Monday 27 September 2010

Pre-Lim task "Confessions Of An Ill Women"

http://vimeo.com/15249713
In the short film prelim task I worked in a group with Carla and Samantha. On the whole I think we worked well together there where no disagreements are short film was effective but short of Oscars. There where no major problems but I feel we could of improved our continuity in the short, as parts don’t add up perfectly. The location could have been better as t was incredibly average and didn’t add anything to are piece, if anything it destroyed the mise en scene but we didn’t have much freedom because we had to stay in school. I still feel we had a good varied choice in shots we where able to do shot reverse shot and match on action very well. Our narrative could have been deeper and more engaging but yet it was slightly comical. When it came to editing this was done with ease as we did a multiple amount of retakes for each piece of action, so we had plenty to chose from. At first it was tricky with the match on action parts but we perceived and got it right, when watching the video back I think the match on action is one of the best parts of the short. The composition of the camera could have better as when it was a close up we didn’t really fill the screen. For some unknown reason we felt to zoom in at certain points and when it came to editing we realise it looked rather childish with the unneeded zooms. I also found out that my Photoshop skills are very, very basic as I had problems creating the titles and needed miss’s help. Overall I feel our sort is okay but there are still things that could be improved but taking into account that we had 2 hours and a limited location I think we performed admirably.

Thursday 23 September 2010

About A Girl

About A Girl

Since watching short films "About A Girl" was by far the most hard hitting and skilled short.

At the begging of the film the title came up like a text message insinuating that the film will be based on something that is happening in modern society. It also helps you to start thinking about what the protagonist will be like, with the title being a text it’s a massive clue that the main actor / actress will be young as there seems to be use of technology but we soon release there is no role for technology in this film.

With the name “About A Girl” you instantly think of the mainstream film “About A boy”. You wonder if the narrative will be similar or will it be a short Imation but using a girl.

The first shot makes it hard to identify the character you can tell she’s young. Makes the audiences a tad more gripped as your dying to find out. From what your shown you come to believe the character is young, sweet, talented and ambitious, but you don’t know for sure until the next shot when she is revealed. When she is shown you see that she is young, northern and from a working class background. From the way she describes some of the recent events that happened within her family you fell they may be slightly thick ‘thinking that dental floss where worms’. The way she speaks to the camera makes it seem like a documentary there’s eye contact and her speech is delivered directly to the camera / the audience.

In the next few minutes more and more is publicized like that she lives on an estate, that her dads gone off the wall at points and both of her parents have signed on. Along with this the audience realise that she is often ignored but seems fine about it, her family treat her with little respect immediately after this it cuts to a shot of her on a bus with her friends who are similar to her in appearance and class. She enjoying herself and yet again is talking about her singing career. This shows the contrast of her personality and attitudes when she’s with her friends rather than when she’s the family loner.

Yet again more is exposed and the audience see that she has a lot more common sense than we thought she did at the begging of the film. We also come to understand that she’s is more hostile towards her mum than she is to her dad, this is shown throw the camera as it often cuts away as some as anything personal happens between her and her mum. The majority of time the mise en scene is gritty when showing the mother.

The camera helps show off her big ego by shooting her from slightly below eye contact so she seems bigger yet when we see her with adults the audience realise that she’s still just a girl. Pathetic phalicey is used constantly as the weather is always grey until the end when her problem is solved and the clouds clear.
It also comes across to the audience that her personality is her protection. She just wants to be loved yet she has no remorse. Throughout the short film no music is used thus making everything more drastic and shocking.

I feel the bag represents the baby suffocating and when the baby falls out of the bag in the water it symbolises the girl’s freedom. The bag represent the girl as the baby came out head first also the bag is disposable consequently making the audience think is that the same with the girl is she to be thrown away, worthless? Then the bag floats away and gets caught in a fence promoting the fact that she’s trapped in her environment there is no escape from what’s happening to her or around her.

History Of Short Films

History of short films

- Short films has a revolutionised the film industry. With each new advancement in film there has been a short film that sparked it off.

- In 1095 the first short film was publicly exhibited “La sortie de l’usine”. The main reason why it was short was down to technical restrictions.

- It wasn’t until 1910 when films got longer that the term “short subjects” was coined.

- “short subjects” became quite popular amongst audiences because people could go to the cinema and see three to four films rather than just one. This was important at the time as there were few forms of entertainment for the masses.

- 1930’s Hollywood block-booking. Big Hollywood studio forced small production companies to sell their shorts and then they would turn them into feature films.

- Supreme court of U.S declared block booking as illegal but the damage to short film had been done.

- The classical narrative became a 90 min or more feature film. It became more profitable for film exhibitors with a two hour turnover of film.

- With the invention of TV’s short films were able to be aired until the 1960’s.

- In the 1980’s short films were reinvented however, they were much darker and grittier. No longer about commercial success but about content and conveying a message.

- A style started to become more and more frequent with short films. Avant Garde film became more and more popular with their ahead of the crowd thinking, cutting edge styles and experimental shots.

- Maya Deren: Avant Garde director 1940 + 1950’s. She was very anti mainstream, had a strong stance within her films of promoting the idea of an artistic licence and creative freedom. One of her famous pieces of work is “Meshes Of The Afternoon”.