Research and Planning

Short Film

Exploring short films When defining a short film we look to see whether or not it is long

enough to be considered a short film, and is most commonly know as “an original motion pictures that has a running time of 40 minutes or less (including credits)” from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

They are most commonly made my independent filmmakers with little budget and no profit at all. It is normally screened at local, national or international film festivals. Short films are usually funded by film grants, non-profit organisations, sponsors or personal funds.

Although they may seem to be less recognisable as feature films they are one of the best ways for filmmakers to gain experience and to prove their talent to help gain funding for future projects.

Short films became increasingly popular within the 1920s, with comedy short films produced in large numbers. One of the most famous subjects being Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin all started at short films. In addition to this, animated cartoons became increasingly popular from short films which spread the success of silent and very early sound era.

A look into short films – Short vs Feature

Short Feature Around 10 minutes Low budget Amateur Alternative Experimental Rarely screened Niche Audience Small costs Grainy

Around 100 minutes Big budget Professional Mainstream Formulaic Widely distributed Mass audience Large costs Glossy

Understanding film

Understanding the filmFrom our brief it shows that we need to make a short film, in order to make an effective short film it is important to be able to understand existing products to be able to follow codes and conventions. I will be discussing more about codes and conventions in the research and planning section of this blog.

GRANITE GRANITE is a commonly used to analyse a

film, this will then give me an idea of how my group films should potentially look like.

G: GenreR: Representation

A: AudienceN: NarrativeI: Institutions

T: TechnologiesE: Editing

Genre Every media text belongs to a genre. In terms of films it could be horror, comedy, drama, action and a number of others. In order for a genre to be determined or for the film to be understood they must meet a number of codes and conventions that the audience can easily adapt to. When the audience engage with a media text they have ready made expectations about what genre the film will fit in by looking at a number of generic features.Generic FeaturesCharacterisation: This feature is established when the audience can relate to the character, for example the audience often relate to the stereotypes of the character such as personalities of the main character or the stars or actors that play particular types of roles. For example, if I was to watch a film which had Jason Statham in it I would have a perceived perception that the film would be an action or thriller and it would be unlikely to see him in a rom-com.Settings: The settings of the film may help the audience establish the genre such as the geographical and historical aspects of the text.Narrative: The narrative can also help the audience identify the genre, such as predictable plot lines and narrative structure. For example with horrors the most common narrative structure is that a new family or couple buy a house in an isolated area, which happens to habitat a possessed being or object and then they have to find a priest to carry an exorcism being the possessed being takes over a main character.Mise-en-scene:Props and costumes can help to establish a genre, for example props and costumes can sometimes represent symbols and have connotations with certain types of genres.Expectations:As mentioned before some characters will have reassumed ideas of how they feel the film should be and will already have expectations of the film itself. Due to the audience having an understanding in different genres which means they already have certain expectations.

Representation Representation in media essentially means the way the

media portrays particular groups, communities, ideas or topics from a particular view or idea. As an audience we tend to be quite passive which means despite the media being false or true we still accept it, sometimes without challenging it.

Common representations made by media often surround: - Age- Gender- Ethnicity- Class- Regional Identity- Sexuality- Ability/Disability

Representation Understanding about how the film is represented we need to think about a

number of things which help us to understand. The first thing to think about is the images used, for example the images that

are used can reflect either positive or negative views on different social groups by stereotyping different groups. An example of this is particular when the media text is representing gender they tend to have the woman in red in order to represent her as a ‘siren’ or ‘tease’ to emphasise the sexual nature of the text, we e tend to look at these images as signifiers to create implied meanings.

The second thing to think about is the sound and music. Sound and music can be extremely important in representation as it helps the audience to establish what they have in common with or what they feel ‘fits in’ with that particular stereotype. For example, when a media text represents youth especially in areas such as East London the music tends to be fast paced or grime or rap.

The third thing to look at is intertextuality, this means that media representations depend on the audiences knowledge on intertextual links between different texts using similar sounds, images or languages. To understand representations we need to determine the intertextual links being made and how these are being used to represent the world.

To analyse representation in a film we need to look at several factors. Such as: who produced it, who/what was represented, why was this particular representation selected.

Audience Demographics The audience are the people who consume any media text. Due to the modern times it is very

unlikely that people can go through a day without encountering the media in some way. There are two types of audiences, one being mass which essentially means the larger group and

more mainstream audiences. And then there are they niche audiences which is a small amount of people interested in unique things are not influenced as much as the mass market.

To classify audiences we tent to look at their age, gender, race and geographical location and class. For example there are different classes of audience:

A Upper middle class (Top managers, bankers)B Middle Class (middle management, teachers)C1 Lower middle class (Junior managers, nurses)C2 Skilled working class (Tradesperson)D Working class (semi skilled and unskilled manual workers)E People at lowest level of income (unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers)

For example, “all age classification decisions are based on the BBFC’s published and regularly updated guidelines” (www.bbcf.co.uk). There are many guidelines which the BBFC follow for example, they tend to look at issues surrounding discrimination, drugs, horror, nudity, sexual violence, as well taking in consideration of the context, tone and impact of a work. When looking at the audience demographics their age is very important as it can act as a guideline towards our film to ensure that they are age appropriate.

Narrative The narrative is essentially the story and how

it is told. For example, the story refers to the events of the narrative and what actually happens within the story and plot refers to how the story in presented in terms of order and narrative logic.

Narrative Theory:Propp – character functions – hero, villain, helperTodorov – equilibrium, disequilibrium, resolution

Vogler and Campbell – The hero's journey.

Institution The institution is the company which creates

and distributes media products. When looking at film there are many ways we can spot what institution it came from, this is when codes and conventions are commonly followed. For example, every film will have a logo which establishes what they are and the brand symbolising the company.

Technologies In this modern era technology is always changing and as it changes it also changes

the way we consume media products. Using different types of technology can really affect how we see things and how we can be manipulated in certain circumstances.

One type of technology is sound which can help establish the genre and settings. Sound is broken down in two categories with one being diegetic (sound within a shot) non-diegetic (sound played over the shot)

The second type of technology used is editing, editing is an important part of filming as the editing brings the whole film together and can change the way the audience see the film and how they feel towards what is in it.

Editing Sound and images are organised into an overall narrativeContinuing editing Create a sense of reality and time moving forwardJump cut Cut between two similar shots

Credits The information at the beginning and end of the film which gives details of cast and crew

Cross cutting The editing technique of altering one narrative with another, usually in different locations or places

Juxtaposition The placement of images on either side of an edit

Cutaways A shot that interrupts a scene and goes backEye-line match Shot of what the character has been looking at

Linear narrative A style of storytelling in which events happen chronologically

Visual effects Alter previously filmed elements

Evidence When analysing a film it is important to

ensure that there is evidence to back up any points that we have made throughout our analysis. When looking at the evidence we need to ensure that we look at denotation and connotations of the media text. For example, the denotation is what we see on the screen where as the connotation is the meaning that is made by the audience.