winters bone

the film winters bone is a neo realistic film about mountain life in America and relies heavily on understanding the culture and society of such rural areas.

In the scene where the protagonist Ree is asking her neighbours for information on her missing father Jessup, she finally arrives at the house of the societies patriarch Thump Milton in a last desperate attempt to learn the truth about her farther. Thumps wife Merab emerges from the door with along with a presence over Ree. Merab is standing on the steps creating a natural elevation of her over Ree instantly telling the audience of a gap in hierarchy between the two women. Ree knows that Thump is just beyond her reach but Merab denies her entry. we do not even see Thump in this scene because he is so far up the hierarchy ladder that Ree cannot even speak to him and to someone unfamiliar with the type of society seen in this film it might seem odd, why can't she see the man. The camera being at a high angle looking down on Ree shows her beneath Thump and even his wife, this is reflected through out this whole sequence as each home she visits on her quest for answers takes her further up the land and thus growing the gap in rank between her and the people she is dealing with, this is evident as the more homes she visits the more hostile the people she speaks to become as she is eventually not even allowed in the house once she arrives at Thumps residence.

This is an unfamiliar hierarchy to those from other backgrounds and if an audience had a passive viewing they would have no clue on the situation Ree finds herself in, an audience with an active viewing might be able to deduce from the dialog that the characters live in a society where law has little influence and all the structure stems from a lineage of families. Ree makes a statement about        "having some of the same blood" which to outsiders would make them families but the film takes place in such a closed off and isolated community that everyone is related.

  i personally found it hard to understand the dialogue between Ree and Merab during their encounter due to their accent but when i tried to watch this scene again with more of an active viewing i picked up on more dialougue and was able to piece together more information about the world than a passive viewing would allow

it would be hard for people to have an alignment with Ree in this scene because most 17 year old wouldn't be able to relate to her situation as they would be thinking about themselves and their future, not caring for others and being an adult. As evident from Merabs line about if Ree had a man, she is exspected to be married at this point, which is almost impossible for most movie viewers to relate to.

What differs winters bone from the mainstream films we see regularly is there is no clear cut good and bad characters (which is a standard of the neo realism genre) because we are not given an explanation and even when viewing actively the information only allows us to understand the characters to a certain degree. We are unable to tell who to trust and who to align with, teardrop is a violent meth head but he is close family to our protagonist and a key aid to her, whereas marab seems nice in this scene by giving Ree a drink and warning her multiple times, which makes the audience trust her, but this trust is instantly destroyed when her and the other women beat Ree down to a bloody mess, only then to help her by revealing her dads resting place and helping her retrieve the evidence she needs to prove his death and alive the conflict of the film. It is the complex layers and lives of people who live in these societies that make it hard for mainstream audiences to understand as these characters have more depth than typical movie characters and unlike another Jennifer Lawrence lead film, the hunger games, which also deals with a young girl tasked with adult duties in a society with an dangerous hierarchy, there is not enough exposition to explain this almost alien world as there is with its mainstream counterpart.

Evaluation

In our film we emphasised the battle between Mara and the figure through framing, for example the opening shot was made symmetrical to highlight the feud between the main characters as it showed their opposition. In many shots we used negative space, such as in the close-up shots of Mara and the figure, to create an uneasy tone and make the audience uncomfortable. We used a graphical match cut to transition between her dream and reality conveying how her anxiety has an effect on her life.

However, we had to remove possible ideas due to time constrictions and the inability to film in a bedroom, therefore we had to adapt by having her wake up in college. This lead to us getting rid of a scene of her walking to college which put more focus on the represented anxiety. For future reference, we will make our plan achievable.

checkmate script

Checkmate

FADE IN:

EXT. FIELD - DAY

Two people sit in an alley with a chess board between them.

MARA, a teenage girl dressed in white/grey clothing is controlling the white chess pieces, while an unidentified FIGURE dressed in black is controlling the black pieces.

The game is nearing the end, with the FIGURE only moving one chess piece to win and put her in checkmate.

When the chess piece hits the table, an upbeat song begins to play.

INT. TABLE AT COLLEGE

The song continues to the next setting, and is revealed to be MARA’s alarm.

MARA sits up and turns her alarm off. Then, she looks around at the homework she was completing and sees the FIGURE at the top of the staircase next to her.

She gathers her papers and leaves briskly. 

INT. CLASSROOM

MARA sits at the front left side of the room, with the FIGURE at the back right side.

TEACHER, a strict teacher stands at the front of the class teaching Maths.

The TEACHER is going over the work for the lesson, but MARA is daydreaming instead of paying attention. In the background, there is the sound of a pen being clicked/tapped and the clock ticking.

TEACHER

MARA?

        MARA is taken out of her daydream when the teacher says her name. 

TEACHER

Mara, you please answer the equation?

MARA is visibly frightened and confused. As MARA’s anxiety grows, the figure draws nearer, moving from the back of the classroom to the middle, moving diagonally like a chess piece.

TEACHER

                      Mara, I said, could you please answer the equation?

MARA

I-I uhh

TEACHER

Was anyone who was paying attention help mara?

The FIGURE is now sat right next to MARA, as the TEACHER shifts their focus, MARA lets out a breath of relief, and opens a box of pills. She takes one pill from the bottle and swallows it to calm her nerves. Once she swallows the pill, the same music from the alarm begins to play.

EXT. BUS STOP

MARA walks to her bus stop, wearing earphones with the upbeat music playing through, and she stands waiting at the stop for her bus. Standing across the road from MARA is the FIGURE.

EXT. ALLEY

MARA runs into the alley. The figure appears and then they’re both standing in the same place as in MARA’s dream, facing each other. 

There is a cut to the two kings of the chess set in the same place as MARA and the FIGURE, as the black chess piece knocks over the white. 

FADE TO BLACK

cinematic ideas

Cinematic Ideas

Our short film is a psychological horror, using a narrative portraying a conflict between two characters, portrayed using the mise-en-scene of costume with the main character, Mara,  wearing white and the other character wears black to highlight their opposition. In the first scene of the short film, we plan on using the prop of a chess board that the characters will play to foreshadow the events of the film, with them playing chess they will be face-to-face with one another. Through this first scene there will be no sound except for the diegetic sound of the chess pieces being moved, until the last chess piece is moved and then an upbeat song will begin to play, which will be revealed in the next scene to be a phone alarm for Mara to wake up, thus creating a sound bridge. The transition from the first scene to the next will be made using a graphical match cut from a bird’s eye view/aerial shot of the chess board to a close-up of a phone. She’ll end up in a classroom that will be lit with low key lighting to give off an uneasy feeling. The teacher will be shot using low angles to convey Mara’s fear of them and their power. We will have another sound bridge from when Mara takes her tablet the upbeat music plays, which will be coming from Mara’s earphones in the next scene. In this next scene Mara will be waiting at the bus station with graves behind her, foreshadowing the end of the film. Then it will move onto the final scene of the film, which will be set in the exact same area of the chess scene to imply that this is their final confrontation.