SNAP!

Through my love of Guy Ritchie and his films, in my research I came across this short film "SNAP" it was also made by a bunch of students our age doing a project similar to ours. They had created a short film in the style of Guy Ritchie, I really like their camera techniques; there's a lovely pan shot on a country lane road following cars it adds detail to the story they are telling. They have used voice overs just like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, at first I thought it would be cheesy but I liked it.
I got a lot of ideas from this short film, it helped me develop some inspiration.

E39 M5 "Star" Guy Ritchie

I love Guy Ritchie films, so i decided to research and see if he had done any shorts; just as I thought it was very difficult to find one but I came across this short film "E39 M5 Star". The film lasted 9 minutes and had me gripped from the opening line his style is unique and often involves unsavoury characters that turn out to be the hero, the locations are always gritty and unpolished. However I was surprised to see upmarket sophisticated characters, it was only at the end of the film I discovered it was a film to promote BMW cars.

I still enjoyed it and was interested in his camera shots and I felt involved in this story through the use of direct speech, the opening line is a voice over a rough "Ray Winstone" type that kept me watching because it was typical of Guy to use that to grab audiences before throwing them into a "upper class" atmosphere.

Michel Gondry - Smirnoff Advert

This advert is where Michel Gondry used his 'bullet' effect, the advert is very interesting and unique to him, it adds exciment to advertising and in it's own way it's like a short film. The editing of this advert is clever and reminds me of a comic strip.

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is a French film director, screen writer and music video director, he is famous for his visual style and manipulation of mise en scene.

His film making career started with making music videos for Rock band "oui oui" which he was a part of, the style of the video got the attention of artist Bjork, she asked him to create a music video for her. Not only did he create one he then went one to do many more, his style went into a category of his own and many artists wanted him   to do theirs, as well as doing music video's he experimented in television commericals. He pioneered the "bullet time" technique which was then later adapted and featured in the film "The Matrix".

The Execution of Mary Stuart

This film is was made by Thomas Edison in 1895 and it's the story about the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. This is may have been first film in history to use actors to depict a story not only that but special effects have been used and editing for the purpose of the story. When the executioner raises his axe to chop her head off the it is edited so the actress is removed and replaces with a mannequin.
This is my favourite video, it shows how far forward directors of film at that time were, and how they shocked and fooled audiences for entertainment.

Avant Garde

Avant Garde means "ahead of the crowd" its cutting edge or experimental short films,
they were considered an art movement in the late 1940's to 1950. Avant Garde dirctor Maya Deren created short films that were had a anti mainstream stance, within her films she promotes the idea of artistic license and creative freedom.


 This film was originally a silent film, but later after the film had been made her husband Teiji played instruments to accompany the moving images this became the soundtrack, the music adds mood and atmosphere helps us as the audience to understand fully the messages she is displaying.
The film gives us a sense of dreaming the character has a floaty walk about her and the idea of her falling asleep and not waking up suggests this is a dream. The camera trickery used is well before its time we can see how people have developed technical special effects from this film, the slow motion running and the stop frame animation is basic but still very effective. 


The imagery in this film is about death and choices, this would of been a sensitive subject because of the era taking into account world war two, this just shows how many boundaries and creativity is being used in this film. 

Short Film History

Short film has revolutionised the film industry with each new advancement in film there has been a short film that sparked it off, 1895 saw the first short film to be publicly exhibited "La sortie de l'usine", short due to technical restrictions. It wasn't until 1910 when films got longer that the term "short subjects" was coined.

Short subjects because quite popular amongst audiences because people could go to the cinema and see 3-4 short films rather than just 1. This was important at the time as there were just a few forms of entertainment for the masses.
In 1930's Hollywood block booking was introduced this was were big Hollywood studio's forced small production companies to sell their short films to them so they could make feature films. Supreme court of US declared block booking illegal but the damage to short film had already been done.

Feature films lasted 90 minutes or more and had a classic narrative, they were more profitable for film exhibitors there could be a 2 hour turn around of a film. The invention of TV was a mass medium and short films were aired right up until the late 1960's until they became unpopular.
The 1980's reinvented the short film however they were much darker and gritter, no longer about commerical success but about content and converging messages.


This still is from a short film from 1980 that used to play on nickelodeon in place of a group of commericals. We can see from this that its a cartoon comedy sketch aimed at children, after watching the video I can see it has no real message or understanding it's simply their for entertainment purposes.

History of Short Film- Lumiere Brothers

"La Sortie Des Usine" was made in 1895 by the Lumiere Brothers on the 28th of December 1895, it was the first short film to be displayed to a paying audience. The "cinematographe projects" only lasted only 50 seconds, and combined a camera, printer and projector all in one.
Their films content mainly contained moving images of everyday life, however the brothers feared that audiences would get bored with this and it was nothing new that they haven't already seen if they walked out on to the street.




Far from boring audiences " L'arrivee D'un train la ciotat" made in 1896 gave something interesting and thrilling, the short film had audience members screaming and hiding behind their seats because they believed the train was about to plow straight through the screen.

The films are vital historic evidence of life in the 1900's and include basic filming techniques this shows us how far cameras and the way we film have developed.

Post Secrets

This is was my second choice for post secrets, I chose  this because it had a mysterious element to the writing and it looked like magical. I wanted to do something serious with this one so I had a variety of synopsis's, this postcard seems to be light and quiet fun but it took it differently.

My synopsis:

A young girl finds out she's pregnant and wants to keep it from her friends she so isolates herself and finds comfort in her school library, she finds herself lost in books which takes her away from her problems. Every book she opened she found a small post-it note with a small drawing of a baby she becomes freaked out and worried people have found out this continues to happen everyday, she finally finds a book without a note and takes it home. When she gets home she flicks through the book and finds a huge note saying: I KNOW YOUR SECRET. 

Post secrets

I chose this postcard to write a synopsis for a short film because I liked the simple style of writing and the childish drawings.
I also liked the secret, it actually very common among  teenagers however my synopsis isn't serious it's weird and imaginative because I wanted to make a hard hitting bullying subject light hearted.

My synopsis:
A girl is trapped in her female body and wishes to be male, she visits a wig makers and asks for a male wig when she puts it on she hears voices telling her this is the right decision and she should be a boy, she buys the wig and hides it from her parents at a bag at the front door, every morning on the way to school she puts it on. One day a huge gust of wind blows the wig off in the middle of the playground and she is revealed to the whole school as a girl, filled with humiliation she picks the wig up rubs it and wishes to be taken away to a world where she is free to be a boy and magically the wig whisks her off to a land where she can be happy.

Bouncer

Bouncer was one of my favorite short films, It had a unique style about it; that kept me engrossed from the opening scene. The first line to be spoken is a question directed to the audience ' what do you see when you look into the face of a nightclub doorman' this keeps our engaged and feel involved in the film, the voice over helps us understand the visuals better. The film happens in chronological order so we get an understanding of how it all started, however there is a twist that makes this film a little less predictable, as an audience we gather that the doorman is in training for his job at the begining but the at the end we understand he is telling the story from prison this a clever effect.

The music in this short film gives the voice over some meaning, and also illstrates the video, the sound softens when the doorman is about to be killed we unnderstand what is happening before it has happened. The film is very nitty gritty the lightening is natural darkeness and the edit cuts help us to understand time has pasted.

Rubber Johnny

My opinion on this film was poor, I really didn’t understand it or its purpose, we later researched it and discovered it was for the purpose of a television advert to promote a band. It was banned and now I can understand why it was not suitable for viewers, The film opened in darkness which kept me as a viewer in suspense wondering what was going to emerge the title was written on a condom  which was pulled from a penis straight away this hinted to me that “Rubber Johnny” was not a small rubber character about to embark on an adventure, it was going to be a video with a sexual nature. The music that accomplished the video was erratic and reminded me of a song that might be used in a hardcore rave.

Filming Task

I am Married from BDC on Vimeo.

In small groups we were set a task of filming a short film with a simple narrative:

-      -   Character opens the door

-       - Walks across the room

-     -   Is met with another person and begins a conversation

It was then up to us as a group to expand on this idea and be creative with shots and play around the camera, it was a experimental  task.

From the start my group had problems, we had a person down due to a university open day so it was difficult to film this with only two people but we managed to get something. As a group we were not focused  and became distracted by other groups easily, we paired up with another group who also had team members missing but this just added to us being unfocused and we not good for both groups, the little footage we had was workable and with some special effects could of been OKAY.

When it came to logging and capturing we didn’t use our knowledge of how and where to save, so unfortunately we lost all our work and the tape was left at home. The communication between the group was poor,  and attendance of people was difficult to work with.  After losing our work  another group kindly offered to give us their tape to work with their footage, at this point we really pulled together as team to work hard and  use our editing skills to produce something unique. Our group was made up of people with different abilities, We really showed our final cut pro knowledge by including stop frame animation and cross fading shots the other group failed to get, We used photo shop to make opening titles were we researched images of Africa and used a map to introduce the film.

Where have I been all your life

This is the short film I showed to my class, I chose this film because I really enjoyed the dry sense of humour. It was put under the drama category so I made the assumption it was going to be a serious film, it was but it had elements of comedy and ended up to be nothing I expected it to be.
As the film opens we are introduced to the main character straight away we presume that he is disabled or his ability to do things alone is very small, the opening scene is shot in a car with him as the driver, his girlfriend seems to be the carer she is very patience with him and guides him to do thing, the lightening is natural and the background just a urban streets. As the story progresses we see that there is nothing wrong with the boy he is just sometimes incapable of doing things for himself and we soon catch on that his girlfriend is very similar, the film follows a story of a young man finding his dad after 23 years. The storyline is very serious but the characters reaction to him adds comedy for the audience, the films gives a twist that drags it away from the normal drama genre, at the end we discover that he has knocked on the wrong door and that man is not his father it’s the man at number 24. This is great ending to what was meant to be a predictable film.

The Stairwell by Shane Meadows

This short film is only 40 seconds long and was filmed on a Nokia mobile.
As the film opens see a simple everyday object such as a light switch with the title is shown alongside it from this we can that the idea is going to simple but imaginative. The opening scene shows a character from behind this adds mystery to who they are and what they are doing running down a flight of stairs. The mise en scene is gritty, the lightening dark and dingy. Most of the footage is shot with steady cam this shows the video is experimental because using a mobile in some form of steady cam is creative, None of the characters faces are seen clearly and both wearing hats this adds mystery to them again because she cannot see their whole identity. The music in the film helps to create tension and leads up to believe it's building up to something, when the two characters collide and the film ends we feel cheated because we were expecting something more.

The Undertaker

I chose this film from the BBC film network because it seems odd and not a straight forward drama genre film.

The title is revealed instantly in this film, it is written in bold and is text is slightly set out in a straightline symbolising a flat surface like a coffin box which relates to the title, it comes on the screen like a statement; the soundtrack is slow and meaningful it gives the impression of loniness and isolation.

The opening scene reveals the main character straight away but only from a side view, the impression we get of him is tired and worn out, his clothing suggests a business environment apart from the title give away we are not told he is an undertaker until he begins to talk. He is not your typical undertaker he is not smartly dressed he seems to be quite scruffy, he has a deep accent and does not look directly at the camera this gives some mystery about him, he seems uncomfortable in his job this could suggest he’s lonely. He is using humour in a sad situation which indicates he is trying to make the subject lighter because he feels uncomfortable in his surrounding and he is dealing with a beautiful customer so he is trying to impress her, his character is very emotionless and doesn’t show facial expressions.

The lightening is natural light coming from the windows in the room which gives a dull grey tint on the camera; lots of shadows are used to create a tension about death and burying bodies.

The main character is not seen until after she finishes speaking, she is smartly dressed, well spoken and seemed quite embarrassed by her mother we can see this from her pushy attitude to make her mother leave, this also suggests she is independent and wants to handle the funeral on her own. The camera shots used in the conversation between male and female are point of view/perspective shots this shows us their reaction to each other this helps the audience understand how they feel about one another. The film follows the undertaker on his daily routine this genre turns to documentary, a slow soundtrack is played to give the audience the impression it is a lonely job, the camera zooms out for a wide shot of him at work to show he is the only person who works there it pauses slightly to allow us to see he is isolated.
He invites the woman to mortuary to show her; her father body.
His living quarters are above the mortuary this suggests he’s trapped; he can never escape his job because he’s always involved in it. When a noise is herd downstairs he doesn’t want to go downstairs, this suggests his life is lonely and he is scared of his surroundings, his bedroom is dark and gloomy with heavy metal posters and CDs this indicates he’s a weird character and doesn’t seem to have any friends.

He only goes downstairs when the woman suggests they do, this shows a coward side of him and shows how vulnerable he is in his own setting. The film ends with her fathers body missing from the coffin this is quirky ending to a drama genre it adds supernatural features it ends quickly which symbolises death.

About a girl: textual analysis

The title is written as a text message this is obvious to the audience that the film is modern and we now get the idea that the film is about a young girl. We can make a connection to the film "about a boy" the story of a young boy struggling his self confidence and environment without a male role model. 

The opening scene has no soundtrack just natural noise the background seems to be again a natural setting but the lightening is dark, we are introduced to the main character at first as a silhouette dancing, she is revealed slowly. She looks young and innocent but seems to be alone in a field, she is put across as a young girl so the audience start to feel sorry for her because shes alone in the dark. She starts to sing Britney Spears "I'm strong again", Britney Spears is an  pop idol for young girls.

When she is revealed she is not as young as she is portrayed, her clothing and hair suggest is she from a working class background. The first piece of speech we hear from her is "if Jesus was alive today he would be a singer" this suggests she thinks being a singer is the best profession and gives evidence that she is not well educated and sophisticated, her accent is strong and tells us its set in Manchester. The camera shot is tracking its set in a documentary style nitty gritty British film and the young girl avoids the camera.

As the girl starts to talk we can see her life is not as innocent as her character portrays, we now know that her parents are divorced and she lives on a council estate this shows a darker side to her life. 

She starts to talk about her dad a lot compared to her mum this suggests she prefers her relationship with her father but later on in the film we see it is a forced relationship, she begins to make excuses for her dad because she believes he is a good guy. This suggests to the audience he is her role model and she wishes to start a new life with him.

"I'm not a kid I'm 13" this indicates she grown up too quickly, her behaviour is child like but her vocabulary and understanding of life is much more adult. The camera shots continue to track her journey but she still has not looked at the camera, there is still no soundtrack and the atmosphere is environmental noises.

The wide shot of her outside the pub on her own is suggesting to the audience that she is neglected, the character doesn't seem to be bothered by this because she's used to the way of life however its shocking for us to watch. The background is grey and the sky is filled with clouds this is sign something is about to happen. She acts like she doesn't care that she is being ignored, sitting on the bench alone makes her vulnerable and we begin to see her as a young girl again.  She wants to be rescued from her lonely life from her dad and singing is her way of escaping her life and entering a dream world. 

The scene with her friends on the bus is a reality check for the audience to see how she should be behaving at her age, the footage is gritty and looks untouched and lightening is natural. The young girls personality is happy she comes across as choppy and quick.

"image is important" for a young girl image is important but by the way she dresses and tries on the perfume we can see a young mentality, shes cheeky and has a attitude most young girls do.

The documentary style of the film just following her walking around by herself is more naturalistic, we feel as if she is talking to someone, in fact she is on her own alone.

She talks about becoming famous and moving out of the area, this indicates she wants to do something with her life and escape her background, she talks about drinking "barcadi breezers" being a top drink this is another example for the audience of her immaturity. In contrast to the way she speaks of her father she paints a different story of her mother being harder towards life and having a cruel sense of love. 

The weather is the last scene is grey and weary, like her life is dull grey it also represents the community she lives in, they are trying to break free from the depression and social climate, and the sad story of the puppy in the river. 

She is a product of her environment, she wants to be loved but she builds an armor of personality.

She throws the baby in the river because that's what her mum done to the puppy, she sees what her mother done and believes that's the right thing to do and its the only option. She was thrown into the world like the baby was in the river. Music starts to play as the baby in falling into the water, its an emotional scene in the film and its what her own conversation has been building up to. 

About a girl

Steal Away

The film opens with an upbeat soundtrack that may be used in a scene where a robbery is about to take place, the film throws you straight into the story with a mystery character rough but ordinary, the character is revealed slowly we only see a hand with gold rings this suggests a “gangster” type character, which fits well with the robbery style music. The title is clearly hidden within the story it is written on a wad of twenty-pound notes. The camera shots are point view this is used to make the audience feel involved in the situation, the setting of the film is obvious due to small give away signs of London like the red telephone box and the tube station.

The main characters are introduced quickly and we don’t really get wide shot of them to notice any characteristics accept a focus pull close up of the females tattoo; the footage was slowed down to emphasise the tattoo and to show a sense of rebellion in her personality.

After the gunshot was fired we see a reaction shot where there was a focus pull and the sound of the shot was slower, it was also exaggerated this gives the audience the impression the gunshot was important. We now can see that the pair working together are in fact a couple from the facial expression of the female when the gun is fired. The exit sign in the tube station is brighter than anything else in the station this suggests that the word is an important part to the story. There is misleading twist in the story where the guy is alive there is a dramatic pause where the characters names are now revealed this for the audience is now the beginning of the story

It is clear from the males body language that is he the leader of the operation, he is always seen in front whereas she is behind this leaves clues to her personality as vulnerable and easily lead, she giggles a lot and finds it difficult to not touch her boyfriend this could suggest a parent child relationship and shows her immaturity. The lightening in this scene is dark, grimey and gritty this suggests danger and they are about to embark on somewhere they shouldn't. 

The shot type is tracking it follows the couple through the tube station.

When they open the case of money her face seemed worried but when it blows up they don't seem to care she acts childish and excited which is a sign they are doing it for the thrill of it and they love taking risks. 

When the tube pulls up it comes quietly, and seems like they haven't noticed it was there until it was too late and the tube looks as if no-one is on it, this film is constantly challenging our perceptions.

When they step on the tube and we start to hear a priest preaching about washing away sins it becomes ironic this suggest to the audience the tube might be the transition between life and death. The atmosphere on the tube is tense, the lightening is bright and seems to be spotlighting on the characters, the young man washing peoples feet says "money isn't everything" is ironic to the situation the couple are in, the bible being read is red in colour this indicates its a hint that the couple have blood on their hands. 

The drunk people boarding the tube break the tension and assault the man washing feet by accident  the man steps forward to assist him but is pulled back by his girlfriend this suggests she is needy and wants him close to her, this again is child like behaviour. The shots used on tube are reaction shots to the washing feet this helps the audience understand the tension on the tube.

The priest begins to sing gospel "steal away" this links to the title of the film and now helps the audience to understand that its linked to religion, the genre of this film changed from gangster into something more religious, the signs of a religious content were hinted at the start from the small cross in the car and the bell ringing just before the shooting.  

The male is offered to have his feet washed but instead declines and decides to wash his feet instead as an audience we start to feel differently about the main character as he is now repenting for his sins. The lightening becomes softer like a friendship is being formed and again reaction shots are used to help us see this seriousness of situation, his girlfriend's face is shocked this shows  she has no remorse for what she has done which links back to her childish behaviour. When hes finished washing the feet there is a flashing bright light between the pair that cannot be seen by the rest of the tube this symbolised the pass over, it shows the good and evil inside of him and the eye contact between them is a sign of forgiveness.

Through the washing of the feet and the main character being forgiven their tshirts are clean from the red dye on the money which showed they have been rescued and let off for a second chance in life,  they give the money to a homeless tramp which indicates they are serious about having a second chance and they want to do something good, this film now has broken genres.

The end of the film is clear its been about judgement day, the bright lights on the escalator symbolises coming up to heaven they are separated on the escalators it signifies heaven and hell, he has been forgiven for his sins and she hasn't, the fact he has died has saved her and given her  a chance to move on and do something better this relates to the bible Jesus died to save us.

Tube Tales - Horny

Quote from Gareth Evans

Comparison Between Feature length & Short Film Chart

Ideas about Short Films Brainstorm

Sony Vi Side View & notes

Sony Vi Front View & notes

Sony Vi Rear view & notes

Wasp Part 2

Wasp Part 1

Mud Boy- Nic Penrake

I found this short film on BBC film network, I chose this film because it had an abstract storyline where normally in this environment where you would find nitty gritty.

The title of this film appears from underneath the screen like in comparison to mud being found underground, and the font looks fragile like the texture of mud this indicates to the audience that the film involves a child. The background is dark and the title is bright white this shows something good is going to happen within the darkness, the title fades into the scenery which is bright and clear. There is focus pull on spade in stuck in the mud this is another clue that the film is centred around a young child it also draws your attention to the spade and away from the background.

The first character shown is a small girl she comes across is emotionless with somber expression, she looks scared and is using her game boy as a distraction there is action happening around her but the camera stays focused on her, the camera shots turn to reaction shots of her watching her parents arguing. The lighting turns to grey showing an atmosphere is happening and the focus soon changes to the parents physically fighting. The language used is adult like and not suitable for small children, the child makes no reaction to it this suggests she is used to it making her a victim in her environment. The mother appearance is plain and simple, her hair messy like its been pulled dark deep bags under her eyes showing stress and an upset frustrated tone in her voice telling us she's feed up of her situation. The father's appearance is the complete opposite he is red in the face and he stands tall compared to his wife which shows some intimidation the lighting becomes harsher and darker when he is shouting.

The small teddies in the garden suggest she is a young child, you mimics the angry argument between her parents, that is her way of escaping and letting out how she feels by role play. The sky is bright like a spotlight on her and then sky becomes greyer as she repeats the aggressive parts of the argument.