SUMMARY
As the film goes, it simply starts off with a shot of two toothbrushes, a basic daily routine with just the main character alone, nothing strange, a normal practice. The sister greets her and they share a moment of kinship before leaving to meet a friend. They stare out the window for a short while and shut the curtains, ready to set out. They chat, laugh, the main character realises – why did their friend not greet or reply her sister? She confronts the friend, there is confusion, puzzled tension.

The friend says, ‘No one’s there.’

That’s when the main character snaps and we are pulled right back into her dimly lit room, her desk messy with a stack of kiddy drawings of her sister and her. She looks through them and is suddenly assaulted with memories with her sister. And how she is now, alone. She takes a moment, stares at the closed curtains and finally opens the curtains and windows, light and natural sounds flooding through the opening. The last shot, an cup with a single toothbrush.

INTERPRETATIONS

The film is in black and white as it sets the melancholy, ‘boring’ but yet mysterious mood.

The story starts and ends with the toothbrush shot – right at the beginning there was an empty mug, then there were two; at the end it was an empty mug again, but then there was one. It shows how the main character has been living an imaginary life with her supposed lost sister and after the dispute, she has a revelation and now she’s back in reality, where it is just her left.

Another shot that sets the start and end is the curtains shot. As the siblings ponder at the window, it was oddly silent before they shut it and all light disappears and they continue on with their day. The lack of noises causes it to feel just slightly out of place, depicting how it wasn’t real, it being a part of the character’s mind. When the main character opens the curtains alone, light shines through and a stream of different sounds enter, showing how she is taking a step forward, moving on from the loss of her sister.

Using reflections and mirrors allowed us to portray the feeling of duality and the fine line between delusions and reality. There are a number of shots that has either reflections, half-half lines or contrast of lighting just to show that.

AUDIO

Taking some inspiration from a Swedish drama film, Through a Glass Darkly (1961) by Ingmar Bergman, which tells the story of a schizophrenic woman. It has effective uses of silence and minimal audios when the woman is faltering between reality and madness, with the audience only hearing what’s in reality but the visuals might say otherwise. I heed that in mind and slightly twisted it a little to fit the purpose of this film more.

http://siochembio.tumblr.com/post/146851512747/through-a-glass-darkly-1961

For instance when the water drips from the tap, there is never a ‘plop’ sound, no implication that the water even dripped at all, getting at the idea that this moment is unreal. Similarly mentioned earlier, the part with the sisters at the windows, there is no sound, another surreal moment.

As for the melody added as they leave their home, it’s suppose to show that the main character is contently living this ‘fake’ life as in reality there is never background music ever. It’s quickly cut off when the scene switches to the drawings, a blatant punch in the face back to reality.

The heartbeat was to create tension as it slowly sped up until she punches the friend, resulting in a cut to black.

The humming was to create a mood of somber self-reflection as the main character thought about the past and how she should deal with it now. The bouts of laughter sparking the need to move on.

Quick to note, I avoided adding any form of speech or subtitles, hoping to instead let the audience interpret the narrative by themselves without the blunt aid of words.