One story beat I want to make sure I don’t mess up is the panic scene. To ensure that I represent it accurately, I’m going to analyze another short film that focuses on meltdowns.
“It’s Just A Five Minute Walk” is a short film created by Laura-Lys Alvarez. It follows the story of a young, nameless autistic women (Who I’’ll just call MC for Main Character). MC’s friend was having some relationship trouble’s so she does her best to give what she thinks will be helpful input. Unfortunately, the friend does not see the advice as helpful and says she wants to be left alone. MC takes this literally and leaves her friend to her work, telling her she hopes she feels better right before leaving. While walking back home, friend calls MC, asking why she left and questioning their friendship. MC panics, thinking that leaving was what she wanted, and tries to explain and apologize the best she can, but what’s done is done. MC starts slipping into a silent meltdown. Noises become louder, her vision gets blurry, her breathing speeds up, and she has to keep reassuring herself that its going to be ok. She ends up comforting herself by being reminded that her house should be quiet when she gets home, only for that idea to be ruined as she finds her house full of life. She has to sit down at the front step and remind herself to breathe in an attempt to control her emotions. Eventually, she manages to regroup herself enough to stand going inside, though she’s still clearly shaken up.
Now, analysis/three features I want to include in my own film.
Firstly, focus and camera shots. When MC is walking home, about to cross the road while experiencing her meltdown creeps up, her POV shots grow out of focus a blurry, impairing her vision. In my film, I want the panic scene to have POV shots as well in order to create a deeper connection with the audience. Seeing the world from a character’s point of view forces the consumer to view the world from their perspective, understanding them better. The out of focus shots are also nice representation of how it feels to be in one of these panic moments. Another bit I found notable was the phone call scene. During the whole phone call, MC is in the center of a constant arc shot, moving around her repeatedly. The arc shot symbolizes her racing and confused mind as she tried to figure out what she did wrong to upset her friend and her desperate attempt to make it better. The arc shot also causes a disoriented and dizzying effect on the viewer with the constant going around inn circles. Id also like to create a disoriented scene, though not quite like this, but it's something to note.
Sound! Since Kylie’s main sensory issue is sound, this is something I want to put a whole lot of focus on. In the film, the constant sound of cars and bikes passing by, loud birds, and the music coming from inside the house overwhelm MC to a great degree. The sounds feel so loud to her that it covers up her internal dialogue, which not only shows just how horrible the noise feels to her, but also the fact that the noise overwhelms her thoughts to the point where she can’t reassure and comfort herself properly in order to calm down. In my own project, I want to create this same effect. Just so much overwhelming noise that it impairs anything and everything.
The last thing I want to mention is the internal dialogue. As stated previously, MC’s internal dialogue is used to show her struggle to calm herself, but not only does it do that, but it also explains a thought process MC makes of planing to apologize to her friend once again after the phone call scene. Internal dialogue is something I want to use a lot. Since Kylie masks so much, she has to constantly remind herself to do the “right” action. In order to show this struggle, internal dialogue is what I want to use to show to the audience that her masked behavior isn’t the natural one, but the one she made up and planned out.
“It’s Just A Five Minute Walk” is one of my favorite short films, and I truly think it is wonderful representation. I hope to use what I’ve learned from it well in my own short.
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