Directors Commentary

 For my set task in creating a short film or a film opening, I decided I wanted to make an opening to a romantic comedy film making it funny for the audience and so they could engage with it. In doing this, it was clear to see that it would be hard for me to create a comedy as I would have to make it funny for all different types of audiences, which can be challenging. The idea of the whole film would be about two unknown lovers on their first day at school after the holidays. Both characters would not know that they are gay and in love, but the tension will build over the course of my opening. This is all to get the audience engaged and not bored at any point during my opening to the film.  

 

In this opening scene, the idea was for the audience to get to know each character. The scene shows the two lovers on the night before school starts. John is staying up late on his games console and Connor is checking his timetable for tomorrow morning then goes to bed early. The difference and contrast between the characters is clear to see from the audience's perspective and this was the main aim of the scene. I feel by me doing this that it really helped the audience engage with the characters persona. 

 

In this scene the idea was to show John getting ready and then going into school. I got shots of the character driving into school to create the stereotype of the cool guy because he drives. Then I got shots of him walking into school. The purpose of this scene was to not jump to conclusions and have both John and Connor immediately in the same room together as that would be confusing for the audience. 

 
In this scene, it was the first time John and Conner saw each other and they pass by in the sixth form fly overs. No words were exchanged but a slight glance at each other was made. This was to create tension and have the audience wondering different questions such as ’do they know each other?’ ’Is there already bad blood between John and the new kid?’ and so on. This should also engage the audience to want to know what the story of the two characters is and what could unfold. 

 

In this scene, the idea was for them to both bump into each other after lesson had finished and make eye contact. This would create tension in the scene and the audience would get to know the answers to all their questions they would've been asking. I decided to get a close up on both of the characters eyes to create even more tension to the storyline. A few moments later the scene ends with a black fade out on the close up to Connors eyes having the audience wonder what next for the pair. This will make the audience interested in the storyline of the two even more. 

 

Overall, I believe that I hit my criteria exactly how I wanted to, and I made the tension build over the whole extract. This was the main aim, and I fulfilled my role as director.