1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Originally The faceless Man was to be a short film designed to develop and combine traditional forms and conventions of real media products. In the end we didn't use many of these conventions as we agreed the best way to create a good film in the short amount of time given to us was to construct it from a diverse range of other short films, therefore looking at the elements which already exist in other media products. The narrative of our short film is organised with a non-linear platform with certain elements of circular narrative, mostly driven through our diverse imagery. A good example of circular narrative is the blurred face of the Faceless Man through out the whole short film then concluded by the final shot where we see the faceless mans face revealing his true identity.
The Conventions of a film are key for success and we knew this well, therefore for genre we really tried hard to include an eery psychological thriller feel towards the film as well as include some scary post productive non-diegetic soundtracks and filters at the end to really emphasise this effect, but we didn't want to be stereotypical making the mise-en-scenes settings dark and fearful we believed the biggest fear of mental health is 'insanity during normality' with the concept that schizophrenia could happen anywhere anytime.
None the less we still decided to use darker lighting with disorientated and low key post production effects on the flashbacks to emphasise the fear for our target audience.
With our short story its hard to find time for character development therefore to try and tell the whole story we relied mainly on flashbacks and visual effects for people to understand the character and what he is dealing with.
Frame Analysis
As a group we decided these were the most important frames during our short film as each frame has an individual role essential to the idea of the Faceless Man.
The first frame is the title of our film and the title is important for the obvious reason that it tells you what the film is called but it also does more than that, straight away even without hearing sound the white font combined with the black background creates an eerie effect along with the slightly crumbling letters at the end is a convention of horror, furthermore linking with a fragment of someone's face straight away gives the audience an idea of the sort of film The Faceless Man will be.
The second frame shows us the main character called Alex as he starts fidgeting whilst spinning the globe in front of him. For this specific scene we decided to use the technique of low depth of field as well as a focus-pull in order to pull the attention of our target audience towards the globe. We chose to use a focus pull in this scene to demonstrate the fidgeting that 'Alex' is doing. For Alex's costume we decided to use smart clothes complemented with a nice watch to show that Alex is a wealthy young man and not some stereotypical rough looking gentleman as we thought this would be good as it shows mental illness can happen to anyone including the rich. The room we chose to film this scene in was deliberately laid out to look like a psychiatrists home office with the big comfy chairs, wooden table and book shelves as the décor of the setting. Even the globe prop was designed to look like it would belong in a psychiatrists office.
The third frame is showing us the faceless man during one of Alex's flash backs, the reason why this scene is so important is because it shows how Alex is seeing the faceless man. This frame and overall scene from the short film is demonstrating that the Faceless Man can be seen anywhere at any time even during the day and even with someone else. During this frame we used jump cuts to make the scene distorted as it shows fear and confusion. We also implemented filters with the whole flashback scene making it darker in lighting and almost blurry so people know its a flash back, we used the same technique throughout each flash back. During this scene we layered non-diegetic soundtrack over the scene drowning out a lot of the sound, its easy to understand the dialogue but the idea was to use the music to almost erase the dialogue in order to show that in Alex's flash back the faceless Man sighting is the only thing he really remembers.
The Fourth frame is a subtle image of the Faceless Man. This same frame features in the short film multiple times at random points whilst talking to the psychiatrist. This shot uses the same filters as the flashbacks but has an added reddish filter. The same sound an eerie squeal happens every time the Faceless Mans face comes onto the screen, this can be interpreted in two ways that its added effect for the viewer or the character is hearing this in his own head due to his mental health, either interpretation makes sense but to create enigma the viewer can decide for themselves. The reddish filters and short duration doesn't indicate another flash back but insanity which is what the short films about.
In this fifth frame You can see the protagonist Alex's hand on the arm of a leather chair. We decided to use this leather chair as a prop in our film as it suited the psychiatrists décor. This yet again is a demonstration of Alex's nervous and fidgety nature showing he is constantly on edge. The Background for this scene is the same as the second frame. The constant in the setting and costume shows the audience its the same day and they haven't moved from this spot.
The sixth frame is from the second flash back. It features all the appropriate flash back techniques we maintained throughout our flash backs including the filters to make it distorted, dark lighting and layered non-diegetic sound to emphasise the fear but we also used a technique of using camera movement and timings for our actors to make it seem as if the Faceless Man disappears once Alex walks past. This technique along with the new crescendo non-diegetic soundtrack makes this flash back eery and one of my personal favourites to film and edit. This whole shot is trying to show that The Faceless man is all in Alex's head as he simply disappears once Alex turns around.
The seventh Frame is another nice scene. The red filter and distorted effects shows its another demonstration of insanity except this time its of Alex himself. Before this scene we used some small second clips of the same frame throughout the sequence but they had natural filters and no non-diegetic music. We did this because we wanted to show constant insanity, that throughout every situation and everyday that short frame is how Alex feels in his head. The reason that didn't make the top nine frames is because the longer filtered variation of this frame (the one shown above)has a darker meaning.
It still is a symbol of constant insanity but now it consists of not just filters but non-diegetic soundtracks and a possibly diegetic or non-diegetic scream. We wanted to reveal that the Faceless Man and Alex are the same person in the sense that its all in Alex's head; The end shot revealing the psychiatrist to be the Faceless Man is the conclusive finale of our short film but if you look into the comparison of this frame and the Faceless Man red filtered frame you will realise they are identical further explaining even the psychiatrist isn't real as he is the Faceless Man, therefore concluding in Alex talking to no one in reality showing he is well and truly insane.
The Eighth Frame is a tracking shot from the third and final flashback this flashback consists of the same techniques used in the other flash backs with filters and non-diegetic sound but in this flash back its set at night and in his own bedroom. The fact its set at night makes it even more scary as night time is associated with fear and the thought of the unknown. During this shot we see the protagonist wake up about to open up his window.
The Ninth frame happens straight after the end of the eighth and features the last part of our film, in this scene we see the Faceless Mans actual face as a new crescendo of non-diegetic soundtrack plays over the original flash back soundtrack as it jump cuts closer towards the Faceless Man, it then cuts out of the flash back instantly to reveal that the Faceless Man is the Psychiatrist. This then causes people to think that the
The Smiling Man Influences
Frame Analysis
As a group we decided these were the most important frames during our short film as each frame has an individual role essential to the idea of the Faceless Man.
The first frame is the title of our film and the title is important for the obvious reason that it tells you what the film is called but it also does more than that, straight away even without hearing sound the white font combined with the black background creates an eerie effect along with the slightly crumbling letters at the end is a convention of horror, furthermore linking with a fragment of someone's face straight away gives the audience an idea of the sort of film The Faceless Man will be.
The second frame shows us the main character called Alex as he starts fidgeting whilst spinning the globe in front of him. For this specific scene we decided to use the technique of low depth of field as well as a focus-pull in order to pull the attention of our target audience towards the globe. We chose to use a focus pull in this scene to demonstrate the fidgeting that 'Alex' is doing. For Alex's costume we decided to use smart clothes complemented with a nice watch to show that Alex is a wealthy young man and not some stereotypical rough looking gentleman as we thought this would be good as it shows mental illness can happen to anyone including the rich. The room we chose to film this scene in was deliberately laid out to look like a psychiatrists home office with the big comfy chairs, wooden table and book shelves as the décor of the setting. Even the globe prop was designed to look like it would belong in a psychiatrists office.
The third frame is showing us the faceless man during one of Alex's flash backs, the reason why this scene is so important is because it shows how Alex is seeing the faceless man. This frame and overall scene from the short film is demonstrating that the Faceless Man can be seen anywhere at any time even during the day and even with someone else. During this frame we used jump cuts to make the scene distorted as it shows fear and confusion. We also implemented filters with the whole flashback scene making it darker in lighting and almost blurry so people know its a flash back, we used the same technique throughout each flash back. During this scene we layered non-diegetic soundtrack over the scene drowning out a lot of the sound, its easy to understand the dialogue but the idea was to use the music to almost erase the dialogue in order to show that in Alex's flash back the faceless Man sighting is the only thing he really remembers.
The Fourth frame is a subtle image of the Faceless Man. This same frame features in the short film multiple times at random points whilst talking to the psychiatrist. This shot uses the same filters as the flashbacks but has an added reddish filter. The same sound an eerie squeal happens every time the Faceless Mans face comes onto the screen, this can be interpreted in two ways that its added effect for the viewer or the character is hearing this in his own head due to his mental health, either interpretation makes sense but to create enigma the viewer can decide for themselves. The reddish filters and short duration doesn't indicate another flash back but insanity which is what the short films about.
In this fifth frame You can see the protagonist Alex's hand on the arm of a leather chair. We decided to use this leather chair as a prop in our film as it suited the psychiatrists décor. This yet again is a demonstration of Alex's nervous and fidgety nature showing he is constantly on edge. The Background for this scene is the same as the second frame. The constant in the setting and costume shows the audience its the same day and they haven't moved from this spot.
The sixth frame is from the second flash back. It features all the appropriate flash back techniques we maintained throughout our flash backs including the filters to make it distorted, dark lighting and layered non-diegetic sound to emphasise the fear but we also used a technique of using camera movement and timings for our actors to make it seem as if the Faceless Man disappears once Alex walks past. This technique along with the new crescendo non-diegetic soundtrack makes this flash back eery and one of my personal favourites to film and edit. This whole shot is trying to show that The Faceless man is all in Alex's head as he simply disappears once Alex turns around.
The seventh Frame is another nice scene. The red filter and distorted effects shows its another demonstration of insanity except this time its of Alex himself. Before this scene we used some small second clips of the same frame throughout the sequence but they had natural filters and no non-diegetic music. We did this because we wanted to show constant insanity, that throughout every situation and everyday that short frame is how Alex feels in his head. The reason that didn't make the top nine frames is because the longer filtered variation of this frame (the one shown above)has a darker meaning.
It still is a symbol of constant insanity but now it consists of not just filters but non-diegetic soundtracks and a possibly diegetic or non-diegetic scream. We wanted to reveal that the Faceless Man and Alex are the same person in the sense that its all in Alex's head; The end shot revealing the psychiatrist to be the Faceless Man is the conclusive finale of our short film but if you look into the comparison of this frame and the Faceless Man red filtered frame you will realise they are identical further explaining even the psychiatrist isn't real as he is the Faceless Man, therefore concluding in Alex talking to no one in reality showing he is well and truly insane.
The Eighth Frame is a tracking shot from the third and final flashback this flashback consists of the same techniques used in the other flash backs with filters and non-diegetic sound but in this flash back its set at night and in his own bedroom. The fact its set at night makes it even more scary as night time is associated with fear and the thought of the unknown. During this shot we see the protagonist wake up about to open up his window.
The Ninth frame happens straight after the end of the eighth and features the last part of our film, in this scene we see the Faceless Mans actual face as a new crescendo of non-diegetic soundtrack plays over the original flash back soundtrack as it jump cuts closer towards the Faceless Man, it then cuts out of the flash back instantly to reveal that the Faceless Man is the Psychiatrist. This then causes people to think that the
psychiatrist has been hunting Alex all this time when in fact as I said in frame seven its not quite as it seems.
The Smiling Man Influences
The Smiling Man is a short film our group took inspiration off, we thought the sense of fear in normality (just walking down the street at night) is one of the aspects of this short film we really liked, I researched some of my own short films but they have no relevance to our actual film. It was when we all watched this last minute did we decide we wanted to go down this route.
The Smiling Man is about a man who dances towards a random teenage boy whilst constantly smiling its a basic yet excellently delivered short film which concludes with the smiling man catching up with the teenager coming face to face with him just like you see on the photo above.
The things we took from this short film was the use of just two actors we thought it was effective just having two actors on screen as it maid in feel as if the protagonist is well and truly alone as that in itself can generate fear on its own.
The second inspiration we got was the feeling of when the Smiling Man disappears as we thought the feeling of the un known is also very powerful and for a psychological short film like ours that can effect someone severely as the anticipation can drive someone insane (our character Alex is a good example of that.)
The third emotional influence we got from The Smiling Man was confusion. In the Smiling Man we are unaware to why the Smiling Man has chosen to chase this teenager and that's shown in our short film with our protagonist Alex being confused to why he is being 'hunted' by the Faceless Man, confusion is an emotion that can drive people mad and we thought with Alex's schizophrenic health condition this could increase the effect of his schizophrenia.
The Faceless Man LWL Review
For our review we copied the layout and the way Little White lies is written perfectly. We used Latinate Lexis in our review to make it sound more sophisticated and formal whilst also hoping that it reaches beyond our target audience of 18-36 as an older generation may read this and therefore entice more people to watch the short film. We all developed and produced this short film so it was difficult to write a review as someone watching it for the first time so we used this review as a good way to talk about what we thought was good about the film and what could be improved for example the insight into mental health was a good aspect of our film but the acting didn't justify it as none of us who made this film are actors so it wasn't easy to portray the characters in the ideal way we intended. We included techniques Little White Lies used in their review with comparisons to major films like Fight Club where brief millisecond frames of the faceless man pops up throughout the film just like in Fight Club. We also spoke about essential things outside of the actual films like our zero budget and time to make this film and how that has potentially damaged a great short movie.
Because we thought the flashbacks were key to our film we spoke a lot about how the narrative of the movie is used through the use of flashbacks and without these flash backs it would be a very confusing and boring film for the audience.
My Film Poster
This is my finalised film poster that I made for my film. The black and white theme of colours makes it seem more eerie and dark. The patchy background and hood of the Faceless Man gives a representation of the disorientated and almost crumbling reality of Alex's life.
I used Photoshop after I did a photo-shoot in order to create this poster. Its a simple poster with a unique title at the bottom left to make its stand out and with the patchy contrast of white to black background it shows a sense of good versus evil or in this case sanity versus insanity. The Faceless Man is slightly bigger than Alex to show that he is controlling is life and consumes Alex's identity, his face is rubbed out but looks distorted, this effect was to yet again show the direction in which this film was heading.
I had ideas off some other Posters that I looked at and the one that gave me the most inspiration was the short film The Pig Child, although it doesn't look anything like mine I took inspiration from the simplicity of it yet the pragmatic complex it implied was vast. Every detail on The Pig Child poster told almost the whole story in just one picture, even the Text font gave away the genre of the film which is why I copied it as we both had a thriller conventional film.
I liked the fact it had hardly any colour to it as dullness doesn't always mean excitement it can mean despair which for both The Pig Child and The Faceless Man wanted to imply.
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