PLANNING: SHOT LIST

This is a storyboard that we created to note down everything about our short film. We thought carefully about possible camera angles and movements so that the film is rich with them. We thought of some exciting camera movements such as a 360 camera movement and hand held camera to bring the audience into the world of the film. We also had to think about all the props we would need to ensure that we are prepared to start filming. The actors are also a key thing for our short film as we want the actors to be how we imagined the characters in our short film. 

PLANNING: ROUGH STORYBOARD

We began planning our short film, Checkout, with a rough storyboard to get the basic idea of what our short film was about. 

RESEARCH: DIRECTORS LABEL AND CINEMA 16

Directors Label is a series of DVDs which include short films, music video and video art. The purpose of the DVD's are to showcase their work. The three directors are Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry. This is another way, different from film festivals, which short films are showcased. DVD's can be seen as a better platform than film festivals as it means you can experience the short films over and over again on DVD.

Another DVD is Cinema 16. Luke Morris put together two collections of films from British and European directors and created DVD's. The DVD sold more than 5,000 copies in the first 12 months showing the huge success and popularity that it had. Luke Morris said that "when you think of the number of young short-filmaker working today, theres a captive audience who want to analyse these films." Cinema 16 now releases American short film on DVD along with the British and European category. 

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

There are more and more short film festivals as short films are normally made to display a directors artistic talent. I have researched London Short Film Festival and Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival.

The London Short Film Festival is now in its 12th year with their 2015 festival in January. The festival gives audiences the experience to see "UK's best short films." They encourage film making and for people to submit work. The festival must have submissions to survive. Another way they have made sure that they are known is through a summer fundraiser which was promoted thorough Facebook and Twitter. A further way that they make sure that people know about them is through their blog posts such as "LSFF's Philip Ilson previews two exciting and essential film festivals coming up in March and April."

 

Encounters is Watersheds short film festival is the UK's longest running comeptivive short film festival. It is a place to share artistic talent and its purpose is to promote short films. Encounters short film festival is a great place to get noticed and to showcase your short films or animations.

Encounters short film festival is funded by the BFI, The National Lottery Fund, Briston City Council and Media Programme. This shows that these festivals do need a lot to keep them going as today short films are not as common or as popular as they used to be. 

RESEARCH: LIFE IN A DAY PIKTOCHART

I created a Piktochart to present my research on Life in a Day. 

RESEARCH: LIFE IN A DAY: RIDLEY SCOTT

RESEARCH 18/09/2014: LIFE IN A DAY (Ridley Scott) 
Life In A Day (2011, Ridley Scott):
Crowd Sourced
Straight to you tube
Can be bought by DVD
Consumers are producers
4,500 hours of footage
192 nations involved
Kevin Macdonald: director
Theatrical release poster

Michael Wesch:
Web 2.0
Participatory culture

Convergence:
Trend
New technologies
Tablets enable you to do more than one thing

RESEARCH: SHORT FILMS TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

BUTTERFLIES

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One of the films we watched was Butterflies. This was a film about a boy who has literal butterflies inside his stomach which is a clever way to demonstrate something that every experiences throughout their life. He realises that he has these when he tries to speak during a show and tell because he feels upset that his pet isn't as exciting as the others pets. He is told he has to do things which will be scary for him, making him get over his fear and you see the literal butterflies fly away. I think that was an interesting story line as it shows a child's fear in an interesting way and the way that children and other people get over fears. Although there is not really a twist in this it is exciting as it is based on one child's fear. 

FILL ME IN

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Fill Me In is was a Sundance Finalist in 2013. It is a film which is created to make you assume the worst about a man. It seems that he has gone to a prostitutes house as we do not hear certain words he is saying as they are blurred out, hence the name of the film, "Fill Me In." However when the clip is replayed with the words you realise that she was simply a hairdresser and this is the twist of the short film. I think that this is a clever short film as it teaches you not to judge things before you know the whole story which can be seen as an issue in todays society as more and more people are prejudice.

HIGH MAINTENANCE

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sundance 

High maintenance is a short film winner of the Sundance film festival. It has a clever plot twist as it is unexpected and extremely clever. It is about robots and how in the world of the film you can simply trade people in and turn them on or off with a switch. I thought that it was extremely cleverly made and at the same time sophisticated with a variety of camera angles and sophisticated colours like warm colours.  

RESEARCH: FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF SHORT FILMS (THE CRUSH)

Today we researched forms and conventions of short films. We watched a film which won an Oscar in an Irish Film Festival named The Crush.

There are conventions of jeopardy throughout this short film to hint to the audience that one of the characters could be in real trouble. Throughout the film the protagonist seems to have a keen interest in cowboys; he has cowboy boots, there is a low angle shot to him looking at a cowboy poster and there is references to cowboy themes throughout. This makes the audience anxious at the end when the young boy is thought to have a real gun.

There are also conventions of enigma. We see lots of hints that this gun could be real. A two person shot where the young boy is behind in the frame and the father at the front. The boy is watching his father put a gun away. We know that the dad is a police man due to the dialogue earlier on. Later when we see the boy with the gun we are uncertain whether it is a real gun or not. Enigma is created because of the narrative (how the story is told.) There is certain music which creates suspense and the use of the earlier two person shot shows the boy in dark lighting, suggesting that the gun could be real and something sinister is going to happen.

There is a twist which is a convention of short films. At the end we are convinced that the gun is real, however once he shoots it we realise it is just a play gun which the dad was hiding for the boy for his birthday. This shocks the audience as they would have been sure that this gun was real.

CLICK THIS TO SEE THE CRUSH 

RESEARCH: SHORT FILMS SCOOP IT

11/9/2014 RESEARCH: SHORT FILMS SCOOP IT

I created a scoop it to collate information on short films. I found that some short films had a twitter and Facebook page and I used Cold as an example of this on my scoop it. This demonstrates how although they are not feature length films they still use the same promotional techniques.

On my scoop it I also researched how the feature length film Twilight is going to made into short films and posted on Facebook. This is interesting how a feature length film whose sequel had finished is now going to be made into short films.

PREZI ON CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A SHORT FILM

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RESEARCH FOR MY PREZI: WHAT ARE SHORT FILMS?

Short films have a limited number of characters ranging from 1-3 people.

Short films usually contain a twist.

 Most short films take an everyday situation but then flip it in some way.

Short films are normally small budget.

 Although some of the producers are independent,  Pixar have made some short films such as For the Birds (2000) and Geris Game (1997.)

Short films can range in length going up to 35 minutes long however typically a short film is about 5-10 minutes long 

Todorov's theory of equilibrium (everything is normal) is typically applied to short films.

Short films are not normally made to be sold to the general public they are normally created to show off the talents of the director. 

Short films can also be used to suggest an idea for a full length movie to a producer.

Short films are often screened at film festivals or viewed through the internet.

Some people use short films to promote specific events for example charitable events e.g. Red Nose Day.

Short films began in America in the 1910s being animated and live action however they fell out of favour. However they began to rise again in 1955. This rise was due to Charlie Chaplin who began making short comedy films again.

Names of Short Films:
Hirsuite 2007 A.J. Bond 50 film festivals around the world and 9 festival prizes features a time travel who is confronted by an arrogant and hairless version of himself.

The Black Hole 2008

Connected 2006 Jens Raunkjaer Christensen

Heartwork inspired by the music of Trentemoller

Mortal Kombat Rebirth (video game adaptation) 2010 Kevin Tancharoen

Alienist 2012 Chester See

High Maintenance

Love Sick

PLANNING: CREATING A TRELLO

I have created a Trello with all the tasks that I need to do over this year. I will add to this if other tasks need to be done and I will use it to stay organised.