Similar full length film

The Fault in Our Stars

This is a very recent movie which was created from the very popular John Green novel ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. It is similar to our short film idea as it too focuses on the tricky situation of cancer as well as including a journey for the protagonist to come on; both mentally and physically.

Portraying illness

Mise-en-scene is used to show that the protagonist, Hazel, is suffering from lung cancer, as she constantly wears an oxygen tube in her nose. If this prop was not included in the film it would be more difficult for the audience to recognise that she was ill. Due to the fact that we are going to hide our characters illness until the very end of the film, we need to portray our character as fit and healthy as possible until this point. When the revelation does occur, like in TFIOS, mise-en-scene will help the audience recognise that she is ill, such as through props and setting.

The film also portrays how the people around are affected by cancer, for example, Hazel’s mother. At this point in the film, Hazel’s desire to spend time with Gus is getting in the way of their family time, which, considering she is terminally ill, her parents treasure.

By including an argument and therefore ________ the sound, this intensifies the reality of their situation. We could also have an argument in our short film, but, in contrast to TFIOS, to only hint to the audience that there is something different and difficult about this family's situation. We could do this by including the argument as __________ sound and therefore, it would just be faint in the background.

Finally, although the two main characters are suffering from cancer, they are surprisingly comfortable with their situation due to the fact they have a strong relationship to help them get through it. The equivalent of that in our film is, instead of being love between two partners, but instead is the sisterly love between our two main characters.

Their Journey

There are two journeys in TFIOS, a physical journey to Amsterdam as well as the emotional journey that everyone effected by cancer goes through.

When Hazel and Gus go to Amsterdam, their very long journey is shortened down to a car journey and a conversation on the plane. The modes of transport that our character would use to get to their destination is walking, catching the bus getting on a train, and perhaps a taxi as well. Therefore, like in TFIOS, we could just show a short scene of the young girl on each, which would have pretty fast rhythm when we edited the sequence of footage together.

Although Hazel seems okay with her own illness, when she discovers that Gus has cancer is tares her apart. This is shown by a showing a lot of close up shots of her face, in order to show her emotions. Also, the fact that wherever the audience looks on screen they cannot get away from the characters feelings, it intensifies the whole situation.

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In a similar way, the film also includes long shots of Hazel, which, although is opposite to the shots of just her face, this too shows Hazels emotions. By having hazel look very small in comparison to her surroundings, this suggests to the audience that she feels lost and lonely without Gus.

The fact that the younger sister believes that a box of chocolates will make her sister feel better shows that she is devastated by her sisters illness and so is clinging on to any chance of a cure she can find. Like in TFIOS we could alter our use of cinematography in order to portray our characters emotions.