1st Year Final Film: Through the Tent of Grief / Breakdown, Synopsis and Stills

 Breakdown of the film + scenes / Synopsis

A girl is sitting in her tent in her lawn staring blankly ahead, she suddenly leans back into her tent, which is supposed to be a representation of the inner workings of her mind. The initial scene is important because it signifies the character falling into her thoughts and beginning to start processing her grief.

                               

The second scene opens into the first stage of grief,” Denial”. Our protagonist is reading a book in a room full of blackened out newspapers, she is surrounded with knowledge that she refuses to process. She is reading a book where all the words are blackened out, yet she is attentive to every line, this signifies the lies we tell ourselves in the initial stage. We see her phone light up with messages from a friend, they are worried, yet the girl does not care and proceeds to read. Her bright clothes depict her unawareness of the situation and how there is solace in ignorance.

We enter the second stage “Anger” with a bat dragging on the floor, the character has bloody tears roll down her face, to personify the phrase “her eyes went red with rage” in a manner relevant to the grief she is feeling. She uses the baseball bat to break a mug filled with white roses, which signify death. The mug is placed upon the book from the previous scene, almost as if the character is breaking free of the denial she had. The darker outfit is a complete turn after the first stage, to encapsulate the rage she is feeling due to the loss, the feeling of unfairness and the feeling where you know you are unable to change things all put together to make anger.

The third scene is "Bargaining", where we see the girl pull out her heart as a last resort. In a literal sense it could mean she is bargaining for the life of the person she lost with her own, pulling it out of her chest and trying to offer it. Afterall, when offering something up for a loved one in this state, your heart signifies all the love you have and your literal life. This is the scene that shows you that the girl is wishing with her literal heart in her hands, and despite her offer she realizes she cannot bring them back.

With “Depression", we enter a much more mellow scene. The girl is lying on the floor, surrounded by items of comfort, a blanket and plush toy, while wearing a pair of pyjamas that are oversized, as if she is trying to drown herself in her memories of a better time. She is staring at a projection on the wall, we see her stare lifelessly at it and then see her sitting with the projection playing over her face, which can be perceived as her current emotions. Waves of grief slowly rolling over her mind as she realizes that things cannot be changed 

                             

She finally reaches "Acceptance", her mind is a room full of flowers and serenity, with  sunflowers in the distance also known as the flowers of happiness, gypsophila (baby's breath) signifying sincerity, pink roses next to her signifying gratitude that she feels for having been able to have beautiful memories with the deceased, red roses to symbolize love and purple lillies that show her purity and hope for the future but despite that, the messy vines draping around her could signify her feelings that are still complicated but in an over-all better place. She is calm and as she falls into the flowers, she wakes up outside her tent, which is slightly more different than before. As if the journey transformed her.