Ashif Alucin
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UAL Level 3 Creative Media
Final cut:
Directors commentary (Final Evaluation):
I probably cut out a lot of my credit through this director's commentary, in hindsight. I did use my own dreams and stories that I had read in this short, but I still made a unique narrative that makes sense. The dreams and stories were more like supplements to the story. Fiction is usually written after gaining inspiration from external sources. The dream I used, I alluded to the "Floating man" and the concept of the soul. While the story of a child sniffing mud to mimic her mother sniffing cocaine, I used to create a link to the innocence of a child and the potential of a self-loathing personality developing. I drew a parallel of the innocence of a child and the potential of degeneracy. To expand upon what I mean by "innocence", I am considering the vulnerability and how susceptible children are to influence. I find this scary and feel for parents. Things that I can not grasp the concept of nor empathise with does interest me.
Feedback:
Feedback reflection:
The feedback I got from class were all positive, which is sad, surprising and nice. It was very hard for me to imagine an audience's view on my final cut. What worried me most was the pacing, and the reliance on colour, camera shots and angles to show the narrative and feel of the scenes. I had thought, if you take note of the length of the short film, that this may bore people. However, when I watch short films of other directors the same criticisms can be easily made, but because of their success, the criticism is ignored. The audience will stay engaged because of the directors brand being attached to the film. This is fine and makes sense. I am not a successful director, therefore I will not receive this leeway. The questions are: what are my intentions with the short film? Does the short film fit a niche audience? Would the average be able to be engaged with the film throughout? My main goal with the short film was to experiment and merge concepts (and more) from my previous projects. I am satisfied with the outcome when considering these goals.
However, I believe I failed into creating a short that is more accessible for general consumption. I did want to make this film more accessible than my other shots, which if you compare to my other shots, I did. But, not to the extent I wanted. Therefore, I am trying to make another short that I have the intention of making accessible. Also, I would like to embed some more film theory into this short. I did make another short film after screening "Joe and his Stranger" because one of the films had reminded me of the need I used to have to get out of my comfort zone and at least try to experiment, regardless on how I look or what I'd think about myself for doing it.
Overall, I achieved most my goals with "Joe and his Stranger". My shortcomings, I will make up for by creating more short films.