Story-telling | Contextual Research: My Familiar (Short Film 3)

Leah Morris’ film ‘My Familiar’ focuses on themes of loneliness and isolation, and combines animation with live action footage.  This is a theme I want to explore in my central characters; Nick is isolated and lonely as he is waiting to be picked up and is attacked, and both Nick, Derek and Angela feel the loneliness through the loss of loved ones.

The majority of the shots in the film are mid shots, and in the first half, each focus on a single character.  By placing them in the frame alone, this creates a sense of loneliness, which is emphasised by the lack of any dialogue through the whole film.  Some of the characters keep to a particular side of the frame, which suggests that there is something or someone missing, who should be on the other side of the frame.  I think that shots have been used effectively to place the talent in such a way that we feel the loneliness that they are feeling: even the lady who is out in public - surrounded by people - seems lonely as the camera is focused on her and her alone, isolating her through the frame.

As we reach the second half of the film, we see the animated characters appear to counteract this loneliness, but we can tell that these figures are purely symbolic, not only because they are animated and the other characters are not, but as a result of the reduced framerate, which distorts from reality, as the opening shots were the standard 25 fps.  This slows down the already slow pace of the film which almost gives us a sense of comfort, as if the characters we see are taking comfort from seeing these animated characters.  It is safe to assume that the animated characters are loved ones that are no longer with the ‘real’ characters, whether this is because of death or otherwise, we can see that the animated characters bring comfort to the non-animated characters when they are present.  The background music adds to the comforting feel of the film due to its slow tempo and the almost angelic nature of it.

Whilst this film is very short, at only three and a half minutes, including titles and credits, it establishes several key themes – loneliness, isolation and loss – effectively.  The mirroring between reality and the surreal in the first half and second half has been done in fairly simplistic way by ending the first half with a crossfade to the second half which mirrors the first to create the parallels between when these characters are alone and in the presence of these familiars.  This was a little too ‘on-the-nose’ for me, but it works in a short space of time.  My Familiar will be useful for me in depicting the isolation and loneliness of my characters; the use of mid shots to isolate the characters in the frame, particularly stands out to me as something I could use when producing my film.