The New Joker - ID# 374
Antioch Community High School
Dramatic Narrative
Entry Description
An actor cannot catch a break which results in a breakdown.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/27 5:49 pm - While your film was clearly inspired by the Joker, I would still suggest a different name. This is a film about acting, auditions, and the seeking of fame. That DC title so strongly influences the viewing that it distracts from what your character is uniquely experiencing. I thought the acting was very strong, I especially thought the disinterested casting director's words were heartbreaking. The cinematography was quite interesting and unique – at times a bit inconsistent, but still well done. In terms of the audio, the dialogue was always clear which is the most important. I appreciated the impending sense of drama and doom, but the leap to violence felt a bit forced – even with your excellent audition montage. The challenge in a short film is showing that character arc in such a brief time. Not sure if you had other time constraints than this festival, but another minute of showing his dramatic change would make a big difference. Overall, great job! Hope to see more of your work at other film festivals!
- 4/21 10:01 am - Story: It’s clear that your character is frustrated from being rejected from all of these different auditions. What is the motivation for the crowbar at the end? We don’t see the crowbar at the beginning of the film. So maybe it could have been intentionally placed so the audience clearly sees it. Why was the character so motivated to kill at the very end? Sound: At 0:32, 1:09, 1:19, 2:34, 3:10, 3:13 we can hear your editing cuts, especially with audio. I would suggest utilizing J and L cuts. This is where you layer your audio track on different tracks. You then extend the beginning and ends of each track. Sometimes these J and L cuts may not work depending on when your audio starts and ends. This helps blend the sound of your audio so you don’t get those harsh cuts where the audio can “hear” where you edited. At 2:14 the sound cuts out. It would be nice to hear a door slam or the character leaving the room instead of just going to no sound. During the montage with the different auditions, you could add a soundtrack to differentiate it from the rest of the film. Camera: I am very pleased with this shot at 0:27! You placed your subject on the left side of the frame on the vertical third. The one thing I would adjust in this shot would be the headroom above your subject. Headroom is the space between a character’s head and the top of the frame. I would lessen the space between the edge of the frame and your subject’s head in this shot. You also use great rack focus at 0:29. There are times where your framing is just a little off, like at 1:32. In this shot, you have it framed as if someone were to come up behind the character. You want to give your character lead room, meaning that you want room in front of them. For this shot, ideally you would place the character on the left side of the frame instead of the right. You had a really great shot of your character at 3:16! This is framed well. Lighting: I like how you include additional light in the audition scenes. I would say that I was a bit too bright on the main character’s face (1:51). You could use diffusion paper to spread out the light more so it’s not as harsh on your subject’s face. Overall you demonstrate how to use lighting effectively. Editing: Great job editing the montage of auditions to show how many the character has actually been to. One thing that I would add to the montage editing-wise is some kind of filter/effect so the audience knows that it is a flashback to past auditions. It could even be just as simple as adding in a vignette, or making the footage black and white.
- 2/23 12:23 pm - Camera: the opening was shot incredibly well. The framing was solid. Lighting: lighting seemed to have been used effectively for the scenes. Sound: dialogue seemed to be mixed at an appropriate level, but your music beds came up too hot in the mix. Watch your VU meter. Editing: the scenes with dialogue seemed to have been cut together well and paced pretty evenly. The first scene where he’s leaving to go to the audition in the car was sped up and shaky (probably because you intended it to be frantic), but I honestly think you could have just cut it out. It just didn’t fit the rest of your film. Story: You set up the story well enough, introducing the character and their motivation. The ending implied that he was going to go and kill someone with the crowbar. But you could have developed more of the reasoning behind WHY he was so focused and why he would go to the extent of killing someone simply because he got rejected at an audition. Maybe somewhere in the early part of the film you could have shot and edited a montage of him looking through rejection letters and emails, and listening to voicemails…all of which were rejections. This would have made it clear as to why he felt so isolated and desperate.
Judge 1
Positives: • Great use of montage between all the failed auditions- some really hilarious moments there. • Interesting backstory here that really speaks to society's unheatlhy obsession with fame at large-
Improvements: • You should have def utilized the additional time you had (roughly 90 sec) to finish this character's journey- It ended just as it got good! • Camerawork/cinematography didn't do justice to the story itself - there are solid moments but additional planning in pre-production would've helped quite a bit.
Judge 2
Positives: Acting is believable; Story is well structured
Improvements: Variation is shot angles and types needed; Style doesn't feel too consistent throughout
Judge 3
Positives: I think the framing was good throughout the film. I really liked the pacing and movements in the first and last scene with the mirror.
Improvements: The music in the car is very overpowering. I think throughout the different audition shots there could have been more of a variety of shots and could have been cut together a bit cleaner.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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