Short film poster draft 1

Applications that will help me

Sound Short Film

As I decided that I would not have any dialogue in the short film it was easier for me to mute all of the clips so there was no diegetic sound in them. I found that it was hard to try and create my own music for the short film so I decided that I would find my own music to use in the background. I was watching a youtube video in which I heard some music which I liked, luckily they had listed the artist in the description box so I researched them. I found that they had a sound cloud and that I was able to find her music for free. Therefore I decided to download one song called The Falling, this was only a minute and  a half however so I would have to replay the song. It would work though as there is only one verse and this goes well with story behind it as the lyrics say that they have lost something which she has. I have put the song over the title to create a sound bridge, the song then lowers in volume when my voiceover comes in.

I recorded my voice in addition to the music and this is only in certain places in the short film. I created a script in which I read from I did try to pick the best places to record my voice so it works well however this was harder to do as I couldn't quite get to grips how it counted down before hand so I did have to rerecord some of the voiceovers. I am glad that I didn't do it all in one take as I think that it would have gone wrong and then I would loose a lot of time. 

Overall I think the sound works well for the short film, although I do not have any special sound effects it's ok as the music has a particular style and as most of the shots are indoors it would be hard to find different effects that are realistic to use.

Draft 2 Of short film

Here is my second draft of my short film, the clips have all been put together but there is not any dialogue yet which is what I will add on later. I have rearranged all of the clips to make it longer and have added some various effects to make it more engaging a run smoothly. I have also added the music that I have looped throughout as there are only some lyrics and it works well with the style of the video. I have also added some more videos before the scene outside to show more of how she is living and what she goes through daily.

Jacques Derrida's theory

Jacques Derrida's was a French Philosopher known for developing a form of semiotic analysis better known as deconstruction.  Deconstruction is a philosophy form of philosophical and literary analysis that derived from Jacques Derrida's work of grammatology. 

During his career Derrida published 40 books, he had a significant influence upon humanities and social sciences, Jacques work also influenced architecture in the form of deconstructivism.

Deconstruction denies the possibility of a pure presence and of essential or intristic and stable meaning, therefore there is no absolute truth to 'reality'. A famous quote from Derrida stated "From the moment that there is meaning there are nothing but signs. We think only in signs."

But how does deconstruction relate to films and how can it be used with my short film?
In films people suggest that there are always more than one meaning and that there are many ways that you can perceive one thing. Some people believe that the literal meaning of a particular item in a shot or how it has been editing etc has been done in that way for a reason, however Jacques Derrida says that there could be multiple reasons for why. He believes that when you destruct a film you should look for more specific meanings. 

My text is open to variable readings and your intended, preferred reading is only one of a multiplicity of readings. But is this really true? I think my short film is because the part in which she is dreaming could possibly look as though she is actually living it in real life, some people may change the idea of the original and can have different readings. 

There are three positions:
-objectivist: meaning entirely in text ('transmitted') 
-constructivist: meaning in interplay between text and reader ('negotiated')
-subjectivist: meaning entirely in its interpretation by readers ('re-created')

The constructivist meaning is the most important and truthful. 

Apparatus theory and Screen Theory

Apparatus theory, derived in part from Marxist film theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema studies during the 1970s. It maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are ideological and because the films are created to represent reality. It mechanics of representation include the camera and editing. This theory also suggests that within text's perspective, the central position of the viewer is ideological. This effect is ideological because it is a reproduced reality and the cinematic experience affects the viewer on a deep level. Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature and it shapes the way the audience thinks.

Screen theory is a spectacle that creates the spectator and not the other way round. The fact that the subject is created and subjected at the same time by the narrative on screen is masked by the apparent realism of the communicated content.

REECE

I needed to do a very detailed REECE for my short film as the different locations had very different aspects that could harm my actors. It will allow me to see what things could be dangerous and how I would need to change them to make it ok to film in. I have a various locations from indoors to outside so I will have to do a REECE on all of them and also the different technological things I will need to check to make sure they are safe. As I am indoors for most of the time it will be easier to do a Reece as there will not be as many restrictions and dangers, also as I am filming in my friends house she can tell me what it the best thing to use or if there are any dangers. 

Firstly where most of the filming was done was in the bedroom, there are some photos on the left which was where the filming took place. As you can see the space is rather small as I took the photos in the doorway of the bedroom. Therefore I will have to be careful when filming close up as there is not a lot of room for more than one person so I will have to make sure there are no obstacles in the way. Also as the storyline states the girl is rather messy so the room has to look a bit cluttered therefore there could be things on the floor that people could trip over. I also need to look at the different spaces available to put the camera in the room. 

I need to make sure that all the wires for anything are out of the way so that I can make sure that there aren't any trip hazards, as my camera is battery operated I do not have any wires that this needs to be plugged in. However I wanted a light in the room to make the lighting look a bit brighter so I will have to be careful with this wire and I will have to celotape it down to the floor so nobody trips over it.

When outside I will have to look at the different types of flooring as my tripod will have to be placed on it so it can not be uneven because then it might fall and my camera could possibly break. If there is uneven flooring I will have to tell my actors so they can avoid it as I don't want them to trip.

I will have to have a look at the weather before hand so I can see if the conditions are ok to film in. As it is getting darker at night I will have to make sure the lighting is ok so my continuity editing will be ok. Also the temperature could be an issue, although most of the filming is indoors I will have to make sure that they are wearing appropriate clothing for the heat. I don't want them standing around whilst I sort out the camera for the next shot so I will make sure I am filming close to somewhere that they can stand in the warm if it is cold. 

This REECE will help me look at the different aspects of danger whilst filming and allow me to change anything that could be a possible hazard. I will talk through the hazards and dangers of each location with my actors to make sure that they have got a rough idea of what to do incase any thing goes wrong.

Research into film posters

I have chosen a few posters in which I will research the different ideas behind them. Some are students work and some are professional short films however they all work well and it will hopefully give me some inspiration behind my own. I have already completed two textual analysis on a conventional and non conventional short film posters however I need to do some more research behind the ideas of short films and how the stereotypical features of the posters work well and how the different features could work with my short film.

Purge is a professional short film directed by Brad Kammlah, struggling to mask the pain from years of sexual abuse, Joy finds herself trapped in a secret addiction. But when her mother refuses to believe the truth about her father, Joy tries her own way out.
The short film won multiple awards including Best dramatic short film and three awards for the best actress. 
The poster for this short film to me works well with the synopsis of the film as I have yet to watch it however to me it looks quite amateur. The font doesn't really stand out for me as the film is about a girl who has been struggling for sexual abuse so I find that it could be bigger. Also the bill block could be bigger as well, for the amount of awards they have won and the directors name being on the front it must be well adapted and produced so I would have thought that the manes could be bigger. I like the white as it represents her innocence however the background that it is on makes some of it hard to read. The title of the film is good as Purge means that they get rid of their impurities and that is obviously what she is trying to do in the film. I think the picture works but it is not the best as I think it looks like an a level students work because of the blur in the background, the green in the background as well looks as though it is grass and the story is about how she is trapped in a building. Overall I like the effect that it has given me but I don't think I will use anything like this. As I have already chosen my picture which is of her face the eyes are the most important especially as the title is about her eyes, I feel as though this poster is showing her eyes most so that is the only thing that I will probably use from this poster.

Frankie is a short film that was written and directed by Mike Pappa, when a watch repair man acquires an antique pocket watch that can control time, he decides to use it to achieve his dreams. His plans soon become sinister when he learns he isn't the only one with the knowledge of the pocket watch.
The poster for this short film is animated and it shows another way of creating a poster. I will probably not be doing this as I can not draw however it is good to get some research about the other ways of how people are creating film posters. This is one of my favourite posters that I have seen because they have especially paid attention to detail. The shadow of the man works as the two hands of the clock which I think is very clever because the story is about a pocket watch, also the fact that he is looking at his watch signifies how the storyline is about this. I like how the bill block is at the bottom of the page so there is more emphasis on the photo, however I am not very keen on the font because it is too spaced out. There could also be some space between the title because it looks as though that could be someones name who has taken part or helped the short film. Overall the colours are very effective because the black in the background allows the audience to look at the the main elements more. Also the geometrical lines allows the picture to look like the hands of the clock. 

Saturday is a short film about the Hillsborough disaster that took place on April 15th 1989. Mike Forshaw who is an independent filmmaker from Liverpool needed to receive some money to make this so he tried to persuade companies and individuals to donate and he managed to get over £25,000 to make this short film. It has been chosen out of thousands of films to be shown at the Sundance festival. Therefore creating a short film about a situation or an event that people can all remember is very popular. He created this short film on his perspective of that day and his documentation of his feelings and his own memory. This short film was finished this year however because the event has been in the press recently they have not yet allowed anyone to see it. 
The poster is one of my favourites as it is so simple but yet very effective, the two boys in the different football shirts which have been placed backwards from the date of the disaster. The lad who has turned around is significant to all of the people who watched the event unfold, also not being on the location that you would expect makes it look as though it is very thought provoking and the two boys shows the innocence at the young age. Having a small line about the events makes it easy for people to understand what it is about and gains some viewers. Overall I like the fact they have thought about the fact that the image represents how the short film will make you feel.

Editing Short film

When I created my short film I looked back at all of the shots and decided that a lot of them were too dark, therefore I had to edit all of the clips to make the saturation higher so I could see all the clips. The good thing about this was that I could hold down all of the clips that I wanted at the same and then edit it all together to get the same effects through out so the film is consistent. I then also added various effects such as fade to black and white to make it look as though she is dreaming and have changed the amount of time that they are on for as they were currently to short so I had to make it longer to make the effect work well with the next clip. In addition to these I added an iris and a horizontal wipe to make sure I had various editing techniques. 

I have made sure I have a match on action as well as some slow motion clips; all of these show that I have developed my editing skills from my prelim task.

As well as the obvious techniques I have edited my voiceover to make sure that it is clear and fit to the specific video clip, in addition to this I have muted the sound in the clips to make sure that any diegetic sound that I didn't want was not heard. I have also had to change the level of the background music whilst my voice over is on to make sure that it can be heard. 

Finally I have had to create my title and end credits, this was the most difficult and time consuming part of creating my short film. As I decided to have images from my protagonists past I had to scan them onto the computer before uploading them onto iMovie, I then had to edit them to make them look crisp and that the photo didn't look old and would work on the film. Some of the images were of different sizes so I decided that I would use kens burns to make them all of the same size at the end. I also made them all of the same length so that it ran smoothly together. I then added the final image of her now and put the title across this. The only problem that I had with this was that I to try and use the same writing for the end credits however I created the title credits on final cut pro and they had different fonts than iMovie so I had to change the font at the end however it is not as different as I thought. 

Editing Schedule

After I finished filming I decided to straight away start to edit as this would be the most laborious task and yet the most important. I wanted to use final cut pro and this was located at school on the macs however I find that I work better at school and after I started to edit the beginning titles I decided that it would be easier for me to try and do it on my macbook at home. The only problem with this was that I only have iMovie which didn't have as many tools that I could work with. I have editing something on there before so I know that it wouldn't be the best application to use when it came to edit my shot film. Therefore I looked at final cut pro and found out that it was quite expensive and I was not willing to pay the price when I could essentially do it at school, however it came to my attention that it had a 30 day free trial in which I could edit my short film and upload it. This was what I have now on my laptop and what I am using to edit all of the clips together. Final cut pro is the best way to edit my short film as it has lots of different effects, sound effects, titles and different but easy ways to put the different shots together.

I decided that the first thing that I must do was to have a look at all of my different videos and upload them all to my computer so they are saved and then I can look through them and get rid of the ones that are not up to standard and are maybe bloopers, it will then allow me to work with the ones that I have left and I can then put them in order. I find it best to put the shots in chronological order first before cropping and cutting them as it is harder to try and find the shot that you want within another 100 videos. This will be the first thing that I will do and then I can go onto edit them together. I have all together about 60 videos which I will try to add in the short film, even just some small snippets from each one because they have taken time to try and shot.

The next thing that I will do will be cutting them together and finding which parts will be best to use as well as looking at which ones would work well together, whilst I edit these I will jot down notes on what I need to do with the individual shots as they may need different colouring or sound effects. After I have cut them I can then go onto putting the transitions between them all. I don't want anything that is too extravagant like the 3d rectangle or arrows etc, I want to try and use only the natural ones that I can then blog about in my editing log. 

I also then need to look at the titles of my film as I can then see the length of my short film and how much more I need to edit it down to. As I have decided on having old photos of my protagonist for the beginning title I need to find something that works well, I didn't really want the edit to stop for a blank background I wanted to have a picture of my actor now and then have some text over it. But at the end I really want a stereotypical credit which might take a couple of seconds. I will edit these and out the words that I need on them.



Penultimately I will listen to some music and then attach it to the shots that need it, there are already some sound effects on final cut pro so I will have a look at some of these to make sure that I have some diegetic sound. A lot of the music that I will use will have to have no lyrics because of the audio which will also have to be put on before hand as it is a voice over, there is garage band on my mac I will try to use it to put something together however I am not going to promise anything from it. A lot of music that I have already looked at is on a free website online however they are all different to what I want so I will have to play around with the music side of things to try and adapt it for my short film.

Lastly I will have to look back through my editing and check if everything looks clean and if it all makes sense. After getting peoples opinions and feedback I can go back through it and change the parts that need tweaking and look through other videos that I could use instead.





As there are only 30 days on my trial I will have to try and do all of the editing within that time and make sure that when it is finished there is nothing to change.

I will start the trial on the 1st of december as I had already completed some of the beginning on the macs at school so I thought that this would be a very good time to do it. As there is a school holiday I have plenty of time at home to get the short film finished.

1st december - Look through all of the footage and delete the things that I will not need
3rd december- Put all of the footage in chronological order
4th december- Edit some of the clips together
6th december- Edit the rest of the clips and start colour correcting
7th december- Try to make sure the transitions are clean
9th decmber- Start looking at music and the different sound effects within final cut pro
10th december- Add the music to the clips that I have already
13th december- make sure that all of the titles and footage has been edited together correctly
15th december- Look at the final footage and ask some feedback from what I have done
17th-30th december- Look back and do any editing that I need to complete to make it the best that it can be!!

Conventions of short film posters

There are differences between a feature length film poster and a short film poster some are similar however. When researching short film posters is was hard to find the differences between the two, but when looking closely there are certain elements that can be seen on all short film posters. They are both created using the same editing technique so they both look professional and more authentic. The film posters are what the audience sees first so this attracts them to watch the film, most short film posters have less information on them, a feature length film poster sometimes has a tagline which gives some information away as they have so much detail that it will be easier to understand. It does have a title and a billing block, whereas a feature length film usually has a release date as well. Some short film posters have a screen shot of a picture from the film whereas a feature length film usually has a photo that has been taken specifically for the poster and in a famous location. As short films conventionally have limited characters the bill block will be smaller than usual, in addition the fonts can tell the genre. 

colour correction

I have had to upload this blog post as images because I used word and if I copied it straight onto blogger the font would change so I have print screened them and uploaded them as images. 

Different types of Short film

Although there are various genres of short films sometimes they are made to show a certain incident or event that occurred, or to establish a particular story or thoughts.

• Romance (plots that follow the focus of passion, lust and emotion, usually allows the audience to follow the characters journey for love)
• Comedy (light hearted dramas and can sometimes be humorously dark but are used to make the audience laugh)
• Sci-Fi (often set in futuristic environments that show advances in technology and special effects)
• Drama (often portrays real life situations and based on real people and often used to show humans in their best and worst light)
• Animation (the use of stop motion cinematography or hand drawn to tell a story of any kind)
• Horror (created to scare and terrify the audience)
• Documentary (non fictional, factual works which are mainly narrative based)
• Film noir (is not specifically a genre but rather the mood, style, point of view and tone of a film)
• Action (designed for audience escapism and often have fight scenes, stunts and continuous action that is fast paced due to editing techniques)
• Historical (based on past events)

Research into castaway on the moon

Castaway On The Moon was a film that inspired my short film, I have decided that I will need to research this film more as people might think that it is odd to have a film from a different country. I watched this a couple of years ago with my brother who had currently lived in South Korea and I asked how the different media in Korea were. He offered to watch this with me as he suggested that I would like it, and I did.

After failing to kill himself by jumping off a bridge, the man is washed up on a sedated island in the middle of the river, but within view of the city's high-rises. He attempts to escape, but soon accepts his fate and the challenges in living on the island. A reclusive young woman, who takes close-up shots of the moon and has not left her apartment in years, spies him on the island and comes to think of him as her own alien.

When it came to thinking about different ideas for short films I thought it would be easier to use influences from feature length films. The only international film I have seen is this so it always sticks in my mind, the different story lines in the film are very clever and choosing one to be similar to my short film was hard but I think that it makes a very good short film.

The isolated girl in the film was a part that I thought I could adapt to make it work for my own short film, the only issue is as they are a high budget film the set is able to portray her life and her lonely way of living. As I do not have a lot of money to spend I will have to try and adapt the storyline through the use of camera angles and editing as it is hard for me to dress the room in such a way that they did.

I will most likely watch the film again so I can have a look at the room and the short clips that allows the story to come together so I have a better idea of how to edit the short film. 

Below is the trailer so you have an idea of what the film is like and a clip of the female protagonist which I am looking at.


   

Organisation of actors, costume and props, locations

I need to think in detail about the different costumes and props that I will use, the locations that I need to study and perform a REECE on also I need to organise my actors.

I decided to use my actor that I used for my as media, she was very helpful and said that I could use her house as well which was easy to get too as it is 5 minutes away from school and my house. It was ideal for my short film as it is located at the front of the house and so I can film outside on to the street. Also I needed her to have a small room as it allows the audience to see how she is isolated and lonely, the small room however is difficult to film and the lighting makes it harder to try and get the continuity editing correct.

The different locations make it easy to film as they are all close together so organising it will allow me to look at the different locations in detail and see if they are ok to film. As Noel my actor lives 5 minutes away from the park near school it could be easy to film there and I know that other students from school have used that location so I will be able to use the park. The only thing about this is that I will have to do a detailed health and safety check on the park and other people could be there at the same time which would make it harder to film. I will not use any other locations as it is about a student in a confined space so filming in a lot of locations will not make the story clear.

I talked to my actor to see what times I could film her, before I started we made a timetable however she recently got a job so every time I can film I have to check with her first as otherwise I will turn up and she will not be there. When I have media lessons she has free lessons so I have quite a lot of free time to film.

As she is alone the costume has to be quite casual and maybe even slobby. Her hair will always be up, her face will have no makeup because she does not have anybody to impress. During the dream scene I might get her all dressed up with her hair down and her make up done as she is dreaming about her favourite things and how she wants to be. The other girl who she sees could be dressed in her clothes as a child in the photos or something similar. I have had difficulty trying to get the costumes to be the same for the continuity as Noel has sometimes not got the clothes that we have had before so she has worn something different, I have got around this by her falling asleep so the clothes can be different. 

I have not got a lot of props in mind as there is nothing that I need to have ideally because she is stuck in her bed room. I will probably have a laptop, a book and things that a normal girl will have to keep her occupied. 

Target Audience

short film titles

A short film must always have a name so people can gain a little bit of information from it, most of the short film titles I have researched only have 1 name so I thought that maybe that was a stereotype however I couldn't really think of a multitude of one word titles that would fit for my short film. 
I had a few options for my short film title so it was difficult for me to decide on which one I wanted to use. Therefore I asked my audience and gained some feedback, the title that had the most votes I would then use for my front cover and in my short film. There was 4 different options, 3 were quite similar so some found it hard to choose but overall the title with the most votes was Through my eyes. The others that they could choose from were: 
Prism,
From the outside looking in,
Through the lens,
Through my eyes.

I also showed them the draft of my front page with that title on and they said that the amount of words worked well because of the positioning. In addition as the picture was of the protagonists eyes the title worked well. When I shared the plot to them they thought that Through the lens which was the second popular didn't work well for the short film as the character is quite shy so she probably wouldn't be talking directly to the camera/lens. 
As the short film is about how the cousin is always there even though she does not know it   it can also work as the cousin is seeing her 'Through her eyes.' As well as the main protagonist seeing her life the way it is 'Through her eyes'. I am pleased with this option and I will work with it now when filming my short film so I can try and get the title across. 

Raw footage

This is my raw footage for my short film which I have uploaded to youtube, I will look at it in detail and bullet point what parts I ideally need to change and what things I like and will keep the same.
As this is only the raw footage I have not edited it together yet, just put the clips in chronological order so it will help me for when it comes to editing, therefore it might not make a lot of sense. 

Things I need to change:

• The beginning part with the photos needs some work with the editing. As I wanted to make it look as though it is a photo montage, when I looked at the different photo montages in films they were edited together really well as they portrayed the feel of a slideshow. I feel as though my film is quite static and when I add some music over the top I will have to look and see whether it changes.
• I will have to speed up the photos as well as they are a bit small.
• I need to think of a title to put in the space that I have.
• I must mute the beginning part and maybe see if I can make it lighter as it is hard to see.
• Think about putting a voice over on it.
• Look at the different editing that I could use

Things I will keep the same:

• The boarder around the photos at the beginning.
• The photo of the main protagonist 
• Where the title will go
• The low angle
• The eye line match of the almond

I do need to change quite a lot of this as it still looks quite messy and I will have to add more dialogue and clips to allow the story to come across. 

Research methods

To create my short film I will need to use research methods for gathering the information needed that the film appeals to the target audience. 

The main research methods are:
Primary- This is research you carry out personally
Secondary- Research you gather from other people
Quantitative- This is when you carry out questionnaires/surveys and you look for a pattern or tree within peoples answers/responses
Qualitative- This method investigates the why and how of decision making and people's opinions, ideas and thoughts and feelings.

As primary research is things that I carry out personally it is the main one that I will use. Examples of primary research methods are: questionnaires, polls/surveys, focus groups, email/text/letter, interviews and textual analysis of other short films. One advantage is that the researcher can have control over the information that is collected and gathered. Also with primary research the researcher can gather qualitative and quantitive data together so they can get a range of different feedback. However one disadvantage of primary research is that it can be expensive compared to secondary and you will have to pay to get the information and sort out interviews etc. An advantage of using questionnaires is that they can gather information quickly, they are easy to create and you can get direct answers. However one disadvantage is that they can lie and they can be time consuming. Another advantage for surveys is that they are not expensive and they can be informal if that is what you wanted in your short film. One disadvantage to this is that people might not be interested to answer and may again lie. One advantage for email is that it is cheap and it is easy to get people opinions. One disadvantage is that it can be reported as junk mail and it also could be ignored. 

Secondary research is where you gather information from someone else so it is much easier to collect. Examples of secondary research methods are: search engines, books, magazines and websites. One advantage of secondary research is that it is very accessible and you can always get information from anywhere as there is something about this topic in either one of the examples I gave and a plus side is this it is free. However one disadvantage is that the research may not be in the suitable format that you need and the text could possible be enough or not enough detail. One advantage for the internet is that it is free and you can gather a lot of information from specific websites. One disadvantage is that the information on the websites could not be reliable and maybe taken from other sources first. One advantage from books is that it is mostly correct information and it is easy to find the information you needs. One disadvantage is that is will expensive if you buy the books you use.

The research methods that I will tend to use will be primary and quantitive research because they are an easy way to collect the data that I require for my short film and they are the easiest ways to find opinions on the key features, such as the edit, camerawork, sound and mise en scene. How it attracts them and what they like and dislike about my front cover.

Timetable for my filming

A timetable is key to any production of any type of filming, you need to not only know what to film but WHEN to film. When I planned my prelim task I created a timetable so it would help me to achieve something that is easily understandable, a timetable allows you to film scenes within a time limit so you don't have the stress of when it comes to film without any idea of when and where you are going. I have researched the different types of timetables that would work for me as I only have a specific amount of time to film in. As my main character who I am filming only lives 5 minutes away from me and she also goes to the same school it is perfect to film her. As I can travel to and from the two locations easily I will have to think at what points in the day I want to film in these certain areas. As it is a day to day life of her and the character is quite gloomy it would be good to do it in the evening this will also make my shots look the same as it will have the same lighting. Also as the character does not want to be seen it will work better. The only thing is that as it is a day to day life video it will have to be during different types of the day. All of the filming will have to be done by october half term so I can then have plenty of time to edit however with other attributes to my weekly planner such as work I will not be able to film at the weekend. When looking at other a level students timetables they have worked during lesson and allowed them self to film, luckily for me I have a triple lesson where I am allowed to film so I will have the opportunity to go and look at the different locations. Underneath is a students timetable for their filming for their short film, they have decided to film on 5 different days in 3 different locations whereas I will only be filming on a maximum of 3 days. Firstly I will need to think of the different mise on scene that I need to include like her costume and different props in her house, this will need to be included in my timetable as I will need to think of when I need to take the equipment out like the camera and tripod as well as thinking about the different props that I will need to buy for the filming. As the bedroom has a lot of different things that could be included I need to think about the continuity of the different shots and make sure that everything that was there in the first place it put back in the same spot. 

Below is an example of a students timetable which has helped me find out the best way to structure my own. They have managed to do this online and have also added information about the different locations and what they are filming. I have not done this as I have done a storyboard that has this in so I can put a bit more detail in it and therefore will give me more of an understanding of what I am going to film. They have also said that they are doing most of it in lesson time where I will do it more in my free time as I can then leave the editing to school as I have the macs which are better for me to use.

Here is my timetable which in it has my filming schedule. I will start on wednesday 8th October where I can sort out my equipment I need, last time I took my camera but it ran out of battery so I just took the photos on my phone which worked but I think they would be better quality, therefore I will make sure I have enough batteries for my camera before committing to filming. Also when I looked around the place that I was going to film it was quite a small room therefore I needed to think of making my equipment limited and I will only use the tripod if I desperately need it. 

On the friday that week I looked at the locations that I was going to film and took some photos in which I could do my REECE about, I must make sure that all of the locations are safe and that it is the best place to film, the lighting is good and if I am allowed to film there. I decided that when I was storyboarding I wanted to start my film with some old pictures of my actress whilst growing up, therefore I needed to look through some pictures. Luckily my friend didn't mind me looking through her photos so I was able to pick the best ones, as I looked through I found that most of them were with her cousin which made me think about my storyline and what could happen. (I picked 10 all together.) On the friday that week I looked at the locations that I was going to film and took some photos in which I could do my REECE about. On the following Monday I started filming the opening scenes to the film and uploaded the footage to my macbook at home to see how they turned out, unfortunately though some of the footage was rather dark and it was hard to see the actress so I needed to re-film on a different idea. On the tuesday I decided to start editing and filmed again to make sure that the bit that was dark was then ok. 

I have yet to start the other part of the timetable but I will definitely try to stick to it, however I talked to my actress and during the school holidays she is going to London so therefore I will not be able to film her therefore I might need to change the timetable and make it fit around her but it should be ok. I decided to use her as she lives close so I am easily assessable and can ring her if I want to film so I might actually film on some other days as well just to make sure that it is up to scratch. Once I have filmed Noel I will probably have to talk to my other actress to see if she is available to film with her for a short period of time. When I created this timetable however I did not talk to her as she was in between looking for a job, now she has one it will be easier to film her especially as the short film is quite eery the late nights will help with this.

Uses and gratifications theory

So what is the uses and gratification theory?
It is an active audience theory that focuses on 'what people do with the media' rather than what the media does to people.

The uses and gratification theory is split into four main groups called;
1- surveillance
2- personal relationship
3- diversion
4- personal identity
There is several needs and gratification for people these are:

Cognitive needs:
People use media for acquiring knowledge, information etc. Different people have different media needs these could be knowledge so they will watch quiz programmes on tv, or search engines to find out information. Particularly for the internet search engine they can browse for any topic under the sun with no time restriction.

Affective needs:
It included all kinds of emotions, pleasure and other moods of people. People use media like television to satisfy their emotional needs.

Personal intergrative needs:
'This is the self-esteem need. People use media to reassure there status, gain credibility and stabilise. So people watch Tv and assure themselves that they have a status in society for example people get to improve their status bywatching media advertisements which can make people buy these products, so people are changing their lifestyle and the media helps them do so.  

Social integrative needs:
It encompasses the need to socialise with family, friends and relations in the soiety. People now use social networking sites to satisfy their needs. Another example is if your friends is watching a programme then you watch it so you have topics to discuss. 

Tension free needs:
People sometime use the media as a means of escapism and to relive from tension. For example people tend to relax watching Tv, listening to radio and for satisfy their need for entertainment there by relaxing from all the tension, people watch films. 

One criticism of uses and gratification theory is that it does not consider the power of the media. One positive thing is that it explains how the media can play within our day to day lives. 

So how does this tie into my short film and how will I fulfil the audiences certain needs and desires they have. Andrew Tudor notes that 'a genre defines a moral and social world' John Fiske also notes that genres 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular.' In the different types of film genres there are both emotional and physical values that the producer has to think of that will full fill these two needs

As my short film has not got a specific genre and falls into probably more than one it is hard to try and decide what specific gratifications I can offer my target audience. 

EMOTIONAL
Identification with the character- some of the audience may be feeling the same as the character and can relate to them
There will not be escapism because my character is very boring and her life is not ordinary so they will not think that their everyday life is boring.
Catharsis- Release of emotions

PHYSICAL
Tension and release of tension. Todrov stated that ' narratives are about transformation.'
Feeling for the character 

Once I have finished my short film I can ask whilst researching about what the viewers felt in terms of physical and emotional. 

Darren S Cook

During two lessons we managed to have an amazing opportunity and have a guest speaker into our lesson award winning producer and director Darren S Cook talk about his work with short films and how he came about the ideas and how he stuck to the time limit and budgeting. This was a very lucky opportunity as Darren is a stepdad to one of the students in our class so he was very willing to come in and talk to us.

Darren s cook is an independent film and tv director with a passion for moving image who has been involved in the industry for over 22 years, he has worked on many different sets including Three, Broken Silence and Behind Closed doors. During the two hours he talked to us about how the film industry works and how it is very competitive and time consuming. Whist he was here we were allowed to watch some of his work alongside students as well his own, this was very helpful as short films are normally hard to construct so seeing the different things that he has out together makes it easier for us to see what is good and not. We watched some films that did not have a budget just like ours and how he relied on friends and family to help create the short film, he also said how he managed to use someones house whilst they were on holiday and bring the set in and then make sure that all of their valuables went back into the same place and this was free. However this didn't change the quality of the film and it looked as though it could have been filmed with a budget of over £1000. This allowed me to feel as though my short film can look professional even if I didn't have any money to spend on it, in addition he said how he used some cameras that we have at school so it could look the same quality if filmed correctly. As he didn't have a lot of money to spend on equipment just like us he said a few tricks to use to get the same effect, one being he placed a camera on a penny board and then rolled it across the floor to get the same shot of a track. This made me think about what other things I could do to make the filming look more professional.

A lot of the short films that he showed us had a simple plot, so he suggested that we should keep our plot simple because it is easier to film and get the audience interested. When we looked at the codes and conventions of a short film it suggested that you should have a twist when talking to Darren he said that we should but to make it not complicated.

Darren also said how he doesn't normally edit the videos however when he does it normally takes an hour to edit a 1 minute clip this made me realise how much work and time is going to go into making this short film. In addition he said how editing can make a film look so different once you have finished to the raw footage and it can change the whole look with the different editing skills and music.

After he finished talking to us we were allowed to ask any questions about his job role and any more information that we needed to make our short film special. Someone asked if he has ever worked on something he hated and shockingly he said yes to a project that he has just filmed. As he doesn't like it they have not invited him to any events contributing to this film and he doesn't even want to watch the final product which is shocking to hear as he is a well adapted film maker and you wouldn't think that something he is doing could possibly be something that he dislikes.

The first Short film that we watched was called Wisdom and this had a higher end budget. Although there was only two characters they are both well established actors so some of their budget had to pay theme. In addition the vast amount of props had to be bought, the chair is actually an old execution chair that they have draped fairy lights around, the tools that are on the table are old gardening tools that have been wrapped in leather and the table is an old desk that has been covered in leather.



WISDOM from Darren S Cook on Vimeo.


Next was Little Angels which was a university students work and he was asked to film it in a London graveyard. He said how this was a great experience and whilst on the set the actor who was playing the mental character was actually scaring him in how good he was.


 
Little Angels from Darren S Cook on Vimeo.








THREE from Darren S Cook on Vimeo.

Lastly was Three which was a short film made with only Three actors throughout the night, he said that this was one of his first short film that he created and is still one of his favourites.

I will defiantly take on board what he has said to us and will also look as his other short films to get inspirations for different camera shots and editing skills.

Storyboard

Create a Copy | View Larger
Create a Copy | View Larger



Here is my storyboard which was generated from an online source as I couldn't put my original version online, I realise that the writing on the pictures is quite small and is hard to read so I will go through them to say about each individual shot and what I would like to happen.

In the first box I will have my actress sitting on the bed staring into the camera lens blinking very slowly as the camera zooms into her face. 
Secondly there will be a shot of her looking around the room seeming as though she is lost or has nothing to do. The shots inside will all be in her bedroom as she is not leaving her house therefore there will be many different shots which I will edit together to make them seem less similar. 
In the third one she will be looking outside to see if her cousin is there, although she might think that she is not there will be a quick reverse shot of her cousin looking up at her window. 
After that she will fall asleep and soon be able to leave the house where her cousin is waiting for her but she still doesn't realise. 
There will be a close up of her locking the door and looking around as though she has never been outside before.
After she will walk down her road whilst her cousin is behind her and there will be an over the shoulder shot and I will make it slow motion to show how they are together again but she is yet to know.
I will have a black out to show the change in scene.
There will then be a shot of her on the bed again like the beginning of the film looking into the camera as though nothing has changed.
At the end there will be a shot of her cousin outside her house showing that she is still there looking over her.

Right at the start of the film there will be some pictures of her with her cousin at a younger age however I do not know what they look like and how many there will be but it will show the relationship between them when they were younger, to how she is alone now because something could have happened to her cousin, I will leave it open so the audience can have their own idea about what has happened to the cousin. This could change but I will try to stick to it so it will be easier to film.

Change of short film idea

From the last current blog post about my short film idea I asked my audience on what they think would be the best idea for my short film however after asking them I found out that maybe I shouldn't do that idea. It would be hard for me to film my gran as she is living away also when I asked her if I could film on a certain day she was busy therefore I thought that it would be easier for me to change my idea and use someone who was closer to home.

After watching a Korean film a couple of years ago the storyline stuck in my head. This is the synopsis of the film Castaway on the moon; A man named Kim jumps into the dark, quiet waters of the Han River. He wakes up and finds himself lying on strange ground, covered with sand. For one second he thinks he is in heaven, but soon recognises that he simply drifted to a nameless island. In one of the riverside apartment buildings there's a girl who hasn't ventured out of her room for years. With her dishevelled hair and in the ska clothes she's worn for years, she looks just like a castaway. Then one day she catches sight of a man living alone on an island through her binoculars. Day after day, his lonely but seemingly contented life triggers her curiosity and compels her to step out of her room after so many years. Kim's extraordinary life becomes the inspiration for change in this girl's lonely, detached life. 
When thinking about a short film I instantly thought about using this idea as it would be simple yet effective, also when talking to my friends about it they seemed to like it. I obviously don't want to copy the film as I want to have a twist on the storyline therefore I need to come up with an idea behind why she is stuck in her room and why she suddenly changes her mind and steps on to the streets. 

The storyline is that a girl had a bad experience whilst walking to school one day, after that she decided to have no interaction with her family and friends again. When living in her room there are certain things that she does day to day so she keeps a pattern as she has only got her self. To make her feel secure there is one person that walks past her house at exactly the same time everyday and makes a gesture so she knows that they know she is there. However there is one day that the person doesn't walk past her house and her one and only interaction with a person becomes lost and so does she. After a big decision she decides to leave and investigate and find out about what and why the person has not walked past her house for the past couple of days. At the end there could be a twist but I have yet to decide as I might leave it on a cliff-hanger that she finds something else whilst out instead of the person, but on the other hand the person who sees her decides to not walk one day to try and get her attention. Although I wanted it to be a comedy I decided that this would possibly be more engaging for my audience and it could work for different ages and genders. 

I need to make sure that my locations are similar to the character as she has never been out of her room, she will not have the luxuries of different furniture that you would find in a bedroom. In addition I think that the room will have to be quite gloomy as she is living in the dark. When thinking about the props in the room I need to think what the character will want, I don't think that she would want a mirror for example as she might be lacking in self confidence as she hasn't left the room. I will have to also make her appearance look quite disheveled. When thinking about where the person walks I need to find a good location that looks out of the bedroom window onto a road. I would have preferred to look onto a bus stop as that would be the reason for the person to walk however I do not have a location that I could fin for this so I will have to stick to my original location on a street. After looking a REECE of the different locations I will be able to easily look at what would be best suited for my short film. 

My short film idea

Before I can start planning my short film I must make sure that the story is up to scratch. In this blog post I sill be writing about the concept that I have and the idea behind it. Once I have thought about my idea I can start planning my filming from creating a storyboard to making a script and finding my talents. I did have a struggle thinking of a short film idea as I wasn't really drawn in by a particular genre, therefore I decided to think of something that is unique and maybe doesn't follow the conventions. I have to think of the plot and the storyline however with thinking about what specific genre I want to stick to and use their conventions. I didn't want to do something that has been done way too many times like bullying as I think that would be boring for me as I like to be unique and I don't think that it would really work as when it would come to editing I would get bored. 
I did think firstly about a documentary about how everyone in the world is connected by some mean of social media and then I could get different camera angles and shots of different media forms, also because my brother lives abroad I could easily get footage from him. Then when I thought about it in detail I think it would probably end up being shorter than 5 minutes and also when it came to thinking about a storyline there wouldn't be one. Therefore I decided to leave that idea and brainstorm some others, it did take me a long time as it was set in my head that that was what I was going to do however things change. After asking peoples different opinions and looking online I still didn't really know what would be the best solution and what I could do that would get me a good grade. After talking to my brother who has really good suggestions for a short film (as he is my biggest critique) he thought about an idea using my gran. My gran does have a very funny personality so I think that using her would be great as I would have an opportunity to work with her. Also as she is an OAP she doesn't really get up to much in her day to day life so I know that if I call her she would be happy to be filmed. She is not camera shy and I think that as I have already filmed her it would be easy for me to film her.

I decided that I wanted to make a comedy piece and nobody in my group wanted to do that and also I get bored of watching serious short films all the time and I think when it came to the time that I am daunting of editing it will make me laugh. I have picked two ideas which I will write down here and then I can show people and they can vote on which is their favourite. 

So my first idea is that my gran is living her day to day life and goes to the shops as a typical gran does to get her daily fix of the paper and decides to either get a lottery ticket or to go into the bookies. After she has found out that she has won she looses her winning ticket. I will then follow her around on a little adventure to try and find the ticket but in the end it is somewhere typical like her follow along bag. This would be easy to film and put together however the adventure part would maybe get a bit boring as there is only a certain amount of filming you can do with a gran at the age of 81.

The next idea is that my gran again has a super ego like a superhero and goes about her day to day life but then gets a call though her walking stick from a secret agent about a certain call that she has to do. Then the short film will be about her going to save this particular person but ends up to be a ridiculous reason in the end, but as she is 81 she finds that she has made such a big achievement. 

As my gran lives near a big park it would be easy to film the second one and I think that would be more comedic but I am going to have a look into the storyboard and script and other peoples opinions. 

If these both don't get approvals then I am going to see if I could take a child's book about a gran and see if I could adapt it to a short film, this would be easier to do however you will not be able to make your own script as you will have to keep to what happens in a book. Also I think that doing this would allow me to write about the book in detail and therefore will have more of an understanding of what I am filming about. 

Textual Analysis of For Colored Girls

Here is my textual analysis for a feature length film poster, my textual analysis will include what conventional and non-conventional factors that they have used and follow, the different elements to the poster and how well they have adapted the conventions to make a well produced feature length film poster. What I will get out of this is the things that I will want to include and how I could possibly take some small ideas form them to make a poster that will be easy on the eye and show the film on an a4 page. The poster that I have decided to analyse is For Colored Girls which is a feature length film that I have not yet to watch. This feature length film poster caught my eye and stuck in my head as I had never seen a feature length film poster like this before and therefore when it came to analysing a feature length film poster I straightaway decided to look at this in detail. I also wanted to look at conventional posters so I could get a range of ideas for my own poster. Although I am not going to create a feature length film I still wanted to look at a poster that has been created by a well established production company. When I scrolled though google images this instantly caught my eye even though I didn't realise that it wasn't a short film, the simplistic look that it has really interested me as it is an idea that I had, also as there is no image of the actual characters from the film intrigues me more which I would like to do however in my case I don't think I would be able to do that as it will be hard to understand what the film is about. In addition because this is a well established company who have very specific and professional equipment to make it I think that my poster will look amateur compared to this. 

Firstly I will look at the main picture that takes up the most of the page it is non conventional as it is not of an image of a character from the film, therefore it makes it more engaging for the audience and makes it more intriguing. It catches your eye as it is the first thing that you look at however it does not obviously show what the film is about. It does denote the title of the film as the different colours of the picture are basically colours for the title of the film. The watercolours make it look very artistic and allows the audience to want to pick the film to watch. In addition the paint that is running down the page connotes that the woman is upset and crying so maybe the film is emotional, I would like to try and show the type of feelings in the poster as I think that that is a good idea. Also only having half of the face on show makes it look effective as well as not giving a lot away, as it is about colored girls the dark eyes and eyebrows goes with the type of characters in the film also the watercolours run out like an afro. The splashes make it look unique and the darker paint around the eye also connotes how they could be treated, to add to this the month is not smiling so again it could be sad.

The next thing that I am going to look at is the block of actresses and actors that are in the film at the top of the poster. Conventionally you have them all at the bottom of the page in a block of text however here they have decided to put them at the top of the poster as you can instantly see who is going to be in it. As this movie has stars such as whoopee Goldberg and Janet Jackson they wanted to make them a bit bolder. I don't think I will be using this idea as I will not be having as many actresses so I will just out their names in the block at the bottom of the page.

I am next going to look at the title of the film. I don't think that this is very special and it doesn't really catch your eye, they may have wanted to keep the title very neutral as the picture had so much detail. It is quite conventional as it is at the bottom of the page in the middle however it doesn't give a lot away for the film. They are also all in capitals so it seems that it is very important and that there is a message behind it, it seems to be more of a statement rather than a title which I like but I don't think I will be using that idea. In my opinion I think that they should of made it different colours as the title states that however it could go with the type of culture that the film is about. 

There is a tag line as well which most conventional feature length films have however it again is a statement. The two short and snappy sentences adds effect and makes it personal, it adds to what the story is about and makes it seem as though it is a true story. In addition the way that they have said about it being a poem allows the audience to know what it is about and how it has been adapted. As my short film is going to be a comedy I don't think that having this sort of tag line would be appropriate. 

Lastly I am going to talk about the bill block at the bottom of the page. It is very small s it is not very significant but in this case you can't see anything and I think when I make mine I will make it a bit bigger as it will be easier to see, also because I am not having the actresses names at the top I think it will be better for me to keep it bigger to make sure that the people find who is going to be in it. In this bill block they have put the production logos which I think is a good idea and to make mine look ore professional I might consider making a logo for my short film. They have also written the date that it is in theatres which in my case I will not have to add but I could put a film festival that it is going to be shown at to make it look more professional. 

I have also found the trailer for the film just incase anybody is interested about what the film is about and how the poster has adapted the film into just a picture.