Short Film Research

"The Space Between Us" - (2006, Magali Charrier)

Link to film: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005dsxy#

Anita is in love with Paul. He’s her perfect man, and they have a good relationship – but she’s a worrier, and she can’t help but analyse their relationship. Throughout the film, Anita is the first person narrator depicting her relationship and dispositional tendencies to the audience.

The first shot is point of view as Anita is looking through a pair of binoculars, perusing her boyfriends bedroom, this is effective because the audience gets to see life exactly through her eyes and her first person narrative goes hand in hand with the camera work. Also the fact that she is looking through binoculars could be a metaphor of how close she looks at certain situations, and in this case, her relationship with Paul. I also feel that the lack of sound plays an important role in this film as the audience is alone with Anita's thoughts, there are no other immediate distractions, another technique to keep the audience empathising with the character. I intend to use a similar technique in my film.

The editing in this film differs to that of a hollywood film as a great deal of the shots are wide and there are not many effects, its a lot more realistic. However you could argue that when the camera cuts away to the bits displaying her notes or the drawings of her and Paul, that this resembles some hollywood films, for example '(500) days of Summer' (2009, Marc Webb) has certain shots like that altered in post production.

However it resembles a short film as it is a story of ordinary life and contains documentary style camerawork, untrained actors ect. senecense

"Saltmark" (2008, Robin Haig)

Link to film: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005jz2w

This film is about a girl who is a young carer, she looks after her grandfather. This film depicts a regular day in the life of her. The theme of this film is quite obviously growing up, she has to do very undignified things for him and has to realise that that is her life now, and that she loves her grandfather no matter what. I got a sense of courage from this film as well, the fact that she comes back to help him after she has the epiphany that she has to do some things she doesn't like doing, whilst being mocked by vile teenage girls simultaneously, shows a lot of courage and love. Like 'The Space Between Us" its filmed and edited in a documentary style and its a story of ordinary life. Also it deals with senescence, an issue of social realism.

It differs from a hollywood film as it deals with such a taboo subject as ageing/being cared for, however you could argue that some films do show this taboo ('The Notebook" - 2004, & "The Bucket List" -2007) but the way in which their stories play out shows a clear difference, especially in "The Notebook" when they glamourise dementia, when its an incredibly upsetting thing. I like that this film didn't hold back on the 'gory details' of being senile. I liked the use of natural sounds and lighting, this is a technique I intend to use in my own short film.

"Night School" - (2008, Ben Soper)

Link to film: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p0069bpf

This is a film about a young couple breaking into an abandoned school, it deals with a few social realism issues sex, relationships, breaking the law. I chose this film as the relationship theme could be helpful with my own short film. I also chose this film because the lighting in it was fantastic, The use of red when the young couple are in danger/doing dangerous things is really clever, then in the scenes down the corridor the use of alternate reds and blues and whites keep you guessing, it makes the audience really think about what it all means. It has deliberate ambiguity, the couple being in the shadows a lot so you cannot see their facial expression is a good metaphor for how a young relationship works as you don't know how to communicate your feelings properly yet and a lot of your problems and feeling about your circumstance are 'in the shadows', such as the young couple in this film.

I felt that the message behind this film was all about virtue, the whole 'wait until you are ready' saying as the couple were so young and careless enough to break into a place of education in the first place they obviously wouldn't of been ready to consummate their relationship.

"Adjustment" - (2006, Ian Mackinnon)

Link to film: http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p006dc5l

This film was about an obsessive man who had been constantly drawing and taking note of different parts of his relationship, by this he thinks he is making the most of every second with her, however he is wrong and she leaves him.

This was by far my favourite short film I have seen! I thought that the way it was made was so clever and the narrative made good references to the saying 'you don't know what you have until it is gone'. Also the way he uses the idea of a flip book - how it works, i mean - to describe his break up with Alice. "Flip books work because of the concept of perceptual vision, this is where you continue to imagine you see something after a long period when it is gone...".

This film will influence my film a lot as the fast paced scene of the man's and Alice's relationship reflect my initial idea, also the way that he obsesses over every detail and how his compulsive disposition effected their relationship in a big way.

Part of this film was animated. I feel this is effective because it was the fast paced cut that you needed to break up the emotionality and numbness of some parts, for example when you see the flip books before she leaves and when he looks at the shuffled ones even he comes to the realisation that she had all the control in the end, and because how obsessed he was he could never handle the control of their relationship as he was too busy controlling every last part of his pictures and prose of her.

My Short Film - A2 OCR Coursework

So far, a lot of my initial ideas have come from a range of old films, for example Gone With The Wind (1939, Victor Fleming), Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler), Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz) to name a few. Also from certain songs I listen to in everyday life, for example there is a singer/songwriter named Laura Marling whom inspires me greatly, everything she writes is so raw and there is a stack of emotions behind her songs. One of her songs named 'Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)' is one of my favourite songs because the lyrics relate to certain occasions within my own life. It's the song i also associate with the incident my film my be about.

The definition of a short film would be something artistic and quirky that is around ten minutes in length and faces taboo issues through it's ideology.

In class we watched a short film named "About a Girl" (2001, Ryan Percival), it addressed issues of social realism like teenage pregnancy, relationships, divorce and coming of age. I loved how it showed these issues explicitly, as things like that happen everyday behind closed doors, however society seems to be ignorant about them. For example, the main female in the film is incredibly depressed and that is evident throughout with use of fast paced quick cut shots with a large amount of dialogue in, then followed by long drawn out wide shots with a static camera, displaying the girl's issues, showing that she is vulnerable. This is effective because with her peppy dialogue, you would expect her to be permanently happy, instead she is trying to cover up her irrevocable sadness.

My initial idea came from a dream I have about somebody close to me that I hold very dear being in an accident. However the editing will reflect that of "About a Girl", with long edit followed by more faced paced one's depicting certain elements of not only the accident itself, but the logistics of the relationship I have with this person. I liked this effect from "About a Girl" because the tone reflected similar moods that I would like in my film, coming of ages through certain relationships and incidents that are out of your control. Also the main female character in the film seemed to be constantly trying to put on a brave face, much like the lead character in my film will be.

One of the aspects of cinematography I favoured was the use of daylight for low key lighting. This is because some of the scenes in my short film I wish to shoot outdoors and this lighting technique will be a useful one to emulate. Furthermore I will be using simple rues of composition and continuity to intend that my film flows nicely.