Thursday 23 September 2010

Analysis of a short film.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004tb3f

This genre of short films closely relates to our short film as it is a drama with elements of fantasy and a non-naturalistic style to it. The narrative follows one character Darren in a dream like state of who is trying to remember past events, this is shown by a clone of himself.

The style of this short film is quite dark and can be reflected in the lighting throughout shots of his memory. However when shots of his current dream like or death state are shown you get this effect by the light airy lighting suggesting it is unreal. The setting and location of the short film is interesting as it really highlights the unrealistic atmosphere and can be found when looking at the mise en scene, the scenes change from a deserted beach with a slightly eery feel to it, to a dark night in an urban area of which also has creepy elements within. The costume of the main character Darren with a dark blue suit shows formality maybe to do with his job as a tv host or another connotation that the suit is the clothing of where he life took a turning point and he murdered the boy and he cannot turn away from it, or hide from it. The blood stain is significant because you believe the man to be dying himself when actually it is the blood of the teenager he killed. The verisimilitude is incredibly successful in many ways although it is unlikely and unrealistic you believe that each shot is a snippet of this mans mind and the madness and distress he is feeling. The way they have used shots of a dilating pupil and eye shows the death of the boy but also the awakening of the man to his crime.

The camera shots significantly reflect the nature of the film. Fast moving shots and pans to show the panic while Darren is running from the group of teenagers. Slow moving shots to show his reflection on the past. The shots range from mid shots to show his life before the murder and slightly closer shots to reflect the intensity of moments. There are also extreme close-ups to show the intense relationship between Darren and his girlfriend and the moment she reveals they are having a baby.

The sound in this film is hugely effective it ranges from soft piano non- digectic sound to show the remembrance and reflection time. Fast pace electronic non digetic sound to show the pace of movement in shot when Darren is fleeing from the gang. And an ear-piercing screech to show the pain inside Darrens head and him struggling to see straight and think straight.

The editing in this short film is also very succesful as it follows the technique of cutting back and forth from scenes and jumping time. This is effective for the story is all about his memories and memories flicker just like the way the shots are edited.

The whole narrative of the story is well though out from the doubled characters to the title of the short film "Tomorrows Forecast" which not only corresponds with Darrens career predicting the weather on a game show, but also a forecast and prediction to what will happen in his life tomorrow. For example the sign; "Game Show Host Killer" which shapes Darrens choice on what to do.

The genre and narrative are incredibly similar to our short film idea and can be useful for inspiration for shot ideas, although this is a much darker approach and we look to making a more light-hearted friendly short film.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Our Ancillary Tasks

1. Poster- Our poster will give us a chance to visually show and promote our film. Artistically we can demonstrate our skills to produce a poster after researching other film posters and things to include on this.

2. Radio trailer The radio trailer another type of medium gives us another area of media to focus on to promote our short film. Sound will be our key tool and we can use a conventions like a voice over to advertise our film.

Our Concept

After deciding a trailer would not be suitable we decided to make a short film.

Our concept comes from a drama genre with elements of fantasy. We have chosen one main character of who will face a choice. Our character Lucas (late 20's) begins his journey at a train station on the way to a job interview. There he gets two flash forwards of two different paths he can take. The whole narrative revolves around these two flash forwards and follows Lucas's life in two extremely different narratives.

At that moment his first flash forward begins where a woman falls in front of him tripping and dropping all of her stuff. The train is about to leave and Lucas dashes forward past the woman and jumps on the train. His second path he stops and helps the woman up but missing his train. We then see his two lives, one life where he gets an amazing  job and has a lot of money, a nice car, we see elements of his life as a rich man but his loneliness. His next life the woman who he helps turns out to be the love of his life we see the second option of being happily married in an average home, yet facing struggling to pay for bills.

 Both flash forwards end with a letter being opened, the first life being a letter for a huge bonus cheque however he has no-one to celebrate it. The other life we see him open a letter with photos of their baby scans of which he celebrates with his wife. The ending shot consists of the lasting choice and the beginning shot is repeated where the woman falls and he has to make his choice however the initial choice is not revealed and left down to the audience.