In this blog, I’m looking back and reflecting on the group project that I did for my first piece of coursework in this module.
We were given the clip “Meet Buck” to analyse:
While first watching through the movie, I found it generally interesting and I liked the use of colour and the art style that it had. I also really enjoyed the whole chase sequence and found myself engaged in what was going to happen next, as well as the overall story and setting.
We spent the first class doing a quiz at first, and then watching through all the movies that had been assigned, so I later communicated with my group mostly through Discord.
For research, we found some information about the production, for example that it was made in 2010 as a graduation movie, directed by Marc and Denis Bouyer. We also managed to find a site that featured some character turnarounds and some behind-the-scenes environment work! https://www.brainup-studio.com/2021/08/24/meet-buck/
For analysing, in my initial notes I went through and noted down anything at all that came to mind. Through doing this I was able to pick up on small details that I had previously not even noticed.
We shortly organised a call to share the notes we had and go through the clip to see if we noticed anything else that we wanted to add on.
In the call, we decided it would be good to split the work up between us into camera/composition, colour, lighting and music. However we cut the music as we didn’t feel experienced enough to be analysing it, so instead we split camera and composition into separate parts, with me taking composition.
We had another call before the next class where we discussed all the notes we had so far about our respective topics, as well as shared any more details in the movie that we had noticed.
For the next class I made a lot more notes. I had basically written down absolutely anything and everything that came to mind while watching the film, some related to composition but also some not, as I figured I could always condense it later.
However, of course, I wouldn’t be able to include all of this material in 2 and a half minutes of talking, so Jessica suggested to me that I could go through these notes and highlight the ones that stood out to me and I wanted to talk about most. So here are my notes along with all that I highlighted:
As might be evident from how much I wrote, I actually found analysing this movie to be very interesting. I thought it was really cool, for example, noticing how not only crossed lines but also open lines were used in the movie to represent different things, like Xs on the mans design to represent hostility versus the open parallel lines on the girl’s design to show her open-mindedness.
In the next class, we decided to ask the teacher for some feedback. I had been making some notes just to lay things out visually for what we had to do for our presentation, and the teacher recommended to save most of the “extra info” for our blog, and that in the presentations we would mostly be focusing on technical aspects.
(I forgot to adjust this but our respective parts could be around 2 to 2 and a half minutes each as we didn’t really need that section with the extra notes. So I decided to put those extra notes here!)
We were also starting to work on the powerpoint presentation together in class, so I went through the film, took some screenshots that I wanted to talk about and put them in the presentation to lay things out.
Over the course of the following week, we did two more calls as a group. I had written out what I wanted to say in the presentation and timed it. It ended up being just a little long so I cut some parts out when it came to the final presentation, but overall I was happy with what I had. I felt that I was able to convey the technical points well while also adding some original thinking, like how the wine glass spilling on the floor ended up looking like a pool of blood. During our calls, we gave each other feedback on how we were doing, helping each other on our way. Overall, I was feeling confident enough that we had enough for the presentation.
The day of the presentation, there were less people than usual due to it being a snow day, so half of our group wasn’t able to present, however I was still able to go up with Jessica. My part was first which I was thankful for, however nerve-wracking, as I could get it out of the way right away. Although I was rather anxious and felt that I was noticeably shaky in both my voice and my hands, I generally think that I conveyed my points well and contributed my own original thoughts and points into my part.
I felt a bit regretful as I felt like maybe I could have been a little more detailed with my analysis, however I do think that the points that I did have were conveyed relatively well, and it was only a couple of minutes of talking either way. I found the composition of the film very interesting to look into, and I think I added my own original points without making them irrelevant or straying too off-topic. The group work aspect was good too I think, we shared our points and thoughts together and helped each other out when needed while still putting enough attention towards our own parts. So in conclusion, I think this coursework was a generally positive experience that helped as an introduction to film analysis, as well as giving me more experience in formatting said analysis, and presenting in front of others.