Film Studies Final Piece Evaluation

My final piece fall my film studies unit is a short experimental film called "Lack", which revolves around the theory put forward by Jacques Lacan. Lacan's theory is the hypothesis that from birth we amercing a vital part of us, what is missing is forever unknown to the individual, yet we constantly seek out something that would fill our lack, sub consciously and consciously.

With this in mind i began planning my Film, due to the nature of this theory, i wanted this film to feel personal and intimate yet have an atmosphere of coldness. The most effective way to portray this was to focus on something that was incredibly personal to myself, for this i chose to have my girlfriend be the focus of the film. Knowing that having something so personal to focus would mean that not only would i put more emotion and heart into the final piece, but that the theory i would apply to it would be even more effective.

The film is heavily inspired by Chris Markers "la jette", i loved how the film used still images rather than film itself, which added another layer of uncertainty and mysteriousness to its atmosphere, when planning this piece i concluded that the use of still images rather than film would give my piece more gravitas and impact when viewed, this stylistic choice would also challenge the audience as it would be so far from what they know as film.

The film itself opens with rapid white scratches over a black background, this is very little to talk about as we are essentially watching a black screen, i wanted the audience to immediately feel intrigued and confused when watching my film, by giving away nothing at the start of the film i have created interest.
The scene immediately cuts to a static mid shot of my girlfriend and another subject sitting exactly parallel to her on a sofa, the rapid white scratches from the previous shot now consume her face, destroying any identity she may have, in this scene she is no more than a body, devoid of identity.
The white scratches that cover her face in this shot were intended to be a representation of how this subject has or feels as if she lacks identity, which would be lacanian lack. The  subject believes that she doesn't know who she is, what she stands for, what she wants to be. whether or not she was born with this lack, or if it evolved over time is unclear. During post production i added a filter over the shot to reduce it to monotone black and white, not only was this a stylistic choice, but also a representation of how laconian lack whether sub consciously or consciously, muddles and distorts the individuals reality.

every shot following this are still images, everyone has been manipulated and distorted to further the representation of lacanain lack, the images i took don't necessarily have any analytical weight behind them, they are simply candid shots of her daily life. Its what i do to the final images that express laconian lack. I added motion blur to the photos, resulting in images that look corrupted, sinister yet fluid, a further expression of how the lack within ourselves is destructive and tormenting, yet beautiful and liberating at the same time. I say liberating because i believe on our endless search for something to fill the void within us all, we discover more about ourselves, we discover new ways to surprise ourselves, and this is liberating.
for the audio i read a passage from Lewis C Carol's "Alice In Wonderland", the passage follows as,

'Dear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is, “’Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle.'
An analysis of this passage tells us that Alice is suffering from a crisis of identity. "i wonder if I've changed in the night" shows us this. I thought using a passage from Alice In Wonderland would fit perfectly in with a lacanian film.

Due to the films intimate nature, and avant guarde basis, several issues made themselves apparent during filming. If changes were made they would be as follows; 

due to heavy overcast and weather restrictions all of my filming had to take place indoors, resulting in a selection of stills that were all fairly repetitive, if i were to re-do this piece i would have like to film in multiple environments.

The audio i used could have also be managed better, i have very little experience with audio equipment outside the built in microphone on my camera, meaning that the audio for the piece changed in quality over the run time. If re-shoots were to be made i would record the audio again but in a studio, rather than a classroom with background noise.

In conclusion im extreamly happy with the final piece, i feel that it meets all the criteria set before me and accurately portrays a lacanian lack in a analytical and clinical manner, whilst maintaining all of its personality.