NEA evaluation

1. Evaluation Amy Carey 4021 Alleyn’s
School 10802
1
Short films are defined as “an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes
or less” and are usually screened at film festivals. Short films act almost as a separate genre
– because they are shorter than feature films they have to draw an audience quickly,
compress the narrative in a well-planned and structured way, and are more likely to have an
open ending, making the spectator contemplate what they have just seen. “Echo” is open to
interpretation, we never really find out a definite motive for the main character acting out
the ‘con’. Short film narratives have flexibility in comparison to features, which are more
likely to follow generic conventions. My short film “Luna” is slow-paced, similar to the film
“Over” which observes action from a distance with long shot lengths, but the narrative is
short and the ending leaves an audience asking questions.
My film’s summary is: a girl’s cousin, Luna, has been missing for several days, when one
night she has a mysterious dream. My synopsis is comparable to “The Ellington Kid” or
“Echo” as they have open endings and make a reader want to discover what has happened.
Similarities can also be found in the genre of the film “Over” and my short film because they
both relate to crime mystery. My title “Luna” can also be comparable with the title “Slap”,
as they are both a metaphor for the events that unfold and thus can be seen to have dual
meaning. Luna refers to the moon (an aspect of my film’s narrative) as well as the missing
character’s name and Slap refers to makeup but is also a reference to boxing.
Genre in film is a category based on similarities either in the narrative elements or in the
emotional response from a spectator. Steve Neale described genre as “systems of
orientations, expectations and conventions”. My film falls partly under the crime mystery
genre, which creates suspense in an audience related to uncovering the truth of an event or
crime, like “Over”. In “Luna”, the mystery is answering the question of what happened to
Jess’s missing cousin. In “Over”, the audience are shown a crime and the aftermath in a
small neighbourhood in reverse, and the film ends by revealing the incident so spectators
are in suspense throughout. Both my film and “Over” use editing to create the tension of
the crime mystery genre through long shot lengths and slow-paced on-screen action
building up to a final release of tension. The crime genre is indicated by the use of police
tape in both films.
Figure 1: Over Figure 2: Luna

2. Evaluation Amy Carey 4021 Alleyn’s
School 10802
2
My film has a linear narrative: we follow Jess over 2 days and the events happen in
chronological order, adopting Aristotle’s traditional three Act Structure of beginning, middle
and end, unlike the narrative of “Over” where the events of the film work backwards.
Elements of Robert McKee’s Five Part Narrative can be seen in my film, the exposition or
inciting incident is hearing that Jess’s cousin has gone missing from news report voice-over.
The development sets up Jess’s character and how she’s feeling alone. This is done through
the performance and cinematography. Jess is quiet and self contained. The mid shot of Jess
at the breakfast table eating alone isolates her from the very start, indicating to an audience
how she is feeling after her cousin’s disappearance.
Figure 3: Luna
This establishes Jess’s character and her inner feelings of seclusion. The crisis also acts as
the inciting event – Luna being missing – so adapts the traditional 5 part structure slightly.
My film rejects the element of resolution in the traditional 5 part structure by having an
open ending. The mise-en-scene of the police tape prop suggests that the police have got
involved but it’s not clear if Jess discovered the body or simply evidence, so the ending is
open to interpretation. The technique of an open ending is also used in “Echo”, as
mentioned earlier, as well as in “The Arrival”. In this short, we never find out what the main
character is actually going to say to her ‘lover’ about her pregnancy or what she will decide
to do, since the film ends with an abrupt cut to black as she recognises the person she is
meant to be meeting.
The micro elements in my film are further used to help shape the narrative. The opening
shot is important at establishing the inciting incident; the close up of the radio highlights the
sound of the news report being heard and signifies to an audience that it is important. In
the most significant plot point – the dream sequence - the mystery and tension of the scene
is created through the micro elements. The music is unsettling and the editing effects of this
sequence accentuate the shadows of the forest but highlight Luna’s white dress by making it
glow so that she stands out. For mise-en-scene, Luna’s white costume is not only a symbol
of ghostliness, implying that she’s dead, but a symbol of the moon, giving a poetic quality to
the sequence. This comparison is accentuated with random jump cuts of the moon within
the sequence. The importance of the dream sequence is emphasized through the

3. Evaluation Amy Carey 4021 Alleyn’s
School 10802
3
dramatically different editing, which separates it from the rest of the film. Throughout the
film, continuity editing and simple straight cuts are used to progress the narrative. However,
the dream sequence uses a bloom transition from real life to Jess’s dream, cross dissolves,
over-lays and jump cuts. These techniques are used to portray the abstract quality of
dreams and signifies to an audience that this it is not a real-world event. The difference
between the editing effects of the dream sequence and the rest of the film are shown here:
Figure 4: Luna Figure 5: Luna
However, I did want to make clear to an audience that the location the dream was set in
was real. I did this by filming Jess in the next sequence only in the places where we saw Luna
in the dream. This would indicate to an audience that Jess is following the trail from her
dream. Here are some examples of the setting in the dream and the real world being the
same:
Figure 6: Luna Figure 7: Luna
The dream sequence is the first moment of ambiguity for both Jess and the audience. A
comparable moment of ambiguity can be seen in “Over”, as the audience don’t know what
is going on due to the reverse order of events in the narrative of the film. Several binary
oppositions in my film include dream/reality, and how these two themes overlap, night/day,
and life/death. This last one can be seen in several of the short films, for example “The
Arrival”, as the narrator is debating whether to continue her pregnancy.
Luna isn’t a generic character type; she is the focus of the plot and acts as a ‘helper’. An
ambiguous character, we’re not sure what has happened to her. This ambiguity is created
through the distance between Luna and the camera; we only see her in CU at the end of the

4. Evaluation Amy Carey 4021 Alleyn’s
School 10802
4
dream where we discover her motive: to lead Jess to her body. My narrative can be
interpreted differently. One preferred reading of the film is that Jess finds Luna’s body at
the denouement, and the mystery of her disappearance is solved in the world of the film
but not for the audience. The police tape and the diegetic sound rather than soundtrack
over the final shot creates realism and a feeling of finality. However, a spectator could view
the ending as Jess only finding evidence for Luna’s disappearance and the enigma is
ongoing. My audience preview provided me with feedback to help decrease the ambiguity
throughout, as the narrative wasn’t presented clearly enough. They suggested I create a
wanted poster to connect the missing girl Luna to the girl in the dream. They also suggested
I have Jess find a purple blazer at the end, as this is what Luna was described as wearing
when she went missing. This would help show the audience that Jess found something to do
with Luna’s disappearance. Adding these props helped to better shape the audience
response of shock and tension and made the narrative of the film more coherent.
To conclude, “Luna” falls under the crime mystery genre indicating this through the mise-
en-scene, such as the police tape, similarly to “Over”. The film uses unconventional editing
to show a difference between dream and reality, dealing with binary oppositions such as
life/death. The ending follows Barthes’s enigma code, a question posed to the audience to
leave a sense of ambiguity. The question in “Luna” could be “What happened to Luna?”.
This technique of using an enigma code at the end of the film has also been used in “Echo”
and “The Arrival”. This creates an open ending, shaping the audience response to the film
and leading to the possibility of different interpretations.
Word Count: 1491.