What Is a short film?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as a film which has a run time of less than 40 minutes although for the purposes of this project we are focusing on films which are around 5 minutes.
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Star Trek Into Darkness Review Analysis
Influential Figures
Alfred
Hitchcock
He is widely known as the master of suspense and England’s
Best director.
His shots almost always tried to maximise a feeling of fear,
anxiety and empathy from the audience. Emotions we want our audience to feel
while watching our production.
Many of his films ended on a twist making his films
unpredictable. Which we shall try to use in our own production as it keeps the
audience guessing.
His best
known film Psycho is known for killing the heroine early on, to achieve the
effect he used 77 camera angles and over 50 cut shots to create the fat pace
editing that scene is known for. We could use the added shock of killing
someone of early to our advantage to grab the audience and try to keep them in
suspense.
H.P. Lovecraft
HP
Lovecraft is the man who has influenced our production the most as his work the
“Call of Cthulhu” has heavily influenced our idea. In a narrative sense as the
ending with the characters death and the heavy indication of other-worldly
influences. H.P. Lovecraft’s other work the Shadow over Innsmouth has
influenced us with the setting with the small village in the middle of nowhere.
H.P. Lovecraft’s biggest influence is the idea of strange things are happening
to the village and the hero tries to figure out what.
Genre research
The Horror genre
of film tries to gain a reaction from its audience normally fear.
The various
areas that horror normally steam from is people’s nightmares and the fear of
the unknown. Normally the antagonist in a horror film is some sort of
paranormal entity such as zombies, ghosts and some sort of spirit/ demon or if
the antagonist is human they have some sort of mental illness.
The there
are various sub-genre such as Gore with films like Saw and the House on the
Left, Psychological with films like Psycho, Killer/Slasher with films like
Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Monster films can
be further divided into sub genres of itself.
Horror Form research
Credits at the end – Fist of Jesus
Gore SFX – Unedited footage of a bear, Fist of Jesus, Waterborn
Brief feeling of normality (Equilibrium) before the action takes off. The locations seem normal as if nothing would happen.
We hope to use the equilibrium that all of these have used to ease the audience in with a false sense of security, then when they have let their guard down we will hit the audience with a jump scare or another Horror genre staple.
Horror Conventions
One convention
of a Horror film that we will
most using is the idea of minimalist cast as we will be using the ‘hero’ and
the villain.
Another convention would be the over use of mist (If we can
get it) and shadows as this will hopefully increase the atmosphere for our
production.
Another convention would be the use of shots to amplify an
emotion (normally) fear in the audience.
The use of horror styled props such as masks and weapons
with blood on them will also be used.
Another convention that we will be following is a twist
ending as this will hopefully shock the audience as the will not expect it.
The
convention that we will be breaking will be the fact that the Villain will be
victorious over the ‘hero’.Technical research
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSjBi_TGNJE
What we learned :
As you can probably tell from these video's. We're not the smartest group when it comes to understanding new technology, given our previous attempts were passable at best, I knew we needed to find something to help us understand the editing software better and thanks to these videos we now do. With the first video it was our most frequent problem shaky cam! Our past productions have been plagued by this and now we now to quite simply fix that problem. The second video was more for me than my partner as I am absolutely HOPELESS at editing and now I feel as if I have a basic understanding of how to edit our work. The final video is going to help us with a different aspect of our work, the logo of our production
Marketing and Branding
link to the Marketing and Branding Prezi :
https://prezi.com/embed/ra9_r17-pe7k/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE1Ed1RSMU13aUlPSnVHRGJKTlNuejlpVEkxQUtOVWUvRTc5VjYwWjUzUT0&landing_sign=F0tN_ZgLCxqZpk50uw9aCNX0_7zdZ5Br_8hJyisbELE"
Initial Questionnaire
Final Questionnaire
Results from our final questionnaire
Gender of audience
Male = 17
Female = 9
Other response given = 1
Age of audience
17 = 15
16 = 1
18 = 6
29 = 1
32 = 1
43 = 1
38 = 1
other = 1
Hero gender
Female = 8
Male = 13
Other = 6
Hero ethnicity (one person did not answer this)
Black = 2
Afro-American = 1
White = 13
Caucasian = 2
Other = 8
Hero Class (one person did not answer this)
Upper = 2
Middle = 10
Working = 5
Other = 8
Other Information given about Hero
- Drug lord
- Macaulay Culkin
- Quite dench, cool voice so that we grow close to him (and then he dies)
- Generic
- Google
- The focus of a horror movie shouldn’t be the protagonist, it should be how they survive the challenges posed by the villain as such these things don’t matter.
- A man caring for his family
- Pretty fly for a white guy
- Hot
- I’m Thinking Rick Grimes here!
- Based on stereotypes could deviate
- Lighter clothing more conservative
- To have good morals
Villain Gender (one person did not answer this)
Male = 20
Female = 1
Other = 4
Villain Ethnicity (two people did not answer this)
White = 9
Caucasian = 2
English/German = 1
Other = 12
Villain Age (one person did not answer this)
10000 = 1
12 = 1
10 = 1
40’s = 4
60’s = 1
30’s = 6
Adult = 3
other = 8
Villain Class (two people did not answer this)
Upper = 5
Middle = 7
Lower = 4
Other = 8
Other Information about Villain
- Swag Lord
- Joe Pesci
- Female fatale
- Devil Child
- The Villain should be simply opposition for the Protagonist, and this can come in many forms so these things are unimportant.
- Ugly
- Based on stereotypes could deviate
- Dark clothing
- Have a supernatural element
Idea’s people had to help us with our production
- A guy wakes up with bruises and then begins to remember parts of the torture, but keeps why to the end of the story
- Maybe you could kill off most of the characters including the camera operator
- Needs some banter
- I used Google
- Don’t film in the woods
- Watch the Walking Dead
- Used conventional low key lighting where necessary, conventional sound (diegetic and non diegetic) typography usually uses a serif font unless it’s a more modern narrative and then sans serif, conventional colours e.g black, grey, red and white. Consider the locations and clothing carefully. Use more than one costume per character
Audience Profiling
The audience for my short
film will be male from 18-40 with a female minority. (From a survey done by
fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s work 85% of them were male and 15% were female)
With a taste for short film,
they would be from the B and C2 in the social economic groups as they would
have disposable income for books like H.P. Lovecraft or they would be working class and
look at them for free online. They would also be the part of the reformer group
as they would like media which is not be main stream. They would also be the
kind of people who look for a more niche section of the media world. Those who
find it randomly as many may not go out and find H.P. Lovecraft short films and
short films in general. There would be two main groups of people. The first
being people who are looking for H.P. Lovecraft related media such as short
film and the other being those who love short films. Their interest will short
films and the H.P. Lovecraft books.
The younger section of our
target audience would be the ones who are more likely to actively go and look
for new short films to watch. So they would be more likely to watch the film
because of the fact that it is new rather than the niche horror section it
belongs to though that would be a factor for a minority of them.
The older section of our
target audience would be the ones that are more likely to watch the film
because of the niche section of horror that it takes its inspiration from.
(Lovecraftian horror). The fact that it is a new short film set in this niche
horror section would be a contributing factor for the older section as they
would be happy that an area that is quite small is increasing in size because
of its small fan base we will get some people who are fans of the genre to
watch it.
Conventions of a Horror film
One convention of a Horror film that we will most using is the idea of minimalist cast as we will be using the ‘hero’ and the villain which is common in almost all film as well as this the hero must also over come the villain which is another common convection although given we are in the Lovecraftian sub genre and in all those films such as dago the villain wins.
Another convention would be the over use of mist (If we can get it) and shadows as this will hopefully increase the atmosphere for our production and so be a part of the aesthetic style which we are using.
Another convention would be the use of shots to amplify an emotion (normally) fear in the audience which is all horror films other than those which are joint comedy although this is a small sub genre.
The use of horror styled props such as masks and weapons with blood on them will, also be used this gives the idea of a gory aesthetic which is a common in all horror films.
Another convention that we will be following is a twist ending as this will hopefully shock the audience as the will not expect it.
The convention that we will be breaking will be the fact that the Villain will be victorious over the ‘hero’ as in all the films we have analysed the endings have done this as well and so has the source material.
Audience theory
They will be niche as it both a short film and based off and around a book series and so some level of large income will be required although the short film being free also mean it will working class people as well. it will be male from 30-40 and teenagers who like the gothic style. as well as this they will be reformers because they will not follow the main stream and are into niche media such as short films as well as this as more than likely book readers they are likely to be will read and so might feel a need to change the wold around them. as well as this they may also create identity with in the fan bases who like this genre of horror and like short films. as well as this it may also entertain them and teach them about the world this is how uses of gratification theory applies to my production. They may also be a innovators as they are into media which is constantly changing and evolving like short film and into books so again they may have a basic understand of more modern media such as film. Two-step flow as a niche H.P. Lovecraft would be my productions option leader and so his ideas may be injected into the audience mind. The piece will also help for fill the need for self-actualization as it may give insight into some interesting ideas and themes. It will also be for achievers because of this
Narrative theory
In are short film to follow the conventions of the genre we will not be have any narrative strands as this is what is common in the books and the others types of media made use sing his work.as well as this it will be non-linear as it starts at he being with the characters grave and so like the others films and books we will start from the end because it is non-linear this will mean that we cannot follow the 5 narrative components as it starts at the new equilibrium and ends at it and goes back wars and then forwards this is known as reverse chronology.to apply Toddorov theory of character given there will be one main protagonist who would severs as this as well as a dispatcher and there is only one villain who would also serve as an anti-hero.
Social Media Research
We posted this questionnaire on Facebook, but unfortunatly no one replied to the questions so there is little we can gain from this.
Analysis of other Student's Work
Networked
Mise-En-scene
The Mise-En-scene for the first shot and for the majority of
the film is quite normal we start in a normal enough village and see a group of
friends the costume of the actors are what we would expect from a group of
16-18 year olds jeans, branded tee-shirts and one of them carries a bag the
then split off and go their separate ways. The next location is where the
majority of the film takes place in what is a normal bedroom. Nothing seems to
be unusual until he clicks on the “Like this and you will die” button and
that’s when things start to go strange but the location and setting doesn’t
change for the rest of the film.
Camera and Editing
The
use of camera and effects in this short film are very well done and seems to
blend in seemlessly such as Facebook being in the foreground and the pixilated
view when what is this films antagonist gets closer and closer to our hero.
These shots add tension and makes you feel like you are the antagonist. The
editing of the short film is also well done each shot lasts just as long so it
doesn’t seem drawn out and it keeps you hocked and willing to watch more.
Sound
The sound in this short film is
all non-diegetic as there is no diolouge just the sound effects that they have
put into their production and if there was diolouge I think that the short film
would suffer. As without dilouge the sound builds up the tension on it’s own
and even though we know that something is going to happen when it does it is,
still shocking when the inevitable jump happens and that is all thanks to the
high quality sound that the production uses.
Sketch(A* grade short film)
Email to professionals
Focus Group
Focus Group summary
We can learn that we need to keep the plot linear as not to confuse the adoiuce as well as this we can uses flash backs but only if it makes sense this is because they see most other kinds of structures as either confusing in the context of horror.
So they don't help to add horror also it can come off as pretentious also stated that we should focus on the villain and the horror.
They also wont the protagonist to go against the stereotype so he will need to as we jokingly said to be an ugly black man ,although this does mean that hero will not have to be active and will be able to go against the stereotype as well as this they also said the hero will have to be morally dubious as well, as this we should not be afraid to kill off characters and build tension when we do so we wont be repetitive with are characters.
The editing we could use is going to be fast but only in the action scenes and that we need make sure we do not hold on long shot for long that may not be need and may just draw put the sequence as it can be over sued as well we where told not to 2001 a space odyssey and that when action takes place to use quick editing when action is happening lastly the wanted the aesthetic to be realistic and to uses conventional dark forest not unrealistic lighting make sure it looks like the light is meant to be there not to much fog.
Focus Group Consent
Progress report
So far we have found out what kind of characters are good for our target audience which are different from what we started with. As well as this we also know how the print media we are going to make looks like and which genre of short film it is and how it looks on print cover and how it will look as well. As this we also know how it looks aesthetically we will still uses the H.P. Lovecraft universe but the villain which can be seen by the research above is what we will use. As well as this we may also need to change location, as well as this there is also a clear time by other stunt work where the time was around 3mins which will be about as much content as we plan to create. Other than this so far no new information has been gained.
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