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4 Hour Film Challenge - Obsession

What is the Task?

The task at hand is to produce a production based on Jacques Lacan's theory of lack and desire within a 4 hour timeframe. 

What do I Want to Produce?

I am going to produce an interview style production talking to the Alexa speaker. I am staging the interview with a speaker as I believe this will help me reflect the obsessive nature behind Lacan's theory, the idea of someone talking to a speaker is quite insane however, it reflects them going mental due to their fixation on a desire to fulfil endless goals which don't make you feel happier. My character in this production is going to be a very modern feminine character that is very fixated on their appearance. All over social media in recent years the idea of "miracle" products are sold to a mainly female audience to supposedly help with weight loss. A lot of them are drinks a majority of which are teas, I intend to add a comical spin to this idea, instead of advertising the weight lost from "so called" fit teas, or healthy teas, I will advertise sugar filled iced teas. The character in the video will be portrayed as quite stupid, she doesn't seem to understand how calories and carbohydrates work therefore, she doesn't understand that the tea is in fact bad for her. This reflect how many people buy these fit teas without having any idea how they work or what ingredients are actually used in them. The video will be very focused on the characters fixation on needing to lose weight to make herself feel complete, slowly throughout the video the character will become sadder and sadder until they finally come to the realisation that losing weight will not make them feel happier.

What Equipment Will I Need?

I am going to use my Canon EOS 750D in order to shoot the footage as this will allow me to freely alter my technical settings in order to capture the best footage I can. I am using natural lighting in order to make the interview feel as natural as possible, I want it too look as though the girl has set the interview up herself in order to make herself feel important in some respect however, it ends up as a fight of her against herself. I will be using a tripod to record my footage as the footage will mainly be still footage of the girl sitting next to the speaker. The use of a tripod will help keep the shots as still as possible in order to make them look more natural and fluid. I am using a 128gb SD card to store the footage, this had adequate storage to keep the shots on and is very fast therefore, it allows me to view and transfer my shots efficiently. In order to shoot the video I need to gather some props and a costume. The main prop I will need is a lot of tea, I want to produce a jump cut shot in which the shot fills with tea therefore, I will need a large amount of tea. The girl needs to look fairly feminine therefore, in order to link to conventional gender stereotypes the girl will be wearing a pink dress with flowers on it and a pair of very tall pink heels, the exaggerated look will suggest the idea that it is mainly females likes this that succumb to stupid products like fit teas to help them fulfil unrealistic goals.  

My Production



 Evaluation

Overall, I was able to represent the ideas suggested within Lacan's theories very well in my production. I was able to follow my plan very accurately which helped me complete the production within the 4 hours given to film the production. The shots capture were correctly exposed and I was able to use natural lighting throughout to make the scene look more natural. I believe that at the start f the video I could have used heavily artificial butterfly lighting in order to make the character look glamorised as the video continues and the character becomes more raw and honest with herself we could've switched to a more natural light to show she isn't hiding behind an image of herself she wants the public to be, she is in fact being truthful and open with the audience in order to create a connection. I believe that on my equipment list I should have added a microphone, the quality of the microphone on my camera wasn't that great and as the camera was fairly far from the subject it made it hard to pick up any dialogue, I was able to edit the sound in post production to reduce background noise and make the sound slightly louder however, I didn't want to alter the sound too much as this would have made it sound unnatural and it would've created noise. I believe the outfit choice was very fitting for the video and the use of iced tea instead of your typical fit tea added a comical spin and reinforced the message that many women are willing to indulge in any fad diet as long as they feel it will help fulfil this unrealistic goal of losing weight without doing anything. 

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