Self Critique For 1st Project

Kenneth Walker

Digital Cinema

September 3, 2010

Self Critique

Claistro…philia???

The main idea that was originally planned for this piece was the exploration of the feeling of being comfortable in small, somewhat closed-in areas, or, claustrophilia as the title states.

The source of this idea came from a personal preference of comfort; which seems to be somewhat of a rarity as far as the statistics go for those who suffer from claustrophobia—the fear of being closed in—goes. As for the use of the title, I felt that the word “claustrophilia”, or, at least its suffix, -philia, made the word sound more like a mental sickness or wild obsession, like necrophilia—the lustful attraction to corpses— which made the word very questionable; so hence why the question marks had been included in the title. With that said, I thought this subject would be fun to explore, as well as non-cliché; since it would be more common to research the meaning for, and or, mental effects of claustrophobia more so than its opposite.

As for the audience, I didn’t think they would understand the subject matter at first, so the key emotions that were expected were something of deep thought and confusion. But seeing as they understood a lot quicker, the emotions that were then expected were those of being able to relate to the main character and the quest for solitude once in a while.

During the lunch hour, the main character sits at a table of the cafeteria as he tries to concentrate while fidgeting with his mp3. After a minute or so of the continued noises from the crowd of people around him, he becomes agitated and leaves the cafeteria in search of a quieter area. The scene switches to the main character now sitting on the steps of the school thinking to himself (Well…. at least this area is a lot quieter.), but still feeling irritated by the wide-open space and the chatter of the few people around him, he again gets up and heads to his car. After searching for a comfortable area he finds a spot in his car totally away from the crowd. Feeling at peace he sighs with relief and turns the volume up on his mp3.

The premise of this piece that was discovered after recording is that claustrophilia seems to be an introverted state of mind that everyone goes to at least once in a while when conflicted with emotions such as stress, anger, sadness, or the need to just hear themselves think.

For the strengths in this work, using claustrophilia felt unexpected as the subject instead of using its antonym; driving the film in a more creative direction. Instead of seeing people freaking out from a constant fear, you’re seeing a morphing of emotions from agitation, to contempt, then ending with a calm and happy disposition.

Problematic areas and what could’ve been done to improve this film included keeping the wardrobe the same throughout the taping, this seemed to throw off much of the audience’s attention to the main character in scene. Also with the wardrobe, make sure that there isn’t any visible writing or labels. Thought in wardrobe matters. Another suggestion that I got was to begin the clip with the headphones off and re-directing the scene to a corner in order to give the scenes more flow and also that the headphone should be bigger; since the iPod ear buds were to noticeable as a copyright problem. The audience also wanted to feel more apart of the characters journey, so a suggestion was to let them hear the music the main character was listening to.