Task one - analysis of previous short films.

In this task I will be reviewing the contents of several existing short films as to gain inspiration and understand established tropes when I come to create my own. I will do this using several different categories (below)

1. Narrative (The plot/ storyline of the piece)

2. Characterisation  (how the characters are portrayed to bring meaning to the story)

3. Camera work (the different camera angles and movements used to convey meaning and keep an audience interested)

4. Editing (the pacing and look of the film and how that keeps the correct tone of the film)

5. visual effects (the standards of the effects used in the films and how this effects verisimilitude)


Short Film One:
"Sight" Directed by Erin May-Raz and Daniel Lazo

1.Narrative:
This short film shows a future heavily effected by the existence of a new piece of technology called "sight" which takes the form of a contact lens. This lens allows people to live out their lives in a series of games. This is shown via the cucumber cutting app an the dating app that the protagonist uses for the Marjory of the video. The story is quite simple , showing a day in the life of somebody using the application, the application is shown to impede the daily lives of ordinary people to a ridiculous extent, turning simple activities like cooking and running into games so that people will be motivated into doing them.
The narrative seems to be a Satire of the way that increased technological convergence has had on our lives as well as a warning of what such progress could risk.

2.Characterisation:

The characters in the short film are purposefully not particularly well developed as that we are supposed to relate to them and therefore having too much development would risk the main point of the story.
There are only two characters in the short. The first being the protagonist. This is the male character in the story (which revolves on a date between a man and a woman.) Through this character we are introduced to the world of the story where this technology exists. The character seems to serve as the writers commentary on how the Internet as well as other converging technologies have effected the process of dating and meeting people online. This is done via the "Sideman" program that this character uses while on the date.
The second character would be the woman that our protagonist goes on his date with. This character is deliberately under developed as to show the attitude that the protagonist has towards her (that being that he doesn't really care about her at all, just wanting her for sex.) Again I feel that this is a commentary on the satire of modern perceptions of relationships. The end of the short shows the woman being forcibly stopped by the protagonist because she tried to leave and he has control of the sight system. This ending could be seen as a furthering of the warning that reliance to technology caries with it an innate risk.

3:Camera work

Due to the fact that the technology in the short film is a contact lens many of the shots used are in first person showing what is being done on the lens.
As well as this there are, establishing shots of the room that the protagonist lives in to show the bare walls he lives in In contrast to the extravagant living area the sight system provides him with.
The date scene relies purely on close ups to show the feelings expressed by both of the characters as well as the first person shots I have already discussed.

4: Editing
Sight res on the interaction between its characters in order to create the pace and meaning that they want to portray. To this end the editing makes several things clear to the audience. Firstly the use of a shot reverse shot conversation structure shows the audience that the two characters are invested in the conversation.
Apart form this there is very little editing as that the short film attempts to stay as grounded in reality as possible.

5: Visual effects

This short film relies heavily on visual effects in order to have the correct aesthetic. This is most easy seen in the first person scenes were visual effects are used to make real life activities appear like smart phone games. It seems to me that the team behind this film took inspiration from smart phone games such as fruit ninja.






Short Film Two:
"Identity" Directed by KJ Adames

1:Narrative:
This short film focuses on a world where everyone wears masks that cover their res faces. It is clear that the masks are meant to serve as a metaphor for the standards of beauty that people (especially women) are held u to.
The film begins wit the unnamed protagonist leaving the bathroom of the school she attends after being knocked over ad breaking her mask. This scenes shown at both the start and the end of the short however the first tie it is shown in reverse as t show that the film is out of continuity.
The main bulk of the film contains no dialogue and only shows the goings on in the school that the protagonist attends. The only dialogue in the whole short film is where the teacher alludes to "Plato's allegory of the cave" which is explained as one person being freed from a life of staring at a dark wall and therefore being obliged to return and free everyone else living  "the cave."
After being lectured on this allegory the protagonist is in the cafeteria and feels the need to run through to the bathroom, however when she gets there she runs into someone and breaks her mask meaning she can't wear it anymore. This is the shot from the beginning only now we see what happens to the protagonist after she leaves which is that she is seen as an outcast by everyone else who is wearing their mask.

This short film is clearly meant to show the nature of abiding by modern beauty standards in the opinion of the director.

2: Characterisation

The film makes sure to show the differences between the people in masks. The masks could be seen as an allegory for beauty standards or as the concept of covering your true identity as to "fit in" with other groups of people and I eleven that this is left open to interpretation due to two different scenes .Firstly the scene where there is a sign with a woman wearing a yellow mask which states "this is what beautiful looks like" and secondly the part where a girl was up to a group of people and changes her mask.
There  is only really one character in the whole thing which  think I to show how people who adhere to these standards in order to fit in are not characters in themselves as that they are citations (thus the masks) The whole narrative of this short film is to show the protagonist having the courage to become a character herself and stop wearing a mask.

3:Camera work:

This short film attempts to show the entirety of the school that the main character attends which means that Manny panning and tracking shots are used. As well as this there is a lot of close ups and extreme closeups to show the people wearing masks.

4: Editing:

The editing of the film is quite slow paced as that it is not meant to be exiting in the same way that an action or horror film would. In this film the shots are allowed t linger on the screen so that the viewer can intemperate the message that the director is trying to send to them. The scene in the bathroom at the start in which the sequence o events is reversed is the only use of non continuity editing used in the whole piece.

5: Visual effects

This film does not use any visual effects at all. instead it choses to use practical effects to make it message apparent.

The only use of any kind of effect like this would be the use of lighting which Is definitely used to show the contrast between before and after the protagonist takes of her mask with the lighting being low key to show seclusion and also to align with the cave allegory. After the main character takes the mask off the lighting becomes more high key.




Short film three: "Ape" Directed by Josh Hutcherson

1: Narrative:

This short video shows a protagonist called Mitchel who is struggling to maintain his sanity.
The film begins with Mitchel taking some pills to control his mental illness and then eat dinner with his family. His mother asks him whose party he is going to ,setting up for the rest of the narrative, and he replies with "Just somebody I used to know."
To this point we don know that he is struggling with a mental illness and the woman in red who is supposed to represent this is just assumed to be a sister or friend who will be attending the party with him. Soon after arriving he takes drugs in the bathroom after having what could be considered a mental breakdown. He then goes to a girls bedroom but has a complete breakdown after seeing the woman in red again.
Mitchel then goes home where he is told that if he really is doing so well then he dowsnt need to go and see his councelor again. an obvious contrast to what we have seen already.

2: characterisation:

The characters in this short film are not well developed apart from Mitchel. We know by the end of the short that he has deep phycological issues manifested by the woman in red and struggles to  control himself around people. This is shown by the film makers choosing to have the character have greasy hair and a stubble implying that he isnt looking afte4r himself vey well.
Apart from this the short only contains mitches mother, father, the woman in red and the girl who invites mitchel to her room. We dont know mutch about these characters. they are mostely just used to justify Mitches behaviour and give the audiance a basic understanding that the main character was a socially withdrawn recluce when he was younger.

3: Camera work.

In this short film the camera work is not consistant throughout. There are some scenes when it is steady and at a level angle as to give nothing away about the dynamics of power in a situation such as when the protaganist is sitting at the table with his parents. However it changes occaonally to become more erratic and shakey when the protaganist (whose point of view we are seing the story from) is mentally unstable. This espesally noticeable in the penultimate party scene wherin the camera is incredibly shakey. as well as this many of the more eratic scenes show the protaganist from an upward angle which connotes inferiority and fear.

4: editing;

Much like what has been done with camera work i beleve the creator of this short chose to use fast pased editing when the protaganist is feeling eratic himself and is in the midst of a stressfull situaltion. often times the shots in other circumstances are allowed to stay on screen longer which allows the audiance to notice the difference in body langualge beween mitchel and the people around him.

5: Visual effects:
this short film makes sure to use mostley lowkey lighting as to convay the dark and depressing way a person with a mental health disorder will see the world.
Aside from this the only other effects would be the comings and goings of the woman in red who is edited in using jump cuts.

short film 4 -   72kg directed by Thamar KG

1) Narrative:

This short film is by far the shortest of the ones which i have looked at, however i personally believe that its narrative is one of the most profound and deep. 

The story centres on a homeless man begging for money on the street so that he can survive. He is passed by the central protagonist who sees him and decides give him a chance. The protagonist returns to his home and gets down a box from the top of his cupboard, the contents of which are at present concealed to the audience.

The film then jumps to the next day when the protagonist returns to the beggar, places down the scale, weighs himself (giving the short film its name) and then paying the man for the using of his scales. The protagonist then leaves the scale with the beggar and he can then get much more money as that people wants to use his scales.

The story seems to be a real life example of the phrase “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” The protagonist makes the life of the old beggar much better by giving him something that the wasn’t using and this act of kindness allows him to live a happier life.

2) Characterisation:

Due to the fact that the film is only 2 and a half minutes long the characters  are not partially well developed at all however this serves the message of the film as that it is trying to convey the idea of all people being equal in value and worth helping. The fact that none of them have any kind of in depth story means that the audience can project onto them.

3) Camera work:

The camera work in this short film helps to give it a lot of its meaning. For example the opening shots are close-ups on the beggars can and his face which establishes that he is homeless as well as the pain in his face showing that he is struggling and perhaps doesn’t have enough to survive on currently.

Another interesting shot is the one where the protagonist reaches up to collect the box being from a low angle which is typical to show power over a situation. This is shown in the entire video to be a central theme.

4) Editing:
This short makes a lot of use of editing in order to show the feelings of both of the cameras. This is shown by the fact that both of the scenes which they both appear in show multiple short reverse shot editing techniques (although there is no dialogue.)

5) Visual techniques:

This film contains absolutely no use of visual techniques it makes use of the lights in the protagonist’s apartment and the sun for lighting and there are no special effects.