"Stifflips"| Surreal Short Film

This short film was a task that I set myself when producing a performance in my A-Level Drama. It is going towards an assessed devised piece of work.

Plot Summary

The whole drama performance revolves around an army camp/ group, particularly a soldier called Joey (nicknamed 'Stifflips'), during the Second World War. The narrative follows his progress through the war, and his close bond with another soldier, Tommy Mackintosh. However, in one of the advances on the front, he becomes a victim to a gas attack, leaving him mute and suffering. He survives, but is not the same, as the audience watches him struggle with his new-found disability and his developing PTSD. For the good of the war, he returns to fight alongside Tommy. After re-uniting and fighting together, the group is asked to go over the top one more time. Consequently, Tommy is shot and dies on the battle-field, leaving Joey alone. After the war, as a climax of mental health issues, his disability and the loss of a close friend, he kills himself, leaving the audience asking questions about what happened to the others.

The film above is a project that I gave myself, demonstrating the moment when Joey loses his ability to speak. It will be projected onto a backdrop as we perform in front. The expressive movements and non-naturalistic images shown are all down to our influence from the practitioner group Shared Experience. They are very physical and expressive, encouraging the method of improvising and letting go 'the bubbling emotions underneath the surface'. As well as being in our performance, I wanted to maintain this abstract approach in the film.

I tried out several methods of trying to achieve this, using different lighting techniques and colour variations, finally settling on the above outcome. I wanted the involvement of hands as it makes direct correlations to Shared Experience, as well as giving the piece a creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere. I felt the tape over the face was unsettling and almost forcing the audience to take in his situation. The shifts of colour and still and moving shots, demonstrates the shift between the exterior and interior of Joey's mind, using time lapsed and slow motion footage to enhance this distorted approach.

It was definitely a new experience for me, the non-naturalistic method different to the realistic films that I've previously shot. I shot and edited this on my phone, the editing being difficult as I was limited to the app store, scouring it to find something that could give me my desired effect. However, I'm still very pleased with the outcome.