Farrah GFE

https://vimeo.com/76285756

I found this film on Short of the week, about a young girl Farrah who moves to New York and becomes an escort. I think it’s absolutely brilliant, and has made me think a lot about how to improve my script. The whole film is only 6 minutes long, and manages to cover so many aspects of the industry, some in a fair amount of detail. It’s a brilliant snapshot of what she does, why she does it and how she feels about it. The film is very simple, with lengthy shots of her surroundings, close ups of body parts (never face) and interesting details in her house. I want my film to concentrate on the small movements that people make when they are explaining something, the things that go unsaid but cannot be hidden by our body language. I have made detailed lists of gestures and small movements by all my interviewees, and will use these as the basis of my shot list.

The film has no narrative, which I really like, as I feel that forcing the information into a narrative would impose a moral judgment on what is happening. I definitely don’t want my film to have a “story line”, I want to present the information as it is, from my interviewees perspective without trying to frame it in a way that takes away from its directness. This film does it beautifully. We do not really form an opinion on Farrah, she is neither portrayed in a positive not negative way, the way she is presented is incredibly neutral. I think this is aiding by the lack of music, and attention to objects in the house rather than her. There is no attempt to sexualise what she is doing, either by the information included or by the aesthetics of the film. I really really like this about the film. It treats the escorting industry in an incredibly professional way, something which I think I need to apply more to my script. The fact it doesn’t contain any “gory details” about what Farrah does in sessions helps us to view it in a more neutral way. Even without details about what she does, we still get a clear understanding of the industry from her perspective. The actual act itself seems irrelevant, we all know what sex is and it doesn’t seem necessary to include it here.

The most important part of the film is the voice over, what she is saying. This is quite similar to my intentions for Garden of Eva, the words are the most important aspect to what I am doing as they are our connection to the real people. My visual interpretation of these needs to be secondary to them, as it is the framing rather than the content. The voice over is given its importance by the simple, minimalistic shots.

Having watched this film I feel confident that I can still convey a lot of information, and can make further cuts to the script. I think I need to concentrate more on the key points, and take out unnecessary details. I need to be very selective with what is included, as this will give more importance to the bits that really give us a sense of the industry.