Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows singles Mark and Ange in Melbourne as they make contact with prospective partners. The clip opens with Mark talking to a woman on the telephone about arrangements for a meeting the following evening. The next scene has Ange communicating with Annie on a live Internet chat room. The final sequences show Mark in his house as the narrator explains that he sustained a serious head injury seven years earlier. Mark reveals that having had a brain injury makes him feel 'damaged’.

Educational value points

• The clip shows two people who have used one of a number of Internet dating services to find a potential partner. According to Dr Barraket and Dr Henry-Waring from the University of Melbourne’s Department of Political Science, Internet dating is a growing trend. It provides more opportunities for making contact with a wider variety of people when compared with other forms such as clubs and bars, and a screening process can occur before a meeting takes place.

• Research conducted by Dr Barraket and Dr Henry-Waring in 2005 showed that one of the main disadvantages of online dating services is the difficulty of assessing mutual compatibility online. The study also showed that people are not always honest when describing their situation, age, appearance and motivations. The unmoderated nature of some services suggests the need for caution when using them.

• Mark describes how he lives with the 'constant expectation that people will find fault in me …’ since he sustained a brain injury after being hit by a car. He says that he fears rejection and it appears that he views being in a relationship as a gauge of his recovery from his illness. Although he has successfully completed his PhD since the accident it is apparent that he views his single status as a mark against his full recovery.

• The background information given at the end of the clip regarding Mark’s brain injury allows the audience to understand him on a personal level. Simple filmmaking techniques are employed during this scene and the filmmaker does not rely on sensationalist or emotional commentary to convey Mark’s story. Mark explains how he has felt since his accident and this provides the audience with an insight into some of his reasons for using a singles club to meet women.

• The clip effectively captures vignettes of the lives of two men attempting to find a date. Mark is shown talking nervously to a woman he doesn’t know as they arrange a time to meet and Ange appears to be anxious when he thinks the woman he is communicating with doesn’t want to give him her number. The close camera angles used in the clip are effective in helping to convey the feelings and vulnerability of Mark and Ange.

• The clip is taken from the series Singles Club (2007), which documented the lives of five people as they attempted to meet partners using a variety of media, including the Internet, speed dating, newspaper 'lonely hearts’ columns and other matchmaking services. The subjects were filmed for 18 months with some of them finding love by the end of the series. The documentary consisted of five episodes.

• Singles Club was written by Luigi Acquisto and directed and produced by Acquisto and Stella Zammataro. Husband and wife team Acquisto and Zammataro established Abracadabra Films in 1997. Abracadabra Films has produced a variety of documentaries including Once Were Monks (2000), East Timor – Birth of a Nation (2002), which was nominated for five Australian Film Industry awards, and Trafficked (2005).

Mark calls Michelle before their date.

Mark (On the phone) Hello, Michelle? It’s Mark here. I’m very well, thank you. How are you going? Now, excuse me, I’m doing the traditional night-before-we-go-out ring just to confirm everything, as you do, don’t you? Uh-huh.

Ange is chatting to Annie on the Internet.

Ange Oh! So she’s asking me what’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Can I get back to you? You? 'Jumping into a black Mercedes Benz with a car full of strangers whilst in Italy.’ So she seems like she’s got a pretty adventurous, sort of, personality as well. I might just go ahead and ask her for her phone number. What have you got to lose?

Ange types: Hey, I know its early but u wanna exchange numbers?

Ange (Reading) 'No. Just kidding.’ Cool. Done. We might give her a call to see … to see how it goes.

Mark (On the phone) Yeah, it sounds like you work all the time. Mmm-hmm. Yeah, I’ve been working heaps at uni, so it’s killing me. So we can have a big whinge. That would be really cool how we can just go, 'Work is killing me, I’m working too hard.’ That’d be … OK, I’m in for a whinger night. That will be fun. Cool, OK, so I’ll see you about 6:30pm then. I’ll be early, of course.

Narrator Seven years ago, Mark was hit by a car while cycling. He sustained a serious head injury and was in a coma for nine days. Months in hospital, then rehabilitation, interrupted his final year of study for a Ph.D.

Mark It’s like it’s frightening because … because although the next year I completed my Ph.D. that I was doing and, within a year, I was effectively working 100 per cent and producing work and the work that I did afterwards was published, but just the whole stigma of having had this brain injury is so frightening that I, kind of, like, expect people to reject me and I’m, kind of, living life with this constant expectation that people will find fault in me and the reason something goes wrong is because I’ve been damaged.