Final Draft

Second Draft

First Draft

Audience Feedback

Whilst still editing my short film I thought it would be a good idea to get my Media Studies class to watch and say what they liked or would change about the short film Sketch. All these comments are anonymous as they were all written on a piece of paper but a lot have helped me change a few aspects of my short film.

- At the beginning, have one foot being placed over the doors ledge to show she's ready to take that step into her daydream.

- Love the good use of shots and green screen, the song during the credits adds to the kick ass theme. 

- Instead of a shoe, start drawing the sword as I was a bit confused. BUT I LOVED IT.

- The fading of the voices to the left and right speakers was brilliant! Made me jump.

- The Split screen -  how did you do it?

- The music throughout is BRILLIANT!

- The part where Ben (the guy in the jet pack) is in the air is good!

- Every single bit done with thought and precision

- Felt so much longer than 5 minutes - effective use of time

- The shots are precise and the music adds really good atmosphere.

- Sound effects are really good when the drawings are done

- Filming is so clear + precise, flows so well! Love the music

- Hardly anything to critique! Excellent choice of music and shots. bit confused whether you draw the characters or not. Maybe show that you draw them in a shot?

- The music is really effective and the dialogue works well. Only thing I noticed was when the characters appeared the music could cut a bit quicker. Otherwise AMAZING! You could fade out the music at the end as well.

RAW sound

Of course it would be impossible for me to produce all the music within my short film given the time BUT I've have recorded foley sounds and edited them within GarageBand to create layers and remove background sound. I did record some background music for my short film but I didn't compose it. Within the beginning of my short film there is some relaxing background music before the theme song of this film is used. I record this on my phone from a game I play which uses a lot of different sounds and music. From this game also I recorded the 'whoosh' drawing sound that is used every time a character is brought to life and when she awakes from her daydream.

Some of the whispering when the book talks to the girl was recorded myself and edited myself within GarageBand. I layered each different piece of speech before applying a 'clear vocals' layer, a 'luna bounce' layer and upped the Master Echo.

Below are the RAW recordings:

Editing - Sound

When developing the sound effects and possible background music for my short film there were many possibilities to consider and wasn't fully planned before all the editing. For instance, when first creating my short film I wanted to just add writing over the top to make it appear that the book was speaking to the main character. This idea originally came from Sherlock when he deduces someone from one look.  I felt this effect would go perfectly with the idea I had in mind and so used this as inspiration. I later got audience feedback on this and many said it was a little difficult to try and read all the words on the screen. To make it easier for the audience I applied layered sound over the top of people whispering what the book wanted to say. I edited this sound to have echos and wisps of sound to create a slightly eire tone. I recorded about 3-5 sounds for each page (image below of when this happens) which I then 

layered slightly over one another to make each piece flow. When the girl turned the page a new set of whispers would be set off. To also add an interesting sound effect to these whispers I was able to edit the sound so it would bounce from the left earphone to the right. This was done by changing the sound equaliser for speakers of each track to play louder on one side than it does the other. This overall gives a 3D sound effect which has proven to be very effective with my target audience.

For diegetic sounds I recorded my own foley which was used for the girl walking through the woods, the pencil writing on paper at the beginning of the film and general ambience sound which I recorded all off my phone. Without diegetic sounds the film appears flat and unprofessional. Even in many silent films or music videos where the music track is the only source of sound they will still add some diegetic sound to make the film appear more full. Because these sounds weren't recorded through the use of a boom mic the sound contains background sound which can be heard through earphones when listening to this short film. This makes my short film appear unprofessional but I was able to make it slightly better but editing the sound and so it is a little less noticeable. Sounds I didn't create myself but still add to diegetic sounds are the bird sounds over the top and the laser sounds. I wasn't able to record the ambient bird sounds as my mic wasn't powerful enough to record my own and the laser sound was something I couldn't record or produce on my own and so I used sounds from Logic and GarageBand to help. With the laser sounds I needed to sync this up with the timing of the laser being shot and so for this I zoomed in quiet a bit to check that it was in time with the shooting. Even after this I went back ever so often to check that the sound matches up with the action. The same for the girl walking through the woods and turning pages, I always checked to see it the sound matched the action perfectly as out of time sounds can make a short film seem unprofessional.

The non-diegetic sound I used within the short film was the voice over whispers and the theme music. It took time to decide what music I wanted for my main theme music. Did I want epic battle music? Or something more slow and sorrowful? I couldn't really decide what music I wanted until I had edited the rough order of my film together to see whether the music would be long enough and whether it would suit different parts of the short film. The list below are a few links of the music I was considering for my short film but also sound effects that would help me with the ambience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujh-LYsQKS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUpLInv2zks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtEkqSif5IQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHFA_wEK_00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D25KtIKxcwA

I went with the last one as it starts off graceful but when the low cellos kick in you can sense a small amount of danger.When the rest of the violins start it gave my chills and that's how I knew this was the right piece for my film as it has grace but also an epic middle section that I could link up to the battle scene that I needed to produce when the sketches and the girl meet the shadow selves for the first time. The other pieces of music were too far into the genre of action, where as this film is more adventure and so I wanted a piece that would create that sensation of adventure within the audience to make them feel and believe that they are actually with the characters. 

Editing - Raw Footage, Colour Correction + Chroma Keying

After editing

I used colour correct, saturation and contrast manually to fix the juxtaposition that was created by natural weather. The Shadow Selves are known as the dark villains in this short film and so the saturation needed to be brought down so I didn't have a clash which might confuse audience members. I also added more white to the footage to wash out my characters slightly to make them appear slightly dead. Also, by bringing down the saturation you get less of a bright green and more dark, shallow tones. I also did this towards the beginning of the film  - I took more colour out as colour conveys happiness and feeling, where as the girl has insecurities and so by taking the colour away it represents her mood at the beginning of the film and the transformation towards the end.

The shot below is from the beginning of the short film. As you can see, the footage looks drained and lifeless. I wanted to portray this at the beginning of my short film because the girl is suppose to show a dramatic change after going into the daydream. I also link this later on to the Shadow Selves, where the same grading was used to show the link between the girls depression and the cause of her depression (the Shadow Selves).

When the girl is sitting on the chair I took a lot of saturation out of this. The camera I was using (Sony 5n) picks up a lot of vibrant colours and so this made for more editing later on. By lowering the grey and whiter tones I was able to still keep colour whilst making the room appear less colourful without the use of filters or layers which can make a film appear unprofessional.

Chroma Keying

Way before producing any kind of special effects on Adobe AE I needed to Key out the green screen, add in the background and colour correct so it matched a similar colour to the background. We were able to gain a warmer tone to the actor by using stage light which gave an overall golden glow and gave it the feeling that he was outside. Applying a video as the background was the easy part. You just apply the chroma key layer over the green screened video and it cuts out the colour that you select. You then pop a video underneath and it shows up in place of the green screen. The problem that occurred, however, was that because we used fabric as our green screen and not a painted wall, some areas of film became darkened from the shadows in the fabric. I managed to solve this through trial and error. By expanding the Chroma leeway into more turquoise colours as well, and allowed a higher spill level to fill in the shadows. I needed to do this with every different angle and camera shot to make sure that it was suitable for Adobe AE.

Ancillary Task 2 - Magazine Article

Magazine Article and Audience Feedback

My target audience feedback:

Kayleigh - "It's a little bit crowded on the left hand side, maybe re-size some of the quotations. I do like, however the use of images and they inform the reader what genre of film it is at first glance. Possibly add some reviews on the left had side of the page so people can see what other members of the audience think. I really like the quote up at the top of the right hand page and the change of colour to highlight different parts, and I also feel the images fit well with the style of magazine.

Katherine - "I like the border as it looks professional, the colours and house style are consistent and is laid out well. I think there is a little too much white space around the main bulk of the text which could be changed by the layout of the text"

Does it look professional?
Yes - 9
No - 0
Sort of - 1

Analysing a Film Magazine Article

When analysing film magazines I need to look at not just the layout but also the content. This first magazine I will be looking at the layout and then chose another to study the content to help me create a professional and interesting looking film magazine double spread article. 

Firstly, when studying the layout of images on this page, they vary in size. My eyes are immediately drawn to the top image because it holds the most colour but is also the largest and so when creating my own magazine article I need to think about how the size of my images will effect my audience. I need my audience to be able to flick through a film magazine and stop at this page and be drawn to the images and layout before they even read a title or paragraph. I also need to think about with photos will best represent my short film and which could possibly let the audience know of the genre before they read the synopsis of the film. Some good images I could use would be one of the laser gun to show action, one of the Shadow Selves to show danger, and possibly some of me drawing as they are the main parts to my short film.

The second this I notice when looking at this article is the amount of white space. I want to have a house style to my magazine and I feel this film magazine doesn't have an obvious house style. There is a lack of colour which I also don't like about this article.Although the lack of colour on the pages means that our eyes are drawn more so to the images, I find this article dull to look at and so therefore would not catch my attention when looking through a magazine. When styling my magazine I could possibly create a border of colour or something just to give it a little edge over this article. The white space in between the columns of writing is even and consistent through out the article, I need to take this into account when creating my own magazine article. 

Adobe AfterEffects

The majority of short films don't need to have much added to them in terms of special effects as the plot line doesn't usually become in depth enough in that short amount of time. Even though my short film is just scraping an idea that could go much more into detail if more time was allowed I still wanted to have a go at using Adobe AfterEffects and all the doors it may open for my short film. There was just one scene that I wanted to apply effects to and this was, what I liked to call it, the "Jetpack Shoot 'em Up" scene, where The Spaceman flies into the air with his jetpack, aiming his gun at the on coming Shadow Self and then firing 3-5 shots and therefore killing them and destroying an insecurity. The gun he is using is a spray painted Nerf gun and so no special effects would have to be added with that, and the simple green screen and chroma keying in Finalcut Pro could be done at school... so the only main thing that needed to be added was the lasers coming from the gun (or some form of ammunition). I've never really used Adobe AE before, only to create the 'writing title' at the beginning of my film which took a while. Online tutorials would be my best way to get started with this and so I found the simplest 'Laser effect tutorial' I could find. Although there are effects already in Adobe AE I wanted to create something different. I first went into Adobe Photoshop and constructed my own laser looking beam. This was created in a PNG file so no background would be visible. To make this I took 1 rectangle, filled it in white before giving it a blue haze around the sides. To curve off the ends I then placed one circle on each end to give it the typical laser shape.

I transported this in Adobe AE then and created my first composition with my already edited green screen footage. The gun jolts 4 times and I need to track this motion to allow the beam to follow from these shots. The tracking can be done by adding a layer and applying a 'Track Motion'. Two boxes and an x in the middle of them will appear and you need to rearrange it to be able to fit the entire gun inside the 1st box, the barrel of the gun in the 2nd box and the middle of the barrel must have the x in it. The x in the middle I noticed will jump about places if shape or sudden movements are used and so when pressing play to watch each frame you always need to make sure the x is in the middle of the barrel.

The next part I felt was the most difficult out of the whole thing. I needed to layer the PNG image of my laser and tick the box saying I wanted it to be able to move as a 3D object. I also needed to unclick the padlock by the layer of the laser so I could move it around freely at different angles. Next I went through each frame to establish where the laser starts and disappears, then splitting this first layer into 3 more layers for each gun shot. Now that the laser was matched up to the tracking and split into 4 layers in total (1 for each gun shot) I could now go about moving the laser from one place to another. In simple words there are two dots (one on the barrel and one off the actual footage) and the laser starts from one  and moves to the other by the change in length of the laser. BUT! You have to go through each frame again and adjust where you want it to ago, adjust the XYZ axles to move the laser and change the angles, but then add effects to this like 'feathering' which can change how much the edge of you laser beam fades into the background. Quite a few times I missed out steps and indeed I did get very frustrated with AE but the end result I received was better than I could have hoped for, especially for a beginner.

Bloopers of SKETCH

RAW footage of 'SKETCH'

Equipment Needed

This list will remind me what to bring when filming my short film. I've learnt from past experience that it is crucial to bring all the equipment needed and items that could help in case of an emergency.

Items I need to bring:

• 2 Sony 5n cameras
• 2 tripods
• Smoke emitters
• Matches
• Camera lenses
• Camera lens adapter
• Penny board (for tracking shots)
• Props (2 swords, 1 jetpack, laser gun, bow and arrows, stunt flute, book and pencil)
• Face paint
• Water
• Paint brushes and sponges
• Food
• Backpack
• Reflector (silver disk that reflects light)
• Boom mic and wind breaker
• Storyboard (for shot and story reference)

Ancillary Task 1 - Poster

After having this poster shown to a diverse range of people on a school open evening, I was able to gain immense feedback from these people even though they weren't my target market. The majority stated that it looked professional and could be used for a film due to the billing block and layout of the poster.

Applying Billing Block and Logo to Poster

I wanted my posters to be a little different from the others out there and stand out, catch the attention of my audience. The majority of film posters follow conventional tropes, for instance they always have the main characters on the front, the name of the film, the billing block, logos and a tagline. Although I want my film poster to look as professional as possible I don't want to be lost in the crowd of other typical film posters. I believe that the best way to do that is to know have unfamiliar actors on the front cover but to have the main prop, the prop which creates the whole story and the film couldn't work without. The sketchbook and pencil are what brings the characters to life, what tells the girl how to defeat her inner demons and be free. The white background and the bold black title I feel makes the whole thing more memorable and makes the book and the pencil stand out more due to the fact that they are the only piece of colour on the poster. 

Bellow these posters will be a survey I have taken to investigate which poster my target audience prefers, therefore giving my film the best possible start by giving the correct information to my audience.



Myself - I prefer the last version as I get both logos on the poster, a decent billing block and a tag line. I prefer the tagline being underneath the title as it seems to flow better.

Kayleigh - I prefer the third one because I like the fact you get the tag line before the title.

Katherine - I don't like the second one because the writing doesn't seem to be in the right place and doesn't look correct, I don't like the 3rd because there is too much space between the title and the tag line. I do however like the 1st one because the writing sticks to a constant style and the 4th one because  everything seems to be spaced out correctly and I like the logos.

Simran - I like the 4th design because it's evenly spaced out

Ben - I like the 3rd because the tagline is before the title therefore allowing me to understand the theme of the movie before I see the title and the focal point seems to be the title.

Meghan - I like the 4th design because I prefer the title above everything as it draws your eyes to it first. 

Chloe - I prefer the second as it's simple and to the point.

Overall, after research into the target market and how they view the media of films I have decided that poster 4 is the best way to advertise my short film as it portrays the plot of my short film and gives all the information a short film poster needs to inform my target audience.

Rough Posters

By taking some screen shots from my film I am able to create a rough idea of what I want my posters to look like. Of course the shape of these posters wont be the desired shape due to the quality and the fact I'm using screen shots but it gives me a basic idea on editing and what the poster may look like when real photos are taken. I will still need to add things to these posters such as billing blocks, logo/company name and so on but this will start to give me an idea of what I want my posters will look like and gives me a chance to play around with different colours and layers before settling on a final design with the real images.

My first idea was to take a picture not of the main character but the main prop in the story, the item that causes all of this to happen. The book and pencil is what The Girl uses to create her army to defeat the Shadow Selves and therefor plays the biggest part in the film. I wanted to keep the background simple to leave the audience wondering and imagining what the film could be about and therefore leaving them intrigued. I spent a long time deciding over which font I wanted to use for my title. I needed it to fit with the style and plot of the short film without it becoming too messy. Some fonts where too elaborate and some where too difficult to read, but this one seemed to fit the bill as people can read it clearly and matches the idea of sketching. I also needed to think about a slogan or tagline to make people remember my short film but also to give a little more information on my short film. I had thought about other taglines such as 'Sketch yourself free' or 'Drawing is the salvation', but I felt it needed to be more about The Girl's imagination instead of drawing as that is already given away in the title. I then applied this all to some screen shots to get a rough idea of what it might look like.



Researching Film Posters

To allow me to create a conventional and convincing short film poster I need to research how others have made theirs. This may be difficult due to the various short film posters out there made by students such as myself. To make sure that these film posters are genuine I will search movie titles on IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base). 

I know I want my short film to be in the genre of adventure, showing my creativity through each second. YouTuber is a vast community filled with creative creators, along with some amazing short film creators that don't get the full credit they deserve. I have watched many short films, but when thinking of creativity and adventure short films my mind immediately turns to PJ Liguori YouTube short film director and animator. His films, although random and wild, contain the flare of creativity and adventure that I wish to portray through my film and poster. 

COLOUR BANDITS

PJ Liguori's short film 'Colour Bandits' is based on a creative idea of people called Colour Bandits who suck all colour from their path, craving the next day when they can absorb more colour, until this one bandit bites more than he can chew, too much colour is thrown at this bandit and therefore killing him by the overwhelming amount of colour and dye. The poster for this short film is simple, although I couldn't find this poster that wasn't a gif. I can analyse this poster. This poster is conventional with an unconventional twist. The twist being that it's a moving image, but along with this you also cannot see the main and only characters face. This is unconventional due to the fact the audience wants to be able to connect and recognise this character. This does however leave a little bit of mystery to the poster. The conventional side to this poster is the billing block, title, house style and actors name's. The billing block is the most important part of making a poster look like a real film poster as it tells the audience who made it, who's acting within the play, the editor etc. This allows the audience to see who created the movie and might then be more inclined to watch it. The house style of the font is very simple and bland which is in major contrast to the colour expanding behind the text. This allows all writing to be visible clearly but give a relaxing change to the intensity of colour. The conventional shape of the poster is portrait to fit the main character(s) in full view to the audience. 

Bridge to Terabithia

This feature film is about two children who become friends through their imagination, escaping the real world for the imaginary. I want to analyse this movie's poster as I want to create a short film that's filled with imagination and adventure.
This poster has the conventional billing block along the bottom below the title, the main characters in the image, the poster used portrait and a tag line. Firstly, the title fits the theme of the movie and the house style of the rest of the poster. When creating my poster I need to think about how I can link the theme of the movie to the title, with this poster the theme of the movie is mystical and magical which fits with the golden effect on the title. The colour scheme of the poster uses complementing colours to create a contrasting effect and therefor drawing the eyes of the target market towards the poster. I hope to have this effect with my poster to be able to get as much publicity as possible. CGI (computer generated images) was used for the effects of the fireflies and the moon, also layering different effects and items such as the tree, house, river and car. This image was most probably taken in front of a green screen and then each image layered over the top in an application. I wouldn't be able to do this myself as I don't have the training or the equipment, however I can edit the lighting, layering and colour of my poster to adjust it right and make it look more like a real movie poster.

 The Tea Chronicles

This short film, although not about imagination, uses imagination in the creating process. This idea is extremely original and work brilliantly as an overall concept. This short film is a psychological horror comedy about a new room mate who offers to make his new colleagues some tea but is unable to find any new sugar, but soon stumbles upon some very old granulated sugar. This out of date sugar soon turns Charlie, the main character, into paranoia about cups of tea. This, I believe, is an extremely imaginative way to look at a normal situation, turning a simple cup of tea into a comedic horror. This will help me to expand my thought on possible ideas on a short film and makes me understand that it can be the most simplest of situations, for instance a cup of tea or a daydream, into something completely out of the ordinary.
The conventions used within this poster are the title, house style, tag line and billing block. What isn't conventional from this is that the main characters aren't in this poster, but instead what the entire short film revolves around, the mouldy sugar. The sugar itself can't be classed as a character but can be said that it plays a very important role within this short film and is what makes this situation start in the first place. This would be good to make a poster a little different from the rest, just a little unconventional to make it different from the rest.

what I have learnt from studying all these posters is that they can all vary but the majority follow conventions which in turn make a poster look professional. These conventions include, a billing block, actor/talent names, title, tag line and main image of characters. All of this will be considered when making a poster for my short film to make it appear as professional as possible.

Director and Editor Darren S Cook

Darren S Cook is the founder of Scruffy Bear Pictures and has had vast experience in editing, directing and much more. Originally he worked in graphic design for CD and DVD cases but wished to learn more about what and how film and music was put onto these CDs and DVDs. He worked his way up by becoming a runner on set then slowly working his way up through cinematography, production, and then finally becoming his own director. What I didn't realise is that the director themselves don't do much apart from telling people what they want filmed and how they want it to look. It's the production crew who then have to make this idea a reality but adjusting lighting, camera angles, colour correction for the cameras etc.

 

He then went on to show us some of his own short films and short films he has worked on which included 'Wisdom', 'Three' and 'Little Angles'. He spoke about how not all short films need a budget and that he has worked on many short films that have had no budget at all. The camera I have been currently been using for filming my short film was used for filming 'Wisdom' and proves that you don't need expensive cameras to create a good looking short film. Another thing I learnt was that good sound is crucial. If the footage looks good, that's brilliant! But if the sound is poor or you can't understand what they are saying your mind distorts the image making it appear a poorer quality than it actually is, which could mean the difference between an investment from a company or nothing at all.

My favourite short film of his is 'Wisdom' due to the fact of the unusual story line and use of camera angles and hit of humour. The main woman within this short film owes a debt to the 'tooth fairy' and is reminded that she has nothing in life, everyone and everything running away from her. The spliced humour and horror in this makes it a brilliant short film. The humour was also written well, which will always remind me, that the genre I write about must be written well, and to only have actors speaking if they can act, otherwise it can make my short film look unprofessional.
 

Next he told us about tips and tricks with cameras. He told us that a brilliant short film can even be made with the camera on your iPhone or tablet and that there are many applications that are free that can help with the production of your short film. For example, Darren uses an app on his phone which tells you where the sun will be during the day, this can tell you where the shadows will fall and whether you will need extra lighting for the time of day you want to film. Another is Celtx which helps you create and plot out a storyboard and add images to get a clear idea of what you want for your short film. A trick he told us for smooth panning is instead of using a track, which is what people use on set to move a camera with gliding movements, use a penny board or skate board along with a piece of material or something to keep the ground smooth and flat.

All of this will aid any more filming I will need to do and is invaluable to my work. I will take what he told us and use it throughout my work from editing to camera work.
 

Prop Making

Filming Experience?

I have previously been editing videos for YouTube for quite some time and so I have built up skills in which angles look better than others, natural lighting, rule of thirds etc. All of these skills will help me with my short film and the two videos here are ones I believe have helped me develop skill in slow motion, music, lighting, editing techniques, FinalCut Pro and colour editing. Although these videos have been created originally for other subjects they still apply with what I am trying to achieve, a professional looking short film with a diverse range of transitions and techniques.

Stuart Fischoff - Media Psychology

Previous research shows that what genre of film a person favours is a good indication to what their favourite films will be. There are genres that are considers to be more 'women's films' and there are genres that are to be considered as 'men's films'. Films such as Rom-coms are usually told from the woman's point of view and therefore the target audience can relate to the protagonist more so. 'Men's films' tend to focus more on action and competition and less on romance. These expectation are consistent with Social Identity Theory which identifies people to seek out particular messages which support which support their social identity. So if a member of the target audience has gone through a similar experience or wants a similar experience to happen, they will actively seek out these films or relate to them more easily. 

The Fischoff study indicated that the most popular film genres were Drama, Comedy, Action, Action-Adventure, Romance and the combined category of Science Fiction/Fantasy. This study was taken back in 1994 and during that time Science Fiction and Fantasy films couldn't really compete due to the lack of special effects that could tell the story well. If you look on the list of highest grossing films however, the top 3 contain 2 Fantasy genre films. These two films where made in the last 5 years, and the further you go down the list the more Fantasy, Action and Sci-Fi films you get, all made in recent years. So although this theory by Fischer can still apply to the majority of the population, the most popular genres are starting to change as new technology comes into practice within films.

Fischer's study does still apply a little to age and gender. It is still true that younger men tend to watch films that are in the genres of Action-Adventure, Drama and Horror which is stereotypical for this gender. Women however did mention a number of Action-Adventure, Science Fiction and Drama films in their top list of 25, which may be considered either within the male domain of genre preference or simply as films which star men or art shot from the male point of view. Clearly women are less restrictive in their gender cross-over behaviour than are men whose preferences ten to be male gender exclusive.

Textual Analysis of Students Short Film

This short film made by a student shows a diverse range of camera shots, editing techniques, sound and mise en scene. All of this I should take into account when creating my short film. Small signifiers could be used in mise en scene to represent a theory, or a certain type of shot could be used to portray a character. I need to analyse a students work to see what the minimum expectations are when creating my own short film and to see if I like any effects used and try them for myself.

The first camera shot shown is a long establishing shot of London. This is good to give the audience a sense of where they are and what they should expect from other shots, such as taxis', red letter boxes etc. It then quickly cuts to the two main characters of the story, the man being the main character and the woman who's importance comes later on the short film. These two are first established by a long shot and then we are brought to a close up. This gives the audience a good look at who the characters are of this short film and who they need to follow. In my own short film I need to do this otherwise the audience will not have anyone to focus on during the short film. A racking shot is then used when the main character is notified of 'The Suspect'. This signifies that the main character was unaware of this man until he walks past and then his motive becomes clear as does the focus. The tracking shot used shortly on gives a sudden urgency to the small chase scene that is about to take place. The camera flips from behind 'H's' legs to the front of 'The Suspects' legs to show the different points of views. An over shoulder shot is used also in this short space of time to show both the facial expressions of 'H' and 'The Suspect'. Both remain blank but slightly determined, especially when 'H' tries to stay within close proximity of The Suspect. A lot of hand held camera work is also used once the chase scene speeds up and the two men start running. This brings more urgency as the shots start to become shorter to bring more tension to this scene. Also, a whip pan is used which is traditionally used in films of a Japanese or Chinese style. I'm hoping to have a similar style to these films with the action used and certain camera shots and so I should try and fit this into my short film some how, especially if I am to have a fight scene.

Editing at this point really starts to show as the pace of different clips start to speed up. A vignette has been added on top of all the clips to enhance the shadows in this short film. This short film isn't on the lightest of subjects and so the darkness around the edges gives this short film a look that fits with the genre of this action shot film. Earlier in the film a shot reverse shot was used within the conversation between 'H' and the woman. I could possibly use this myself during a conversation or another point in my short film when action is happening. Later on a fade to black is used when 'H' is hit with the brief case to show him passing out. I could do this when fading in and out of a day dream.

Diegetic sound is used as soon as the establishing shot appears. Car sounds can be heard along with everyday city ambience. When creating my short film I need to think about how I'm going to apply my own sound such as feet walking on leaves or people talking. I could record each sound separately which would give my work the best sound quality or I could record it from the camera whilst filming. If I do that however I would loose some sounds and background noises might be enhanced. Because I'm planning to have a slightly bigger cast that a usual I may pick up sounds from them talking or someone coughing, so my best bet would be to record everything my self separately. A voice over is used at about 00:33 in this short film to deliver vital information to not only the character but to the audience to make them aware that The Suspect is the one to look out for. I could use a voice over in my own work to give the audience information that my character doesn't say herself. Within my short film I'm not planning to use a lot of speech as if the actors aren't very good, the quality of my short film and plummet immediately. Music also kicks in at this point. This music fits the short film well as it contains a little suspense but also seems a little sinister. The music soon picks up in pace as the two characters starting running, and therefore following the pace of the short film.

Narrative Theory

There are many theories behind the making of film and how film should be made, so I have taken this chance to investigate on a few of these theorists to add more character and knowledge behind my short film.

Vladimir Propp

Propp was a Russian critic and literary theorist.  During his time he analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920's and created the theory that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. Some of these characters are: The Hero (Seeks something), The Villain (opposes the hero), The Donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object), The Dispatcher (sends the hero on his way) etc. I can compare my characters to this even though my short film isn't a fairytale. There is indeed a main character who seeks something, and a villain that wises to obstruct this. My main character seeks to destroy her inner demons by creating an army of drawings, and the villains (shadow selves) seek to obstruct this, wanting to haunt this girl for the rest of her life. They confront each others, which is what usually happens within these fairy tales and my story follows the narrative of this theorist.

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov is a Bulgarian theorist who created the theory that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is 'normal'. This state or normality is disrupted by the main danger of the story which must be fought against to regain the original equilibrium. This can easily be applied to a wide range of films and can be used in my short film. My short film does consist of an equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium but will contain a second twist at the end to leave the audience hanging. This leaves my short film with typical conventions but then a non-conventional twist. I hope this will keep my audience interested throughout, even till the end of the credits.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Strauss was a social anthropologist who studied myths of tribal cultures. He examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions. His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts. Binary oppositions are a conflict between two qualities or terms, for example: Male, Female. Hero, Villain, Garden, Wilderness. My short film contains some of these binary oppositions such as hero and villain. This makes my short film come across more professional as it follows theorists work but also gives my short film more meaning and depth as I have put time and thought behind this short film.

Target Audience

Before making a short film I need to think about my target audience as they are who I am making this for, without them there wouldn't be any point in creating this film if it wasn't going to be viewed by the public in some way.
Different short films are made for different people depending on the genre. For example, horror would appeal more to a younger audience of 18 onwards, but teen short films would attract people from the age of 14 onwards.
My idea involves creativity but also death. I wish to use the style of Hitchcock for my deaths so it doesn't get over complicated with blood as it can sometimes look unprofessional but also these deaths are theoretical, the villains of this short film are technically the embodiment of this girls imagination, and so blood wont need to be used as the whole death of each character isn't real. Because of this I should hopefully be able to reach the younger part of my target audience, where as the higher members of my target audience will hopefully have a more deeper understanding on why this girl is doing what she does throughout the film.
I hope to reach a large target audience, but to keep it simple I will start with my target audience to be 14-20 year olds. Although this audience has dramatic changes in age and preferences, I feel my short film will fit nicely in this group due to the fact I'm 17 and when making it I will probably automatically fit into this category.

 

Also, due to the art related side to this short film it should automatically attract artists or people who are creative or do creative things. The genre will also help towards this due to the fact it's a fantasy adventure short film and the fantasy aspect is what should attract a creative audience. The reason why I chose these genres of film in the first place was because I believe there is a gap in the market for something like this and hopefully this too will attract a larger audience. Zombie and horror films, I feel, are over produced and can be difficult to produce something unique in these genres of film, and so this is why I have stuck to this idea and will keep adding to the first original idea to keep it interesting but at the same time easy to follow to keep my target audience interested.

The socio-economic group I hope to aim my short film at are the ABC1 category but also a little towards the C2DE. ABC1 tend to be more knowledgeable, but also have more money to buy films and explore different genres. Knowing this, this socio-economic group should therefore watch more obscure and less known Indie films but also short films. Aiming my short film at this group would boost views and coverage, and therefore spread advertisement of my film through word of mouth and social websites. I also need to take this into account when creating a film poster as this will be the main advertisement to get knowledge of this film out there.

My Philosophy

When creating a film I need to think about other director's philosophies but also my own. Will I follow my own guidelines? What do I like in short films? Am I basing my work on any directors? All of this I need to take into account when editing or filming. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Hitchcock, Brian De Palma and Speilburge all have their own philosophies towards film. Speilburge produces very serious and very dramatic films with little to no CGI, where as on the opposite side of the spectrum we have Brian De Palma using kaleidoscope, and slow motion effects and Lars von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg with their rules referred to as the "Vow of Chastity".

• All filming must be done on location, any props must be found on location and not brought in.
• Sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot)
• The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
• The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera)
• Optical work and filters are forbidden
• The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc.)
• Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (The film must take place in the here and the now)
• Genre movies are not acceptable
• The film format must be Academy 35mm
• The director must not be credited

After looking through these different techniques I feel that this style isn't for me, though I do wish to work in colour as that is the style i'm going for. I hope to follow a more traditional method of filming, one that flows more and uses effects to achieve the best out of the clips of film. Directors like Speilburge and Hitchcock use the methods I hope to use, such as graphic matches and the typical equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium. One technique I am most interested in trying is how Hitchcock  doesn't show any wounds in the movie 'Psycho'. I feel that if not done properly the use of blood or wounds can look amateur, which isn't what I want to achieve with this short film. Instead, If I just imply that the person has been wounded then I could give my film a unique style like 'Psycho'.

Uses and Gratifications

Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what does media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media" - Wikipedia

Films are used by audiences to fulfil certain needs that an audience have. John Fiske once said 'a genre defines a moral and social world', which means that by looking to movies now and the past we can look into the needs of the audience of that time. For instance, in the 1950's 'monster movies' had a similar plot line of something strange and supernatural would be created from a nuclear source. The hegemonic values of that society of that time was the fear of a nuclear war as this was a new thing at the time. What I want to answer is how does my short film use this to represent ideas and social issues within this day of age. My short film's main focus is the problems and insecurities of teenagers and how they can go about not listening to modern day media and fight their inner insecurities. 

Films tend to have physical and emotional effects on the viewer, which leads to people liking certain genres more than others. For example, people when watching Zombie films tend to identify with the hero of the story and want to be them. My short film does this as I am aiming at a teenage/young adult audience and the main protagonist is a 17 year old girl. Within Rom-com's for example gives an emotional effect of escapism. This happens within my short film as the girl is taken from the real world into a daydream, something the members of my audience might do daily or from time to time. Also, Rom-coms have a 'wish-fulfillment' idea to them, that people wish something/someone was like something/someone in the short film. For example in mine they might wish that defeating your inner insecurities was this easy, or that life was more like the daydream with adventure and outrageous costumes and weapons.

The physical side to a movie would be the crying or laughter that comes from a tragedy or comedy. Mine doesn't really use this as mine is neither a comedy or has upsetting moments within it but does build up tension within the film, so could have the physical effect of tension on my audience.

My film falls into many different genres and doesn't fall into a single category. My film falls into the genres of Action, Adventure and Fantasy. Stereotypically my short film should thrill my audience and make them want to become the protagonist of the film.
Applying 'Uses and Gratifications' to the internet will play a large part with my short film and my audience. The internet allows us to identify more products and people, due to search websites like Google or Bing and enables the audience to come closer to their role models. Short films have benefitted from websites like Vimeo and YouTube as there is a global archive of short films at your fingertips with a diverse range of genres. I hope to upload my short film to YouTube to get the best coverage and to remain global for as long as it can be.

Textual Analysis of 'Smokey Saloon'

Smokey Saloon

PJ Ligouri is an award winning short film director and actor who originated from YouTube. His short films are buzzing with creative and original ideas which I hope to show through my own short film. One of his short films 'Smokey Saloon' shows PJ on a miniature adventure through a wardrobe (a little like mine) and having to destroy the mysterious beings inside. My textual analysis of this short film should help me discover angles, shots, special fx and camera tricks that I could use in my short film.

Firstly, the plot. The plot starts as a normal equilibrium, something happens (disequilibrium) and then is left to a new equilibrium, this process of film making was brought along by Todorov. This is the easiest way to create a plot as it hits all the elements of a conventional film. PJ here however finishes this film on a cliff hanger, another disequilibrium. This leaves the audience wanting more and wanting to know what adventure he may go on next. This is how I want to end my short film, people wanting more and wondering whats going to happen next and not just giving them all the information of the story. Although this short film is based on my imagination I want the audience to use their imagination to create an ending.

Secondly, sound. Even from the beginning we have diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Within my short film I need to have something playing in the background, whether it's the sound of birds or woodland sounds or background music that fits the theme and mood of the short film. I need to make a small list of possible sound effects I need to re-record as sound that is filmed on the camera wont be very good. I need to record foley with either a boom mic or possibly my phone. I also need to think about theme music for my short film. I'm personally not the best at creating music but layering maybe two or 3 pieces over one another would be a good way to get some interesting sounds.

Thirdly, lighting. Something I've learnt from Darren S Cook is that you should always use as much light as possible, especially natural light. He told us that it's easier to make the room look darker and still professional than lighter. By pulling up the light in editing you start to get grainy footage and wont have the clear professional look I'm after. Pj also has a great use of shadows in his lighting. By using a large white light for a 'natural light look' he can move this to produce shadows in certain places, the main place the small cupboard. My character does a similar thing of the wardrobe being the main portal into another land, or in my case daydream. I need to somehow make my green sheet that I put in my wardrobe black, which should be able to be done with Chroma keying.

Special effects and costume are what makes this short film special and hopefully mine too. The 'beings' in the bar were created from sheets of black material and LED lights underneath. My costumes will hopefully be made by me as I've looked at tutorials on how to create a jetpack and fake sword. I hope to create a 'stunt flute' from an old piece of piping with drilled holes into it. I also hope to use smoke emitters within my short film for the Shadow Selves. It will just give a bit of movement when they stand there and give the sense, like in this film, that there is a danger lurking there.

Next, camera shots. There is a variation of shots within this short film. Long shots, mid shots, close ups, low angle and high angle shots were all used within this short film and give and interesting variation through out the film, keeping the viewers interested. I need this to keep members of my audience interested but to also add variation. I like the use of the 50mm lens he used to get a shallow focus as I feel it gives a more professional look but also more depth to the footage. I can also add a racking focus to my work if I wanted with the use of a 50mm.

Simple editing was used within this film, but techniques such as eye line matches, shot reverse shot, fade to black and fade to white were also used for the effect of sudden darkness and sudden light. I can use these fades when the girl walks to the wardrobe suggesting the flow between real life and the day dream.

Mise en Scene was used creatively through this short film. The house they used was an everyday home, suggesting that this doesn't happen on a regular basis and is a new adventure for this character. The clothing also suggests this and the prop of PJ eating the crisps also suggests that this was an unexpected turn of events.