Short films are a difficult media products to class and identify as, apart from the fact that they are obviously short in duration, they do not necessarily follow any other forms or conventions.
* Short films can vary in a huge range of genres, just like normal feature length films.
FOR EXAMPLE; Drama Shorts, Horror Shorts and Comedy Shorts
* Short films will also follow a similar narrative to a feature length; even a short film will have a beginning, middle and an end.
It is important to bare in mind that short films are a diverse media product that enable immense creativity and are fairly unconventional.
The one main convention of course defining a short film is that it will be considerably shorter than a feature length and short films can range from anything at 2 minutes up 20 minutes.
However of course there common features in short films that can be discussed that have inspired us in the production of our media product.
Features that we have adapted for our own piece.
Feature 1: Use of Narration
How narration is commonly used in short films to assist the relation the audience has with the main character in a short duration of screen time
* The film 'Courier' uses narration throughout from the male protagonist (featured above) and he tells his side of the story of how he and his friend get wound into working for a drug dealer. The narration (used commonly in short films) allows the audience to relate to the character and also to understand the story as it unfolds.
* We have used this technique in our film as well as our male protagonist narrates over the piece throughout allowing the audience to understand why he sits on the bench watching the passers-by. It also helps to build a relationship with the main character as well.
Feature 2: Characterisation
How characters are portrayed and put across in media products. Whether the audience is made to sympathise with them.
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'About a Girl' click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece.
* In 'About a Girl' we are made to feel like a friend to the female character in the film as she talks to us on a whole range of subjects. It depicts her as a chatty, confident character.
* We decided to use this technique but to invert it on itself. Our male protagonist doesn't speak during the film, you only hear his internal monologue. This lack of speech enables us to relate to him as a quiet, secluded character.
* Characters are usually depicted in a straight forward way in short films as It allows the audience to gain an understanding of a character in a shorter space of time.
Feature 3: Colour and Decor
These two elements of mise en scene are common in short films as they help to depict the mood of the film. A range of darker colours and inviting decor of a room would suggest a dark and unnerving film.
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'Waiting for the End of the World' click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece.
* In Deanville's 'WFTEOTF' he uses a lot of dark colouring in shots to depict the night time mood of the film. Whilst the supermarket scenes are bright, the scenes for instance here where he is clocking-in/out, are a lot darker in colour which suggest the loneliness the male protagonist is pushing through everyday and this is further supported by the bleak decor in his surroundings; the wall, the machine.
* We similarly used this technique in our film. In the bedroom scenes of our male soldier character the colours all mould together. He doesn't stand out against the wall and this could as well suggest how alone he is.
* The room is also very bland. No pictures, photos or posters on the walls and yet again reinforces how alone he is in his surroundings.
Feature 4: Sound
Sound is a wide term for any diegetic or non-diegteic sound used in short films.
* In 'Bulb' there is heavy use through out of diegetic machinery sounds. Which most likely were added in the post-production stages or recorded in a foley sound workshop. This helps to depict instantly tot he audience, given the setting as well, that the film is set in the future; an age of robots and dependence upon machinery.
* Similarly in our piece our location was Brighton sea front and we wanted to make thorough use of the sounds of the sea surrounding us. We made sure that all the scenes shot by the sea would have the on-going soundtrack of the sea behind it.
* We carried the sounds of the sea on into the credits as well. (Pictured below) This helped to enforce the significance of the sea to the film. The sea being a thoughtful place. This use of diegetic sound meant that it helped emphasise how thoughtful our male protagonist was being and the points he was trying to make.
Example 5: Camera Movements
Camera movements help to emphasise a point that a shot is trying to make. These could be Point of View to let the audience empathise with the character or it could be to reinforce the particular significance of character
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'Goodbye Gone' click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece
* In 'Goodbye Gone' the film opens with a brilliantly constructed extreme high angle shot of a truck driving on a quiet road. The shot follows the vechile continuously into a car park where the camera gets lower to display the male protagonist as he walks out of his car.
*I thought this was particularly effective in displaying the significance of that character. He was depicted as being very small from such a high angle and was made to look insignificant straight away.
* Similarly in our piece I wanted our camera movements to be able to relate to the characters in our piece.
* We used a several POV shots of our male protagonist on the bench watching his passers-by walk past so that the audience were able to empathise with our male protagonist being able to relate to his perception of strangers around him.
Example 6: Lighting
Usage of lighting is a common feature in short films as, much like colour and decor, it helps to depict the mood of a piece very quickly. Bright lighting depicts and happier, more positive mood whereas darker lighting will suggest there is something sinister afoot!
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'Bulb' click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece
* The lighting in 'Bulb' is very dark throughout. Even lights featured in the piece seem ineffective in shedding light upon the scenes.
* This dark lighting helps to depict a moody and sinister depiction of the future. This method of using lighting to display mood was something we wanted to use in our piece.
* In our piece the scenes of our bullied male teen he is walking through a park at night time and this very dark lighting outside enabled the audience to feel the sinister mood surrounding the teens victimisation.
Example 7: Shot Size
Differing shots sizes will display how close and personal we are to a character. A long shot will display our distance from a character whereas extreme close-ups will display the close encounter and detail we see with this character.
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'Waiting for the End of the World' click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece.
* In 'WFTEOTW' Deanville uses a variety of close-up shots to display our personal relationship with the male protagonist, Petr.
* I thought the use of close-ups were particularly effective in building a relationship for the audience with the character and decided it was a good idea to use in our own piece
* In our film there are a variety of close ups, for instance with the shots of the traumatised ex-soldier character. These big close ups allow the audience to get very close and personal with the character. In his short screen time it helps to create a relationship with the character and the audience
Example 8: Pace
The speed and pace of a short film is another variable to the short film genre. Short films can either be very fast paced due to eh short amount of time to convey a story or can be a much slower, more thoughtful slice-of-life pace.
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'Goodbye Gone' click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece
* In 'Goodbye Gone' the pace is very slow and the thoughtful shots are lengthy and the lack of cuts enables the audience a long time to dwell on a shot.
* I thought these long shots were particularly effective alongside the narration to depict a thoughtful, slow pace mood.
* In our piece we use quite a few long duration shots of the sea and the locations surroundings. Other long shots include the ending tracking shot that follows our male protagonist away from his bench and this enables a very slow pace ending where a narration over the top is able to depict the thoughtful sombre mood.
Example 9: Facial Expression
Facial expression is a common feature to short films from the arenas of mise en scene to similarly depict a mood or emotion that a character has.
Above are two screen grabs. The top is from a short film called 'Courier' (click the title for a link to the film or click HERE to see my previous analysis of this film) The bottom s.grab if from our own piece.
* In 'Courier' there are particular shots where characters in the film bare facial expressions that allow us to empathise with the character. In the opening scene of 'Courier' particularly the male protagonist looks concerned and worried and the audience already understand there is something on his mind.
* I thought this use of facial expression was particularly effective in depicting a the mood and emotions characters are having during the film. In our piece our pregnant teen character has a worried facial expression on her face and before the audience even see the pregnancy test in the bathroom they already can understand something is wrong.
HOWEVER it is also vital to include that we have also researched, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of film posters too!
An example of this would be analysis conducted on several British film posters such as 'This is England' and 'Submarine'
THIS IS ENGLAND, Shane Meadows, 2006
From the poster we can gather that T.I.E is...
* It doesn't really look dark but does look threatening. This costume and make up makes the line up of characters look dangerous, you wouldn't mess with them. This could suggest the film was within Crime genre.
* The representation of the characters in the T.I.E poster is they are working class, renowned in the 80's when the film is set for working in factories or in manual labour. This is evident by the scenery round them, what looks like a run-down council estate in a big city. Areas of mise en scene also help connote this working class image with the use of costume; jeans and jackets and hair cuts; very short
* The positioning of the characters in a line makes the poster look like a police line-up. A police line-up connoting crime. The narrative could therefore contain elements of crime. Could be; murder, theft, burglary or violence.
* This film would also appeal to readers of film magazines Empire and Total Film who have positively reviewed the films. The film has also won several awards displayed at the top so film fans of all genres would be likely to watch T.I.E as it meets the high standard to British Film Making.
- In terms of how we have developed these ideas for our own poster:
* Like the T.I.E poster we have made the location of our film, the bustling city of Brighton, a prominent feature of our poster much like the appearance of the council estate with flats in the T.I.E poster.
For full blog post on 'This is England' poster analysis click HERE
Submarine, Richard Ayoade, 2010
* Comedy/Drama genre
* The colour in the poster is bright.
* The title uses red, yellow and white as well as light blue and these lighter colours depict the lighter mood in the film. This could be used to depict a comedy
* The male protagonist is represented to look fearful. His facial expression provides an expression of not great fear but maybe concern of the daunting events ahead in the story.
To see the full poster analysis of 'Submarine' click HERE
- In terms of how we have developed these ideas for our own poster:
* Like the 'Submarine' poster we are using facial expression of the main character to elaborate on the genre and themes of our film. Where the male protagonist in 'Submarine' looks concerned it suggests the weird/scary or traumatic events that will unfold in the film.
* IN our poster our male protagonists stern and thoughtful expression will evoke the serious emotion of drama in our film.
It is also important to bare in mind...
that film reviews from the film magazine; Little White Lies are also an important media product that we have analysed and challenged it's conventions for our own product.
Little White Lies articles follow a strict layout, not just in presentation but in font, size and language.
Above is an example review for 'The Artist' featured in Little White Lies
Key Features include:
* A rounded edge still from the film itself.
* Large title in bold font
* Director, Stars and Release date all aligned under the title
* Names and dates are in bold and italics
Below is the text from the article for 'The Artist'
Key features of a LWL review is...
* The first letter of the review, in this case, the 'I' is in larger font and is bolder
* The text is displayed in three columns
*The reviewers name is in bold
* There are scores given at the end according to; anticipation, enjoyment and retrospect
* The numbers and scoring titles are in bold
* The review will always have a paragraph or two at the beginning explaining the initial plot without giving too much away to let the audience in on the films plot.
* The review is showered in lots of adjectives describing as much as it can. This is to build a broad picture for the audience of the film.
How have we applied this research to our own review?...
The full blog entry upon our review is available HERE
Our review includes as many of the key features of a Little White Lies review as possible to make it look as if it could be from the genuine magazine itself!
* I have inserted a still from our piece as the mast head image with rounded edges like a LWL mast head.
* I have also made sure that the review follows all the rules of which areas of text are in bold or in italics if not both.
* Our review has the same scoring system at the end as a LWL review.
* The page numbers in bold at the bottom feature a 0 before the digits if it is below 100
* The first letter of the review: 'A' is in bold and larger font.
* The review is cut into 3 columns that follow on from each other
* The reviewers name (a fake alias as I am already credited for directing the film) is in bold at the end
* IN some issues they have a particular theme; eg. 'The Road Issue', 'Kickass Issue'. We are imagining our film has gained it's own issue and has a small drawn eye at the bottom of the page next to the page number.
These key features have all been met in order to represent an accurate review from a copy of Little White Lies.
IN CONCLUSION
I have used a range of media products, short films, British film posters and film reviews from British film magazine; Little White Lies, which have been analysed in order for me to use them in my short film.
Our short film displays elements and conventions of a range of short films.
Our poster (when finished) will display elements from a typical British film poster
and my review bares as many similarities in layout, presentation and language as possible to an actual Little White Lies review.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?
PROMPT/SCRIPT:
* I believe that our main media product, that being our short film, and our two ancillary tasks, our film poster and our review are successful and effective to a degree if they were to be used as a marketing package.
* I believe our ancillary tasks really propel our film making it very interesting and intriguing for the audience.
* In our review and poster the images used cleverly give the audience an image of the male protagonist, an image to anchor onto relating to the film. Meaning if they were to see our male protagonist they could relate him to out film. Another example of this working successfully is the pster for 2010's Richard Ayoade film; 'Submarine' where the poster features no other elements apart from the male protagonist which meant an audience were able to make a link between the character and the film without knowing anything about his character.
* In our poster he stands out from his blurred surroundings. It establishes with the audience his importance in the film but does not give too much information about him away. He don't know his name, where he is or why he's there. These questions raised in the poster are designed specifically to pull our audience in with their desire to understand the film.
* Similarily our review uses an image of our male protagonist that uses him as the key item in the image. This combined with the ritual Little White Lies house style and film title, 'Blind Eye' in bold emphasises that link between our male protagonist and our film.
* Similarly to a Little White Lies review, our review uses a lot of adjectives and intensifiers to build an image of the film for the audience.
* However even though our review does follow the conventions in layout and in languistic style of an actual Little White Lies review, I feel that our review dwells on mentioning the soundtrack too much for a film audience. LWL's readership is prominantly between 25-35, a readership group that maybe would not be so interested in the soundtrack of the film likening it to contemporary music artists such as WU LYF. Even though it may appeal to a younger audience of undr 18's, this is LWL smallest readership age.
* In Conclusion I believe our ancillary products greatly aid our film, our poster is designed to reel in an audience full of questions over our film and emphasises the important link between our male protagonist and our film. Our review similarily makes the links between our protagonist and the film and whilst including all the conventions of a WL review still manages not to give too much away about our films plot.
* However I do feel they could be improved by making sure our review met all the expectations fr it's readership.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For my answer to question 4 please watch my Prezi below...
I think you mean narration as opposed to narrative - if you mean the characters voice over?
ReplyDeleteAs a device, narration allows the story to be told quickly, it fills in gaps that would cost alot of time to film. Imp in short films I guess.
TIE poster - they are SKINHEADS, a youth sub culture prominent at this time.
You emphasise the conventions of layout in the review - what about the conventions of language?
Overall good Q1 - I like the fact that you have used the very contemporary "The artist" as an example - perhaps do the same with the poster and choose another poster that is very contemporary.
I would also discuss narrative organisation in your analysis.
Your Prezzi does nor show - have you set it on a public setting as opposed to private.
Q2 - you need to demonstrate more awareness of the marketing process - use the link you were given in the guidance pre half term.
It needs alot more in the way of visuals in Q2 and don't forget this needs to be done as a film.
Overall I like your layout. Perhaps a little more in depth analysis on the pace - QT break down - how many edits in particular parts of the film - its effect and comparisons to other similar films. You could discuss how your bullying scene suddenly speeds up.
Without a poster to comment upon, this aspect is limited.
This is a really quick look through
ReplyDeleteQ2 - regard the 5 mins as a minimum and bare in mind that the review and poster are part of an overall marketing process. www.launching films (see link on my blog) is worth you looking at including as it goes beyond.
Q3 - ?
Q4 - prezi - is far far too descriptive. Its just really an account of what techs you have used. Think about what these allowed you to achieve - The Poster for instance - PS allows you to create that very disoriented feel which is consistent with the film and thereby communicates a message to TA. Or In design allows you to replicate the LWL format - so the conventions are exact. The sound editing is massive in yours - evaluate - without it your film would have struggled - what has it added. Overall far far more detail and more interesting visuals and links - ok.
ReplyDelete