Sunday, 8 July 2012

Short film Narrative.

The film opens with a sequence of shots showing empty rooms within a house - particular objects are given prominence; the first of these rooms being the bathroom, living room and finally bedroom, where the camera zooms to an alarm-clock seconds before it goes off. The protagonist proceeds to wake up and move through the house - each of his movements and actions clearly shown in close-ups on his hands (which both begin and end the film). Once the alarm-clock stops a soundtrack begins to fade in and proceeds to accompany a montage of actions made by the protagonist i.e. getting dressed, making a meal - all of which will involve a number of rituals for example over obssessivley turning light switches on and off multiple times. At around the half way stage the protagonist will exit the house and the screen will fade to black with the soundtrack also proceeding to fade into silence.

The film then continues with the re-entering of the protagonist into the setting where he is suddenly confronted with the seemingly painless task of taking out the rubbish but this instead leads to a shocking climax where once performing the task the protagonist proceeds to wash his hand with obsessive amounts of soap and hot water which leads to his hands getting burnt to the point of needing bandage treatment. the signifigance and drama in this scene is highlighted equally by a series of dramatic shots - some of which may be shown in black and white or different frame rate etc.

The final sequence begins as the film ends with a sequence of shots showing empty rooms within the house, the first of these rooms being the bathroom, living room and finally bedroom, where the camera zooms to an alarm-clock seconds before it goes off. The protagonist then also proceeds go through the many strange habits of his condition with the re-entering of the original soundtrack at the point that it last cut off; though this gives the impression that nothing has changed, the real resolution comes from when the protagonist leaves the house and instead decides to leave the light switch on as he leaves the house.

The camera then fades into darkness with the continuation of the soundtrack but at a louder volume.

Possible Film Soundtrack (Emancipator - Anthem)

Friday, 22 June 2012

Short Film concept (June 2012)

Straight from when the specification for this project was given i already had a vague idea of what kind of film i wanted to make, i learnt a number of important lessons about the film-making process through the mistakes i made last year, and overall i would say i have taken a very conservative approach to this task in comparison with that of a past project when i had a huge lack of experience. i have not yet gone into specifics in regards to dialogue or other detailed aspects of the film as those have to be deliberated with my project partner, however i do know what genre and story arch i want the film to follow. In this film we essentialy follow the daily and strange routine of a teenager who suffers from OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), a disease which manifests itself in a number of unusual and shocking ways. My goal is to show some sort of insight into the life of an individual with a real condition that can not only evoke sympathy and fear from the viewer, but also be truly absorbing. Through my research of this topic I have come up with many possible sequences to take place in this film - the majority of which will be in story-board format initially.

Inspection - Short Film Evaluation



'Inspection' is one of literally dozens of short films I have viewed over the past week, however this is the first one that I decided to evaluate as it includes many of the elements I wish to incorporate in my own Short film.
Firstly the film containes a wide variety of both shot and camera techniques - with little use of film or sound editing involved; these directorial choices immediately interested me as I also had the desire to create a Film  that was minimalist but at the same time with a very defined and solid concept.

The film also runs with next to no dialogue in the lead up to a dramatic and quirky conclusion that uses both elements of shock and humour to great effect.
Some complaints I have about the film include the use of a vast location that I may struggle to acquire for my own project  as well as an overall very high quality camera that I may also have trouble providing.

This film also includes no running soundtrack - musical or otherwise after the title has appeared, this is a very effective decision in this case as there is no straying from the action as well as making the climax even more unexpected.
Overall this is a very proficient short film that I will likely take much inspiration from in order to enhance or improve my own in the future.

A2 Media Course - 2012/13

In this preliminary term of next years A2 courses, we have started media studies by being asigned the task of creating a short film in any genre/medium etc. with the minimal requirement that it be less than 2 minutes. This task resembles many projects we have been given in the previous AS media course as well as providing a basic guideline on what media projects we will be given in the coming year - if We have aspirations of continuing this course after september. In a slight alteration to last years work, we have been put into random pairs for the duration of this task however I've been placed with James Turner - a student who I already have media project experience with from last year. For this task I will research 'short film' with a priority towards English-speaking, live action films that are between 3 and 8 minutes in duration; the film production will also include story-boarding and a full evaluation of the film concept and other aspects of development.