SYNOPSIS

Lifted is a short film about a teacher, Mr.Mears, struggling to find his way in a new job at a secondary school. Every now and again he needs a little extra help to keep his composure and control of the students, which ultimately cause him stress. On a particularly long Tuesday, Mr.Mears gets particularly stressed at a student, and blames them for something they haven’t done, the teachers knows this student isn’t responsible, but can not be bothered to find the real culprit. At the end of the day Mr.Mears takes something extra to help him through the long and tiring day. But as with all drugs there are side effects. He starts to hallucinate and thinks that the student he had earlier told off is coming after him, and trying to kill him. Mr.Mears is chased by this ‘imaginary’ student, until he falls and gets cornered. There is some simple conversation exchanged between teacher and student before the camera changes to portray the fear on the teachers face, before changing back to the Student, to show that it is in fact the teacher looking back at himself. This reflects upon how deep down he is disgusted with the habit and more so himself, and shows how he is trying to stop himself from taking something every time school gets slightly tough.

MindMap

This is my MindMap addressing all area of my film, including the basic ideas, representation, potentential audience theories, structure and the theories I have played with and based my film upon.

NARRATIVE THEORIES

I have based the main structure of my film around Todorov’s theory. I have chosen to do this as in my film as I will start with a balanced equilibrium where it seems as though everything is as it should be and a normal day. There will then be an unbalancing of this equilibrium, in which the main character will have to overcome this. And finally a new equilibrium will be formed. This is what Todorov’s theory suggests, a balanced equilibrium, an unsettling of this equilibrium and then a new equilibrium is formed.

However, rather than showing this new equilibrium at the end, it will only have a short shot, leaving the audience to try to guess and figure out what has happened. In my film I am also going to include the basic principles of binary opposites as suggested by Propp. But rather than having a good character vs. a bad one, I am going to have the good and bad represented within one character.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

One of the most common results that occurred in my audience research was that males and females both prefer different ending to the films that they watch. Firstly, males prefer a more open-ended ending where they get to imagine how the film ends, and get to voice their own opinion, however, in general females do not like this. They would prefer to know how the film ends as they then do not argue with their friends over what they think happened/happens.

Also, many people have seen short films as they are not very easily accessible. A few people have seen short films, as promotional videos shown in the millennium dome. Another popular place that people have seen short films is at the start of Disney films, when they show Pixar animations. To allow short films to be more accessible people have suggested that there should be a specialised website for short films that are promoted well so everybody knows about them. Also, if there were more video links on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace then people would like to watch more.

A few people also added that to make short films more popular and to let more people know about them they should be added to the start of a DVD for a big/blockbuster film as almost everybody said they would like to watch them and wouldn’t just fast-forward them.

The most common problem people appear to have with feature length films is that they find them too predicatble. The most suggested criticism is that you can always predict what is going to happen in the end for example the hero overcomes the villain and wins over the princess. People said that they would like to see more of a twist to the end of a feature length film or a generally unpredictable ending. Also, a lot of people said that the main aspect they like about the short films that they have seen is that they are seen to be more mysterious and ‘twisty’ at the end.

Some people commented on how they would pay to see a compilation of short films at the cinema for a discounted rate. Another popular place people said they would like to see short films is on iTunes for a cheap price. People also said that if the films were advertised on the iTunes store homepage they would get a lot more advertisement and a bigger chance of becoming more successful as you have to view this page when you go to purchase anything through iTunes. If people then came to viewing more, the films were also more likely to talked about and spread through word of mouth gaining more views. Many of the males said that they would like to see some short films on the Xbox live marketplace, where they could view some for free, to get a taste of what they are like, then if they liked them they could pay to view some more.

Overall, not many people have seen short films, but the few that they have seen, they have said were very enjoyable and well made and generally positive. A lot of the audience I researched on said that they would like to view short films on YouTube as they are easily accessible, but YouTube also has lots of non-related, ‘pointless’ videos that are annoying when they are searching for short films. A popular suggestion was that the short films had their own ‘channel’, or some other method where people could see the professionally made short films. Some people also said they would like a well-known short film specialised website.

Short Film Research

Spin 2006

Jamin Winans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP59tQf_njc

A man is sent to a busy city, ridden with multiple numbers of crimes and general bad events. He uses his DJing skills to change these events around to the most promising ending.

Spin uses the most visual techniques of all the short films that I have researched. It often has the shots reversed and played backwards to show how the main character is controlling what is going to happen in the next few moments with his DJ decks. This is a lot different to the other films I have researched, due to the way in which it has been filmed and the general content of the film. Also this film is different in the way that the shots are a lot longer.

Snap 2006

Manolo Celi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmxX2r-uD8I

This film is about how a photographer runs away with someone’s camera forcing them to chase him, as they make their way through the busy streets the photographer takes photos of the man chasing him to capture the true emotion. At the end of the film you see the phtographer at an exhibition with all his work, and the man who’s camera he stole appreciating his photos.

The idea behind snap is quite basic but effective, as it is built up in one way, showing all the signs of the main character committing theft, but at the end there is a shot showing what the man was really doing. And how he was trying to capture the emotion of the victim best. This is similar to lovefield, how all the signs point to one thing but in the end it turns out that it is actually something else that is happening.

Lovefield 2008

Mathieu Ratthe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro&feature=fvst

This film starts out looking like a horrible murder has been committed or someone is being hurt. An untidy looking man goes to the boot, and it looks as though he is looking for somewhere to put the woman that is screaming. There is also a black crow, which is typical shown as a representation of horror and death, sitting on a sign adding to the effect that there is something wrong. All the elements of the film appear to look this way, but when the film comes to the end there is an unexpected twist. This is what is really good about this film. Everything seems to point in one direction, leading you to all the signs of a typical horror scene, but building a lot of tension and excitement. But right at the end you see that it is not as first expected.

The Black Button (2007)

Lucas Crandles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80

Mr Roberts finds himself awoken inexplicably in a white room. A man sits infront of him at a desk and in the middle of them stands a black button. If Mr Roberts pushes it, he will receive a briefcase filled with millions of dollars. Or he can take the key to the door and leave penniless. However, it isn’t that simple as pushing the button will result in the death of someone somewhere.

This film is different to all of the other films I have researched as it is a very simple but effective idea. The whole of the film is filmed within one room, and there are few different camera angles or techniques. However, this is still good as it adds to the image it is trying to create, and the film is all about the dialogue and trying to make the viewer guess what is going to happen.

INSiDE 2008

Trevor Sands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjTOs1L3SBg

This short film is about a schizophrenic man who is waiting to see the doctor about his release from a psychiatric ward. When they start talking there is a large range of totally different types of character behind him, that in-turn speak at the same time as the main character to the nurse, each displaying a different type of emotion. After a while, the nurse gets fed up and tells them to be quiet and that she can’t help “them” if they won’t help themselves. At this point the other characters disappear and you are left with just the main man and the nurse. She then walks behind the man, and another man walks in, who introduces himself as the “Dr”, and asks how the man is feeling, the nurse then appears again and talks at the same time as the schizophrenic man, leaving the viewer to feel that she was another part to his imagination and personality, and was the way he controls himself.

This was my favourite short film as it is very creative and uses a relatively simple idea very effectively. It also has a simple twist at the end that works well, which is what I personally like to see in a short film.

This is similar to “black box” in the concept that the film is set within one main room, and the story is more focused on the dialogue, which is successful in creating a short film.

Offside 2008

Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIxBRA5qjA

Offside is a film about 2 different 2 man-strong groups of soldier, who are meant to be fighting against each other. One set of soldiers have a radio and are listening to Brazil play football, which is where you are led to believe the film is set. The soldiers are very cautious and on guard whilst keeping a close eye on the other soldiers. As the game goes into injury time, one of the player’s scores, and as the commentator shouts “goallll” one of soldiers pull the trigger of his gun. This then sets off a reaction and both sets of soldiers begin a shootout. As all four soldiers lay there, dying on the gravel, the commentator announces how the goal has been disallowed due to offside, revealing how all the soldiers had died for no reason.

This film is effective in it’s own way and also unique due to the fact that there is no dialogue except the commentator on the radio. This allows the viewer to keep a close eye on the action on the screen, and keeps them guessing at what is going to happen next.

The Black Hole 2009

Diamond Dugs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk

“A sleep deprived office worker finds a Black Hole whilst photocopying late one night Suddenly the possibilities seem endless. Will greed get the better of him?”

This film uses some basic ideas very effectively, and with some very good special effects and editing skills. I like the way this has been done as it gives the film a subtle comedy element which none of the other films have.

RESEARCH AND BASIC IDEA

INSiDE is a short film, directed by Trevor Sands, about a schizophrenic man who is waiting to see the doctor about his release from a psychiatric ward. He is seen being moved from a secure unit at the start of the film, to a room to talk to the doctor. When they start talking there are many totally different types of character behind him, that in-turn speak at the same time as the main character to the nurse, each displaying a different type of emotion. After a while, the nurse gets fed up and tells them to be quiet and that she can’t help “them” if they won’t help themselves. At this point the other characters disappear and you are left with just the main man and the nurse. She then walks behind the man, and another man walks in, who introduces himself as the “Dr”, and asks how the man is feeling, the nurse then appears again and talks at the same time as the schizophrenic man, leaving the viewer to feel that she was another part to his imagination and personality, and was the way he controls himself.

This is a basic idea that I am planning to use in my film is the man having things going on in his head that are very hard to control. For my initial idea I have planned to have a man that is addicted to drugs hallucinating and thinking that people are coming for him. When the other characters finally have him cornered there will be a shot reverse shot, to show his fear and when the camera looks back it will be the man on drugs looking back at himself. The idea behind this film is that his mind is telling him to stop and that it can’t take anymore of the drugs, which is portrayed by the closing in of what he thinks are the antagonists that he is imagining.

POSTER TASK

We were asked to design a poster for the genre of our choice. We had to team up with another class-mate and design the poster using "Fireworks" and "Photoshop". For this poster we chose the horror genre and played upon the key characteristics of horror when creating our poster. We chose to have a young girl dressed in white to signify her innocence and pureness, in the foreground, amongst the contrasted dark and evil in the background. To add to the horror effect we removed the brightness and dulled down the background, and filtered out the opacity in the man, to add a mysterious and dead look to create the effect of a ghost. This adds to the feeling in the tagline "the path is cold when you are being followed by death", to create a horror type effect. the tagline and title were both in red font to create a bloody effect on the black and grey background to add to the overall creepy feel, and to contrast well and stand out to the audience. The font that we used for the title is quite edgy and sharp which reflects the branches in the background. We chose the title as Azazeal is the devil or all devils, and the man in the background is shown as a representation of him. We also played on the word routes, with the thought of all the roots in the background and to suggest that it is a pathway that the little girl has taken home. The way that it is written shows that the route home is considered to belong to him and he sees the people that walk through there as his victims!

Creating the poster we used different tools in the photo-editing software to create the impression we wanted on our audience. We cut out the noose, girl and man from other images and played around with the lightness and opacity to create the horror effect we wanted.

Finally we added a white credit block to add to it's authenticity and professional finish, and chose this in white to reflect the innocence of the girl, and again to contrast the dark background.

For this poster, I decided to just play around with a few characteristics of the poster, such as turning the opacity down even more on the man in the background. This would mean that for the viewer to spot it they would have to concentrate on the poster more and digest more of what they see. The aim of this was for the outline of the man to catch the eye of the audience so they quickly notice it, and then have to look again to fully take in what they have seen, this would help to make the person looking at the poster to remember what they have seen more, making it a more successful advertisement. I also played around with the tagline, to try and reflect what is within the film in a simple sentence, and what a struggle it would be for the characters to escape him within the film. Within this tagline I have also tried to reflect and sum up that the film is of the horror genre. I also changed the title and changed the font to something more bold and white. This was again to reflect the innocence of the girl and so that even with the quickest glimpse the viewer would take in the title, and make sure that it is the first thing they notice about the poster.

This was a poster that I worked on on my own, just experimenting with some of the tools and techniques available to you on the photo-editing software. I created this poster with more of a teaser poster in mind, by not giving too much away about the film and only using a title and release date. The font that I have used within this poster has an alarm clock feel to it, reflecting the title and that time is ticking for the character within the film. I have also blended in an eye image that I took into the background. To make this as effective as possible I cut the eye out from the rest of the image and then turned down the opacity so that it would blend better with the clouds in the background. I also took out alot of the colour so that it was practically just black and white and then placed it into the sky to give the impression that we are always being watched. I used a white font for the title to again add to the effect of an alarm clock to contrast against the background similar to the other posters.

I have put the face into the foreground to really add emotion to the poster and the girl facing towards us, to create the feel that she is vulnerable and not aware that she is being watched, again creating emotion but within the audience this time.

I created this poster as more of a thriller genre this time, as it is a genre that I am most likely to base my short film on.

POSTER ANALYSIS

From a young age we are taught to read from top left to bottom right, so when you look at this poster the first thing that you notice is the header stating the film is “smart, fast-paced and totally gripping”, this would straight away give viewers an idea of what the film is about. These reviews and comments are usually by a well known person or company, so if this is their opinion it may encourage other people to want to go and watch the film. As you look further down the poster the next thing that you see is “Matt Damon is Jason Bourne”. This is another reflection upon how they have tried to make the film more successful. This would mean that fans of Matt Damon would want to go and pay to see the film because it has their favourite star in it. Next is the title, here you can see that it changes from red to white and then back to red for the last word in the title. The two red parts of the title could reflect the danger that Jason Bourne is in, with a entire agency after him, whilst the white reflects the innocence of him, how he is only protecting himself and doesn’t really want to hurt anyone, just to get to the truth of what happened to him. The “Bourne” part of the title is also the biggest and boldest, which is one of the first parts of the title to catch the audience’s eye. This would immediately let them know that is the sequel to the first film “The Bourne Identity”, so this would also attract fans of the previous film. In the top left hand corner of the poster, the first place the viewer will look, is a fight image and a car crash/chase from the film. This shows how there is a lot of action within the film, and would attract any action film fan. This is effectively a sum up of the film within three images. In the top right hand corner is a busy area which reflects how the agency chasing Bourne can not stop him no matter where he is. The fact that they can not catch him is also reflected by the fact that the crosshair is missing him, but still connotes the danger that is present. Again the main image on the poster is Bourne running, which shows how he is being chased by someone and trying to escape. The seriousness of the chase is reflected by Bourne’s indirect gaze, which shows how he is focusing on the enemy. As well as this he is carrying a gun in one hand and has a clenched fist for the other hand, this reflects the fact that Bourne wont let anyone get in his way on his quest to uncover the truth. On his left wrist Bourne has a watch which signifies how it is a race against time before he finally gets caught, or before he kills another person that gets in his way. The last thing, is the black

t-shirt that Bourne is wearing which reflects the death that surrounds him, and how anyone that gets close to him will end up dead or in trouble, this is exaggerated in how his girlfriend dies at the start of the film.

Around the outside of this poster is a black outline which could reflect how death is again creeping in, edging closer to their enemies, and the criminals that they are trying to stop. This point is also signified with the black jeans and jackets that both men are wearing on the poster. Again this poster features the stars names, however on this poster the names are right at the top, which means it is the first thing that the viewer sees when they look at the poster. The stars names will help to encourage both the fans of the actors and the fans of the previous Bad Boys film to go and watch the film. The title is also in a bold, black font, which again reflects the danger that comes with the lead characters.

In the background of the poster is a big explosion with the main characters just casually walking away, reflecting how they caused the explosion but don’t care, also signifying how their attitudes match the title of the film. Added to this “bad boy” image is the gun that Will Smith is carrying, showing that they are serious to stop the crime.

In this poster there is no tag line, similar to “The Bourne Supremacy”, which could show how the film production team don’t want to give anything away, encouraging the target audience to go and see the film, if they want to know what happens in this sequel.

The way that Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have been dressed on the front adds to quite a cool look, reflecting their image within the film. They are shown to be walking away from the scene with a swagger, also adding to this image. Both of them have their shirts open which could signify how they are loose cannons, and won’t stop until they have detained the suspects.

As soon as you look at both of the posters you can clearly identify that they are action films from the use of guns and action shots, such as explosions and fights. However, Bad Boys II shows the characters looking more suave and cool and just doing their job, where as Jason Bourne is fighting for his life in a more serious battle, where his life is immediately on the line.

Original Photography Task

We were asked to experiment with lots of various different techniques using the camera. These techniques include depth of field, aperture, ISO, f-stop, exposure and the type of lighting. For the first photo i chose to have a large depth of field, which means that there is a lot more in focus, from background to foreground. This meant that i had to have a small aperture (hole in the lens), a large f-stop. I also had the ISO high, which meant that I have slightly over exposed it to light, giving a brighter overall finish to the picture.

For this photo I manipulated the amount of light in the room, by closing curtains and putting certain lights on, to give a more sinister look. The side lighting could reflect two sides to the character, one being a good side and the other a dark, evil persona. I also chanegd the aperture on the camera to give a shallow depth of field and manipulated the focus so that the face was in focus and the bakground was blurred. This allowed the face to stand out of the pitcture more. This photo also had low key lighting, reflceting a dark and shadowy image, again portaying an evil genre.

The last experimental photo I took was similar to a model shot, used to make people seem more glamarous and give there skin a very soft and subtle tone, without any blemishes. To achieve this effectively, I moved to an area where there was a lot of light, and mainly entering from above. The area also had a plain white background, which lighted the area very well, and allowed a bright background, allowing the face to stand out nicely. Having a big aperture, a shallow depth of field, allowed me to blur the background a little as well, again adding to the subtlty of the image.