Filming, Day 3...

Today, we completed the filming of the interview scenes that appear in our short film, Confessions of a sock-a-holic. There are three interviews that take place, and we filmed all of them in the same location and used the same lighting and camera angles for all of them so that it has continuity. This is in contrast with the interviews that are seen at the beginning of the film, which are all in different seetings as to display that they are random people.
Filming ran smoothly and we got all the shots we needed. The actors also improvised on some of their lines, which fits in well to the story as it appears more relaxed and less scripted- which documentaries aren't.
We set up the lighting and camera the same each time as to add continuity, and the actors each in turn sat down and said their part while Heather asked them questions.

Filming Plan 3...

We have now filmed the majority of the scenes that happen outside of the interviews except for a short scene at a police station which we plan to film one morning. We are now planning to film a series of interviews including Paul, his sister and his father. We are going to film these in a drama studio because they have long black curtains that we can uus as a good backdrop. As long as the actors stay on task and remember theur lines, these shouldnt take longer than about 2-3 hours to fully shoot.
We will start our filming with Paul's scenes as this interview comes at the beginning of the film- it is easier to film the interviews in chronoligical order so we can keep track of everything. We will then film Abi, who plays Paul's sister and then Duncan, who plays Paul's father. We will include a variety of shots to make the interviews seem more interesting and to engage the audience, as scenes like these can sometimes go on a bit and be boring.

Filming Day 2...

We filmed the first break in scene from Confessions of a sock-a-holic at my house during the night. The filming for this scene went relatively smoothly, except for a few script changes and problems with lighting. We changed the part in the script where Paul is seen breaking in through the window of the house, to him being seen hiding behind a wall in the house and approaching from behind once he sees that there is no one around. We decided to do this so that there would only be one scene of him actually breaking into the house, and also to imply that he managed to break in.
The lighting problems came when we tried to film in a room which was pitch black. We found a lamp to put in one half of the room that still gave off the illusion that the main lights were off. This also created a nice silhouette.


-KW

Filming Plan 2...

The next scene we plan to film is the second break in scene with Paul (Jacob). In this scene, Paul is seen sneaking around a random house looking for a bedroom so he can complete his mission of pairing up odd socks. He finds the room, but then realises the house is not empty like he once though, as he hears a little boy wimper "Mummy I think I heard something!". The light switch is flicked on and Paul is exposed. The reaction shot then cuts abruptly to a long shot of him walking out of a police station, which implies that he has spent the night there (but this short scene will be filmed on another day).
We have decided to film this at my house as it is dissimilar to Heather's, where we previously filmed, and once again, at night time. Not as many shots will be needed for this scene as it only takes up a small section of the film, but it is still important. Also, not as many props are needed- the only major one is the onepiece which Paul wears. This scene should hopefully take less than an hour to shoot.


-KW

Filming, Day 1...

Today we began filming for our short film, 'Confessions of a sock-a-holic', starting with the final scene, where Paul/ The Sockman (Jacob) is seen breaking into a house to pair up all the odd socks of the household, and suddenly begins to hallucinate about the sockmonster.
Here are a few photos of the scenes we set up that I took on the day:

The day went well and we completed the filming of the whole scene in about 2 hours, which is good considering we had to set up the cameras, the scenes and also made a few changes to the script and shots.
We didn't encounter many problems (except almost getting locked out of Heather's house in the freezing cold), however we had to adjust the lighting in some of the scenes because filming at night-time made it quite difficult to film as the picture couldn't be clearly seen. We were lucky that there was a light outside of the house which lit the porch perfectly, and that we found lamps to brighten the bedroom whilst still giving off the impression that it was dark.


-KW

Filming Plan...

We are about to begin filming for our short film, 'Confessions of a Sock-a-holic', and we thought it would be best if we devise a short plan of action, so we know exactly what we're doing on the day and can get straight to work without the fuss.
The first scene we have decided to shoot is the final scene that shows Paul/The Sockman (Jacob) breaking into the final house to carry out his deed, hearing a noise and hallucinating the socks on the stairs. We have chosen to film this scene first because it is the final scene, so we have something to work towards when we come to shoot all of our other scenes.
We are going to film this scene at Heather's house, and will be using the front of her house, her staircase, hallway and her brothers room for the scenes, and we will be shooting at night time as to make it seem more realistic that Paul is actually breaking into someones house.
The props we will be using are:
-the onepiece
-childrens toys
-lots of socks
-a pot
-a hair clip


-KW

Prop List...

Here is a list of props which we need to gather to use in our short film, 'Confessions of a sock-a-holic':

- A Onsie (for the Sockman's costume)
- A hair/paper clip for breaking into houses
- Sketches and drawings of the 'sock monster' drawn by Paul
- Socks...and lots of them
- Childrens toys for the childs room
- A map of the world
- Drawing pins
- A bag


-KW

Character Profile...Paul Smith

Full Name: Paul Smith

Age: 18

Occupation: The Sockman (unpaid)

Likes: Pairs of socks, hairbands, attention

Dislikes: Odd socks, haircuts

Charcter Synopsis: Cynical. Determined. Full of angst. Breaks into people's houses and re-pairs their socks in hopes to find the Sockmonster. Its a good thing, apparently.


-KW

Script (first draft)...

“CONFESSIONS OF A SOCK-A-HOLIC”

EXT-PARK-DAY

Documentary crew edge towards young boy walking dog

DOCUMENTARY CREW (QUESTIONING):

Excuse me, have you ever heard of the Sockmonster?

RANDOM YOUNG BOY (THOUGHTFUL):

…I think so, doesn’t he steal our socks?

CUT TO:

EXT-HOUSE FRONT-DAY

Crew knock on random door

RANDOM PERSON #2 (RAISES EYEBROW):

Can I help you?

DOCUMENTARY CREW:

Quick survey; do you often find you have odd socks?

RANDOM PERSON #2 (GROANS):

Too often to even count

CUT TO:

EXT-CITY-DAY

DOCUMENTARY CREW (QUESTIONING):

Have you ever heard of the Sockman?

RANDOM PERSON #3 (FROWNS SLIGHTLY):

Who? The Sockman? Never heard of him.

FADE TO:

INT-INTERVIEW ROOM-DAY

‘Paul Smith’/Sockman settles down in the chair and anxiously fidgets. Adjusts attire and eyes flick around the room scanning the unfamiliar setting

INTERVIEWER (QUIETLY):

You ready?

PAUL (UPTIGHT) Clenches hands in lap:

Just get on with it

INTERVIEWER (TAKES DEEP BREATH IN AND OUT AND QUESTIONS):

So Paul, tell us about this enemy of yours, the Sockmonster

CUT TO:

INT-BEDROOM-DAY

Paul refers to map and further documents referring to the Sockmonster and his movements

PAUL (V.O)(CONTINUED FROM INTERVIEW)(PASSIONATE):

He’s not just my enemy. He is society’s villain. He steals (emphasis) socks. Your socks. He steals your clothes. I mean ok, sure he doesn’t take your t-shirts or your shoes, which are more valuable, but still he takes something you have paid for. Gone. Forever.

Paul pins tags to map, marking where he has been and where to go next. Looks to hand drawn picture of the Sockmonster and screws up piece of paper in anger

INTERVIEWER (V.O)(CRITICAL):

Don’t you think that’s a bit over dramatic? You’re taking it very personally, as well. It seems to me that he is not doing this just to you, so why take it so personally?

Paul gets ready for his next mission. Gets changed into Sockman outfit

FADE TO:

INT-INTERVIEW ROOM – DAY

PAUL (O.S) (AGITATED):

Over dramatic? Because of that thing, my mother is dead. He purposely left a sock, which my mother slipped on and resulted in her death. You cannot say it’s not personal.

INTERVIEWER(SIGHS):

Do you tend to have an outfit when tracking down this so called Sockmonster.

PAUL:

This is my OnePiece, I always wear this when on duty because it is the closest thing to a full body sock.

CUT TO:

Sockman/Paul picking at the door lock and breaks in. Cowboy shot and front shot of Paul walking up the stairs. Enters bedroom and goes to open suspected sock draw. In the meantime knocks over flower vase.

LITTLE BOY (ALARMED):

Mummy! I heard something!

Paul rises and anxiously scans the room

FADE TO:

EXT-POLICE STATION-DAY

Paul leaves police station after his arrest for breaking and entering. Long shot and pan of him crossing the road.

DOCUMENTARY CREW:

You ok?

PAUL (HUSHED):

Yeah I’m fine. I’m fine.

CUT TO:

INT-INTERVIEW ROOM-DAY

INTERVIEWER:

What was Paul like as a teenager?

PAUL’S SISTER:

We never really saw eye to eye. He was there…but it was like he wasn’t.

CUT TO:

Paul pulls the map out of his bag and places it back on the wall. He then takes out the socks he collected and repairs them with socks that he had previously found.

PAUL’S SISTER (V.O):

Ever since our mum died, he’s spent all his time in his room.

CUT TO:

INT-BEDROOM-DAY

Pan of Paul’s room. See posters, voodoo dolls, map and picture of his mum.

CUT TO:

INT-INTERVIEW ROOM-DAY

Paul’s Dad looks serious sat in the interview chair. Breathes in deeply and exhales in preparation for the unrepressing of lies and hurt over his wife’s death

INTERVIEWER:

Why don’t you tell us how your wife really died?

PAUL’S DAD (SIGHING):

I knew you would ask that.

FADE TO:

INT-HALLWAY-DAY

Paul/Sockman enters another house and climbs the stairs to accomplish another mission.

PAUL’S DAD (V.O) CONTINUED:

You see when Paul was young, he would often…misplace things; whether that be a toy or a piece of clothing

Cowboy shot and front shot of Paul climbing stairs and identifying which room to enter.

PAUL’S DAD (V.O) CONTINUED:

Well one day, his habit meant he left a sock. This sock (STARES OFF INTO SPACE) has been responsible for all the evil and bad things that have happened to my family.

Paul enters bedroom, opens bag and enters sock draw to repair lonesome socks

PAUL’S DAD (V.O) CONTINUED:

I created the Sockmonster. He doesn’t exist. I used him to distract my son from taking the blame. At age ten, what are you more likely to believe? That you left a sock and now your mother is dead or that a Sockmonster left it. Haven’t you found you have odd socks?!

Paul hears noise from down stairs and thinks the home-owner is home. He goes to check and finds that there is a sock trail all down the stairs. Paul begins to hyperventilate/have panic attack

CUT/FADE TO:

INT-INTERVIEW ROOM-DAY

Paul’s dad takes deep breath and shuts his eyes

PAUL’S DAD:

I never knew that his self-induced ostracization would lead to these delusions

CUT/END

 

 

 

-HM

Development Update 2...

A short video of us talking about our project so far and future plans...enjoy! Video Diary


-KW

Short Film: Distribution...

I believe the distribution of our film would fit successfully within the mainstream market. Just like the synergy used in the feature length film 'TED' ( Click Here) of merchandise E.G. the bear TED, and the film; I see out short film using a similar technique - the synergy of the short film and of merchandise such as socks and it could be seasonal for example at Christmas, stockings could be a part of the franchise. It could be argued that the short film would be a success on the independent market because it covers issues of a sensitive nature; however, I think the way the mental health issue (Schizophrenia) is covered is in a mainstream way as it glamourises the disorder by not displaying the harsh reality of living with the disorder.
I also believe the short film would gain the largest attention if it were to be uploaded on the internet where it will gain an audience seeking such material and with the rise of Web 2.0 it is easier than it ever has been to access and share short films. It allows for it to be spread virally through Social Network (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr), which could be argued as the most important way to share information and art.


-HM

Short Film: A short synopsis...

From young, Character A (currently no name has been decided), was the under the illusion that the Sockmonster had left an odd sock on the top of the stairs, which his mother tripped over, fell and died. In reality, the Sockmonster was a fable created by character A's father to hide and reconstuct his memeory as to how she really died, which was by Character A leaving his odd sock accidentally.
The short film follows Character A on his mission to catch this Sockmonster. We are situated not only with Character A's of obsession with finding the Sockmonster, but also his compassion reunite lonesome socks with their missing partner - He believes this will not only benefit the owner, but everyone because it will prevent others from plunging to their own death. Character A's legacy leads him to great deal of legal trouble and his back story gains him little sympathy from the police, but they let him go under strict orders to find the truth about this so called Sockmonster. His father also plays a key role in telling the story. He explains to the documentary crew, that his fabrication of the Sockmonster got 'out-of-hand' as Character A got older. His father thought that he had forgotten about the Sockmonster as Character A grew up, when truthfully Character A had created a delusion based upon hallucinations he suffered as an older child and teenagers -symptoms of Schizophrenia


-HM

Audience Research...

We decided we needed to gather some primary research to find out the general trends of people's opinions on short films. We gathered a variety of ages to participate and asked questions like:
"Do you watch Short Films?"
"Whats your favourite genre of film?"
"If you do watch short films, where do you watch them?"
"Where would you expect to see a short film?"
"What would you expect to see in a short film?"
And so on.
I feel that this reasearch has helped us because now we know what sorts of ages are most likely to watch short films, so we can aim to use them as a target audience. We also now know where people are mostly likely to consume short films and what the mostly watched genre is, so we can tailor ours to fit the needs of the consumers.

Here is our video

-KW

Narrative...

Narrative in films concerns the structure of the film. A linear narrative, for example, is when a story has a beginning, middle and end, and in that specific order. This may seem the norm for most films but this narrative structure becomes broken instantly with the appearance of a dream or flashback etc. The other type of narrative is non-linear narrative. This is not the same as a film containing flashbacks, however, even though it seems that way. This is because films containing flashbacks or even flashforwards usually always jumps back to the point it left off in the story, therefore they usually continue to follow the linear structure.

A non-linear narrative is one that does not proceed in a straight line or in a step-by-step fashion. This could be where an author creates the ending of a story before the middle part is over. A classic example of this would be the 1994 cult classic Pulp Fiction, in which the film seems to be three seperate stories, but upon closer inspection they are actually three sections of one story with the chronology broken up- there aren't any flashbacks actually involved.

Linear and non-linear narrative is also a main feature of short films. The most commonly used form of narrative in short films is linear. This is most likely because short films are, well, short, and overcomplicating the story line with a complicated non-linear narrative whilst intriguing and entertaining the audience member at the same time can be very tricky, so its best to stick to the simplest and easiest form. A good example of a short film with a linear narrative is Spider:

In this product, the story follows a simple straight line with no interjections from flashbacks, it starts with the start and ends with the end. Simple.


-KW

Development Update 1...

Here is a short video diary we shot describing how far our project has developed, ideas we have and future plans:

Video Diary

-KW

Short Film Idea 4...

Following on from our idea of the OCD burgular, we searched to see if there were any examples we could use in our research, and we found that sadly, our idea had already been attempted (not very well, but still, its been done). Using some creativity, we came up with this instead...

Keeping with the idea of OCD and burglary, we came up with a concept which we have titled, "Confessions of a Sock-a-Holic". The story follows a young man who dresses up as a super hero named 'The sock man' and breaks into people's houses at night, as a burgular would, and rummages through someone's sock drawer and re-pairs all odd socks.
Paul Smith is a young schizophrenic who has suffered from delusions and hallucinations about the 'Sock Monster' ever since his father told him about the scarce fable to cover up the truth over his mothers death. In the style of a documentary, the crew follow Paul and they find out that he has an obsession with re-pairing odd socks that have been stolen by the 'sock monster' and with finding this theif once and for all. Paul's father is keen to tell his side of the story. Frim his interview we discover that the 'sock monster' was a one off story to stop Paul from taking the blame for his mother slipping on an odd sock at the top of the stairs which he accidentally dropped.


-KW

Scene From Narnia...



Narnia:The Lampost Scene

Just for a bit of practice in shooting a piece longer than an opening, we were given a script which was taken from the famous lampost scene in Narnia, where Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus for the first time under a lampost in snowy Narnia. Making the best of the situation and the resources available, (limited time/locations/actors) here is our *half* finished product:

Click Here


-KW

Short Film Idea 3...

A second idea that we discussed featured a man, probably in his early 30s-late 20s, who dressed all in black and was your typical 'burgular'. However, this man (unnamed) has an extreme case of OCD, which causes him to be very uncomfortable in messy and cluttered rooms, giving him an overwhelming need to tidy up and make sure everything is perfect. As you can probaby guess, he would proceed to break into people's houses and his OCD would take over. So instead of robbing the strangers house, he would give it a thorough clean instead. The idea that he would be downstairs quietly but aggressively polishing the silverwear or scrubbing the floor when the family who's house has been broken into, come downstairs having heard a noise and see him cleaning would help to give the short film a comedic affect which I think would work quite well. I also liked the fact that it would be addressing quite a serious topic- OCD- in a lighthearted, humerous way. You can't feel sorry for him because his intention was to steal.

I'm also really fond of the idea of creating a short film that is plot driven instead of dialogue/character driven, such as Simon Hynd's 'Virus' or 'The Elevator' by Greg Glienna (above).


-KW

Foreign and Eye-Opening Shorts...

Recently I watched a couple of short films that I came across on Tumblr, which really inspired me and made me think differently. Both of these shorts centred around what the world would be like if everything was flipped over and rules and norms about gender and sex were switched. The first film I watched was intriguingly titled "What if gay were straight and straight were gay?". This film shows the life of a young girl who is going through a sexuality crisis. In a imaginery world where being gay is the norm and being straight is mocked and 'wrong', this young girl is coming to terms with the fact that she might fancy boys instead of girls, which is expected of her.

 This film really moved me because it is a gritty showing of what life would be like if straight people were treated as harshly as parts of society treat homosexuals. This short os about 20 minutes long-much longer than I plan for my short film to be, but I would hope to bring to my short film what this one has. For many people, shorts like this could be a real eye-opener because we know that the main girl is not in the wrong by being attracted to boys even if she is treated in the film as if she is. Films like this aim to improve the thoughts of society and if the message is clear, they can be very successful and moving.

Another short film I stumbled across was called "Opressed Majority". This 10-minute short displays what the outcome would be if males were exposed to sexism and sexual violence in a society dominated by females. In this film, a typical father is carrying out his everyday duties. He starts by taking a walk with his child in a pram, not even taking a second glance at women running alongside him topless and shouting crude comments to him. This film tries to represent, in almost an exaggerated way, how sexism effects women and tries to put forward this perspective to men. Later in the short, the man is exposed to sexual violence by a gang of women and then speaks to a police man after viewing a line-up. His wife gets angry at him and leaves. While the thought of men being sexually abused by women and not being taken seriously by policeman for making the claims, these types of things do happen in real life- to men and to women. Also, this film is shot in France and the actors are speaking in French. I think this is effective as it shows that this type of opression is present in all parts of the world and not just in the UK. It also shows how the conventions of a short film are not different in other countries.

 

 

 

-KW

 

Short Film Idea 2...

Taking inspiration from short films such as 'Virus' and 'The Black Hole', I came up with the idea of someone waiting for something. Sounds a bit boring. I developed that so that a man (or woman) could be waiting in a long queue at the bank, and while he is waiting in the queue, time seems to go really slowly, but the queue never seems to shorten.
I then thought it would be funny if strange things were to happen to him all the while he was in the queue. For example, he could be in the queue for a lengthy period of time, thinking to himself, "this is so boring", and then suddenly, two men come barging through attempting to rob the bank. A stir is caused and everyone panics, but then the police arrive and the two men are escorted away, leaving the bank unscathed. The queue is still the same length. Then maybe theres a minor earthquake, causing everyone to panic, but it sover fairly quickly and the only thing damaged is a knocked-over plant. The queue still proceeds. Then a man walks in and proposes to his wife, who is stood 3 or so places ahead of the main character in the queue. Everyone cheers and the woman steps out of the queue, making it shorter. Things continue randomly like this for a while. The scene fades to the main character being next in line for the assistant- it is dark outside. The person in front leaves and he strides up to the window, only to be greeted by the female assistant slamming the glass door shut. He reads a sign saying that the bank is closed for the night and to come back tomorrow.

This idea would be quite funny in an ironic way, however it would be difficult recreating a bank (as I highly doubt we'd be allowed to use a real one) and finding that many actors to play a role would also be challenging. But still, it could work.


-KW

Camera Angles and Editing...

In short films, a variety of strong, storytelling camera angles are key. They use a shorter amount of time to tell the story compared to dialogue and in some cases can have more emphasis on points such as enigma.
Editing is part of the post-production, it is key in short films to signify when one scene has ended and another one begins.

AVARICE
 In the this short, we are given an establishing long shot. It sets us up with a bedroom and a mystery girl reading a book - title is unknown at this point. We then cut to a close up of the book, which gives the impression that it is significant to the film. A 45degree pan is then used to swing and show the audience the female lead reading the book 'Macbeth' and responds to look at her phone. We then cut to a close up of her phone which has a cracked screen, it is unknown if this has a significant mean. The shot reverses back a close up of her face staring at her phone and then cuts to a long shot of her changing position so she is sitting on the end of the bed staring out the window mournfully. We are then cut to side close up of her face so we can see she is debating what to do next.
In summary, we are poistioned with a young girl, presumably studying the play Macbeth and is in question as to what to do next or perhaps she is lonely and wondering why no one has contacted her. All of this is unknown. As the film goes on we see that she has a 'magic pot' which duplicates anything she puts in there, for example money, so very quickly she becomes quite rich and spends it all. However this all comes to an end and symolises what happens when you get greedy.

TICK TOCK
 We are first situated with an establishing medium shot of a ticking clock, which then pans to a young girl sitting on her bed enthusiatically. The camera pans again and we see a young male walk into the room from the corridor. The camera then sinks to the floor and blurs so that we only see bottom half of the couple. From their body movements we presume they are kissing, however the young male is then pulled out by a unknown spirit almost because do not see what pulled him out of the room. The entire first scene is in one take, so no editing has taken place. The speed of movement, obviously sped up signifies rapid changes in time.

 

 

 

-KW

Stop Motion...

Stop motion is an animation technique used in film where physical objects are hand-moved and images are taken to create frames, which then, after thousands and thousands of images are edited together, makes an animation. This technique is perhaps most famously used in the short film and TV series, 'Wallace and Gromit' where plasticine models are created and moved every 10th of a second (or something like that.)

Stop motion is a popular technique because it is somewhat easier to create than animation and the creators can be very creative in what they do. However, it could take several hours just to produce enough photos for a 10 second clip, which is why this type of animation is mostly used in short films innstead of feature-length animations. Stop motion can also be used to create fun but meaningless short films. An example of one of these is the 'T-Shirt War', which involves the two creators of the film changing T-Shirts every frame to give the effect that the T-shirts are moving. This works very effectively and is fun to watch.

I have considered using stop-motion techniques in my short film, as when they are done properly they can be very effective and entertaining to watch. However based on the time limit we have, it may not be possible to create a 5-minute long short film made entirely of stop motion, due to the sheer length of time usually required.

 

 

-KW

Sound...

The use of sound can be very powerful in the creation of short films. Sound in short films, in some ways, can be said to be more important than that in full-length films. This is because if full length films, the idea of there being no dialogue throughout the whole film is unheard of, whilst in short films it is fairly normal. If there is no dialogue, the sound itself will have to create the mood and guide the viewer into how they should be feeling in each scene/moment. It can also be used to indicate the genre and build tension if necessary.

Using the short film 'Virus' by Simon Hynd, the sound used creates tension and suspense using mostly what appears to be diagetic sound (the phone vibrating etc). This is very effective as it helps to set the scene of the film and causes tension for the reader, as it is meant to be a thriller. Without the sound in this film, the audience wouldn't know what to make of it or how to react.

Sound in short films is not only used to create tension and suspense. In the short film 'The Elevator', music is used to create a comedic affect. It plays whimsical music, like you would find in an elevator, while all the people are piling in, all whilst showing the anxiousness of the skinny man's face to add to the humour, then horror music that is found in the film 'Jaws', as the final fat man approaches, and this works very well in terms of making it funny.



-KW

Narration and Breaking the 4th Wall...

Narration

Narration is most commonly used in a film to show an older version of the main character narrating his life as the audience is watching. Some classic examples of this would be Kevin Spacey's character in 'American Beauty', Morgan Freeman in 'The Shawshank Redemption' and Tom Hanks as 'Forrest Gump'. If the narration is done properly, it can be very effective in engaging the viewer and causing them to grow attached to the main character because they can relate to them more.

(Kevin Spacey in 'American Beauty')

Narration has always been popular and widely used in cinema- from the early classics in the 60's and 70's to more recent blockbusters, such as Rene Zelwegger in 'Bridget Jones' Diary', Kristen Stewart in 'The Twilight Saga' and even Simon Bird as Will from 'The Inbetweeners Movie'. These examples however don't follow the classic structure of a character narrating his/her past, but instead, for instance in the case of Bridget Jones, they are narrating things as they happen- she is reading from her diary entries as she is writing them, making the viewer feel like they are also reading from her diary. In 'The Inbetweeners Movie' Will is not an old character speaking about his past, instead, just like in the show, he is guiding the audience through the failures of his life as they happen.

Breaking the 4th Wall

'Breaking the 4th Wall' is a term first introduced in 19th Century theatre, which describes a boundary or 'wall' between the play and the audience that seperates fiction from reality. Breaking this wall became commonly used to try and engage the audience more with the character that is breaking it and let them be more of a part of it. This would be done by talking to the audience as if no one on the stage could hear or see them. This is now almost always used in pantomimes and many other theatre productions. This method then went through a transition from the stage to the screen. Now, many films use breaking the 4th wall to form the attachment between the character and the viewer. This form is most commonly used in comedy films, such as 'Waynes World' and perhaps most famously, 'Ferris Bueller's day off'. 

('Ferris Bueller's Day Off'-Opening Monologue) 

-KW

The Kuleshov Effect...

The Kuleshov effect is an editing technique first introduced by Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov in the early 20th Century. It describes how simple editing of sequences in a clip can have an overwhelming effect on the characters and/or storyline. The way it works is simple, and a characters personality can be easily manipulated depending on the sequence. For example, if a young girl is shown looking at something, then a clip of a puppy chasing its tale is inserted, followed by a reaction shot of the girl smiling and laughing, the audience can infer that the young girl is an innocent animal lover. However, replace the clip of the puppy chasing its tale with a man getting seriously wounded but keep the reaction shot of the girl exactly how it was before, the young girl is suddenly percieved as heartless and evil.

Hitchcock was a huge fan of the Kuleshov effect and demonstrated it often in his work. Here is Hitchcock explaining it in simple terms:

-KW

'The Black Hole' by Phil and Olly...

Along with 'Virus', another short film we watched in class was 'The Black Hole', written and directed by Phil and Olly (surnames not given in credits). This short sees a man in an office discover that a black cricle on a sheet of paper acts as a black hold and allows him to pass through it into objects such as a copier, a wall and a vending machine. He then uses it to access the safe but ends up getting stuck inside.

Here is 'The Black Hole':

I really like the way this is done also, and I would like to use this as inspiration for my own short film. Similarly to 'Virus', this short uses connotations of a thriller genre such as the lighting, sound and overall tone of the piece to suggest that it is a film of the same sort, however it cleverly uses this to turn it into a comedy. A film such as this could be hard to pastige due to the special effects of the black hole, but I really like the overall idea of mixing genres, and using pure film to tell a story instead of dialogue.


-KW

'Virus' by Simon Hynd...

Recently in class, we were shown a short film called 'Virus' by Simon Hynd, which really struck me in the way that it was written and shot, and found it incredible how the short film built up so much suspense while using no dialogue and no non diagetic sound. The suspense was created using the sounds of everyday objects such as the vibration and ringing of the phone, the grainy sound of the security camera and the colour correction to make the film genre appear as a thriller.

 Here is the film:

I think this short also works well on film as opposed to being a short story. It is common for a lot of short films to be derived or taken from short stories, however this particular example would struggle to be as effective on paper because the film itself is very video-orientated. The man is watching his computer, the security guard is watching the security camera (well he's meant to) and the man is watching a clip of his girlfriend watching the same thing happen to someone else. It is also effective as we are watching this all unfold, so it could appear that we are watching under the same circumstances as he is, being filmed for someone then to watch. This is why I think the film is so clever, and I really like the idea of producing my own short film in a similar style, but it would have to be done carefully and properly for it to work.

We also watched an A Level student film which was inspired by 'Virus', which he called 'Networked', and it achieved an A grade. It was good but it didnt achieve the same effect as 'Virus' did in terms of creating the thriller genre, however, it did bring the film up-to-date by using facebook instead of email on an old computer.

-KW

Short Film Idea 1...

After working in the style of comedy genre documentaries, I have decided that I would like to re-visit working in that style because the last time I did, I really enjoyed it and the end product turned out well. So I thought about attempting another, although a slightly better one. Here's what I came up with...

I had an idea of doing a mockumentary style film of a teenage boy who has a serious phobia of the colour red. The documentary would follow his daily life and document his struggle of having an irrational fear of a common colour. Some scenes I thought of would be him sitting on a chair talking about his phobia to the camera, then a crew member turns up in a red shirt and the boy faints. Another scene I had in mind would be him seeing his girlfriend on the other side of the room and saying "Ooh, I want you to meet my girlfriend!" He then walks up to her, taps her on the shoulder and gets ready to kiss her, but she turns around wearing bright red lipstick and he subsequently screams and frantically runs away. I feel like this could have quite a comedic affect if it were to be done properly.


-KW

Textual Analysis...'Schwarzfarer' and 'Get Off My Land'

Mise-en-scene:

In the first establishing shot we are given an introduction to an urban, working city life. We are then situated with medium and long shots of the general public during what looks to be rush hour (works traffic) at the train station. We are shown a collection of shots where there are adults in smart clothing - presumably for work-, reading newspapers and then are given the polar opposite of adolescents in casual clothing, listening to music and conversing with friends, as well as flirting between a group of teenagers. Once on the tram, we are introduced to an elderly woman dressed yet again in a formal suit. The placement of the black youth next to this white, elderly woman is to show the audience the full comparison of two different worlds - old and young. The elderly woman's discrimination towards the youth is not age related, but a racial attack. The clothing differences highlights the difference in opinions that the separate generations have. The elderly woman also has a problem with two Arabian boys situated on the train (earlier flirted with two German girls). The fact that the majority younger than the ranting woman are in casual, except for the working, is the demonstration that they have accepting these immigrants into their culture and in fact are incorporating some of their norms into theirs. The smart, formalness of this elderly woman and another elderly man who is shown to agree with the wicked rant demonstrates how in their ways they are, and refuse to take on societal changes because it goes against their norms, values and beliefs.

Sound:

Non-Diegetic:

The saxophone and drums during the establishing shot and introductory scenes are used to emphasis the busy work atmosphere. There is a deliberate use of non-diegetics because they give the film a documentary feel (even though it is not one) which alerts people to 'realness' of the situation

Diegetic:

The elderly woman's dialogue is almost like a narrative, however she is still in shot. This yet again emphasises on the documentary feel to make people aware of seriousness and extent of racist behaviour and how it can be anyone.

Camera Angles:

The establishing shot is a crane shot which introduces the audience to the environment of the characters, which helps with the fill in of their schemas with stereotypes we associate with areas of the same class. Low angles are often used to get view of the black youths POV when he is being discriminated. Long shots are used to get reactions from people on the tram. Extreme close up s are used to show the tension building and to put emphasis on little actions e.g a smirk.

Get Off My Land (click on title)

 

Mise-en-scene with camera angles:

The first introductory establishing shot we see is of a male and a females shoes. The female is wearing walking shoes and the male is wearing some fashionable trainers. From here we see a collection of two shots, which demonstrate that this is a couple, however not so much happy. The woman is seen storming ahead whilst the man is constantly complaining, either in his dialogue or with body language such as the brushing off of mud on his jeans with a deep sigh of annoyance. His 'difficulty' to climb a wooden fence is really his reluctance to carry on with the muddy autumnal walk. The girl friend storming off suggests that the boyfriend have done something wrong previously. We are then introduced to a farmer, however we only know he is a farmer because of how he is stereotypically dressed and material items- tweed hat, Land Rover, green outdoor clothing and a later shotgun. The built up aggression that the boyfriend has is then shown in a medium two shot when he demands to fight for the piece of land that they believe to of trespassed on. The aggressiveness that he shows when unzipping his jacket also stands for his ego to show his patriarchal dominance. An over-the-shoulder shot of the boyfriend then putting his jacket back on after the 'farmer' walks away gives the audience a fake sense that the battle is over, however, the farmer then returns and shoots the boyfriend, leaving the girlfriend shaking in fear and grief. We can see in a close up that blood has splattered onto her face leaving her with more fear. The farmer then saunters off only to swivel round and aim the gun at the woman. We are then situated with a shot of the forest and a gun shot resulting in birds flying out of the trees. A medium shot then shows the farmer continuing ith his previous journey and the two bodies of the couple.

Sound:

The sound is all diegetic. There is no music and sounds such as the wind and motor way noise are natural and kept in the film to give situation context. Of course in reality the gun shot noise is not real because it is acting so that is edited in, however, the gun shot is a realistic one in the context, especially when the gun is not in shot and the birds caw and fly away.

 

 

-HM

Telling a Story in a Few Minutes...Pros, Cons and How it Works

Short Films simply aim to entertain whilst effectively telling a story within just a few minutes. This has both benefits and difficulties, and filmmakers can find it hard to "make it work". This could be down to most of us being so used to watching feature-length films and their typical structure, so people can become unaware of short films and their structure. Anyone, whether they are a film fanatic or not, can tell you that there is a difference between short and feature-length films. The first thing they would probably say if you were to ask them, is the length. Short films are classed as being between 3-40 minutes, and each one varies. There are a number of benefits and drawbacks that film makers receive from creating short films as opposed to a feature-length production.

One of the most obvious benefits to a film maker wanting to produce a short film is the significant difference in time it takes to shoot and edit the product. For short films, the planning might take a while to perfect, even if the length is only a few minutes- it could take up to a month or so to get everything in place. Shooting wouldn't take very long, in fact it could be completed in a matter of days if all goes to plan and everything is done efficiently. However, feature length films can take months to shoot and edit, let alone planning! Comedy films that only really involve actors and dialogue, such as comedies like 'Scary Movie' or 'Mean Girls' would take less time that something animated like 'Avatar', which was said to have taken several years to complete due to the complicated story line and complex CGI. Animation giant 'Pixar' has said that their films take anywhere from 4 to 7 years to finish one of their films due to the complicated computer animation.

Less funding is also required for short films. This is due to a number of factors, such as the fact that is takes less time to shoot, meaning the equipment rental is far less than what it would be for feature-length films. This is also due to the fact that the actors and crew are paid significantly less than those who work of full length productions. For example, top Hollywood actors would be casted in feature length films because they help promote and market the film. It was reported that Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were both paid over $2,000,000 to star in 'Titanic', and the film itself cost around $200,000,000 to fund the entire project, the most expensive film to be made in the 20th Century (luckily for James Cameron, the films worldwide gross was $1,843,201,268, so it was probably worth it). This massively differs from the salary of short film actors, who are usually, if the film is from quite an established company, paid a smallish sum of at most a couple hundred pounds. Even less if the short film is experimental, perhaps a student in university. In this case, they may only be paid a few pounds to cover travel and something to eat. However, it is a good way for aspiring actors to gain some experience and build up their portfolio, so they probably don't mind as much.

Short films are more likely to be consumed by film buff's and aficionados, as opposed to the more mainstream audiences, which means they can be appreciated differently and can give the director/creator more credibility. This also gives them more opportunities to be creative and communicate a message because mainstrem audiences would be looking for the typical Hollywood blockbuster. However these audiences can come in handy- if the short film is previewed before a feature film, as is done before Disney Pixar films, it can create a huge buzz about the short film and generate quite a bit of profit due to the vast audiences that will view it.

Film makers also face drawbacks when creating short films. These are usually found in the financial side. For example, it can be hard to short film makers to generate funding to create their film because investors are less likely to donate their money because they don't think it will be beneficial, whereas people invest millions into the big blockbusters. The fudning is usually done by using the creators own resources and taking out loans. The other financial drawback is that little, if any, profits are achieved. However most people experimenting with short films don't have the main goal of achieving profit but simply practice and gaining experience and followers. It could also be hard to get crew/actors to take part in the process because of the small pay they would recieve, but again, its usually done for the experience.

Short films are also not seen by many people, which can be a strong negative if the director is looking to break into the movie business. This is because short films only really appeal to particular audiences, as mentioned before these are usually film buffs and aficionados, which cover a rather small percentage of the movie-goer population. Some mainstream audiences may have never actually seen a short fiom (or realised it). It is also hard for short films to gain recognition from film festivals due to the immense competition from other film makers desperate to get their work shown.


-KW

Comedy Genre Short Film...

At the beginning of the A2 course, we had our first practice of making a short film. We were given a stimulus to base our short film around and a genre (a documentary style comedy) , and the rest was left to us. Unfortunately, we had a short time limit of 1.5 hours to shoot, so the idea and actors had to be gathered quickly, leaving little time to plan and story board properly. However, I think -judging by my teacher and peers reaction anyway, it turned out to actually be quite funny.

 So here is "A Day in the Life of a Computer Geek" (click on title)

Why it works:
-I think that this mockumentary piece works well because we had a limited time to think of the idea and shoot, and overall the story came together well.
-Also, the choice to shoot it all with a hand-held camera gives it more of a 'real' documentary feel because most documentaries are shot as things happen, so there's no time to set up tripods etc, so the majority of any documentary that follows someone throughout their day is shot hand-held, so the frame is a bit shaky.
-I also like the fact that the actors are pretty good despite being given such short notice to prepare and how most of the dialogue was improvised. I feel like they really fit well into their character stereotypes and make it humorous.
-The sound also contributes to giving it a 'real' feeling- the busy sound of the common room where Keith and his girlfriend are talking demonstrates where they are and how they are almost drowned out by their peers.
-The reaction from my teacher and fellow students leaves me quite confident that the comedy genre is apparent through this short film, despite comedy being a hard genre to work with because of people's varying sense of humors.

Why it doesn't work:
-We were given a very short space of time to shoot and edit, therefore some of the shots and editing could have been vastly improved. A lot of the shots were improvised based on what looked good at the time, and weren't given as much thought as they would have, had this been a final project.
-Also, it is noticeable that in some scenes the dialogue is quite quiet or drowned out by background noise such as the wind outside, noises from other people or just general background grain. This could have all been edited out if we had more time.
-If the editing was smoother and there was more flow to the piece as a whole, it would be much more effective as a mockumentary, however the fact that it was rushed lets it down a lot because it brings the quality of the piece down.
-The script was almost completely improvised on set, therefore if it was thought through and story boarded first before shooting, the acting could have been improved and we could have tried to make it funnier for the audience, instead of thinking of what we think could be funny spontaneously. This ties in with what was mentioned before- comedies are hard to film because everyone has different perceptions of what if 'funny' and what isn't. For example, we (the shooters and actors) found it funny, but that's because we specifically used our own sense of humor in the story. However, if a complete stranger was to watch it they might find it incredibly unfunny or boring. Which hopefully they wouldn't.


-KW