The use of subliminal images in "Fight Club" (1999) and how I have used them in my film

(All subliminal images of Tyler)

      In David Fincher’s “Fight Club” (1999), there is the use of subliminal images. In “Fight Club”, there are four instances of subliminal images of Tyler Durden before he is actually shown as a character on screen. The four images occur in everyday places of the Narrator; His work (03:50-03:59), at the doctors (06:00-06:-05), his support group (07:10-07:15) and after his first meeting with Marla after she walks away in the street (12:00-12:07). The use of these subliminal images that the character of Tyler Durden is in the head of The Narrator, but also that the audience do not really know that they saw these images but in the back of their head they noticed something out of place. The first actual sighting of Tyler Durden occurs at 18:56, as the Narrator quotes the line, ‘If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?’, as the Narrator says this, the camera pans to Tyler, as he says ‘different person’, this could be representative of the Narrator becoming Tyler, and could be seen as subliminal, because the audience may not pick up on the fact that Tyler and the Narrator are the same person, also, when the Narrator wakes up on a plane, coming home after one of his business trips, he has his first meeting with Tyler, echoes the line. In “Fight Club”, the characters even reference the use of subliminal images in everyday life, and Tyler Durden even splices images of pornography into family films, the audience in the cinema he works in also realises that they have seen something and know it’s there but haven’t been able to process what they have seen (31:08-32:15) and continuously in every single fight that the Narrator and Tyler are in, in the fight club, the two are never in the shot together, this could be picked upon that they are the same person, because people in the fight club, never seem them fight each other. For my short film, I have also decided to use subliminal images. The subliminal images will be of the main antagonist, because the protagonist actually imagines that he is being stalked by the antagonist, which in the end turns out to be himself, there is also references of becoming someone you are not, who is completely different from who the protagonist actually is, and it is the antagonist who embodies these different traits.  



Revised Screenplay

Ext.  Forest of Brightfalls

RYAN is walking through forest quietly. He is looking nervous and has his notepad and pen to make notes for his new book.

                                                     RYAN

                                               (Internal monologue)

                                  What the hell has gone on in this town? Nothing that has happened makes sense.

 

RYAN is walking through the forest, the sound of sticks snapping and running can be heard relatively close to RYAN, and he suddenly looks up.

                                                RYAN

                                          Huh?

RYAN starts to quicken his walking pace; he’s starting to feel anxious.

RYAN, still has his pen and notepad in hand, starts to slow his pace down, but he hears the running footsteps, until they suddenly stop, Ryan Taylor keeps walking, but stones and sticks start being thrown at him.

RYAN turns around to his left.

                                                 RYAN

                                       What the fu-?

RYAN sees a flowing gown run away, RYAN drops his pen and notepad and begins to run deeper in to the forest.

RYAN keeps running for about 300 metre and comes to a stop.

                                                 RYAN

                                                (Heavy Breathing & Internal Monologue)

                                                What the fuck is going on in this place? What have I just seen? Nothing, nothing, it can’t be real; I’m losing my fucking mind.

RYAN lights up a cigarette to calm his nerves.

                                                 

                                                  RYAN

                                                  (Internal Monologue)

                                                   Who’s there? There’s on one here, but where is he?

                        

                                                  RYAN

                                                      WHO’S THERE? COME OUT, I WANNA SEE YOU

RYAN continues searching around, trying to find whoever is following him. He is scared, but he knows he has to find the person who is following him.

                                         RYAN

                                         What is going on here?

RYAN investigates the wooded area he arrived at.  He is taken aback about recent events, and is stumbling around; he begins seeing things that are not there, including a shadowy figure in the distance.

RYAN looks around the area and discovers a picture of himself as a baby and someone is holding him, but he does not recognise the person.

                                                  RYAN

                                                  (Panicked)

                                        Who the hell is this? What has gone on?

RYAN hears rustling all around him and he starts losing his breath and feels vulnerable. There’s heavy breathing and laughing coming from the tree line.

                                                  RYAN

                                                  (Panicked)

                                        What is happening? What has happened?

RYAN looks around, where he sees a shadowy figure standing looking towards him. RYAN trips and starts backing away.

SHADOWY FIGURE begins to chase down RYAN. It is then revealed that the SHADOWY FIGURE is actually RYAN himself.

FEMALE NEWS REPORTER is about to go on to his next story.

                                              NEWS REPORTER

                                              Acclaimed writer, Ryan Taylor was found dead today in his woodland retreat. As of now, it is believed that Taylor’s cause of death was suicide; however police have yet to confirm this. We will have more on this story as it develops.

Filming so far

After capturing some of my footage, I have realised that the framing of the shots are not upto a good enough standard. So I have decided that I will be re-shooting these scenes as soon as possible to remedy this.
So far, the shoots that were meant to be shot indoors have translated well to the outside. I have also discovered that I have found a possible location for the original indoor scenes, so I have decided that I'll shoot the scenes both from an indoor and outdoor perspective.

Re-shoots/Changing Scenes

House scenes: Have to change this due to being unable to get the location. I have decided to move some of the scenes from the house outside because I would be able to translate what I intended to do in the original house scenes to outdoor scenes. For example, originally the scene were the protagonist picks up the photo frame from the dresser and discovers that the picture in the frame is of him as a baby but he is being held by two people that are not his parents. How I plan to change this scene so it will work outdoors is that the protagonist will see the picture lying on the floor and he will go over to pick it up and then look at it, then there will be a quick cut and the glass in the picture frame will break and then I was thinking of another quick cut after the glass is broken and the picture frame will have disappeared.

Addition of quick cuts: I have decided to add in quick cuts of items or people appearing and disappearing to show to the audience that is what is happening to the protagonist real or is it all in his head. This is because it is one of the genre conventions of psychological thrillers. I am thinking that a may make the shots that are things in his own mind black and white.

Addition/Inclusion of mise-en-scene in scenes: In some of the scenes, I have decided to make additions to some of the scenes. My new idea for the mise-en-scene is to add in a ‘shadowy figure’ in each shot. The figure will be located in every shot, but the audience will have to look for the figure in the scenes because I want to think they are seeing something and they are wondering to themselves if they are seeing things as well as the protagonist. I have also thought of a new ending to my short film. I have decided to have a cut after the man who is hidden in the dark robe to a news report on the television, reporting on the protagonist has actually committed suicide, so this will make the audience believe that everything was happening in his head and that his death in his dream was him committing suicide. I will draw these up as a storyboard as soon as possible.

Cinematography: I am thinking that I may make the shots that are him leaving reality in black and white.  To show the audience that something isn’t quite right with the protagonist.

Mulholland Drive (2001)

The scene I am using from the neo-noir psychological thriller, Mulholland Drive (Written and directed by David Lynch, 2001) that I am using as an influence is the scene at Winkie's, a local diner, a man named Dan (Patrick Fischler) tells his companion Herb (Michael Cooke) about a recurring nightmare involving a shadowy person living behind the restaurant. When Herb encourages Dan to confront his fear by exploring the rear parking lot, he encounters a terrifying figure and collapses from fright.

The reason I have selected this scene is because it is able to blur the lines of reality and dreams from the audience. As Dan is talking to Herb in the diner, everything seems to be reality. Dan is explaining to Herb that in his dream, he sees this evil figure. After Dan describes his dream to Herb and they then confront it, only to discover that it is indeed true, there was a "monster" at the back of the restaurant.  The same is true for Diane (Naomi Watts) ; her extended fantasy gradually segues into horror before reality hits. We see this scary bum again near the film's end as he "unleashes" the elderly couple who preoceed to "attack" Diane.  The couple, representing innocence, are chasing a woman who has committed a vile act.  Her innocence has been lost, violently discharged within the evil dream (represented by the man behind Winkie's) that comprises most of the film.

Shutter Island ending parts 2 & 3

Shutter Island

I am using 'Shutter Island' (Dir. Martin Scorsese) as one of my influences for my film project, and I am especially taking a look at the end scene. The reason for why I am looking at this scene in particular, is because it follows one of the main conventions of the psychological thriller which is the 'twist' for the protagonist. In 'Shutter Island', US Marshall "Teddy" Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is investigating the case of a missing person, Rachel Solando, on the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, he goes on to discover that he is in fact Andrew Laeddis and that he killed his wife after she drowned her children. Also that Edward Daniels is in fact an anagram of Andrew Laeddis, and that he is the most dangerous patient on the island and that they are trying to 'cure' him and this is the last attempt and doing so before they perform a lobotomy. The film ends were it seems that Laeddis has regressed back to the character of "Teddy" Daniels but before he is taken away for the lobotomy he says it would be worse to 'live as a monster, or die as a good man'.