I watched a Hollyoaks episode (Tuesday 26th January 2016), in which a girl, Jade, finds out she has cancer. Although this is not exactly the same as our storyline, believe that the two are quite similar and this episode helped to give our group ideas on how we could film/ change our opening to improve it. This is due to the doctors surgery scenes and the way in which she is told the results and has flashbacks are all similar to how we originally had planned our opening.
Below are my notes from the episode:
- Shot of her close up walking into the doctors surgery (Looking nervous)
- Tracking shot of her walking into the doctors surgery
- Medium shot of her sitting down
- Shows her looking around the room nervous
- Looking at doctors anticipating her results
- Hears her name called
- Looks shocked
- Holds hand of friend/ sister for support
- Shot of her walking into doctors room
- Looks at the clock-time passing
- Hand holding from dad to show support whilst she still nervously looks at clock
- Doctor has to take call from someone quickly- done to drag out finding out the results- builds anticipation and nerves
- Looks at clock again with extreme close up shot of the bottom half of the clock
- High pitch noise and shot of her crying follows- exaggerates her nerves- all stops when the doctor finishes her phone call- later on in the episode we realise that this shot is done to show how time had stopped for her and she is imagining all that happens after this moment:
Everything is happy for her after this moment as she is imagining it all:
- Is told her tests are clear- everyone’s happy
- Tells everyone else- all hugging her and happy for her
- Looks at magazine about luck (lucky charm bracket)- happy music in the background- everything is looking hopeful
- It’s her birthday so she happily attends her party- surprise party, presents, everyone there, etc
- She receives the bracelet she saw on the cover of a magazine from her boyfriend
- Troubles occur- helping friend- problems sorted
- Back to enjoying her party- gets a present of adoption
- Everything’s resolved and is going her way
Beginning to come back to present day however not fully:
- Starts to get flashbacks and hallucinations- realises all isn’t as it seems- still happy though as she tries to ignore it and enjoy her party
- Looks around the room at people smiling and begins to hear the high pitch sound she had previously heard
- Gets more flashbacks of nurses at the doctors surgery- looks nervous- imagines her doctors at her party as the dj (hallucinations)
- Goes outside with her boyfriend to try and stop it all from happening and becoming real- she says ‘bad things only happen if you let them’- this foreshadows how she is trying to prevent herself from hearing she has cancer and imagining only good things- allows the audience to begin to piece together the clues (this isn't all really happening)
- Talks about wanting to live life to the full and wanting to fit everything into this day- again, foreshadows how she might not be able to live a full life as she has cancer (ironic thing to say)
- Says that she ‘knew the results would be negative as life wouldn’t do that to her’- repeats that she ‘loves life’- again all ionic and foreshadowing the future- shows jade trying to convince herself subconsciously that she hasn't got cancer
- Kisses her boyfriend and everything appears happy and perfect for her
- Suddenly her boyfriend notices she’s dressed in different clothes- she looks down and she is wearing the clothes she was in the doctors surgery (medium shot)- shows her beginning to come back to the present day
- Her boyfriend disappears- she begins to become confused, looks around, starts running- hearing high pitch sound again that was previously heard before she hallucinated
- Goes to where her party was and no one is there- sad music begins- starts to hear people talking with flashbacks of when she was happy at the party
- Hears doctor saying ‘jade’ in a muffled voice as she still isn't fully in the present day with zoom lense shot of her standing still but the background moving (changing from the hallucination to present day)
- She is crying and saying ‘no’ as she realises what’s happening- she’s been dreaming that she hasn’t got cancer and has had a happy birthday
- Sees the doctor stood in front of her at her party venue- still not fully in present time
- She hears the clock ticking with the doctor continuously saying jade in a muffled voice still and jade is crying and shaking her head as she can't believe what is happening
- The scene then completely flashes back to present day with the original close up shot of the clock ticking and the doctor clearly saying 'jade' now
- The doctor says ‘do you understand what I’m saying’ with a close up shot of jades face looking sad
- Sad music is played in the background to exaggerate the misery and sadness of the scene
- Shot reverse shot of doctor and jade used to show how the doctor has just told her about her results- Jade looks to her dad for support and she looks sad
- Jade says ‘yeah, I have cancer’ whilst looking distraught, and the episode ends
Episode analysis:
I believe that the episode is shot in this way to present Jade's thought process and show how she was in denial for the whole episode. This episode presents the journey that Jade herself has gone down when finding out that she has cancer and how she has tried to convince herself that it's not really happening to her and that everything will be alright. It has been presented through hallucinations so that the audience is able to follow her thought process as well and understand how she feels. The episode cleverly ends with her fully realising she has cancer as she says 'I have cancer', which is done to end the journey of her wondering/ finding out whether she does/ doesn't have cancer and to instead begin the journey of her coming to terms with having it and dealing with it.
How the episode links to our film opening:
From this episode I believe that we will be able to take some things from it. We could include a clock and loud ticking noises in our film opening as well to emphasise the nerves that Henry will be feeling and how time slows down when you are finding out life changing news. This also adds tension and drama to the scene. We also could end our scene in a similar way of the doctor saying 'Do you understand what I'm saying' and Henry replying, 'Yes, I have HIV'. This again adds drama and clearly shows how the rest of the film will be the journey of Henry accepting and dealing with his HIV and how those around him will deal with the news. However, when comparing our opening to the Hollyoaks episode, there are some similarities which we have already included in our film opening. Both have sad, dramatic background music to build the tension as well of close up shots of the patient looking nervous as the wait to hear the results. Also, they both have flashbacks of happier times as they are trying to forget what their futures may hold for them. Additionally, they are both set in similar scenes, eg, doctors surgery, doctors room, etc.
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