Film Narrative 2: AA Meeting Short
Film/TV Series Influences:
House of Cards Season 1 - Doug Stamper’s AA speech scene
The first scene we are looking to use as influence for our short is Doug Stamper’s speech scene in House of Cards. The first thing I recognised about this scene is the colour grading, there are mostly cool tones, a lot of emphasis on the greens and blues. These colours I feel reflect the mood of the scene, sombre, real and cold. In our short we want to use colour grading in a similar way to reflect the narrative. Similarly the lighting in the scene achieves the same effect. The overhead luminescent white lights once again present a cold feeling to the scene, almost an uncomfortable spotlight effect on the subjects potentially portraying how uncomfortable they feel speaking about the subject of alcoholism. In our AA meeting we want to focus on the conversation between two characters, so the dialogue will be really important. This scene is a great example of a well written engaging dialogue, Doug stamper’s execution of his lines in a self-assured manner and his stable and confident body language makes it easy for a viewer to engage in what he is saying. Even though Peter Russo doesn’t speak once in this scene, he is still engaging with the conversation through is reactions within his facial expressions which make it easy to distinguish that there is a connection between these two characters.
Fight Club - Big Bob scene
The second scene we chose was the Big Bob scene in Fight Club. There is a resemblance in colour and lighting to the Doug Stamper scene in House Of Cards, staying along the lines of cool tones, which we continue to agree will be suitable for our short. However the main thing that I enjoy with this scene is the sound. The screeching of the chairs, the footsteps on creaky floorboards and the gentle sobs of other members in the background. This use of diegetic sound makes us not only focus on the uncomfortable nature of the environment but the discomfort between the exchange of the two characters.
Then Came You - Support group scene
The last scene is the support group scene in Then Came you. From 0:48 is the best examples of how we would like to frame our short. The medium close up of Calvin to the ground level shot of Skye pulling in the chair are all types of shots we would like to incorporate into our story. The creative use of framing and different camera angles creates interest to the scene even though it is very minimal and only focussed on two characters. Interest is also created through the mis en scene, the placement of the characters and props in the scene makes it believable that they are in a support group environment. We will need to use props and location to help make our story believable that it is shot in an AA meeting.








