Evaluation (Will Price)

1) In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

Short Film:

It was always clear from the research earlier on in the course that an incredibly large and complex story with many twists and turns simply wasn't going to be possible as all the example i looked at all had incredibly basic story with a straight forward narrative and not much fussing about with setting of scenes, allowing the mise en scene to explain such factors instead of dedicating valuable time on things such as establishing shots as it simply wasn't necessary or needed. However i did manage to break away from some of the usual conventions of short films that i found whilst still taking snippets of inspiration from others.

• They were always centered around one event and not much else, in order to really explore that event in the few minutes given. However i have played around with this convention somewhat as despite there only being one drive in the story like most short films, in this case the fact that the main character is hungover and trying to recall the events of the previous night, there are still many other events that are revealed within that scenario, this serves to branch the film out a bit and make it more than just one event, as is so exhibited in the award winning short film 'The Hole' which despite containing several events as such, it has little build which i believed made it slightly more predictable than it perhaps could have been.
  
  



• Something that films like 'The Hole' and the simply remarkable 'Sign Language' made me realise to great effect however, is how the film doesn't have to be on such a large scale like a full length feature, it is a short film and thus large area's in which to film and different locations make things slightly tricky to fit in and in fact is quite needless given the situation. For example The Hole doesn't move from within the office where it is set, a nice and straightforward setting for the audience to comprehend quickly and shift their attention to the actual events themselves something equally exhibited in 'Sign Language' in which the setting doesnt at all shift from a street in London, as opposed to having several locations which have to be comprehended first before the events truly mean anything to the audience, overall making the delivery of each event snappier and more crisp.

Characterisation:

The main factor that i have taken to heart when it comes to characterisation is how the characters are established; it seemed to all be based around mise en scene, allowing the judgement from the audience on their personality be draw from their surroundings, clothing, facial expressions and body language. Such as in ‘The Hole’ where the grumpy, bored office worker has his personality moulded by his clothing (the top button of his shirt undone and his tie loose) as well his slumped posture and vacant expression, giving off the impression of tediousness and dumbing down to the point of brain washing.

I have exhibited this use when constructing the main character in that his facial expressions right off the bat is dazed and confused while his body language in the way he walks is unsteady and laboured as though his limbs are heavier than they should be, this coupled with him just being in his underwear and a baggy T-shirt makes for a good ploy as a hung-over youth, playing on the stereotype of an unkempt appearance and an untidy house courtesy of numerous amounts of mess lying around from the previous night. On top of this, the use of close up shots on the main characters face to emphasise the emotion and mid shots when appropriate to show the full range of body language used so as to convey the full scale of emotions displayed, although admittedly these full body language displays are only ever used to convey anger.



Genre:

As my film is a hybrid it is clear that it must cross over two conventions, those of comedy and those of thriller. On the thriller side of things it keeps to the classic convention of a ‘who dunnit’ murder mystery only i have slightly tweaked this so that it is only revealed to be a murder mystery near the end of the film. On the comedy side of things however, I’m afraid that the conventions are fairly basically followed. Basic use of taboo such as swearing and advanced taboo such as a swastika on the lawn in the garden are themes used by many sitcoms although i must confess that this film follows a comedy style fairly similar to The Inbetweeners, in that complex writing takes a back foot to general abuse and taboo.

Post Production:

The use of non-diegetic sound in short films is something that has always interested me as it is a good way to build suspense be it music or SFX. The SFX that truly amazed me was in The Hole, where the hole itself was accompanied by some sort of low humming drone, this not only built suspense but also served to give the hole an identity of its own. I have used such hard to identify SFX to build suspense near the end of the film at which point there emerges a gigh pitched wine backed by a low throbbing pulse, this is to give the final array of flashbacks some gravitas and suspense as they reveal what really happened during the final gruesome events of the previous night, this accompanied by some quick cutting between the flashbacks and a close mid shot of the characters face serve to build the events before revealing exactly where the main characters girlfriend is.

Another thing ive done in post production is editing the footage itself for the flashbacks, such as lowering the saturation and adjusting the focus slightly whilst playing with the light to make it slightly softer so that it looked slightly odd to the human eye, making sure that there was absolutely no question that it really was a flashback.




2) How Effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillery tasks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfSvH_n57wk

3) What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?
Below is a table highlighting a survey i conducted by hand after showing the film to 30 people representing 3 demographics chosen at random. The blue bar is the demographic i catered to (youth of 14-25) the red and green as you can see are 2 other demographics wistfully ignored to compare against.

As you can see, the majority of my demographic described the film as ‘good’ and all of the reviews were in the positive section of the chart, meaning that i was right in catering the film to this age group and that taboo and sex jokes seem to hit the spot with the youth vote but doesn’t really do much on the part of the older generation. A quote that often joined the rating with the youth part of the survey when they were further questioned was that they ‘liked how the events are totally unconnected so you really don’t expect the girlfriend to be dead’ and that ‘the events during the film caused them to forget about the calendar saying that it was their anniversary at the start of the film’ this told me that the plot doesn’t exactly need to be coherent as such and that all the events in between the beginning and end don’t necessarily have to be relevant to the overall idea of the film and can simply be thrown in just to manoeuvre the characters to where you want them to be for the final moments of the film.

However there was one criticism of the film the was mirrored in most reviws across the board, and that was that the films ending was rather flat, yes the discovery was good, but the rather sudden ending and cut to the credits simply wasn’t particularly impactful and thus failed to really leave any sort of impression on them once the film had ended. The problem i have with this statement is that i am simply not entirely sure as to how i would have addressed it. I dislike the idea of trying to change the ending concept of him finding what happens to his girlfriend however i think its the final line o the film that causes it to fall flat, the simple ‘Lisa?’ Leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to genuine impact.

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?https://prezi.com/secure/d51853fa6dc4e0accef91dfd451768558cc93a30/

Final Work (Will Price)

Poster

The Film

The Review

Progress (Jamie)

The actual making the film part of our project is now completed as we have successfully edited our product into what i believe to be a good quality film. Having gained much experience in the editing suite on last years project, we were able to jump straight in and get straight down to turning our raw footage into some structure. The fact that we had a lot more footage than we needed to fill the 5 minutes was of massive help to us as we were able to whittle it all down and structure it with a great amount of choice. The work we did on Garageband was both a lot of fun and very productive as sound was a quietly important part of our film.

• Poster ideas (I have done a couple of draft ideas that i need to get uploaded)

• Review: I have decided to take responsability for the review part of our ancillary task as it is something I am quite interested in doing. I have researched into the magazine Little White Lies, looking at the style in which films are reviewed on it. A couple of things I have noticed

Update (Will Price)

I realise the lack of time that either of us have been spending on this blog or the lack of time that has gone towards thinking about it and i for one apologise, however contrary to popular beleif we have more than one subject in the works at the moment and i have been bogged down by Communication and Culture whilst doing this, so i beg for your forgiveness. The following is an update on what we have accomplished so far since the last post.

Filming
We have finished the filming and we managed to get it done about a day before the rushes were supposed to be in, it would have been finished earlier however we had a few complications that slowed us down slightly. One of which was corpsing, as the main character in this film I as you well know have to walk down to the kitchen to find one of my fellow partiers draped over a table fast asleep with their arse hanging out, in this instance we cast a friend of mine named Verity Bridger to play 'The Arse' someone who i know rather well, so it was ever so slightly difficult to actually keep a straight face, it is of course one of the longest shots that doesn't have any cuts in it within the entire film, so not laughing at the fact that a very awake Verity had her arse hanging out ready for me to draw on will go down as an interesting moment in my life.

A second thing that slowed us down would be the weather, the heavens decided to open up onto the house we were using and even drawing the curtain failed to block out the noise of the rain hammering against the windows and down on the roof, thus as it would no doubt be a bit strange for it to suddenly piss it down in between the main character going in and out of the bathroom we decided to take a break and get all the other scenes ready whilst having a beer.

The third and final point however was rather uniquely, animals, as my sister has 2 cats, neither of which had seemed to grasp the fact that walking through shot meowing for food would be ever so slightly hinder-some in the grand scheme of things, we gave them both food but they decided to wander round the locations of the house we were currently shooting in instead, so we ended up locking them in a room upstairs, where they made so much noise that the camera picked it up, so we gave them even more food and catnip and finally they shut up. Thats right. We drugged cats. What of it?

Editing

Has also been accomplished and went off with only one single hitch when the fiootage needed to be converted twice for Garageband as it hadnt done it properly the first time which left me staring at a prgress bar on a Mac for most of it which forces you to try and put your life into perspective while you wait simply because you have nothing else to do. My brain was exploding by the end of it but it was finished about one day before the deadline which i think is perfect timing considering the amount of fiddling with focus and saturation i had to do to get an adequate flashback effect that i actually liked and didnt just look like looking through the eyes of someone who had misplaced their glasses but still had to watch the end of Cessamy Street with his son.

Poster

I have taken on the task of doing the poster and Jamie has taken the duty of doing the review, i'm currently photoshopping like mad and trying

My Chip In For Poster Pitches (Will Price)

Well, i confess to not paying much attention to the blog as of late but this would probably be because, as hard as it may be to believe, i have other subjects as well which currently are insisting on being rather time consuming. Never the less, i have but 2 idea's for possible posters for our little short film.

As you can plainly see from my in-depth labelling, the imagery is centred around the glass of beer which with some photoshopping has the faded face of the main character in the glass. This would be fairly suitable and symbolic as the film is after all based on a drunken teenage party, coupled with the idea of the films name 'Early Mourning' carrying very heavy overtones of death, which in the poster could quite easily fit in with the idea of 'drowning your sorrows'.

The second of my ideas may not look like much, but my idea is rather hard to draw, i am to make the main character himself blurred whilst keeping the rest of the room completely unaltered. This is aimed to recreate the idea of the drunk person being all fuzzy and incoherant but the rest of the world resolutely stays the same.

Film Name and title ideas

We have made a joint decision to name the film 'Mourning'. We wanted the name of the film to be relevant to the theme of death that arises at the end of the film. Also the fact that the film is set in the morning allows for a double play on words with our title. We are now looking at ways in which we can design the film title.

One website we have found which is great for design of a film title is http://www.dafont.com/. It features a wide variety of different styles that could be used as our title. We want our title to have a sort of grainy, distorted effect that ties in with the tone of our film.

Here are a couple of examples that caught our eye...

Film Name Idea's

Well, the filming is complete, all we need now is a name for this masterpiece of visual artistry.

Possible Idea's

Amnesia
Nectar
Eh?
Beer
Is It Morning?
Polishing Minnasota
Legless
Fog
Early Mourning

Short Film Promotion (Jamie Simmons)

The process of how a short film is promoted and distributed is very different to that of a feature length film. Short films do not experience the publicity features do as they often do not feature well known actors and directors so therefore other means of promoting their films have to be considered.

• The majority of the short films I have watched during the research process of this task have been on http://www.youtube.com/. YouTube offers short film makers a way of getting their films into the mainstream without having to pay money. Also the fact that YouTube is viewed by millions of people everyday means that short films have a good chance of being viewed by a lot of people and reaching a wide variety of demographics.
• The other website I used to find short films to research was BBC Film Network which aims to offer new film-makers an opportunity to showcase their films to audiences they may not have been able to reach previously. I found it very relative to what we are doing in our current task in terms of promotion as the website is for new film makers which is what we are.

(unfinished)

Representation Etc (Will Price)

Genre

• Elements of thriller, murder mystery and inevitably comedy, its rather hard to properly place it in one particular genre, it may be considered social realism in the sense that its adequately shocking (which is the translation of 'social realism' into English) and it is based on something that could potentially happen, with situations arising which could be considered real.
• It could also be placed under comedy as most of it is written to be funny and its only at the very end when things seem to get really serious and shocking.
• However it also seems to have elements of drama within it as the concept of the seriousness within the film comes from incredibly dramatic events.
• There is also elements of thriller within it as the underlying idea of a hungover man trying to recall the events of the previous night, is that someone has been murdered and he is slowly discovering who did it and how without even realizing it. The gradual build up of suspense through the narrative of neither audience nor character knowing what's going to be uncovered next, coupled with the easily identifiable factor of being hungover to the stage of memory loss allows to the audience to connect with the main character almost to the point of believing that they are relating to something that has previously happened to them.
  

Representation

• The representation of age is clear within our film. We have taken full advantage of the stereotyping of young people under and around the age of 20 being hooligan ASBO's who spend every waking moment being raucous, rowdy and drunk to actually create the entire premise of the story, we have done this simply because it is far easier to understand and deciding to rebel against the stereotype for this type of story would make very little sense, there is also the factor that the film could speak to some of the people included in the stereotypes about how there will always be consequences for their actions. This is linked to something of an overlaying message to a key issue in the world, namely, hooligan drunken youths and how their actions no matter how they try to escape it (drinking the problems away) will have consequences, if this film was shown to them then it may speak to some of their senses and hit home the idea that there lifestyle may even one day catch up with them. But it isn't just to show this group in a bad light, i hope that the sadness and shock at the end of the film drives home a sense of pity to those this film doesn't represent and maybe even allow them to inject a smidgen of understanding.
  
• The representation of gender may be a tad harsh for the women if you are keen enough to read into the events of the film beyond possibility as the 2 female characters in the film are both possessive and one of them is deceiving and a mistress. However men don't come off particularly well either, as the main character is also deceiving and comes across as something of a fool throughout the film. Overall therefore, masculinity and femininity matches out and the dominant patriarchal ideology doesn't particularly figure in the equation as despite the main character being male he definitely isn't the dominant figure or the one in control. The only bit of dominant ideology that figures in our film is the fact that he is the one who takes control when his girlfriend is murdered despite the fact that he is blatantly over emotional.

Audience
The demographic for our film seems to mainly be made up of youth (15-30) mainly as the humor within it would probably be considered a bit too dark by some older people and as already established programs like The Inbetweeners have proved, relying solely on the younger audience member isn't in any way a risky thing to do. The normal audience member would be a working class male with a fairly immature sense of humor (think a reader of The Sun or Loaded), ABC wage section

The Script....not the band (Will Price)

Fade in ECU of a man’s face when he is asleep in bed, he snorts and the camera cuts away (4.5-5 seconds)

Quick and evenly paced cuts through a calender with a date circled on it, a used condom lying on the floor, an open jar of vaseline and the alarm clock which tells us its 9:59 (21 seconds ((5 each item except the alarm clock which gets 6 at which point the alarm clock hits 10:00 and goes off with that really annoying beeping noise)))

Cut to a long establishing shot of the entire room with the bed in the middle. The main character growls and lunges for it, turning it off but falls out of bed in the process, ends up lying motionless on the floor (7.5-8 seconds)

Cut to a MCU from the other side of the bed across the sheets. Main character drags his head into shot to the left side of the screen, the film title comes up in the right side as he drags himself to his feet and out of shot, linger with the title for a bit (7 seconds)

Cut to a long shot from the bottom of the stairs of the top of the stairs. Main character practically collapses into view and the place looks like its been bombed during a shit storm. (10 seconds)

Cut to a close up of a mans face, he is asleep at the bottom of the stairs and clearly has some relation to the main character as he simply steps over the prone form. Linger on his face once the background of the main character stepping over him has gone. (5 seconds)

Cut to a mid shot of the door to a bathroom, which is opened by the main character and we see him vomit into the toilet. (5 seconds)

Cut to a POV shot from the mirror's perspective above the sink which see's his face raise blearily into view and look into the camera with a puzzled expression (very deadpan) ((5 seconds))

Cut to an OTS shot of the mirror over the main characters shoulder, revealing that the mirror has had the word 'DICK' drawn onto it in lipstick. (4 seconds)

Cut back to the POV of the main characters face, a confused expression creeping over his face as he walks to the right out of shot. (3 seconds)

Cut to a mid shot of the main character leaving the bathroom, one hand slowly running through his hair as he tries to remember exactly why there is the word 'DICK'; on his mirror until he spots his friend on the floor properly for the first time, his hand falling exasperatedly back down to his side. He speaks his friends name to no response and so grabs a bottle from a near by table and throws it at him clumsily, saying his name again. cutting away before the bottle hits. (14 seconds)

Cut to a close up high angle shot of his friend being hit by the bottle and sort of shifting a little only to snore some more. (4 seconds)

Cut back to the mid shot of the main character who blinks a few times and continues, asking him what happened last night and why the place is a wreck (possibly use an Irish accent for the main character ((i see him as quite a bit like Dylan Moran))) before he stops, looking at something on the floor near his friend that the camera cant see. (8-9 seconds)

Flashback to a fleeting trippy flash of the used condom on the floor of the bedroom, followed by the CSIesque grainy vague flashback of the two friends talking in a corridor obviously drunk as one comes onto the other. (recommend trying to slow down the frame pace during editing for all flashbacks) ((8 seconds))

Flashback ends rather suddenly in the form of a very quick cut to a close up of an open jar of vaseline on the floor (3 seconds)

Cut to a close up of main characters face which holds an aghast and disgusted expression. (3 seconds)

Cut back to the same mid shot of the main character diving back into the bathroom and starting to wash his face in the sink. (5 seconds)

Cut back to a close up on the main characters face over the side of the sink as he washes until he stops and breathes heavily over the sink, wipes his face for a moment and shudders a bit and gets back up from over the sink. (5 seconds)

Cut back to the mid shot of the main character coming through the bathroom door, he see's his friend in the same place and gives a disgusted shudder and seems to make to punch him but lowers his fist with the same disgusted expression only slightly despairing as well, he walks out of shot past the camera which lingers for an extra second to catch him yelling something like 'GOD!' or just a general moan of horror. (8 seconds)

Cut to a long shot from within the kitchen, through the door to see the main character emerging from down the stairs and slowly drag himself through the door, a hand going back to his hair, as he reaches the doorway his hand slowly returns to his side as he walks into the room, an expression of blank incredulity on his face as he walks past the camera which pans with him and on a bit so that we are now presented with an OTS shot of a man draped over the kitchen table asleep, severely lacking in clothes, his arse bear to the camera. The main character pauses, taking in the scene before staggering slowly forwards. (20 seconds)

Cut to a slightly low angle mid shot with the arse on the left of the screen and the main character looking at it in the same blank slightly befuddled expression. (4 seconds)

Flashback mark 2, same slowed down framed grainy effect with very quick cuts within it to actually make it flashy, fleeting glimpses of a group of people playing cards with bottles all over the table, people gradually taking their clothes off with laughing faces, it is evident that they are playing strip poker, the flashback ends on the man who owns the offending arse starting to take his trousers off before snapping back to reality. (11 seconds)

The snap back to real time is in the form to the rather sudden image of the arse again. (2 seconds)

Cut to a POV shot of the main character from the arses point of view, looking blankly at it. He glances to the side of him and picks up a marker pen, bending down slightly towards the camera and reaching out with the pen. (5 seconds)

The camera cuts back round to a mid close up of the main character drawing a face on previously mentioned arse, he pulls back to admire his handywork and chucks the pen over his shoulder. (5 seconds)

The camera to a side on close up of the main characters slightly smirking face, but as he looks off into the distance his expression turns from curiousity to shock and finally horror as he looks off into the distance, he says something like 'no' and turns away from the camera, running. (6 seconds)

Cut to outside, long shot of the main character coming outside and slamming the door behind him, running up towards the camera, slowly coming to a halt with his hands on his head exclaiming something softly like 'oh christ'. (6 seconds)

The camera cuts to above the main character focusing on the garden floor which has a swasticka emblazoned upon it in toilet paper. Character's voice can be heard in the background saying something like 'why?' (5 seconds)

Cut to a close up on the main characters face which is aghast with horror as he yells several things such as 'why the fuck etc'. (6 seconds)

Cut to next to the back door looking across the wall at him storming back down the garden and opening the door. (5 seconds)

Cut back to inside the kitchen as he comes back through the door, slamming it as he goes. He goes to storm back down the kitchen. (3 seconds)

Cut to an ECU of the marker pen he had thrown over his shoulder earlier, as he slips on it. (2 seconds)

Quick cut to a mid-close up of his head and shoulders as he slips and falls, lingering for a second on the now blank bit of wall that was behind him. (3 seconds)

Cut to a mid close up high angle of him splayed on the floor in pain. (3 seconds)

Cut to a close up through the table legs of the arse man of his head and most of his upper body, as he starts to painfully roll over and his eyes train on something the camera cant see, he looks puzzled before reaching towards the camera. (8 seconds)

Cut to a close up of a smashed picture of him and his girlfriend being picked up by the main character. (5 seconds)

Cut back to the shot through the table legs as he gives a puzzled thoughtful expression before the last flashback commences. (4 seconds)

Flashback of him and a girl in bed. Door opens to reveal his girlfriend. A fight ensues between the two girls, culminating in his girlfriend falling out of sight. Shot from the top of the stairs of the girlfriends corpse at the bottom of the stairs. Shot of the other girl running down the stairs and over the body, we hear a door slam. OTS shot of girlfriends face as he carries her down the stairs and into the kitchen, sobbing as he goes. (20 seconds)

Cut back to the same shot through the table legs of the main characters shocked face, he drops the picture and jumps up as though electrocuted. (8 seconds)

Cut to a side on close up of the main characters panting face as he backs against the kitchen counter, the door to the basement out of focus behind him. He slowly looks at it and it is put into sharper focus. (9 seconds)

The screen appears to have turned to black, but a door opens and light streams in around the silhouette of the main character, revealing that it is actually a low angle mid shot from the basement of the door to it. Main character says something along the lines of 'Lisa?' or 'hello?' or something like that. Screen cuts to black. (10 seconds)

General outline for our plot and thoughts regarding the film (Jamie Simmons)

We have discussed what the plot for our film is going to be and have come to the conclusion that we will go with a story following a man who awakes in the morning with an almighty hangover and over the course of the film attempts to piece together the events of his previous night. This concept will allow us to use a wide variety of techniques that will both tick all the boxes for the marking system and help us produce a good quality film.

One particularly difficult aspect of editing we are going to include in our film is the use of flashbacks. We attempted to use flashbacks last year and if the truth be told it could have worked better. This was mainly because we didn't put enough research into how we were going to do them and therefore we struggled to find a way to use the editing equipment to pull it off convincingly and the final product looked quite amateur. This time around, we will research into the best way in which to make the transitions between the present and what happened the night before as convincing as possible.

I've looked around for good examples of effective flashback sequences and I thought Lost is a very good example of how it should be done. Although it isn't a film as such I still think the way in which they execute their flashbacks could easily be transferred into a film. I will continue research into techniques.

I also think it is going to be particularly important to keep the tone of the film as serious as possible as it could be percieved as slightly ludicrous if we are not careful. I think that with the film we are making we should be aiming to target a younger audience. Perhaps 16-24 year olds as this demographic could relate to the character waking up and not remembering what happened the night before.

(post incomplete)

What Has Poured From The Pores Of Inspiration So Far (Will Price)

Obviously, i shall need Jamie's in-put on this stuff, however i reckon that what i have thus far is fairly good so as he knows what the film is going to be about i shall outline my various random thoughts so far.

Sound:

So far i dont see much use of music during the film so i propose just 2 bits of non diegetic sound in the form of opening music and closing music in fact, i'm not particularly sure that we need any opening music either. For the closing music however it needs to either be hopeful or somber. I have recently learned however that unless you can get permission to use it you cant actually use copyrighted material as non-diegetic sound, hence i am in a bit of a tight spot as neither of us have any sort of composing ability what-so-ever, however according to Marion, you can possibly get around it by using it as diegetic sound, say from a radio or something, but its a bit of a grey area. This is something we would have to discuss but if we were daring enough to try such a thing then i would be inclined to fade it out to either Ode To Joy, Stand By Me or What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted on the radio. Tad risky though, however the music of Beethoven is in the public domain and is thus allowed to be used to so long as dear old Ludwig himself is credited.

Editing:

There is one very important point about editing that i am rather keen to mimic heavily, this film will probably contain flashbacks. Which are very hard to do convincingly, hence i am going to try and look into how they effect the flashbacks on CSI, that sort of unclear and blurred swoosh that makes sure you cant really see that much but cleverly allows you to get the general gist of whats just happened. Looks like the saturation has been messed about with as has the frame rate, not sure if we would be able to do that, but the only thing we can really do is wait until we've filmed it and see what we can play around with.

Setting:

We are indeed blessed with friends in this case as my sister happens to be a possession of the most ultimate house to film this in. Luckily the entire film will be set in the same place, so there isn't any need to go trekking all over the country for a few shots like the last film. We are also equally blessed when it comes to setting up said house for filming as being teenagers we are masters of the bottle, currently keeping every single can and bottle i get through between now and then will most certainly help setting up the house for filming the morning after where the house will inevitably look like a bull with an atom bomb has had a fight with Donkey Kong with a cylinder of napalm strapped to every barrel he throws, we will also need to make pretty much everything slightly askew, so we may need help for some of the messing up but we plan on shooting . For the actual night however all we need to really do is put a couple of decorations up saying things like 'happy anniversary' and make sure that no pictures that shouldn't are hanging in awkward places. We plan to basically film the flashback's first the night before we start filming the next morning, we have a set time for the filming so as to try and catch the right light in the bedroom without the use of red heads, other than that the rest of the house is pretty much under cover away from the light, thus the use of lights wont really be necessary for most of the filming.

Props Needed:

• Shit load of empty beer cans, vodka bottles etc (covered)
  
• One of those answering machines that beeps and gives the message anyway
• lots of anniversary decorations
  
• mates (covered)
• lipstick (covered)
  
• fake blood
• Appropriate clothes (covered)

(((TO BE CONTINUED.....)))

My Beast Friend (Film analysis by Jamie Simmons)

My Beast Friend

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p007xb6t

• This film offered a very different theme to the other short films i watched. It was a very short and snappy comedy in which a man decides he is getting rid of his foul-mouthed cat.
• The camera work used, although very simple was very effective and I particularly liked the cuts between the main characters girlfriend view of the cat as a cute little animal and his view of the fat, ugly and loud-mouthed man in a cat outfit.
• What i liked most about this short film was the simplicity and how there was no fancy effects to it or anything. It was just a raw bit of comedy that worked very well.

The Plan (Film review by Jamie Simmons)

The Plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGX8iYBBCE

• This film follows a man who makes the decision to leave his girlfriend, his home and his life to go to Las Vegas to put all of his money on a roulette machine. Although I didn't particularly enjoy the film, i thought there was a few aspects of it that i could comment on.


• I noticed how the whole film is in black and white, this adds to the dark mood of the character and his very bleek situation. Just the fact that it is set in Las Vegas, which is seen as just a place all about chance adds to the tone of the film. However I think this setting would have worked well with a colour film.
• The soundtrack is a very soulful, thought-provoking piece of music which complements the deep emotions the character is feeling throughout.
• The use of close ups helps us empathise with the character and feel his tension as he puts his life to chance. The close up of the roulette table as he places his bet puts you almost in his eyes, feeling the tension he feels.
  

The Black Hole (Short film analysis by Jamie Simmons)

The Black Hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Un20p1NGuw

• The Black Hole is another film that impressed me greatly. Mainly down to its sheer simplicity and the way it sends out a very powerful message about the dangers of greed. I also particularly like the general idea of the black hole and the fact that its something anyone would love to have but yet it brings out peoples dark sides. However the thing i like most about this film is that it didnt feature any CGI or particularly amazing editing, it is a very simple piece of work yet it is brilliant.
• The mise en scene used in this film is very well thought out. The rolled up sleeves and loose tie of the character send out the message that he is the stereotypical worker who hates his dead end job, waiting for a miracle to happen. I also notice how there is little colour in any of the props, the setting or the costume in the film, this adds the mundane vibe given off by the main character.
• An aspect of the editing i liked in this film is how the cutting is used to determine the pace. It starts of very slow very few cuts and as the excitement of his discovery takes him over, the cutting becomes a lot faster and helps create pace towards the end, helping you feel what the character is feeling.
• In this film, sound is used very subtly and all contributes towards the tone. The strange noise that is heard everytime contact is made with the black hole gives, what is in essence a piece of paper, a strange aura, almost a personality. The everpresent sound of the photocopier throughout gives out quite an eerie tone to what is happening, helping to keep the viewer on edge.

Inside (Short film analysis by Jamie Simmons)

Inside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjTOs1L3SBg

• Out of all the short films I have watched as part of this task, this film definately impressed me the most. I thought it was a very good example of how a short film should be made. Despite attacking a complicated issue in psychology, it was done very simply and offered a great twist at the end which helped set it apart from the other more predictable films i watched.
• The sound used in it impressed me alot. In the shots where the main characters alternate personalities were talking through him the synchronozation was perfect and added to the characters apparent mental state. There was also a lot of strong use of non-diegetic sound. The soundtrack was very eerie and added to the tone of film, also you could hear whispering and the laugh of a baby, both of which you would associate with insanity.
• The editing used also helped add to the tone of the film. The cuts were very quick and snappy, adding to the erraticness of the character and the film as a whole.
• One aspect of the camera work that particularly stood out was the frequent use of close ups of the main character. This helped you too see his emotions and empathise with what was going through his head. It also put his alter-egos in the background, suggesting to the viewer that they arnt real people.
• I noticed the lighting was very good. The room itself was very dark and plain however there was a strong light on the characters, which helps the viewer focus on them and just them. The main characters body language and facial expressions, although quite limited, were very unnerving and had a powerful effect on my interpretation of the character.

Lesson's learnt from last year (Jamie Simmons)

I think that our project we did last year was largely dissapointing and there were many contributing factors towards this. I would say that we, as a group, struggled with delegating roles and responsabilities between us and that resulted in us trying to all tackle each problem and the product ended up being a bit of a collision of different ideas. This year however me and Will have discussed how we will avoid this problem and the fact that it is just us two makes it a lot easier to delegate roles between us and ensure this is done to the best of our abilities. With the luxury off hindsight, another problem we noticed with our product last year was the lack of planning that went into it. We will strive to ensure that this time around we have a very clear idea about exactly what we are doing before we start so as too maximise the final quality of our work.

Getting Plastic Surgery From A Back Alley To Go On The Run (Will Price)

Fallen Art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HMz1WKkso&feature=channel

• I feel that this is probably one of the more poetic if slightly surreal and psychotic short films that i have seen, i like how it is open to debate as to whether its just about a group of insane soldiers or if its a rather deep interpretation of certain pieces of art based on the fallen in battle. I have to say that this was how i saw it, maybe its me being over-analytical, but to me it says something about capitalizing out of the war dead.

• Another thing i am especially impressed at is during the lead up to any actual dialogue, as the camera rises in a close up of the scaffolding of the tower and you see a screaming blur shoot past, the building seamlessly melds into the commanding officers tunic. This is something I'm sure we could play with in our film, although the match on action part would require a lot more thought as ours wont be an animated film.

• When it comes to sound, i believe that the best bit is the fact that the dialogue is quite literally jibberish. The way the colonel' only explanation for why he is throwing his mnen is 'blah blah blah'. To me, this says that no matter what those in power in the army say, the patriotism, for king and country, all the folks at home. No matter what they say they, its just empty words created specifically to make you willingly kill yourself.

• In terms of Mise En Scene i thought that the touch of having the bloated man all of this is being performed for shed a single tear was incredibly wise. It said that those in power were lying to themselves in order to try and live with what they had done, namely, send many to their deaths for what seems meaningless and pointless. Slightly somber thought but quite possible.
  

Desperately Pleading With The Enemy Not To Call The Police (Will Price)

The Wrong Side Of The Bed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR_PzFZgsHU&feature=related

• I Absolutely love the idea of this short film, the way that its very nicely compared so you don't end up switching between one and the other and thus missing vital parts. The wonderful way its been thought out so that the 2 characters switch screens. Of course there is pretty much no way of us doing this in our film, however it is something i find rather impressive so there.

• Added on to the well done comparison would be the Mise En Scene of both splits of the screen. Trying to move away from repeating how well it compares the 2, the way that both screens have the same clothing but i suspect i slight altering of the lighting and maybe even some editing of color change in the brightness of the shirts has really helped to convey the misery of the start to the day for one and the joy for the other.
  

Kidnapping The Enemies Children Then Selling Bits Of Them Back (Will Price)

The Plan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGX8iYBBCE&feature=related

• The thing i especially enjoyed about this film was the entire concept of it, its perfect to get your audience all tensed up before its even started with the simple explanation of a man taking all of his savings and putting it all on roulette. Such is the human mind that when you encounter tales of such risky situations that you end up imagining that you are in the same situation, you end up feeling every single emotion that the main character feels simply by using that bit of psychology.

• Another thing i rather enjoyed about this film is how after it all, the seemingly pointless thievery of the camera, the gearing himself up to finally leave his girlfriend and to try and escape his life to the new, he still loses. I'm not sure if this is some sort of lesson but if it is it could have several meanings ranged from basic ones like 'don't gamble' to more advanced ones such as' put it all on the line for what you want and although you might lose some of it, there's still a good chance of you getting what you want' as of course the girl gives him her address.

• Another thing i like about the film is how when he finally enters the casino we see the camera go into slow motion and are presented by nothing but the sound of the ball on roulette and the announcers voice saying 'no more bets' and slow motion blended footage of the roulette board and wheel.
  

Implying The Enemies Mother Is Fat (Will Price)

Sign Language

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/films/entry/345289/sign-language

• The main thing i very much enjoy about this film is how the personality of Ben is presented, this is a man who isn't the most socially capable and walks that very tight line between being incredibly likable and almost pitiful and being so unrelentingly chirpy and innocently friendly you wouldn't mind smacking him, the fact that he supposedly isn't alloowed to talk to Nikki despite the fact that she obviously wouldn't pay attention to this rule were their roles reversed, a view that all of his 'work mates' seem to share. This is mainly done through dialogue and facial expressions (which are brilliantly acted as you really do believe the passion he has for his work) but the fact that all the shots with him in it are fairly close up, giving off a very home movie feel to it, but also making sure that it captures every single jolt in his face and eyes.

• Another thing i enjoy is how the sound both diegetic and non-diegetic space each other out and bounce off each other quite nicely. The hustle and bustle of Oxford Street is clear but doesn't beat you around the head with a cricket bat, allowing the full effect of the rather somber acoustic run free without intruding on any of Ben's dialogue.

• Another point which i am very impressed at is how this film, despite on the surface of appearing to be your normal common garden feel-good, emotional short film, there also seems to be some sort of point or parable behind it. When Ben is explaining just why he loves the city and why his job means so much to him, the monologue takes such an emotional turn with so little effort from Ben himself you get the impression that he is almost breaking down with his own speech, giving advice to a public that simply hasn't considered what he has to say.
  

Tweaking The Enemies Nose (Will Price)

THE OPTICIAN
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00b65gs

• One of the main things i especially liked about this film is how the voice over isn't just blandly talking as he would, the speech overlaps, representing the jumbled mess of the mind accurately. I'm not entirely sure if we would be able to do this for our film as i have pretty much formed the sequencing and camera shots in my head and there wouldn't really be many opportunities to put one in, in fact it is more than possible that putting it in where i may have room for it would do nothing more than make the film seem needlessly jumbled.

• Another thing i am especially impressed with about this film is how the main character played by the ever immaculate Chris Barrie is portrayed. The way that the opening shot of the film is a close up of him fussing over how his tie looks, undoing and redoing it and the way that the next shot is a close up of him adjusting a pair of glasses on the display so that they are in exactly the same position as before implying a very fusty and slightly neurotic presence of mind which ties in nicely with the main plot, being him trying to pluck up the courage to tell a girl in the office that he is in love with her.

• I also especially like the casting for the character of the optician. It isn't something that is especially important to our film, however it does serve as a lesson to always make an effort to cast people as close to the characters as you can instead of just flinging anyone into the role and hoping that they envision the character the same as you. I can think of no one better for the role of a self absorbed stuffy and neurotic optician than Chris Barrie, especially after his performance as Arnold Rimmer during Red Dwarf.
  

Staring Down The Competition (Will Price)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk

What I Like About The Film

• What i especially enjoy about this film is how the black hole itself has almost been given a whole identity for itself. The way we are presented with a POV shot from the holes perspective with some cheap editing and how in the end the hole turns on its creator and entraps him in the safe. I am convinced that the film simply wouldn't be as good, in fact it may be rather mediocre without this point as it adds to the narrative and gives off the impression of a parable as opposed to just an event with no real adequate explanation.

• A second thing that i especially like about the film is how in addition to the hole seeming to have a personality and life of its own, that this effect is mainly created by the almost threatening hum of life that emanates from it when its touched that sounds almost like interference. Its hard to tell whether or not this sound is diegetic or not but i think that it probably is judging by the reaction of the office worker as he first goes to touch it. Its a small point, but i think it helps to convey the hole as a character which as you can tell I'm still rather hung up on.
• In terms of Mise En Scene, i am incredibly impressed with the portrayal of the office worker, the way the shirt has been unbuttoned at the top and the tie has has been loosened slightly combined with the facial expression of someone who is bored out of his mind at having to stay behind for longer than the rest of the office to continue his repetitive fully captures the hell of working in such a tedious job and almost urges you to try and understand why he would use the hole to steal the money from the safe, it offers him a way out of the dimly artificially lit mental torture chamber.
  

What I Will Use From The Film

• The main thing that I have learnt from watching this short film is that mise en scene can really communicate the smallest things in the world. If basic things like loosening a tie can change the audiences feelings towards the character then i should be able to have a field day with the various iconography that remains possible for the film i have planned.