Friday, 9 July 2010

'Wasp' - by Andrea Arnold

The mise en scene shows that this short film is set on a council estate, with the characters wearing grim, dirty clothes which show how poor they are as a family. The close up shots of the young girls faces show how desperate they are for food which highlights how poor they are.

The film maker is trying to make us emphasis with the main character as it may be her own fault that she has all these children but by her repeating the line 'it's my first night out in ages' shows us that she never goes out and never enjoys herself, she spends all her time trying to entertain her children. Due to her having a 'special' dance with her children, and having their art work all around the kitchen really emphasises how much love and care she has for them. By doing this the director makes sure that we are not quick to judge her.

It is a very effective film as it really shows the lives of mothers with lots of children and how difficult it is to survive with only a short amount of money. The cutaway edits during the short film really show how people are living in poverty, the close ups of the door frames were the paint is peeling of the walls, and the close ups of the girls faces show how dirty they are.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

'The Ganzfeld Procedure' - by Keith McCarthy

http://www.youtube.com/futureshorts?has_verified=1#p/u/14/1a5XOQ5dE0E

The short film starts with the mise en scene showing us that it is set in an experiment setting with a voice-over explaining the procedure; therefore giving us a better understanding of what's going on. As the music starts we can see that its going to be a fun/enjoyable journey as the music is upbeat and nice.

We get what look like memories or old tape recordings of the females past as a young girl, as they are slightly unclear and miss sections out it shows that her memory is slightly hazing which adds realism to the film as when your young you don't remember everything. As lots of low angle shots are used it shows they are point of view shots looking up at her relatives as a young girl which suggests that it is her memories of the past. Due to there being lots of colours suggests that she is still young and seeing things all bright and cheerful. It also suggests how difficult it is for her to try and remember the past, its all blurry and uncertain. The use of the non-diegetic sounds of 'swishing' show that time has pasted.

One of my favourite shots is the close up shot of her bare skinned against a black background, with a slight hint of pink lip gloss on and smoking a cigarette (blowing out smoke), its effective as she is sucking it in not blowing it out which shows that the effects have been reversed and creates a sense of time going backwards.

Another shot i feel that is affective is the close up shot of her drinking wine from a wine glass and the light shinning on her face and the glass, as as we have seen her childhood we are now experiencing what she does as an adult and the dangers of growing up and not being vulnerable and naive. Over these few different clips of her drinking there is a sinister/dark sound effect which emphasises the idea of as you grow up your not safe any more.

The quick cuts between different memories creates an effective and realistic view of what's going on in her head and how quick other thoughts/memories take over other ones, it creates a very powerful sense of us as the viewers understanding what she is going through. As the memories are of normal things, like putting lipstick on as a young child it makes it target a large amount of people and draws them in as it reminds us of out childhoods.

I feel that the genre of this short film is a romantic mock documentary as we get flashbacks of the girls life and how she meets the other man - it follows her through her journey. The target audience for this short film would be a possible age of 16-30 as its unique and fun and shows memories that most people have experienced making it add realism.

Overall i feel this short film is very unique and effective by the use of flashbacks and makes me think that flashbacks would be a good effect to use in my short film as i want viewers to feel how i did towards 'The Ganzfeld Procedure' in my short film.

Short Films Research

'About a girl' by Brian Percival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL2z8Qzn1dc&feature=related

The short film starts with the title of the film being written like a text message with the diegetic sounds of the keys being typed in, which straight away shows its going to be about young people and giving a target audience of 13-17.

The opening shot is a wide shot of a dark figure standing in a field singing a well known song, as we can't see the person very well it suggests that what we are about to see could be relevant to a lot of people - it's happening all the time.

A jump cut is then used to show the same girl now talking directly to the camera, it's a close up shot and as the camera is not smooth we can see that a hand-held camera was used, which suggests we are walking along beside her listening to her story making it personal. From this we can see that the genre is a documentary of her everyday life. We hear about all the violence and her dreams which highlights how young she is as she still believes she can be a famous singer, which makes the ending even more shocking.

The mise en scene of her outfit shows that she is from the lower class and poor by the dirty coat, jeans, plastic bag and the way that she talks, the mise en scene of her house also supports this. As she talks really fast and sue to her Manchester accent it can be quite difficult to understand her sometimes but the main issue comes at the end when she drops the plastic bag into the canal after carrying it around with her throughout the film. This arouses our curiosity as we wonder what is in this bag as no attention has been brought to it throughout the film.

We finally see what is in the bag by a mid low angle shot which reveals a baby, this shocked me as a viewer as the film shows how young and naive she is yet she has had a baby at the age of 13, this dramatic twist made me realise that this is happening all the time all over the world and has really affected me. Considering that the girl shows no emotion towards it as she just walks off as if it happens all the time.

This short film has really made me think about serious issues that are going on all the time all over the world and nobody is doing anything about them. Which makes me start to think about ideas for my short film and ways in which my short film will have the same affect on people the way that 'About a girl' had on me.