Completed short film

Reflecting back on my short film and I was looking back on the positive and negative things about it. Being disappointed with the first edit of our film whilst editing for the second time we focussed on making it as good as possible and I am going to talk about the things in our short film that made it work well. I particularly think that the way some of the shots have been put together work really well, for example the shot in the bathroom where she is turning the bath taps. There are also a few other shots in our short film which I felt made it more visually interesting and reflected on some of the short films I have watched. However, I think we should have thought about the shots more whilst filming because then we would have more of these really good shots. It was a shame because we also had some other good shots but couldn’t use them and they did not work well with narrative, we should have planned this better. The use of still imagery works well I feel it gives the audience more of an understanding to what the film is about and gives an idea of where this girl gets her obsession from. The still imagery also makes the short have more of a “girly” feel to it. Not only did the still imagery make our piece more attractive but the way we edited them into our piece worked well and the way they are cut fast goes with the whole feel of our film as it is all edited fast. We didn’t spend ages searching for music to go underneath our piece we only looked through a few CD’s. Luckily we found a song quite quickly that I think worked really well under our piece especially with the poem. I think that the poem over the top makes our piece and I think that without this our film would be a lot less interesting and nobody would know what was going on. The female we used in our short film was well suited to the role and the style of the film and we were luckily to find someone so well suited.

Although there were some good things about our short film we was still left feeling disappointed in ourselves but we felt as if we couldn’t do anything else to improve and a number of times felt like giving up. The things that didn’t work well were that it was too short. It was too short in the sense that we didn’t explain enough in that minute and we could have had more shots. I think this is the thing that really let our film down as it could have been a lot better if we had more footage and explained the story in a little more depth. Some of our shots were out of focus and some of them were so badly out of focus that we couldn’t use them (making our film even shorter). If we extended the poem then maybe we could have used more shots and it could have been improved but we felt like we had a lot of improving to do in a small space of time but did our best to improve what we could.

Our film conforms to the codes and conventions of short film. Short film is a genre in its own defined by its running time (has to be under 50 minutes long or micro short under 5 minutes) our film was a micro short and its running time was under 5 minutes long. Our film was low budget as we didn’t spend hardly anything on making it. However, a code and convention of short film is that because it is short it has to draw in the audience quickly but I do not feel as if our short film does this. Our film holds a message which short film usually does but it could be more thought provoking.

I felt that I held a large part in the production of our short film. I felt that I played a large part in the narrative and the planning of our short film as me and my group member are alike so each others ideas would always work together to make something better. The production work of our short film was shared our fairly but we both wrote the script together so we both had involvement into what went into our story (we had to do two lots of production work as we changed our short film). On both times we filmed I was present and we shared our filming and set preparation so someone always had something to do. I did my share of editing which made me feel good as in past projects i haven’t been given the opportunity to use my skills as the editing desk as much as i would have liked to. I felt as if I could have played a larger role in researching about our film such as I could have found still imagery and made collages as well.

Influences

At the beginning of this project I looked at a wide variety of short films and analysed them. The short films that got my attention and made me look into them more personally were the ones that had a small interesting narrative and were British. Although the short film I created was very different to the ones I had researched it was similar in the way it was structured and the way it was filmed. For example, the shots I used in my short film were very similar to the ones I had studied in the way we used close-ups and the mix of close-ups with continuity. Whilst planning the shots for my short films I was constantly thinking of shots that would be interesting to the eye to make it more visually attractive and more interesting to watch. Even though titles were only a short part of my short film I got influences from other short films I had watched that were similar to mine, the titles were very basic and didn’t exactly give much away about the short film. I watched a short film on the channel 4 shorts website which followed a story about a girl; I was attracted to this short film because I liked the way in which the camera went in and out of focus. In our short film we used this effect a number of times and it worked well. At first I was unsure as to wither it would be a good idea to not have any dialogue at all, but after watching a previous students work which I thought worked exceptionally well with only the use of a voice over it gave me the confidence to peruse this in my short film.

Although I got influences from famous shorts film, short films on the internet and other students work I had to find my own influences to come up with a narrative. My short film works around an issue which is largely spoke about in society today. On the news and in magazines especially body image is spoken about a lot and there are often documentaries about girls dealing with body issues and things such as anorexia. It would have been hard to make a documentary (another form of short film) to talk about this issue so it made me get creative and think of a way this issue can be shown in an indirect way. For example, in our short film the girl herself is never shown upset or her “issue” is never shown as out of the ordinary. Inspiration week also helped us come up with the main concept and feel of our short film as we across a poem called “Barbie Jail” which we re-wrote and used as the voice over in our short film. We could have just used the poem to help us with our narrative but we felt the use of the poem actually in the short film was effective. Before we across the poem we used in our final short, we also looked at other poems and even song lyrics that spoke about body image and obsession (these are posted on my blog). By researching poems and song lyrics this helped us build up our idea and narrative.

Audience

We set out to target our audience in different ways. We didn't set out to target a particular adueince but the finish piece made it appeal to mainly females. The type of person that would typically view our short film is females that are quite girly and are interested in these types of topics. The way in which our short film targets this particular type of audience is through its mise-en-scene. The props that we use in our film are typically girly and very "barbie" like, a use of lots of pinks and female products. The actress used in the film may also target this audience because she is shown as girly and looks like a model. This may attract the kind of females which read a lot of fashion magazines. Although our film is typically girly, it also has a very strong meaning behind it. The type of person who may view our piece may be someone who works with girls that have body image disorders or people who work for magazines and are very hot on this issue. I think this could attract this type of audience because in our short film we show body image as an extreme. Our piece will also attract the younger females because of the voice over used, the female we used to do our voice over has a very young voice. I don't particularly think that the music attracts any specific type of audience as it is very basic, however it does add a sense of seriousness to our piece making it more "watchable" to an older audience.

We handed out a questionnaire to a group of year 12's. Five males and ten females. We asked them various questions about our short film to do with the way our film came across to them and things that we could have improved on, here is a summary of the feedback they gave and how it helped us to have a better understanding of how other people saw our short film.

In our piece we tried our hardest to show the physical and emotional effects some females go to, to perfect their body image. In our questionnaire we wanted to know if we did this effectively. The feedback we got was positive as everyone apart from one student, said that we showed this effectively. This made me feel like we achieved what we set out to do.

In our short film we wanted our film to convey the message that "No matter how much one alters the way in which they look confidents comes from within". We gave the audience three options to pick about what they thought our film conveys, there was no right or wrong answer as most answers were linked to eachother but it was interesting to see what most people thought. Both males and females picked similar answers and some even picked two. This made me feel as if our film gave off lots of differents vibes and messages and i took this as a positive thing rather than negative.

We wanted to show the audience that the body image we show isn't the "ideal" one but people still let trying to pefect themselves take over their lives. We asked the audience "Do you think this short film portrays what the idea body image is?" I found the answers given very interesting as ALL of the males said "yes" and all of the females apart from one said "no". This to me showed that males still think all females should have that perfect celebrity look in which you only see in magazines.

We used the poem in our short film because we thought that it will give the audience a better understanding of what was actually going on in the film. I personally thought the film was nothing without the poem being read underneathe. We asked the audience if they would have understood the meaning behind the short film if the poem wasn't used. We got varied answers from this but suprisingly most of them said that they would have understood the meaning without the poem being read.

After being unhappy with the first edit of our film we knew we had to add something in to make it more interesting, so we added in still images. We asked the audience if they thought the imagery compliments, confuses or makes them understand what the film is about. We got positive feedback from this as all of them either chose "compliments" or "makes them understand what the film is about". This made me feel as if it was worth the extra time and effort adding in the still imagery.

We didn't use dialouge in our short film and i was always left wondering "what if" what if it would have given the better understanding? or would it have made our piece more interesting? The feedback we got was mixed, roughly half said dialouge would have made our piece more engaging and the other half said it wouldn't half. Atleast not everybody thought dialouge was necessary.

The feedback we got from our short film made me feel slightly better about the film as at first i didn't want anyone else to see it as i did not think it was good enough. The majority of the feedback was positive with made me glad that we got feedback from others and gave others the chance to watch it. The feedback also gave me a sense of achievment because it showed that the messages we wanted to send out worked and people understood what it was about.

As i was not feeling confident enough about our short film i didn't want to upload it on any social networking site.

We asked the audience: If you could change one thing about this short film what would it be?

Male "Tell us more about the character."
Female "The way it's edited and the titles."
Female "Make it longer to go into detail on what the film is about."

Distribution

I have decided to distribute our film on the Virgin Media Shorts website. After looking around at other websites and competitions that allow you to distribute short films i found that this one suited our short film the best. Unfortuantly, alot of the websites and competitions i came across only let over 18 years enter, which of course, was no good for me. I found that this particular short film distributer suited our film the best as they were not asking for a particular type of film unlike other competitons and websites. The rules also state that the film has to be below 2 minutes and 20 seconds long, our film is 1 minute 1 second long so i felt this was perfect. Below is information about the competitoin that i copied from the Virgin Media website.

"Virgin Media Shorts is a short film competition that champions undiscovered talent.

Whether you're a film maker or a film lover, there are loads of ways to get involved. Read all about them below.

If you're a film maker...

Virgin Media Shorts gives you the chance to show your work in cinemas, on TV, online and on mobiles (via the mobile internet).

Here's what's up for grabs:

• 12 film makers win a chance to show their work on 214 cinema screens nationwide
• 1 lucky winner lands £30,000 to make their next film.
• 1 People's Choice winner takes home thousands of pounds worth of new film kit.
• Plus, we reward the college or school with the most entrants with loads of shiny new kit, too.

Entering is easy. Just check out the film spec. Then upload your film. The competition closes on 28 June 2010.

If you're a film lover...

You can see new film making talent, before they hit the big time.

Register as a film critic and you can:

• Comment on films
• Vote for People's Choice (launches in September)
• Win some great prizes, like the new iPad

Get involved now!"

To enter the competions i had to fill in a some details. Some were personal and some were related to our shorts film. For example, the genre and length. It also asked me to write a short synopsis. Having done a synopsis on our blog i just copied in the one i had already written. Before i submitted form i double checked to make sure this was the right competition fior our short film. I look around the Virgin Media website at other short films that have been distributed and i was pleased to find a variery of styles.

Not only will i distribute our film using competitions but it will also be distributed via youtube and vimeo. I think the fact the our film will be shown on these types of sites is a positive thing because a broader audience will watch it (hopefully). I think it is also good our film is being distributed on youtube on vimeo and both of these websites have a wide variety of footage so our will not be judge in any way.

Inspiration Week Ideas

Ideas from song lyrics

In my group we already came up with an idea with the use of song lyrics. As we already knew we wanted to base our short film on fashion we looked at lyrics that were about fashion in some way. We looked at lyrics from a song by Lady GaGa called "fashion" these lyrics are about a girl who had to have everything designer and fashion was her passion. From this basic story from the lyrics a story we came up with was about an ordinary working class girl who was saving up her money to buy this expensive designer dress. The story would be told backwards. There will be shown many ways in which she could have got the money to buy the dress but the audience will never find out if she got the money in a good or bad way. As you can see, we didn't copy the story that was being told in the lyrics but we got inspiration from them. http://www.metrolyrics.com/fashion-lyrics-lady-gaga.html

Ideas From Poems

The poem below is a story about fashion but is the opposite of "loving" fashion. When we thought of fashion stories we came up with ideas of people loving fashion, whereas this story opened our eyes and we began to think of stories of people having different opinions of the fashion industry. This poem has a clear narrative which makes it easier to produce a story from it.

"Down Oxford Street I wandered, pensive,
Through shopping malls, quite apprehensive,
While feeling cautious and defensive,
And my face was ashen;

For Womenswear was comprehensive
With ranks of handbags quite extensive -
The frontline of a charm offensive
In service of Fashion.

Their advertising was intensive,
But when plain clothes are so expensive,
It makes me cross and hypertensive -
I hate them with passion"

Inspiration Week: lesson 1

In this lesson we are starting to gather ideas from different sources. By doing this will make it easier for us to come up with an idea and learn different ways in which we can get inspiration. As short films are so broad and there is not a specific length they have to be, it is going to be a lot more difficult coming up with an idea as you can literally do anything.

In this first lesson we came up with ideas as a class as what makes a narrative. Here are the ideas:

• beginning, middle, end.
• fairy-tales from your childhood
  
• books
• fables
• tribal stories
• legends
• myths 
• plots
• characters
• a series of events 
• stories that have been past down through generations
• something we ourselves can make up
• imagination
• deeper meaning
• once upon a time
• cultures

Brief encounters short film festival

Brief encounters celebrates new talent in filmmaking and provides a platform for emerging filmmakers to screen their work. In 2009, over 150 films screened in competition over five days to over 500 delegates and 6,500 members of the audience. The film and animations were a selection of the best new dramas, comedies, music videos, documentaries and animation from over 58 countries. The festival first began in 1995 as Brief-Encounters- originally envisioned as a one off event, to mark the centenary of cinema. It proved so popular that it is now an annual attraction, expanding year to year and is acknowledged internationally is one of the worlds most respected celebrations of short film.
In 2001, the short film festival was joined by Animated Encounters- celebrating and showcasing the productions the productions, talent, creativity, technology and skills that make animation such a popular successful film form worldwide. It, too has had a rapid rise to global prominence, as it is demonstrated by its status as the UK's representative for the prestigious European Cartoon D'Or.

Edinburgh film festival

Edinburgh films festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and events that takes place each June. The festival started in 1947 and is the worlds oldest continually running film festival. There are three ways in which to apply. You can apply through the film festivals website or you can download a form and mail it to them.

Film Categories

Gala - New international feature film productions, having a well-known actor or director
British Gala - New UK feature film productions, having a well-known British actor or director
Rosebud - Feature fiction films from first- or second-time directors, outwith the UK
Directors' Showcase - Highlighting films from accomplished directors
Night Moves - Horror and action films, either from countries whose mainstream films are given little worldwide release, or from independent film-makers
Document - Documentaries, whether feature-length or short
Retrospective - Films by an important director that many people may not have seen on the cinema screen
Black Box - Abstract and artistic films
Mirrorball - Music videos, music-related documentaries
In Person - Live on-stage interviews with important figures from the cinema industry
Under The Radar - Risk-taking films (introduced in 2008 in response to John Waters attending the festival)

REFERENCING http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/

Rights to your short film

There are frequently conditions of entry that become legal requirements for the films entered into certain competitions, particularly if films are to be exhibited online or screened at festivals supported by industry sponsors. The thing to do is to make sure that you retain "artistic property" of your film up to the point where are happy to "sell" this in return for recognition, exhibition or whatever prize is on offer. You'll only be able to distribute and screen your film in public if it is "cleared". This means that you have written permission to use everything and everyone that appears in your film. This includes script, music, locations, actors, contributions, products and company logos. Companies are broadcasters are particularly hot on this area as they are likely to be sued if they show something that has not been approved by all "parties with an interest" in the film.

"It is certainly better to produce a film that has a "good idea", thats executed as effectively as possible and with an impact on its audience" than a more complex film with its energies dissipated. Ultimately, it is the quality of your short film that will be the key determinant in its success. The process of judging "quality" is, however, always going to be highly subjective, so don't be too disenchanted if your film doesn't achieve the recognition it might deserve. You'll have learned so much along the way."

REFERENCING www.mediamagazine.org.uk, Symon Quy

Convergence

Convergences represents things coming together. In this case, it represents different forms of media coming together. The Iphone is a prime example. On an IPhone you can do various things such listen to music, go on the internet, text, plays games all on one device. Another example is the Wii, it is not only a games console, but also a web browser and social networking tool. The point is that one day in future that "you will only need one thing to do everything". Short film has benefited from these convergences because this means that there are a lot more places in which you can watch short films and getting your short films shown in various different ways.

Analyses- "Tea leaves" artists moving image

Matthew Grinter
3 minutes
Artist moving image short

I discovered this short on the BBC film network and found it interesting as it was different to anything i'd come across.

Mise-En-Scene
Unlike "wasp" this short does not have an obvious narrative, and us the audience has to work out whats going on ourselves which may gives us a certain perception of whats happening.
The lighting is quite dull but the things that give the "domino effect" in it seemed to be bright colours. Its as all of the actors in it are just getting on with their daily lifes and it's kind of documenting them all in a coffee shop, especially the man that is trying to get to his "destination" However, the props, which in this case are the objects such as the cups of coffee.

The sound in this short is a mixture between diegetic and non-diegetic. I think the fact that the use of diegetic sound which is the general noises in the coffee shop with the non-diegetic sound mixed in with it (music) is effective. The way that it has obviously been filmed then edited to make it look like its slow motion makes the journey of the man "destined to drink his coffee" more effective and makes it seem like it was more of a struggle. The type of music fits the slow motion camera movements.

Analyses of "Wasp" By Andrea Arnold

Wasp is a 26 minute short film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Released in 2003 it stars Nathalie Press as a struggling single mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the persuit of rekindling a relationship with an old ex boyfriend (Danny Dyre).

Mise-en-scene
The film is set in Dartford which is infact the director Andrea Arnolds hometown. In the first half of the short where you are beginning to find out about the family they are shown in and around the area they live in. Although you can tell she lives on some kind of housing estate the area in which they are living looks nice and decent. I think this enphasises the fact that she is a single mother who is struggling but she isn't looking everything. However, when you then see in the house its a whole other story and is very different to the nice sunny outside we see at the beginning.
The lighting througout is quite grainy although it is bright outside it still gives a very grainy effect. The yellowy lighting is clearly not natural. The use of lighting is extremely effective when the chuldren are sitting outside of the pub as it really enphasises how dirty the children actually are and the grainy effect is stronger that ever.
The childrens clothing is grubby and dirty and she way she brings her baby out without a nappy gives the audience the sense she has no idea, also the fact she goes out in her night dress but then you see a dramatic change when she goes out and the way she dresses gives us a real sense as to what kind of person she is.

Sound
Throughout the film the majority of the sound is diegetic. The baby crying and the music which plays through the pub is the most obvious use of non-diegetic sound. The diegetic sound coming from the pub playing out to the children who are forced to wait outside really gives a sense of neglect and how seperated the children are from their mother.


REFERENCING http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_(film)

Video Activism

Witness vido or video activism is a common stratedgy used by protest groups. For example, a group of people who protest againt animal testing might pose as workers somewhere where they test against animals, film the evidence and post the evidence on the internet making people more aware of the topic. I recently watched a video activism video on testing against monkeys as was quite shocked as what i saw, this was maybe naive of me as i didn't think this went on as it showed in the video. A popular example of video activism is the wale hunting videos. Animal protesters go to extremes to get videos of the japanese hunting and killing the wales. There are numerous film festivals screening political shorts such as The Freedom Cinema Festivals and Persistance Resistance. Personally, i think that video activisim shorts play a large part in short film as they are everywhere and you can watch one without realising its a short film, it more a "documentry style" of filmmaking.

Avant Garden -The Big Shave- Analyses

1967
Six minutes
Martin Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation and attended New York Univeristy Film School.

This short films starts of extremely innoccent and you begin to wonder why you are just watching a man in his bathroom shaving. When you first him cut himself you assume it was an accident and it goes to being quite innoccent. However, not long after the film suddenly becomes dark and disturbing and we realise he is purposely cutting himself. It then turns into an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene. When i finished watching this short, i just felt as if it was random and slightly strange. However, when we started discussing the film and looking into we came to the conlucsion that because this film was made around the time of the Vietnam war that the film was in some way representing the war. For example, the way the man in the film was cutting himself came across as pointless, just like the war was. I did my own research about this film and actually found out the film was also known as "Viet '67".

Avant-Garde/Experimental film

Experimental films describes a whole range of styles of filmmaking that are completely different to mainstream filmmaking. Experimental covers a wide range of practice, an experimental film is often characterized by the ascence of linear narrative, the use of various abstracting tehcnqiues (out of focus, painting or scratching of film, rapid editing), the use of non-diegetic sound or even the abscence of any sound track. Most films were made on very low budgets, with minimal crew and often made by one person, possibly a student. Short films couldn't keep up with Hollywood and the mainstream style of fimmaking, so Avant-Garde found its own home in cinema as art. However, it has been argued recently that these Avant-Garde and experimental films have become a genre in their own. Avant-Garde filmmakers want to experiment with new ideas, forms, tehcnqiues and expressions. The fimmakers often seemd to be "ahead of their times". Avant-Garde represents a pushing of boundaries.

REFERENCING http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_film

Protest and free cinema

Protest and free cinema is a style of filmmaking. A protest to the dominants of the mainstream is the british free cinema of the 1950's. Free cinema had given exposure to a new generation British filmmakers working outside the mainstream, making a virtue their low budgets and their crude equipment. Protest and free cinema filmmakers had shoe string budgets, unpaid crews, and handheld cameras (16 mil bolex cameras, compared to Hollywood who use 52 mm film and standard academy cameras). They had styles and attitude and were funded by the BFI's experimental film fund. They featured working class people at work and in society. It gave a "fly on the wall" effect. For example, "The Lambeth Boys" film studies work that has been done on the role of a short film as a agent of social change.

Short film and Hollywood

As i said in a previous blog, short films were the first films. This was until Hollywood and its studio system made short film disappear out of the limelight. Short film eclipsed by the dominant mode of film production and "the classical narrative". Hollywood invented the "genres", baring in mind short film was a genre in itself. The fact that Hollywood invented the genre meant that there was a more diverse variety of films for people to watch and there was a genre of film that suited everybody.
Cinema exhibitors required Hollywood films to be longer than 90 minutes long. This was to allow each film to have a 2 hour block to allow customers to buy food and drinks and watch the trailers and advertisements before the film actually started. This was clever as of studio system as it gave people going to the cinema a whole new experience, and also gave the chance for the cinema to make more money.
The Hollywood System (it no longer exists) "was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920's through to the 1950's. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract and pursing vertical integration through ownership or effective control of distributors and movie theaters, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques".
From the 1930's onwards, short film production became a marginal activity, and this was when Hollywood completely took over and people became more interested in mainstream films.
Currently, Hollywood needs the short film, it no longer follows the studio system, it sees short films as a cut price laboratory for experimentation. It has been known that Hollywood would take narrative ideas from short films (despite completely throwing them out of the limelight many years ago) and make them into feature length films. Hollywood knows that they can take a risk with doing this as short film makers would not have the money nor power to fight against Hollywood and fight for their rights. Where as Hollywood knows that they can risk with minimal financial risk. However, it does not only work out this way and in fact it can turn into studios scouting new filmmakers instead of just stealing their ideas.

Channel 4 inspirations

Each year Channel 4 runs something called "inspiration week". Inspiration week gives young people an all-round view of industry, helping them understand different roles within media. Inspiration week is all about inspiring people by showcasing the skills, experiences and attitudes they need to progress, as well as ways which enables them to focus and strengthen their career prospects. They cover areas such as acting and presenting, journalism, new media, theatre, producing and directing and advertising in the media.
Inspiration weeks aims to attract 14 - 19 year olds that have a strong passion to break into the media industry, combined with raw talent that will make them stand out from everyone else. Inspiration week does not like to set down to many rules and "must haves" as they want to attract a diverse number of people.
You are able to apply and get an open day. The open day can take up to 150 people and it helps them get a taste of what it is like. The open day gives them the opportunity to take part in activities and sit in talks by high level media professionals. There's also one on one careers talks and advice sessions. After attending this open day, young people can then apply for a place in inspiration week through channel 4's careers website.
After plenty of engaging formal and informal learning master classes and workshops, attendess will have gained a real insight into all kinds of roles in the industry and might get some idea of where they could fit in.

REFERENCING http://4talent.channel4.com/4talent-opportunities/inspiration-week/index.shtml

History of Short Films

Shorts films began to make history in the United Stated in 1910. It was the time when films began to have longer edtions. The custom in film making was to include a feature followed by a single or more short subjects. These short subjects could be animated cartoons or live action. These shorts subjects became the first short films but they were not yet called "short films". http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/199025/a_brief_history_of_short_films.html

After the 1930's short films were beginning to fade away from the lime light. There were not as many short films and sometimes the short films were financed by big film companies.

In 1955 it seemed that another short film competitor appeared, television. By the end of the 1960's, short films eventually disappeared.

The first ever short films were typically shorts due to technological restrictions, and short films were the only films available and were what you would see in your local cinema. In 1895 the first ever film was made in France by the Lumiere brothers, La Sortie De I'Usine (workers leaving the factory).

Future Shorts

http://www.futureshorts.com/

Future Shorts is one of the most leading and innovative short film labels. Future Shorts since 2003 has created an expanding network that gives filmmakers the opportunity to have their work seen on the largest theatrical platform worldwide. Future shorts is recognized by filmmakers, the industry and press alike as the cutting-edge short film label. Future shorts is a worldwide film festival as well as a distributor, sale agent, consultancy service and DVD label. At the Future Shorts film festival filmmakers have the chance to get their work seen all over the world just from one submission. Film that are selected to join their monthly program are currently being shown at 15 UK venues. I think that Future Shorts are trying to not only reach audiences but to reach different types of audiences, the fact that they can be shown all over the world ensures this can happen. If you attend an exhibition you will also find that the screening are often accompanied by other multimedia elements such as live music.

Whilst reading more about Future Shorts and i saw that they had links with the mainstream film industry. Future Shorts currently work with companies including Shots, Buena Vista and Studio Artois. Future Shorts get themselves involved in the organization of cinematic events as a way of exposing people to short films in different environments. Apparently, Future Shorts has become a must-attend event at musical festivals such as Glastonbury.

I think that Future Shorts works is passionate about Short Films and they become involved in all the biggest and best events to make short films become increasingly popular and to get people who not only want to get their short films shown but for people who generally want to become more known in the film industry by bigger names.

REFERENCING http://www.futureshorts.com/

Production Companies and Short film

Coffee Shorts - http://www.coffeeshorts.co.uk/drama.html

Coffee shorts is an example of a production company like Silver Films that specializes in short film production. The website holds different section for different types of short. They have dramatic narrative short films, independent music videos, documentary films, short film animations, experimental short films, comedy shorts and trailers.

Pixar Short - http://www.pixar.com/shorts/index.html

Pixar have their own website where they show all of their shorts. As i spoke about in a previous post, Pixar are one of the very few well known short film companies. I was surprised to come across this as although i knew Pixar created their own shorts, i did not know they would have a website dedicated to the shorts.

About A Girl by Geoff Boyle

In this post i am going to do an overall analyses on this short film.

The film about a girl apposes the blockbuster movie "About a boy". This because the film About a boy is almost the complete opposite to what About a girl is about, About a boy ends happily and is focussed around someone happy. However About a girl is grim and ends in a shocking way. The title sequence for this film immediately tells us who the films target audience is, not only the target audience but gives us some idea of who the characters might be. The title sequence apposes a text message and types out "About a girl" in text, and young people use text messaging frequently. Throughout the length of the film it builds upon who she is. For example, throughout the film she is constantly singing a Britney Spears song. The fact that she is singing Britney Spears not only indicates that she dreams of this lavish life style of a pop star and thinks she can sing but also brings out the naivety in her and her youth. I think that she sings the song repetitively is because when she sings its escapism for her and in some way comforts her. The fact that she is a "chav" living on a council estate is made extremely obvious and its emphasized throughout the film by not only the shots of the locations but in the way she dresses. She seems like she has a lot to say but doesn't have a lot to say to her mother, it gives the sense that she feels a lot more comfortable saying her feelings and thoughts out loud, this could be another way of escapism for her and we get the sense that she possibly gets neglected a bit and comes from a broken family. Even more into the film you begin to feel more and more sympathy for her as you then begin to realise that her dads on the doll and is too busy her, another reason she may dream of such a different life style.

Short film VS Feature film

Short film

- they are no more than fifty minutes long (making them a short)

- most short films have an unknown cast, making the film even more less known

- usually one-offs. No sequels

- low budget, not allowing for special effects etc

- short production length

- small marketing, possibly one of the reasons most short films have to find its own way to fame

- short films need to draw in the audience quickly as they don't have much time to do so

- there is usually a subject matter

- thought provoking

- never get shown at mainstream cinemas

Feature film

- usually around one hundred minutes long

- they use a well known cast which usually sells the film, allowing for the film to not be as good quality

- they sometimes have sequels

- complete narratives

- high budget, allowing for well known cast, better locations, special effects etc

- large production length

- they have a big marketing team behind them

As you can see from the main points about feature film and short film you can see they have many comparisons and are almost if not exactly completely different. You may get some short films being shown in the cinema before a feature length comes on. For example, in Pixar films you sometimes get smaller animation films being shown. Although these are short films, they have been produced by large production companies. I think that more short films should be shown at the cinema before feature lengths, i would much rather prefer to see experimental, inspiring shorts made by young film makers than adverts.

About Short film

In defyning a short film is hard as apart from its running time, there are no precise criteria or characteristics that apply to all short films. Short films are a genre of film in themselves defined in its lengh. Unlike mainstream films and other small genre of films such as New Wave, short films have no codes and conventions. They are experimental, low budget, small cost, realistic, grainy and usually hold a message. Documentry, animation, art and experimental film are all types of short films, even videos posted on youtube can be classed as short film. Short film is not a part of mainstream cinema, therefore short films are usually shown in at art galleries, festivals and at exhibitions. Sometimes you might find that some small cinemas show short films but you would rarely if not ever find short films being shown in a big mainstream cinema. Short film-makers have more freedom, and the room for economic freedom leaves room for experimentation and inavation. This is a strengh in short film and is what makes every short film so unique. The fact that short film is so experimental gives the chance young film makers to get their work shown. This is mainly down to the fact that short films CAN have such a low budget, near to nothing, allowing anyone to make a short film.

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_film

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re

http://www.futureshorts.com/

http://forums.dvdfile.com/standard-definition-software/11391-short-films-famous-
directors.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/199025/a_brief_history_of_short_films.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_system

http://4talent.channel4.com/4talent-opportunities/inspiration-week/index.shtml