– Film Club –

Swiss Army Man:

Film Plot – 

‘Hank, stranded on a deserted island and about to kill himself, notices a corpse washed up on the beach. He befriends it, naming it Manny, only to discover that his new friend can talk and has a myriad of supernatural abilities…which may help him get home.’

This week, the Year 2’s decided to choose a film called Swiss Army Man, directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, where two men venture through the woods in order to try to get home and meet a mysterious woman known as Sarah. I have mixed opinions about this film, I didn’t love it but I also didn’t hate it – the aspects in which pushed me towards disliking the film was the out of place context, for example, I was confused about the necessity of the corpse constantly passing gas as part of one of his ‘powers/abilities’.

I felt that the story for the film has potential to provide a more moving film for the audience, but with the directors having this approach, it takes away the emotion and happiness from the whole storyline. There were a number of really creative shots throughout the film, where I found that the editing had been done well, for example, where Manny and Hank fly upward in the woods and fall back down into the trees, the scene moves at a faster pace which works really well. Below is a video which contains the clip (from 2:00 onward).

Afterwards, we discussed which scenes from the film that use either practical effects or visual effects, as it is clear that both are used frequently throughout. From what we established within the group, there was more use of practical vfx compared to vfx.

Practical –

• Manny and Hank blowing upwards with use of fire (on Mannys behalf) within the Bear scene
• Bear was also used within this scene
• Manny’s ‘Weiner’
• Scenes in the bus
• Vomit
• Farts
• Noose
• Leaves
• Pipe Bridge (we discussed that only from certain angles was there an actual top used for this particular shot)
• Scenes shot underwater
• Gorey

Vfx –

• Island at the start of the film
• ‘Jetski’ scene, where Manny is used
• Hank carrying Manny (dummy) on his back around the woods
• Blinks – edited out blinks on Mannys character
• Pipe (other parts)
• Underwater bubbles and splash’s