"Her" - A Short Film by Isabella Ruiz (and Amani Jones)

shock advertisement for domestic violence that inspired the creation of "Her" 

I devised the idea for “Her” by seeing this shock advertisement  in which a dress was on a punching bag. I thought it was so shocking and the image so disturbing that I wanted to put that photo into a video format for the short film. My boyfriend Ben (the individual in the short film) works at a sports equipment store called “Play It Again Sports.” Obviously, they had punching bags available, so at 8 am on a Saturday, Ben and I walked into a Target, bought a dress, and then went into Play it Again before opening hours to get the shots I wanted. The first shot I wanted was a low-angle shot. I liked the audience to see his face and movement but not anything else around him. The following scene is filmed with a medium close-up shot. Similar to the effect of the first take, I wanted the audience to see Ben’s face, understand what he was doing, and keep the object that he was punching out of frame. The last shot, which was a medium shot, was meant to make the person watching feel like a “fly on a wall” rather than being told to look in a particular direction. This take was done to make the film feel less like someone was holding a camera to the subject, but instead, we were watching as if we were a random object in the room. I also ensured with this shot that I wanted to minimize any movement or shaking in the camera, as again, I avoided giving the audience the sense that someone was filming this segment. The last take inside the building was done for dramatic effect and to end the scene quickly without making it so abrupt that it seemed unnatural. This is the last time that we see him punching something. It is also the last time we get these weird angles and perspectives that don’t allow the audience to see what he was beating. There is then a film roll transition into the film’s last scene, where we see Ben walking away, and it’s revealed that the punching bag he was hitting had a dress on it this whole time, implying that it was a woman he was beating that entire time. We also watch the punching bag swing back and forth for an extra second, hopefully adding a feeling of discomfort and unease as the audience begins to understand what just happened. The film transition was not my favorite, but it was a decent way to change locations without being painfully obvious or blatant. In case it wasn’t obvious, 

the punching bag was never in the frame until the film’s last scene. This was done intentionally. The audience assumes he’s punching a punching bag, but they don’t expect a dress to be on it, which symbolizes domestic violence against women. 

I had a lot of fun editing the footage to put this together. One of the issues I had with filming was that we could only get in the store very early in the morning, which had bright light, contradicting the scene’s dark undertone. In editing, I attempted to make the atmosphere as dark as possible while still being able to visualize the surrounding and not squinting or order to try and see things. While editing, I noticed that the footage had an almost purple tint due to my adjustments and the lighting. While that wasn’t what I intended, purple is the color for domestic violence awareness, so I think it worked out in my favor. The next thing I edited was the sound. No one other than me would know this, but the sound is canned. Meaning, I edited the sound to make the room sound smaller and more narrow to create a feeling of closeness and discomfort. While extraordinarily subtle, I’d like to think it changed the feel and vibe of the film. The text sprawling across the screen wasn’t challenging to do. I added my text, timed out the effect, and put a black background behind it. After that, I had my short film. 

The name “Her” is not written anywhere in the film, but I created this name because it’s short and straightforward and talks about the film’s contents but doesn’t give it away.

This project was enjoyable for me as I used to be very into filming and editing (I posted this on my old Youtube channel), and I forgot how fun it was to take clips and make them tangible. I don’t expect my short film to change the world or make any difference, but I will say it was a fun project I truly enjoyed. 

My Thoughts on Swiss Army Man

 

I have never seen a movie like Swiss Army Man ever in my life, and I will never see anything like it again. 

I have mixed feelings about this movie as its off-putting nature made me uncomfortable, and it was hard to see the more profound meaning of the story. This comes from someone who loves weird movies and seeing directors and writers get creative and think of things outside the box, but this movie wasn’t my favorite. My first red flag with this movie was that it started with the main character Hank physically (and eventually emotionally) manipulating a corpse to deal with his mental health issues. I think Manny was an actual corpse (whether or not he had magical powers is up to the viewer’s interpretation), which makes the situation very unsettling. Whether you look at it from a fantasy or realistic perspective, spending time with a corpse, especially of someone you don’t know, is quite disturbing. On top of this, this corpse has erections and talks about sex and women, which is very uncomfortable. I laughed while watching, but it was more of a nervous laugh than anything. I kept asking myself, how am I supposed to react to this? Is this supposed to be funny? Sad? Interpretive? I was confused most of the time. But please recognize that I don’t want to completely trash this movie because it may be that I don’t get it. Others might love it as it most likely portrays some more profound message I don’t understand. Also, I absolutely adore  Daniel Radcliffe and think he is a phenomenal actor, so it is also nothing against him. Numerous times throughout the movie, I looked away or put my head down due to my discomfort and unease. And the kiss scene really grossed me out (not because it was a kiss between two men, it’s because it was a kiss with a live person and a CORPSE… let’s be clear). Overall, I just don’t see the point of this film. I don’t understand their message or goal with this movie. I would say maybe mental illness or that people find strange ways to cope with things, but I didn’t fully grasp that message through the dialog or imagery depicted. If I’m being frank, this movie felt like someone took a bunch of shrooms, wrote down a movie idea, and ran with it. This can lead to great films in some instances, but again, this wasn’t speaking to me as I thought it was intended to. 

With all that being said, I would still recommend people to watch it because it is a unique experience watching this film, and I think people should see it at least once, even if it’s just for shock value or to start a conversation. Or, just sitting there and thinking, “What the hell did I just watch?” I don’t particularly like hating on a movie because I believe every film has intention, vision, and passion behind it, and just because I didn’t enjoy it doesn’t mean the next person wouldn’t. And that’s how I feel about Swiss Army Man.