INITIAL PLANNING

This is our first lesson together planning. Alex and Meg had brainstormed ideas the day before while Holly was absent, but now we're together, we have extended on our ideas.

This is our original plan, however, we may extended on it:

"The short begins in a suburban home, showing a child playing in the (living room?) – The camera will pan round to show the full setting. Using cross-cutting editing, we will show a figure walking the streets at night – this enigmatic framing/lighting will raise questions. The doorbell will then ring, where we will have an adult/parent open the door; revealing that the figure is a babysitter. Using an OTS shot, the babysitter will show their black carrier-bag with the line “I bought dinner.”

The next scene will show the babysitter preparing the ‘food’. Using restricted narrative, we the audience will just see; large knives covered in a red liquid, washing their hands, and scrubbing away anything that looks like narrative. This is where we will use thriller conventions to indicate that there has been a murder. The kid will however keep interrupting this scene by asking questions like: “What’s for dinner?”, “What time am I going to bed?”, “Can I watch TV?”

The babysitter will unnervingly answer the questions, still looking as though they are hiding something. They say they are preparing ribs for themselves, and offers the kid tomato soup.

            We will then cut to the child lying on the floor, looking innocent in lightly (pink, white, pastels etc.) coloured pyjamas. In contrast to their innocence, the child will maliciously draw dark pictures in a journal/book. The child attempts to show the babysitter the drawing, where she looks physically shocked. The babysitter brushes it off and just says that dinner is served. They both sit at the table, and this is where the audience will believe the babysitter is innocent. For the very last scene, we were considering having an eyeball rolling round the soup, looking up at the end. To close the film, we would have a harsh vignette closing in around the eyeball. For added effects, we are hoping to learn basic animation to possibly make the eye wink/blink."

 

THE VIOLINIST SHORT FILM 4

The Violinist by Greg Glienna 

This short is based on two guys playing two different instruments and one is getting a lot more attention than the other. I guess you could say, the binary opposites between being popular vs. being unpopular.

The start of the film is a black screen which fades straight into the first frame. We hear the violin our character is playing before we see him, which is called off screen sound. We know this is diegetic as he is the person playing it. 
From the first frame, it seems like he is alone, to then find out there is someone 5 meters away from him, playing the triangle.

Ultimately, the violin would seem more impressive to the audience, which is what makes this so unusually funny. 
The setting the violinist is playing in, seems quite classy. He is wearing a suit, and a shirt, which is all done up. He is very well groomed, which would suggest he is quite wealthy, middle-upper class.

The camera pans to a boy, not very well groomed compared to the first character, with the facial expression of cheekiness and happiness combined. 
The two shot shows that the woman that walked past did not tip the violinist. She is in jeans and a rucksack, wearing a blue hoodie, much like our triangle player. This shows they may connect on more of a personal level.
The neighbourhood he seems to be playing in seems to be a "less" important place than he thought, considering the people walking past are not in suits, and are not tipping big. We can see from the close up, that he only has coins in his case, however our second character has a hat, and its full of dollars. 

The close up of the triangle player smirking at our first character suggests he is innocent, and just trying to make some money without any hassle, but it also connotes that he is proud that he is doing better than a suited up violin player.

Analysing Short Films: 'Get Off My Land' - Alex

'Get Off My Land' (Dir. Douglas Ray, 2007)

'Get Off My Land' is a short film that was picked up by the BBC's Film Network - a website that showcases the best of British filmmaking. The film's début was at the Clair-Obscur Film Festival in Switzerland, and the Aspen Shortfest in America.

This film is classed as a dark comedy, due to it's portrayal of murder in a comedic way.

Like many other short films, 'Get Off My Land' only deals with 3 characters to compensate with a simplistic narrative.

The film opens with a high angle, showing someone prepared for a hike; appropriate boots and trousers suggest they were more prepared for this walk. Following shortly behind, another character (dressed less appropriately) in converse trainers and jeans. The second character takes a moment to brush off his dirty jeans - already portraying elements to the character's 'clean' personality.

An ELS shot is used to show the characters' in their isolated setting (Figure 2) - typically in the thriller genre, this code may suggest helplessness and danger. A fade to black is then shown to reveal the title of the film 'Get Off My Land' - this credit does not last long, and would be very simple for our group to achieve this.

The next scene focuses on the male trying to climb a fence, and there is a clear tension between the couple as the female powers on leaving him behind. The fence is another code for the theme of danger - it's blocking technique and unhinged panels acts a warming to the characters. This is the film's portrayal of unrestricted narrative (knowing more than the characters).

After walking some distance, we are introduced to the final character. This farmer's costume is typical of the British stereotype, and his behaviour comes across as defensive against the couple. His hat casts a shadow, hiding part of his face - dramatised lighting suggests that he is a villain (in Propp's theory of folk tales). There is also a clear binary opposition of good vs. bad portrayed here as an innocent couple on a walk are faced with a farmer defending his land. The farmer uses political power over the two in his dialogue. He reinstates the law on trespassing to fight his battles. This is where character development happens.

The once powerful female has stepped down and decided to walk back where she had come from. Whereas the male, who originally acted cowardly towards mud and climbing a fence has now stepped up his own battles. He even begins to question the farmer on what makes the land his own - this sparks the disequilibrium in the film and later triggers the farmer to shoot the couple. At this point, the couple are on a hill, looking up at the farmer - suggesting that the farmer is more powerful due to his stance. We can tell they are at different heights due to the eye line match used.

The power is then equalled as the male squares up the farmer, preparing to 'fight for the land'. This shot is then met by reaction shots from the male and the farmer - the farmer seems to have a very solid opinion and hardly flinches at the preposition. Rather than replying, he turns and walks away. The couple initially believe they have reigned successful, as the male is visually chuffed - smiling to himself in a close up reaction shot. He then says:

The moral hypocrisy, of the land owned and the upper class."

This has led me to believe that this film is a representation of a white, regional disagreement in which a battle of two social classes believe they are superior - one with pride, one with money. Both demonstrate their views through a patriarchal society view, referencing battles and physical fights as their defence. 

This behaviour still upsets the female as she feels nothing has truly been settled - this is made apparent through her uncomfortable facial expression and grunt of disapproval.

Pathetic Fallacy would suggest that the narrative will develop negatively as the wind begins to pick up. This sudden gust of wind suggests a storm is brewing, but it happens to be the farmer's return with a deadly weapon.

The farmer is shown with a vignette around the frame - this could be used instead of dimming the lighting. Key lighting can suggest a sense of danger, or give away elements of a character's personality. However, as the setting is strictly based outside, this is hard to achieve - a vignette is a simple, yet effective replacement for this. The farmer is tracked using a hand-held camera, only showing a close up of his face - this is also the first time we get to fully see his face up close. The camera then tilts down to reveal a shotgun being loaded up. Barthes once suggest that props such as guns act as action codes - they reveal something that will follow up shortly.

The actual shooting is shown off-screen for many reasons:

• it's cheaper than paying for a working gun
• it's easier, and legal to work this way
• it's less messy to film, rather than showing any wounds
• widens the audience as it is not typical of a horror/thriller genre

In contrast to the farmer's low lighting, the female is given a very bright light behind her. This could be to suggest her innocence, or to suggest a heavenly aura around her (inciting her pending death).

The character's make-up is changed in this shot to reveal her partner's blood on her face. This is a very simple technique to achieve, and would only require a few splats of fake blood to one side of the actor's face. If our group were to follow something similar to this, we would have to look into what makes fake blood realistic.

When it comes to the woman's murdering, her death is also not displayed on screen. Instead, we are presented with an ELS landscape showing the outskirts of the farmer's land. Clever detailing shows three bird dispersing from the scene. Their is also a faint vignette surrounding the frame - this could be interpreted as the farmer's victory, much like how he had a vignette while walking down the hill.

The farmer then hauntingly stares down the hill and his victims while the sun highlights the side of his face and weapon. His positioning on the golden mean shows his importance to the scene, and gives enough room to show the corpses in the background.

The comedic, dark line to finish the short is:

"You know what? I've got a feeling this is a public footpath."

This is very enigmatic for the audience as it leaves us questioning his authority and role as a farmer. Is he really who he says he is? Did he actually own any of the land? Or is he just a killer on the run?

THE COIN MACHINE SHORT FILM 3

The Boss Short Film Analysis By Greg Glienna 

We are introduced to a car which seems to be pretty pricey, to our main male character who is in a navy shirt and is well groomed. It seems to be quite a nice area, with semi-dethatched houses and nice cars and roads.

He approaches a cleaners called “Aqua clean”, this suggests he has money, this implies that our male protagonist is part of the middle class status.

The close up of the character putting in his money, expecting to receive some coins, his face drops when it comes straight back out rejecting his money. His facial features exclaim disappointment and confusion. What's more humorous about this shot is that it specifically says "dispense coins only when flashing". The fact the close up picks up it is flashing and it still rejects his bill shows the genre as being comedic.
  


This scene is all about all the other people who approach the coin machine and it works for them. The main character is behind them watching their every move.

The extreme close up on the first shot is to explain how the new characters bill was completely screwed up in his pocket and it still managed to dispense money for him. 

His facial expression and body language is key, as he literally stops what he is doing just to face the fact that the machine really doesn't like him.

The next guy does exactly the same thing and un-scrunches his note and places it in the machine. The camera work is clever here because it's being staged to look like its actually the coin machine. 
In the background our main character is actually trying to iron his money on a corner, which isn't meant to be the focal point of the shot. This suggests he is trying to be discreet about it.
We can see that its quite a long walk from the door to the coin machine, which makes the humour rise, as it seems he has only come in to get some coins for parking. The lighting isn't extremely dark or light, its pretty mutual, to look like the lights on the ceiling are lighting up the entire area, rather than special lighting to highlight specific features of this short.






The setting then expands further showing us the rest of the dry cleaners. There is a female character next to him, which he doesn't take much notice to.

The eye-line match is particularly significant because it shows how our character has just thought of an instant idea, this makes the audience follow his train of thought also, as we can make the rest of the story up from here.
The fact that the note is actually framed shows some sort of importance and significant to the dry cleaners, which shows our characters desperation.


His reaction to the new note that has now also been rejected has made him very frustrated with his facial expressions. The fact that his top few buttons are undone suggests he only wanted to quickly get some change and leave...obviously not the case here.

He then starts treating the machine as if it was a woman. He starts using phrases such as:
M: "you like that?"
M: "give it to me".

This sort of behaviour is disturbing other people surrounding him, such as the lady standing next to him thinking "what is he doing?". We laugh as the mid shot of the lady shows her loading her washing into the washing machine, but turning her shoulder to the noises of this man.

He then gets his change, after sexualising the machine, gets his change covered in white liquid. His facial expression is quite frustrated and confused. The shot types aren't very varied within this short, but I don't think it needed to be, as i said above, the camera is working as the machine.

IDENTITY SHORT FILM 1

Identity Analysis (MRANG).

 

The opening title is just on a black screen with white text on it. This is simple and plain, yet the text has cracks, and rubbed away parts that fade into the black. This could suggest it’s something to do with a broken identity. This raises the enigma and makes the viewer want to know why the text font and background is relevant.

  

From these screen grabs, the character knows more than the audience, this is called restricted narration. This is suggested by the way she is shown without a mask on, and then she puts one on, we have no real understanding at this point what the mask represents, however she does. We can see by the background that she is in some sort of bathroom or toilet; the tiles on the wall suggest this. It seems quite lit, but also a bit desaturated. Facially, she seems quite content, but then she has to cover that up, which could suggest the lighting being a bit grey.
The non-diegetic music in the background sounds as if swords/knives are being scraped together to give off that very metallic sound. When she puts the mask on her face, it sounds very magnetised, suggesting it is permanent

 

The first frame certifies that it is some sort of bathroom, as we can see the tiled floor, as well as a baby changing table.

We are then introduced to a series of shots which are edited together, showing just the back of her head. This is particularly clever because we see just her surroundings. For example, the second shot is her in a classroom, and another one was her walking through the corridor. This tells us another setting, a school. Notice, the woman in the second frame is also wearing a mask, which is different to our main characters.

 

                              

Our female protagonist seems to be on her own a lot of the time. Maybe the masks mean different things? At this point, there is a lot of enigma being raised.

The camera shot is a medium shot, to capture the true loneliness she must be feeling. We can see silhouettes of people walking past, which suggests people don’t care for her.

We can see people in groups behind her; this shows that maybe her surroundings aren’t very accepting, which is also where the masks might come into play. It seems to be quite nice and bright outside, but around her it seems to be dark and shadowy, which would suggest she is content in her own darkness.

                                               

We can see that the classes have a routine. The fact they are sitting with their arms crossed shows maybe a strict ruling within their classrooms. They all have different masks, but they come in groupings. For example, we can see that the “yellow” masks connote popularity. The poster reads “This is what beautiful looks like”. The word “beautiful” is highlighted in yellow, which suggests that yellow masks are the most beautiful. This is the same with real life stereotypes, such as being 6ft tall and being a size 4 to fit into the “beautiful woman” categories. The fact that nobody has the same mask as our main protagonist shows she is her own individual and she doesn’t follow stereotypes.

The poster is placed on the school walls which suggests that the school is promoting the segregation of people within schools. The girls surrounding the poster all have yellow masks and one of them is flipping their hair. This is suggesting she doesn’t care for other people, only herself and her appearance.

In this scene, we are revealed to a circular narrative. What we thought was happening in the beginning was actually edited in reverse. We thought as an audience, that our main protagonist was putting on the mask, but by the end we realise she’s taking it off, which is the reasoning for her bright and cheerful body language.

The lighting in this room hasn’t changed and still looks a bit desaturated, however we feel completely different about what is happening.

The fact she is removing her mask shows she no longer feels the need to conform to the supposable norms of the social world.

We see a high angle shot looking down on the venetian styled mask, that has just been left, this is significant to the last shot, as we see her walking through her school, outdoors surrounded by the other pupils who are still masked. This suggests she has come out of the darkness into the outside world.