Over the course of production I have defined ‘Forever Young’ as a Fantasy/Drama short film. When recently critically analysing John August and Tim Burton’s ‘Big Fish’ it is evident that I will keep to my initial intended genre due to the narrative and stylistic aspects I, as Director, am setting out to achieve.

Like with most fantasy genres it is somewhat adapted from a novel or fictional writing. ‘Forever Young’ was adapted from my early free-writing notes made in the earlier weeks of Audio Visual Production under the title of ‘Eric’. These fictitious notes did not make the final script, in fact only the fantasy element and tone did. For example in my notes, a child is troubled in her ‘secret garden’ and wants to become an adult, here is where the archetypal features of the Fantasy genre have been brought along with Drama in my film.

‘Forever Young’ shows a twenty four year old woman called Eve who has been hit by a car. In the accident scene an Ice Cream Van was present across the road. When her mother takes her to the doctors the audience finds out that she has now regressed to having the memory of a nine year old. Making the dramatic aspect of my film.

The development into Fantasy, similar to Big Fish, is where the story is twisted and a different perspective is shown to the viewer. My protagonist Eve sees her reflection in the hospital waiting room as she hears the sound of an Ice Cream Van. She sees herself as a nine year old and then begins to daydream as she is in a malaise state after the accident. The audience go into the mind of Eve- she is presented on camera in a forest. As she walks she hears and sees her older memories. These are emblematic moments with strong focus on sound and colour. Finally she sees herself in the car accident with the Ice Cream Van on site and the sound of screaming ‘Eve’ turns to her caring mother in the waiting room whispering ‘Eve’ to knock her out of daydream.

I think my film has strong correlations with the themes in Big Fish and even Michel’ Gondry’s Science of Sleep, and not intentionally. Themes of relationship, loneliness, love and aging. The narrative structure of Big Fish is experimental in terms of order and how the audience observe the life of the protagonist for example the life of Edward Bloom focuses on flashbacks and real time of himself in both fantastical and dramatic scenes. ‘Forever Young’ shows the significance of Eve’s mind being unfolded on camera, of which it appears real-time (4 mins) but is actually in the course of one minute, that emphasises the fast thought processes of a human mind.

To conclude I would say my target audience is an subverted ‘Fairy tale for an adult’. ‘Forever Young’ is most definitely in the Fantasy/Drama genre and aiming at a wide audience. For a short film it stands as a U certificate, but the understanding of the film is better from an audience of 15+.  If it was a Feature length film I would be considering the ways I could subvert the narrative structure and create stronger flashbacks, which enhance the memories in a more sinister way and perhaps look in depth into brain and memory loss, the themes and aesthetic nature of the film would develop more like Terry Gilliam’s Tideland thus pushing it to way over a PG rating.