Initial research into Short films - Titles and Credits - Matt Bishun

Titles and Credits

• Various directors have chosen basic title sequences whereas others have gone into much greater depth. 'Popping the Question' for example, has used a man-made title as shown below.

• The reason for this is to be unique. A title like the one above makes it more appealing to the audience rather than the textbook version of credits rolling on the screen before the film begins.
• However, some film makers have used no credits before the film. 'Black or White', by Leon Williams has chosen this as he felt it wasn't needed. This film had only two characters who are both male and we don't know either of their names. 

This is the very first frame in the entire film: 

• Some film makers have gone for a basic film credit sequence. This is what we expect at the introduction before most films. 'Brando-ing' has used a credit sequence but for only 3.5 seconds. A good way, I believe, of telling the audience the title, in a simple and easy fashion.

My Thoughts

Some initial ideas I have for our credit sequence would be of 'Popping the Question'. A man-made title, is low budget and I feel is just as effective, if not more, than a common credit sequence on screen before the opening scene. A problem that could arise from this, is it may seem as just the easy option. However I feel, with the problems I had last year with the title and credits, it will be a successful ploy for my group.

Initial research into short films - "Brando-ing" - Matt Bishun

Film Title: "Brando-ing"

Found: Virgin Media Shorts

Date: 2013

Director: Malcolm Roy Greenhill

The Film

Film Synopsis:

This film is all about two good friends who exchange some friendly banter whilst stuck on top of a roof.

Representation

• These two men are good friends and stereotyping has been used to express their chilled perhaps childhood nature.
• Both men are wearing very similar clothing, swim shorts and a t-shirt. This could mean they are on holiday and have found themselves in a tricky situation.

• 'Laidback' is another phrase you could use to describe the pair, the man to the right is leaning against a rail. The other is looking on and we can tell that they have a strong bond due to the way they interact with each other. This is an example of their masculinity. 

• The pair are examples of modern social groups, two friends having a chat but in a strange place. This modern representation allows the audience to relate with the pair more and make it more humourous for people who watch this film.

Genre

• This film is a comedy and we know this through the way the man act. Funny faces are the key theme in this short clip. This syntactic code is key to this film as it makes it more appealing to the audience.
• 'De Niro-ing' and 'Brando-ing' are the names of individual faces which the men use to communicate. These names have been derived from the surnames of two famous American actors, Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando.
• Not only is this clever from the director but humerous as it is really funny in the way the men do it. What is more is that the setting (on top of a building) makes it a very comical film.
• The use of this genre is appropriate as the men have no idea on how they are going to get down., as if they don't care and spend their time pulling funny faces. 

'Brando-ing'

'De Niro-ing'

Audience

• My source for this film was Virgin Media Shorts, a popular and well known short films website.

• The demographic I believe would watch this film would be male 18-24 year olds of a middle income, although I expect there to be many 18-24 year old female viewers.
• With regards to a psychographic audience, it all depends on the IAO variables. People who enjoy comedy films I would expect to watch this. People who do not, would be intrigued by the strange setting and the funny faces.
• The audience would be pleased by the way that the director hasn't gone for a traditional comedy film. The director has used his experience of the film industry to incorporate famous actors names into the film, in the form of funny faces.
• He has, however, kept the modern tradition of two very good 'mates' who wear the same clothes and both find themselves in the same situation.

The Director

• Malcolm Roy Greenhill is 28 years old, originally from Cambridge. He has recently moved to London, where he actually shot this film.
• He specialises in live comedy and drama, using a cinematic style in his work.

Media language

• The director has chosen to use many shots to express the strong friendship that these two men have.
• A key editing technique, Shot Reverse Shot has been used on many occasions as the men exchange some banter.

• Below shows one of the men who are stuck on top of a building. The director has chosen this CU to see his facial expression. We can see that the man is frowning which means he is angry at what his friend is doing (pulling the wrong face).

Initial research into Short Films - Black or White - Matt Bishun

Film Title: Black or White

Found: Virgin Media Shorts

Date: 2013

Director: Leon Williams

The Film

Film Synopsis: 

Everyday we make decisions, but who will this lady pick, black or white?

Narrative

• The structure of this film is linear. We could apply Todorov's theory to this piece, including the 3 main stages only, which are Equilibrium, Disruption and Resolution. Todorov's theory was mainly about how linear narratives are planned and organised in a 5 stage sequence.
• For this film, however, I believe it would be more appropriate to cover the 3 main stages as they are all covered in equal depth.
  

Equilibrium - the 'set up' of the film, black or white?

Disruption - two men argue about who's better and who will be picked

Resolution - the white guy get picks then mocks the other guy

Audience

• The audience I would expect to watch this film would be males/females of 18-36 years old.
• This audience would be pleased in the way the men have argued about nothing and tried to act cooler than the other in order to get picked. The black guy describes himself as 'hot' and 'stronger' than the smaller white guy.
• With regards to a psychographic audience, I believe comedy film lovers would enjoy this film as well as other regular short film watchers.
• My source for this film was Virgin Media Shorts, a popular short film website in which I have found several enjoyable short films.

The Director

• Leon Williams, is a 23 year old scriptwriter who has a great passion for comedy film making.
• He is one of the less experienced director's from Virgin Media Shorts, but his raw talent and humor has shone through in this film.

Genre

• This film is clearly a genre due to the humorous language of the two men such as; innuendos.
• We can apply Altman's theory to this film, using semantic codes and syntactic codes to convey meaning.

Semantic codes in this film are:

1. Cups
2. Coffee and Tea pots
3. Kettle
4. Spoon

Syntactic codes in this film are:

1. Two male friends exchanging banter
2. Unusual setting (inside cup but looks like sauna)
3. Humorous language (innuendos)
4. Characters are of different build (almost man against boy)

Representation

• Both men are shown to be very masculine and this has been achieved through a variety of different shots.

• Stereotyping has been used by the director in a very clever manner here. The two men each look like they are in some form of sauna. However, this clever technique has fooled the audience and they are actually inside a mug.
• These men are being represented as traditional social groups, two men having banter at a sauna, which are mostly found at a gym/swimming pool.
• Colour has also been used by the director effectively to convey meaning. The film is in black and white and low key lighting has been used to tell us that they are within a mug and therefore it is very dark and dull.

Initial research into Short Films - Finding Myself - Matt Bishun

Film Title: Finding Myself

Found: Vimeo

Date: 2009

Director: Joshua Stocker

The Film

Film Synopsis:

This short film is about finding yourself, your purpose and who you are meant to be in life.

Media language

• This film is shot in stop motion from about 7,000 separate photographs. It is about Joshua trying to find himself and work out who he really is.
• We are taken through this film with a variety of camera shots and angles. For example, the tracking shot below allows the viewers to follow his footsteps and his journey through this short film.

• This image also allows us to see the setting, which is in a park. However, we have no idea of the exact location this takes place (region). The amount of brown leaves on the floor could indicate the time of year is October/November.
• The picture below allows the viewers to see Joshua's facial expression and his body language. We see here that he looks sad, with very little emotion in his face whatsoever. His hands are inside his jacket either to keep them warm or a stance that he takes regularly. He is wearing a scarf, which implies that it is a cold day. He is also wearing a blue smart jacket which tells us Josh is a chilled guy, with a reasonable income.

• The ECU below is used to show Josh walking through the park. The effect of this to show the audience where he is going. The film is taking us on a small journey from the perspective of Josh. The editing pace also slows down at this point as he walks through the leaves. 

 Audience

• I found this short film of Vimeo, a US based video sharing website where users can upload, share or view any videos.

• I wouldn't be able to think of a target audience, as I believe the attitudes and interests of our viewers are paramount. I would be looking at a psychographic audience instead of a demographic one. Anybody who likes watching short films could come across this one and find it very satisfying. However, I believe viewers who may be having some difficult personal issues or are just interested in the way a short film has been created using photographs, would also enjoy this kind of film.

The Director

• Joshua Stocker is predominantly a London based filmmaker and designer, who also works in producing still and moving 2D and 3D work.
• He has previously worked for many leading fashion and technology companies including; Dior, Coach, Cisco, Diesel, Sony, Sky and Google.

Other work by Josh Stocker

Representation

• Josh is being represented in this short film as a lonely guy who is searching for his true personality.
• Josh is being conveyed as a modern representation of a teenage boy who is hoping to discover the real person he is.

• From the image above we are led to believe that he is lonely. This setting in particular with the park bench and no sign of any other people around tells us that maybe this setting is belonged to Josh. A LS is used in this frame to get an idea of the surroundings in which Josh finds himself.

• Josh is believed to have written a note, reading 'Josh Stocker 18, Looking for myself'. At this point, the audience are fully aware of Josh's intentions, as he is saddened by the fact that he is losing himself.

• An ECU is used to draw the audience's attention to this piece of paper. Josh has decided to screw this paper up almost as a piece of rubbish. The reason for this could be just to make a point or to hope that a passer by may pick it up and read it.

 

My Thoughts 

• I believe this is one of the best short films I have seen in a long time. The way it is edited both in terms of sound and parallel editing is outstanding and something my group could take a lot of inspiration from. The ability to create a film through thousands of different photographs keeping the same location, sound, colour correction and setting the same is incredibly clever.

RVG- Research- Gemma

A Favour-Research-Gemma

 

Media Language

The opening scene of the short films shows an out of focus shot of a window with the title A Favour on it through post production editing.

The following scene shows parallel editing throughout of two families at breakfast, both families are of different ethnicities but the morning routine appears to be very similar. The lighting in the scenes are light and appear to be natural lighting, this gives the sense of positivity as well as the diegetic ambient sound of birds.  A Nuclear family is represented in both family types and conjugal roles which is used a lot in media and the audience are familiar to this stereotypical ‘Normal’ family setting where the men work(breadwinner) and the women is the main child carer and housewife. The close up of family members faces draw attention to key points and pans are used to show conversations within the family. The pace of the parallel scenes are fast which represents the business of a family breakfast.

So far the audience have no reason to be suspicious of either character. It’s not until the car park setting where the audience may start to have their opinions. The antagonist asks the protagonist to call his mobile phone as he has lost it.  The protagonist asks for number for him to dial. The number read out stands out as soon as it is read due to the amount of zeros it includes whereas a ‘normal’ UK number wouldn’t contain that many. The protagonist seems to have realised due to his facial expression and body language changing although he continues to call the number.  Once the phone has rang for a couple of seconds the antagonist quickly dismisses the conversation saying thank you then speeds off in his car again the protagonist seems shocked which his body language suggests.

The next shot shows a long line of traffic going into town by the looks of it and the man sitting in his car waiting. Diegetic sounds of sirens and traffic are heard loudly off screen. Close ups are used to show the protagonists facial expressions and a POV is used to lead the audience to follow the man’s hand to his car radio to turn up the sound, we hear a diegetic women’s voice explaining that there are many casualties it’s a major innocent in the financial district. An eye line match is used to follow a police helicopter above the traffic when the man’s facial expressions drop and he starts to realise he has been set up via his head movement from looking down to looking out in front of him moving slowly and it a big close up where the camera zooms into his eyes while the radio diegetic voice reveals that the device was possibly detonated remotely. The man’s final positioning moves from him being in the sunlight to his eyes being in the dark shadows this connotes fear. A sound bridge continues the news reporters off screen report and the credits begin which makes the short film end abruptly shocking the audience.

Representation

I like the piece as it is challenging stereotypes of ethnicity’s which has been present since terrorist attacks around the world including 9/11 and the London bombings. The way it challenges stereotypes is by showing that other ethnicity’s even those within their born country can show traces of terrorism towards their country. The director chose this particular piece to show to the audience not to be stereotypical and judge people due to other people or from views that are raised from a small minority.

The audience once watching the short film will wonder what came of the man as the police would have tracked down his phone number to his phone and charge him with the bombing which would be a wrong justice as he was tricked into setting off the bomb.

Audience

I believe the audience would be targeted at ages from 15-40 as I feel 15 year olds would be aware of what happens and who stereotypically is to blame for instances that occur so by seeing this would allow them to think more deeply into what happens and not to jump to conclusion and follow other people’s views. I feel this short film being targeted up to the age of 40 is possible as this age range can be influential on those younger than them and have an effect on the way people think about stereotypes portrayed in the media.

 

Narrative

The narrative of the short film is linear as it is showing scenes which are happening at the same time

Todorovs theory can be applied although due to the case of a short film I don’t think all 5 stages can be applied to the piece.

1.Equilibrium – This is at the beginning of the film when both families are having breakfast and nothing is yet ‘bad’

2.Disruption – Depending how it is looked at this could be as soon as the protagonist dials the number which sets off the bomb as that’s when the disruption has actually happened or the alternative could be when the audience find out about a bomb being set off.

3.Confrontation – this could be when the protagonist realises what he has done and that he was tricked into setting of the bomb although nothing is attempted to deal with the problem as the short film finishes.