Conversation Reflections

THE CONVERSATION 

The challenge was to create a power conversational scene between 2 people. Our group decided to do a scene in which a student was visiting the headmaster due to their bad grades and behavioural problems. We firstly decided to understand what the headmaster and the students characters would be like, before we started drafting anything else. The headmaster was to be a strict and organised character, which needed to be evidently shown in our scene. The student was to be a careless and unbothered character, which we did display through their body language and expressions. These first ideas were used. 

We were also thinking about perhaps having a person talking about their opinions on something or a topic but didn't want to have an opinionated conversation that wasn't go to effectively display the power shift. 

Analysis of 5 key frames:

1. Student behind the teacher, awaiting for him to acknowledge their presence. 

This is the first frame I chose because of how effectively the power dynamic is shown. The student is stood behind the teacher, further out of the frame whilst the teacher is in the front of the frame and takes up a larger area of the frame. This shot effectively shows the power dynamic as the student is small whilst the teacher is larger, therefore showing how he has more power. Also, the teacher aggressively types on his keyboard, suggesting he’s annoyed or angered with the student behind him. The teacher ignores the student until after he’s done, what he’s doing. This shows how the narrative is based on him and his actions and how everyone is affected by his actions. 

The student is also relatively close to the door, therefore suggesting they don’t want to be here and since they’re standing near to it; it gives the idea that they want to quickly escape from the area. 

2. Student enclosed in the frame 

This is the second frame I chose, particularly because of how good the shot is here, in terms of framing and displaying the power dynamic. The student is shown in the frame but with limited space whilst the teacher takes up the rest of the frame, hence leaving only a minuscule part of the frame available to the student. This shows how the teacher has more authority and jurisdiction whereas the student has little power and is almost entrapped in the space, unable to escape.  This effectively shows how the teacher has more control over the situation (with his status in the hierarchy of school) and how the student can’t do much. It’s a beautiful shot displaying the power dynamic. There’s nothing I’d change about this key frame as it’s crafted with good framing. 

3. Close-up on the phone (180 degree rule unintentionally broken)

This is the third frame I chose, mainly because of how we unintentionally broke, by far, the biggest rule in film. The shot was intended to show a close-up on the tense situation and how they phone is being picked up by the teacher, to phone the parents’ of the student. This shot was taken on the opposite end of the camera and on screen, it’s evident that the rule is broken, simply due to it’s disorientating look. Although this was not planned, this actually focuses the audience's attention on what's happening in the situation, and it just enhanced the tense situation to an extent. It makes the scene tense, as the student reaches their ‘breaking point’, just when the teacher picks up the phone, the whole scene escalates. The 180 degree rule being broken focuses the attention on the escalation.  The camera is also zoomed-in on the phone, furthermore giving the situation its tension and seriousness. Perhaps if the camera was to be a slow zoom in on the phone, the situation would fit its tension and seriousness. 

 4. Both teacher and the student in one complete shot 

This is the 4th frame I chose because this shot inadvertently displays the power dynamic between the student and the teacher. Firstly, the teacher has a higher chair than the student where has a much lower chair than the student. The student is also slouching whilst sitting on the chair whereas the teacher is sitting upright in a more authoritative position. This framing evidently displays the power dynamic between the teacher. 

5. The student 

This is the last frame I chose, specifically because of its effectiveness. The over the shoulder shot, shows what's in the characters hand and what he's so fixated on - which is the exam paper of the student who's awaiting behind him. This shot gives the audience an understanding of what's going on and it helps them to sympathise with both, the student and the teacher, simply due to the prop of the piece of paper.

FEEDBACK:

We received feedback, including that of us breaking the 180 degree rule (which wasn't intentional) but did end up making the audience directed to what was happening on screen - it was good as the shot we broke it in was a shot of a close up on the phone which was a key part. Many groups discussed this but we didn't really think much about it. Most groups did enjoy one particular part of our framing, which displayed the student as being small and unable to escape from the headmaster. Majority of the groups did understand the meaning as intended and picked up on the shots we used and the framing and angles as well. Most of the feedback we received was good and most people were able to point out some of the aspects of film language we intentionally included, to furthermore enhance the power dynamic between the duo.