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.