions for this film were to employ efficiency, energy, and
pace in editing, using quick cuts and whip pans to quickly convey information.
To prepare, I watched “Baby Driver” (Wright, 2017) and “Shaun of the Dead”
(Wright, 2004), as well as “Arrested Development” (Hurwitz, 2003).
Inspired by “Shaun of the Dead”’s usage of quick, energetic montages, I
began “Siu Mai” with a montage consisting of 12 shots in 9 seconds (Fig. 5).

Figure 5

Not only was this montage able to convey a sense of energy to the audience,
but it was also able to set up the necessary information pertaining to the protagonist
within a short timeframe, achieving the purpose of creating efficiency in editing as
well.
From watching another “Baby Driver”, I found that the whip pan could also be
used as an energetic way to follow a character’s gaze, reveal their thought process,
and give some context to the character’s surroundings. I experimented with this at
the beginning of the chase scene, attempting to emulate Edgar Wright’s signature
energetic editing style (Fig. 6).

Figure 6

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Finally, to create comedy in the edit near the beginning of the film, I zoomed
in on the characters’ facial expressions to highlight the awkward situation they were
in, a technique used in “Arrested Development” (Fig. 7), creating humour through the
unnatural and overly dramatic nature of zooms.

Figure 7

Originally, I had recorded shots where the zoom was slower and not as close
to the characters’ faces, just like in “Arrested Development”, but I felt that it didn’t fit
well with the energy I was trying to create in the edit. Therefore, I remedied this by
crash zooming in on the characters’ faces instead, since I felt that it fit more closely
with the speed of the cuts in the chase scene.
Overall, I feel that I have succeeded in creating an energetic, fast-paced, and
efficiently edited film. However, in my pursuit of energetic transitions between
scenes, I believe that perhaps there were certain shots with unbalanced colours that
I had neglected in favour of continuing to edit the film to be more energetic.

Clip 2: The Train Film (1:00)

The famous animator Ralph Bakshi once claimed that “What’s most important
in animation is the emotions and the ideas being portrayed.” (P., 2004), while famous
editor Walter Murch, remarked that in the editing process, one should never “give up
emotion before story.” (Murch, 2001). As such, how far apart can the two disciplines
really be?
My filmmaker intentions for “The Train Film” were to convey emotion and
ideas through the use of movement and formalist editing. My main influences were
“Ping Pong The Animation” (Yuasa, 2014) and “The Tatami Galaxy” (Yuasa, 2010),

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for their abstract framing of certain scenes and use of movement, respectively (Fig. 8
& 9).

Figure 8 Figure 9

Emulating “Ping Pong The

Animation”, I laid out each scene of
“The Train Film” with “Ping Pong The
Animation”’s formalist graphic novel
style. This allowed me to place
particular emphasis on certain images
and ideas by allocating more of the
screen towards them (Fig. 10). In this
scene, for example, the frame in the Figure 10
bottom right is given a large to space
to illustrate his self-wrought loneliness
as well as placing particular emphasis
on this idea, as it acts as the
culmination of the events of the other
panels.
Emulating “The Tatami Galaxy”,
I attempted to take advantage of
animation loops by using the speed of Figure 11
the animation loops to convey the tone
of a scene. For example, in the first scene of the film (Fig. 10), all of the separate
animation loops are tied to a 36 frame cycle with a framerate of 24 frames per
second, showcasing its relatively tranquil tone. Meanwhile, in the penultimate scene
(Fig. 11), all the animations are tied to different framerates, with the shortest loop
being 3 frames long and the longest being 8 frames long. The quick, varying speeds
of the loops allowed me to convey the chaotic and violent nature of this scene while
keeping the quantity of animation to a manageable degree.
Overall, I believe that I have succeeded in employing formalist editing and
movement to convey certain emotions and ideas.

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Film Production Role 3: Director

Clip 1: Rollercoaster (3:00)

Postmodernism can be described as “irony”, “parody”, and “collage”

(Myšková, 2012). As such, postmodernism seeks to understand common tropes in
media, identify the features that make up these tropes, and systematically subvert
them. In my film “Rollercoaster”, my filmmaker intentions were to engage in
postmodernism through the usage of irony, parody, and collage.
My filmmaker intentions were to work within the constraints of postmodernism
by parodying the process of creating film. In preparation, I watched “Community”
(Harmon, 2009), paying attention to how it attempted to parody multiple genres of
film. Additionally, I watched a collection of animated shorts by Mark M. (Sick
Animation, n.d.), which inspired the animated portion of my film, and its purposefully
amateurish look. Finally, I watched “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (Gilliam &
Jones, 1977), which inspired the methods through which I broke the fourth wall
within my film.
To begin with, I
drafted a rough plan
of the way I wanted
the film to go and the
different ways in
which the film within
the film could go
wrong (Fig. 12). Of Figure 12
course, not all of this
made it into the film,
and some new elements were added, such as the parody of interpretive film. One
element of the plan that I enjoyed, although I could not find a way to incorporate this
into the final film, was the abrupt ending, which set up the promise of a structured
ending before subverting it with the use of a non-sequitur in its place, something that
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is famous for doing.
After revision and making sure the film could fit within 3 minutes, I ended up
with parodies of the action genre, animation, and interpretive film within a larger
parody of the process of creating film.
The idea for having two characters, Raj and Frank, break the fourth wall by
speaking over the top of the film was inspired by the opening credits of “Monty
Python and the Holy Grail”. I believe that this was necessary to fulfilling my
filmmaker intentions, as it presented an excuse as to why multiple different films
could be placed within the script, in turn creating collage, and also allowed for the
plot of “Rollercoaster” to move forward.

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To parody the action genre,

I watched “Fallen Angels” (Wong,
1995), and “John Wick”, (Stahelski
& Leitch, 2014). Afterwards, I came
up with a list of common traits of
modern action films that I could
parody. In the end, I decided to
parody the idea of the one-liner
with the line “I strike hard and fast, Figure 13
like a soda can attached to a
rollercoaster.”. This line was
designed to sound like a one-liner
from an action film, with the first
half of the line setting up for what
the audience would expect to be a
strong punchline, and the second
half of the line subverting that
expectation with an anti-climax. In
addition, I employed a dimly lit Figure 14
location, an actor dressed in darker
colours, and cinematography inspired by other actions films to keep the film as close
to an action film as possible to further play towards the audience’s expectations
before subverting them with the final line. Furthermore, the effort of putting together
an action scene only to be destroyed with a purposefully absurd line at the end
created a sense of irony that served my filmmaker intentions of emulating
postmodernism through irony, parody, and collage.
The use of animation within “Rollercoaster” was heavily inspired by Mark M.’s
purposefully amateurish animations, particularly in his works “Green Lovers” (Mark
M., 2017) and “Mr. Rimmer” (Mark M., 2016). Through a mixture of freehand
drawings with minimal animation and semi-realistic, rotoscoped drawings, Mark M.
intentionally collages artistically dissonant styles of animation to create ironic humour

Figure 15

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and serve the purpose of creating postmodernism in his work. As such, I attempted
to emulate this style within my own work. In addition, when drawing the freehand
sections of the animation portion of “Rollercoaster”, I made sure to use light, pastelly
colours where possible to emphasise the cartoon-styled and amateurish visuals.
Meanwhile, when rotoscoping, I sampled the colours directly from the source in order
to highlight the more realistic stylings of the character within the animation and
create further dissonance between the freehand
and rotoscoping art styles.
Finally, the last section of “Rollercoaster”
was inspired by “Community”, specifically the
Dean’s commercial from the episode “Documentary
Filmmaking: Redux”, parodying the genre of
interpretive film. To this end, I made a list of the Figure 16
traits of interpretive film.
The Dean’s commercial from “Community” is not used to parody the genre of
interpretive film itself, but the motivations behind creating film in this genre in the first
place. Within “Community”, the irony lies in the fact that the Dean has made a
mountain out of a molehill, resulting in the scenes in Figures 17 and 18.

Figure 17 Figure 18

As such, I attempted to emulate this with the character of Frank being told that he
has no talent for film. To this end, I choreographed a dancelike routine for Frank to
perform in time with a monologue about his lack of talent while holding a soda can,
symbolising the line that sparked the plot of “Rollercoaster” in the first place, and in
turn symbolizing Frank’s lack of talent. I believe that in this routine, I managed to
fulfill the common aspects of an interpretive film listed in Figure 16.

Figure 19 Figure 20

Overall, I believe that I have effectively created a postmodern film through the
use of irony, parody, and collage. However, some parts of the film were simply static
images with narration over the top. I believe that if I had another attempt, I would
have come up with a slightly different premise to avoid the monotony that comes with
looking at a static screen.

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Bibliography:

American film noir: 1941-1953. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.

BAFTA Guru. (2017, January 6). Inspirational writing advice from Charlie Kaufman
[Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRfXcWT_oFs

Borde, R., Chaumeton, E., Naremore, J., & Hammond, P. (1955). A panorama of

Dali, S. (1929). Un Chien Andalou [Motion Picture]. Les Grands Films Classiques.

Dali, S. (2003). Destino [Motion Picture]. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

Gilliam, T. & Jones, T. (1977). Monty Python and the Holy Grail [Motion Picture].
Cinema 5 Distributing

Harmon, D. (2009). Community [Television Series]. Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures
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Hitchcock, A. (1960). Psycho [Motion Picture]. Paramount Pictures.

Hurwitz, M. (2003). Arrested Development [Television Series]. Los Angeles, CA: 20th
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Kaufman, C. (2004). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [Motion Picture]. Focus
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Kaufman, C. (2008). Synecdoche, NY [Motion Picture]. Sony Pictures Classics.

Kaufman, C. (2015). Anomalisa [Motion Picture]. Hanway Films, Starburns

Industries, & Snoot Films.

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Miller, F., Tarantino, Q., & Rodriguez, R. (2005). Sin City [Motion Picture].
Troublemaker Studios & Dimension Films

Murch, W. (2005). In the Blink of an Eye. Hollywood, CA: Silman-James Press.

Myšková, A. (2012). Irony, Parody and Collage: Postmodernism in Monty Python

Films. Undergraduate. University of Pardubice.

P, K. (2004, May 26). An interview with Ralph Bakshi [Web Log Post]. Retrieved
from https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/05/26/an-interview-with-ralph-bakshi

Sick Animation. (n.d.). Home [YouTube Channel]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/user/sickanimation

Stahelski, C. & Leitch, D. John Wick [Motion Picture]. Santa Monica, CA: Summit
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Wong, K.W. (1995). Fallen Angels [Motion Picture]. Causeway Bay, Hong Kong: Jet
Tone Productions

Wright, E. (2004). Shaun of the Dead [Motion Picture]. Universal Pictures & Rogue
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Wright, E. (2017). Baby Driver [Motion Picture]. Tristar Pictures & Sony Pictures
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Yuasa, M. (2010). The Tatami Galaxy [Television Series]. Tokyo, Japan: Fuji TV

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TV

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