Tilted

TILTED – Andrew Cordon from Media Factory on Vimeo.

Reflection

‘Tilted’ is a love letter to my video game obsession, and the person it has shaped me in today. Throughout the film, Alex goes through a roller coaster of emotions – from angry and frustrated to defeated and finally hopefully after scoring that final ‘win’. I wanted to create Alex’s character as a reflection of many gamers I know, arrogant, angry and hyper-competitive, but I know that this façade of frustration and anger stems from self-worth. The anger in video games comes from not being good enough, not being worth anything if you don’t win, etc.

This is how I wanted to characterize Alex, because his true character is actually just an immature teenager who wants to be at the top to prove that he is worth something, to feel important and heard. “Revelation of true character in contrast to characterization is fundamental to all fine storytelling.” (McKee, 1999) As the ‘twist ending’ of the other player – ‘Twice’ – being a better, calmer version of Alex who tells it like it is, the revelation that Alex is just playing with the Alex he wants to become – which is why Twice’s monologue calling out Alex for all of his bullshit whining was the pivotal climax of what Alex needed to hear, and what he needed to be knocked out of his ‘gaming god complex’. As an ‘anti-hero’, I wanted Alex to make sure he went through the most growth as our hero (Vogler, 2007). I tried to make him unlikable, but ultimately changed his character to be snobbier and sarcastic, instead of my initially planned rage and angered character.

For structure, I wanted to show Alex’s “tilted” state as he gets more and more frustrated as he keeps losing his games, creating a relatable figure that the audience would relate to, as I am sure many have experienced a negative mindset after losing a lot that impacted future attempts. The climax of the film is when the other Alex goes on a long rant, calling Alex a cry baby and a coward who projects his “sad life onto everyone else.” I wanted this to be the turning point and the message that you need someone to ‘slap you back to reality’ when you get to this negative tilted point, and Alex needed this in order to see his own selfish toxicity and ultimately change his mindset.

The end goal of the film was to create an engaging piece that slowly unfolded, with the structure taking heavy inspiration from the ‘Dear Australia’ (2020) pieces that we viewed in class: A slowly unfolding story that changes tone by the end as you reveal a key component. I think that you can see my attempt in doing this, but some parts of pacing and framing became a bit convoluted in terms of structure, I felt like not much was going on.

There are many things I liked about this film, mostly the lighting. I didn’t expect my own room to have such a nice neon glow that I planned on creating, so I was happy with the turnout of the visual aspect. Story wise, I struggled in writing a character that was unique and engaging enough to be fleshed out in such a short amount of time, which is why I approached it differently during filming by breaking the 4^th wall multiple times, because the traditional way of storytelling felt too bland to me. I tried to follow the advice of Jill Chamberlain, avoiding writing Alex as a character who could be replaced by another and the story would work just as well, with the plot “not testing anything specific to the character.” (2019). I wish I could’ve fleshed out why Alex was so snobby and wanted approval and acceptance by winning, and to answer more “backstory questions” and explore what Alex’s “character core” from his past is (Batty, 2012). Overall, I think the feedback from the industry professionals during the pitches really aided in driving my story to what it is now, with Alex actually talking to himself, a better, calmer version of himself that he wishes to be. Whether or not I depicted this too rushed or in a clunky way, I am not sure, but I would think that I tried my best.

Another major issue that stumped me during the production process was the editing. Since there are quite a few fast-paced scenes, I struggled to clearly establish a rhythm of cutting and I felt like my “rhythmic intuition” was off, and the overall “flow” of my editing was always questioned (Pearlman, 2009). There were many times that I had to completely re-do scenes while editing and then re-shoot, because I simply wasn’t satisfied with the outcome. This reinforced the importance of planning accordingly with shot lists, storyboards, etc. in order to be more organised within the post-production stage, but being solely in my room filming alone during this quarantine probably did not help my mental state while editing.

Overall, Getting Into Character has lead me to consider and develop many skills that I haven’t touched on and also expanded my knowledge in writing and character development much further. Monologues and the art of them were quite underrated to me, and I was very shocked at how many emotions you can evoke in a very minimal space, with only the use of dialogue. This studio has also taught me the importance of every aspect of filmmaking, not only writing but how structure, character and story are all intertwined and how you can evoke all of these aspects with lighting, mise en scene and other technical aspects. I am grateful for Catherine in teaching such a good class, and definitely my favourite studio so far.

References:

1. Batty, G 2012, Screenplays How to Write and Sell Them,Oldcastle Books, Harpenden, UK.
2. Film Courage, 2019. This Is How 99% Of Screenwriters Write A Story – Jill Chamberlain. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aprQXvWRXU&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=FilmCourage> [Accessed 14 October 2020].
3. McKee, R 1999, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, Methuen Publishing Ltd, London, UK.
4. Pearlman, K 2009, Cutting Rhythms : Shaping the Film Edit, Taylor & Francis Group, Kidlington. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [14 October 2020].
5. PlayWritingAustralia, 2020. Dear Australia – Part 1.Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E54aNxTc49U&list=PL1O4Z0m3f1e1qsuq9uUuiVMutMFoSzHlD&ab_channel=PlayWritingAustralia> [Accessed 14 October 2020].
6. Vogler, C 2007, The Writer’s Journey,Michael Wiese Productions, San Francisco, USA.