Short Film Poster Analysis

Django Unchained

Making the template for my Film Review using Adobe InDesign

Filming Day

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New Script

Due to actors pulling out at the last minute, we have decided to shorten the script to accomadate the available actors who can make it to the filming.

Raise Your Voice (Revised)

Shot List

Shot List

Props

These are the posters that Robyn made for the filming based on her research on the student protest.

Costumes

Jane

In the short film, Jane is supposed to be a shy and timid girl. Although she strongly opposes the education cuts she still believes that violence is not the key to demonstrations. We want to base Jane's characterisation to Zoe Williams who was a student peace maker in the 2010 London student protests who tried to stop students from smashing vans. There weren't a lot of full body shots of Williams but the picture from above reveals her wearing a thick jacket and a big scarf.

Molly

 Molly is the complete opposite of Jane, she is wild, rash and aggressive which leads to both of them getting arrested in the short film. I looked for articles about students getting arrested in the in the London demonstrations due to riots and the picture above shows a woman that could fit Molly's description. We could base Molly's clothes using this picture and we could see that she is wearing thinner clothes than Zoe.

Props

Robyn who is in charge of props will be basing the poster which our lead character will be "creating" by using this list she researched on the actual posters used by students in the 2010 protest.

Recruiting our Composer

 

This is the conversation that I had when recruiting the composer for our short film. It also includes why I wanted this particular person to compose the music, how I want it to be composed, how it reflects the film and why it would suit our genre.

Production Meeting

Rescheduling day for filming with Bridgwater Student Union

Location Recce

Location idea 1, a typical lounge. The reason why did not use this idea was because none of our lounges looked student like, therefore wrecking the whole idea of our short film, that the people are at university.

Production Meeting

Reflective Analysis on Empire and Sight & Sound

                                           Empire                                                             Sight and Sound

Actual Review

Empire employs a system wherein it avoids analysis of the films and often labels whether a film is "good" or "bad"which is done by introducing a ranking system or a "star verdict". It is also rather more informative whereas Sight & Sound is more critical. It demands specialist in-depth analysis of the stylistic elements of the film, mise-en-scene, genre and production techniques while Empire offers brief synopsis in terms of plot, narradtive, characters effects and entertainment value.

Layout

Both magazines have a higher body of text to image ratio but Empire displays a bigger sized image than S&S (but this is partly due to the fact that Empire has a double page spread review on the film). Empire also uses bolder texts and different coloured fonts as opposed to S&S's basic normal sized and black coloured fonts. Similarly both have white coloured background as to not retract from the actual review of the film.

My verdict

In terms of the written review, I prefer to write one for my short film in the style of Sight & Sound. I want it to target audience who are interested in the analytical side of the film rather than blindly saying what is good and what is bad. In terms of layout however, I prefer Empire's bolder text, incorporation of a quotation in large font across the page and more colours. However I wouldn't follow the exact layout used here in my own magazine review layout. I want my magazine review to possibly include one or two more images and I certainly would not include a verdict or star ranking in my magazine.

Film Review Analysis - Sight & Sound

Film Review Analysis - Empire

Genre and Target Audience

From the responses from my audience questionnaire (19 responses) the majority of the interviewees were aged 17-20 and most were women.

I found out that the majority of interviewees thought that the genre of the short film is either drama or documentary. The fact that I've introduced the short film being "based on the 2010 UK student protest" attributed to people choosing documentary. This leads to whether the audience would watch the short film or not.

More than half the interviewees chose "no". This could be correlated to the preferred genres that they watch.

As we can see from above,  0% did not prefer to watch documentary and 18% for drama.

Reflective Analysis

Because our short film highlights social movements and political protests, many chose "not" to watch the short film; they thought it would be a boring documentary. The target audience will still be aged 17-20 because the issue with tuition fees should be relatable to students who are applying to universities. Furthermore, instead of two people talking about politics, we are basing the story on peer pressure but with the protest as the trigger for this which results in a conflict between two friends. This would make more of an emotional impact on the audience and again the target audience should relate to issue as well.

Masterclass by Barry Ryan (Warp Films)

Presentation1 from Alice Hancock

General Audience Research

Audience Research on Documentary Films

During the ASFF, we interviewed a documentary enthusiast and she told us how she got interested into documentary films and why she loved this particular genre.

Audience Research on Experimental Films

Audience Research - Survey

link - http://freeonlinesurveys.com/app/rendersurvey.asp?sid=tkljvtyi1chzvc2450004&refer=freeonlinesurveys%2Ecom

Aesthetica Short Film Festival

Actor for Short Film

Our actress playing the role of Molly.

Storyboard for "Raise Your Voice"

Raise Your Voice

Script

Update on Actors

Another short story

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

I sit alone in worry, biting my nail as the sound of the clock echoes around these brown painted walls. The living room never looked so small until this day. I feel like the walls start closing in on me, suffocating me.  I stand up from the sturdy leather couch and start to pace across the room. Alright Jane, you can do this! I think to myself. I try to psyche myself up, hoping that my worries would subside. As I walk towards the window, I hug myself in comfort. Looking through the window I see a peaceful neighbourhood, quiet and tranquil. Then I see my own reflection, an average girl with long blond locks and fair skin. But beneath those hazel coloured eyes, I see fear.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my housemate’s footsteps as she walks into the room. She looks intimidating with her black leather jacket and combat boots. But then again, even without those she’d always been intimidating, well to me at least. It’s written in her eyes, in her stare, the way she talks and the way she moves. She’s loud, outgoing, and adventurous and that’s why people like her, unlike me.  Quiet, reserved and a coward.

“So, did you finish making our poster?” she asks.

“Yeah, I did. It’s on the coffee table, check it out.”

She walks towards the couch and sits on it. After inspecting my work, she nods her head in agreement. Without looking at me, she puts her feet on the table, takes out her phone and shrugs, “It’s alright”.

“Right.”, I say.

“Anyway, John and your brother will be back any minute then we can go.”

I walk my way in front of her, the coffee table between us. “Uhm…”

“What’s wrong?” she asks, still looking at her phone.

Suddenly, I feel my heart beating fast and my stomach doing somersaults like a Russian gymnast. It’s now or never, Jane! I must have been gawking at her like an idiot for a long time because she looks up to me and asks, “You’re looking constipated, Jane. Just spit it out.”

“It’s just..”

“It’s just what? Oh, wait a second.” Did I mention she was smart too? Because she cocks her eyebrow at me and says, “I get it, you’re having second thoughts about this, aren’t you?”

Bingo.

“Look, I just don’t think me not going to the protest would be any loss. Besides, I think the whole thing is pointless anyway.” I say, hopefully persuading her. But the irritated look on her face says otherwise. But whatever retaliation she was about to make was interrupted as we hear the front door opening. It must be Daniel, my brother and his friend John, I think. They enter the room, unaware of the tension looming between me and Molly.

“Hey, we’re all set now. We should get going.” John says.

Daniel however notices something wrong and asks, “You guys okay? You’ve been staring at each other weirdly.”

Molly turns her head towards them and says, “Why don’t you ask your sister, Dan? She’s the one having cold feet.”

“Cold feet?” he asks, worryingly. Both Daniel and John walk towards the couch, behind Molly and towers over her, like two bodyguards. Molly crosses her leg and folds her arms, waiting for my explanation.
“Jane, thinks the protest is stupid.”

That liar! Both men look at me in awe as I try to explain myself.

“What? No! I said pointless, not stupid.”

“Do you even care about our education Jane? Because it doesn’t look like it.” Molly adds in.

 “Of course I care about it. But let’s be honest guys, do you really think the government will change their minds? I want to support the cause but there’s no point fighting the inevitable.”

The room falls into an awkward silence. After what seems like an eternity, Daniel breaks the ice and says “I get where you’re coming at Jane, but it’s still worth trying.”

“Ok fine, but there’s bound for something to happen. I’m worried. You know what people get like, especially in this city. Also, the police will be everywhere, we could get in trouble! And I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Wow, talk about paranoia.” she snottily remarks, rolling her eyes.  “It’s going to be a peaceful protest Jane. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Yeah we’re just going to march around with our posters and stuff. It’s gonna be fun”, John says.

Fun? Is he serious or stupid?

“Are you sure about that? Because I saw pictures online last night and it didn’t look like a peaceful protest to me.” I then look at my brother, pleading to him with fearful eyes “They were smashing police vans, Dan! That’s anything BUT peaceful. I’m angry about the cuts as well but smashing things aren’t going to help anything.”

Molly looks up at my brother, annoyed. Take care of this, or else.

Sighing, my brother walks towards me and grabs me by my shoulders, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you! You’re my little sister, and I’ll be looking out for you the whole time. It’ll be fun, I promise. We can get pizza after; if that doesn’t tempt you I don’t know what will.”

He’s bribing me with pizza? Really?

Molly stands up angrily and says “Okay, enough! You can do whatever you want Jane but remember,” the next thing she says is haunting, her eyes threatening me but I know what she means when she says, “Remember who your friends are.”

“Hate to break this up but we should probably leave.” John pipes in as he gathers the posters.

As I watch them leave, that moment when I see their backs in front of me, I shut my eyes. Then I open my eyes again and reality set in. “Hey guys, wait up! I’m coming with you.”

I’m still the same coward little girl.

This always happens. Every time I try and resist her, she always finds the right words to incite me. In the end she always win. I wonder, did she truly believe in the cause? Or was she just in it for the show? I probably won't ever know. Because in that moment, I raised my voice and said the words I can never take back... Wait! I'm coming with you..

Short Story (Robyn's Version)

Media Short Story by arzenia

Short Story for Short Film update

Why Do People Protest?

Other sociologists like Katz believe that people commit crime to be a break from boredom and everyday life. This links to the idea of our film how these students do not realise what they are doing. They are disconnected from reality and can’t see the difference between what they were protesting for and what  they were actually doing, making it more romantic, thus not seeing the harsh reality. This is like Jane who can see the harsh reality of what they are doing while her brother’s friends only see the romantic side of the idea of going to protest and looking ‘cool’ in front of there peers like Cohen suggested about the 1960’s mods and rockers riots.

UK 2010 Student Protests

The 2010 British student protests were a series of demonstrations that began in November 2010 in several areas of the United Kingdom, with the focal point of protests centred in London .MPs were asked to approve a motion tabled by Vince Cable, the business secretary, allowing universities to increase tuition fees to up to £9,000 from September 2012. Student groups said that the intended cuts to education were excessive and broke campaign promises made by politicians, amounting to "attempts to force society to pay for a crisis it didn't cause." Approximately 30,000 to 52,000 protesters attended the demonstration on the streets of central London. Further protests were held on 24 and 30 November, and 9 December, with students holding rallies and occupying government and university buildings. Organisers said that most of the protests were peaceful, but sporadic acts of violence and vandalism were reported by authorities; protesters and police officers alike were injured, and in some cases hospitalised.

*This video is helpful as it will show us how people behaved during the protest and it also gives us an idea on what to write on the posters for our props.

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Reflective Analysis (Feedback)

After our short film pitch, we've decided to change and improve a few factors when producing our short upon receiving helpful feedback from the audience.

Setting:
Initially the story is set in the late 70's / early 80's however as expected, it would be difficult to reconstruct our location with props found around those eras. Also, it would be difficult to write a script revolving around the political protests at the time without being historically incorrect. Therefore we have decided to change our setting to the modern era, basing the protest on the 2010 UK students protest. The script will probably be easier to write as it is more relatable to us as students.

Narrative:
We've been told that our short didn't really have a narrative and I agree. Initially the story surrounds 4 characters who are getting ready to join a protest as they make a poster, which isn't really plot-driven. Therefore we've decided to create a conflict between two central characters and have a binary opposition. One of them will be shy, timid and anti-protest whereas the other character will be outspoken, headstrong and pro-protest. With this, we could have conflicts between characters that will definitely add more to the story.

Script:
Originally, in the story we find our characters talking about their views and opinions on why they are joining the political protest. But this is too mundane and tedious therefore I had an idea that instead of basing their dialogue on political views, we could be basing the story on peer pressure but with the protest as the trigger for this i.e. "Jane" who doesn't want to join the protest is being pressured by her friend to join resulting a conflict between the two. I find this subject more relatable to our age group and will definitely be more interesting to watch than two people talking about politics.

Short Film Pitch - Feedback Video

A2 Short Film Media Pitch

Among Giants (Reflective Analysis)

Among Giants (Textual Analysis)

Produced by Rainhouse Cinema, Among Giants is a short documentary film which tells the story of an environmental activist, "Farmer", who tree-sits to protect a grove of old-growth redwood trees in northern California from clearcutting. It was created to bring awareness to the issue of clearcutting and those who work to stop it.

Mise-en-scene

The use of setting, costumes and decor in this short film illustrates the audience of a simple structured informative film of a man's struggle to save the forest. The trees and plants encapsulates what the film is all about - nature. Therefore there is no question why it uses natural high key lighting, although in most cases observational documentaries often use natural lighting. We are also immediately drawn to objects such as the climbing gears, cooking materials and the tent which tells the audience that the man had been living up on a tree.

Cinematography

It mainly uses unobtrusive camerawork. By maintaining the observational mode, the director allowed the subject to forget the presence of the camera and behave more naturally, thereby letting the audience get a better sense of how he really feels about the forest. Most shots are also shown in close-ups with shallow depths of field which direct the viewer's attention and focus on the beauty of nature and also emphasize "Farmer's" expressions. It also used some low angle shots accentuating the heights of the trees which "Farmer" climbs. It can also connote to the strength and stability of nature but poses an ironic element as these trees are in risk of being cut down. As the short climaxes, we see aerial camera angles juxtaposing both the beauty of the existing forestland with the elegiac destruction of logged areas.

Editing

It consists of minimal editing; it immediately straight cuts to still shots of close-ups with shallow depth of fields which almost look like montage of natural landscape photographs. This adds to the slow pace of the short which can also reinforce the prolonged and endured struggle of "Farmer" living up a tree for three years to make a stand about clearcutting of trees. It also used texts to informative texts to educate the viewers on clearcutting.

Sound

The short exists almost entirely without a musical score (only introduces a diegetic background music as it climaxes), opting instead for the ambient sounds of the forest to comprise the soundtrack. The result is serene, practically mediative. The radio at the beginning aids authenticity of the situation giving the audience information about the conservation of the forest and "Farmer's" voice-over gives us his personal insight of his beliefs.

Narrative Techniques (Part 3/3)

Narration (Voice-over)
This is a narrative technique wherein a voice (non-diegetic) is used over images shown on the screen. Narrators can be either an omniscient, disembodied person that sees all, or they can be characters that exist in the world of the movie, sometimes narrating their own story, sometimes narrating others’ stories.




This short film also uses voice-overs monologues by both the father and son. The first monologue done by the son gives an obvious foreshadowing as he tells the audience that "we've always known that our relationship had been fated from the beginning..to end in some bloody reckoning", not only does this foreshadow what is about to happen, it also tells us about their relationship, that they have been in discord throughout their lives. We already know of the father's cynical view of the world and his hatred for his son, however, his voice-over gives the audience a hint that maybe he doesn't hate him as much as he claims it to be. He states "for the first time in my life, I recognized clearly where I'd seen this before" (referring to his son as he gazes upon him lying on the ground). This tells us that perhaps he had seen his younger self in his son, the dreamer who hopes to venture in the outside world. He sacrifices himself at the end of the video so that his son could be freed from him and their house which ties them down.

Narrative Techniques (Part 2/3)

Flashback
The purpose of flashback is to either move the story forward or reveal information about the character. Flashbacks can be used for any number of reasons but its primary purpose is to bridge time, place and action to reveal a past emotional event or physical conflict that affects the character. Sometimes, it gives insight and understanding into a character's behavior or solves a past mystery. A flashback can also be used to reveal why an event happened, or how it happened, or possibly flashforward to an event that may or may not happen in the near future.

will by Eusong Lee is a powerful animated short film about the struggle of a girl dealing the with loss of her father due to the 9/11 incident. The yo-yo giver by her dad acts a bridge to the present day and the flashback to the father but most importantly, later on we see that it mirrors her father falling out the window of the tower. A yo-yo however can be pulled back up, unlike her dad's circumstances. The short also effectively used colours to differentiate between the two timelines: orange tones for the dad (to represent the fiery destruction of the tower) and greens and browns for the girl.

Binary opposites
Binary means a combination of two things, a pair or duality. Opposition, on the other hand means the act of strongly disagreeing with somebody or something; especially with the aim of presenting something from happening. So, binary opposition refers to two opposite things but interrelated or interconnected with each other. In fact the one depends on the other. These exact opposites will often create conflict between characters that will help move the plot forward. The usual example of binary opposite in a film will be a hero and a villain.



The Terms by Jason Lamotte is an award-winning dark comedy short film. A man  father declares that he's going to shoot his son dead after he learns that he set their house on fire but offers him an arrangement: a fifty yard head start and a single bullet in the chamber. This short film displays a good example of binary oppositions: father and son, dreams and reality. The son thinks "it's time they up roots and move on", away from their house whereas the father is "too old for optimism". There is this conflict between youthful dreams and cynical resignation which catalyses sad consequences.

Narrative Techniques (Part 1/3)

Cinematic techniques such as the choice of shot, scene transition, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and narrative of a short film. These include technique such as montage, foreshadowing,  flashback, binary opposites, and voice-overs.

 Montage In filmmaking, a montage is an editing technique in which shots are juxtaposed in an often fast-paced fashion that compresses time and conveys a lot of information in a relatively short period. Montages cannot create strong emotions. Therefore they are not used to make the audience feel, rather they make the audience know. Montages inform. For this reason, it is often said that characters cannot fall in love during montages. The courtship and romance would be too bland or dull. However, the short film Roshambo, by boho fashion retailer, Free People proves otherwise.

Roshambo is another name for the rock-paper-scissors game. The game itself is like an inside joke or secret between the couple and is sweetly woven throughout the video. The camerawork is mostly hand-held, this highlights the intense physical interactions between the couple. Also it shows a lot of close-ups shot with a wide aperture enabling the audience to focus more on the couple's expressions and actions without being distracted by the background. It is mostly shot at night, often dark due to natural lighting but this also accentuates the intimacy. Finally, the non-diegetic background music fits perfectly as its upbeat sound adds more to the playful nature of the two.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary tool filmmakers adapt to provide early clues about where the plot is headed. It is a narrative technique that, when used skilfully, gets viewers involved and thinking about the plot unfolding before them because they are picking up hints about what may soon happen.

Skhizein by French animator Jérémy Clapin is a short which tells the story of a man called Henry who comes face to face with a meteorite, the aftermath of which causes him to exist exactly 91cm from himself. In practice this means that when he sits down he looks as though he is floating in the air because his visual presence is 91 cm away from the chair itself.

The title itself provides a foreshadowing of the short film. The word “skhizein” is German for “split.” There is one obvious relation to the video – Henry literally splits into two parts. However, “skhizein” also happens to be the first part of the word “schizophrenia,” schizophrenia being a personality disorder. Henry seems to be the only person who realizes that he has been split. He writes out a blueprint of his house, he makes a make-shift desk at work, and he frequently mentions that he’s been shifted over by 91 centimeters. This could mean that Henry being hit by a meteorite is a metaphor for Henry developing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia also tends to develop over an extended period of time, which is shown in the film by Henry getting hit by multiple meteorites throughout the course of the video. Additionally, social isolation is a defining symptom of schizophrenia. Towards the end of the video, Henry begins to shut himself off from the world – he ignores both his mother and his uncle.

Intercom (Reflective Analysis)

Analysis of Intercom short film

More Short Films..

10 Minutes (2002)

Reflective Analysis on Genres

The term 'genre' is not absolute, many factors have conspired to blur genre definitions. Initial divisions of film types resulted in the standard and widely agreed genres of the Western, the musical, the horror film, the comedy, the war film, the thriller, the crime film and the sci-fi film. Yet, an individual genre movie, in order to distinguish itself in the market and attract an audience needs to challenge and innovate genre conventions. As an audience we always need to be alert to the fact that our genre expectations may be subverted or undercut in some way by filmmakers who are well aware of the elements audiences normally expect to find in films from any particular genre. Film genres must constantly evolve otherwise they will inevitably become very repetitive. Nowadays, we are getting used to sub-genres such as romantic comedies, or action thrillers or even post-apocalyptic films and hybrid genres like western musicals and action comedies.

This research into film genres enabled me to have a better understanding on genre analysis as classification i.e. trying to fit films into particular groups which consequently helps me consider which genre I would go for and patterns within that genre that I could integrate in our short film.

Short Film Genres

History Of Short Films

Short Film Conventions - Wordle

When Five Fell - Short Film Conventions