Reflective Analysis

Heads or Tails is a short film that follows a young man through three similar yet very different days of his life, determined by the flip of a coin. If the coin lands on heads he follows his super-ego, he over thinks situations and if it lands on tails he follows his instinct and animalistic desires, or the coin is not there to flip and he must become the ego. I feel the coin idea was a good way of determining which aspect of his psyche that the young man follows and feel that the 'heads' and 'tails' of the coin can be attributed perfectly to the two different extremes. The idea behind this film was to narrate it as if the main character was telling you a story of his day and the audience is left to imagine his day, this explains the time jumps between the shots and how short a day is in the life of the young man. As such I used a non-diegetic voice over to tell the stories and no diegetic sound made it into the final film in the slightest, I feel this made it easier to convey the young man's troubles, as opposed to seeing what he's doing and being left to make your own mind up about the situation, the voice over gives all the exposition you could ask for.

The opening sequence of the film shows the young man before he has flipped a coin and we just see him asleep, when he wakes, everything is slightly out of focus and the title is shown and as the camera focuses, we see that the young man is staring directly at you, breaking the fourth wall, ready to tell you his story of 'Heads or Tails?'

Even the fonts used for the title are significant in showing what the coin toss means, 'Heads' is written in italics and appears very professional, this is similar to the appearance of the Super-ego, wearing a shirt and tie. This is in comparison to the font used for 'Tails', which looks like it has been quickly scribbled down with no effort, this shows the laissez-faire approach to the Id. This is emphasised by the Id's random t-shirt, interestingly this t-shirt actually has the following logo on, a key characteristic of the Id is their following of their primal instincts, this includes his sexual desires, rather than actually show this on screen, a small visual representation that not many people will pick up, works perfectly, as if this is a part of the young man's troubles but he does not wish to divulge on this and instead gives you a small clue as to another one of the desires he has.

The key difference between the three characters visually is what top they are wearing. I used the same framing and slightly high angle when showing the clothes for the day, I felt this made it easier to compare the three different outfits between personas and as such, showed in a more simple way that is the same young man we are seeing.

Day one follows the young man as if he were purely following his Id because the coin has landed on tails. He wakes, gets dressed into a random t-shirt and starts drinking and smoking, he doesn't go to college, he takes people's weed and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. The Id's day comes to an end when he passes out due to how much he has drank. I wanted to get across the idea that the Id is constantly drinking and smoking, as well as the line of dialogue "Obviously, I'm already smoking and drinking, I will be for the rest of the day", I also made sure that the Id is always seen with either a bottle or cigarette in his hands. To further stress this point, the Id can be seen dropping his finished cigarette but in the next shot he is already smoking again. The end of the Id's day is out of focus to give the impression that the Id's memory of the events is a little hazy due to the fact that he is highly intoxicated as seen by his staggering home and dropping his beer bottle. Similarly with the cigarette trick of replacing it straight away, the shot following him dropping his beer has him holding a beer again. I believe day one does a good job of portraying the Freud'd Id in that the character only follows his instinct and primal drives.

Day two follows the young man when the coin has landed on heads and so he were purely follows his Super-ego. He wears a shirt and tie as apposed to the random t-shirt, I believe this is a good way of visually showing the difference between the two extremes, one very relaxed and the other very precise. He prepares for college and makes his bed, which are very anal-retentive things to do. On his way to college he is offered weed by the same lads as seen before, he points out the future problems of such an action. He then attends college stressing that it will have consequences on his future, this dialogue displays perfectly the notion of the super-ego, he is concerned with consequences. The super-ego goes has the same opportunities as the Id yet decides to take the path that will have the best outcome for his future rather than giving in to his primal desires. In certain shots, the super-ego can be seen actively disliking some things the Id was perfectly fine with such as shaking his head as he walks past the smoker because of this, I think day two does a good job of representing Freud's super-ego.

Day three follows the young man when he can not find his coin and therefore must use aspects from both the id and the super-ego, this is the ego. Again he has the same opportunities as the Id and super-ego and essentially decides to do a mixture of the two. He attempts to make his bed but feels like it won't be that much of a problem if he doesn't and decides to leave college early but notes that it's only the once and he'll have to catch up at some point. I think was a brilliant example of how Freud believed the human psyche to work, we have desires presented by he Id, in this case wanting to leave college, and we rationalise those desires with our super-ego, the conclusion being that he can leave college early as long as he catches up so that it won't have bad consequences. Again he is presented with an opportunity to smoke weed and this time decides to have a little bit but comments that he wont do it much so that it does not have an adverse affect on his body. The same can be said of both drinking and smoking, he says that he'll do it but with moderation, he only has one cigarette and one beer. I also linked the smoking and beer back to the super-ego, he explicitly says he'll just have the one beer, this is due to him thinking that "even one episode of binge drinking can harm your health" and whilst smoking he notes that he "can afford to lose 9 minutes of my [his] life but I [he] won't be making a habit out of it." I believe the ego was represented well by the third day and felt like he was a good balance between the Id and super-ego, just as Freud believed it to be.

When it came to editing, I found that once I had both backing music and a voice over to work with the editing became a lot easier and I now had set timings for each of the clips, there was a lot of similar shots used for the three different days and just a lot of footage in general so I found sorting them into their respective days. When editing my film, I decided to make the best use of sequences in premiere pro and so edited the id, ego and super-ego separately before bringing them together in one sequence to make 'Heads or Tails?'

Overall, I think my short film does a good job of demonstrating Freud's theory of the psyche, separating the id, super-ego and ego but putting them through the same situations allows a perfect comparison between the three and allows you to see how each would act in a given situation. If I had more time and better actors at my disposal, I would have also included an extra situation involving a female, to show the different approaches each would take but for what I've produced I believe it is an accurate representation and I'm very pleased with the final piece.

Heads or Tails?

This is the latest short film I have done for my coursework. The film uses Freudian psychology and explores the id, ego and superego as shown through the three different days the subject lives. 

Voice Over Script

I wake up every morning and immediately grab the penny on my bedside table. A simple game of heads or tails to start my day, I've done it for as long as I can remember. Ah, tails it is. I get changed into my black jeans and  a t-shirt that seems clean. I'll ring college to tell them I'm not coming in for some reason, I have a dentist appointment, I'm too drunk, I'm ill, standard excuses. Obviously I'm already smoking and drinking, I will be for the rest of the day. I'll still go to college, just to see who's around, I won't stick around for long, I have better places to be. I'll go for a walk to try and find something to do, theres always something to do. These kids go my college and they never know how to act around me, so I just take their joint from them and flick it at them when I'm finished. I quickly move on, oh I wish I could see the looks on their faces, but I have things to do. Things you just wouldn't want to know. It'll be getting late now and I'll probably already be drunk, I'll stagger home and attempt to get changed before passing out in my bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Sometimes when I wake up and toss my coin, it lands on heads and my day goes very differently. I get changed into my black jeans but decide to wear a shirt and tie, and instead of sunglasses, i'll just wear a normal pair. I'll make my bed and prepare for college. On my way to college, I'll run into some kids I go to college with, they'll offer me weed, they always do, I'll tell them about the latest study I'd read suggesting that marijuana may affect future offspring's susceptibility to heroin, oh I wish I could see the looks on their faces but I have to get to college. I'll try my best at college, it's important for my future that I do well now. On my way home, I'll see people smoking, it's a horrible habit, every cigarette reduces your life by approximately 9 minutes. I'm sure to see someone drinking too, thats even worse, all those toxins could lead to cancer and depression, even one episode of binge drinking can harm your health. After a long day at college, I always need to sleep. My clothes must be folded carefully before I go to bed, I worry far too much of the chance of creases tomorrow.

But one day I woke up and my coin wasn't there, I don't know where it had gone but it just wasn't there. At first I was unsure of what to do, I didn't even know what to wear but I settled on a shirt and black jeans. I attempted to make my bed but felt it wasn't necessary and so made my way to college. I stayed there for a few lessons but decided to leave early, it was only the once and I promised myself I'd catch up when I got home. I went for a walk and ended up running into a few people from my college that I know, they seemed far more comfortable with me than ever before, they still offered me some weed though. This time, I accepted it, having a few tokes before passing it on, it can't do much harm in moderation. It soon got dark and so I went home. I found a few beers in the fridge and decided to treat myself to one. I retired to my bedroom and had a cigarette before going to sleep, I can afford to lose 9 minutes of my life, but I won't be making a habit of it.

Psychoanalysis of Enemy

Enemy is a confusing, emotional and fascinating film taught follows the lives of both Adam Bell and Anthony Claire. Adam is a history teacher at a local college, his days are based on routine, he goes to work, lectures his class and returns home. The first time we meet Adam he is lecturing a class on totalitarian societies, dictatorships and how governments suppress their people, in fact the very first words we hear Adam say are "Control, it's all about control" Adam is introverted, non-social and spends his waking hours grading papers. It seems strange to think of him having a girlfriend, Mary, but their 'relationship' doesn't quite seem like a normal one and mainly consists of emotionless sex after which Mary leaves. As described in his own teachings, Adam has become 'controlled' or 'suppressed' by his own life.

Anthony, on the other hand, may look identical to Adam but his personality is vastly different. He's far more outgoing and assertive and works as an actor rather than a teacher. In comparison to Adam's girlfriend who comes and goes as she pleases, Anthony has a wife, Helen, who is six months pregnant. While Adam lives in a small apartment, Anthony lives in what appears to be a high end condo. One of the first things we learn about Anthony is that he has an appetite for blueberries.

When Adam sees his doppelganger in a film he tracks Anthony down and ends up speaking to Helen on the phone. Helen mistakes him for Anthony and soon after confronts Anthony about the calls, questioning if he was "seeing her again." Her accusation of Anthony's infidelity as well recognising Adam as Anthony on the phone is the first clue towards Adam and Anthony being the same person. The evidence is all there, from their appearances, including the beard and scar on their chest. When they meet one angle makes it appear that they are the mirror image of each other, each standing in the same position with their hands out.

The song in the video store 'The Cheater' eludes to the fact that they are the same person, we know that Anthony has cheated, yet it is Adam we see whilst the song plays. Also early on in the film we see a fascist wall painting just after Adam has taught his lectures on dictatorships, he has set up a dictatorship in his mind in which he must obey. While the whole film steers us in the direction of the conclusion there are two big pieces on information that heavily support this theory. Adam talks to his mother about meeting Anthony and she explicitly tells him that she has one son, who has a good life and should give up the fantasy of being a third rate actor. The second example is Adam's torn photo of himself and we saw the same picture in Anthony's home but this time as a whole picture of him and Helen, Adam's psyche has torn in half just like the picture.

As the plot progresses, the two characters begin to migrate away from their own lives and towards each other's. Adam is suddenly dropped into a strange conspiracy that may be beyond his control and Anthony, who has commitment issues, is in desperate need for an escape. It is because of this Anthony devises a plan to switch places with Adam so he can sleep with Mary. It is at this point in the film where the stakes are laid to determine whether it is Adam or Anthony that will become the dominating personality. 

Psychoanalysis of Fight Club

Fight Club follows the story of an unnamed protagonist, an 'everyman' who is discontented with his white-collar job, and Tyler Durden, the enigmatic soap maker. They form a fight club and our joined by other men who also want to fight recreationally. As the narrator becomes more and more embroiled in his relationship with Tyler and a dissolute woman named Marla, Fight Club develops into project mayhem and the narrator slowly loses his mind. 

Plot twist, Tyler and the narrator are one in the same, whilst the narrator has been asleep, Tyler has been taking control and living a separate life. Tyler is the id part of the narrators psyche, he is the concerned with fulfilling pleasure above all else. Tyler introduces the narrator to a much more wild life than he previously held, he is irrational and selfish, and only really concerned with his own well being. Whereas the narrator is the super-ego, quiet, living a standard, consumerist lifestyle, happy with what he has and happy to conform. Fischer constantly eludes to this being the case, there are splices of Tyler throughout the film, Tyler literally appears out of Edward Norton when we first see him at the airport, and again in Fight Club later in the film. Interestingly, even Jack notices the similarities between them and points out to tyler that they have the exact same brief case. 

Jack tries to stop Tyler and we are shown just how deeply Jack and Tyler are connected through both the dialogue and technical conventions such as their appearances. Jack's disadvantage in trying to stop Tyler is that they share a mind. Tyler is aware that Jack might go to the police, which he does. The officers there inform him that he might try to talk his way out of his situation. When Jack finds Tyler in the garage at Franklin St. he turns the tables by using their shared mind to his advantage. Tyler becomes enraged when Jack diffuses the bomb. Jack's persona is asserting itself and it is getting in Tyler's way. Jack continues to use their shared mind to his advantage even after Tyler throws him down the staircase. He is able to gain control of the situation when he realizes that he's the one holding the gun, not Tyler. When he puts it to his own head, Tyler is forced into a corner. He tries to bargain his way out. "Hey. You and me," he says, trying to reassert their friendship. Tyler has no intention of there being a Jack and a Tyler. During the duration of the film, Jack's appearance deteriorates while Tyler's becomes more and more idealized, a symbolic representation of Tyler as the dominant personality in Jack's mind, to show that he is getting stronger while Jack is becoming weaker. To rid himself of Tyler, Jack has to go farther than Tyler ever would. He shoots himself through the cheek to symbolically kill Tyler. When the Space Monkeys arrive upstairs to find the seriously injured Jack they are impressed with his strength, proving that Jack had this capacity inside him all along. He doesn't need Tyler. What he does need is an antidote to the loneliness that isolated him in the first place: Marla. He takes her hand as the buildings detonate outside, indicating that they are now able to embark on a real relationship together.

Tyler's character will be a big influence on my own version of the Id, Tyler Durden to me is the perfect embodiment of the Id and as such it would be stupid to not take influence from such an established character. I also feel like the narrator is a good influence on my version of the ego, he again displays the quality of the ego so well and I'd like got capture this in my own film.

Psychoanalysis of Youth In Revolt

While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, Nick Twisp sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping she'll be the one to take away his virginity, to do this he creates a supplementary persona named Francois, who is bold, contemptuous of authority and irresistible to women. The majority of the time that Francois appears he is stood/sat behind Nick slightly to one side, this gives the appearance that Francois is the devil on Nick's shoulders, this is one of the most common portrayal's of Freud, Id and Ego, an angel and a devil.

This will be a big influence on my own film as the two characters Nick and Francois are the opposite ends of the spectrum, and as such will be the basis for my own characters. This can be seen by their very different reactions in almost identical situations, something I will try to replicate within my own film.

These two shots are almost identical, other than Nick's clothes and his mum's boyfriend, yet Nick acts very differently in the two scenes. The first takes place at the start of the film and Nick is still a very reserved, awkward teenager, who does as he's told and doesn't answer back, the next is taken from shortly after Nick has developed his Francois persona. After this establishing shot of the breakfast table, Nick is seen as Francois for the rest of the scene and instantly has a cigarette.

Design Brief

Heads or Tails follows a young man that has two personalities, one a shy, reserved, moralistic, upstanding member of society, the other is a confident, outgoing, unethical rebel. Each morning when he wakes up he flips a coin to determine which personality he will be today. Will he follow his id, pure desire, or is ego, pure morals.

One day something happens so that he does not know the result of the coin toss (coin lands on it's side, coin goes missing after flip, coin isn't even present to begin with etc.) and so must attempt to combine his two personalities into one person, the ego.

Day one he plays the part of the id and as such is disrespectful to his parents and his teachers deciding that instead of going to college he will do what he wants. He wears sunglasses all the time, is always smoking and wears offensive clothing with messy hair.

Day two he plays the part of the super-ego, he is a lot more respectful of everyone he sees, wishing people a good day as he passes them on the street etc. He wears a shirt, tie and glasses

Day three he plays the part of the ego, he is a mixture of both the id and the ego, doing things that the id would but in good measure. He wears a shirt.


Id (always smoking and drinking)

• Wakes up
• Coing grab
• Coin toss
• Coin reveal
• Gets dressed into skinny jeans, baggy t-shirt and sunglasses
• Rings college to tell them he's not going in (close-up)
• Stood outside of college (long-shot)
• Looks around and then walks off (mid-shot and pan)
• Finds group of teenagers smoking weed, takes it of them and drops cigarette (mid-shot)
• Puts out cigarette with shoe (close-up)
• Finishes joint and flicks it at teenagers (mid-shot) 
• Walks off (long-shot)
• Teenagers look confused (mid-shot)
• Walks through front door (mid-shot)
• Walks through bedroom door (mid-shot and match on action with previous door)
• Throws off sunglasses and t-shirt and crashes on bed (mid-shot)
• FADE TO BLACK

Super-ego

• Wakes up
• Coin grab
• Coin toss
• Coin reveal
• Gets dressed into shirt and tie and glasses
• Makes his bed and prepares for college 
• Walks into college, teenagers stood to the side of the gate (longshot)
• Teenagers offer him some weed (midshot, match on action between three shots)
• Walks into college (longshot)
• Walks home and sees someone smoking and drinking (longshot)
• Smoking and drinking (close-up)
• Walks through front door (mid-shot)
• Walks through bedroom door (mid-shot and match on action with previous door)
• Carefully removes glasses and folds clothes (close-up and mid-shots)
• Goes to bed (mid-shot)
• FADE TO BLACK

Ego

• Wakes up
• Goes to grab coin but it's not there
• Gets dressed into skinnies, shirt and sunglasses but decides against sunglasses
• Half makes his bed
• Goes to college but decides to leave after a few lessons
• Meets up with teenagers
• Offered some on a spliff and accepts it but comments that he won't have much
• Goes home
• Walks through front door (mid-shot)
• Walks through bedroom door (mid-shot and match on action with previous door)
• Decides to have a beer and cigarette but comments that its a college night and he has to be up early in the morning and so turns off his light

Id, Ego and Super-ego

Sigmund Freud proposed the human psyche could be divided into three parts, the Id, ego and super-ego. He believed the Id to be the completely unconscious, impulsive, almost childlike portion of the psyche that operates on what Freud called 'the pleasure principle', meaning that it is the source of basic  impulses. The id leads us to seek for immediate pleasure and gratification. The super-ego is the moral component of the psyche, but it doesn't take into account that the morally right thing to do may not always be right in a given situation. However, both the hedonistic id and overly moralistic super-ego are impractical, so an ego is needed to balance the two. It is usually the ego that is seen in a person's actions.  Freud compared the relationship between the ego and the id to that of a charioteer and his horses, whilst the horses provide the energy and drive, the charioteer provides the direction. 

Lacan and The Mirror Stage

Lacan's idea of the mirror stage first came about due to his critical reinterpretation of Sigmund Freud's work. He proposed that infants go through a stage in which an external image of the body, such as a reflection, produces a psychic response that gives a mental representation of the 'I'. The infant identifies with the image on the same level but perceives them as an 'Ideal I', an image to strive towards throughout their life. Lacan believed this to be part of our psychological growth and we essentially create this ideal image of ourselves is all part of a drive to make sense of the world.

Laura Mulvey and The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey wrote the essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' which coined the term 'male gaze' which soon went on to become a vey well known theory. In film, the male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. The theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired sole for their physical appearance. he theory suggests women can more often than no only watch a film from a secondary perspective and only see themselves through the eyes of a man.

The presence of a woman in a mainstream film is something that is vital. Often a female character has no real importance herself, it is her interaction with males that is important, the concern, love or lust the male feels for the female that results in him acting the way he does. The male gaze leads to hegemonic ideologies within our patriarchal society. Mulvey argues, "the eyes are female, but the gaze is male", the result of media being presented from the perspective of men and through the male gaze, women find themselves, at times, taking on the male gaze. Women then gaze at other women in the same way a man would and thus end up objectifying women too.

"The determined male gaze projects it's fantasy onto the female figure, which styled accordingly." Mulvey argues that the beauty of females is that they are objects, a perfect product, whose body is stylised and fragmented by close-ups. The magic of the Hollywood style at it's best arose, not exclusively, from it's skilled and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure.