Short film research
Camerawork
The real short films I looked at earlier in the year tended to feature themes and issues which shock at the end (Grace) or contain enigma (reflections). The feeling of mystery is very well communicated through a short film and often works very well due to the camerawork. The most common shots short films contain is a range of close-ups and extreme long shots. These are two screen grabs taken from the Short film "Grace". These two types of shot are commonly used in short films with the enigmatic theme running
throughout. They combine very well as the close ups conceal any information which may give away the plot. The long shots are then there to expose the plot and give a high impact on the viewer.
Through watching a range of different short films with varying genres I have noticed that the camerawork doesn't really vary. They all feature the same types of shots an angles but for different reasons. For example in "Grace" it is a social realist /drama which features a lot of close ups and extreme long shots. This is the same story for "Ham Sandwich" which is a comedy. As shown in the images above and below they are opposite genres but feature identical shot types.
Mise en Scene
Another very important aspect on filming a short film is getting the Mise en scene right. In all short films (and feature films) the Mise en scene is very typical of where it is set. An example of this is in "Ham sandwich" where the beginning and end scenes are in an office. All the props, costume, hair and make up are all relevant to the setting. The amount of props differ genre to genre.
Using my examples from before, "Grace" has barely any props involved until the very end. It is all very minimalistic which could be done for realism, considering the genre I would assume they would want to keep it very believable and plain for the audiences benefit. The element of Mise en scene which is heavily featured in these types of short films is lighting. The lighting is used to convey emotion and meaning without shoving it in your face. Composition in the frame is another very important aspect of a drama or social realism style film. This is because the director will want to keep that element of surprise running throughout. To be able to do this the composition needs to give away a small dose of information while keeping certain things a secret. This is again done very well in "Grace".
Things such as body language and facial expression is a very important feature in short films. They help is to understand and identify with the characters this is shown in the short film "Brady". Throughout the short film we see Brady watching his mother fall in love. The short film doesn't contain a lot of speech so we know both the mothers and Brady's feeling by their facial expressions and body language. This is something we really wanted to focus on and feature in our short film.
Sound
The sound in short films is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic. This is apparent in all the short films which i have researched and watched. In the short films which I have watched the diegetic sound is mainly on screen dialogue partnered with the use of foleys. This combination makes it all very parallel. In "Sleepover" there is a constant conversation going on between the two boys along with a mixture of Foley's -like the torches turning on and off. In most of the short films I looked at the non -diegetic sound was also parallel to what what was going on on-screen.
Editing and Post production
When watching a range of short films it became apparent that the most common type of transition was a simple cut between shots. In every film a cut was used multiple times where as something like a fade to black would be considerably harder to find. The editing frequency changed drastically in each short film i have watched depending in the genre. For a short film which is action packed or a comedy the frequency of shots is much higher than for a film such as Brady which featured far less shots, with the quickest being for a shot reverse shot sequence. The editing and post production of any film is very important as it is how your film is coming across.
Genre
The genre of a film is displayed though simply what is on screen. Rick Altmans theory of semantic and syntactic codes. semantic codes are what you see on screen and relate to a genre, this includes things such as hair, make up, props and settings. For example in a western film you would expect to see horses, guns, cowboy hats and deserts. He says that these types of things are iconographic to a genre and build up what the film is. Syntactic codes are talking about the relations between these elements and the structure of the narrative. A simple example would be a rom-com having the lovers starting out by not liking each other.
A short film I looked at which didn't follow Altmans theory is "Grace" this started out as a romantic style drama and shocked the audience by the unconventional ending. David Buckingham's theory of genre is very interesting. He says that "genre is not...simply given by the culture: rather, it is in constant process of negotiation and change" this is basically saying that a short film with either negotiate the conventions of genre or change them and i have found that this is true is some short films. As they are so short it is hard to develop a proper genre. Most of the short films I have researched have been hard to put into a genre category -including ours. Many have either been a mixture or have had elements of certain genres but not to the extent Altmans theory suggests.
Narrative organisation and Short film format
In short films narrative organisation plays a big role to help to tell the story. A short film I looked at called "About a Girl" featured on screen narration throughout. This really helped to help us understand the plot and helped us also understand the character. 
In short films different types of narration is very common as with the short space of time it helps to convey the plot. A linear narrative is also very conventional of a short film, "Black hole" being a good example, some also feature cross cuts such as "Love field" Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions is heavily featured in short films. They help us to connect and have an emotional bond with the characters. With the short films which we looked at the binary oppositions of "Man vs Woman" (Love field) came up a lot, along with "Good vs Bad"(The Sleepover). I think these are important in a shot film however in a few the traditional binary oppositions I mentioned earlier are sometimes strayed from. Some directors like to stand out and create something different therefore not conforming to the traditional and creating more obscure binary oppositions.
Roland Barthes' theory about enigma and action codes is another crucial element concerning short films. However it is very important that they are done right. If they are not it can give a way to much information and ruin the entirety of the film. In "Grace" the enigma and action codes are pulled of excellently. There isnt a hint of the ending given away right up until the point where it has to come out. The shots used are perfect examples of when its done right. This short film contains the most common enigma code, showing a character but not introducing them.This is technically done with both the girl and boy characters but mainly the boy as we literally know nothing about him.
Another good example is in "Room 8" where it is clear that something isnt quite right and questions are being asked but hey are not answered up until the ending. These types of short films are my favourite as if it is pulled of correctly they are the most engaging ones to watch.
Our Short Film
Camerawork
In our short film we used a lot of close up shots and medium shots. This was because it suited our plot. With the Mirror scenes in it we needed to be able to capture the emotion of our characters and also we needed to get good shots of the mirror scenes themselves. Our camerawork was very conventional to the type of short film we created. The main type of shot we missed out which is a conventional camera shot was the long shot or extreme long shot. As we are college students our equipment is limited. To be able to pull of impressive long shots we would have needed special equipment and we didn't have that available.
Mise en Scene
When planning our short film we had to take mise en scene into account. We specially picked our settings suit our storyline and our characters. For example the shop. We had to make sure that the shop that our main character brought the mirror from looked in a particular way. We wanted it to look like a boutique and have lots of stuff in it. We also paid particular attention to the lighting throughout our short film. We had to make sure that it changed with the mood as because we had a sudden change towards the end. We successfully achieved this by trying out a range of different lighting techniques.
Sound
In our short film sound wasn't the biggest factor. We knew from the beginning that we didn't want any non diegetic sound as we felt it would make it too generic and not as real. However we did focus on getting the diegetic sound right. We recorded all the dialogue separately and than added it on. We also made sure to add the foleys as they featured a lot in short films. When it came to the dramatic moments of the film we decided that silence would be the best option for us. This is what we had seen in many other short films and it worked in well with our plot.
Characterisation
This was an element which we worked on a lot. We had four main characters and they all had to differ in some way. We looked at what they were going to wear, hair and make up,their body language and their facial expressions. The character we had to focus on was Louisa, the one who is cautious of the mirror and sees the horrible future. We had to make sure she had a slightly innocent appearance and looked nervous throughout. We did this through her saying certain things, sitting down a lot and encouraging others to look first. We wanted to do this is a subtle way as to not give away what was about to happen.
Ancillary task 1- The Film Posters
Through looking at a range of short film posters I noticed there are a variety of conventions:
Firstly there is always the film title very large and in or close to the centre. As you can see in the poster for "Silent Things" and "Dreams of a life". This done so the immediate attention is drawn to the name of the film, so even if you just glace at it you will remember the name.
Another thing is that the main image is of the main character or main characters. This is because it gives away some information about who the films about and what the plot may be about. This is shown in the posters above also.
Billing block
Actors Names
Tag line
Watch "Grace"
Watch "Reflections"
I can't really comment yet.
ReplyDeleteOnce there is more here I can do so.