Short Film Presentations

 In today lesson, Wednesday 15th September, each person of the class had to present a short film that they choose,when they liked and inspire them and textual analyse it to the class.

Alex McKenzie.
Sorry, Im Late directed by Tomas Mankovsky




The short film Alex choose was composed by using stop motion. The film tracks a journey of a boy to a place, which he is late for. He pass many obstacles until he finally reaches he distination.

I found the film engaging and innovative in its formation and structure, as it is different of what to expect from a 'short'.The film has a distintive artistic vision which is easily translated in the film. The short is based on a 'everyday' topic, however conveyed in a intriguing way.

http://www.sorry-im-late.com/makingof.html  -Making Of Sorry, Im Late.



Jerome Golding

Skin Deep directed by Yousaf Ali Khan



In Skin Deep it tackles a challenging issue of Race. The narrative is of a young asain boy, Romo being targeted by a National Front gang and explores his trails to be accepted.

In the film, a running theme throughout is the use of mirrors, Romo is mostly seen through a mirror, which constantly reminds the audience he is battling with himself and gradually losing who he is.

The use of POV shots  in the film are mostly used to involve the audience and breaking the4th wall, it allows the audience to sympathise with the protagnist and character's in question, especially during the racially explict scenes.

There are frequent uses of shot reverse shot, between characters .This is used many times when Romo thinks the other character in the story know he is mixed race, so the camera mainly has MCU (Medium Close up's) on character's face. The mise en scene of the film is gritty and dark. There is pathetic falicy as the 'grey' weather represents Romo mood and everyday inner personal struggle.   

Unlike mainstream's films, Skin deep presented an issue and shows a scenerio rather than letting Romo become the hero or overcoming his 'demons'.

The camera  techniques used strengthens it's hard hitting delivery and develops its cutting edge style.

The lighting in the film is dark and harsh, which adds tension and atmosphere to the film. There is pathetic falice thorughout the movie as Romo is often shown with distressed expressions.



Katie Louise
Slap directed by Uriel Emil




Slap is about a battered wife who has a chance to escape, whilst her husband is chocking on food.

I feel the film is a display of emotions the woman is going through during her relationship with her abusive lover. The main protaginist goes on a emotional journey, as each scene of the film represents. I feel the scene of her floating on air down the street symbolises freedom, as thir is mostly natural lighting coming from behind her, which frames her hair making her look 'angelic'. 

The opening title is shown with just the word slap written in then middle of the screen in white, then sharply disappears with the sound of a slap. This is an onomatopoeia and is an effect technique in engaging the audience.

The opening scene is of a woman clutching the side of her, with a distorted expression of her face. She is sitting down at a table as the camera revolves around her. She is situation in a kitchen, of a gritty flat. There is natural light coming from the window that the woman is frame next to. Although there is natural light it is not overpowering and draws shadows within the scene. There is digectic sound of someone opposite her eating, which suggests to the audience he may be her abuser.

Roisin Rooney
Spin directed Jamin Winans



The film is about a man who is a DJ that can control time throguh his DJ turntables. He sees consequences and is able to reverse time and alter various parts of the situation to avoid the end results. However the story esculates into a butterfly effect which always ends up effecting another aspect.

The film opens with a panned MCU shot of an alleyway and an orb of light shining down. A 'mysterious; man drops to the ground followed by a his briefcase. The mise en scene is saturated and gritty, it is clear and simplictic.

The film is stylistic and fast- paced. Their is non- digectic sound throguhout the movie adds to the atmosphere and the film genre of the short. Most of Spin effectiviness is due to the editing process, as it evolves many pause, jump cuts and motion effects.

Spin is 'shot for purpose' as there are multi camera shooting each scene. This is evident as each time the DJ reverses time, the angle of the scene we see the accident happen in orignally changes.

I found the film ground- breaking in its technqiue and its formation. I feel the short had carefully planning and the director knew what he wanted to achieve. I thought the editing was effective and to a high professional standard.

Callum Wood
Sign Lanuage directed by Thomas Hardy





Sign Lanuage directed by a day in the life of a street sign holding.

I feel the film is effective as it is encapulates the sense of the life of the main protaginist (Ben). The camera is hand held, which adds atmosphere of the film. The title is written in the font as if its on a sign- it is yellow and white.The music is very simplistic, smooth and laid back- it is of Indie genre.The camera is as if its POV of a 3rd person interviewing Ben, it makes the audience feel more intimately involved within Ben life. The camera often frames Ben in CU's. The mise en scene is Ben located on Oxford Street, London. The digectic sound is 
heard throughout the short however the non- digectic sound is used to create mood is overpowering.


Perpe Brade
New Boy directed by Roddy Dolye



New Boy is about a young boy first school experience in England. He is reminiscent of his past school experiences in Africa.

The short opens with titles slowily zooming forward in white, with a mixture of lower anc apital case letters. The background is dark and as if set on a chalk board, which suggest it may be set in a school in a old time period. The scene opens with an over the shoulder shot from the main protaginist head. There is depth of field as the boy’s head is in focus and the class is out of focus. This makes him stand out and makes the audience less distracted. This easily distinquish the main characters, an to an extent who character are.  This is a effective technique which can be used if there are a lot of cast members within a short film.  The mise en scene lighting is dim and cast shadows, there a natural light which strengths the atmosphere of a classroom in England. The constract in mise en scene is dramactically constructed through the bright natural light and the change of settings and props. This is pathetic fallace to how the boy is feeling and his experiences. The digectic sound is light and cheerful, reflecting the happiness of the boy’s previous life.The camera is mostly static, however in Africa it is handheld which also is a reflection of the rigitness.

Pre-Lim Video task.

I Only Married Her for a Visa.



Group: Justyn Hollett, Alex McKenzie & Emma Garvie.

In this lesson, our task was to create a short passage of film to experiment and demonstrate our knowledge of the SONY V1 HD cameras, we will be using for our short films.

Our Pre- Lim task short films must include these shots:

- Character opening a door
- Character walking across a room.
- Conversation between two characters.

The film must include these element:

- Adhere to the 180 degree rule.
- Shot reverse shot
- Continuity. - character walking through a door, shot from outside then inside.

From these elements, we originated an idea of that our main character (played by Alex) would be going to visit his divorce lawyer (played by Emma). We knew we had to incorporate all these elements so we used a lift that Alex could go up, so we could do an achievable continuity shot.

We found that we failed to plan our shots which arose problems in editing. This was evident, when we tried to do continuity in editing for example: when Alex comes out of the lift.
I feel our group may have concentrated on the narrative more than camera angles and techniques. This is something I will take into account in creating my short film, that narrative should coincide with the filming. In the conversation scenes, we forgot to use a script

To create the title, we used Photoshop. We wanted to achieve a simplistic and professional look, however adhere to the nature of the film narrative. So we took a picture of a visa card and import Alex face onto it.

Overall I feel the short piece was successful as it demonstrates all the element we had to include as it is edited with professionalism.

Quentin Tarinto.

Quentin Tarantino is an Americian Film director who made his advancement into the film industry, through short film. Quentin began his career in the early 1990's as an independant film director.

My Best Friend's Birthday, 1979 was the first short film Tarantino directed. The film is black and white and was co- written with Craig Hanman. The film's budget was $5,000 and was orginally a 30-40 page script, which evolved to 80 pages due to the passion for the narrative Quentin developed whilst working on the film.

The film is described by Tarinto as his 'film school' as it was his experiemental ground and through the film. The film displays basic editing techniques such as: shot reverse shot.

The original cut was about 70 minutes long but due to a fire only 36 minutes of the film survived. Although the accident, the film went onto to form the basis of screenplay True Romance, written by Tarintino.

My Best Friend's Birthday Part 1



My Best Friend's Birthday Part 2



My Best Friend's Birthday Part 3



My Best Friend's Birthday Part 4

About A Girl- Directed by Brian Percival

About A Girl- Directed by Brian Percival

About A Girl, is a striking story of a young girl's experience's and life growing up in Manchester. The short film follow's the girl as she makes shocking 'personal' revalation, in lead up to a trecheous conclusion.

The 9 minute short film directed by Brian Percival. In 2001 it won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film. It also won an award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival for Best British Short, the TCM Classic Shorts Award prize at the London Film Festival, and the Jury Prize at the Raindance Film Festival.

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I found the short film powerful and emotive, as it drew upon a very simple idea and developed into a compelling story. The use of lanuage was fitting to the film, and gave the me information about the character, which the protagnist didn't have to say anything.

I feel the film shows the character in all her complexities as the audience build a deeper understanding of who she is through the experiences she draws upon in her life.  

ABOUT A GIRL TITLES.

The title screen is a black backgroundand the titles appear as if typed on a mobile phone, it is accompanied by a mobile phone typing sound. This suggests to the reader it is going to be possibly technology based and modern. As the titles are on the black background it brings a darken effect to the story and the expectation of a 'girl's' story. The short film title is similar to popular mainstream film 'About a Boy' directed by Chris Weitz- this could tell the audience the film could be around a similar challenging issue matters. 'About A Girl' generilises the film, not making it specific to a particular character.


MISE EN SCENE.

The opening scene is set in anbadom field. The sun is setting and we see a silhouetted young girl dancing and singing to a Britney Spears song, 'Stronger'. This suggests the girl is alone and may enjoy her own company. 'Stronger' is a 'controversial' motivational which she may have a personal connection to. Her character in this scene, is shown very venerable and innocent as their is a low camera angle.

The next scene, the character begins her first speech,  "If Jesus were alive today - right, he'd probably be a singer ." She is walking along various gritty backgrounds, such as: a fence, a brick wall and under graffiti bridges. She has a strong Mancunianaccent, which suggests she grew up and lives in Machester. She is shown walking down a pathway surrounded by coucil houses and high rise flatblocks, which suggests she is from a working class background. The lighting is very dim and grey, which draws upon the dramactic darken atmoshpere the story may have. 

The young girl is often shown by herself throughout the film in various locations, a football pitch, sitting outside a pub, walking along a canal. The weather is grey and clody, which at point is pathetic fallacy to the girl's character.

CAMERA

The camera throughout the scenes where the girl is talk is handheld. This adds to the atmosphere of the film and an extent shows the franticness of protaginist. The handheld camera was 'shoot for purpose' as the editing is dis-continuitious and reflects on the character's personality. There is a high angle shot at the end of the film where the girl throws the plastic bag into the water, this shot was used for effect as the audience do not know what she threw into the water and the shot shows the scene where she is.


As soon as the plastic bag hits the water, the camera change to a shot underwater. The camera ranges from a MCU to ECU to frame the baby in the shot. The shot then reverse back to a high angle shot to show the character walking down the path from the canal, this is only the time sunlight is shown in film.

Donkey Boy- Ambitions

This is a music video by a popular band, Donkey Boy. The video written, directed and cut by Kristoffer Borgli and the narrative is based on a fictional disease, which cause individuals to lose their ambition.

Although this is a music video, there are filming and editing techniques which I find interesting and could be use din my short film.

The opening of the music video, which numerous static shots flashing on screen, is vert engaging to the audience, it shows the mise en scene and gives you information on the character and where the music video is set. This is a very powerful idea as in short films, there is not time to describe and display every detail on screen.

I enjoyed the scene where the girl is cycling on the bike, it was achieved pre- editing by lower the shutter speed. This effect could of been achieve in editing however it would of reduced the quality of footage. This is an example of the directing thinking of the footage being edited, so it is 'shooting for purpose'.

The colour in the music video is tinted blue and has cold and warm lighting. Each scene is meticulous structured and shows strong signs of the directors effective planning.

Comparisons between Mainstream films and Short Film

What is Short Film

Steal Away Short Film

In today's lesson, we watched Steal Away, directed by Charles McDougall. The film follows the life of two young rebellious individuals who steal money from a car in London. The car driver shoots at both of the thieves, however both assumingly miss the bullets and escape into a tube station, where they board a 'ghost' tube- which symbolises the tube to judgment day. Michael, the main protagonist, asks for forgiveness on the tube by performing an act of kindness to a beggar, thus, giving him admittance to heaven. Michael’s admittance to heaven is symbolised in his train ticket being accepted at the ticket machine, which his accomplishes is denied.
I feel the film conforms to the notions of what to expect from a short film by its broken genre and disequilibrium structure. The film has strong religious connotations through it biblical representation of ‘god’ on the tube and being cleansed. The film’s representation of colour is emphasised through the movie and is used as a vital component in connecting the audience to the story. The use of red in the movie symbolised danger, passion and excitement, sin and hell. This was used in the scene where the couple forced the money case open to an exploding red ink mist- All representation of the colour red was expressed through their character connection.
The use of white in the film represented heaven, cold, purity and cleansing.

Steal Away- TUEB TALES.

Wasp- Andrea Arnold- Friday 30th September

Wasp- Directed by Andrea Arnold





Director: Andrea Arnold

UK/2003/23mins/s16mm/color

Wasp was Andrea Arnold's third short film. Described by British newspaper the Guardian as 'socialist realist film poetry' it has won 30 international festival awards and the Oscar for best short film at the 2005 Academy Awards. Most recently Arnold directed her debut feature Red Road, winning the 2006 Cannes jury prize.

The main aim for the film was to try and show the central character Zoë in all her complexity. I know the way she treats her kids is not good, verging on abuse really, but I wanted to show why she might do that and for the audience to have empathy for her as well as the kids. I wanted to show how a person's circumstances and environment influences the way they essentially are. I wanted people to understand her behavior instead of just condemning it. This was my main goal for the film."
Andrea Arnold on Wasp