Critical Analysis for Film. The Wallet: Research and Development of the Idea

Critical Analysis for “The Wallet”
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Institution
The Wallet: Research and Development of the Idea
The film, The Wallet, was inspired by a psychological writer, Yusuf Idris, and the idea was suggested by Dr. Ali Baderkhan, a former mentor. Yusuf Idris was a unique writer whose writing artistry he demonstrated by penning political views with much prowess and power. I also liked Yusuf Idris because of how he highlighted the hardship of his time through his writing. Adapting his writing was difficult, as I needed to find a way to mirror the emotional and external conflict of the characters into the film, through the portrayals of actors, and through the mise en scene. Considering the story was quite famous in Egypt, having been set in Cairo, my goal was to embrace the idea, and create an emotional film that could also inspire. Adopting a story by one of the most famous short story writers in Egypt to develop the film concept was, not only bold but also inspiring, as Yusuf Idris' ideas focused on destabilizing the mental states and moods of readers. As for the rights of exploitation of the story, it was issued in 1958, more than 60 years ago, there are no rights now, as the exploitation rights are in the case of commercial film, amendments and changes from the original text. I created Samy, a teenager, who learnt humility and patience after learning about the poor economic conditions his family was in and worsened by the failing health of his father. These circumstances also led to self-reflection and maturity after he realized his family was important than buying tickets to watch Mohamed Ramadan's movie. However, there are some significant deviations from the original story given the child in Idris' work does not have a sister nor the presence of the film poster that he wants to watch the story, the father is not asthmatic and the mother does not interfere in the problem of the child. The end is also different from the story. There is a story in the face with the Father; this is in addition to drawing the family atmosphere of the eastern family and economic problems. However, I didn’t want to change much from the story only a little so it would be adapted perfectly. In addition, it could have been better if it was a bit longer, but I did my best to narrow it to at least 10 minutes. The film could have had more elements if it was lengthier, as I would have added more characters to the story, new characters that haven’t been introduced in the original story. They would have challenged Samy and force him to see himself for what he’s becoming, much like in the story of the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, though it wouldn’t be a fantasy.
A need to shot a film with such a storyline was also fueled by a desire to visualize Yusuf Idris' literary ideas, as expressed in his short stories. The idea of the film also required some research as visualizing such a storyline required a better understanding of psychological terms. I also respected Yusuf Idris as a brilliant playwright and novelist. His ability to mix colloquial dialect with conventional classical Arabic narration required a better understanding before the idea was visualized via the film. Therefore, the idea was developed by drawing relevance from other Egyptian short films to determine psychological impact of external conditions on internal development such as changes in emotions, maturity, patience, and showing concern for other people. Further research also involved watching a dozen Egyptian short films to understand family struggles and the resulting impact on children development and maturity.
The idea was developed once the research on the concepts and storyline was complete. Writing the script was simple, and it was made less drastic since the film director had other priorities to focus on other than film visualization. From a psychological standpoint, the idea was expanded and developed to show distinct movements, and bring out emotions of the characters to raise the emotional stakes of the audience. Like any other film shot in a family setting, the dialogue was important, and by making it audible enough was key to understanding their emotions, and relating with their situation. Additionally, developing the idea involved drawing relevance from other films with similar influence on the audience. For instance, Will Smith's film, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), showed the economic struggles of the family as The Wallet, while dialogue assisted in elaborating the situation of Will Smith’s character Chris Gardner and his son. Directly, I found ‘The Wallet’ and ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ to be very similar at least on what I had intended to deliver regarding the emotional scenes between father and son. Like, in one scene in the film, Will Smith’s character Chris motivates his son to do whatever he has mind set on and not let anyone contradict him. The scene was heavily emotional and inspiring, I wanted the final scene of when Samy and his father reconciled after learning of his son’s sin to be just as emotional as that scene. It had to reach the heart.
Reflection on Process
My experience with the team was great, except for some instances during the pre-production and filming phase. I learned the value of having a team that shared the same vision, as it made it easy to shot. Out filming team involved former teammates whom I had filmed with before, and they had an equal commitment to ensuring this film became a success as I did. The commitment from the team was also critical in realizing similar goals. From my records, the filmmaking process was facilitated by the director of photography, Baderkhan Ali, son to my mentor and friend, Ali Baderkhan, whose initial idea of the film made it easy to narrow down on the specifics. Taking the role as my assistant director, Mohammed Maher, reminisced on all the five films we had short together, and whose previous ideas for production developed a basis for the pre-production phase. Being the film director, I remember emphasizing on the need to construct the entire idea based on the script terms. Improvisation was unacceptable. The rest of the team comprised of Elhamy Fyrouz, Mohammed Maher's associate, Islam Monazeea who did color grading, Yehia Sharaf (production manager), Ahmed El Ders (production coordinator), Ahmed Metwali and Ahmed Ali Ahmed (sound), Nada El Sebaeei (costume designer), Hany Taher (trainer), and Manal El Gendy who did clapperboard.
My experience during the pre-, during and post-production phase of this film was memorable, incredibly fruitful, exciting, challenging, and rewarding. I chose to relate the storyline and the plotline with Yusuf Idris’ short story, which made it easier to contextualize my views in the film with Egypt’s period of transition from struggles of poverty and political turmoil to today’s economic advancement and community growth. I also did not realize the project would take a lot of time and effort although I was fortunate to have easily found and assemble the crewmembers. The crew members were also privy of the short story, which made it easier for them to grasp the concept of the script. We did, however, encounter some challenges that we had no idea would impact the quality of video/sound. These issues included noise from adjacent rooms, and on the street, we filmed in. I realized that Friday afternoons were an ideal time to film as most people were in the mosque. A technical problem we experienced during the filming phase was the video camera not having enough battery power and enough memory. However, I was contented with the fact that this was a short film that required less time to shoot before recharging the battery for editing.
I remember urging my actors to assume their natural elements when handling their specific roles, and that they should not feel the need to attain perfection. In one take, when my actress Manal (The Mother) went too slow with her character in the kitchen scene, I called cut and discussed with her on how she should act naturally and portray herself as a nagging yet caring mother. We talked on how her face expressions would be like; we did 5 more takes till she got it right. Notably, we did not use a boom during filming, but only neck miles for sound recording. We also used a sound recorder to capture sounds in the surrounding once the shooting was complete. A lot of takes had been done under the sun, and some of the actors had difficulty remembering their lines after a while. The director of photography also found it difficult to capture some scenes because of the glaring sun. Shooting indoors was easier as most of the props required were available. However, it was difficult shooting the night scenes during the day as the glaring sun made it difficult to block any spark of light that penetrated through the windows and doors. Still, we successfully managed to shoot these scenes. Some scenes, however, were shot in the evening because some actors wanted to rest. Interestingly, we got the Arabic film style idea while shooting some scenes in the evening.
The rehearsal didn’t take much time, given the actors had tons of experience; they had portrayed characters similar to the characters in my film. But we went over it, they performed different lines and they were able to find the perfect vocal sound of their characters. During which, my D.O.P. and I were able to decide on the type of lightning we needed in the film, it had to be gloomy and yet a bit brightness to symbolize a hope in the midst of darkness and hopelessness. While the actors were performing, my D.O.P. tested the different lights with different color filters, it eventually led us to use blue most, and as it fitted the gloomy mood we needed.
Immediately we completed filming, and transferred it to the hard drive, we were already overwhelmed. Talking with my director of photography, however, was helpful, especially on some excellent tips to go about the editing process, and the amount of time it will take. We spent excruciating hours editing. I enjoyed every bit of using Final Cut Pro to edit and, in the process, improved my transitioning and cutting skills. With utmost skill, Andrew Nabil, the editor, did a successful match cut resembling the one in the Lawrence of Arabia film since hours of shooting went into the film, but only 10 minutes of captivating scenes were necessary to form the final film. Shots from the street were successfully matched to relate with those shot from within the house, bringing out an excellent synchrony. The editing style was, particularly, influenced by the film, American Beauty, where the initial scenes had bookend editing version while other scenes showed a truncated version of editing. For instance, from the argumentative dinner scene when Lester finally snapped, it feels almost similar to how the mother snapped in the dinner/lunch scene. It was also fun experimenting on the B-Roll, ranging from image freezing in an enclosed environment to editing the footage of a subject moving on the street. Lastly, we edited to a fit a 10-minute film, and we felt some sense of relief and happiness once we were done.
Self-critical Analysis and Evaluation of the finished Film
Analysis
The social qualities drawn from the film, The Wallet, are attributed to the idea from Yusuf Idris' idea of the short story by the same movie title. According to El-Gabalawy...