Graduation Film: Review on Cultural Context

Originally, I am not very good at positively analysing my own work. As such, I struggled to find the correct way to identify the cultural context of my film before hand and would now like to look at this more casually now.

There is very much an overtone of inexperience within this production. This can be seen as both refreshingly raw in the film, as well as something to develop and improve upon in the producing department. A struggle to flow with the original production schedule can be felt in the worry-toned posts of earlier months. Tables and databases which were to be filled out over time have been left abandoned.

Thankfully, the official university documents have been consistently kept up to date.

I previously wrote:

"In the terms of modern animation productions, I would be able to see this production fitting in a bit of an unusual niche. There are elements of mainstream productions within, but there is also the unpolished refinement of the indie section of the industry."

Whilst there are elements within the official [pre-production] document, which I feel no longer apply, this paragraph still largely bears true.

The film is most definitely a niche production; animation can also be considered a niche of itself with a finite audience. Therefore, the recipient cast who would seek out and enjoy this film would be a very small fraction of that niche.

The rough, unrefined stitching of the puppets, the proportioning and the button eyes denote traits of Gothic styled animations, such as seen in works by Tim Burton and Henry Selick. The main difference being that in their works, the lack of refinement is part of the style and largely controlled, whereas for me it was more of a happy accident of unrefined skill.

 There can also be a similarity drawn with animations of my childhood, such as the CITV series, "Grisly Tales for Gruesome Kids".

Therefore, the niche which this film belongs to would be of a similar type of audience.

With regards to the 'elements of mainstream productions' I can no longer concur with this statement as wholesomely true. In part, these elements refer to the general film technique and language of the screen [mis-en-scene, etc.] The truest of these elements which have been reproduced are things such as the law of thirds, framing and camera work. I do not feel that there is a huge amount of mainstream filtering into my production, but then that may be what I was thinking from the start. Elements: inspirations and techniques.

In terms of how the subtext is translating to screen, at this stage it is hard to say, but I feel that it is coming across well. As of yet, it is hard to substantiate to what degree this is so.

"The internal world exists solely as a sanctuary from the external world but cannot replace it (the external world)."

I understand that it is important to convey this to the best of my ability.

If I were to look again at how this would be marketed:

"Producing this film for a market would require the consideration of some factors that are often applied to works before commercial release. To begin, the appropriate audience age level would be quite low, as there is no gore, scenes of violence profanity or explicit content. That being said, the content is quite abstract in comparison with mainstream short productions and as such it may not be suitable for young children. Intellectually, the film should be marketable toward those of seven and older, although there is the possibility that they may find the content disturbing. Regardless, this age group and upward – for the majority part – should be able to enjoy the film."

At this stage, I feel that this largely holds true still. The nature of the set materials, as well as the models gives a very homely soft feel. Thus, it would be entirely reasonable for a child of less than 12 to enjoy it, regardless of whether they understand the story that they are being shown.

There is still a risk that those under this age may find the content disturbing. Not necessarily because of the art style - and there remains to be no gore, scenes of violence, profanity or other explicit content - but primarily of how the sound design will work with the footage.

As of yet, I still cannot squarely place this film in terms of marketing, however I do feel that the "genre", the niche of the film is slowly becoming more defined. Although, it will not be properly placed until completion, and perhaps even then, after the film has been received for review by peers and general audiences.