Evaluation

What were the aims of the artefact?

For my creative artefact, a 5 minute short film, the main goal I was trying to achieve
was to create a sympathetic character through the use of mise-en-scene,
cinematography, sound and editing. In my textual analysis, I had stated that after the
9/11 attacks, the superhero genre began to change its approach of representing its
main protagonists examples included Peter Parker in S
pider-Man and Clark Kent in
Man of Steel. The characters felt more grounded and a lot more relatable, as these
films focused on tragedies and life obstacles rather than following the generic roles of
the superhero. Although these superheroes are inspired by their comic book source
materials, Sam Raimi, Zack Snyder and many other superhero directors such as
Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy) and Marc Webb (The Amazing
Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) are able to create a sense of empathy
between these characters and the audience watching their films through the four
technical aspects, and I wanted to replicate this exact formula into my short film
entitled The Red Hood'. There were many texts within the superhero genre which
served as inspiration for me, such as The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan) and
Marvel's Daredevil television series (2015-present, Netflix), based on their realism,
and the tonal changes they brought to the superhero genre. Intertextuality was also
considered while making my creative artefact - my extensive knowledge of story arcs
from the Batman comics published by DC, and specifically the 'A Death In The
Family' graphic novel, (Jim Starlin, 1989) served as a basis for the story and
characters.

Were you influenced by certain texts and/or directors?

I had some influences for making The Red Hood,

mostly taken from the realism of Christopher Nolans
Dark Knight trilogy. The world that the characters
lived in was very realistic despite many superhero
films even villains like Bane in The Dark Knight
Rises were adapted into more realistic versions of
themselves, and I wanted to create a more realistic
world and set of characters, opposed to the more
supernatural adaptations in comic books. This was
decided because the realistic settings and
characters would have the benefit of being more
relatable, building a connection between my creative
artefact and the audience watching. In terms of
style, I had used Alfred Hitchcocks signature style
to create suspense through loud music,
synchronous sound and long takes to represent The
Joker in a more sinister manner. Hitchcock utilised this technique in infamous scenes
such as the shower scene in Psycho. (1960) I had also replicated the colour scheme
of black and white from the film-noir renaissance to add a sense of authenticity,
which I individually expanded on my adding splashes of colour throughout to connote
danger, violence and emphasise key subjects of frames in a unique way.
 What codes and conventions did the creative artefact follow/rebel?

The Red Hood confirms to the codes and conventions of the superhero genre in
many different ways. In the first fight scene, we see a short but fast paced
confrontation happen between a Gotham City criminal and Jason Todd himself. With
the superhero genre being a spin-off to the action genre, this is quite the
conventional approach of handling a fight scene. The editing used creates a
fast-paced atmosphere which immediately ejects the audience into the fight, with a
sense of excitement, combined with the suspenseful and quick-tempo non diegetic
score music which adds a sense of danger and suspense.

The short film also contains its own original origin story,
which I was inspired to include in the short film by Jim
Starlins Batman graphic novel A Death in The Family.
The character of Jason Todd is the same in the graphic
novel as he is in my short film. Jason becomes
increasingly vulnerable as the short film progresses,
which is similar to how he is represented in the graphic
novel. The use of close-ups of his facial expressions
highlight his discomfort to the audience. This is quite
common in superhero films from the 1970s onwards, as
many superhero blockbusters such as S uperman,
Spider-Man and B atman Begins have all taken inspiration
from the comic book adaptations of their journey and
development into the superheroes that they become.
Using my knowledge of the graphic novel, the events that
happen in its narrative and the characters that feature in A Death in The Family, I
was able to create a scene filled with terror and sinister with The Joker continuously
beating Jason to a pulp, creating the intimidating antagonistic character which I had
the intention of creating prior to filming.

While the film follows the superhero genres

established codes and conventions, it also ends
with a cliffhanger, which says a lot about the
character of Jason Todd that cannot be said
about many other characters in superhero films,
making him a countertypical protagonist which
audiences of the genre may not be familiar with.
We see a final shot of Jason walking off into the
depths of Gotham City, after having a tormented
flashback of his near-death experience. He walks
into the darkness, immediately telling the
audience that he is out to do worse, while at the
same time emphasising his instability and
uncertainty. This leaves the audience curious and
eager to know how Jason will react in his next encounter. Also, the short production
ends with Jason still being emotionally hinged where nothing in his life is really
resolved, which completely rebels the stereotypical ending of a superhero feature.
Usually by the end of these films, the hero restores or creates an equilibrium, and
his/her life is back on track. In my short film, the ending occurs during the night,
where crime is usually at its worst, and our main protagonist is far from perfect
psychologically, implying to the audience that everything is far from perfect. I had
chosen to end the film in this manner due to my knowledge of the character of Jason
Todd, as well as creating enigma in the narrative and making the audience think and
sympathise with the character further. There are many characters within the
superhero genre which also share a resemblance, such as Carl Lucas/Luke Cage in
Marvel's Luke Cage television series (2016-present, Netflix) and The Punisher in
Marvel's Daredevil television series (2015-present, Netflix).

Did you encounter any problems that you could have improved upon?

Some problems which arose while creating my

artefact included budget restraints and time
management. For the fight scene in my short film,
I had taken a lot of inspiration from the TV series
Daredevil where fantastic cinematography is
used to film realistic scenes as we see Daredevil
become progressively agitated, tired and
rundown, adding to the realism that show offers
also. Our hero is just a man, and nothing else
he doesnt heal quickly, he doesnt have expert
reflexes or strength. In Daredevil, hes just a man
trying to protect his city. A contributing factor to
the sympathy we get for the protagonist is
through the use of long takes, and continuous
shots, prolonging the fight making it seem longer
and symbolising Daredevils durability, and suppressing him slowly to a state of
vulnerability. I had originally planned to replicate this camerawork and editing to my
creative artefact, including the same shot type of a long shot, which glares down an
alleyway, however due to budget restraints and lack of equipment, I was not able to. I
did film a continuous shot of my two actors fighting, but it lacked in specifically dolly
movement which made the continuous fight that progressed boring to watch, rather
than interesting and suspenseful like the camerawork in Daredevil. The alternative
approach for the fight scene was eventually a series of quick cuts and close-ups to
invest the audience and create excitement even further. As well as this, I feel that my
time management had an impact on the final product, more so in a negative way. I
felt that the storyboarding process could have been more thoughtful, and at times the
shot types I had used may have worked but never had a significant reason to be
used.

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