Reflective Analysis

For this piece of coursework I worked in a group with three of my colleagues: George, Jake and Callum. Our initial idea was to make a piece of film exploring OCD. The obsessive theme intrigued us; we wanted to create something obscure. Once we established this concept, we studied the subject OCD. On the internet Jake found several articles on other people’s compulsions and weird behaviour. I also thought it would be a good idea to look at how the media interprets OCD. I found a two minute clip from Grey’s Anatomy portraying a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder. It was a slightly over exaggerated portrayal. The media tend to exaggerate everything; I did not want to make an over the top piece of film about someone with OCD.

After much discussion, the OCD concept then developed into this idea of focusing on me and my sketchbook. Once we had this idea, we discussed our film inspirations. Callum mentioned the film Requiem for a Dream and the notion of repetition was brought up. We agreed this would be an excellent way of paying homage to the film. I also thought it would do well in depicting the mindset of the character we wish to portray.The next thing we needed was a title for the film. At this stage we lacked creativity, and were just looking for a temporary title. Again, said in jest someone suggested the title Work Tara Work. Although it sounded like a cheap parody of the German film Run Lola Run, we actually quite liked it.



We were then told to take on a role. Of course, I was going to take on a role of performer. As we did not use much dialogue, I improvised on certain things such as: body language and positioning. I found this part of the production really interesting. We all got along, and we used everyone’s ideas and contributions. Callum took on the role of the editor; Jake directed the film and George worked as the assistant cameraman. We filmed over the course of two days. For both of those days Jake and I were there. Together the three of us planned and set up the mise-en-scene. We filmed most of the establishing shots on the first day for continuity reasons. This way we would only have to get close-ups and less important shots the following day. The filming took place in an art room. I thought this would be the ideal place to film. It was a messy art room. I thought this was a good idea, and showed connotations of frantic behaviour. Jake placed magazines all over the tables, and threw pencils everywhere. The guillotine was placed at the end of the table and was angled slightly to the left. It was looking brilliant. To complete the setting my sketchbook was placed directly in front of my chair: portraying myself as untidy yet hard-working. Several tracking shots took place that day. We did many panning shots from several different angles. I really like establishing shots, they are important as they show the audience my surroundings. They get a chance to see my working environment and this helps build up an impression of the character. During the filming process, on both days we used a broadcast camera. The camera remained on the tripod for most of the filming. I, myself am not a fan of hand-held camera work. Whilst Jake was filming, he suggested we at least try it. Jake managed to get some good footage hand-held. When shooting point of view shots, the camera was not on the tripod.


On the second day it was George, Jake and I. This is where the close-ups took place. When one was filming, I directed the other to photograph the filming process. This time round, everything was done handheld allowing the camera to get as close as possible. I usually detest close-ups, but as the focus was on other body parts such as my hand and mouth I didn’t mind as much. To pay homage to Requiem we filmed a series of extreme close-ups such as: masking tape being pulled out from the roll, tip of pencil lead snapping. We recorded these things over and over again. So we had more than enough footage and got used them more than once and in different places. When filming the close-ups, we also captured sound. Sound is a very important part of our short film. To create tension, in post-production we planned to over exaggerate the noises. When it came to editing we had over seventeen minutes of footage. Once we established the opening sequence and the narrative structure it was fairly straight forward from there.


The editing process was a long, overwhelming yet rewarding journey. When working in a group, there is always going to be disagreements. After many disagreements, we managed to put all our sequences together and create Work Tara Work.