The Advanced Portfolio Evaluation Question 1, Part 3-Amie Nelms

Conventions used for 'All My Love'

Themes and Issues

• Death
  
• Suicide
  
• Love and romance-relevant to today's society, target audience can relate to

Characterisation and Representations

Amie

• Independent character-ending "moving on" in slow motion, soundtrack emphasises her heartache but perseverance to move on
  
• Abolishes stereotype that women are dependent on men
  
• Introducing character in an appropiate way-showing her walking in, not using tilt, decided against because we wanted to avoid the objectification of Amie, Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory

Rich

• Not a traditional male-cares about relationships (Amie), emotive language used to show his emotions, sensitive
  
• Committed to relationship-leaves letter to her
  

Mise en scene

• Long establishing shot of bench at beginning, introduces the setting



• Location where people/public visit, realistic to read a letter in piece and quiet, gives time to reflect


• Naturalistic lighting created with natural sunlight, decided against using reflector, made it too bright
  
• Casual costumes to make it realistic: Amie in black, to show she is grieving to the audience; Rich in white to show he is dead and a ghost, connotations of purity and angelic-like.
  
• Natural hair and make up
  
• Used same names as actors, to make it seem more real, personal
  
• Props-used handwritten letter (actually written by Rich) to give authenticity
  
• Colour-black and white to connect to the audience the sad and grieving atmosphere Amie feels of her loss, and Rich leaving her behind.
  
• Exterior settings-houses in background, urban setting
  
• Facial expressions and body language appropriate to emotions-eg. opening shots of Rich in different positions on bench, emphasises he's waiting.

Sound

• Non diegetic soundtrack-motif used; emphasise certain parts of dialogue; eerie tone (guitar and keyboard parts); used at end to convey Amie's heartache.
  
• Ambient soundbridge-to connect each scene to each other-make it seem like short film is happening in real time
  
• Diegetic dialogue-letter dialogue open to interpretation

Editing

• Moves from black and white to colour-to show she is moving on
  
• Fades in and out-to add ghost like quality
  
• Long takes to make it seem like audience is observing
  
• Match-on-action-walking sequence to show observation and journey/following her
  
• Eyeline-to show the audience what she (Amie) is looking at, POV
  
• 180 degree-maintain continuity, although broken to show walking to and from bench, following tracking handheld shots
• Use of green screen-to show Rich is a ghost, not really there-emphasises fantasy element to short film.

Camerawork

• Range of different shot angles, movement and frame to interest audience
  



• Well composed shots-making use of mise en scene around us eg. houses in background, trees incorporation etc.
  
• Birds eye view shots-Amie and Rich laying down
  
• Worms eye view-shows what character's are looking at, the sky
  
• Medium close ups on bench shots
  
• Extreme close ups/eye level observe-connect with characters emotions
  
• Handheld-observation, in action
  
• Establishing shots-emphasises real location
  

Target Audience Demographic

• Female
  
• 12-24
  
• Lower class-middle class

Reasons?

• Romantic theme-appeals to females, something people can relate to
  
• Blockbuster audience 16-24, leisure pound to spend
  
• Amie-strong, independent character, females might aspire to
  
• Rich- is the kind of male females would want in a relationship: caring, committed to relationship etc.
  
• Certificate restriction, 12 years +, however perhaps an even younger demographic could be established as film can be viewed with adult supervision.

Amie Nelms