What makes a good short film - Research

Short films are of small duration, meaning the film doesn't consist of normal principles that would be included in a feature length film. Because of the length, short films commonly for example do not have the time to introduce characters, they are simply used as tools to put a message across rather than to be the central significance within the film, although one main character may be portrayed. Due to these reasons, short film usually intends to explore a moral dilemma within a certain context, perhaps furthering a campaign within society which is of common interest relating to its audience, this comes off as more impactful which is vital for the films short duration needs to make a impression quickly amongst its target audience.

Common Themes
- Suburban
- Subverese
- Metaphorical
- Campaigns
- Drama
- Social Snapshots

Story wise, it is important for the writers and directors to emphasise the problem at hand, and how the audience can relate to it. Rather than the genre and tone of the film having a primary significance, it is the events which occur within the film which are seemingly important. It is important to ensure that the audience can relate to the characters and whatever is being displayed on screen, the character should drive the drama in the film with a clear narrative; an obligation, a want or goal. But this pursuit must have some kind of difficulty within reaching, to create the problem at hand, further emphasising the dramatical narrative. This problem is the main factor in which the target audience can relate to, the film needs to be set up so the audience can understand why the character needs to fufill their goal with the concept of how high the stakes in the story are, so they can further understand what it would mean to not achieve this goal and its consequences.

Nigel R Smith, a short film producer made his own short film distrubution guide in which he states the main properties of making a short film production.

Length: Optimum length ten minutes. This is enough to tell a good story and hold the audience’s attention. It also fits in neatly with film festival time slots.

Theme: Theme is crucial. Something that you are concerned about. Something that everyone can relate too. If you look at short films that win prizes, themes involving wars and kids are popular. People like films that feature children in peril!

Characters: Very strong central character with a very clear central goal. A clear nemesis. Only use a few characters because there is very little time to get to know them.

Location: As with characters, little time for audience to familiarise themselves with locations so only use a few, unless the character is going on a physical journey e.g. a road trip. Try to use a very specific, unusual location unfamiliar to most audiences. An unusual story world can make something ordinary appear extraordinary.

Setting: Present day. Historical / futuristic settings are expensive and a lot of work to create.

Structure: Standard linear narrative, 3- act structure. Have a strong beginning, get into story and character quickly. Set up active questions so that the audience wants to know what happens in the next scene i.e. dramatically withhold information. Twist in the tale endings are perfect for the short film.

Dialogue: Type of dialogue must be appropriate to the film. Naturalistic (this is a dialogue form, it does not mean talking naturally). Make everything that is said count. Don’t over explain things in the dialogue. The audience likes a bit of room to figure out for themselves what is going on.

Textual analysis of short films

About a Girl

Director Brian Percival

Writer Julie Rutter Ford

About a girl opens to a shot of a small girls silhouette against a skyline of clouds dancing and singing. The following series of sudden cuts are close-ups of the character talking in a strong accent to the camera in a monologue fashion whilst she walks upon the backdrop of an urban industrial landscape. Her topics of interests in which she chooses to tell us about mainly include optimistic statements about how she will reach fame and stardom through singing. She also repeatedly mentions random quotes about her family and descriptions of her life up till now; her relationship with her dad, frustrations with her mum, her career desires as a singer, the group she has formed with her friends. Typically these topics would seem to be common things that any 13 year old might talk about, although her surroundings create an abstract and almost unwelcoming atmosphere. Her monologue is often interrupted with more fundamental shots of the girl specifically with her Father. She can also be seen in the perfume department testing perfumes but not purchasing them, giving a slight implication of poverty, sitting on a bench outside a pub where supposedly her father is, further implying domestic problems perhaps in parenting. Towards the end of the film, the girl who is now walking along side a canal, the girls descriptions are becoming to be that of a dark nature , her outlook seems to become most to obviously metaphorical, as she puts emphasis on her family troubles by talking about things like ice cream and famous idols, putting the audience at its most ignorant and vulnerable the girl climatically states that she has become "good at hiding things" and throws a plastic bag into the canal which after observation reveals that there was a baby inside it.

After watching this film followed with the commentary, many factors amongst this film became apparent which i missed the first time around. Throughout the film there are a series of contrasts in colour and shape, for example in the introduction lacks establishment and the almost perfectly dark silhouette dances amongst the relaxed colourful sky, for me that represents a certain freedom in this shot alone, the urbanized atmosphere and grittiness present in every other shot apart from this one gives it a certain uniqueness, perhaps showing the girls ignorance or even her optimism. It's also noticeable that the colour dulls throughout the film up until its climax where it appears quite colourless. As the girl walks along the canal, which i get the intention is a visual metaphor within itself, it can be seen that the shadowing along the canal is symmetrical as the young girl walks down the dark path whilst the canal is brightened up. The surroundings and grittiness of the film give it a real sense of realism which often audiences can relate to giving it that down to earth style, her innocence amongst the urbanized world which she walks upon creates a contrast with themes of neglect and abuse. The fast pace shots along with the detailed dialogue of the girls life do not make the audience aware of the narrative which appears completely linear, making the climax of the film seemingly to be all that more unorthodox as the pace of the film becomes more downbeat as the shots lenghten and movement ceases unlike the fast sketchy hard cuts which were involved before to make the ending that more shocking and disturbing for the audience.

In 2001 it won the BAFTA award for best short film. It also won an award at the Edinburgh International film festival for Best British Short, the TCM Classic Shorts Award prize at the London film festival, and the Jury Prize at the Raindance film festival.

Cubs


Director Tom Harper

Producer Lisa Williams


Cubs opens to a series of quick paced shots viewing a group of youths playing football in what appears to be an urban environment. After these short sequences of various titles and some long scanning shots of the youths playing football establishing the urban environment. the audience is introduced to two characters who are sitting on a wall observing the other youths playing. They are in discussion about waiting for someones arrival. After a brief wait, a few characters appear who are lead by what seems to be a hierarchy, as he enters the park a sense intimidation occurs as the people in the park scurry away and form line as a daunting slow paced music begins. The hierarchy named Karl inspects the line of people to which they are silent, and takes one of them to which the rest are displeased. One of the two characters who was previously sat on the wall expresses his feelings of his rejection to Karl urging him to take he and his friend with him and Karl allows him to come, although we as an audience are unaware of what place or event Karl is taking them to. The scene cuts to another area later on that day at night, a large group of teenagers is viewed from a high angle long shot, establishing the extremely sub urbanized area to which the group are. Quick close up shots scan the area putting many illegal activities on display such as drugs, drug dealing and drinking are seen. These quick shots also close up on many of the youths present in this area at fast pace, creating a sense of self preparation for all of them as well as us as an audience for something is about to happen. Karl appears with two rabid dogs, approaches the boy and warns him to look out for the police whilst handing him a cricket bat, further putting pressure on the already at nervous boy who has given the impression to the audience that he doesn't really belong in these surroundings. The audience is now put at a certain tension as the anxiety amongst the group arises the atmosphere, the dogs begin to bark and people ready themselves as Karl gives them the signal to move out of the area. After a brief search by the group they come across a fox and begin to chase with violent intent, a fast paced music begins to play as the camera tracks with the group chasing amongst the urban landscape. The fox becomes corned but escapes after the boy fails to attack it to which Karl is displeased. Eventually the two dogs catch up with fox and leave it half dead. Karl gives the boy a gun and states that he should "get initiated", after a brief pause of hesitation from the boy whilst the pace slows right down with a close up of the innocent fox, the boy shoots the fox. After killing the fox the group of people celebrate with the boy praising him. Karl wipes the blood of the fox on his face and states he is one of them now in initiation.

Cubs then, is a urbanized representation of fox hunting, a now illegal sport. The main contrast appears with that theme in itself as fox hunting is considered a Royalist sport of high social class, yet through cubs it is presented as a teenage dark sport manifested with urban themes. The film is presented professionally and polished, yet themes still suggest that gritty style which is represented in that of About a girl. Throughout the film there is a variety of shot being on display, its close up hand held shots add to its realism and the number of long shots capture and establish the landscape well. The themes explored also create a contrast, the central theme is fox hunting but the themes that surround it don't necessarily have anything to do with it, more to suit the establishment in that being an urban environment. Gang violence, peer pressure and seeking solidarity all are present within the film to which a large amount of audience can relate to, but to contrast it with the incongruous idea of urbanized fox hunting is this films central unique factor makes it that more original.

Cubs was a nominee for the BAFTA award for best short film in 2006.

Pre-production Documentation

- The script or screenplay, is a written document which contain the dialogue within the film. It is considered a main component of pre production. The dialogue is broken down into specific scenes were locations, casting and directions are included. The script is the responsibility of the director, its primary use is to direct actors and actress's dialogue wise.

- As camera man the shot list was my responsibility. It includes the shots throughout the film which i have choose. Deciding on these shots came some difficulty, for i wanted to put across a more diverse collection of shots, however noting the shots down is much more simple than performing them. So my thought process had to have some element of realism. The shot list contains the type of shots, location, scene number, shot number and a short description of what is present within the shot. By using the shot list as a guide and not completely literal i was able adapt and interchange shots to my preference.

Costume and set design is carried out by the production designer. The production designer takes all mis en scene aspects into consideration and determines how certain elements such as characters and locations will appear visually.

The Location recce contains general locations in which the production will be held. The recce includes a panoramic visual of the location, in which the whole location is displayed. This further includes the availablilty of the location for preference, power points in the location and various other details such as permission grants.

Technical recce is an overview of the set were filming will commence. For technical reasons it displays the general structure of the room including major objects or obstructions. Primarily it displayed power points in the room, mainly for the use of artificial lighting in the room

 The risk assements lists any risk which has the possibilty of occuring within the production process. This is necessary for health and safety reasons and is carried out by the director of light and sound.

Production report

Camera and additional details

Scene 1 - Interior day Bedroom

Originally this scene consisted of 4 shots. However the 4th shot was removed due to lack of space in the set. To compensate i incorporated the shot, being a over the shoulder shot with Amelia looking in the mirror, within the 3rd shot. The 3rd shot in its entirety was difficult to perform, however i felt it was necessary to compliment the variety of shots within our film. The shot included a CU of Amelia putting her feet on the floor, then tracking and jibbing up as she walked over to the mirror, ending in a over the shoulder fashion of her looking into the mirror. Apart from the 3rd shot within the scene, shots were fairly basic and easy to perform, but i considered them to be essential to introduce our central character, this moreover makes shot 3 stand out, differentiating itself from other shots to emphasize on creativity.





- Lighting. In this scene we aimed to create a morning sun and used a variety of gels. This gave off a bright glow which worked efficiently, although it came off as somewhat too bright in the second shot, being a MLS, it still flowed within the scene.
- Mise en scene. Costume and make-up complimented on the time of day and portrayed the events prior to the scene, in that being Amelia crying. However there was one continuity error within the scene, in which for a brief moment some equipment is seen.

Scene 2 - Interior day kitchen

This scene opened with a zoom out of toast being made, which i originally did not plan to include within this scene. However i felt that the imagery was a good example of denotation, in which it relates to our film title being Toast itself. Overall i felt the positioning stood out within this scene, other than one slight error with framing where an actress performed ahead of her cue. The distance on the shots helped portray how busy Amelia is, particularly when Amelia walks out of the frame in the last short after having a short conversation with her Mother.

- House lighting was used, due to lack of natural light in scene house lighting was necessary complimenting to set of a kitchen, creating a white-ish clean image. - Mise en scene. The costume design complimented the scene greatly, in which one of our peers had to portray a Mother figure, which was well received.

Scene 3 - Interior day School corridor

This scene was fairly short only consisting of two shots. The first shot was a slow zoom out of a school bell to establish the location, which the low angle and and ambiguity reinforce our variety of shots which i wanted to include in our film. The second shot was a long shot, where Amelia would walk toward the camera and then out of frame. This shot also included a slow zoom out as she walked toward the frame and then past it. This shot was static, with people walking in and out of frame not treating it as a camera, i thought this adds to the on going realism throughout our film. Originally i planned to have a jump cut to a closer shot of Amelia going through the crowd, to somewhat add to the stress she is going though, however this shot turned out to be impractical due to the amount of extras we had around equipment etc. Filming this scene had no problems technically and we carried out everything as i had originally planned in the shot list.

- Artificial lighting was deemed to have no real use in this scene. Considering the type of lights we had we decided that the distance that the character was away from the camera to begin with was too far to have any effect, as she got closer to the camera and walked out of frame the effect of the lighting would of changed and we wouldn't of been able to place lighting in any other position for the length of the shot would of revealed the lights. House lights were used in this scene.

- A large amount of extras were used in this scene, in which they performed their roles well with no problems what so ever.

Scene 4 - Interior day School classroom 1

Another short scene. Scene 4 was only two shots. Unfortunately there were a few technical difficulties with this scene. Without a tripod the first shot had to be shot freehand, which resulted in fair amount of shakiness. The shot was a low angle small track toward Amelia busy working, because of the shakiness the frame work wasn't perfect. I would most probably change this shot if i was able to, for the most part shots in our film were mostly static with panning if there was any motion at all, this was to add to the realism of shots in that being to try and have as subtle camera movement as possible to grasp the audience into living and questioning Amelia's day to day lifestyle. Instead i would of most likely changed this to a static shot or perhaps had a small amount of zoom. The second shot was a high angle over the shoulder shot of Amelia working, which although freehand looked to be genuinely static.

- Lighting in this scene was natural. This couldn't be helped for the source of light couldn't be blocked in anyway.

Scene 5 - Exterior day School field.

I consider scene 5 to be scenery shots. Although fairly random in retrospect, I decided on these shots to somewhat amplify the beauty of the world that Amelia misses out on while she lives her straightedge workaholic routine over and over. The first shot includes a high angle pan of a tree with a bright sun behind. Unintentionally the sun bounces off the camera whilst the pan is in motion which i see to be a great shot visually. The second shot is a static long shot of two boys playing football with a hint of orange in the sky. This shot has a horizon feel to it, i feel it connotes how vast the world can be, this being in contrast to Amelia lacking liberal sensibilities in her life. These shots had a fair amount of improvisation, i was planning to adapt the shots depending on factors such as the weather and the amount of extras we were able to obtain. This mainly concerned the second shot, where i imagined to have several people playing football and have a slow pan across, however i feel the horizon shot works more efficiently and connotes more toward the film.

Scene 6 - Interior day School classroom 2

Scene 6 was used to compliment scene 5. This scene was only one shot and contained a shot of Amelia working. As she pauses for a brief moment from working on her computer, she looks up out the window and into the sky as it slowly jibs up with her. This was for the same reason as scene 5 in a scene, but the actual image of Amelia looking outside gave the intention she was trapped further putting an extend on how her lack of branching out takes a toll on her life.
This scene was easily shot containing only a small jib.

- House lights were used to add the realism of the scene. Additional lighting by the crew would effect continuity due to the reflection being shown in the window, and would of further ruined the scenery which Amelia gazes upon.

Scene 7 - Exterior day School gates

This scene contained two shots both of similar contents. Both shots are long shots of Amelia walking out of school alone, perhaps suggesting that she has stayed at school after hours, and panning across as she does so. These were filmed particularly quickly and had no technical problems.

Scene 8 - Interior night staircase

Scene 8 was only 1 shot. Although only a single shot and perhaps of basic quality, i feel this shot compliments our creativity and variety of shots in the production. The shot begins as an ECU of Amelia starting to walk up a set of stairs up to her bedroom. The shot tilts up until the door fits the frame and then becomes static as Amelia shuts the door eventually creating a MLS of a flight of stairs. The tilt creates a low angle shot, the whole purpose of the shot was the distance created, it connotes a segregated area were Amelia shuts herself away from the outside world. Although simple visually, practically it was fairly difficult to set up. The tripod was actually placed on the set of stairs rather than the end of the stairs, so the back leg of the tripod was extended for balance and the front two to steady. This was successful and did not effect the framework what so ever.

Scene 9 - Exterior house

This scene was only one shot also and was intentionally shot freehand. This was mainly due to the lack of space in which i needed to pan across with the character as she walked out of her house. The shot started with zoom out of the front door being shut, then simultaneously tracking backwards as she got closer to frame then panning across as she walked away. The shot only took two takes surprisingly and complimented our shooting style.

Scene 10 - Exterior day Bus stop

Scene 11 - Interior day Outside common room/canteen

Scene 11 was a single static shot of Amelia having a conversation with two other pupils. Visually the whole purpose of this shot was where the shot ends, this includes Amelia walking past the camera out of frame with a slightly distressed look, whilst her friends walked in the opposite direction up the stairs. Perhaps connoting that Amelia has taken a different path to them in how she goes around her life. However prior the characters walking out the scene is what concerned me most. The positioning of the characters in the corridor and the distance away they are from the camera effected the balance of imagery in the shot, this concerns what is known as the rule of thirds. However post conversation the images balance themselves in which the characters move, so perhaps it worked out as a progressive shot. Overall it was successful.

- Concerning sound, a boom mic was used successfully to record the characters dialogue.
- Mise en scene . There was a slight problem in which at the end of the small corridor where the scene was taking place, there was a glass cabinet capable of reflection. But this is barely noticeable.

Scene 12 - Interior day Library

Scene 12 included 4 shots. The first shot was a long shot of Amelia working on a table by herself. This shot was to establish the location of the library. The second was an over the shoulder shot of Amelia working, then picking up an article. The shot then jump cuts to CU of the article, it then cuts away to MCU of Amelia turning the article over and putting it down. The fifth shot however is slightly more creative than the previous ones, which involved a near 180 degree motion into a CU of the article which Amelia had put on the table. This shot avoided crossing the line for Amelia wasn't in the shot to begin with and had no relations with any other character in the scene. This probably could of been improved, in which i would of lessened the motion and focused more on the purpose of the shot, in that being to display the articles contents.

- One of the main problems in this scene was the lighting. We couldn't get permission to switch off the house lighting and use additional lights which we had previously planned to do. Evidently the light in the scene does appear fairly bright.
- There was a continuity error where some of the extras had moved positions in between shots.

Scene 13 - Interior Kitchen day

Scene 13 is one of our shortest scenes. The scene only consists of one shot, which includes a slow pan across the entire kitchen. The pan includes Amelia's mother making toast, then towards the end of the pan Amelia walks toward the camera and walks out of frame. There were no problems shooting this scene.

Scene 14 - Interior day common room

This scene was a single shot. Although fairly long in duration due to the dialogue, it was a simple shot. It begins as a static medium range shot, as Amelia gets up to leave there is a small jib up then a pan across to watch her leave, the shot then pans back to the other characters on the tables reaction. Originally the shot was a lot closer, but this lead to difficulty in jibbing upwards as Amelia stood, so i created more distance between the actors and camera to ease on the camera's motion.

Scene 15 -

Scene 16 - Interior night Bedroom

Scene 16 was one shot. The shot was quite long, it included a relatively high angled view with a slow pan whilst Amelia spoke on the phone. Practically this was quite difficult to perform, in that i had to time the pan to match the duration of the dialogue. Other than that it was straightforward and there were no problems technically.

- A light blue gel was used to emphasize that the scene was late at night, it gave off a somewhat dark feel which i thought was successful. In addition, the light made Amelia look pale, complimenting mise en scene.

Scene 17 - Interior day kitchen

Another single shot scene. Scene 17 contains a medium of shot of Amelia's mother sitting at the kitchen table eating toast. The shot then jibs up at an angle slightly as Amelia walks into the room, the shot then stays static as she walks out of the frame. This scene had no problems technically or difficulties practically.

Scene 18 - Interior day school canteen

Shooting this scene had some difficulty. Originally this scene had 4 shots. A MLS of Amelia approaching the till to purchase some food, an MCU of Amelia counting change, a reaction shot of the dinner lady waiting, and a cut back to the MCU of Amelia who apologises for not having enough money and leaves. However due to accessibility of the set we were short on filming time which further lead to the lack of time we had with the extra, that being the dinner lady. This lead to limited takes and the rushing of shots. For the most part everything went well technically and practically, the shots were simplistic and easy to carry out. The changes were not of our choice. However there were several continuity errors and shots with no use. Most disappointing was the dismissal of the reaction shot which i wanted to include.

- The main continuity error was that the dinner lady would look at the camera, breaking realism
- Sound was quite a problem, the canteen atmosphere was necessary but too much audio was recorded
- Another continuity error included Amelia walking out with the food she hadn't bought
- A dinner lady who was not being used in the production asked if we would leave whilst we were filming

Scene 19 - Interior school corridor

The scene was in the same location of scene 3. It was a one shot scene, Amelia walks down the corridor and gets barged by someone walking past. I filmed in freehand to make the impact of the person walking into Amelia and making her drop her bag more sudden and to add emphasis on realism. The freehand shooting included tracking backward as Amelia walked toward the camera down the corridor, and the a jib down to the dropped bag and back up to a static shot of Amelia walking away. I felt this captured the raw feeling of embarrassment and almost anger that Amelia has, the end of the shot is static and captures Amelia's distressed face she walks out of frame. There were no technical problems during this scene, practically it was quite difficult because of the amount of movements but still turned out to be successful.

Scene 20 - Interior night bedroom

This scene had the most amount of shots in the film, however i felt it was necessary to bring up the pace of the film for its climax. The scene begins with a slow panning medium shot of Amelia entering her room, she puts down her things then walks over to her desk. The next few shots are a series of close ups, including Amelia using a knife to cut at her work and her aggravation whilst her phone continues to ring. These shots all compliment the final two shots in which i see to be the climax. I began to shoot free hand once again to capture the emotion being portrayed. Amelia stands up and throws her phone across the room, this shot included me starting at quite a close range and tracking backwards into a medium shot with a quick pan across when Amelia throws her phone. The next shot is a cutaway to Amelia falling on the floor and curling up, this involved a slight tilt as well as a pan. Unfortunately some equipment was seen in this last shot very briefly during the pan. This scene went very smoothly and i wouldn't try to improve it in anyway. I particularly like the mix of freehand whilst serious matters are at hand, and then steady aided shots when Amelia is living out her routine. This happens during the entire film let alone this scene.

- Continuity error when equipment is seen.
- It is apparent that there is a brief moment when a crew members is seen


Scene 21 Interior day bedroom (repeat of scene 1 shot 1)

Post production report

Post production consists of editing our production and producing a final cut. Throughout the post production stage there is a number of necessities which we have to carry out as part of the process. This include typical editing elements such as;

- Capturing consists of selecting footage we wanted in our production which we would put to use. This required us going through all our footage, and selecting takes of a particular shot and capturing it. Once we decided whether or not the shot would be included, we recorded it down in a log.
- Syncing sound to match continuity and make the audio flow, putting an emphasis on realism. Hard cuts and jumps in sound would most probably result in distorting the audience. This involves overlapping sound clips and syncing sound levels in a decrescendo crescendo fashion in between sound clips, resulting in more flowing audio.
- Sound levels had to be accustomed to fit our preference. Also if audio was seemingly too loud, quiet or even broke the sound level, this would have to be changed by raising or lowering custom points on the sound clip.

- Titles in the film are essential for crediting cast and crew. They appear in the opening sequence of the film as well as the end of it.

They were a few specific decisions which involved the entire production groups view, and furthermore situations which were dealt with some difficulty.

Scene 1 Shot 2

- Scene 1 shot 2 was an overly lit shot. The amount of light within shot had a negative effect visually. For the first scene we wanted to create a morning sun, in which we used red and blue gels to create warm feel. For shot 1 this was successful, however shot 2 had a lot more distance for light to enter the shot. As a result the shot appeared artificial and grainy, effecting our continuity prior to the first shot of the scene. To atone, we lowered the light manually in the post production stages. This included lowering the opacity and brightness of the shot through the effect controls. This allowed us to improve this shot somewhat, to fit the lighting theme of the scene.

Scene 2

Scene 2 had a lot going on audio wise. This resulted in us having to edit the sound.

- Amelia's mother was involved in a lot of activity, including washing up, making toast, putting toast on the table and dialogue. The flowing of the water when washing up stopped abruptly in a cut, this effected continuity in which it had to be edited. To avoid this jump in sound, i made the sound of washing up repeat subtly by copying the sound clips and putting them together. This made it sound as if the tap kept on running. Moreover sounds such as the impact of Amelia's mother putting down the plate of toast, Amelia's mother bracelets hitting the table and Amelia further putting down the plate, all resulted in high unwanted levels of sound. These all had to be lowered.

Scene 7

- Scene 7 consisted of one shot. The emphasis editing wise was the sound that the door made whilst being closed. The closing of the door resulted in a very loud sound, putting the audio levels to its limit. For the most part, it didn't even sound like a door being shut anymore. After trying to lower and toy with the sound levels we realised that the sound was unavoidable. This lead to us recording a completely original sound of a door being shut, muting out the other sound and playing it over the scene to match the sync of the door being shut.

Scene 2 Main title

- The position of the main title was somewhat subject for debate. Originally the title appeared the last shot of the scene, this was because the last shot includes Amelia leaving her house and we somewhat begin to join her on her journey. So it was fairly appropriate, however we decided that professionally it would be more effective if we put the directors title in this position instead. For the main title, we finally decided that we would reinforce our play on words by accompanying the title with our central image, in that being toast itself. Additionally this title was the first to include the font which we later included in every title, this title almost looked like the type font used in the Marmite logo, and somewhat represented that. The position of the title was central left, with the plate of toast next to it.

Scene 20

- Throughout scene 20 there is a exaggerated sound of a phone vibrating. As the audio levels of the phone we actually used wasn't loud enough, we decided to record a phone vibrating on a surface were it would produce a louder sound. Although intentional, this sound was very loud and had to be somewhat lowered overall. The audio had to be altered so it would appear to be progressive, getting gradually louder as Amelia became more agitated. This included us having to edit the sound clips to fit the convention. However because we were only using one sound clip which had to be duplicated and continuely repeated to match the duration of the visuals, this proved to be difficult, for if we didn't do this suffiecently it would effect continuity. Evidently this proved successful.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Within our film as well as being the film title, toast is a recurring image as displayed above. To some extent for us toast represents breakfast, in which the majority of people take part in everyday. Amelia carries out the same routine everyday to the point where her life is almost trivial. Breakfast is a routine based concept, just as Amelia's life is.

Henceforth, i decided to take a play on our film title and use a iconic image relating to toast in itself. This was an original idea of mine, which i wanted produce throughout. My other ideas included quite generic images, but i didn't want to convey anything obvious for it may of come across as somewhat boring. As a result the final product then comes across as a fairly ambiguous portrayal, not necessarily revealing anything about our film on surface value. However after carrying out analysis of other short film posters its clear that a certain mystery within the imagery is necessary and further puts across the image as strikingly peculiar, in which at a film festival people would find most attractive if receiving postcards. So i thought it perhaps would be more effective to create and publish a more artistic yet simplistic representation of our product. I find the image of a Marmite jar to be very relatable yet simple, not too much is happening in the image yet its fairly striking in its originality. I decided to keep the titles to a minimum and only include the existing ones, in that being the film title and the main actress, on the Marmite jar itself. I feel this adds to the realism somewhat, which we wanted to put across as a whole.

The film title allows the audience to easily recognise that toast is a recurring image, in which the audience would most definitely look out for shots where toast is present. This being the case, i feel this postcard simply compliments the reccuring imagery and works in combination with the product itself creating a more dominant image for the audience to remember. As a result, i feel that the postcard compliments the main product, in attracting audiences.  

Film Review

For the film review i decided to approach it with a rather casual, quirky style. I adopted this style from British film magazine Empire, who reviews short art house films as well as mainstream feature films. Knowing that, although not of primary interest, Empire reviews short films, i felt it was appropriate to take into account their critique style.

The review begins with a short synopsis of the film, in which Empire usually involve within their reviewing. This opening has a much more professional take as opposed to the rest of review, to clearly lay out and give the audience short overview of the film. The rest of the interview has a more casual yet intellectual approach. Although a highly commercial publication, Empire is still read by film enthusiasts. Taking the audience into consideration determined my writing style, in that being laidback as whole with serious points at times. The audience in which the review is read by is more or less the same for Toast itself, being a short film in itself attracts a niche audience as such, yet we wanted Toast to be highly relatable to a younger generation which is a fairly large amount. Hence my adaptive style of writing included to compliment the production.
I decided to base my design on the "On Set Preview" section of Empire. This was simply for aesthetic reasons rather than the actual purpose of the section in reality, which previews rather than reviews. The section is fairly small and pushed aside from the main focus of the page. I felt this easily could be conveyed as a short film section. This would come off as a professional look for the audience.

The original article.

My film review.

This is the content of my film review without a template.

Love it or hate it


Amelia Jones is a teenage student. Day to day Amelia carries out her routinized lifestyle, conserving all hedonistic needs to replace them with nothing but a daunting life of academics. As we continue to observe her repetitive work ethic whilst denying all aspects of the typical teenage social life, Amelia finally breaks as a result of this deprivation. However this results in no revelation whatsoever as Amelia continues her trivial life.


Sex, drugs and rock and roll you say? Not quite. Surprisingly this take on teenage life isn’t so typical.  Amelia is so wrapped up in her studies that she pretty much lacks a social life all together. As we follow Amelia around a day to day basis at school and her home it appears that life is all too much for Amelia, resulting in an unsurprising hissy fit. The climax itself seems to be in the last scene, in which Amelia is waking up just as she did in the first, so poor Amelia goes through this every week or so it would seem. This circular narrative takes some thought, perhaps even too much. Toast shows alot of promise however, its realistic shooting and tolerance to choose not to sensationalise the drama of teenage life, but to rather raise the awareness of teenage struggles was a good move by first time director Grace Davis. By playing with the subversive on an overdramatized subject of the teenage, Grace Davis may attract a lot of attention than we first predicted.

The combination of the main product and this text comes within the writing style and layout. This determines and attracts certain audiences, potentially aiming to attract the same audience that Toast itself is being viewed by. By stimulating the correct audience via writing style and layout, the review compliments the main product by attracting audience to watch the film. I somewhat played with the conventions of Empire, reinforcing and reproducing their style with somewhat of a twist, simply to try and make the review as interesting as possible. The progressive nature of the review with a positive conclusion making note of the Directors performance, i feel perhaps will stick in the viewers mind, pushing them to watch our film. This seemingly makes the combination of the review and production an effective one.

Analysis of Film posters

The majority of film posters, feature length or short, usually hold the same properties. Visually, the imagery within the poster corresponds to each other connoting the theme of the film. It also holds information about the film including the film title, directors, producers and the main casting.

These posters are for two films; Cold October, a short film and The Dark Knight, a feature length. Although subtle, a fundamental difference between feature length and short film posters is that short film posters appear to be more vague within their imagery. Feature length posters usually put across a central image which the audience can recognise and relate to, for example The Dark Knight film poster contains its main protagonist Batman, coming across as an iconic visual. Whereas Cold October holds an obscure abstract image of a man which we do not know. For short film this comes across as a selling point, our ignorance to what is being shown within the poster leads to our interest and attraction to the film. So if a festival was to see a short film poster, image wise it is what we don't know about what is being portrayed in the poster that is most important, rather than we do know (e.g the franchise, the star power) in feature length films.

Cold October

- Above average contrast and low saturation gives off a pale look, emphasising a cold feel to the image which relates to the title of the film
- The blurred background creates a sense of oblivious surroundings, that the character is somewhat lost, emotionally or perhaps even physically
- Urban environment gives a sense of realism
- The almost transparent font, coming off as a very pale white colour, further builds upon themes (cold temperatures)
- The characters blue clothes connote a sense of being fragile and vulnerable. Also further represent the cold feel.
- The poster credits include a URL, promoting the film



The Dark Knight

- Warm colours promote an aggressive masculine theme, denoting a heroic figure
- Anatomic environment establishes a setting which needs a hero, to emphasise on typical comic book hero narratives
- The silhouette of the main protagonist suggests that the character is an icon, a authoritative figure of some sort
- Bold red font emphasises themes in power and strength
- Lack of film credits suggest that this is a teaser poster
- There is a URL at the bottom, adding to publicity




For our marketing campaign, similarly to the concept of film posters, we are to produce postcards. Short film posters hold near to the same properties as postcards image wise. In Toast we have a central character which the plot revolves around, and a returning gimmick in that being the title itself, toast. Taking this into consideration, it becomes fairly obvious that the majority of film posters either contain the main character, a striking image relating to the film, or even both. Cold October clearly has the main character in it.

This poster is for a American short film titled Purge. In theory Purge could hold the same attributes as a poster for Toast. The central character is presumably the female displayed in the poster and the synopsis describes she is at a distress similarly to our main character Amelia.

Purge

- Thin pale coloured font for the film title and directors credit suggests weak oppressed feminine themes. The white colour also suggests innocence

- Green eye represents envy, of perhaps a less dysfunctional lifestyle
- The shot of only half the face suggests the character leads a double life, or perhaps holds a secret

Advanced Production techniques

Analysis of Film reviews

Film reviewing

Film criticism consists of evaluating a film production. Film reviews can be found in a variety of media outlets, including magazines, newspapers and online texts. Critics seek to try to distinguish whether or not the film they are reviewing is of any quality, although considered to be their profession, critics are still only prone to opinion. This has lead to various reviewing styles, for a review cannot be of the same content if the film is subject to only an individual for them to analyse. Reviewing style tends to be a collective amongst different producers, for example reviewers who have their work distrubuted to broadcast media or online publications are considered to be journalistic critics. Depending on what publisher the critic reviews for, the style may differ.



Empire
Empire is a British film magazine. Empire reviews a variety of different productions, including mainstream feature films as well as art films. Empire tends to have a fairly casual approach to its reviewing, its coverage is less serious than other film magazines attracting a wide audience to its texts.

Sight and Sound
Sight and Sound is a British film magazine published by the British film institute. Sight and sound tend to focus on more art house releases, rather than covering mainstream productions. It also takes a more intellectual approach, additionally listing the cast and crew in every review. Moreover Sight and Sound regularly consult film professionals to contribute to a variety of unique texts in their magazine, such as voting for films to placed in certain aesthetic categories.

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website used for film aggregation. Rather than completely reviewing films itself, Rotten Tomatoes includes reviews from online authors. This then presents Rotten Tomatoes to have a diverse reviewing style were critics are certified authors, just from different associations.

Compare and contrast film reviews

After reviewing several texts from a variety of websites renewed for their critique in film such as Empire and Rotten Tomatoes, I took two reviews to contrast and compare reviewing style. I thought it would somewhat be more interesting to take The Guardian, a british daily newspaper, and compare it to Empire to contrast style used between different media texts, in that being newspapers and magazines.

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136353

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/19/twilight-saga-new-moon-review

The Twilight Saga; New Moon
District 9

In the introduction to the first review (The Twilight Saga; New Moon) the writer briefly comments on the first installment of the franchise, this acts as a short overview to display the overly similar plot line portrayed within the two films in negative critique. Using this as a fundamental basis, this review builds on how “gimmicky” and “the somewhat predictable groove” by exploring the film in synopsis, which ultimately in itself drags on. Perhaps the length but small detail from this review represents the film itself. Taking into account that this review was published by the Guardian in which due to its left wing approach is not really bound by heavy sensationalism like other media texts. Because of this, it is most likely that this review is for the audience which is that of universal as opposed to people of the productions target group who is most likely female.

Rather than in this review for the film district 9 takes a much deeper emphasis on the actual film itself. This review published by Empire magazine which specifies in reviewing film comments on the genre itself to begin with, that being alien based Sci-Fi and how supposedly overused the is in contrast to District 9 being a good film, in their opinion it “feels fresh and original”. Throughout the review, the author focuses on the style of the film, commenting on characters, themes such as aliens, the apartheid as well as its documentary style shot through a hand held camera for the entire film giving each factor of the film its own section creating a structure which is much like a bullet pointed list outlining the general positives of the film to conclude with small evaluating criticisms but with a certainty to put forward that this is a film of good quality.

Both reviews take a casual approach; their language is that of analytical as well as including that quirky social style to engage its audience to feel as if someone was talking to you about the film. The major contrast between these reviews is the detail, taking into account both publishers are of high professional standards, it seems the films themselves create the difference between the reviews rather than the publisher’s style. Because District 9 received a positive review the author recognizes a number of attributes in a positive manner to take into consideration, he develops a style to explain each detail one after the other. Unlike the Twilight review which just by reading the first few points the audience can see that the review is representing the film to be a bad one and lengthening the review by explaining what actually happens in the film rather than a analysis.