“After the death; the Doctor” is a short comedy movie. I used narrative style tell the story. It looks like a silent movie in the beginning but it isn’t. In the middle I have included little bit of conversation to make the movie look better.
Most of the time the unseen narrator keeps narrating the story through captions. The captions in the movie represents two voices. The voice of the unseen narrator and the voice of the protagonist. For example the film starts with a caption in the black screen saying “Its 2am in the morning and Joe ….”. This is a voice of a narrator. This narration explains the viewers many things at once. Some of the simple guess that viewers can make by reading the very first caption are: the name of protagonist, his mood, his habit, the time etc. Further more viewers can expect night scenes, desperate look on protagonists face and the actions of searches in the movie.
The main reason why I used captions is because it helped me stay in the given time frame by shortening the movie. How would the viewers know what the name of protagonist is, if his name was not included in the caption? somewhere in the movie, someone should call his name or he should introduce himself somehow. This would have added one or two scenes, which means this movie would have been a minute or half longer, if i have decided not to use captions.
The Protagonist’s voice is also represented by the captions. For example when Joe was not able to light his cigarette with iron, he is shown scratching his head desperately. The caption below him reads “ i need my lighter”. Although he was not speaking, the captions told the viewers what Joe was thinking in his head.
The film has maximum close shots. I choose to do this because close shots helps to emphasize objects. The shots when Joe was searching in his cabinets for the lighter were taken from very close distance. The contents of the cabinets were clearly seen. Those shots were taken so closely in order to convince the viewers that everything was inside the cabinet except a lighter.
Other close shots include the scene where Joe is shown trying to light a cigarette with an iron and hair straightener. These scenes were shot closely to show his facial expressions, and his efforts to light the cigarette.
Music is the motif as it is played throughout the film. Sometimes the music plays fast in high pitch, some time slow in low pitch depending upon the scene. The scene when Joe failed to light his cigarette with the iron and the hair straightener, and the scene when he crushed his cigarette and trashed are accompanied by deep heartbreaking music. This heartbreaking music is played along with every failure scene in the movie.
In the middle when the conversation was about to start the music fades out. It means the conversation is more important then the music at that point. When Joe turns on the iron to light the cigarette the music volume is kept low. The sound of turning the iron meter(switch) is given priority. This is also done to assure that the protagonist is not faking the audiences by holding the cold iron. The glowing power indicator in the iron also adds assurance. On the other hand the sound of the turning switch(meter) is faithful to its source. This is the sound what every viewer expects hear when such scene appears in the screen.
Different scenes in the movies are shot from different angles. Immediately after the first caption Joe is shown descending down staircase. This shot is taken from high angle. This is done to show the subject is less powerful. Joe is in fact is powerless in the story. The film clearly says that Joe has a bad forgetting habit and he is also the servant of his own smoking habit.When Joe’s friend tell him to try his luck with the ceiling bulb, he points the glowing bulb above his head and mutters “Oh! no”. This scene is shot using the slanted camera angle. The camera was slanted in 45 degree angle from the floor and was focused towards the ceiling. This made the light bulb appear high above him. Joe did not try this. It is not because he knows its impossible to light a cigarette from the electric bulb, but because the bulb was physically far above him. Viewers can conclude this from his previous actions like trying to light a cigarette with an iron and a hair straightener.
Joe looks shorter then he really is when he is filmed from high angles, and he looks taller when he is filmed from low angles. Some of the scenes like Joe scratching his head and saying i need my lighter and Joe searching his pants pockets were shot from eye levels. Joe is not physically manipulated here. These scenes has shown Joe’s real height and weight and size.
It took time for me to come out with this title. The ending scene of the movie motivated me give the movie this title. I think the title “ After the death; the doctor” matches the story line.
I did not worked too much on lighting. The story asked for the night scenes, so i shot the whole movie at night time. I turned my room lights on and off when required.
I used a simple free software from windows to edit this movie. I downloaded a free music from the Internet. This is from one of the Bollywood movie i have watched some years ago. Accidentally i forget to give credit to music at the end. I realized this after i uploaded this in YouTube. I will re-edit the movie and add the credentials, if i decide to keep this in You Tube once it is evaluated.
I never thought movie making would be so much of fun. My brothers and friends helped me. I am not seen in the Film as i was busy rolling the camera and directing my crew members.
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