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):