Task 7- Review of 3 short films

Prelim Task

Task 2 - Analysis of previous students work "Sketch"

The main narrative for this short film is young girl's imagination coming to life through her drawings. The film starts with a steady zoom on a vibrant student's room where the student is sat on her bed in shot. The shot on it's own only creates intrigue but combined with the non-diegetic music creates an air of sadness as the music is minor and includes zylophone and flute, two typically basic instruments. The shot then changes to close up shot of the notebook in the students hand which is accompanied by some non-diegetic pencil sounds which ruins the image on screen as the sound doesn't match the strokes of the pencil. It then jumps to a close up of the lead characters face, really out of focus accompanied by the same non-diegetic sound as before but a female voice is heard.The shot quickly comes into focus as she moves giving off a professional feel. The camera cuts to a low angle of her legs moving off the bed. The camera then stays in a high angle shot showing where the girl was sitting, and the shot slowly loses focus and becomes white washed. As the white was appears the clear black font of the word Sketch slowly appears bit by bit on the screen. The slowly steady almost fantastical music sung by the female soprano does create a peaceful stmosphere with a sense of sadness.

Task 5 - Research into genre I would like to do

The genre I would like to choose is not as much a genre as a technique, by this I mean I would like to create a straight forward and predictable film but include a heart wrenching revelation towards the end of the film. This idea is not the easiest to explain but better to show you examples of short films which have given me this idea. Each of these short films include a hidden and unforseen circumstance which I would like to incorporate in my short film's narrative. My film personally will be a thriller incorporating the technique mentioned before. The film will set the audience down a path convincing them they know how it will end until the film's narrative side swipes the audience leaving them shocked and unsure throughout the remainder of the film and for minutes afterwards if I have used the technique correctly. My film will hopefully create a similar effect to the film's below.

History Of Short Film Research

The art of Short Film making is a huge pillar in British Cinema history, without which cinema would be very different today. Before the film we know and love today, films were much shorter but due to the huge advances in technology and the ability to watch these pictures alot of people never really noticed how short these films were due to the novelty of the experience they were having. The first short films were viewed using Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope (pictured right) which could only be viewed by one person at a time. The reason all the earliest films we're short was due to the fact men such as Edison thought audiences would not be able to withstand the "flickers" for more than ten minutes. Edison loved the idea of these films and eventually created the first movie projectors so more audience could all view films at the same time. Edison and his assistant W.K.L. Dickson designed the world's first movie studio, The Black Maria completed in 1893. This was to feed Edison's thrist to create more film. The Balck Maria was the home to between 200 and 300 works of Edison and his assistant. One of the most famous and memorable works of his was the Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895). Which you can view below
This 55 second clip allegedly sent audiences running in terror as the locomotive steamed towards them. The fact this simple short film of ladies and gentleman disembarking a train can kick off such a huge surge of cinema. Without such a simple film as that we wouldn't get as much classics as we do today.

Task 1 - Short Movie Analysis

Analysis of opening 30 seconds of ‘Eight’ by Stephen Daldry, 1998

Stephen Daldry’s heart-breaking story of a young boy dealing with the passing of his father begins very simply with a panning shot of an empty beach on an overcast day, this very simple opening may create a certain sadness and foreshadowing of something sad to come but due to the brightly coloured ball we see towards the end of the shot, the mood shifts and a more happy childish feeling is created. The shot lasts for around 15 seconds allowing the setting and the diegetic sounds of the ocean and the swaying of the grass combined with a slow violin piece in a minor key creating a sad monotone feel. The peaceful scene is then interrupted by a child’s foot kicking the ball in the air and we get a second long bird’s eye view of the ball hurl towards the camera and the child’s face watching it as it flies into the air. This shot though it is a second long smashes through the monotone feel and creates a soft gentle childlike feel. Just before the ball is blasted into the air we get a piece of narration saying “I reckon my dads an astronaut”, this childish remark from our young protagonist first makes us smile with the childish remark obviously an idea from the child’s vivid imagination.  But when you think back on what the child said it becomes very sad as the child doesn’t know what his father does suggesting either loss of life or a broken home. This brings us back down to earth but diegetic sound then appears from Jonathon, yelling over the calming sound of the ocean “My name is Jonathon and I am eight”, this short line completely turns the feel of the short film around again as it perfectly encapsulates the invisibility a young child feels. This rollercoaster from childlike fun to monotone sadness I think is a very hard and powerful think to achieve in 30 seconds of film and this short film does it perfectly.

Analysis of the first 30 seconds of The Gasman 1998 directed by Lynn Ramsay

The  film is about a daughter slowly putting together a dark secret her father isn’t trying to hide. The film opens with a close up shot of a pair of shoes being polished with depth of focus being used with a blurry picture of a woman running around this goes on for around 15 seconds. The opening shot always sets the tone of the piece which would be quite sad and downhearted but combined with the radio creating some diegetic music we hear ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’, telling us it’s Christmas creating all these feelings. This clever opening shot cleverly only shows us the bottom part of two characters bodies  creating this wonder and intrigue into what the two characters look like and there roles in this story. The shot the cuts to an over head shot of a child playing with a metal racing car suggesting the era is roughly 1990s through the car and the rest of the items in the apartment. The boy fuels up his car with sugar. This bird’s eye view leaves us to wonder what the child looks like. This clever use of putting us in angles where we can’t view the characters almost distances us from them. This shot lasts a similar amount of time with the same diegetic music but we hear what may be the mothers voice yell over the top of the radio saying “come on get ready”. This was said in a Northern accent setting our location perfectly.