Research & Planning Audit

1. Genre

Our film contrasts to the expectations of teen drama films. I would describe our film as 'pushing the boundaries' as opposed to just being a conventional teenage film with semi-social realist issues, we have added an aspect of physiological thriller akin to 'Fight Club' and 'Shutter Island'. The way that we have pushed boundaries in our film is by examining what is conventional in our narrative, beginning with the equilibrium of our lead character Terry being in love with his friend Jennifer for many years. Unrequited love is a theme that has been the basis for countless teen drama films which is why we wanted to observe the romantic aspect from a new angle - we decided to include the theme of kidnapping to change the entire atmosphere of the project, with most of the film featuring Terry's emotions and how he reacts to life without Jennifer. The reveal of dissociative identity disorder at the end of the film contrasts to the positive and optimistic endings of certain films of the genre but in some ways the fact we end the film on an ambiguous note does not push the boundaries at all. Several films which have hugely influenced us in the production of 'A Short Term Effect' have been 'Submarine' (2011) and 'The Scouting Book for Boys' (2009) which both keep the audience guessing towards the end, giving no clear answer as to what happens next. 


2. Narrative

In our film Terry is portrayed as a social outcast who has few friends that aren't Jennifer. This contrasts to Sheldon Stryker's theory of identity negotiation which theorises that individuals group together to discuss and discover their own identity. This forms subcultures such as football fans or 'nerds' but as Terry is outcasted he cannot experience this. ??

Todorov's narrative theory states that there are three 'parts' to every film. The film begins with an 'equilibrium' which is a state at the beginning of the story where there is little action, where the main characters see the state of the World as somewhat 'normal'. We used this for our story as Terry and Jennifer's friendship is his equilibrium, although he is unhappy and would like to take their relationship to the next level she does not want this. A 'disequilibrium' occurs afterwards, with action which changes the status-quo of the film. Our disequilibrium is Terry being questioned by police about Jennifer's disappearance which creates a lot of sadness for him. His life becomes more mysterious and depressing in her absence. The 'new equilibrium' is a new state of normality for a film occurring after the disequilibrium, in our film this is Terry's life within a mental institution.  

Claude Levi-Strauss theory of binary opposition states that every story is built around binary opposites, essentially contrasting ideas such as good versus evil, love versus hatred and old versus young. The binary opposite which the film begins with

3. Representation

There is not a huge amount of representation in our film. There are a limited amount of characters as there is just Terry, Jennifer, the Police officers and Jennifer and Terry's respective parents. This has lead to us unintentionally casting an entirely white cast, leading to no representation for ethnic groups. In terms of gender, our film is portrayed through the eyes of Terry, therefore it could be argued Jennifer's kidnapping portrays her as weak but I would argue that there are other female characters in our film such as Jennifer's mother who are strong. The main representation within the film is our representation of people with severe mental health issues. There is no question that Terry's mental health issue leads to him becoming a dangerous character but we are going to build sympathy for him throughout the film instead of just presenting him as 'unwell'. Previous products we have studied such as Fight Club have given a new representation for those with dis-associative identity disorder as actual human beings who have emotions and feelings, instead of the stereotype of them just being 'crazy' or 'mental'. This is a representation that we would like to continue.

4. Audience 

Richard Dyer theorised that when an audience views a film, the film offers 'Utopian Solutions' for the World's problems. Our film includes many of the World's problems such as kidnapping and mental health issues. Although we present these issues in a more sensitive and empathetic manner our film does not offer Utopian solutions to them. The lead character has disassociative identity disorder but the film ends on an ambiguous note there is no 'solution' as he is in a psychiatric ward but this is not shown as the best solution to his illness.