Initial research into Short Films - No Point - Matt Bishun

Film Title: No Point

Found: Virgin Media Shorts

Date: 2013

Director: Ben Hogan

Film Synopsis:

• The film is about Ben, who is a keen tennis player and his useless coach named Barnaby. The genre of this film is a comedy. Although Ben is not very good at tennis, he perseveres in trying to get the ball over the net.

Media language

• The director chooses to use a limited variety of camera shots and angles to give the audience an idea into the bond between coach and player.
• The shot below, I find particularly interesting as the director has chosen a 2 shot, of Barnaby and Ben.

• The facial expression and body language of Ben shows us he is motivated and determined to be a successful tennis player. The headband worn by Barnaby and his purple tracksuit tell us he isn't an experienced coach and knows little in the way of training exercises.

• Barnaby, on the right, is seen to be a laidback coach. The shopping bag of tennis balls, tell us he, again isn't prepared and very inexperienced.
• He is also pictured smoking, which is a sign of his chilled back, relaxed mood. He isn't interesting in training Ben and this MLS exemplifies this.

• Ben, on the right, is just a normal guy trying to learn to play tennis. This CU of him, tells us he is around 30 years of age. His body language tells us he is again, a chilled back guy, who maybe is trying tennis for the very first time. 

• The editing pace is quite slow. The number of cuts could be down to the pace at which Ben plays tennis. His failure to hit the ball over the net and his coach's poor training regime are reflected through slow, basic transitions.

• The sound, like the editing, is basic. We hear some music at the beginning of the film, almost childlike. Limited foleys or any man-made sound effects are used. We only hear music and dialogue between Ben and his coach.

Genre

• The genre of this film is comedy, we know this from the amount of sarcasm in this piece. Ben calls his coach a 'tennis guru', when it is apparent he is not.

• Various semantic codes in the image above, such as; the shopping bag of tennis balls to show his lack of preparation, the basic tennis racket, the cigarette, all are what we see in this film.

• Some syntactic codes are used, these are typical themes and ideologies that we expect to find in a comedy.

• For example, humour in the way of a relationship between the characters. We get to find that Ben and his coach are good friends, who are both very different personality wise. 

Audience

• I found this film off Virgin Media Shorts (a film website). The sort of age of people I would expect to watch this type of film, would be male or female 13-25 year olds, all depending on their interests of sport.

• Those people who watched this film, I would expect could relate to that coach they have had in the past who wasn't as good as they should have been.
• In tennis, it may be different to other sports, as your coach has only one person to teach and therefore if they aren't very good this could affect your performance.

The Director

• 'No Point' has been very successful and the director, Ben Hogan, has hopes on releasing a TV series.
• Ben Hogan has vast experience in writing for both stage and screen. Although he has written many plays and films, Ben is asking for help in providing funding to get 'No Point' as a comedy TV series.

Click here to watch 'No Point'