What is a short film?

• A short film is a film that isn’t long enough to be thought of as a feature film, the academy of motion picture arts defines a short film as being no longer then 40 minuets.

• Most short films that are shown in the present are mostly animated sketches made by Disney for children.

What are the conventions of a short film?

• In these short films there will most likely be a twist in it so the film actually seems interesting because since the films are so short they will seem uninteresting.

• They have about 2 – 3 main characters, because of it being a short film they don’t have time to give each character a deep back story.

• Budget wise these films have very small budgets, compared to bigger feature films which have very large budget.

• The length of short films are usually about 5 – 10 minutes long, a maximum length of 35 minuets because otherwise they will be called feature films.

• Short films will usually use an everyday situation and then add a twist to make it interesting.

History of short films• Some of the first short films were shown to the public by

Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope, this was a small device made for individual viewing. Then there was the projected film, these were usually about current affairs, celebrities, royal family.

• In the early 1900’s there were improvements to recording and editing technology, with these improvements people managed to make longer lasting films.

• Onwards from 1910 people wanted to see longer films, the first feature film that came out was a film called “The Birth Of A Nation” which was based on the Ku Klux Klan, there was then a lot of feature length films from Italy, France, Denmark and the United States.

Cinematography • Cinematography is a way of film making, In June 19th 1873

Eadweard Muybridge took a photographs of a horse using 24 stereoscopic cameras in a line, then cameras would go off when the horse ran through ropes that its hoofs would get caught on.

• In 1897 Robert W. Paul made the first rotating camera head for the queens diamond jubilee, so that the shot was one uninterrupted shot.

• Cinematographers are the partners of ordinary photographers, where the photographers take the photos the cinematographers take care of the film part of the process.

Filming With The DLSR • Some of the special features of the DLSR the HD definition

video capture, it has many different lenses that can be changed into. It also has settings which allow the brightness from the shot to be turned down or up depending on the lightening.

• Like some cameras the DLSR can also film as well as take photos, the videos are captured in HD quality which makes it a very good feature to have on the camera.

• The DLSR can also film in ultraviolet light and in infrared, then in 2010 they then had 3D photography and photo sweep mode so the user can get the area they were shooting in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_single-lens_reflex_camera

Gravity Notes• Film Title: Gravity• Director: Colin Hutton• Country Of Production: England • Year Of Production: 2004• Summary Of The Story: There are three boys walking around the

estate, one of them has something to show the others. Meanwhile a mother has sent her daughter to go and get her brother from the park. When the boys get to a secluded spot the younger one reveals that he found a gun at the estate, but one of the boys take the gun and starts messing around with it. The daughter from earlier goes past and the teen with the gun said he was going to shoot her, the other two knock the gun up in the air before the gun fired. They then run off laughing, but it turns out that the bullet from the gun had dropped and killed the boy at the park.

Features The Short Film As A Whole

Particular Shots And Sequences

Genre (Type Of Film)

Drama. When the kid has been shot with the bullet and has died in the swing.

Storytelling Codes And Conventions

This is a short colour film, there are special effects used for the bullets. Motifs were used on the sky to give meaning.

There is a clear message at the end of the film after you see the kid dead in the swing, that gun violence always ends with someone dead.

Representations That all of the teens come from an economically poor area.

When it shows the estate after the gun shot nobody looked surprised.

Likely Audiences People that live in rough areas, Mostly teenagers.

When the three boys get the gun out and all have different opinions of what its like.

Locations The estate because it is the most likely area for this to happen.

After the gun is fired the camera goes for a more landscape shot so that you can see how far the sound has reached.

Character Teenagers that have had a tough upbringing and do more illegal activities.

The fact that there are a group of teenagers with a gun.

Intertextual References

None. None.

Mise En ScèneThis scene where the teenager is in the dark with the gun makes you see him as quite evil, this is also the part where he decides to take the gun outside and it becomes a lot more serious. He is also “acting gangster” as he is holding the gun in one hand, and making a gang sign in the other.

This scene shows the teen he pointing the gun at one of his friends heads, this shows that he doesn’t want anyone to spoil his fun so he is ready to shoot one of his friends in the head to stop them. The teen with the gun has a very anger expression showing that his friends trying to stop him, while his friend looks more disappointed then angry.

Editing • Some of editing when the teen with the gun is counting

down before he shoots the girl is quite obvious because some of the sound from his counting is cut off from the editing. But this could have been edited so that it adds more drama to the scene.

• But other then that slight issue then the rest of the editing is almost perfect where at the last scene the camera goes up into the sky it drops back down into the playground where the kid had been playing on the swings.

• Another example of the editing in this short film is where the younger teen gets the gun out of the bag and the camera cuts from face to face showing their reactions.

Sound• One of the sounds that sort of haunts the viewer is the

sound of the swing, this is the first and the last thing that they will hear will watching this short film. The sound of the swing is supposed to represent children playing and having fun, but instead it has been replaced with the idea of death and misery.

• The sound of the gun shot was made to seem more mesmerising as the gunshot echoed throughout the whole of the estate this also made it seem more powerful. The gun shot sounded very realistic and they managed to get a very realistic sound from it.

About A Girl Notes• Film Title: About A Girl• Director: Brian Percival• Country Of Production: England• Year Of Production: 2001• Summary Of The Story: The story of this short film follows a

young girl from Manchester, she tells the story of how her parents separated and how she wants to become a famous singer with her friends. Throughout the short film she constantly says the line “I’m not that innocent…” from the Brittany Spears song, unknown to the audience when she says this there is a sense of irony. This becomes obvious when it reaches the end of the short film, she had been carrying a plastic bag while she walks down the canal. When she reaches the end of the canal she throws the bag in the canal and then she leaves, it then cuts to an underwater shot of the bag where you can see a dead baby coming out of the bag.

Features The Short Film As A Whole

Particular Shots And Sequences

Genre (Type Of Film)

Drama. The final scene where you can see that she has thrown a baby into a canal.

Storytelling Codes And Conventions

This is a short colour film, there are no real special effects in this.

The message in this video could be that when parents split up the children are worst off.

Representations She has had a rough upbringing in a economically rough area.

When she spends time with her his idea of treating her well is give her a can of coke and a pack of crisps.

Likely Audiences People that have had a tough upbringing, had their parents split up.

She talks about how bad her mum and dad are.

Locations A low economy area of Manchester.

The canal that she walks down for the entire of the short film is full of litter, she wears more

Character A 13 year old girl who wants to grow up to become a singer, she has had a tough upbringing as her parents have broken up.

She always mentions the fact that her parents have broken up, she clearly feels alone as she always talks about becoming famous and leaving her family behind.

Intertextual References

She constantly sings one of the most popular songs from that year.

When she sings “I’m not that innocent” with her friends and by herself.

Mise En ScèneIn this scene it shows how alone she is, she is standing in a field. This will give the viewer an idea of how she spends most of her time as she is lonely. The dark clouds emphasise the reality of her life, the fact that she is in the shadows could mean that she could be depressed.

In this scene the way that they have positioned the characters also shows their relationship, she’s not even looking at him. This scene shows so many different things like the dark grey sky being a pathetic fallacy so the weather is already dictating how her day is going to be, the gritty buildings and her father being covered with dirt.

Mise En Scène

She is wearing quite “Chavy” clothing which will show that she comes from quite a rough area. This also shows that her family is quite poor as they can only afford these cheap clothes.

She looks very depressed in this photo, she is looking down at the floor.

The idea that she is trying to look more grown up is contradicted by the fact that she isn’t wearing any makeup

You can tell by the big earrings that she has that acts a lot older then she actually is, since her parents broke up she feels that she has to look after herself.

Editing• The editing in this is sometimes used to add dramatic

effect, like in the final scene where the girl throws the plastic bag into the water and the camera cuts to under the water and you can see that it was a dead child that she had thrown into the water.

• The scene where she walks down the canal and then she has constant flashbacks to things that relate to what is happening now. They flow from scene to scene with the very impressive editing, She’d be talking about her spending time with her dad then it would just jump to her with her father.

Sound• One of the sounds that you will hear quite often is the

girl singing in this short film, She sings this song in the beginning of the film and this is the only thing that you can hear.

• At the end of the film where she throws the plastic bag into the river, and the camera goes to an underwater shot of the bag. The only sound that you can hear is the sound of the water, it gives you the sensation that you are underwater.

• Other then people talking there isn’t much else sound wise in this short film, it’s main focus is what the girl is talking about.

Comparison Of The Films• Both of these films are set in economically poor areas in Britain,

the main characters in these are all teenagers or younger. They both end in death as well.

• One of the differences is the way that the film itself is actually shot, Gravity is shot by more standard shots whereas About A Girl is shot as if it was handheld. In Gravity they used special effects on the bullet when it was fired.

• The editing of the films are both similar, there isn’t anything special or defining about either of these films.

• All of the characters wear clothes that are associated with more rough and economically poor families.

My Chosen Short Film• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_cdkpazjI&safe=active• The short film I have chosen is a futuristic short called “Sight”, this film is

based in the future where people have apps and other programmes built into their heads. The main character of this film is one of the engineers that work for the company, the film uses lots of special effects as this short film is based on the future.

• Throughout the film we get to see the different apps being used, these are all done by special effects. For example the glowing effect of the characters eyes. At the end of the film the main character (who works for the company) hacks the programmes in her head and uses them to control her.

• The film then rolls the credits of all the people that worked on it, leaving the video on a cliff hanger about what's going to happen to the girl.

Sound And Editing• The music at the start of the film is quite uplifting and cheerful,

whenever the main character uses the games or apps. But at the end of the short film just after the main character has just hacked the women's programme the music changes to be more sinister and evil. The music helps give the viewer a more broad idea of how the characters are feeling and how you are supposed to feel towards that particular scene.

• The editing in this film is fluent and smooth, scenes go from having no special effects to being completely full of them. Whenever there is a scene with special effects they film the scene then after they go back and add in all of the special effects and the voices of the people in the apps.

Mise En ScèneThe fact that the guy has been blurred out of the shot is showing that he is quite obsessive, that he isn’t going to let the girl leave.

Throughout the film the characters eye’s have been blue when they use the programmes in their head. But at the end of the film when the man hacks her, her eyes turn bright red which could represent the bad

The music being played in the background of this scene has changed from a cheerful song to a more sinister one.

This is the final scene in the short film the editing that lead up to this scene, was where it showed the man hacking her programme which was all done with special effects.

Mise En Scène 2This is one of the apps that is featured in the short film, this is a dating app that the man uses so that he’ll say the right things to the woman.

There is no music being played in this scene because the makers probably want you to focus on what’s happening in the scene. In this scene they have edited in special effects into the scene, the special effects are well made and are very fluent in the film.

They give the apps a very realistic feel, as they are designed as if they were real apps. In the scenes with apps the apps fill the entire shot so it looks like you are seeing it from the mans perspective.

Mise En Scène 3In this scene there is not music playing, but there is the sound of the woman’s voice in the programme. The makers have made it this way so that you could imagine that your him.

This scene has a moving animation at the top of the page which tells the “score” of his clothes, It goes through a selection of different clothes choices. Which were pictures of him wearing different clothes.

This app is designed to tell the user what to wear from the selection of clothes that they own, this is a very good example of editing as it shows that the makers have edited his face to different variations of him wearing clothes.

In this scene the maker has highlighted clothes in the wardrobe, the wardrobe was

probably draw by hand or a programme and then added in to the scene.