In todays class I looked at a film called 'Where is the money Ronnie?' the film was only twelve minutes long and I thought that this film was very carefully planed out. It was directed by Shane Meadows. The idea was to make as if the film was set in the 1960's but really it was set in 1996. The effect they did to get the film to be shown in a way that it was set earlier was very clever in ters of the use of locations and the use of props. In the 1960's there were a lot of crime going on in England. They used that in the film and made all the comotion take place in the streets. They made sure that houses where near by so that the characters could escape by climbing into people's back gardens and I thought that that was very useful. Also England was not really a multi cultral place in the 1960's and they presented this very well in the film as I could see common white people walking around in the streets. They also showed the film in black and white to give it a feeling that it was set in the early 1960's.
I could tell that it was not set in 1996 due to the clothes that the characters where wearing. There clothes where very modern and it was and it was not the kind of clothes people would wear in those days. Moreover I noticed the cars that the people where driving. It was not the type of cars that you would see in the 1960's.
http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/watch-movies/wheres-the-money-ronnie-hanway
The use of camera angles to interview the convictors where carefully used. They used extreme close-ups for each of the convictors to express their feelings and emotions of the case.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Monday 27 September 2010
The build up and proccess of making the treatment
My partner and I have made our final Treatment. We found it very difficult to make it how we would want it to be because not all of our ideas would fit into the five minute film production that we were going to make. In order to make sure that we had a short film that was five minutes, we had to make a decision to cut some parts out. My partner and I went to ask our teachers and some pupils about what would perfect our short film. We got some feedback from our Media teachers and the pupils. This helped us a lot with audience research. It helped us to develop our film in a way that will definately suit our target audience. We took their advice and made sure that we stuck to what they said but because it was us that was going to make the film, we had to make it our own idea so we changed our treatment in order to make it perfect. At first my partner and I had came up with two treatments, We both discussed that we needed to choose the better one that will be more exciting and suit our target audience. We also did some more research on short Urban Realist films to see what makes it interesting and unique. Choosing characters for our short film was fairly easy but we had to get rid of one character to make the short film easier to do and give us less hassle.
Once we chose our treatment, my partner and I still struggled with making the treatment final because we couldn't think of how to end the short film. My partner and I both went and asked our colleagues and our teachers to what would be a suitable ending for our short film production. There ideas were good so I decided that we had to make a decision out of the endings they had given us. Fortunately my partner thought of a better and able ending to do so we went with her idea.
Once we chose our treatment, my partner and I still struggled with making the treatment final because we couldn't think of how to end the short film. My partner and I both went and asked our colleagues and our teachers to what would be a suitable ending for our short film production. There ideas were good so I decided that we had to make a decision out of the endings they had given us. Fortunately my partner thought of a better and able ending to do so we went with her idea.
Final Treatment
TITLE: Major Movements
Location:
School
Kilburn
Home environment
Characters:
Mum aged 41
James (older brother) aged 17
Edward (younger brother) aged 10
Characters Characteristics
Mum:
The mum is an 41 year old alcoholic woman and because of this it causes problems between her and her family. The mum having drinking problems has lead her to become a single parent and results to her son James not being able to cope in his education and struggles to balance schoolwork, social life and looking after Edward together. Consequently all the stress and grief causes James to get himself involved in drugs. James being involved in drugs gets himself into a big mess as his younger brother gets involved.
James:
James is a 17 year old boy that is struggling a lot in life. Due to his parent’s splitting up and his mum having drinking problems, he hasn't been able to cope with education and has behaviour problems. James has to look after his younger brother because the mum is always drinking. James's behaviour causes him to mix with people in school where his surroundings allow James to be influenced into taking drugs.
Edward:
Edward is 10 years of age and is the youngest in the family. Edward is also suffering the same fate as James as he is feeling hurt because his family is falling apart however Edward is well behaved. Edward looks up to his older brother James. He thinks James is his superman and everything he does is right. Edward knows that his older brother is taking drugs but because he thinks that his older brother is doing it, he decides that he should give it a try but it doesn’t end well for him.
Synopsis
Act 3: Edward watches a film and then decides to takes the drugs because he thinks that if James should take it he should. He then has an overdose and collapses
Act 1:
The older brother James comes home from school with his younger brother Edward. James tells Edward to wait outside while he goes to see where the mum is. When he walks into the living room he sees the mum unconscious with the room full of vodka bottles on the floor. James then gets Edward upstairs without him seeing his mum in the state that she is in.
Act 2:
James and his friends get involved with drugs. James brings it home and takes it to school without anybody knowing
Act 3:
Edward is in the living room watching a film. Edward is thinking in his mind whether he should go and take some of the drugs. It then comes to his head that because his brother knows best he should do it too. James takes the drugs and gets an over does.
James (17 years old) a young teenager that is having a lot of problems at school due to the problems that he and his younger brother has to suffer at home. His mum is an alcoholic and this has caused her to become a single parent. However the mum is incapable of looking after her kids because she is always drunk. James has to take care of his little brother Edward and his mother. Edward idolises his brother because he takes care of him all the time. He looks up to him and goes to him whenever he has a problem. James comes home from school with Edward. James knows that his mother has been drinking and he wants to hide this from Edward. James tells Edward to stay where he is so that he can go and check up on his mum. Edward does everything that James says so he stays without asking any questions. James finds his mum unconscious with vodka bottles all over the floor. James shuts the living room door and takes James upstairs so that he doesn’t get to see her. When Edward does his homework James then goes downstairs and gets rid of all the vodka bottles that he could find on the floor and helps his mum to her room.
James’s behaviour is a big issue in school due to the problems that he faces in school. James and his friends decide to get involved in drugs. James naively thinks that if he takes the drugs everything will get better for him, so he goes ahead with it. James tries to hide the fact that he is taking drugs but unfortunately his little brother finds him taking it without him noticing.
James is sitting in the living room sofa when the thought of his older brother taking the drugs. Edward questions himself whether he should take the drugs or not. He then comes to a conclusion that James is much older and wiser than him and if he is taking the drugs then he should too. James goes to the place where James hid the drugs and Edward takes them. Edward then gets an over does and collapses.
Location:
School
Kilburn
Home environment
Characters:
Mum aged 41
James (older brother) aged 17
Edward (younger brother) aged 10
Characters Characteristics
Mum:
The mum is an 41 year old alcoholic woman and because of this it causes problems between her and her family. The mum having drinking problems has lead her to become a single parent and results to her son James not being able to cope in his education and struggles to balance schoolwork, social life and looking after Edward together. Consequently all the stress and grief causes James to get himself involved in drugs. James being involved in drugs gets himself into a big mess as his younger brother gets involved.
James:
James is a 17 year old boy that is struggling a lot in life. Due to his parent’s splitting up and his mum having drinking problems, he hasn't been able to cope with education and has behaviour problems. James has to look after his younger brother because the mum is always drinking. James's behaviour causes him to mix with people in school where his surroundings allow James to be influenced into taking drugs.
Edward:
Edward is 10 years of age and is the youngest in the family. Edward is also suffering the same fate as James as he is feeling hurt because his family is falling apart however Edward is well behaved. Edward looks up to his older brother James. He thinks James is his superman and everything he does is right. Edward knows that his older brother is taking drugs but because he thinks that his older brother is doing it, he decides that he should give it a try but it doesn’t end well for him.
Synopsis
Act 3: Edward watches a film and then decides to takes the drugs because he thinks that if James should take it he should. He then has an overdose and collapses
Act 1:
The older brother James comes home from school with his younger brother Edward. James tells Edward to wait outside while he goes to see where the mum is. When he walks into the living room he sees the mum unconscious with the room full of vodka bottles on the floor. James then gets Edward upstairs without him seeing his mum in the state that she is in.
Act 2:
James and his friends get involved with drugs. James brings it home and takes it to school without anybody knowing
Act 3:
Edward is in the living room watching a film. Edward is thinking in his mind whether he should go and take some of the drugs. It then comes to his head that because his brother knows best he should do it too. James takes the drugs and gets an over does.
James (17 years old) a young teenager that is having a lot of problems at school due to the problems that he and his younger brother has to suffer at home. His mum is an alcoholic and this has caused her to become a single parent. However the mum is incapable of looking after her kids because she is always drunk. James has to take care of his little brother Edward and his mother. Edward idolises his brother because he takes care of him all the time. He looks up to him and goes to him whenever he has a problem. James comes home from school with Edward. James knows that his mother has been drinking and he wants to hide this from Edward. James tells Edward to stay where he is so that he can go and check up on his mum. Edward does everything that James says so he stays without asking any questions. James finds his mum unconscious with vodka bottles all over the floor. James shuts the living room door and takes James upstairs so that he doesn’t get to see her. When Edward does his homework James then goes downstairs and gets rid of all the vodka bottles that he could find on the floor and helps his mum to her room.
James’s behaviour is a big issue in school due to the problems that he faces in school. James and his friends decide to get involved in drugs. James naively thinks that if he takes the drugs everything will get better for him, so he goes ahead with it. James tries to hide the fact that he is taking drugs but unfortunately his little brother finds him taking it without him noticing.
James is sitting in the living room sofa when the thought of his older brother taking the drugs. Edward questions himself whether he should take the drugs or not. He then comes to a conclusion that James is much older and wiser than him and if he is taking the drugs then he should too. James goes to the place where James hid the drugs and Edward takes them. Edward then gets an over does and collapses.
Thursday 23 September 2010
2nd Draft Treatment
Location:
School
Kilburn
Home environment
Characters:
Dad aged 44
Mum aged 41
James (older brother) aged 17
Edward (younger brother) aged 10
Characters Characteristics
Mum:
The mum is an 41 year old alcoholic woman and because of this it causes problems between her and her husband. The mum having drinking problems and the dad having arguments with his wife, results to her son James not being able to cope in his education and struggles to balance schoolwork, social life and looking after Edward together. Consequently all the stress and grief causes James to get himself involved in drugs. James being involved in drugs results to his younger brother getting beating up. This then resolves the family to fix up. The mum and dad divorces realising the agony that they have caused and decides to get help.
Dad:
The Dad is a 44 year old man who has worked in a school as a headteacher. He and his wife has constant arguments which leads for them to get divorced. James's behaviour at school causes him to look for another job at another school. He hardly takes care of the family because he has o much to do.
James:
James is a 17 year old boy that is stuggling a lot in life. Due to his parents arguments with each other and his mums drinkingg problems, he hasn't been able to cope with education and has behaviour problems. James has to look after his younger brother because the Dad is always busy and the mum is always drinking. James's behaviour causes him to move school where he would make new friends and settile in fine. His surroundings allows James to be influnced into taking drugs and joining a gang.
Edward:
Edward is 10 years of age and is the youngest in the family. Edward is also suffering the same fate as James as he is feeling hurt because hie family is falling apart however Edward is well behaved. Inadvertantly James gets Edward in a big mess with a gang and gets beaten up.
Act 3: Edward gets beaten up by a gang. This then helps the family to decide that they need to make things right and get help.
Act 1: Mum stays at home drinking while Dad, James and Edward move to a new school to settle in.
Act2: James meets knew friends and becomes a member of a gang that deals with drugs.
Act 3: James puts drugs in Edwards bag and this leads Edward to get beaten up by the gang. The family then decides to make things right and gets help to support one another.
James (17 years old) a young teenager that was having a lot of problems at school due to the problems that he and his younger brother has to suffer at home. His mum is an alcholic which causes her to argue with his Dad all the time and both parents do not look after them, which means he is responsible for Edward and has to look after him.
James's behaviour problems gets worse in school which forces the Dad to get a job at another school. James and Edward settle in very well in the school and the environment that they are put in meanwhile the mum stays at home on the sofa drinking.
As time goes on and James gets to know the students around him and picks up a few friends. James still being naive decides to join a gang that his friends are in and gets himself involved with drugs. James hides the fact that he has met knew friends to his parents because his parents are always shouting and screaming at each other.
To hide the drugs, James puts them in Edwards bag without him knowing. James forgets to take the drugs out of Edwards bag the following morning. When James gets to school, his friends asks him where the drugs are. James then remembers that he forgot to take it out of his little brother's bag. James tells them that he forgot to take the drugs out of Edwards bag and that he would get it latter.
After school James finds his brother battered and bruised on the floor. When they reach home the mum and dad decides to divorce but get help so that they can support the family.
The moral of this story is that you should not get mixed up with bad friends because this can lead to big consequences.
School
Kilburn
Home environment
Characters:
Dad aged 44
Mum aged 41
James (older brother) aged 17
Edward (younger brother) aged 10
Characters Characteristics
Mum:
The mum is an 41 year old alcoholic woman and because of this it causes problems between her and her husband. The mum having drinking problems and the dad having arguments with his wife, results to her son James not being able to cope in his education and struggles to balance schoolwork, social life and looking after Edward together. Consequently all the stress and grief causes James to get himself involved in drugs. James being involved in drugs results to his younger brother getting beating up. This then resolves the family to fix up. The mum and dad divorces realising the agony that they have caused and decides to get help.
Dad:
The Dad is a 44 year old man who has worked in a school as a headteacher. He and his wife has constant arguments which leads for them to get divorced. James's behaviour at school causes him to look for another job at another school. He hardly takes care of the family because he has o much to do.
James:
James is a 17 year old boy that is stuggling a lot in life. Due to his parents arguments with each other and his mums drinkingg problems, he hasn't been able to cope with education and has behaviour problems. James has to look after his younger brother because the Dad is always busy and the mum is always drinking. James's behaviour causes him to move school where he would make new friends and settile in fine. His surroundings allows James to be influnced into taking drugs and joining a gang.
Edward:
Edward is 10 years of age and is the youngest in the family. Edward is also suffering the same fate as James as he is feeling hurt because hie family is falling apart however Edward is well behaved. Inadvertantly James gets Edward in a big mess with a gang and gets beaten up.
Act 3: Edward gets beaten up by a gang. This then helps the family to decide that they need to make things right and get help.
Act 1: Mum stays at home drinking while Dad, James and Edward move to a new school to settle in.
Act2: James meets knew friends and becomes a member of a gang that deals with drugs.
Act 3: James puts drugs in Edwards bag and this leads Edward to get beaten up by the gang. The family then decides to make things right and gets help to support one another.
James (17 years old) a young teenager that was having a lot of problems at school due to the problems that he and his younger brother has to suffer at home. His mum is an alcholic which causes her to argue with his Dad all the time and both parents do not look after them, which means he is responsible for Edward and has to look after him.
James's behaviour problems gets worse in school which forces the Dad to get a job at another school. James and Edward settle in very well in the school and the environment that they are put in meanwhile the mum stays at home on the sofa drinking.
As time goes on and James gets to know the students around him and picks up a few friends. James still being naive decides to join a gang that his friends are in and gets himself involved with drugs. James hides the fact that he has met knew friends to his parents because his parents are always shouting and screaming at each other.
To hide the drugs, James puts them in Edwards bag without him knowing. James forgets to take the drugs out of Edwards bag the following morning. When James gets to school, his friends asks him where the drugs are. James then remembers that he forgot to take it out of his little brother's bag. James tells them that he forgot to take the drugs out of Edwards bag and that he would get it latter.
After school James finds his brother battered and bruised on the floor. When they reach home the mum and dad decides to divorce but get help so that they can support the family.
The moral of this story is that you should not get mixed up with bad friends because this can lead to big consequences.
Wednesday 22 September 2010
Possible Treatment
Characters:
Mum - Alcoholic
James (Older Son) 17 years old
Brian (Younger Son) 10 years old
Background of family
Middle Class family that has a lot of problems because of the mum’s drinking issues. James has to look after Brian i.e. clothe him, make him breakfast because the mum is not fit enough to do this. James has a job as a shop assistant as Brian has to go to school by himself. The mum stays at home watching T.V drinking all day. James and Brain hates going back home because the mum is very abusive shouting and screaming at them for no apparent reason. James has to stick up for his little brother as the mum approaches to use aggressive comments towards him. James plays a role as a father as he takes Brian out for walks just to get away from the house. James sits down in his room with Brian and both talks about how life would be if they had their dad was still alive.
Plot
The scene will starts at home where we see the mum shouting at the James and Brian before they go to school. We will see the state of the living room full of Vodka bottles and clothes on the floor. James will wake up very early to hide all the bottles before his younger brother does, so that he makes his brother feel that everything is fine when really it isn’t. The state of the room will represent the family’s life, messy and full of sadness. James doesn’t want to make Brain find out that their mum is and alcoholic and tries to protect that secrete from him however there are some occasions where Brian will be asking what is wrong with their mum and why is it that she never cooks him breakfast or buys him anything and why Brian is the only one looking after him. Brian sees James helping their mum up and taking her to her bed because she is not in a fit state to be walking.
The next scene we will see James setting up breakfast for his younger brother as he is asking him questions. After that there will be utter silence as James will feel very depressed. From here we will have a sad music playing. The song will be representing how the brothers feel. The only noise we will hear is the noise of the boys eating their breakfast. We will see the facial expressions of both boys as they are getting ready for school. We will see both James and Brian leave home as they wish each other well for the day as they both separate to go different paths as James is going to work and Brain is going to school.
We will then make the focus of attention on James as he is making his journey to work. We will be able to hear his thoughts on how his life has got to where it is and why him and is brother are always his a mess. However he promises and Vows to himself that he will make his life better for him and his brother. When the brothers come home we will see the mum apologizing to James and Brain and we will see her crying that she will change her ways.
The last scene will end when the sun will rise and James looks at his little brother sleeping and then looking outside. We will also hear him say today is the day and then it will end.
I thought that ending it with a cliff-hanger is a good because it creates a lot of tension and makes the audience want to find out what is going to happen with James and his little brother.
Characters characteristics
James:
17 year old boy and fathers his younger brother Brian who is 10 years old. James is a very reliable person and does everything in the house. Is like a father to his mum and also his brother. James works as a shop assistant to earn a little money to support his familly. James doesn't want Brian to find out that his mum is an alcholic even though he knows.
Brian:
Brian is the younger brother of James. Brian knows about the problem with his mum about drinking but acts like he does'nt know what is going on. Brian goes to school by himself wondering when thingss will get better. Brian looks up to his older brother James because he is keeping the family together. Brian occasionally asks James questions about their mum even though he fully well knows what is happening.
Mum:
She is an alcholic and vey agressive. She gets really agressive and abusive towards her own children. She doesn't work at all. All she does is lies on her sofa drinking vodka. At the end it is James that has to hide the bottles and carry his unconcious mum to her bed.
Mum - Alcoholic
James (Older Son) 17 years old
Brian (Younger Son) 10 years old
Background of family
Middle Class family that has a lot of problems because of the mum’s drinking issues. James has to look after Brian i.e. clothe him, make him breakfast because the mum is not fit enough to do this. James has a job as a shop assistant as Brian has to go to school by himself. The mum stays at home watching T.V drinking all day. James and Brain hates going back home because the mum is very abusive shouting and screaming at them for no apparent reason. James has to stick up for his little brother as the mum approaches to use aggressive comments towards him. James plays a role as a father as he takes Brian out for walks just to get away from the house. James sits down in his room with Brian and both talks about how life would be if they had their dad was still alive.
Plot
The scene will starts at home where we see the mum shouting at the James and Brian before they go to school. We will see the state of the living room full of Vodka bottles and clothes on the floor. James will wake up very early to hide all the bottles before his younger brother does, so that he makes his brother feel that everything is fine when really it isn’t. The state of the room will represent the family’s life, messy and full of sadness. James doesn’t want to make Brain find out that their mum is and alcoholic and tries to protect that secrete from him however there are some occasions where Brian will be asking what is wrong with their mum and why is it that she never cooks him breakfast or buys him anything and why Brian is the only one looking after him. Brian sees James helping their mum up and taking her to her bed because she is not in a fit state to be walking.
The next scene we will see James setting up breakfast for his younger brother as he is asking him questions. After that there will be utter silence as James will feel very depressed. From here we will have a sad music playing. The song will be representing how the brothers feel. The only noise we will hear is the noise of the boys eating their breakfast. We will see the facial expressions of both boys as they are getting ready for school. We will see both James and Brian leave home as they wish each other well for the day as they both separate to go different paths as James is going to work and Brain is going to school.
We will then make the focus of attention on James as he is making his journey to work. We will be able to hear his thoughts on how his life has got to where it is and why him and is brother are always his a mess. However he promises and Vows to himself that he will make his life better for him and his brother. When the brothers come home we will see the mum apologizing to James and Brain and we will see her crying that she will change her ways.
The last scene will end when the sun will rise and James looks at his little brother sleeping and then looking outside. We will also hear him say today is the day and then it will end.
I thought that ending it with a cliff-hanger is a good because it creates a lot of tension and makes the audience want to find out what is going to happen with James and his little brother.
Characters characteristics
James:
17 year old boy and fathers his younger brother Brian who is 10 years old. James is a very reliable person and does everything in the house. Is like a father to his mum and also his brother. James works as a shop assistant to earn a little money to support his familly. James doesn't want Brian to find out that his mum is an alcholic even though he knows.
Brian:
Brian is the younger brother of James. Brian knows about the problem with his mum about drinking but acts like he does'nt know what is going on. Brian goes to school by himself wondering when thingss will get better. Brian looks up to his older brother James because he is keeping the family together. Brian occasionally asks James questions about their mum even though he fully well knows what is happening.
Mum:
She is an alcholic and vey agressive. She gets really agressive and abusive towards her own children. She doesn't work at all. All she does is lies on her sofa drinking vodka. At the end it is James that has to hide the bottles and carry his unconcious mum to her bed.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
1st Draft for Treatment
My partner and I have an idea of what our short urban realist film is going to be about. We decided to make a plan for the treatment before we actually do the real one. This is because it will help us to cut out the bits that we don't need and the bits that will take up time because the short film only has to be 5 minutes long. My partner and I talked and discussed that not all of this will fit into our 5minute film, so we decided that there are some parts of it that we need to change or get taking out however we are still trying to figure out what we need to tak out.
Upper-class-white family
Mum-alcoholic
Loses her job consequently can’t afford to live in the house and cant afford to send their son to private school
Dad- Head teacher of private school that the son attends to
He gets offered a job as a headteacher, in north west London for more money and decided to take it. Their son will attend the school.
Son- has mild behaviour problems due to problems at home. Always been a bit boisterous and didn’t really fit in to the private school environment. Son was known as a rough person in old school.
Family move into estate, problems at home get worse. Son fits in right into new school makes friends becomes popular, still rough. Involved in drugs and crime. Makes girlfriend.
Girlfriend gets hurt because of boy and ends up in hospital- boy gives girl drugs to look after, boy tells this to one of his friends and they tell gang, that girl has drugs and she gets robbed and beaten up. Boy finds girl beaten up and unconscious calls for ambulance and calls her best friend to stay with her. Boy finds note lying next to girl. Ends in cliff-hanger of boy getting knife and finding the boy who told the gang that his girlfriend has the drugs.
Upper-class-white family
Mum-alcoholic
Loses her job consequently can’t afford to live in the house and cant afford to send their son to private school
Dad- Head teacher of private school that the son attends to
He gets offered a job as a headteacher, in north west London for more money and decided to take it. Their son will attend the school.
Son- has mild behaviour problems due to problems at home. Always been a bit boisterous and didn’t really fit in to the private school environment. Son was known as a rough person in old school.
Family move into estate, problems at home get worse. Son fits in right into new school makes friends becomes popular, still rough. Involved in drugs and crime. Makes girlfriend.
Girlfriend gets hurt because of boy and ends up in hospital- boy gives girl drugs to look after, boy tells this to one of his friends and they tell gang, that girl has drugs and she gets robbed and beaten up. Boy finds girl beaten up and unconscious calls for ambulance and calls her best friend to stay with her. Boy finds note lying next to girl. Ends in cliff-hanger of boy getting knife and finding the boy who told the gang that his girlfriend has the drugs.
Monday 20 September 2010
For my short Film production I have decided that I am going to do an Urban Realist Film. I will be working with a partner who is going to help me make this film successful. We decided together that Urban Realist was the genre for the both of us. We came to an agreement due to the research that we have both done about genres that we can relate more and we feel comfortable with doing an Urban Realist Film. After we discussed about what genre we were going to do the next thing was to make a treatment or a storyboard of our short film. We had to take all the information that we have researched on Urban Realism films and follow they key codes and conventions of the genre and make sure that our storyboard is good enough and will take up the 5minutes that we have for the film. My partner and I had to come up with a solid storyboard that will attract the audience and if all of it was going to fit into the 5minute film but for now we have an idea of what we want to do.
Research into the BFI
During my research I looked at the BFI film festival website to look for more research on urban realist short films. http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/films/short_cuts_animation/1058. In this website there are so many films with different type of genre. I looked at this website in my media class briefly but I thought that I had to go into greater research as there are films that I would like to see. A I was researching I came across an urban realist short film that only last 15minutes. It is called 'London calling'. This is a short urban realist film that I would like to see as I am going to be attending the festival. Going to the festival is a great opportunity for me to experience the different kind of short film genres.
What I learnt in this lesson
In todays medai lesson we looked at an interesting film called 'The Unique Wonders of Christians Savage'. This film helped me a lot because it was taking us through how and what the key important factures are in making a film.
The first thing I learnt was Storyboard. The storyboard is one of the most important factures of making a film. You have to make sure that your storyboard and each shot is planned to perfection. Without the storyboard you will have no film. I took this into consideration and made up my decision from then what my storyline was going to be. Knowing your storyboard well and planning it early makes a huge diffence because you will not rush and you will have plenty of time to make decisions of what you need and what you do not need. In the film you can see how fluent the structure of the film was because they had planned it and stuck to what they wanted to do. This will help me when I come to make my short film because knowing my story board and becoming familiar with it will help me to know what I am doing instead of panicing and leaving things to the last minute
The second thing that the film showed us was the importance of short construction. Short construction is really crusial because this is where the camera comes into play. They discussed that the frame and size of the frame is very important and also the size off the frame. They also gave us an example of why it is very important. They said that if they had to frame a man up close it will give him the sense of superiority and power but if they had to frame him from a long view then that sense of superiority dissapears. They also talked about the landscape of which you are framing. I foiund out that the landscape is an important aspect because it is the view of the landscape that gives of a hint of what the film is going to be about. In this film they showed us the area that they were going to frame and it was a dryed up land in africa. This gives the audience the setting and the mood of the film. Lastly they showed us the camera shots are very important because it signifies the characters mood, role and characteristics. For examle a close up shot of a person shows the audience that the person is either the main character, shows the characters mood or shows the characters high postion of status. A low angle shot shows the character from below and also giving them the impression of being more powerful or dominant. A high angle shows the characters from above, i.e. the camera is angled down towards the character. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive. The point of view shot allows the audience to see the eyes of the camera which I think is a very clever way of drawing the audience in. It allows the audience to think that they are actually there.
The next point they expressed on was Lighting effects. I learnt that the lighting is the principle task of directory. Lighting i.e highlights, texture and dark placs predicts the mood. Lighting has three main purposes. The first is clarity of image. It is important for viewers to be able to discern all the important elements in the frame. These might range from facial expressions and physical gestures to the presence of significant props. The use of "effects lighting," as it was known at the time, paved the way for the third purpose: the creation of atmosphere or emotional effect. The development of lighting technique as a significant element of mise-en-scène became an important tool for manipulating audience responses to characters and narrative events.
The important they came across was sound. They expressed that sound is essential for a film. I found out that sound adds to the emotion and also rythm of the film. Since I will have to make my own sound track for my short film I have to make sure that it is well suited for the film otherwise it will not make sense.
All this information that I got from watching this film was very important and useful to me because i can now take away what I have learnt from it and use it to make my short film very good. I will have to beware of where I would like to film because landsape is very important as it sets the scene. Moreover camera shots are very important too. These are the things that I will need to be thinking of as I am preparing to make my short film production.
The first thing I learnt was Storyboard. The storyboard is one of the most important factures of making a film. You have to make sure that your storyboard and each shot is planned to perfection. Without the storyboard you will have no film. I took this into consideration and made up my decision from then what my storyline was going to be. Knowing your storyboard well and planning it early makes a huge diffence because you will not rush and you will have plenty of time to make decisions of what you need and what you do not need. In the film you can see how fluent the structure of the film was because they had planned it and stuck to what they wanted to do. This will help me when I come to make my short film because knowing my story board and becoming familiar with it will help me to know what I am doing instead of panicing and leaving things to the last minute
The second thing that the film showed us was the importance of short construction. Short construction is really crusial because this is where the camera comes into play. They discussed that the frame and size of the frame is very important and also the size off the frame. They also gave us an example of why it is very important. They said that if they had to frame a man up close it will give him the sense of superiority and power but if they had to frame him from a long view then that sense of superiority dissapears. They also talked about the landscape of which you are framing. I foiund out that the landscape is an important aspect because it is the view of the landscape that gives of a hint of what the film is going to be about. In this film they showed us the area that they were going to frame and it was a dryed up land in africa. This gives the audience the setting and the mood of the film. Lastly they showed us the camera shots are very important because it signifies the characters mood, role and characteristics. For examle a close up shot of a person shows the audience that the person is either the main character, shows the characters mood or shows the characters high postion of status. A low angle shot shows the character from below and also giving them the impression of being more powerful or dominant. A high angle shows the characters from above, i.e. the camera is angled down towards the character. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive. The point of view shot allows the audience to see the eyes of the camera which I think is a very clever way of drawing the audience in. It allows the audience to think that they are actually there.
The next point they expressed on was Lighting effects. I learnt that the lighting is the principle task of directory. Lighting i.e highlights, texture and dark placs predicts the mood. Lighting has three main purposes. The first is clarity of image. It is important for viewers to be able to discern all the important elements in the frame. These might range from facial expressions and physical gestures to the presence of significant props. The use of "effects lighting," as it was known at the time, paved the way for the third purpose: the creation of atmosphere or emotional effect. The development of lighting technique as a significant element of mise-en-scène became an important tool for manipulating audience responses to characters and narrative events.
The important they came across was sound. They expressed that sound is essential for a film. I found out that sound adds to the emotion and also rythm of the film. Since I will have to make my own sound track for my short film I have to make sure that it is well suited for the film otherwise it will not make sense.
All this information that I got from watching this film was very important and useful to me because i can now take away what I have learnt from it and use it to make my short film very good. I will have to beware of where I would like to film because landsape is very important as it sets the scene. Moreover camera shots are very important too. These are the things that I will need to be thinking of as I am preparing to make my short film production.
Narative theories
For this media lesson I looked at the three popular existing narrative theories from three different people called Tzvetan Todoro, Vladimir Propp, and Claude Levi-Strauss. I also did a bit of research on their theories
Tzvetan Todorov’s TheoryTzvetan Todorov (Bulgarian structuralist linguist publishing influentialWork on narrative from the 1960s onwards) Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.
Vladimir propp's theoriesContending that fairy tales could be studied and compared by examining their most basic plot components, Formalist Vladimir Propp developed an analysis that reduced fairy tales to a series of actions performed by the dramatis personae in each story. Propp argued that all fairy tales were constructed of certain plot elements, which he called functions, and that these elements consistently occurred in a uniform sequence. Based on a study of one hundred folk tales, Propp devised a list of thirty-one generic functions, proposing that they encompassed all of the plot components from which fairy tales were constructed. He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:
The villain — struggles against the hero.The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.
Claude Levi-Strauss's TheoryClaude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in termsof binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL – we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi –Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative: Earth SpaceGood EvilHumans AliensPast PresentNormal Strange Known UnknownSo far in the clips that we have viewed and analyzed there has only been a few that I can say that these theories have applied. For example a clip on youtube that we watched called ‘Panic Attack’. Out of these three theories I think that Tzvetan Todorov’s theory applies most to this particular clip as it begins with an equilibrium then we see that the robots come to attack. However the story didn’t get resolved. The last thing that we see is the robots bombing the city that they’re attacking.
Tzvetan Todorov’s TheoryTzvetan Todorov (Bulgarian structuralist linguist publishing influentialWork on narrative from the 1960s onwards) Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.
Vladimir propp's theoriesContending that fairy tales could be studied and compared by examining their most basic plot components, Formalist Vladimir Propp developed an analysis that reduced fairy tales to a series of actions performed by the dramatis personae in each story. Propp argued that all fairy tales were constructed of certain plot elements, which he called functions, and that these elements consistently occurred in a uniform sequence. Based on a study of one hundred folk tales, Propp devised a list of thirty-one generic functions, proposing that they encompassed all of the plot components from which fairy tales were constructed. He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:
The villain — struggles against the hero.The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.
Claude Levi-Strauss's TheoryClaude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in termsof binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL – we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi –Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative: Earth SpaceGood EvilHumans AliensPast PresentNormal Strange Known UnknownSo far in the clips that we have viewed and analyzed there has only been a few that I can say that these theories have applied. For example a clip on youtube that we watched called ‘Panic Attack’. Out of these three theories I think that Tzvetan Todorov’s theory applies most to this particular clip as it begins with an equilibrium then we see that the robots come to attack. However the story didn’t get resolved. The last thing that we see is the robots bombing the city that they’re attacking.
Questionaire
What kind of age group do you think is more suited for my urban realist film?
5+ :0 10+ :0 17+ :30 25+ :20
I told 50 people that I was going to do a short urban realist film and I also told them the theme of the plot that i was planning on doing. For my research I asked them what kind of age group would be more suitable for my short film production and these are the results that I got. As you can see from the graph the majority of people chose 17+ and 25+ which I was expecting. I also asked them why they chose this. The feedback I got was that children such as 5 and 10 year olds will not enjoy it because they are too small to understand fully what is going on around the world they live in. They also said because teenagers from 17 onwards are aware of these things they will understand and relate to it. For example gangs and gun crime, only teenagers at a certain age will realize the seriousness of this and can relate to it. In my opinion I thought that 25+ was a bit too old for people that age to see this. This is because there are more of teenagers that are into the lifestyle that I would like to create in my short film such as joining gangs, socialising with other students. Even though I knew what the answer would be in the end, I still needed to do this experiment just incase.
5+ :0 10+ :0 17+ :30 25+ :20
I told 50 people that I was going to do a short urban realist film and I also told them the theme of the plot that i was planning on doing. For my research I asked them what kind of age group would be more suitable for my short film production and these are the results that I got. As you can see from the graph the majority of people chose 17+ and 25+ which I was expecting. I also asked them why they chose this. The feedback I got was that children such as 5 and 10 year olds will not enjoy it because they are too small to understand fully what is going on around the world they live in. They also said because teenagers from 17 onwards are aware of these things they will understand and relate to it. For example gangs and gun crime, only teenagers at a certain age will realize the seriousness of this and can relate to it. In my opinion I thought that 25+ was a bit too old for people that age to see this. This is because there are more of teenagers that are into the lifestyle that I would like to create in my short film such as joining gangs, socialising with other students. Even though I knew what the answer would be in the end, I still needed to do this experiment just incase.
Thursday 16 September 2010
What would you want my film to be based on?
Crime: 27 Nature: 7 Life about a person: 0 Pregnancy: 16
It is really important to know what the target audience would like to watch. So I thought that if I could ask 50 people of what my short film should be based on, it will give me a general idea of what to do. During my research I found out that in order for a film to be successful the audience that are watching the film must find it interesting. So I took this into consideration and asked them what they thought my short film production should be based on and these are the results I got. Crime was the highest with 27 people voting for it, 7 people voted for nature, nobody wanted to vote for a life of a person and 16 people voted for pregnancy. I found these results very intersting because crime and pregnacy all fit under the catergory of the genre urban realist. Ive also put on a graph below to give me me the percentages. As you can see from the graph more than half wanted the film to be based on crime. A lot of people thought that crime would be good because you can add stereotypes and also challenge stereotypes which is good. They also said it is interesting because there are a lot of fast movement of the actors and the camera shots and all these things builds up tension. I also asked them why they would not like to see a short film about a person's life and the response I got back was that it is very boring and nobosy really wants to know about a person's life unless he/she had a really really interesting life. Throughout these questionares I am getting more and more confident in what to do when finally make my short film. I have to make sure that I take these answers into consideration because this is what the audience want to see.
Crime: 27 Nature: 7 Life about a person: 0 Pregnancy: 16
It is really important to know what the target audience would like to watch. So I thought that if I could ask 50 people of what my short film should be based on, it will give me a general idea of what to do. During my research I found out that in order for a film to be successful the audience that are watching the film must find it interesting. So I took this into consideration and asked them what they thought my short film production should be based on and these are the results I got. Crime was the highest with 27 people voting for it, 7 people voted for nature, nobody wanted to vote for a life of a person and 16 people voted for pregnancy. I found these results very intersting because crime and pregnacy all fit under the catergory of the genre urban realist. Ive also put on a graph below to give me me the percentages. As you can see from the graph more than half wanted the film to be based on crime. A lot of people thought that crime would be good because you can add stereotypes and also challenge stereotypes which is good. They also said it is interesting because there are a lot of fast movement of the actors and the camera shots and all these things builds up tension. I also asked them why they would not like to see a short film about a person's life and the response I got back was that it is very boring and nobosy really wants to know about a person's life unless he/she had a really really interesting life. Throughout these questionares I am getting more and more confident in what to do when finally make my short film. I have to make sure that I take these answers into consideration because this is what the audience want to see.
What film would you prefer to watch?
Bullet boy:26 Star Wars: 6 Scary movie2: 2 The life of mammals:1 paranormal activity: 15
To make my short film a success I had to find out what kind of films/movies people really enjoy. So I asked 50 people what kind of movie/film they would prefer to watch and here are the results. A staggering 26 people decided to pick bullet boy, 6 people picked Star Wars, 3 people picked Scary Movie 2, only 1 person picked The life of mammals and a promising 15 people picked paranormal activity. As you can see from the graph bullet boy takes up half of the graph. This is very good for me because Bullet boy is a urban realist genre and from this data it gioves me confidence in picking the genre urban realist because a lot of people tend to like it. I asked the people why they wouldn't choose The life of mammals and the majority of them said that compared to the other films/movies this is by far the most boring one. I asked them also why they would go for Paranormal Activity and Bullet boy and the response I got back was that these two films are very interesting because they can relate tot. They said that Paranormal Activity is a film that gets a lot of the audience very edgy and that what they expect from a horror.
Bullet boy:26 Star Wars: 6 Scary movie2: 2 The life of mammals:1 paranormal activity: 15
To make my short film a success I had to find out what kind of films/movies people really enjoy. So I asked 50 people what kind of movie/film they would prefer to watch and here are the results. A staggering 26 people decided to pick bullet boy, 6 people picked Star Wars, 3 people picked Scary Movie 2, only 1 person picked The life of mammals and a promising 15 people picked paranormal activity. As you can see from the graph bullet boy takes up half of the graph. This is very good for me because Bullet boy is a urban realist genre and from this data it gioves me confidence in picking the genre urban realist because a lot of people tend to like it. I asked the people why they wouldn't choose The life of mammals and the majority of them said that compared to the other films/movies this is by far the most boring one. I asked them also why they would go for Paranormal Activity and Bullet boy and the response I got back was that these two films are very interesting because they can relate tot. They said that Paranormal Activity is a film that gets a lot of the audience very edgy and that what they expect from a horror.
What type of genre do you prefer?
Horror 13 Sci-Fi 6 Comedy 2 Documentary 3 Urban Realist 26
From this questionaire I came up some results that will help me with my production of the short films. I asked 50 of my target audience what kind of genre they would prefer to see and these are the answers I collected. On top of the graph are how many people chose the genres. So out of 50 people 13 said that they would like to see a horror film. I thought that this was a good idea but the short film has to be only 5 minutes. I thought that if I had to do a horror then it will go over 5 minutes. 6 people chose Sci-Fi, 3 people chose comedy, 2 people chose documentary and a msive 26 people chose Urban realist. I had a streong feeling about doing an urban realist short film and the majority of people would like to see this. This information is really helpful as it helps me to make up my mind of what kind of genre I am going to choose. For the people that picked Urban realist, the next question I asked was why they would want to see an urban realist film. The feedback that i got was that they thought it was interesting to see how they stereotype people an the things they do. They said that Media has corrupted corrupted people's minds so much that when they see it on films the audience tend to think that what they are seeing is true. For me I thought it was very interesting because what happens in the real
world today does get exaggerated a lot in a stereotypical way for example gangs, crime, pregnancies etc. All these things that happen today do get exaggerated and people find this very interesting to watch because they can relate to it easily.
I made a graph of the results I got and as you can see more than half chose Urban realist and only 4% chose comedy which was suprising for me because i though a lot of people liked comedy.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
What makes a film successful
In order to make my short film successful I needed to find out in general what it is that makes a film become successful, so I did a bit of research on how big films become a huge hit and makes the audience go to watch it on cinemas or even buy them on DVD's. I found out that the storyline is one of the most important things to making the film a hit. If you do not have a good storyline then the target audience will not go to watch it. A good storyline is at the heart of every successful film. The script must definately appeal to the target audience. Successful films are known to tug at the heartstrings of the audience because they are fairly easy to relate to. Even if you have a big star to perfom for example Will Smith, the audience would not like to sit through 120minutes watching him in a boring film because the storyline was very poor. Granted, there are so many movies that have such a huge buzz going into their opening weekend that people will go and see the movie. But when word gets out that people did not enjoy the movie the second week’s take will be drastically less.
Having stars that are good actors are also the key to making a film successful. This is because popular actors have huge following and they are known to give quality performances. Angelina Jolie took a small movie that wasn’t getting that much press, last summer’s “Wanted”, and turned it into one of the biggest movies of the summer.
Marketing Plan is a critical part of a successful film Making a film, no matter how good or how famous its actors and director are, would not attract much attention if it won’t create some buzz. That is why it is essential to Advertise and other marketing campaigns such as a movie trailer, posters, inviting movie critics to the film’s premiere and other forms of promotions are of utmost importance.
The budget is also a very essential thing to make a film successful. Film production costs a lot of money, making it an important aspect of what makes a movie successful. Having a budget that would adequately cover expensive talent fees and at the same time enable directors to come up with creative ways of making a movie. Release Date is also crusial. I have noticed that a lot of the big budget films are in the summer. This is because there are more people able to see them at any given time throughout the day. School is not in session and people even work less. Plus it is great to be super hot all day and then walk into an air-conditioned movie theater for just a couple of hours. Movies also have to be aware of what other movies are being released and when.
During my research I came across this article which is really useful for making a short film. The article is by Warren EIG. Here is the link to the article. http://www.thefilmlot.com/articles/ARTsuccessfulshort.php
All this research I have to done is going to help me a lot when I come to make my short film. The first thing I have to be thinking about is manking sure that I have a solid blueprint or script to begin with. I have learnt that if I spend the time perfecting the final draft then the production will go more smoothly. I also learnt that having a specific target audience for your films are extremely important. Your film must be relevant to your target market. This means your target market must be clearly defined. It's not uncommon for big film to have to refocus and revisit their targeting, especially if it was not clearly identified in the beginning stages of producing it. To achieve a good a successful film it is important that you know your target market inside and out. This requires conducting a market analysis. This market analysis must be as in-depth as possible providing you will all the data you need to reach your target effectively. By knowing your target audience you will be more confident in the steps to take to connect with that audience.
Having stars that are good actors are also the key to making a film successful. This is because popular actors have huge following and they are known to give quality performances. Angelina Jolie took a small movie that wasn’t getting that much press, last summer’s “Wanted”, and turned it into one of the biggest movies of the summer.
Marketing Plan is a critical part of a successful film Making a film, no matter how good or how famous its actors and director are, would not attract much attention if it won’t create some buzz. That is why it is essential to Advertise and other marketing campaigns such as a movie trailer, posters, inviting movie critics to the film’s premiere and other forms of promotions are of utmost importance.
The budget is also a very essential thing to make a film successful. Film production costs a lot of money, making it an important aspect of what makes a movie successful. Having a budget that would adequately cover expensive talent fees and at the same time enable directors to come up with creative ways of making a movie. Release Date is also crusial. I have noticed that a lot of the big budget films are in the summer. This is because there are more people able to see them at any given time throughout the day. School is not in session and people even work less. Plus it is great to be super hot all day and then walk into an air-conditioned movie theater for just a couple of hours. Movies also have to be aware of what other movies are being released and when.
During my research I came across this article which is really useful for making a short film. The article is by Warren EIG. Here is the link to the article. http://www.thefilmlot.com/articles/ARTsuccessfulshort.php
All this research I have to done is going to help me a lot when I come to make my short film. The first thing I have to be thinking about is manking sure that I have a solid blueprint or script to begin with. I have learnt that if I spend the time perfecting the final draft then the production will go more smoothly. I also learnt that having a specific target audience for your films are extremely important. Your film must be relevant to your target market. This means your target market must be clearly defined. It's not uncommon for big film to have to refocus and revisit their targeting, especially if it was not clearly identified in the beginning stages of producing it. To achieve a good a successful film it is important that you know your target market inside and out. This requires conducting a market analysis. This market analysis must be as in-depth as possible providing you will all the data you need to reach your target effectively. By knowing your target audience you will be more confident in the steps to take to connect with that audience.
Key codes and conventions.
Each genre of film has there own key codes and conventions to follow in order to allow the audience to know what is going on. Knowing all the key code and conventions for each genre is really important because if you are thinking of doing a horror film for example and you add a little bit of slapstick commedy then the film wouldn't make sense and this can lead to a film being unsuccessful. So I have done some research and looked up the key code and conventions for each genre. The first genre I looked at was Sci-Fi because there are some short clips that I watched from this gnre and I thought it was very creative and interesting. I reseached on what the codes and conventions are for Science Fiction because theseb are the things that they use in the films to make it Sci-Fi. Science Fiction is a type of media whereby the premise is that the events being described are taking place in a reality other than the one you are currently experiencing. For example Long Time ago (Star Wars), Alternate Present (The Terminator, Twilight Zone, Independence Day) or Future (Dark Star, Silent Running). Science Fiction usually deals with hardware and technology, compared to Science Fantasy (also SF) whereby there is more concentration on non-technological aspects of the events being described, for example - The Lord of the Rings. A lot of the target audience get drawn to the genre of Sci-Fi due to the high technology that is happening today. A lot of audience think that things such as flying cars or spaceships could happen in the future. for example our mobile phones today were predicted in 'Star Trek' from 40 years ago.
The other genre I looked at was horror. Horror is one of the biggest genres because a lot of target audience's tend to watch horror film. Horror films code and conventions are so precise and obvious and makes the audience want to watch more of it. Horror is a genre that strives to educe fear and apprehension from their viewers by colliding supernatural into reality situations. Everything a normal society values is systematically destroyed throughout the film. It often can be completely paranormal without any reality whatsoever and are based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre. They can also incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction (sci-fi), fantasy, black comedies or thriller. Modernized horrors usually contain graphic violence or bloody gore. Horror films differentiate due to the years and so it is much harder to compare or group them largely and so contrasts between them become very clear. For example Paranomal activity is one of the biggest horror films out now. A lot of its traget audience went to see it and the code and conventions were very good because there was a lot of supernatural things in it and it did have the audience wondering if it was real or not. Here is a link to the trailer of the film paranormal activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSSqxrh5kp8
The other genre I looked at was horror. Horror is one of the biggest genres because a lot of target audience's tend to watch horror film. Horror films code and conventions are so precise and obvious and makes the audience want to watch more of it. Horror is a genre that strives to educe fear and apprehension from their viewers by colliding supernatural into reality situations. Everything a normal society values is systematically destroyed throughout the film. It often can be completely paranormal without any reality whatsoever and are based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre. They can also incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction (sci-fi), fantasy, black comedies or thriller. Modernized horrors usually contain graphic violence or bloody gore. Horror films differentiate due to the years and so it is much harder to compare or group them largely and so contrasts between them become very clear. For example Paranomal activity is one of the biggest horror films out now. A lot of its traget audience went to see it and the code and conventions were very good because there was a lot of supernatural things in it and it did have the audience wondering if it was real or not. Here is a link to the trailer of the film paranormal activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSSqxrh5kp8
This image is the front cover of the horror movie 'SAW'. as you can see the cover is following the key codes and conventions of a horror. The Red writing signifies blood and death which a lot of horror films have. The picture itself of the scary looking face tells the target audience that this film is going to be scary. Also you can notice the slogan they have on the top hand left. 'You will wish it were just a movie'. This kind of slogan plays with the audience's minds to think that what is happening in the movie could also happen to them. It draws the audience in the film.I did some research on what code and conventions make up a documentary. Documentaries are very unique to other genres becaue they use real footage of events. Documentaries are essentially seen as non-fiction. A convention of documentaries are that all events are presented to us are to be seen as real to the target audience. Documentaries make a big deal and go to great lengths to convince the audience that all footage is real and unaltered in anyway. For example I watched a clip of a bbc documentary called 'The Birth of Isreal' which i found was very fasinating. Documenatries are more like facts and deal with real pictures and use their own music to educate or to teach people about things. Here is a clip of the documentary 'The Birth of Isreal' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8hE6WN9xRU
Research on What makes a film unique
I have researched on different kinds of genres and I have been trying to figure out what makes each genre what it actually is. I am trying to find out what the key is to making a genre so obvious to discover. I am doing this because when I make my own short fim the target audience will realise straight away what the genre and the story line is about. I have an idea to do a short film of urban realism, so I have looked at several films that I watched to find out what makes the film an urban realist. There are two urban realist films that I have most enjoyed and they are kidulthood and bulletboy. The short film that I am planning to make is going to be inspired by these two films so I am trying to pick out what it is that makes these films interesting to watch and if i would put these things in my short film. When am making my film following the key codes and conventions is really important because this will help to make the film interesting. It also helps the audience to know exactly what kind of genre it is. I want to make sure that I follow the key code and conventions of my genre but I want to make my short film unique. This is because if I copy a story line out of a film then it wouldn't really be my idea. It will also make the target audience particularly bored because they are watching something very similar to what they have already watched before. So making my short film unique is one of the things that I will be focusing on so that the target audience will be kept guessing to what is going to happpen next. Here is a link to the film 'Bullet Boy'.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9HmGBQ9LK8 and here is a link to the film kidulthood.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoKD4gTQ2c. I am comparing to the two films to acknowledge the key code and conventions of them and to know what aspects makes the film interesting and want the audience to find out what happens latter on. This will help me to understand a lot about the genre that I strongly feel good about to do my short film, urban realist. I have also dne some research on other genres to find out what makes them very unique to othe films. Each genre has their own way of making an audience want to find out more about the film so I decided that in order for me to be sure of what I want to do, I should check all genres. Part of making a film successful is to make the genre obvious so that the target audience will be able to follow the story line.
Monday 13 September 2010
Research On Different Genres
During this project, I will have to come up with a genre for the short film that I will be creating. Since I haven't made up my mind of what genre I am going to pick I thought that doing a little research and watching different kind of short films will help me to decide what kind of genre I am going to pick. There are 4 types of genres that I am in between about because I have watched several clips of each and I think that they are all appropriate for me to work with. They are a documentary, Sci -Fi, Urban Realist and comedy. I would say that the least likely I would like to do out of those 4 genres is comedy becasue for me I think it would be the hardest for me to do whereas the most likely genre I would go for is Urban Realist simply because I am a teenager and I know a lot about what teenagers do. So I thought that it would be easier for me to do a short film about teenagers and what they do in todays world. It would also be good because I could put stereotypes in the short film. I went ahead and took a look at a few short films from youtube and judged them to see if it is something that I would do. The first short film I watched was called 'Is she or isn't He' and the genre of this short film was a comedy. I found the film fasinating and there is a glipse of proof that it is a comedy. There were a lot of hand held shots to allow the audience to be brought in to the film and all the camera shots seemed very simple however in my opinion I did find the short film a bit silly. If I wanted to make a comedy I wouldn't do something like that because there are some people that do get affended by this. Here is the link to this short comedy film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hj_qO8nsk.
The second short film that I watched was a Sci-Fi genre and it is called 'THE FURFANGS'. I enjoyed this film because it was entertaining. The camera shots were really good. There were some fast edits and the pace quickened when the action started to kick in. This draws suspense from the audience and makes the audience want to ind out more. One of the reasons why I like Sci-Fi is because supernatural things happen in some of them just like in this one. It is a genre where a person could really use his/her imagination to come up with something exciting. The music that is used in this short video was very well used. Everytime action took place the music became louder and faster. They also used that slow deep space music which also creates tension. This instantly reminded me of another Sci -Fi film 'Doctor Who'. Here is the link for this short film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o7DKIKJBQI.
The third short film I watched was a short documentary of the BBC called 'The Deep Blue'. The music they used was very appropriate for this documentary because they showed me the wild life of animals in the sea and seaguls and that gives the audience the sense of relaxation. The music used in this short film was very calm and slow which give the audience the a chilled out atmosphere. I thought that this short documentary was very good and the shots of the wildlife animals were exceptional. They also put the documentary in slow motion which again also gives the audience the sense of an relaxed chilled out atmosphere. There were some close ups and medium shots of the birds flying which I thought was fantastic. They also had medium shots of fishes in the deep blue see which I also found fasinating. The music being played was very calming and smooth. Here is the link to this short documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cclr8OmGwfU
I tried to look for an Urban Realist short film but I couldn't find one. But there is a film that I have watched in the past which I found really good. Although it is not a short film It is something I would like to base my short film on. The film is called KidultHood. This Urban Realist is based on teenagers my age and I thought that it is facinating how they have put stereotypes in it and they have added what some teeanagers would do during the day and night.
The second short film that I watched was a Sci-Fi genre and it is called 'THE FURFANGS'. I enjoyed this film because it was entertaining. The camera shots were really good. There were some fast edits and the pace quickened when the action started to kick in. This draws suspense from the audience and makes the audience want to ind out more. One of the reasons why I like Sci-Fi is because supernatural things happen in some of them just like in this one. It is a genre where a person could really use his/her imagination to come up with something exciting. The music that is used in this short video was very well used. Everytime action took place the music became louder and faster. They also used that slow deep space music which also creates tension. This instantly reminded me of another Sci -Fi film 'Doctor Who'. Here is the link for this short film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o7DKIKJBQI.
The third short film I watched was a short documentary of the BBC called 'The Deep Blue'. The music they used was very appropriate for this documentary because they showed me the wild life of animals in the sea and seaguls and that gives the audience the sense of relaxation. The music used in this short film was very calm and slow which give the audience the a chilled out atmosphere. I thought that this short documentary was very good and the shots of the wildlife animals were exceptional. They also put the documentary in slow motion which again also gives the audience the sense of an relaxed chilled out atmosphere. There were some close ups and medium shots of the birds flying which I thought was fantastic. They also had medium shots of fishes in the deep blue see which I also found fasinating. The music being played was very calming and smooth. Here is the link to this short documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cclr8OmGwfU
I tried to look for an Urban Realist short film but I couldn't find one. But there is a film that I have watched in the past which I found really good. Although it is not a short film It is something I would like to base my short film on. The film is called KidultHood. This Urban Realist is based on teenagers my age and I thought that it is facinating how they have put stereotypes in it and they have added what some teeanagers would do during the day and night.
Thursday 9 September 2010
Research
For this unit I will be making my own short film. For my Research I have looked at a website http://www.portobellofilmfestival.com/. The Portobello Film Festival is an independant international film festival which is based in London. The websites holds over 700 different short films which are produced by various people with a different age group. Their are a variety of short film with different genres such as animations, documentaries and music films. I think this that this website is very useful to me because I am a bit indecisive of what kind of genre I am going to use for my own production of a short film. Some of the plots for the short films that I have looked at on the website seem very interesting so I intend to go and watch some of the films.
I went on youtube and I found a clip on Portbello Film Festival slideshow in the year 2005. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKRbheAOkXU
History of Portobello Film Festival
The Film Festival was created in 1996 as a reaction to the moribund state of the British film industry, to provide a forum for new film-makers and give exposure to movies on different formats. Many of our previously out-on-a-limb directors have since been recognised by the big fish in the industry. The festival has been dubbed ‘the wild side of Brit Film’ (Metro), ‘this pioneering film festival’ (Evening Standard), ‘the biggest celebration of independent film in Europe’ (The Independent) and ‘London’s biggest filmic free-for-all’ (Time Out). That the Portobello Film Festival shows tomorrow’s films today is evident in the number of ideas first presented here that regularly crop up in the mainstream. At the start Portobello lacked a cinema – The Electric didn’t reopen till 2001 and anyway we have never charged admission, which makes screening in commercial cinemas problematic - so through virtue out of necessity, the Festival has screened films in diverse venues like parks, theatres, clubs and bars. In 1996 we showed films in two tents on Athlone Gardens with 35mm and video projection. The selection included local movies "Performance" by Nicholas Roeg/Donald Cammell and "Leo The Last" (John Boorman) plus, in the indie section, the yet to be recognised Guy Ritchie ("The Hard Case") was short listed for the Golden Boot Award. Other shortlisted films that year included Gaz Mayall’s “The Great British Spliff”, Steven Galvin’s “The Hole”, Ritchie Winearl’s “The Imitators”, Christine Edzard’s “As You Like It” with James Fox and Deborah Ferguson’s “Attitude Adjustor”. The eventual winner…a Golden Boot sponsored by Dr Martens footwear, and held at a special ceremony at De Lane Lea Studios in Soho was Caspar Walsh for “Stairway”. 1997: the Festival created a vibe in Athlone Gardens again with a bar, restaurant and three cinema tents. More audio-visual style-shapers were screened. Hexstatic showed their stunning “Natural Rhythm Trilogy” along with Giles (Orbital) Thacker’s image wizardry. Bill Drummond came along to the 3-day event to see the K Foundation’s burning a million quid and 25 hours of the M25 films. Phil Smith presented the only public showing of his Metalhedz/Blue Note documentary. By now we were attracting well over 200 entries, from a public appeal in Time Out, colleges, bars and production houses. The Festival has always been committed to showing all films submitted and providing free entry to all screenings. The Golden Boot was awarded to "Junk", starring Adam Ant, by Cassius Rayner.
I went on youtube and I found a clip on Portbello Film Festival slideshow in the year 2005. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKRbheAOkXU
History of Portobello Film Festival
The Film Festival was created in 1996 as a reaction to the moribund state of the British film industry, to provide a forum for new film-makers and give exposure to movies on different formats. Many of our previously out-on-a-limb directors have since been recognised by the big fish in the industry. The festival has been dubbed ‘the wild side of Brit Film’ (Metro), ‘this pioneering film festival’ (Evening Standard), ‘the biggest celebration of independent film in Europe’ (The Independent) and ‘London’s biggest filmic free-for-all’ (Time Out). That the Portobello Film Festival shows tomorrow’s films today is evident in the number of ideas first presented here that regularly crop up in the mainstream. At the start Portobello lacked a cinema – The Electric didn’t reopen till 2001 and anyway we have never charged admission, which makes screening in commercial cinemas problematic - so through virtue out of necessity, the Festival has screened films in diverse venues like parks, theatres, clubs and bars. In 1996 we showed films in two tents on Athlone Gardens with 35mm and video projection. The selection included local movies "Performance" by Nicholas Roeg/Donald Cammell and "Leo The Last" (John Boorman) plus, in the indie section, the yet to be recognised Guy Ritchie ("The Hard Case") was short listed for the Golden Boot Award. Other shortlisted films that year included Gaz Mayall’s “The Great British Spliff”, Steven Galvin’s “The Hole”, Ritchie Winearl’s “The Imitators”, Christine Edzard’s “As You Like It” with James Fox and Deborah Ferguson’s “Attitude Adjustor”. The eventual winner…a Golden Boot sponsored by Dr Martens footwear, and held at a special ceremony at De Lane Lea Studios in Soho was Caspar Walsh for “Stairway”. 1997: the Festival created a vibe in Athlone Gardens again with a bar, restaurant and three cinema tents. More audio-visual style-shapers were screened. Hexstatic showed their stunning “Natural Rhythm Trilogy” along with Giles (Orbital) Thacker’s image wizardry. Bill Drummond came along to the 3-day event to see the K Foundation’s burning a million quid and 25 hours of the M25 films. Phil Smith presented the only public showing of his Metalhedz/Blue Note documentary. By now we were attracting well over 200 entries, from a public appeal in Time Out, colleges, bars and production houses. The Festival has always been committed to showing all films submitted and providing free entry to all screenings. The Golden Boot was awarded to "Junk", starring Adam Ant, by Cassius Rayner.
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