Short Film Research - Jacob

The first film that I looked at was Mixtape by Luke Snellin. It is a short film made in 2009 which makes out  a relationship between a young boy and girl who are next door neighbours. The film was awarded a Virgin Media Shorts 2009  award which was the biggest achievement for Snellin so far in his career, this then lead for Virgin to award Snellin a £30,000 towards his next budget for a virgin film. The film is only two and a half minutes long but manages to bring the audience to an innocence in the main character Ben. I think this is a particularly good short film due to how close the audience feels to the character Ben.

The First Shot from the film.

The first shot in the film is very simple but effective, it is a cassette in a tape player and is spinning round. I like this because in many films the audience first see's an establishing short of a place or person, this differs from that norm and engages the audience in an action straight away. I hope that our group will find an opening shot just as engaging and create an original idea.

Opening Credits

As the film starts the title of the film and the opening credits appear written on the paper casing for a plastic tape holder. This manner of crediting was very interesting because it gave a sense of reality rather than an appearance of floating words. I think that our group should explore our own way of working credits into the start of the film rather than a simple rolling set at the end. 

The next shot is when Ben the boy in the film is listening to music, but the shot is from behind and this seems to create a lot of questions about the character straight away but also makes the audience know that Ben is in his own world while listening to music. This then leads to a quick set of shots in which Ben opens the tape player, then takes the tape out and place's it in his shirt pocket. When doing so it takes Ben two try's to fit the tape in the shirt, I think that this adds a sense of realism to the film by using a small fail to make Ben seem more human.

As the rest of the film plays out you see Ben walk out of his door and down his path, they slowed down the footage so that you can see the pressure and emotion in Ben as he psych's himself out to walk next door. This then leads to a series of shot reverse shot's as a dialogue runs between Ben and Lily's mum (the girl next door).

After this Ben is back in his room and he starts to hear his music playing from next door, the camera then quickly snaps to Lily sitting down, looking up straight at the camera. This sudden change is very clever because the audience get to know her feelings and emotions towards Ben instantly. 

The last shot in the film is very interesting because it gives the impression that the camera is in the wall and shows Ben and Lily leaning against the same wall and both have very clear expressions about the other and both seems to sink into comfortable positions thinking about each other. 






Signs

Signs is a short film created by Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia and is about two people working in office towers who communicate to each other by holding signs up to the window's. The first shot in this film is a birds eye view shot above the bed of the main character Jason, you can instantly tell that he is bored and even depressed as he wakes up to a mundane alarm sound. His placement in the bed suggests that he doesn't have a relationship with anyone intimate because of him lying in the centre of a bed made for two. 




As the story progress's we start to feel sorry for Jason because of the loneliness we see in his life. There is a scene when he is standing on an escalator and he glances up at a woman but then quickly nods his head down to look away from her giving the audience the impression that he isn't very confident but is always looking for someone. This is a key point to the film as it is this confidence that grows as the story unfolds. 

By showing Jason in shots where he is doing his job the audience realise that he doesn't enjoy his work and he does it in such a sequence it seems that he doesn't even need to think about what he is doing. Also it shows him in a meeting where his boss tells a joke and the rest of the people there break into laughter, the director has broken Jason away from this group by making him look gormless and unaware of what has been said around him therefore splitting him away from the work group. 

When it seems as if Jason is at his most bored moment at work you seem him glance out the window to see Stacy working in the building opposite, when she notices him looking she writes a note saying "Take a photo" which causes Jason to panic and feel bad for staring at her, this then proceeds to her laughing and writing "I'm Kidding!". From this point on there is a constant back and fourth of them writing each other notes and as this part starts to progress the pace of shots and action quickens with happy fast pace music. 

Later in the film Jason is considering asking to meet in person but when he finally goes to ask her she isn't there and then seemingly falls back into the same depressive state as to which he started. He stays like this for a short part of the film until the music starts to build up anticipation which then lead to the reappearance of Stacy and then their first meeting. The entire film doesn't use any dialogue for either of the main characters but still manages to keep the audience engaged and interested in the story, this was done by using specific shots which can tell a lot about a characters personality. As the film ends the last shot is a long distance shot of the met between them and of Stacy lifting up a note saying "Hi" but written in a love heart, this reaches to the audience's emotions and creates a sense of happiness that leaves with them.

This is the short film Signs.

Sign Language

Sign Language is a short film which was winner of the Virgin Media Shorts 2010 and is the story of Ben who holds a sign for a living and loves his job, unfortunately it is his last day. The film starts with Ben's voice talking about his job and the audience can instantly tell from his tone that he enjoys his job. The first shot we see is an extreme close up of Ben looking forward on a bus. Ben's dialogue is narrating over images of his getting of the bus and proceeding to his work place. As this happens gentle music is playing but is mixed in with foley sound of a busy London street. As we hear Ben speaking in a happy mood we also see him looking as if he is hiding behind the pole for his sign as he walks past a woman handing out leaflets, this is the first thought the audience gets that Ben may have hidden feelings for this woman. 

The film continues using mainly close up shots of Ben standing at his corner holding up his golf sign, as this happens he starts to talk about the other people holding up signs and calls them his colleagues naming them one by one and shouts to the first who fails to react, this then leaving a puzzled but still happy look on Ben's face. Then he starts to talk about the girl handing out leaflets and states that he cannot talk to her due to union rules, this is then followed by his face looking sad and him saying its a pity that he cannot talk to her. These frames are all dub with music which seems to stay on an upbeat with Ben even thought he is clearly upset by the lack of response from his colleague and not being able to talk to Anya. This contrast keeps the audience slightly confused as to how he can be so happy even though he has every right to be saddened by these things. 

You hear a watch alarm go off and Ben looks down and turns it off he then proceeds to look around as if waiting for something, he tells us that his shift is over and that he expected a goodbye from his colleagues and then decides that they must be too busy (which they clearly aren't). At this point the audience starts to feel a lot of sympathy for Ben because of how enthusiastic he is and his work mates don't bother for him. As he starts to put his pole down a loud whistle is heard and Ben turns to see his colleagues turn their signs round saying bye and they will miss him but most of all telling him to go and talk to Anya. At this point his mood and that of the audiences is brought to a high point and the last shot of Ben in the street is him looking towards Anya with a confident look on his face leaving the audience to decide what happens to themselves. 

As the credits roll there are small shorts of Ben starting his new job as a pilot who leaves signs in the sky pointing to the golf sale he used to point to. Also there are shots of Anya looking up at him as he fly's over Oxford street. 

The Black Hole

The short film called 'The Black Hole' was a very well made short which tells the story of a man for is bored of his work and then suddenly surprised by a big black spot which prints of of a photocopier, and turns out to be able to void objects so he can push his hand through. He thinks quickly how to use it to his advantage and steals a chocolate bar from a vending machine, his thoughts then turn much greater and become those of creed, he proceeds to breaking into a room with a safe and then stealing a large amount of money but in doing so he accidentally locks himself in the safe.

I liked the opening shot for this film because of the way it links to the story, being as the title appears out of a hole and gives the impression that the audience is travelling through it into the office of this man.

I really liked this shot in the film because of the way it gave the audience the feeling of being part of the hole and gave a perspective to the gap the hole creates. I would love to get shots in our film that give off the same type of perspective to make the audience believe that they are actually there rather then just over viewing a situation.

 These are the two shots in the film that made me think about the possibility of using special effects to create a better story and film overall I feel that before I was keeping my ideas a little too restricted and didn't expand enough on them.  

In all I thought that black hole was a very cleverly made film in the way it quickly built up it character and the main idea and then progressed to a very surprising ending which left the audience asking questions but in a way that lets them decide what happens to this unfortunate character.  

OMG

OMG is a short film made in 2009 and is the story of a young man Malcolm who is desperately trying to receive a text after sending some one a message asking for forgiveness. As his story progresses he try more and more places to gain signal including walking up to a signal mast but still fails to get signal. When his reply final comes through he is surprised and it makes him jump accidently causing him to push his phone into a bucket of water and therefore breaking it.

I thought that this shot had a great effect on the audience and made me feel like Malcolm was preying to the mast as if his whole world relied on this one text. The way the light appears on this shot is very clever and give the impression of a heavenly power over the character. This was then taken down due to the lack of signal created by the mission to stand by the mast. 

   

I particularly liked this shot because of the way it cross fades to a close up of the phone and the answer to the text. This is a very good technique to use because of the effect it creates with the water, this is because of how water flows and this cross fade manages to capture the movement of the water. I would like to try and use cross fades in our film to the same high standard and this could create a nice transition with in our work.

I really like the film OMG because of the way it told you alot about the character and what he is feeling but also manages to do so with out any dialoge or direct text about the character.