The reception to my film was mostly positive. My teacher said that the actual plot was fine, but I should focus on trying to convey to the audience that the younger character is the same person as the older man in the office. This is something I can do easily by using the same actor and trying to make them look younger when applying for the job. However, that may be difficult, and using another, younger actor may get across the passage of time better. However, it will be hard to find a similar actor, so using the same person saves me having to include some cue for the audience to understand that it is the same person in the past and future. I will already have to do that to convey the fact that there is a jump between past and present in the film.
The conclusion that I’ve come to for now is that I should use a similar actor, or as similar as I can find, and use a match cut for when they go from past to future. More specifically I could have an extreme close up of their eyes shut, then cut to the new, older actor when they open, and dolly out to reveal that they are older now. This was the sort of visual implication I was planning on to inform the audience that despite the actor having changed, they are still the same person and, therefore, a significant amount of time has passed in that one match cut.
Finley Cairns A-Level Film Studies Blog 