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Here we follow an interesting plot line of a girl who is investigating the disappearance of her friend and investigates her apartment and has to connect the dots as to why she disappeared and uncovers a secret second life she lived

1. Introduce Amelie and her close friend, who mysteriously disappears. Set up their strong bond and establish Amelie’s determination to find her friend.
2. Amelie starts searching her friend’s house for any signs of where they might have gone. She discovers subtle clues that suggest her friend’s involvement with something unusual or secretive.
3. As Amelie digs deeper, she becomes increasingly suspicious of her friend’s activities. She begins to uncover evidence that hints at her friend’s connection to vampirism, but she remains sceptical.
4. The tension escalates as Amelie’s investigation leads her to uncover more sinister clues. She starts to piece together the truth but struggles to accept the possibility that her friend could be a vampire. Vampires aren’t real?
5. Amelie faces internal conflict as doubt creeps in. She grapples with the idea of confronting her friend about her suspicions but fears the consequences of accusing her friend of being a vampire.
6. In a climactic moment, Amelie stumbles upon the shocking truth about her friend’s disappearance. She discovers her friend’s remains as ashes hidden somewhere in the house, realizing that her friend was a vampire all along.
7. Amelie comes to terms with the truth and reflects on the moments she spent with her friend. She accepts that her friend is gone but finds closure in knowing the reality of the situation.
8. The short film ends with Amelie leaving the house, carrying the memories of her friend with her. She takes one last look back before moving forward, ready to embrace life without her friend by her side and new outlook on life and the secrets it has.

Reflect upon how close attention to story structure in class since the beginning of semester has influenced your ways of viewing.

When I first began this class, I could honestly say I never once really though deeply about the structure of stories in media. As we began to dive into what exactly a story is compromised of and how that is structured, I was able to realise that stories and plot are more than just ideas that someone writes down for fun and makes up on a whim. We do have a large focus on “Beats” which was mentioned in our Snyder reading. When developing a plot, we are focused on following this concept which means we only focus on the major points of the plot that drive the story forward and these beats should be related to each other with each previous beat having an affect on the next. Whenever I would watch a piece of media, I just consumed it blindly without thinking of causation and how things are interlinked with each other. Recently I watched a relatively simple movie, Lilo and Stitch , and I was paying more attention to the plot and I found a plot hole early on in the movie. While this plot hole of Stitch being in the kennels for Lilo to find him despite them thinking he was dead (so why would you put something dead in the kennels for a child to see?) can be seen negatively, it was still an important vessel for them to meet. This plot hole could’ve simply been solved by changing the wording by the shop keeper. Viewing media in this way assist me to think about my own possible errors in my creations.

In your opinion, and drawing on at least one example from your recent viewing, what makes a good plot twist?

I think what makes a good plot twist is something that is unexpected but also based in reality. It is also a good plot twist if it can be traced back to earlier events in the story and can explain what happened. If a plot twist is nonsensical it ruins the reputation of the films plot and it can become rather comedic. Plot twist which are too obvious are also lacking in affect and don’t add much to the story if everyone guessed it. A film I watched recently that I believed to have a good plot twist was the film ‘Us’. In the beginning of the film we see the main character confronted by her doppelganger and the rest of the film takes us on a journey against these doppelgangers. At the end of the film we are met with a plot twist that explains a lot of the opening scenes as well as the reason why the main antagonist is the only one of the doppelgangers with the ability of speech. It made the film all the more enjoyable to be able to connect dots after you’ve finished the film.

Reference List:

Lilo & Stitch. (2002). Directed by Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois. Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Us. (2019). Directed by Jordan Peele. Universal Pictures.

Within the total word count of 350-450, and incorporating screen grabs from your group’s visual aids, reflect on the 8-sequence analysis you made in class (Tuesday Week 5) of your group’s chosen film. Please cite and reference film this in our studio’s ‘house style’ – see previous modules for my examples.

I wasn’t present for this class but I was able to use the work of James’ Madame Web group.

Analysing the plot structure of the film Madame Web using Gulino’s eight sequence model proved to be quite challenging. Even though the movie seems to have a simple plot, it doesn’t neatly fit into Gulino’s suggested sequence timings. According to Gulino, the first act should cover 25% of the film, the second act should be in the middle and last 50% of the film, and the third act should make up the final 25%. However, in Madame Web, the timing of the sequences doesn’t match up with Gulino’s model. The second act starts earlier than expected, and the third act begins later than it should. This leads to a second act that feels too long and first and third acts that feel rushed all in all creating an unsatisfying feeling by the end of the film with more to be desired.

The main character, Cassie, lacks depth, making some sequences feel insignificant. Gulino’s sequences are supposed to be around 10 to 15 minutes long, but in Madame Web, some are much shorter. This means that important character development is missing, especially in the final sequence where tension should be resolved. This has the effect of the audience not having a strong emotional connection to Cassie and with that, the film and story.

Another issue with Gulino’s model is that it doesn’t account for a B plot, or subplot. In other screenplay structures, there’s a clear separation between the main plot and subplot, but in Gulino’s model, every sequence focuses solely on the main plot. In Madame Web, scenes focusing on the villain, Ezekiel, don’t fit into Gulino’s model because they’re not directly related to the main plot. I find this to quite limiting on story writing as it’s a very cut and clean method where this film does not fit well into it.

The ending of the movie, where Cassie saves the day but gets hurt, wasn’t very satisfying. After thinking about it on my own, I realized the movie wasn’t great from a technical standpoint, but it taught me a lot about aspects of plot which could make the writing come off as weak. I’m not sure if it directly has to do with the fact that it didn’t fit into Gulino’s method or just the poor plot in general but by using the sequence approach it did help me to understand what the film lacked, or had too much of which was the second act which took up too much time for very little payoff by the final act.

References:

Madame Web. (2024). Directed by S.J. Clarkson. Sony Corporation.