Mapping Out the Scenes for the Short Film

Mapping Out the Scenes for the Short Film

Before we start to storyboard the short film we decided to create an outline of all the scenes that would be in the film. We decided to do this because it will help us when it comes to storyboarding because we will have an outline of what should happen in every group of shots.


Our short film is going to be made up of 8 or 9 scenes. This is because we cannot decide how we want to end the short film. The endings we have come up with are:

• There is a scene where the protagonist appears to be committing suicide. Then there is a cut to black. Then there is a fade from black to a news show where one of the news stories is that a teenager has committed suicide in Haywards Heath. This ending clearly tells the audience that it is the protagonist that has committed suicide.
• The other ending is where there is a cut to black from the scene where the protagonist gets stood up by the person he was supposed to be meeting (the person he was talking to on Facebook). Then there is a fade from black to the news show saying that a teenager has committed suicide in Haywards Heath. This ending doesn't clearly show to the audience that the protagonist has committed suicide and it leaves them questioning what has happened. This could potentially have more of an impact on the audience because it is implying that the protagonist has committed suicide.

To decide which ending we will use in the final short film we are going to film both endings. Then we will have a test screening with some members of the target audience to see which ending they prefer.

The Scenes for the Short Film:

1. The first scene of the film is a montage of the protagonist and his friend spending a lot of time together. In this montage the two characters will be playing video games together and kicking a football to each other. In this montage, we need to show that the two characters are very happy when they are with each other, however, when they are not together they are very lonely and sad. Some of the locations for this include: woods; bedroom; open field.
2. In this scene, the protagonist is watching the TV when a news show comes on and one of the news stories is that his friend is dead. Something that we need to decide is whether this is a headline news stories or a side news story, maybe the friend committing suicide is a side news story and when the protagonist commits suicide it is a headline news story which connotes to the audience that at the end the protagonist has committed suicide. The location for this scene is a lounge. Some editing things that we are going to do for this scene are: we are going to put a pure green picture on the TV screen so that we can cut it out on post production using the chroma keyer. Also, we are going to film the news show with a green screen and put some things that make it look like a news show behind the character as he is talking.
3. In this scene we see the protagonist going through his normal life, however, through the use of close-up shots we see that he is very sad because he doesn't have his friend to go and hang out with. In this scene, we will see some long shots of the protagonist as he walks along on his own and there is nobody around him (he is completely alone). We will see the protagonist kicking a ball against a wall on his own. Then he walks across a field as he is heading home. After this, he walks across a bridge in the middle of a road to show his loneliness. Then he walks through the woods that he used to walk through with his friend.
4. In this scene we see the protagonist sitting at the top of his garden looking down at the house. He is just staring down at the house with a sad facial expression. The location for this scene will be in the garden and possibly it will be at Jake's house. In this scene, there will be an over the shoulder shot of the shoulder of the protagonist as he looks at the ground. In this shot, the focus will be on the ground and the protagonist's shoulder will be out of focus. Then there will be a focus pull to bring the focus to the protagonist's shoulder. After this there will be a cut to a close-up of the protagonists face showing his sad facial expression.
5. In this scene, we will see the protagonist as he walks through the woods. There will be some long shots to show him walking, also, there will be some close-ups to show his sad facial expression as he walks. Then his dead friend will walk past him which connotes that his mind is starting to play tricks on him. The protagonist will smile at the friend and say "hi" because he doesn't realise who it is. Then when he realises the person has already walked past him so he has to turn around and the friend is not there anymore. This is when the protagonist realises that he needs to find new friends or do something to get over the loss of his only friend.
6. In this scene we see the protagonist go into his room and we see him log onto Facebook and start talking to a random person. The protagonist and the other person agree and time and a place to meet.
7. This is the scene where the protagonist goes to meet the person he has been talking to on Facebook. However, the other person doesn't show up so the protagonist gets stood up.
8. In this scene, we see the protagonist as he prepares to commit suicide. He is standing at the side of the road. There is a close-up on his facial expression showing that he is content on what he is about to do. Then there is a long shot of the protagonist on the pavement. Then there is a pan showing the road he is looking at and the protagonist himself. Finally, there will be an extreme close-up on the road as the protagonist steps out into the road. Just as his foot touches the floor there is a cut to black.
9. This is the final scene of the film and in the scene, there is a fade from black into a news show where one of the news stories is that a young teenager has committed suicide. This teenager was the protagonist that has committed suicide. Then the film will end with a fade to black after the audience find out that the protagonist has been killed.

Here are some pictures of the group as we were coming up with all the scenes that are involved in the short film:

Further Development of the Ending:

When we were originally mapping out the story and discussing the end we, as a group, didn't like the ending that we had come up with. This is why we created 2 possible endings that we could use. We were going to create both endings edit them together and then do a test screening with the target audience and see which one had the best feedback. However, after having a group discussion about the ending we decided we would change one of the endings slightly and stick with it. The ending we are now going to have is:

• The protagonist will be at the side of a busy road just staring at the road and the cars that pass him.
• Whilst he is starring he will not move at all and his facial expression will show him looking very omniscient. 
• Then we will have a cut to black.

This means that there will be no news report saying that a person has committed suicide. We decided to change this for a couple of reasons:

• This better fits the Social Realistic genre of the film because the new report at the end saying someone has killed themself is not very realistic and throws off the feeling of the whole story.
• Additionally, because this short film is only 5 minutes long we want the ending to have as much of an impact as it can and if we just show that the protagonist is dead at the end it could have less of an impact on the audience, therefore, cutting to black and leaving the audience to wonder what happened next could have more of an impact.
• On top of this, the ending was very extreme for the situation that the character was in which made it seem unrealistic which is not what we wanted for our short film. 

Jake Woolven "Table 7"

Table 7

   

I found this short film (Table 7) on Vimeo and is about a couple who having an argument at what we assume is a Chinese restaurant However how it is structured we assume the worst. It was directed by Marko Slavnic and was released on January 26th 2011.

From this short film, I will be talking about



- Narrative
- Genre
- Audience








Todorov's theory of  narrative and Propps character theory we get a great insight into the story. The start appears to be at an equilibrium although they appear to be talking about something negative which creates enigma. Whilst this is happening unknowingly the 2 main characters are being spied on by a man underground. From how he is presented we assume he is not using this information for a good cause. After this we see the disruption of the argument escalating. As this is happening we see the man listening into the conversation begin to panic and speed up what he is doing. This infers its important to what he is doing. At the peak of the argument there is a crescendo created when the waiter puts fortune cookies  on the table. In these we see the man had been trying to resolve the argument. After this we see what is written on the pieces of paper we seen the resolution and therefore the new equilibrium. Propps theory of characters can also be seen here in places.

- The Hero is the man in the couple(could also be the woman)
- The Donor is the waiter who gives the message to the couple
- The princess is the woman on the couple(could also be the man)
- The dispatcher is the spy
- The Helper is also the spy








The genre of this short film appears to be a drama. This is as it has a lot of the criteria to meet this genre. This can be seen by the intense real life situation the characters are going through. We also see into how they are feeling which is portrayed through body language. This could also be classed as a Romance, this is as it has a couple arguing and make up to which suites the Genre. The way that the spy has little introduction makes the short film more like a drama. This is as he is a mysterious character and make it dramatic as we have no insight what he is doing however we assume the worst.

The audience for this type of film is possibly a more older audience. This is as it has a storyline which may be more relatable to them as something similar may have happened to them. This means that the demographic would be older affecting advertising techniques used. For example they may put the adverts on typically more adult websites like the news and BBC instead of more 'childish' ones like Youtube and Facebook as it would not reach as large of an audience.




The inspiration I took from this short film is that enigma can be very useful when combined with mise en scene. For example, we assumed the worst of the spy as he was represented weirdly until we understand what is happening. This is as we create stereotypes which will make us possibly think something else when another has happened.

Role allocation

Role & Task Allocation

For our short film, we assigned roles to be the most effective throughout the task. We agreed on what we thought ourselves and others would be best at to get the best possible result.

- Location scout: Sam, However, we will all go to the location for risk assessment etc

- Prop finder: Connor

- Storyboard: All

- Animatic director: All

- Sound designer: Jake

- Light designer: All

- Screenwriter: All

- Camera Operator: Jake

- Costume, Hair, Make-Up designer and buyer: Sam

Task Allocation:

• Group writes a synopsis for the story - All
• Apply Genre to the final story idea - Sam
• Apply Representation to the final story idea - Jake
• Apply Audience to the final story idea - Connor
• Apply Narrative to the final story idea - Jake
• Apply Media Language to the final story idea - Sam
• Script for dialogue - All
• Storyboard Animatic 1 - All
• Storyboard Animatic 2 - All
• Location Research - Sam
• Evidence of permissions - Sam & Jake
• Risk assessment - Sam & Jake
• Research into costume, hair and make-up - Sam
• Organisation of actors - All
• Lighting design - Connor
• Sound design - Jake
• Shooting schedule - All
• Audience feedback - Connor
• Prop research - Connor 





Developing Story Ideas - Pre-Production Planning

Developing Story Ideas - Pre-Production Planning

After coming up with a few story ideas we then had to pick one to flesh out a bit more. This means adding parts to the story to make it an interesting and meaning full short film. We decided to go with the story idea about the lonely character who's only friend disappears or dies.

The first draft of the story was as follows:
(* means something that will most likely be changed)

• Equilibrium:
• The short film starts with a lonely character who only has one friend.
• H spends most of his time with this friend.
• Whenever the character is with his friend he is happy and whenever he is not with his friend he is unhappy.
• Disruption:
• His friend commits suicide or disappears due to depression/loneliness. *

• The lonely character sees that his friend is dead on the news.
• The lonely character continues to live a normal life - he is always sad now because he doesn't have his friend.
• Recognition:
• One day the lonely character is walking through a woods, like he does normally, and he sees his friend (this is a hallucination because he wants his friend to still be alive).
• He doesn't realise that it was his friend until he has walked past him and when the lonely character turns around he has disappeared.
• This is when the character realises that he needs to find some new friends to try and get over the grief of his friend dying. 
• He goes onto Facebook and starts talking to people to try and make new friends. *
• There is a cut to black when he agrees to meet with someone.
• What the audience think is the New Equilibrium:
• Then we see this character going about his normal day, however, he is happy and smiling.
• Actual New Equilibrium:
• The final part of the film shows a news show when the news anchor is saying that the character has committed suicide.

After we created this first draft of the story we can to one conclusion. We didn't like the ending of the film because it was very confusing and we felt that it would be hard to follow. Therefore, we came up with a second draft with an extra part added to it:

• Equilibrium:
• The short film starts with a lonely character who only has one friend.
• H spends most of his time with this friend.
• Whenever the character is with his friend he is happy and whenever he is not with his friend he is unhappy.
• Disruption:
• His friend commits suicide or disappears due to depression/loneliness. *

• The lonely character sees that his friend is dead on the news.
• The lonely character continues to live a normal life - he is always sad now because he doesn't have his friend.
• Recognition:
• One day the lonely character is walking through a woods, like he does normally, and he sees his friend (this is a hallucination because he wants his friend to still be alive).
• He doesn't realise that it was his friend until he has walked past him and when the lonely character turns around he has disappeared.
• This is when the character realises that he needs to find some new friends to try and get over the grief of his friend dying. 
• He goes onto Facebook and starts talking to people to try and make new friends. *
• There is a cut to black when he agrees to meet with someone.
• What the audience think is the New Equilibrium:
• Then we see this character going about his normal day, however, he is happy and smiling.
• He keeps checking his Facebook messages, but, she has not seen any of his messages (for example where are you). This makes him upset because she didn't come and meet with him.
• Actual New Equilibrium:
• The final part of the film shows a news show when the news anchor is saying that the character has committed suicide.

Red shows the part that we added

We added the extra part to the story of the film because it made the ending easier to understand from an audience perspective.

The reason we decided to use Todorov's narrative theory for our short film was because it makes it clear to the audience the issues that we are dealing with. Todorov's narrative theory uses a linear narrative structure that we felt would have a more significant impact and the audience and make it easier for them to understand. Additionally, it would make the key themes and issues of the short film, which are loneliness and depression, have more of an impact. Furthermore, the ending of our short film is experimental depending on which one we choose. If we choose the one where the audience are not sure if the protagonist dies or not this will not fully follow Todorov's narrative theory. This is because when films use Todorov's narrative theory they normally have closure at the end because of the New Equilibrium, however, the ending where the audience don't know for sure if the protagonist has actually committed suicide or not doesn't have closure and it leaves the audience questioning the ending which could potentially have more of an impact on the audience. 

Short Film Story Ideas - Pre-Production Planning

Short Film Story Ideas - Pre-Production Planning

One of the first things that we, as a group, have to do is to create a story and a plot for our short film. The reason that we have this first is because it is the foundation for our short film and we can build the rest of our pre-production planning around it.

There are lots of different ways to come up with ideas for the story of our short film :

• Inspiration:
• from other short films
• from feature length films
• from books
• Imagine a story (come up with your own in your head)
• Pick a genre and vary some of the conventions to obtain a story idea (Neale's genre theory)
• Real life experiences
• Use a mood room or a mood board
• Ask others to see if they have a story idea
• Flip a well know story (change the binary oppositions)
• Reverse Budgeting where you work out the props and items you have available and your budget and build a story from there.
• Create a 'what if ...?' scenario and see if you can come up with a story idea from the scenario. 
• Click on random articles on the internet to see if there is a good idea for a story
• Remember to keep the idea simple.

We started by brainstorming some story ideas on paper and seeing as a group what we could come up with. These are the ideas we came up with:

• You don't know who you are standing next to:
• This story idea was based on 2 characters that were in an elevator.
• One of the characters was an everyday business man.
• The other character seems like a normal person, however, he is not (for example he could be a murder)
• Other people have it worse than you:
• This story idea like the first one was based on 2 characters who are in an elevator.
• One of the characters is going through a rough time (maybe not doing well a college - if a young person, or maybe doesn't like his job) and this character is getting really down about this.
• The other character is going through an even rougher time (maybe a victim of abuse of bullying). However, this character seems to be dealing with it better than the other even though on the inside he is being hurt more.
• All Alone:
• The world has become deserted (due to a big disaster like nuclear waste being dropped and causing radiation poisoning or some form of apocalypse.)
• There is one lonely person left on his own.
• This character only has 1 friend before the disaster and now he is even more lonely.
• One day he is out walking and he sees his friend walk past him. He has to double look before he realises who is was, but, then when he looks back the person is gone.
• This is a hallucination as due to the character loneliness.
• Spaced Out:
• A character is just living his normal life (does the same things every day over and over)
• Until some sort of disruption which breaks his cycle of his normal life.
• This leaves the character in shock as he doesn't know what to do and he keeps 'spacing out' and not being about to forget about the disruption.

Why we rejected:
We have decided to film 'All Alone' as we feel that it is our best idea and could be executed well when we don't really have a budget. 

• You Don't Know Who You're Standing Next to
•  We have decided to reject this story because the story didn't have enough depth to it. The overall message of the film was good but the narrative involved was simple and wouldn't allow us to create a good 5 minute film with a good story.
•  Other People Have it Worse Than You
• We made the decision to reject this story idea for similar reasons to the 'You Don't Know Who You Are Standing Next to' story. The overall message of this short film is good and will leave the audience with something to think about, but the story doesn't have enough depth so we would run into the issue of the film being too short.
• Spaced Out
• We made the decision to reject this story idea simply because we couldn't think of a way to add depth to the story and we couldn't figure what the story would lead to or what the overall message of the story would be. The main part of the story was some sort of disruption however we couldn't think of anything that would make sense for the story. 

Lovefield Genre Analysis - Short Film Research - Sam Swinson

Lovefield Genre Analysis - Short Film Research - Sam Swinson

This is a short film that was analysed in class. The genre of the short film is a hybrid because it has elements of a thriller/horror film, but, then there is an unexpected twist at the end and the film becomes a romance/comedy.


The semantic codes for horror include:

• A crow is iconic for horrors because they represent death, also, they represent Dracula.

The Crow

• The knife is another semantic code for horrors and thrillers.

The Knife

• Creepy non-diegetic background music is another semantic code for horrors because it builds up suspense even though it is not a visual code.
• The setting for the short film is very secluded which is a setting that is iconic for thrillers or horrors.

The Setting

• The telephone on the floor that is beeping is another semantic code for horror.

The Phone

• The woman stops moving as the non-diegetic background music crescendos is another semantic code to represent that the woman has been killed.

The woman as she stops moving

This film it clever in the way that it makes the audience feel safe. This is because of all of the semantic codes the audience have seen so far in the film it suggests to them that the ending will involve the killer burying the body, getting caught or the woman escaping. This means when the audience see the ending there is genuine shock and surprise because of what happened.


On top of this, once you see the ending of the film the rest of the film makes sense. This means that the audience has to re-evaluate what they have seen in the film. For example, the phone on the floor is because the protagonist has phoned the help services then had to leave the phone to attend to the woman. Also, the reason the protagonist stops to look at the crow is because a crow represents death so this suggests to the character the possibility that the new-born baby has died.

Crow possible suggesting the baby is dead

The Baby

The genuine shock comes because of the quick change in genre. This is because the horror aspects of the film have been building dramatically then as the protagonist goes to 'cover up the body or hide the body'. We then hear a baby crying and see a baby in the frame which is when the shock happens.

Short film on Vimeo:

LOVEFIELD (Short Film by Mathieu Ratthe) from thttf2004 on Vimeo.

Jake Woolven "Side effected"

Side effected

I  found this short film (Side effected) on Vimeo by searching 'short films,' It was released on March 31st 2013 and was directed by Lev Pakman. The basic story line of this short film, is a urgent meeting between boss and pharmacist about the new drug in development causing colour blindness and how the boss tries to get the information from the employee who is not telling the boss this large scale problem.

In this short film i will be looking at;

- Media Language
- Representation
- Genre

To begin, this short film has many characteristics of a drama. This is as it has characters in conflict over a real life scenario . In this case being the drug side effects. This can be seen by there being clear tension between the two characters within the short film.

After this we discover that the pharmacist was lying and the boss put the drug into the pharmacists coffee. By doing this he manages to discover that the drug does in fact cause colour blindness.This mixes in with the drama genre as it is an unexpected event which totally shocks the audience and the pharmacist.  

Media language is used in this short film to show meaning without directly addressing it. As the argument intensifies between the boss and pharmacist the shots keeping within the 180 degree rule the cuts keep speeding up. This is so the audience know that the argument is intensifying and matches the dialogue what is getting louder.


Another form of media language is the mise en scene used. The costume suggests that they are working men most probably in the middle class as they are wearing smart suites.

The setting of the short film also suggests that they are wealthy. This is as it is set in an office building and we can infer due to the dialogue that thew older man is the boss which tells us he owns the company and therefore the building. This connotes that he has a high status as he is the boss of the company,

The body language of the two men allows us to immediately tell who is on control of the situation, This is as the boss is leaned forward and talking bluntly compared to the pharmacist is hiding behind his coffee mug and is leaning away as if he is screaming he is lying.

The representation of the two characters is that they are both middle class men who work in large businesses. We can infer this as they have nice suites and look clean which is linked to the stereotype of middle class men.

Before and at the beginning of the meeting we can infer that they are both able men as there is no indication to think otherwise however, after the boss gives the pharmacist the drug, the pharmacist becomes colour blind. This represents that the drug has very harsh side effects and the pharmacist was lying to the boss.

When the short films meeting begins when they begin to speak. you notice their accents which sounds as if they are from America.




From this I got inspiration for a good argument. This has very good cuts with eye line match and keeps the tension within the scene with the editing. I also like the props they used by showing details which would become more prominent later in the film such as the apples and coffee.  

Jake Woolven Short film "wings"

                                              Wings

          

 

About the film.

The film is directed by YongSeok Choi and last a total of around 5 minutes. It was released on the 13th of September. I found this on Youtube and it appears to be quite a popular short film. This is as they have a large following and a lot of views. This is also one of a, what appears to be, a series. It appears to be about someone discovering who they are.

For this film i will be focusing on

- Genre
- Audience
- Narrative   



 This short film has the criteria to be a psychological thriller. This is as the protagonist appears to be in an abnormal state. This is shown through what he does throughout the short film, For example on his door there is a lot of scrape marks from where is maybe trying to escape or is unstable. 

The genre in this short film is in the face of the audience as it is quite an intense short film and has lots of strange behaviour coming from the protagonist. This can be seen from when he lights a plant on fire for what seems to have no reason.

 This short film could also be a horror, this is as it has some characteristics of a horror. For example it could scare or disturb audiences as it has a strange nature about it.



The narrative within this is told by silent film. This is as there is little to no dialogue however Todorov's theory of narrative is still present. The equilibrium at the beginning shows a standard dinner where the protagonist is alone. At this time everything seems to be 'normal' and is therefore at an equilibrium. After this we see him removing what appears to be a hearing aid of some kind and dropping an apple and taking a photo of flowers however the candles are blown out as he does possibly showing he is being controlled by another inhuman force which could be the disruption.

However after this, finding the remaining narrative theories is quite difficult for me possibly as it is directed and produced by people from other cultures where is has more meaning. Later in the short story we see the protagonist light some flowers and then the scene becomes warped and watery connoting that they were a hallucinogen which could add to the narrative by infering he is in an asylum or rehab. This is further supported by the bed room and scratches on the door which has a hospital theme about it.

At the beginning, there is a black screen with the only dialogue in the short film apart from the music at the end. In this the man talks of a god named Abraxas which further supports the idea of inhuman power in this short film. After this the man leaves the room and there is the abraxas pattern on the walls with the reoccurring bird picture at the end of the hall. This connotes that maybe he is abraxas or is his successor which ads to the narrative of the short film.





The audience this is trying to gain is a mature audience. This is as this type of short film (psychological thriller) tend to infer a lot which means audiences have to be more intelligent to understand what is happening. It may also be trying to target people of Asian culture, this is as it is directed and written by Asian people therefore it may not make sense to people of a western culture.

Because of its peculiar story line, this short film may have a niche audience. This means that it will have a smaller audience due to being seen as strange or not normal to the majority.




From this short film I have taken inspiration from the strange style of the whole piece as it has an abstract style which makes it stand out from others. I also like that it has some nice close ups and meaning behind the action which I would like to incorporate to my own piece.

Too Quick To Judge Directed By Maaz Khan Analysis By Connor Hilton

Too Quick To Judge Directed By Maaz Khan Analysis

By Connor Hilton

About The Film:

The film is about a young man who comes across a woman sitting on a bench in a park where he has come for a run. The young man tries to compliment the woman on her drawing and she appears to ignore him twice before he gets frustrated and leaves for a lap around the park when he returns the woman has left a note.

From the YouTube Description: "A short-film that teaches us that we shouldn't be too quick to judge people."

Concepts:

• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

Analysis:

• The film opens on a long shot of a female character sitting alone on a bench in a park setting.
• The female character is also wearing a short dress, like she could be dressed for a special occasion.  
• The female character is drawing in a sketch book on the end of the bench.
• We then cut to a close up of the page in the female characters sketch book that shows she is drawing a woman in a long dress.

Long Shot of female character on bench

CU of the sketch

• A few seconds pass and a male character approaches and places his bag on the bench.
• The female character doesn't look at him at all as if  she doesn't know he's there we see this via a 2 shot. 
• The male character stretches, puts his headphones in and sets off on a run leaving his bag on the bench.
• The shot fades into another long shot of the female character indicating to the audience that some time has passed. 

LS 2 shot of the two characters

• The male character takes a seat on the bench with the female character and notices her drawing.
• The male character attempts to compliment the drawing, yet the female character doesn't reply or even look at him. 
• This seems odd to the audience because the female characters body language is positive as she is sitting up straight with her arms open.
• The male character attempts to compliment the drawing a second time and the same thing happens. 
• The male character begins explaining how he was only trying to compliment the drawing and that he wasn't interested in her and the female character doesn't even look at him once again. 
• The male character stands up and begins packing things into his bag, the female character looks at him confused.
• The male character is complaining to the female character about how every girl thinks every guy is interested in them. 
• The male character then leaves for another lap of the park.

mid shot of male character leaving

• As the male character leaves the female character looks at him with a confused facial expression which we see via a close up.
• We then get an over the shoulder shot of the female character writing on her sketch.
• She then tears the page out, slides it under the male characters bag and leaves.
• This creates enigma as the audience is left to wonder what she wrote on the paper for a few seconds.

OTS shot of writing on sketch.

• We see an extreme long shot of the male character approaching the bench.
• He looks around to see if the female character is still there and then notices the piece of paper under his bag.
•  He picks the sketch up and sits on the bench.
• We get an over the shoulder close up of the sketch and the writing reads " Sorry if I offended you...I'm deaf."
• We then see a reaction shot of the male character and his facial expression shows regret and sadness. 
• The film cuts to black and a quote appears on screen "Don't be too quick to judge".

Conclusion:

In my opinion, this short film is trying to represent how quickly people will judge someone and how assumptions can be made too quickly and can lead to confusion and anger. It portrays this message to the audience very well by hiding details and explanation until the end. The ending can be predicted as it can be obvious that the female character was deaf as her body language was mainly positive throughout the film. Some people may have assumed that the female character was judging the male character too quickly at the start of the film because she didn't even talk to him but this is twisted at the end and can lead to the audience being surprised 

.

The Short Film:

Short film research, Gone south- Jake Woolven

Gone south

I found this short film (Gone South) on Vimeo by searching "short films." This short film is about two bikers travelling across America. It is approximately 5 minutes long and was directed by Skyler Nielsen. In this short film The narrative shows how their journey transitions through long shots with what appears to be a drone or some kind of jib. In this there is no talking however you can tell what is happening by other media language such as body language and facial expression.


For this short film I will be focusing on


- Narrative
- Audience
- Representation


To begin, within this short film, the narrative is told through what we see. This means that you can guess what is happening by what you are shown. For example, you are able to tell the passing of time by how the setting changes. The lighting also affects this by becoming lighter and darker throughout the short film allowing us to infer it was over multiple days. The terrain they are going over changes as the film goes on suggesting they are going long distances. In this, Barthes codes allow us to get greater insight into the story. For example there is alot of enigma as this has little to no dialouge at all. However, in this short film it is hard to find Todorov's theorys of narrative as I cannot find where the stages of narrative occur such as the Equilibrium, Distruption, Realisation, Restored order and new equilibrium.

The representation of the main characters is that they are both middle aged men. This infers that they work and have possibly known eachother for a long time. They also share similar hobbies mainly riding motor bikes. This is apparent by the narrative of the story being about them both going on a road trip across what we can infer is America, as it has a bystander giving information to the bikers which also infers that they are not from the US themselves.

They also appear to be wearing quite nice clothes and have expensive motor bikes. This represents that they have a lot of disposable income and infers that they are middle class.

 

Later in the short film, they drop the bikes which represents that maybe they don't care about the bikes or they are enjoying the moment which represents that money is not an issue to them. However, we see them laugh it off as if they know that it was a silly thing to attempt which shows they are having fun on their trip.

The audience that this is targeting is possibly a more mature demogtraphic. This is as it has lots of extreme long shots of scenery which would be more appealing to older more mature audiences. It may also be trying to target more educated audiences. This is as the audiences have to infer alot of things on their own as it is a silent film and there is alot of enigma. This means there is a more niche audience meaning it may not appeal to a large audience.



From this short film I have taken inspiration from the extreme long shots. I found that it gave a great insight to where the short film was set and where they are headed next. I also liked how there is little to no diaglouge. This is as the extreme long shots and non verbal communication of the characters gave us information on the narrative.  However because of this there are parts of the narrative which are left out which could make the short film more appealing to larger audiences.

The Black Hole UK 2008 by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams Short Film Analysis Connor Hilton

The Black Hole Short Film by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams

Research By Connor Hilton

About the film(from the YouTube page): "A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole - and then greed gets the better of him..."

Concepts:

• Representation
• Narrative
• Media Language 

Title Screen:

Analysis:

• The film opens with an establishing shot to a close up of a male character at work.
• The setting is in an office.
• According to Todorv's theory this would be the equilibrium stage of the plot.
• The man is wearing a white shirt that has the top button undone which suggests that he has been working for a long time that day and is tired. This costume is also iconic to an office worker.
• His facial expression also shows that he is tired which tells the audience that he has been working late.

  

  Close Up of male character

• The male character is attempting to print something and becomes frustrated when the printer doesn't work.
• The man kicks the printer and the printer prints a piece of paper with a large black circle on it.
• The man takes a drink, but as he picks the cup up we cut to a low angle shot of him drinking the water from the piece of paper's position.
• This creates enigma as we are wondering why we are seeing this from the perspective of the paper.
• It also looks like the camera is inside the piece of paper instead of on top which creates the 'black hole'.

  

  Low angle shot of man drinking

• The man then sets the cup down on top of the black hole and notices the cup dissapears through the paper.
• The man begins experimenting with the paper by picking it up and putting his hand through it which represents the human curiosity.

• 

  Close up of man putting hand through paper

• After the man discovers that he can put his hand through the black hole, her immediately looks up and straight at the vending machine 
• He then uses the paper to reach through the glass of the vending machine to grab a chocolate bar. This begins to con notate the mans level of greed to the audience.
• At this point the very humorous and fake concept of being able to reach through things with a piece of paper becomes real to the spectators. 

  

  CU of man taking bite out of chocolate bar

• There is then a pull focus zoom shot of a door with a 'keep out' sign on it.
• The lighting is low key which indicates that the door is off-limits for normal employees and is for the boss only.

Pull Focus zoom of the door

• We then see a close up of the man using the black hole to unlock the door from the inside.
• He then proceeds to the safe and sticks the piece of paper to the door with some tape.
• He reaches inside and pulls out a stack of money. 
• He smiles when he sees the money, it makes his face look creepy and shows his greed.
• Instead of stopping there, the man continues to pull money out of the safe until he has a pile of money.
• He begins going further and further into the black hole to reach the money.
• He then climbs right into the safe through the black hole.
• Once he is in the safe, the piece of paper falls off the door of the safe leaving the man trapped inside the safe and the money left outside the safe. 

  

  Mid shot of safe and money.

  To conclude, I would show that 'The Black Hole' is conveying the message of greed and how it will come full circle back to you in the future. The film coveys this message in an effective way as it is comedic and light hearted which makes the audience laugh but also think about the deeper meaning of the film. The film also has no dialogue and uses lighting, facial expressions and creative angles to show what is happening and what the main character is thinking. 

The Short Film:

'Identity' Directed by Babak Anvari 2012 Analysis By Connor Hilton

'Identity' Directed by Babak Anvari 2012Research By Connor Hilton

About The Film:  

 This short film is about a young teen girl in American high school. Everyone in the school is wearing masks, nobody's face can be seen. The girl gets distressed and uncomfortable because the mask is her fake identity and she wants to show her true identity. 

From the short films YouTube video description: ""Identity" is a project made for the youth in schools.
Don't let society define your Identity, or to tell you who you have to be.
The truth is already inside of you. Don't lose who you are."

Media Concepts: 

• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

Analysis: 

Title Screen

• We start with black screen, we hear some narration from a female voice "Today I found the truth".
• It then cuts to a close up of a female character staring at herself in the mirror.
• The female character then raises a mask. Which hides her face, giving her a 'new identity'. This indicates that the film is trying to portray the message that teenagers hide their true identity and only show a fake identity to others.
• She walks backwards out of the room, into a hallway and into a cafeteria. This indicates that what we just saw was a flashback and are now seeing the present time.  
• Other students are also wearing the masks, however, they are split into groups. Nobody appears to have the same mask as the female character though which indicates that she doesn't 'fit in'.

CU without mask

CU with the mask on

• Next we see the female character inside a classroom with her classmates via an over the shoulder shot, all of them are wearing masks.
• We hear the teacher is telling a story of a group of people who lived inside of a cave and had never seen the outside, and how one day, one of the people saw the outside and became the enlightened one and had to show the others. This foreshadows the end message to the short film.

  

  OTS shot of girl sitting in class

• The female character has left the class and is wandering down the halls.
• We see a close up of a poster that reads "THIS is what beautiful looks like. 

  

  CU of Poster

• The girl in the poster is wearing a pure yellow mask with no detail, it looks generic and boring, this could relate to the real life glamour images where the models faces all look very similar because of the makeup hiding their 'identity'.
• It also represents how the media influences teenagers to look a certain way in order to be beautiful.
• We then cut to a mid shot of a group of female characters wearing the same yellow mask as the girl on the poster. 
• This shows that these girls have been influenced by the media and have made themselves look 'beautiful'. 

Mid-Shot of the group of girls

• A few seconds later we see a different female character walk up to a group of friends while taking off one mask which reveals the mask underneath. This shows that people have different identities for different friend groups and have to act as someone else when with some people. It could also show that she is her more real 'identity' when with that group of friends and the other mask was an identity that she showed in class. 

Mid Shot of girl taking off mask

• Next, we see the main female character sitting in the original place in the cafeteria via a close up of her at the table.
• We hear a non-diegetic sound that reminds us of what happened at the start of the short film.
• The female character stands up and rushes to the bathroom, tripping when she gets through the door to the bathroom. 
• After a cut to black we get an over the shoulder shot of the girl standing up and looking into the mirror.
• Her mask appears to have cracked and is missing some of it's 'face'. 
• The female character attempts to leave the bathroom, but stops at the door and then walks back to the mirror. 
• We hear a slow, happy & triumphant non-diegetic soundtrack as the female character removes the mask from her face. 
• The female character stares into the mirror and smiles, she has realized her true identity. 
• We then get more narration similar to the start of the film "Today the truth found me".
• The female character leaves the bathroom, while dropping the mask, and walks outside building facing her peers who stare at her in surprise. 

LS of girl walking outside

Conclusion: 

Identity is aimed at a teenage audience giving the key message to not be fake with each other and to be your true self. It also represents teenagers as generic and people who can be categorized into groups. It does this by giving people who are friends similar masks which indicates that they are all the same person. Additionally, the film highlights the way that media tells teenagers to act and look and how some teenagers are influenced heavily by this and hide their true identity. Lastly, I think that the main message of the film is to tell teenagers to be themselves and that it doesn't matter if you fit in with others because everyone should be unique.

The Short Film (Identity):