Prior short film reviews

 

This image is a review on 2 short films we watched "Orphanage" and "Note to self". I am now going to review them both.

Orphanage

I thought this short film had a clear narrative in parts however there was a scene where a fire started with no clear idea of how it started to the audience. The genre was pretty clear from the start and the sound at the beginning revealed it was a horror. I felt the camera work was most professional out of both short films, the use of the variety of shots showed clearly it was a horror.

All the scenes were relevant but one slight mistake was the fact we see the orphanage building from the start and it is burnt and derelict. Then later on in the film we see the actual fire happen so the settings muddled the order up. This then made the short film difficult to follow.
There was sound throughout and I felt it was slightly unneeded at points. An example is when the girl is walking over the rubble and the sound of her feet on the ground was not in sync with the actual sound effect. I liked the non-diegetic sounds as it really did create a weary, scary effect.
Finally, the use of using a series of match cuts of the diary worked really well to create suspense.

From watching this short film I feel I have gained a wider knowledge of what works well in a short film and what doesn't. As a group we will learn from this and ensure our short film doesn't make the same mistakes. It has made me realise the importance of editing and making sure we do a final check to secure we have made no major mistakes. 

Note to self

I found the short film "note to self" clear at the start but wasn't consistent with enticing the audience. It was rather boring at times and when it was all beginning to reveal, it didn't quite all add up. The setting was pretty standard and lacked any creativity as it was all filmed in one home. It was clear that they had not thought everything through as where were the parents?. 

The camerawork was not amazing and it lacked any wow factor. However the use of the flashbacks worked really well with the storyline. The music used was very basic which I felt was unneeded, and it  didn't fit in at all with the scene. Also there wasn't much editing involved which sadly made it look like it could have been filmed on a phone for example. This made the short film amateur with no climax to it.

Overall I feel I have learnt that using camera techniques and good use of editing is key to a good short film. Acting is also important and I felt they lacked real effort. It was an eye opener to watch as it reminded me how realistic, strong and professional I wish ours to be. 

Voice-over Andrew Thompson

This is a video of a voiceover Andrew Thompson kindly did for us. It is played when the stalker is writing the letter and getting the gifts.

Filming for 'AWAY'

This is a prezi showing you the different filming we have for our short film and the planning of which ones we feel will work well with our short film.

Filming montage scene

This video is explaining our current situation on filming as we filmed the montage scene.

Risk assessment

These are a risk assessment sheet and a consent form. We have these to ensure everyone's safety and care when filming. 

Moodboard-'AWAY'

This is my mood board showing the ideas behind our short film 'AWAY'.

Audience Research - AWAY

Audience Research

In order to get an idea of what audience we were appealing to with our psychological thriller short film, we did a questionnaire.

This is our questionnaire we asked our class to fill out:

Media Short Film Questionnaire

Name:
Age:
Gender:

1. What do you think of our idea?

2. What did you find positive?

3. What did you find negative?

4. Where would you watch the film?

5. What do you think of the characters?

6. Would it meet the genre expectations?

 

The questionnaire made us think about:

1.whether our short film can work?
2.If it could ever be made into a film?3. What our class mates thought of the idea good/bad?
4.If it meets the target audience of 15-30?
5.Finally, if we had included the main parts of the genre; Psychological Thriller 

Why we chose the target audience to be 15-30 was because younger children would find the concept difficult to grasp and some scenes they may find disturbing.

Overall, we feel the questionnaire helped us to improve our short film idea and personally made me feel much more motivated and proud of our research.

 

 

 

 

Pitch Presentation

Pitch from izzyfoster

Our Short Film Pitch

This is our pitch on our plan for our short film "AWAY"

Plan for production

Over the next term me and my team will be beginning the production for our film and completing the ancillary tasks for the film. Along with the various lessons we have during the school week, some out of school time and free periods will also be dedicated to the production of our film 'AWAY'. Listed below is a plan of how it shall be carried out:

Week one

5/11/13 - 10/11/13: Research and Production of film poster (taking photograph of locket, assembling various titles and images together on Adobe PhotoShop) - Individual work

7/11/13: After returning from the media and film trip we will be dedicating 3 hours solely to filming to first scene of Sarah in the office, we are hoping to use one of the staff offices.

The majority of this term will be dedicated to filming and editing, however as 'AWAY' features many scenes at home, a lot of the filming will be done outside of college. Whereas all of the editing for the film will be done in lessons and free periods. In the week beginning 11th November, we will properly begin the filming and editing procedure.

Week two

11/11/13: As one of our team members are on placement this week, we are going to begin editing the piece of filming we did in the office.

12/11/13: We will begin filming the gift and text montages, as we do not need any particular venue for these, nor do we need the team member that is absent who plays Sarah. Any time that is left will be dedicated to editing these parts - we are going to follow a film and edit routine

14/11/13: Editing of the montage that is left to edit. As there are no other scenes we can film without the team member that is absent, we will proceed with our individual film posters for this lesson only.

Week three - seven

AS MUCH OF 'AWAY' REQUIRES FILMING IN HOUSES AND PARKS, WITH CHILD ACTORS IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO FILM THE VARIOUS SCENES IN THE SCHEDULED LESSONS. HOWEVER THE FOUR WEEKS FOLLOWING 18TH NOVEMBER WILL BE DEDICATED SOLELY TO EDITING AND PERFECTING OUR FILM. 

UPDATES WILL BE MADE ON OUR BLOG THROUGHOUT THIS TERM OF THE STAGES WE ARE AT IN THE PRODUCTION.

Storyboard Animation

Films that use time as a concept

These photographs show our planning of our chosen idea for our short film. We thought of films that use time as a concept so we could use their ideas in our short film. Then we looked into detail about the synopsis of each film and this really helped us to widen our range of ideas.

Virgin Short Films

Virgin Short Films

"Now in our sixth year, Virgin Media Shorts is the biggest short film competition in the UK. We're on hand every year, dedicated to unearthing undiscovered talent a give a helping leg up into the competitive movie industry. Whether you’re the next Tarantino, or you’re picking up a camera for the very first time, Virgin Media Shorts is here to showcase your work and present it on the grandest scale."

This is a website set out to allow the public to enter their short film idea and if your film gets into the shortlisted films ( a total of 13 films ) and win you get:
- A grand prize of £30,000 and a channce to shoot your film
- BFI MENTORING

It is a perfect opportunity for people wanting to emerge into film-makers.

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/page/about


Our set task

We were given the task to watch 5 short films and had to decide two that we wanted to critically review. We chose "A Favour" and "The Tenant". We had to pick one that we liked and one that we disliked. So we liked "A Favour" and disliked "The Tenant". So we kept in the teams who we are doing our short films with and filmed a critical review on both short films.
We had set points to mention but most of the review was our own words and views on it. It was really good experience for when we do our short film and revealed errors that we would make sure we improved in ours.


This is our short film review

Genre narrative and film

This one is revealing two opposite characters. Adam being the joker style character and myself playing a moody girl.

This low angle image is showing my moody girl character clearly as I am showing no facial expressions and the costume choice reveals the moody style.

Adam's character being the joker we decided the fancy dress approach would really work. It has a funny side to it with the cowboy hat. Also, his facial expression is showing he is happy and having fun.

 

 

 

1. devising an idea with a clear narrative structure

1. Horror, 5 teenagers on a road trip. Four of the teens disappear/die. One, a girl, survives.
This is what we created:

We changed the order so that the narrative was more complicated and non-linear:

Bibliographies

Bibliographies from izzyfoster

This is a quick presentation stating the websites I used in order to help me understand tasks given.

Introducing narrative ideas

Introducing narrative ideas from izzyfoster

Short films

I liked this short film, it is really interesting. It's about a DJ that goes back in time. I especially liked the use of the fast forwarding and rewinding, it made it unique and attract a wide audience. The cinematography and choice of filming really made it look professional and they made full use of all technical sides to it. It used a lot of props and you can tell the amount of time and effort the actors spent perfecting. The fact it is 8 minutes made it strong, short and exciting, being a perfect amount of time. Overall I feel the short film has a dynamic style to it and is eye catching to an audience. A bonus to it being different is the fact it doesnt have speech involved.



I find this short film rather flat and repetitive. It has a gripping story line however I feel it was quite typical and didnt hit a climax at all.
The use of the table creates a magical style to it which I liked. As it is 7 minutes 44 seconds I feel that was slightly too long and that they stretched it out a little. The camera shots created tension at times and I liked the use of the repetition of him in bed. It created a routine within the short film, and made it realistic yet magical at the same time.

Communicating narrative and genre information using film language

We were set a task to create a set for a birthday party. In order to create a poster we took photos of our set and used myself and Adam as actors. I worked with myself, Joss, Adam and Evie. Everyone was given a title "Birthday Party" and you could choose from the following:
Romance
Horror
Comedy
gangster

We chose to do romance as we felt we could create a strong set for it. We had to bring our own props in which was good because we could put our own twist on it.

This is the birthday card we used for one of the photographs

This is our sketch of the props and the set

 

 

Final image

 

 

 

We were struggling to decided whether we wanted a light pink light or a darker pink light. The darker light created quite a dark, intimate atomosphere which I felt worked but as a group we decided on using the lighter one as we figured we could tweek it slightly on photoshop.

 

Deciding who was going to feature in the pictures was a quick decision. As I do performing arts I gladly said I would do it, also Adam said he was happy to do it.

 



 

 

 

 

 

Blog task 5

Reviews

This review website is rotten tomatoes, it is basically a website where the general public express their views on films. 

I have chosen to look at this film's reviews. It is a recent film in the cinema and I was interested in looking at the the general publics views recently. 

This is the main page of the review for "now you see me"

As you can see it has a 74% liked rate

This review website is clear and shows everyones personal opinion and allows people to voice their opinion.

You can also rate it by stars








There is a review that is positive about the film
"FANTASTIC!!! If I could give 5 thumbs up or 11 star for this movie, I would really gave it.. With the help of amazing directing from Louis Leterrier and great cast with great story, this movie turns out into an amazing entertainment.. I must say I'm truly impressed.."

This is a negative review on the film 
"A fairly unmagical couple of hours at the cinema."

The reviews seem to be more about the film overall, rather than going into a lot of detail about the director and stars in the film.

July 7, 2013

Blog task 5 - Apply Propp to a film of my choice

blog task 3

Genre from izzyfoster

Blog task 2

Short Film Prezi

Introduction

My name is Izzy Foster, 17 and I am studying at Prior Pursglove College. This is my second year at Prior so I am familiar with the software and blogging.
I am interested in studying media and the media industry relates to my future career of acting. I understand a lot of people interested in this subject want to go into making short films, journalism. So this would really widen my knowledge.
I am looking forward to creating a short film and completing all my research to go with it.
This blog will show all my work throughout the year