Short Film
Our finished short film uses a variety of forms and conventions in order to present a plot that challenges dominant ideologies of the representation of young adults.
Our finished short film uses a variety of forms and conventions in order to present a plot that challenges dominant ideologies of the representation of young adults.
Films that have inspired my short film
Narrative Organisation
When researching
short films I found myself most drawn to films with a restricted narrative such
as the film 'A touch of Black.' Important pieces of information are hidden from
the audience's view and only revealed at the end of the film which creates an
enigmatic feeling and keeps the watcher gripped until the very end. The film
has a linear structure and fits with Todorov's theory of narrative; a disruption, confrontation, resolution and
equilibrium are all present in said order. I like the way the audience are
drawn in and fed false information, then proved completely wrong at the end. Narrative in short films is usually simple but made interesting by features such as mise en scene, camera work and characterisation.
Characterisation
I liked the idea that our film's
characters should challenge dominant ideologies about character. Film is a very influential medium and by challenging ideologies you can start to portray a certain social group in a completely different way to what is usually seen. Characterisation is one of the main conventions of short films. In the film
'About a Girl,' we are fed information that makes us believe the character is
the stereotypical teenager, (she wants to be a popstar), but we are then proven
wrong at the end when we realise something shocking about the character.
Camera work
When looking at camera work, I was interested films which use simple but varied shots to keep the film from becoming boring. 'Eve' was very interesting for camera work; it used a variety of shots- long shots, high angles, low angles etc. I particularly liked the use of high angles to seem threatening to the subject. The narrative of a short film can usually be defined by the camera work e.g. some short films also used flashbacks such as 'About a Girl' which we understand as going back in time.
Sound
Sound in short
films depends on the genre of the film that the director is trying to create. The
short film 'Christmas' uses both diegetic and non diegetic sounds as well as
music. The short film 'A touch of Black' uses a non diegetic voiceover creating a feeling of mystery and enigma to the film- a convention of it's thriller genre.
Mise en Scene
In short films
settings are generally limited as there is not enough time to fit all locations
into the short amount of screen time. Because of this settings are generally
very simple. In the film 'Steal his heart' various locations are visited which
shows that different locations can be used but only if it fits in with the
plot. Mise en scene is crucial in a short film as it helps the audience to decifer the genre of the film. For example a horror film will be set in a woods and main props may include a knife.
Use of genre conventions-
Short films are usually hybrids as they tend to be original- most film ideas have been done before. Although they may have different genres they all contain one similar convention- they want the audience to relate, sympathise or understand the film. The film 'Christmas' is a thriller/comedy hybrid and therefore uses conventions from both of these genres.
Themes and issues
Most short films address an issue or theme that is currently important in society. Themes can be lighthearted e.g. young love in 'Steal his heart' or can be very strong and deliver a disturbing message such as teen pregnancy and death in 'About a Girl.' Social realist short films usually have a big impact on the audience and can make them question their views on a subject.
We decided that our film should have
a restricted, linear narrative. Short
films typically have a twist at the end of the film that the audience aren't
expecting and we did this through our use of narrative. We missed out plot points
about the rioters (who they were) in order to reveal them at the end. This
style of narrative is very common in short films including 'About a Girl' and
'A Touch of Black.' As said in Roland Barthes theory of narrative, out film contains various enigma codes which lets our audience feel involved with the film as they try to decifer what's going on.
As the main
twist of our film was centred around our characters, building our characters
was crucial to our film. Usually in media products characters are very
stereotypically represented e.g. a male antagonist in an action and adventure film. We wanted
our audience to assume a character's stereotype before being proven wrong. We
reinforced the dominant ideology that young people are 'yobs' throughout the
film before realising they were actually elderly people at the end. Our main
aim in this film was to challenge ideologies portrayed by popular media
products. I was inspired by 'About a Girl,' when thinking of how our characters should be represented as at the beginning of the film the characters are represented as very stereotypical but they then challenge ideologies of their social groups at the end when we learn something about them. After deciding how we wanted to represent our characters I created these sketches about costume design (below). The costume reflected the character we were trying to create and they were based on general stereotypes.
We used a
variety of different shot types during our film. As short films are generally
lower budget than feature length films, experimental camera work is crucial in
creating a professional looking film. Our shots varied from static medium
shots, high angle cctv shots to handheld night shots. We used high angle CCTV shots to feel like the audience were surveying the scene and extreme close ups to create a feeling on unease and discomfort.
The sound in our
film went along with the general conventions of a short film. We combined
diegetic and non- diegetic sound in order to create a realistic looking film
and used parallel sound throughout. As our film was of the social realist/
comedy genre we avoided using a soundtrack throughout the film until the
comedic twist was revealed at the end and we added an upbeat, acoustic song
which fits the mood of the film.
We challenged
the use of mise en scene in our film by using a multitude of different
settings. Usually in short film only a couple of locations are used and it's
uncommon for a film to be set in only one place. By using a variety of
locations we could portray the hugeness of the riots that we were trying to
create. In this way, the mise en scene in our film is closer to the conventions
of a feature length film rather than a short film. Because of this we also used found footage of David Cameron talking about the riots as we were unable to film him ourselves as our production was so small.
Our film is a
social realism/ comedy hybrid. We used conventions from both of these genres
such as the use of a well documented event as the setting (common in social
realist films) and using a comic twist at the end. Our film is alike to other
media products in this way as it is a hybrid - common in short films.
As well as
entertaining the audience, our film raises some important issues and challenges
ideologies about age and class. In this
way it is unlike other short films; a small amount do focus on these themes
(such as teen pregnancy in 'About a Girl') however mostly they are lighthearted
and created to give laughs to the audience (the theme of love in 'Steal his
Heart.') Our film reflects on the London riots but in a comedic way. It questions the representation around young people and portrays them as victimised by the older generations when in fact the elderly are just as bad.
Little White Lies Review
Conventions of a Little White Lies Review:
Layout Conventions:
- Title-centered, Century Gothic font, size 30
- 'Directed By,' 'Starring' and 'Released' under title, Aperajita font
- 3 columns of review content, approx 550 words/ 6 paragraphs, Aparajita font. Columns are 52.4mm wide x 107mm long.
- 'Ratings' at the bottom of the right column. 'Anticipation,' 'Enjoyment,' and 'In Retrospect.' Each scored out of 5.
- Large 168mm x 70mm still image from the film at the top of the page
- Large letter at the beginning of the review
Language Conventions:
- Puns, sarcasm and dry humour
- Distinguished and superior adjectives and complex nouns
- Metaphors and similies
- References to popular relevant films
- Sophisticated, film language and references
I wrote the review using all of the above language conventions. We then designed the template on InDesign using all of the exact layout conventions to make our review look identical to one that would be published by Little White Lies:
Film Poster
Before creating my own poster I looked at relevant film posters such as the one above for 'Kidulthood' to look at the key conventions used in a film poster. I chose this poster to look at as it is a film that has the same theme as our own film by looking at the modern representations of young people.
Conventions of a film poster include:
- A large title. Font style depends on genre of the film and style of the poster
- Tagline
- Billing Block
- Website
- Film Certificate
- Ratings/ reviews from relevant organisations
- Large Image, usually featuring main character/s
- Actor's names (depends how well known the actors are) This is not featured on this poster as the actors are relatively unknown.
- Badges/ logos of production company/ies
- Award nominations (if relevant)
- Release date
Here is our film poster:
Conventions our poster uses:
- Large title. We used a graffiti font to connote the theme of the film and to reflect and attract our audience of young people
- Tagline, 'blame the yobs'.Also in graffiti font to connote the idea that the characters are vandals.
- Billing Block
- Logos of film festivals, production companies
- Website to find out more about the film
- Review/ ratings. Our reviews are from companies that would be likely to review a short film like ours instead of well-known newspapers such as The Dail Mail who would not agree with the representations in our film
- Image features one of the main characters which is a simple convention. Gives audience a clue about the characters
- No actor's names as our actors are unknown
I answered this question in a video below:
**when stating that our audience were 'young people' I meant young adults/ teenagers from ages 13-25**
3. What have you learned from your audience feedbackTo collect feedback from my demographic I published my video on the social networking site Facebook.
By using Facebook for my feedback I could determine the age of the people I have recieved feedback from
and then decide whether they fit my target audience andif I could include their feedback in my evaluation.
I also sent the url of our video to the audience via text message and Blackberry Messenger and recieved feeback in this way. All of these technologies are popular amoungst young adults- our target audience, which made them great platforms in which to collect feedback. Feedback was crucial for us to find out what our target audience thought about our film so we could improve it.
Here is some of the feedback I recieved:
via Facebook:
via BBM:
-All the people I recieved feedback from were in a 16-19 age bracket. I had 2 pieces of feedback from each gender.
Positive Feedback
-From this feedback I have learnt that the part of our film that the audience liked the most was the twist at the end, partly because they'd never seen a film with this before and also because it was such a shock to them. Generally our audience aren't used to hybrid films as young adults usually watch feature length films
with one fixed genre, however everyone I received feedback from had positive points to make.
- Everyone I asked agreed that the main new reporter played a very convincing role in the film (this explains all the "your dad was amazing" messages I recieved for feedback!), however the female news correspondent looked slightly uneasy whilst playing her role.
- Our editing techniques were also enjoyed by the audience. The shot where a young boy spray cans over the camera was pointed out in some of the feedback. I have learnt that although it takes a while, taking time with editing really makes a difference to the final product of the film and it is visible and doesn't go amiss by the audience. The news report opening impressed the audience as did the news report itself- one person said that they thought it was completely like a real life news report!
-Our poster also received good feedback. The graffiti title proved popular with one boy saying that he liked it because "It's different to the boring fonts you get on other posters." It also reflects the themes of our film.
Points to improve on
- It was pointed out that although the audience understood the film at the end the film did seem quite confusing part way through. The main causes of confusion were the cross cut scenes such as the knife scene (although one person did point out they liked the use of close up in this scene) which did prove slightly confusing and a bit over-enigmatic.
- The lighting was a bit too dark in the opening, establishing shot. Initially we wanted the shot to have low key lighting to create an enigmatic feel to it, however once we'd uploaded or footage the shot was a lot darker than we'd thought. If I could film this again I would focus a lot more on the lighting.
-It was also noted that you could "hear people laughing during the mugging." It was our intention to include this in this shot to create the idea that the rioters were filming the mugging on their phones and laughing about it throughout, however I have learnt that it confused some of our audience members!
- Our review received no points to improve on at all which I was very proud of! Our poster received all positive reviews except one small detail- there was a large gap of black space under the tagline and title. This has made me learn that we need to organise our layout in more detail and make the best use of the available space on the poster.
Overall from our audience feedback I have learned:
- Make time to plan. The main downfalls of our film were the small things that would be really easy to put right such as lighting and mise en scene.
- Keep it simple. Sticking to one simple idea throughout is the best way to keep the audience engaged. In a short film you don't have time to explain a complicated idea and using too many different scenes can confuse the audience.
-Keep your twist a secret! The main reason our film was so successful was because none of our ancillary tasks or our film hinted towards the 'big reveal' in our film at all and the twist was kept towards the very end. By keeping our twist a secret we could hook the audience until the very end.
-Spend time on editing. Another main attaction of our film was the news report. Although it took ages to film (4 times!!) as well as construct the hard work paid off and it turned out to be one of the most realistic and entertaining parts of our film.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Well done I will give you some feedback during tomorrows lesson
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