The Love Line

Project Summary 
For our third and final project we had to create a 3-5 minute short film.  For this project we were again able to create any type of short we wanted, which we were pleased about.  With the two previous shorts we strayed towards a comedy and action genre so with our third piece we wanted to produce a romance.  With this idea in mind we threw together ideas, we thought we would stick with the classic 'boy meets girl' situation but we didn't want it to be a common occurrence e.g. Coffee shop.  After discussing we thought of idea of a often seeing of each other on the train.  We needed the short to have an interesting twist we thought it could be something to do with one of couples perhaps a condition, we thought we idea of her being deaf would be perfect because it isn't an extreme.  We knew we would need professional actors to achieve a short of this quality.  Therefore we put an advertisement out on The British Film Youth Academy website  and within days we heard back from three actors (two girls one boy), The production manger interviewed video interviewed with these people on Skype and we had are actors.

Narrative
The short starts with the male on the train reading his book when a girl who walks past him catches his eye.  On the train platform he then questions himself on how to introduce himself to her when she again appears running to make the train and she drops her book and doesn't notice, he runs to pick up the book to give it to her, shouts to her but she gets on the train.  He then notices her again in the market but the same things happens.  Finally when he waiting for the train, she appears standing next to him and he gives her the book and he sits down.  She walks over to him a thanks him but uses sign language and stuttering speech, it is at this moment he realises she is deaf that's why she couldn't hear him before.  The short ends with them walking away together.

Genre
The only genre in this short is romance as is shown by the story.

Inspiration
We all knew common themes on romance films but had never put them into practise.  We found a short foreign film which was similar to our idea, the short is called 'Cupidity Love Stories- Travellers'.  It like our starts off on a train but the male is narrating his thoughts and he speaks to girl.  Unlike ours the couple spend the short together.  We wanted the stray from this as we knew what ending we wanted.  What we did take from this short was the camera shots used to show the couple and how to approach the male role in his type of romance.

Mise-en-scene 
Setting and props- We filmed in various locations to suit the scene and these locations were public. The main prop in use was the book, the book was vital to the story as it brings the couple together.

Costume, hair, make up etc- We wanted to keep a natural look to the couple so we told them to dress and look natural.  We asked that they would bring a change of clothes as the short goes over the period of a few days.

Facial expression and body language- Because we got the actors from a professional company they knew have to portray a love couple which we were pleased with.

Lighting and colour- Because we were filming in public outdoor locations we used natural lighting but we did use the reflector to dull the light when the camera was filming.

Positioning- We positioned the characters always in centre of the camera as to keep the attention of the story.

Shot Types/ Camera Usage. 
Mainly mid shots where used when filming as we wanted to keep attention towards the couple.  We did use close ups to show specific elements in the short e.g. the book.

Sign, Code and Conventions
When filming we stuck to typical romance drama conventions such as one notices the others first and attempts to meet them and they got there separate ways but find each other again.  And the concept of 'Boy meets Girl' is the one of the most common conventions.

Theory
Again we wanted to stick with the three act structure.  The set up is when we see the male is attracted to the girl, the conflict is when he tries to give the book back to her and the resolution is when he gives the book to her and they walk off together.

Todorov's equilibrium theory could also be applied here.  The state of equilibrium is when he sees her on the train, the disturbance is when she drops the book, the recognition is when he thinks she is ignoring him, the repair is when he gives the book and the new equilibrium is when they walk off together.  

My Role
My role in the creation of this short was the assistant director/production assistant.  Within this role I was viewing the footage filmed with the main director and she would ask for my input.  I felt that I performed my role well as I did suggest some other shots that improved the short as a whole.  



  

Photo Montage- Game Over

Project Summary 
For our second project we had to create a three to four minute photo montage.  For this project we could create anything we wanted letting us be more creative with our work.  We were recommended to tell a personal story as is a common theme with other photo montages we watched in lectures.  In the same group we collaborated and decided we wanted to create a intense story with action to make an entertaining photo montage.  We came up with the idea of a zombie apocalyptic world, as this story is entertaining to the viewers, we knew it would also be entertaining for us to film.  We also wanted to embed a sub story into the main story of survival, so we also planned to include a love story within it.  We also needed to to create our own sound track to play over the pictures, we knew because this is a story we would use a voice to speak over the pictures.  We also knew we would have to create our in sound effects.

Narrative
The Story starts with the main character 'Guy' sitting in a shed pointing a gun at his own head.  He goes on to tell the story of the zombie apocalypse, within his story it tells the us of his journey including how it started and how he survived.  A major point in his story is how he fell in love but how she was taken away from him and how he had to kill his friend.  The story ends with him giving up and wanting to 'end it all', but he chose's to fight he way out and the story ends a mystery.


Genre
The main genre of his story is an Action/Drama as shown by the intense scenes, but there is a sub genre of romance as is told by Guy in the story.

Inspiration
We had all seen zombie dramas before but not in a short, we needed some guidance to do this.  When looking on short of the week we came across '5 minutes', a interactive short film.  When playing it we took from it the narration of his journey and the element of his being trapped in a shed.  We thought these features would be perfect because we could compress a story into it.  

Mise-en-scene
Setting/props- The film was set in various locations but a common setting was outdoors, we thought this would suit perfectly with the survivalist storyline.  Other settings such as sheds, abandoned houses etc were also well suited to the survivalist theme but were not as often as outdoors.  For props we chose items that were commonly used in zombie drama's, these included Guns. sharp and blunt weapons.

Costume, hair, make up etc- Again we wanted to link in with the survivalist theme so we looked at other zombie drama's and noticed that thin jackets with hoods were a popular choice so we chose them.

Facial expression/body language-  These would change throughout the scenes due to the actions taking place.  These mainly included scenes of sorrow.

Lighting and colour- Because we filmed mainly outdoors natural lighting was used when filming. We did often use a reflector to make the scenes darker to suit the genre of the short.

Positioning- We tried so focus most of the attention on Guy as it is his story, but, again, because we were outdoors there wasn't much to position as it was naturally done.

Shot types/Camera Usage
We used a variety of shots when shooting.  We would use close ups to show specific objects or facial expressions, mid shots to show the surroundings and long shots to show the characters from a distance.

Signs, Codes and Conventions
Before and during filming we knew we had to stick to typical zombie drama codes and conventions. These included short intense stories which keep the viewers invested, the intense decision when one is bitten and the horde of zombies eventually winning.  Also we stuck to survivalist conventions by keeping the film mainly outdoors and the clothing which the characters wore.

Theory
We wanted to keep to the three act structure again.  The set up is Guy sitting in the shed about to tell his story, the conflict is when the bandits take away his friend and the resolution is when attempts to fit his way out.

Props Narration theory could also be applied here:

Hero- Guy
Villain- Bandits/zombies
Heroine- Evvie
Helper- Alex
Doner- Media Coverage

My Role
My Role in this short was the production manager.  As part of this role I had make sure all the paperwork relating to the short e.g. health and safety reports forms, were corrected and in on time with our tutor.  I felt I performed this role well as the paperwork was correct.





 

48 Hour Film- Slice

Project Summary
As I have previously posted our first project was to create a 1 minute short film within 48 hours. After we got given the brief on the Friday we met to discuss what possible stories we could create which included both a cake and the sentence "Look what you have gone and done now", we knew the sentence would commonly be spoken as if someone had made a mistake, so we thought we would use this as its use.  For the cake we had many ideas thrown around before we came to conclusion of using it to be the mistake which the sentence refers to.  So after the story was created we filmed on the Saturday and edited the film on Sunday before presenting it on the Monday.

Narrative
Are short starts with a mysterious male grasping a knife with a sinister look in his eye.  He takes the knife kneels down and plunges it down with his face covered in a liquid (supposedly blood), he utters the sentence "Look what you have gone and done now" in an angry tone, but when the camera zooms out the audience see's he is cutting a cake and the liquid is the sauce of the cake.  The short ends with him eating the slice of the cake.

Genre
The genre of this plays with the audiences minds, as it starts with the male grasping a knife with an evil look it is presumed to be a horror but however as it progressives the true genre is reviled as comedy.  We thought this twist of genre would entertain the audience as it is unexpected.

Inspiration
Before we started to play how we would set up the story we research other shorts that uses the same codes and conventions as we had planned to use.  When looking we discovered 'He dies at the end' we thought the use of black and white to start the short was cleverly done because it creates the illusion of horror.

Mise-en-scene
Setting/props- We chose a kitchen to be our setting because with the story and props it was the most logical to use.  For props we were set the cake are a 'must use prop' as part of the brief, then because of the story a knife was the most obvious item to cut a cake with.

Costume, hair, make up etc- As this was a simple film we thought a natural look would be best as there was no use for any extreme make up etc with the story shown.

Facial expression/body language- To suit the horror genre at the beginning the actor had to portray a psychotic role to fool the audience, this required twitching eyes, evil stares and sinister stance.

Lighting and colour- As previously stated the took the black and white at the beginning of the film from 'He dies at the end'.  But because there was a comedy twist we added bright colours (Red Cake).
Positioning- We made sure the male was the centre of all attention, as he is the only character.  All other props were positioned to keep a sense of normality.

Shot Types/Camera Usage 
We mainly used close ups to show specific features e.g. twitching eyes.  By using these close ups we were able to manipulate the viewers into thinking it was a horror.  We also use a zoom out camera motion to show the male from a different angle.

Signs, codes and conventions
The main convention which we followed was the twist in a short film.  By adding a twist it makes the short more entertaining, from our twist in genre from horror to comedy shows this as the viewers expect the male to be stabbing a living being but he is really cutting a cake.  Another code and convention we followed was how to portray a horror genre, we used the black and white colour scheme with slow and frightening music to create a mysterious atmosphere.  

Theory
Before filming we wanted to keep to the Aquinas's three act structure.  In this film we did stick to it as the set up we see the mysterious male getting the knife, the conflict is when we audience assume he is stabbing someone and the resolution is when the audience release he is cutting a cake.  

Another theory which could be applied to this this short is Todovo's Equilibrium theory.  The state of equilibrium is when we see the male getting the knife, the disturbance is when he says "Look what you have gone and done now", a recognition is when he stabs the knife, the repair is when cuts his slice of the cake and the state of new equilibrium is when he has his cake.    

My Role
My Role in this short was the production manager and sound engineer.  As part of the production manger role I had make sure all the paperwork relating to the short e.g. health and safety reports forms, were corrected and in on time with our tutor.  I felt I performed this role well as the paperwork was correct.  With the sound engineer role I had to make sure the Fostex Box was working when filming syncing it with the film in post production.   



  

  
 

Introduction To Blog

The purpose of this Blog is to reflect upon the projects produced in the module Digital Shorts.  I will identify the roles I personally played when creating our short films, how I felt I performed these roles and what I would I do better next time if I where to repeat the roles.

Each project was different, for each one we were given a brief which we had to follow.

Our first project was a 48 hour film competition.  On a Friday we were given a brief of which we had to a object and a sentence.  Out of the list we had chosen a 'Cake' to be are object and the sentence "Look what you have gone and done now", from the start we knew could comedy short combining the two.

Our second project was a photo-montage, for which we had to combine dozens of photo's with a personalised sound track.  We were free to use whatever genre we wanted with whatever storyline.

For our third and final project we were had to create a 3-5 minute short story.  Again we were free to select and genre type we wanted with whatever storyline.      

Here are the projects we created as a group:

Slice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WGNDY_Hf0E 

Game Over- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpA3vsIg3uU

Love Line- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbHuCazjwI0