Short film research- Adam

Strangers  

Opening scene of train station

Strangers is a film about a Jewish man and a Muslim man who meet on a train and get provoked by a gang of skinheads. They end up working together even though there is a clear hatred between them in the beginning by difference of religion. This is created well by the two films producers, Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv, who use certain techniques well to create a large tension and eventually cooperation without use of speech. 

Jewish character presenting star of david

First of all, we haven't got a clear idea where the short film is set as a use of low lighting is used so we can only see that it is a metro station, in which I believe to be an urban setting. This opening scene sets the mood well as the music helps to build up quite a tense atmosphere as it is quite middle eastern music. The music and low lighting tell us that this isn't going to be a happy film and the middle eastern music implies this could be the setting or that people from the middle east will be involved. The low angle used in this shot also makes the station seem obscure and strange. 

When the Jewish man sits down on the train opposite the Muslim man there is a clear tension there. A close up point of view shot is used on the newspaper which is clearly in Arabic shows that the man is a Muslim so this helps us understand what the Jewish man is seeing. We can understand how the characters are feeling about eachother by their body language and facial expression. When the Jewish man presents his star of david he is clearly proud of being Jewish and is almost tyring to invoke conflict. We can see both of them looking shiftily at eachother in a shot/reverse shot scene and this lets us know that they are both uncomfortable. Close ups are used here to really capture the facial expression between the two, without speech this is a useful technique to use which we should use if we wish to not include speech in our short film. The Muslim character looks as if he is 'hiding' behind his paper for most of the exchange of looks which may show what type of person he is.

In this film it seems that it switches to the train running along the tracks when it wants to convey a passage of time. This is quite an effective technique as it reminds the audience of the setting, reinforces the fact they cannot get off and conveys time has passed. In a short film this is good as you need to fit in key scenes without too much wasted scenes as there is only a short time and not enough for all the content. 

When the skinheads approach the two characters, the Jewish character spots them and a low boom sounds occurs which alerts us that something bad is going to happen which is confirmed when we see a gang moving down the train toward them. This boom sound continues and it builds up tension and as the camera focuses mainly on the Jewish character and his anxious body language it is unclear who is at danger.

Difference between 2 mid-long shots

We then see a good mid-long shot which shows the Muslim man as the center of attention with many skinheads around him. This makes him look quite small and vulnerable as they are crowded around him. This is a good shot because it shows a contrast between the same mid-long shot but before the skinheads arrive with no-one except the two characters and to when they are there. I like the technique of concentrating on a character whilst something happens as you can see their reaction but it also creates a mystery as to what is happening.

There is quite a long scene where there is a shot/reverse shot of the skinheads and the Muslim character as we can see clearly what they're thinking and what the Muslim character is thinking. Again, a strong use of close up is used to convey anger and tension between all characters.

In a scene where they escape the skinheads together as soon as the action starts so does high paced music which straight away picks up the pace and changes the mood. The camera switches more often and creates a very frantic impression. As they run through the train it is mostly filmed from outside the train tracking sideways on a dolly which creates a sense of how long the train is. This combined with the pacey music and frantic camerawork is trying to create a heart racing effect for the audience. 

The two characters running through train

Overall, I believe strangers uses excellent techniques to tell a story without using speech as quite a few other short films also do. I believe this one is different because it creates a lot of tension without using speech which can be very hard. I would like to use the use of body and facial language to tell a story rather than speech as speech can be hard to pull of if mistakes are made. The change in pace through music would also be easier without speech so I would like to take this away from this short.

Black hole

Black hole is a film about a fed up office worker who discovers a mysterious black hole which allows him to reach through objects. I enjoy this film and have included it as I believe it shows how a simple object could be given mysterious qualities through use of sound.

I like the opening scene in this short as it is gives us a lot of information and ideas about the mise en scene and main character. We can see through lighting that the office is a dull place as there is low lighting with very grey colours which give an impression of a boring office. This is reinforced by his facial expression which reflect the setting as he is clearly fed up of the repepitive process. We can also tell through his costume that he is fed up because of the scruffy shirt with crooked tie, this shows he doesn't really feel enthusiastic about his job. What i'm trying to show is that you can fit a lot of information about the story, setting and character from the first initial scene which I would like to do as this would allow us to fit a story into 5 minutes if we keep it up.

A 'point of view' shot through black hole

A good variety of shots are used in 'The Black Hole' and this starts happening after the black hole is printed out from the machine. I saw that long shots, mid close ups, mid shots and close ups are used to view him with the piece of paper in different ways. An interesting shot is where there is a low angle looking up at him through a black hole; it is gives us an almost point of view impression as if it is looking up at him which makes it seem quite mysterious. The low angle shot through the black hole also makes it look as if it is a real black hole and is one the simple techniques used in this film to achieve something being supernatural. This could be a technique we would take away if we decided to use some sort of supernatural or unreal element for an object.

He looks at the cup in curiousity

The black hole is also given mysterious qualities through use of sound because when he interacts with it or hovers his hand over it there is a sort of electrical pulse sound. This can make anything sort of mysterious which is what I like about this technique as it could be applied to other objects. As in other short films there is no speech and most characterisation is done by body language and facial expression. In particular scenes we can see his curiousity such as the example to the right. 

The use of framing in this short film is very good as the composition is good and centers things well bringing the audiences attention to it. This is what I would like to achieve as it will help to communicate to the audience the parts of the film we want them to pay particular attention to. For instance in the scene where the main character steals out of the vending machine, before he comes we can see the vending machine clearly in the middle of the long shot with lighting inside it to stand out from the dull surroundings. This type of technique to bring the audiences attention to ojects could prove useful in our short film.

Just before he is going to try to steal from the safe he opens the door and the lights flicker on and off. This gives quite a dark impression and sets a sort of dark mood. It could show that what he is doing is wrong and there may be consequences but we, as an audience, from what we have seen he will go along with it. Through use of lighting this film creates a dull mood and also creates darkness in some area and that could be helpful to use in our short film depending on what genre and mood we want to create.

All in all, I would like to use certain clever techniques from 'The Black Hole' such as the lighting used, effective setting scene and giving an object a mysterious quality. These could all come into play depending on the type of film we decide to do but especially the effective scene should be something we apply to any type of short film we do as it works very well.

King ponce

The opening scene of King Ponce is quite high paced and surprising. There is also an element of confusion which is quite good as it puts a lot of enigma codes into the viewers mind. The use of obscure mid-close ups and close ups of the characters legs playing football makes us wonder about the character and what is happening. I also noticed that sound effects seem to be quite loud such as when the main character and the 'bully' bump into eachother. This may be there to emphasise the conflict between them in the opening scene and makes it seem quite gritty. The lighting I also noted made the scene look quite washed out and also gritty. This is an example of an opening sequence that leaves you with a lot of questions but gives you certain details also. The cross cutting  in this opening scene works well as it builds up a picture that they are both running very fast through use of a shaky camera and frantic switching of shots and when they meet it is a shock as it switches to a long shot of the collision.

Glamorous ballroom setting

The scene in the ballroom dancing hall is a complete contrast to the opening scene and I like how they have achieved this contrast. We can see that the lighting and colour are much more bright and vibrant creating an almost magical setting and the shots do not switch very often and the camera is let to film freely. This changes the pace greatly from the frantic switching of shots in the opening scene. The music also accompanies the slowed down pace as it is an old ballroom dance song which is very slow and almost romantic. This is reinforced by the attention switching to a lady the main character clearly likes which tells the audience she may be a key part in the story.

Another interesting scene is when they are all smoking weed in the park. I find this interesting because they create a real sense of grittiness here. The colour seems to wash out and seems a dull grey again and the lighting seems dark which could convey a sense of wrong about the situation.

Robbo in a 'whitey'

When Robbo (main character) goes into a 'whitey' a real sense of confusion and dreaminess is created about it. This is through use of a sort of glazed effect and the colour having a sort of red tinge to it that the sense of someone feeling 'high' is created. We also get a sense of dreaminess as there are scenes of him dreaming that he is dancing with the lady he likes and this is done by cutting to point of view mid close ups of him dancing with her. We can see this makes him happy as he thinks of her as it fades in between the two. The fade is particularly effective also as it reinforces the dreamlike qualities of the scene. A fade may be something we use if we want to convey something as 'dreamy' or if someone was having a dream. The dreamy music also adds to this effect which could be something to note. 

Another scene where he is trying to dance whilst intoxicated is done well as it still has the glazed effect and a slowed down effect is used to make it look like reality is almost being distorted. The music in the ballroom hall is also very strange and slowed down which adds to this effect, both this and the slowed down effect help the audience identify what the main character is feeling like. 

Shallow depth of field used

There are some good examples of depth of field in this short film such as when the bully's gang all want to dance he is walking away and it focuses on him with a shallow depth of field. This shows us that he is different from the rest of his gang and seperate because he is not choosing to dance like them. It also allows us to focus on his facial expression as he walks away. This would be an effective technique we could use to show seperation from a group and giving focus to a certain character in quite a subtle way. 

Our group loved the idea of this film overall as it is quite a surprise to the audience as you don't expect this to happen which leaves the audience in a good mood. It leads you up to believing that something sinister will happen but instead of something sinister it turns out to be a happy event. We would like to use this idea and some good camera techniques used in the film to create something similar if we can. This is only an initial idea we wanted to take away from the film but that is the purpose of the task to get ideas from all these short films.

Goodbye to the normals

The couple greeting

In this short film a young boy is planning to run away to America and we are led to believe he is not going to actually go but is just playing a game. In the end, we are led to believe he actually does leave and this is why I liked it. Our group have been discussing this type of surprise end and may like to do it ourselves in a comedic way possibly. 

The opening scene lets us know the setting which seems like a normal middle class house in a town or city. We also get an enigma code from the opening scene as the wife character is waiting for someone and we don't know who until the husband arrives. The way they greet lets us know that they are in a happy relationship which gives us an idea that the child would not really be running away as it seems a happy home.

The next scene in which the father talks to the boy who is going to America is well done because we get a real sense of who has the power from the camerawork but in the speech we get a completely reversed idea and this is because the child acts very mature and almost upper class towards the Father. The camerawork gives the Father the higher position because it uses a point of view shot from a low angle as the child is smaller looking up to his Father and also a high point of view shot for the Father. This sort of technique could be useful if we want to imply a difference in power between two characters we could employ the use of body language and facial language also to make someone look powerful and someone else quite small.

The colour and lighting seem quite everyday in this shortfilm and I think they wanted to have it like that so we do get a sense of normality. It might not be necessary to different lighting in our film and perhaps we can keep it normal to allow the audience to concentrate more on story and character.

The dialogue is very important in this film as the Mum and Dad both try and talk to the child as you normally would but the child feels almost patronised by it. This is clever as it gives the child more respect and gives him more of an adult persona. As in the previous analysis of the short films I have mostly liked the idea of having no speech but this film shows how it can add to the story well. Because this film is relatively the same length as ours, we can take a lesson as to how the dialogue can be played out throughout the film with areas with speech and some without.

Certain techniques are used to create an effect that he's just playing a game, mostly camerawork from which I have mentioned already however there is a scene at the end of the movie where the child comes back because he forgets something but some good techniques are used to make it look like he's coming back for real. Happy music is used to imply it's going to be a happy ending and the sequence is played in slow motion to almost get the cliche ending idea into the audiences head. Both the children and parents have happy expressions as the child runs back toward them so all these combined leave the audience thinking they will be reunited.

Then to our surprise the child runs past them and runs back out to the road running again and says, "Forgot my f***ing passport didn't I" which was a nice comedic touch. What I want to take away from this short film more than anything is the storyline of tricking the audience into thinking something will end nicely but actually ends not how a film normally would. Using techniques in the last scene such as the happy music and slow motion running help trick the audience and we could use this too in whatever we choose to do.
Pocket

Pocket is a short film about a man obsessed with pockets. It is quite a strange but funny film and that's what I like about it because it was a good movie and it could easily be done by anyone with our equipment that is available. 

The opening is quite effective because first of all we don't know what is happening but it reveals that it is someone being arrested and it is in black and white. This first scene is good because it makes us question what the film is going to be like but when we see the newspaper articles flashing up on the screen it lets us know it isn't really a very serious film. I noticed in the film that it switches from black and white to colour then to black and white toward the end. I believe it does this to a show a contrast to when the character has turned mad and doing wrong when in black and white and in colour when he is doing right and is innocent. 

I like how it turns from the black and white to colour with a prompt on a blank screen stating "twenty years earlier" switching immediately to a point of view shot looking over a table from a childs perspective. Immediately we can tell that he was a child at this time as the mother is talking to him as if he was a child and the use of colour implies innocence. I like this change as the colour is used to imply an innocent feel which could be useful if we wanted to convey someone as innocent compared to someone who wasn't innocent not being as full of colour.

I also like the use of narration in the film as it gives his opinion to the audience which could be an idea we could use. The sound effects are quite over exaggerated when he is a child such as when he is bouncing on his space hopper it's almost like a bomb going off. This whole scene as a whole is quite over exaggerated because it is in slow motion with quite a low angle to make him and his parents seem bigger. I'm not sure why they've used it but it is quite interesting to watch and gives the boy quite a destructive personality.