Treatment

Treatment

Here is the link to our 1-2 minute film, Reflection: https://vimeo.com/242736310
Title: Reflection
Stylistic Approach: Structural/Formal 
Our 1-2 minute film, Reflection, is based on general stereotypes. We are focusing on looks through use of costume. For example, you expect someone smart, who you may stereotype as a ‘nerd’, to wear specific clothing e.g. a shirt, bow tie, a jumper and glasses. We will explore these stereotypes through the costumes our actress will wear.             
During the film she will stand wearing a specific stereotypical outfit. Having taken multiple photos of the actress in these different outfits, for example an athlete, a waitress, a nerd… She will hold one of the photos in an opposing outfit to the one she is wearing. The photo will burn, implying that no one is just one thing, they can fit into many stereotypes all at the same time.
Working title: Diverge
Length: 5-10 minutes
Stylistic Approach: non-linear

Our 5-10 minute film will be a makeup tutorial with a man doing his makeup step by step. This will then ‘glitch’ to a woman who is smudging her perfect makeup. However, the tutorial will not be shown in order it will jump around, but the woman’s voiceover will talk about the steps in order.
Our general theme is stereotypes, but we will be focusing on the pressure of stereotypes and the upkeep of appearances. The film will be set out like a general makeup tutorial video with someone positioned directly in front of the camera to record it, but we will use the footage of them talking directly to their camera with a multitude of different shots. For example, we will have a wide shot of the man doing his makeup whilst glancing down to the small mirror, and then looking back up to the camera. By it being a man who does the tutorial and not a woman it will already seem strange and contrast our typical views. We will film him doing his full face of makeup in the order you would normally apply it. However, it will be edited so that it doesn’t go in order, therefore his make-up will continually change as he may start with eye shadow on but then later it would disappear. Throughout the tutorial we will have ‘glitches’ in these it will show a woman with a full face of makeup but on each glitch, she will smudge her makeup more and more. These ‘glitches’ will become more and more frequent as the film goes on, and we will see the woman become more distraught throughout each ‘glitch’.  This implies that she doesn’t want to keep up her ‘perfect’ appearance and defy the ‘rules’ of society.
Throughout the film, we will have a voiceover narrating the tutorial like you’d expect, except it won’t be his voice, but the woman’s. She will narrate it as if she’s looking at him doing his makeup in the correct order, making it non-synch sound. All you will see on screen will be him doing his makeup with his mouth moving as if he is narrating, but there will be none of his actual audio that can be heard. For the ‘glitches’ all the sound will be non-synch, you will hear laughter, but she won’t be moving her mouth at all. For the last ‘glitch’ it will be a longer ‘glitch’, and on screen we will see the woman full on rolling her head back laughing, however, the sound will just be a prolonged glitch sound. We want to send a message through this film about how society perceives each gender, for girls getting dressed up we expect them to have a full face of makeup but don’t accept it if we see a man with a full face of makeup. This creates high expectations to uphold certain standards to be seen in public, a girl can’t expect to look presentable without makeup. We also perceive that if a man has makeup on we automatically label him as gay, which is unacceptable in this day and age.
We got inspiration for this piece from general makeup tutorial videos on YouTube. Two big influences were ‘Break Free’ by Ruby Rose and ‘Stereo’ by Ella Fields. These really helped to inspire us as Ruby’s video is all about wiping away an appearance that society would expect, to reveal her true self. In the video we see Ruby start out looking very glamorous as she’s getting ready for what we presume is a night out, we see her look in the mirror and reject the charade that she’s been living. The smudge idea came mainly from this film as she’s seen revealing the tattoos and removing her makeup, we really liked how it fit with our theme of people being pressured into specific stereotypes. ‘Stereo’ reverses gender roles which is where we got the idea to make him do the makeup tutorial instead of the woman because you’re more likely to be shocked by him wearing and applying make-up. In ‘Stereo’ the girl wants to join a theatre group and gets stared at and talked about. Therefore, we will use the man to do the tutorial as makeup is portrayed as a feminine product, so is unusual if a man wears it, again further illustrating our theme.
We will shoot them both in the same bedroom at different times, sitting on the floor with their back leaning against the bed. The camera which they are using to film themselves will be placed in front of them on a tripod, although there will also be another camera that we will use to get a multitude of shots. We will switch between a close-up, this will be from the camera they’re looking at, and other extreme close ups, mid shots and wide shots of the whole room. The ‘glitches’ will be between an extreme close-up and a normal close up. We will use the extreme close up in the later ‘glitches’ to make the audience feel uncomfortable. It will all be shot in colour, but the glitch shots will be less saturated to show that life and the pressure of stereotypes are draining her. For the sound element of the film, we will have the voice over from the woman’s voice but also create a glitch and static sound to further illustrate the change on screen. When the ‘glitches’ appear, we will have multiple voices laughing, some of these voices we’ll distort others we’ll add on an echo along with some other effects.

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