Reflective Analysis

'Against all odds' reflective analysis (1,000 words)

I have produced a screenplay extract to capture the perspective of war struggle and reality of the 1940's. Throughout, I have tried to incorporate aspects of mise en scene to date back to the 1940's setting of Jackson Mississippi. This helped in order to get a raw visual impression on the suburban surroundings and character's in the screenplay. The genre chosen was romantic drama and target audience is aimed at 15+ with an appreciation for tragedy and love. My main influence for this genre and script was the director; Michael Hoffman who is known for hard hitting romantic drama's, such as 'The Best Of Me' which was a box office success. His tragic elements sparked some of my own ideas in order to provoke a response for this particular genre. The characters  follow the conventions of the genre because I wanted to link back to it as much as possible, in order to connect with the audience.

I wanted to base this narrative around the harsh reality of being a war veteran's partner.  Although being female oriented may lose opposite genders interest, it brings a fresh outlook on a drama from a different perspective. I hoped that the audience would accept the characters and the stories they carry, no matter the gender. The plot and personas still have similar conventions, so there should have been a strong appreciation for the genre. Lily the main character is originally seen as a loving fiancé with a baby on the way, with her partners best interests at heart. However, that is just one layer of the complex character that she is. This is similar to the conventions of romance, where the characters are not as they seem. This develops the excitement from my target audience as the drama and romance drives the narrative towards a very optimistic audience.

In the first scene at the 'Mackenna House', my intention was for the audience to see a typical young lady,  living in a suburban area taking care of her wellbeing. This would be the audience's original expectation so I wanted to meet those conditions, in order to have a successful response. The influence from 'The best Of Me' came from Lily being a simple suburban girl, similar to the woman in the film, which inspired the genre further.  Lily has hidden desires that are presented through the relationship with Joe, her fiance's best friend. This is where the drama aspect is exposed and it is where her impure thoughts are brought to the surface. I wanted it to bring out themes of isolation and with that, a forbidden desire. The idea of Jackson Mississippi was inspired by Michael Hoffman too because he used suburban settings, which added to the genre romance of being set in such a beautiful place. I was able to portray the setting with descriptions of the burnt orange leaves that had fallen all over the place. My intention was to paint a picture with the script, in order to visualise a serene location. The romantic setting hopefully would tug at the audience's emotion and response, immersing them into it completely.  I think this was effective because from a directors point of view, the vivid description would help them use the best cinematography styles, to portray a romantic location and therefore match the genre.

The focus in the second scene of Joe's hands, I think was very effective and crucial to the narrative. Concentrating on his calloused hands and cuts gives room for an audience to use their imagination and put them in the characters shoes. I did it to show the lasting wounds that war has had on Joe and that he can't shake off the events that have shaped his life. This adds dimension and complexity to his character, which provokes empathy from the audience, as they try to imagine what he went through. His hands were to represent his actions while he was in the military. Focusing on this one feature, would cause a mystery to an audience, captivating their attention and contributing to the dramatics of the genre.

Throughout the progression, I wanted to drop subtle hints about their characters by using proximity and gestures in order to paint a clearer picture. In scene 2, when Lily hears the tragic news of her fiancé's passing, I used description such as "reaches his hand out to gently touch hers." I did this to exaggerate the proximity between Joe and Lily, exposing their hidden desires for each other. This would effect the audience who respond to romance and would be able to make links to the existing romantic drama films. It was unacceptable to have a desire for another man than your own in the 1940's so I wanted to challenge this issue. I wanted to highlight a sense of foreboding for the audience, preparing themselves for a complicated love story. I wanted to show that, being a female military partner can be a lonely and isolated setting and the fact that Lily's desires were not being fulfilled meant that she would seek else where to attain them. This brought up the idea of forbidden love, which then kept a central focus of the narrative. Again, this had plot links to 'The Best Of Me' where 'Amanda' had a secret affair. This narrative then built up the romantic drama genre successfully, without losing sight of the tragedy. The tragedy element in the script also originated from the characters in that film losing each other to add to the drama sub-genre.

My key intention was to capture the time period within the narrative. It was really important to me to set this in 1940's just after world war II because a military drama would have been much more hard hitting when it was set in the time of the biggest war to date and would have targeted the audience effectively. The tragedy used in this, held a huge influence from the sad truth of the number of deaths of soldiers. Most stories didn't even make it to the tabloids so having a narrative based around the aftermath of an effected life meant that I could bring what happens behind the scenes to the headlines. The 1940's setting meant that the mise-en-scene had to be very accurate to the time period. I had to research cars used in those days and suburban areas in order to match the year effectively. In scene 2 at the Mackenna house, the description is of a 'D14 Sedan' a classic military car in the 1940's. In scene 3, in the taxi cab, I made sure not to use a car as transport as that would have been very rare in that time period. Matching the props to the 1940's was an extremely important aspect of the script. These considerations were all done in mind of convincing the audience.

In conclusion, it met the conditions of the time period, it showed the relationship between characters which enhanced the genre and would evoke an emotional response from the audience. It also held similarities to the influential director Michael Hoffman, he was able to incorporate sub genre's into one narrative, creating one masterpiece. Throughout the script, I kept the location in Jackson Mississippi mainly to highlight the fact Lily is trapped in this life, with all the complexities that follow. Perhaps the audience would too feel trapped and captivated if the location did not change. The audience would be kept in an empathetic state for the duration.

If I were to adapt this extract, I would perhaps add in a few more significant characters who held links to the narrative, in order to create a detailed scene. I would also use more scene changes to set up the location of Jackson, giving the audience a better perception of what it was like to live there.