Movie Review Research

This is a review from total film magazine. We really liked the set out of the picture and text and the style they have wrote in. To make film review to look similar to this we've analysed 2 articles and the typical conventions.

I have looked through this article and circled all the conventions of this particular magazine article to make a kind of template for our review I then sketched a plan for us to make our review.

This is my 2 sketches of the kind of layout of the review, I found it a lot easier to sketch the reviews then I could use this as a reference when making the review on Quark.

Movie Poster

Above is our first draft of the film poster using the photo that the group decided we all liked. We have stuck to the style of our hand drawn plan with the positioning of the tagline, title and actors names and the theme of stalking in shown in the poster which is what we wanted to achieve. However we did notice the writing was a little hard to read so to combat this we added a grey box around the writing with a low opacity and added a stroke to the tagline and 'coming soon'. We then got our media class to look at the poster and tell us their opinions of the poster, any suggested changes and whether they get the themes we wanted to portray. We then recorded their views and suggested changes.
note: poster feedback starts at 5 minutes Above is the new and improved movie poster after considering some of the suggestions from the class feedback: Only keep the grey box around the neck of the woods and cast info: don't want to over do it Outline of the tagline and coming soon: added a white outline Needed to sort out the small writing underneath Neck Of The Woods The class really liked the photo but is it a bit too clear and more glossy magazine?

Potential photos for film poster

After creating a draft and researching movie posters we decided to take some photos in the woods with Charl and Gregg. We got a variety of different shots so that when we got back to school and uploaded the photos onto the mac we had a lot of choice rather than a limited range of photos.

When we got the photos back to school we decided that we liked the first photo of Gregg looking at the camera because his facial expression is quite evil looking and with Charl walking in the distance it highlights our stalking theme.

Poster Draft

This is a drawn draft of the kind of style we want our poster: - We want to incorprate the woods - Both Charl and Gregg in the poster - The tagline at the top of the poster - Neck Of The Woods 3/4 of the way down with actors names above - Stalking theme incorprated

Magazine Poster Research

When making our poster it's going to be important that we make it conventional and realistic of a movie poster. So like I did with the review I'm going to look at all the conventions of a poster and incorprate these into our poster. When we looked in a magazine from the local cinema we saw this poster for the new film Beastly. The genre of the poster which alludes to a thriller with mystical elements is very similar to our film and therefore this style of poster is a suitable example of the conventions we should look too.

After looking through the style of posters and conventions we decided that we didn't want our poster giving too much away about the plot and leave the audience intrested in what the film could be about. We then decided to draw out a draft of a potential poster so when we went out to take photographs we knew what kind of thing we needed to take photos of.

Ancillary task

We have to complete 2 ancillary tasks for our blog.
The first task is a movie poster and the second is a film review.
I will document my progress whilst making the poster and review to show how we will make our end product.

Final Cut after recommended changes

Final Cut

Rough Cut Feedback

The writing in italics is the changes we are going to make to overcome the problems :)
General feedback:
Jerky pans in the living room from the T.V to Gregg and Charlotte walking to the house
Cut each shot shorter, the jerks start at the beginning of each shot.
The framing in the woods where Charlotte is taking the photos is good framing and the class seemed to really like it.
The class also really liked the flicker shots of the woods just before Charlottes killed.
The green screen isn't the greatest quality but still a good job.
They didn't like the way that it starts; J cut with a news graphic, jingle then newsreport

29 seconds: Fade through black newsreport to the titles. The sound is good and conventional of a newsreport. However the titles are too long- cut the length of the titles down.
53 seconds: The pan isn't smooth and the shot is a bit long. Cut the first part of the shot add some reaction shots.
Atmosphere sound isn't needed in the soundtrack- bit overdone.
1.16: The two reaction shots of Charlotte looking at the phone shows a continuity error, she's got the phone on the table, then the next shot is of the phone behind her ear. The solution is to add a shot before of a clock then in between the 2 shots of charl add another clock showing a couple of hours have passed.
1.50:When Charl goes home the shot is too long and the camera jerks. The jerks are only at the start so we will cut the shot so it's not so long.
2.09: The fridge shot for a 1/4 of a second theres a pause as she opens the fridge. Cut this by a couple of frames.
When Gregg appears in the window, needs to be a spin chilling moment, with a sound effect or a change in music as the music before gives away that its a thriller. Change the soundtrack so that it appears almost like a romantic, then when gregg is in the window, sudden change in music.
Another stinger when Gregg disappears from the fence. Sound effect.
Shorten the scene when Gregg appears behind the tree.
The scene where Charlotte and the dog walk into the woods is too long. Cut the shot at the end.
The shot of charl holding the camera before getting killed add a camera noise sound effect
News titles on each news report
Add an ident at the start.

Rough Cut

Trouble with the moon

In our film we wanted to get footage of a full moon to try and show a change of day but to also follow the convention of a werewolf and full moons.
Our media teacher told us that to film a moon would be very difficult and to capture a moon involves a lot of specialist equipment. He then suggested buying a photo of a full moon to use in our film to solve the problem, in the end we ended up buying the photo of the full moon to use in our second draft.

Editing

The software that we will be using will be:
- Final Cut: this will be to edit our film
- Soundtrack Pro: this will be used to do our soundtrack
- Live type: to do titles, also where the background from the new's report is from.
- YouTube: to host the end product

Shooting on location: shoot 2

This shoot was really successful. We firstly went to sarah's house to reshoot the kitchen and window scenes which didn't take very long as we had done it before, learning from the mistakes of the previous shoot we made sure the camera was set on auto rather than manual making sure it remained in focus.
The second shoot was at the cafe, luckily it was really quiet so we weren't going to be disturbed by anyone. We did a few takes for each shot so we made sure we weren't an inconvenience and had to go back to reshoot.
Next we went to my house to film Charl coming back from the cafe, and then going to the woods with the dog (Casper). We had some difficulties keeping the pan up with casper pulling Charl to get to Gregg or trying to get to us, but after a few try's we finally got what we were looking for.
The woods shoot was our most successful, although not planned we made a few changes to the shoot there and then as they were opportunites that we couldn't miss! As the camera was rolling, Casper started to bark as he heard another dog, we managed to get a clip of him barking and wanted to use it in the film.

Shooting on location: shoot 1

As arranged on the shooting schedule we went out on the set days and filmed. Our first shoot was the cafe scene. Like we said we were going to make our own set which is what we did with a grey board, some handmade paper signs and a table. After showing the stuff we filmed to some of our peers and our media teacher we could tell that they weren't too keen. It didn't look like a cafe scene and looked really unproffessional. I work in a cafe and after asking my boss for permission they let us film inside the cafe when it was quiet, the result was that the audience actually knew she was in a cafe and made it look a lot more proffessional. The left picture is the cafe set that we made, the second photo is a still from an actual cafe

The second shoot was the news reports. We used one of our friends from our media class and again used the grey board with a red sheet over it. The camera was also set to manual mode which made it all out of focus, our newsreported didn't look like a news reporter and the whole thing looked really poor. We then decided that we would use a green screen after finding a background we liked on live type. Our other media teacher also said that she would be our newsreporter. Overall it looked a million times better with a green screen and was really interesting to make. To learn how to do it we watched a tutorial on YouTube which was really helpful and we did it on final cut.

The left was our first attempt at a news report, its unfocused and looks nothing like a news report. The right picture is our second attempt using green screen.

The next shoot was at Sarah house for the kitchen scene. This again was all out of focus as we didn't realise that the camera was set on manual and on the preview screen showed it as in focus. We then had to go back and reshoot this to improve the quality.

The left photo is the first attempt and is out of focus. The right photo is the second attempt.

Preparing for the shoot

In order to make the shoot successful we need to be organised, have the right equipment and everyone to know what they are doing.
Firstly what are the problems going to be?
We looked at the weather reports to make sure the weather is okay to film outside, we didn't want it to rain as we were going to spend a lot of time filming in the woods.
The equipment we are going to need will be:

-HD Camera
- Clapperboard
-Tripod
- HD tape



The camera work will probably be shared throughout the shoots, so we all participate and whilst one of us shoot, one of us will be in charge of the clapperboard and the other organising the actors.
Whoever is doing the camera work at the time will have to check the camera is charged enough, the framing is right and whether the lighting is okay.
Whoever is in charge of the clapperboard can help who is on the camera and help organise actors, check the costumes and make sure the props are there and ready to be used.
Whoever is organising actors will have to make sure they know what they have to do and whether they know their lines.

To organise the actors we have supplied them with, script, shooting schedule and a story list. Luckily Gregg can drive and is willing to drive us to to each of our locations so this means that we won't have any difficulty getting there.

Brand Identity

A typical definition of 'Brand Identity' is:
Visible elements of a brand (such as colors, design, logotype, name, symbol) that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumers' mind.

Basically in terms of our film, the visible elements such as, colours that are commonly used, shapes that are related to our film for example a werewolf or symbols used are all incorprated into the design of our titles, as this place where all these elements come together.

Harry Potter is a good example, the font style is a gothic style which ties in with:
- The setting (almost all the buildings are gothic)
- The plot; mystical
The colours used also tie in with the gothic style and the convention of Gothic is stormy weather which is used in the background.

Title research

Now we have finished the treatment, the next step is the storyboard. For A2 our storyboard this year will be very detailed and one of these details will be that it will contain is the titles of the film.
Our first step is to research some titles of a similar genre. Our genre is a thriller/mystical genre.


A film that is really similar to ours is The Wolfman:

These titles are very conventional, the black background is a gothic colour and the moon is a connected to werewolves as in full moons make the human turn into a werewolf.
When creating our titles we will incorparate colours related to the gothic theme and also elements of mystical thriller.

Our titles will contain:

-a dark background

- moon in the 'O'

- Gothic colours ; dark and gloomy

Film title examples from a similar genre:

The Village:

This film is a thriller and is similar to ours because the villagers fear something mystical in the woods:

28 Days Later:

Panic Room:

I really like the titles in this film, the typography is really catchy and unusual because its incorporated into the background of where its set, we really liked titles and decided that we'd incorporate this idea into our titles.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

This is our shooting schedule, it will be given to all the group members (Sarah and Phoebe) and to our actors, it will tell everyone where and when they should be to film and they can also check the dates to make sure they make no plans for the times we have planned to go and shoot. It also can be checked against the prop list and costume list to show what they need to where and what props we need to supply.

Props list

PROP LIST neck of the woods


A props list is really important on and off shoot. It allows us to see the things we will need to supply and get for the shoot and when we need them. It lets us work out where will get them from too. Our props aren't going to be hard to source as Sarah already has the camera and I have the dog. The rest are things that will be easy to gather.

Costume

There are only two main characters in our film and then there is the newsreader.
Charlotte the main character is the innocent victim whereas Gregg is the stalker/killer. Both complete oposites which I feel should be emphasised in costume.
Charlotte as I said is the victim, and therefore she should be portrayed as innocent and vunerable however, I don't want the symbolism to be really in your face and I want to portray her as still girly, which will suggest she is weaker than Gregg.
An example of a female in a similar film is the character Bella Swan in Twilight.
She dresses like a typical teenager but through the use of light clothing portrays a sense of symbolism.

This is a shot of Bella in the woods, note her clothing is a big contrast to the character Edward in colour, her's is a light colour compared to his dark clothing. This is the effect we want to create in our film. Where Charlotte's clothing creates a sense of innocence, Gregg's dark clothing should come across as evil and dangerous.

We have decided that Charl should wear a light coloured cardigan, which she already has, which is a pinkish colour. This will portray her as girlie but the white top she will where will show her innocence. Gregg on the other had will wear dark clothing for example a black hoody to show he is dangerous.

This is an example of the kind of cardigan Charl will wear.

This is an example of the kind of hoody that Gregg will wear, the dark colour is symbolic of evil.

For the newsreader it's important to look at what kind of clothing they wear.
I researched BBC news female readers and from the reports i've seen on the t.v and the pictures i've seen, i've found that generally they are dressed smart, normally in a suit.

Script 2nd Draft

second draft of script

After having the class look at our Animatic, it was suggested that we have another news report at the end of the film and this meant that we had to change our script.

Animatic Feedback

After discussing our animatic with the class it was obvious that we should make some changes. We asked questions after the class watched the animatic and their answers were really valuable.
Is the meaning of the film apparent to the viewer?
The howl + fullmoon suggests that Gregg has turned into a werewolf.
Not so clear when that its a werewolf because the killing happens in daylight; challenging conventions in the day example of a film that has a werewolf in the day is twilight- werewolf in day.
Chat on screen- animatic didn't show it was typed up on screen, suggests would be a bit boring? reaction shots?
The titles are too long, the titles aren't very clear to how the moon fits in with them.
Is framing good and could it be improved?
In the kitchen scene- need to put him on the outside of the window.
Does the shot of the moon zoom out? Should make it more clear that it's a tilt down.
Have we chosen appropriate shot distances? if not are they appropriate?
A lot of long shots? maybe a few reaction shots to break up the shots.
Polaroid picture- white background- just on animatic will be in woods
Are transions used appropriately?
suggested that we use multiple shots of pictures of the werewolf with good transitions
Is dialouge used appropriately if not why? Does the soundtrack support the visual images?
Lack of effects like doors and footsteps for just the animatic like leaves/ woods ect
Suggested improvements:
Soundtrack-boring
Titles in livetype
Make the change of day more obvious
Chilling sound when Gregg appears in the window
Is the film an appropriate length?
Think the film won't be very long, and the shots will be too long to make up length which will result in being boring.

After looking at the suggestions and the feedback we decided to make a few changes, this impacted on a change in the script. The next post will be our updated script.

Animatic

This is our animatic, to produce this we created our storyboard and put the frames together in final cut, we predicted how long each shot is which would give us the idea of how long the film will be. It also allows us to put a soundtrack on it to see how it would all look together.
When filming and editing the animatic will help us know the order of shots, where they are cut and where the sound best fits.

Location Research

The locations that are going to be needed in our film are;
- Living room
- Cafe
- Quiet Street
- Kitchen
- Woods

1) Is a cafe scene from the latest Harry Potter film, we are planning on making our own cafe scene and hope to create something similar. There are the tables, the till section of the cafe and all the necessary props to create an authentic scene
2) Is an example of a dark living room that will be similar to ours. The darkness will give a Gothic effect.
3) This is a kitchen from a scene in Marley and Me. Our kitchen will need to be a similar if not smaller in size so that we can film comfortably.
4) This is actually my house which has been the decided location for the outside shots, it's simple to get to, the street it's on is very quiet and has the drive we need for her to walk up.
5) This is an example of a wooded path. The female victim will be walking up wooded paths as she is watched by the werewolf.
6) In our film a bedroom will be needed for where the female victim will be. This is a still from Twilight a film which is very similar to ours, the bedroom is typically of a teenagers.
7) This is a photo of a random set of woods, they are very similar to the ones we will be using.

Final Location Choices:
- Lounge; we will be using the lounge of one of our actors, Charls. It's modern yet with little natural light, which produces a dark effect.
- Cafe; We plan on making our own cafe set
- Quiet street; the street outside of my house
- Kitchen; Sarah's kitchen, it's bigger than mine and the window is easier to get the shot of Gregg
- Woods; there are some public woods near my house within walking distance which are usually very quiet in the daytime.

Script

When making the script, we all made an input. The script is really important because the actors need it to know their lines and it helps us when through out the planning process.
This is our script:
Neck of the woods Script

Storyboard

The storyboard is important because its the first time the film can be visualised. We can use it to help decide which would be the best locations, shots and help us produce the animatic.

A2 Media Storyboard on Prezi

Target Audience; what our peers thought it would be

From the class discussion we gathered that the class thought the target audience would be:
- Young people who use social networking sites


- The mystical creature appeals to a younger audience


-15-20s because there is some action in there that would appeal to this age group


- People can watch it with their mates; its not serious - an escapism


Twilight is a film which aimed at a similar audience to ours. There audience are teenagers who like the mystical side to it, but isn't a cartoon which is too young for them. Merchandise such as posters, bags, pencil cases ect suggest the film is targeted for teenagers.

Final Treatment

After considering what the class said we decided to take into consideration what they said and made a few changes, this is our final draft:

media_treatment finished

Class reaction to treatment.

After reading out our treatment to the class we filmed there responses to the questions we asked them. By doing this we got an idea of whether our treatment gave across the interpretations we wanted and abled us make a few final touches to the treatment.

From carrying out this research we found that our treatment was successful at
- portraying and attracting our wanted target audience which was young adults/ teenagers who actively use a social networking
-the plot creates the genre we wanted
- giving us ideas about conventions we have used and what we have challenged

Our treatment

After our groups had been decided and me, Sarah and Phoebe discussed a new idea, we came up with our treatment.
This is our first draft:
Neck of the Woods Treatment

We then showed our media class the treatment and recorded the class discussion.

Our class are aged 17 and 18 and are about half males and half females. They are important when giving us their opinions as they study media, and are aware of the conventions of our genre and what they should expect. They are also important as they are an audience and therefore if they don't understand the plot then our film isn't being portrayed the way we want it to be.

Class Feedback
1) Worried that the film won't be long enough and will be too short

2)Laptop screen- wanted to know how it would be done- screencast using quicktime movie- higher quality
3)Using a dog- we are actually going to use my dog and the class were worried that he won't be well behaved or whether he would act like we wanted him too. I think that he will be okay as he is generally good behaved especially on walks.
4) Some of the class were confused about the Polaroid camera and what the point of it was; the Polaroid camera is so that we don't have to show the werewolf as we don't have the expertise to make it look professional.
5)E/S of the small dark room is probably worded wrong as it's not an E/S of a small dark room, theres a small dark room and then an establishing shot of a news report- this will need to be reworded to make it more clear.
6)How will we make the Polaroid camera photo? We are going to make it ourselves with photograph paper.

Target Audience

As identified we've decided our films genre is a mystical thriller. The type of person that we feel would go and watch a film of this genre would be young teenager as the mystical side of the film appeals would appeal to them, for example twilight, which is a very similar film, a thriller which contains mythical creatures.
The film has been rated a PG 12 and therefore audiences under 12 without parental guidence wouldn't be able to see the film at the cinema; however for our film I feel it would only be a PG; the only violence isn't seen by the audience.

Typical conventions

Our film is a hybrid of the genres thriller and mystical/fantasy.

Elements of our film that are typical of this genre:

A mystical character,Fantasies take the audience to netherworld places (or another dimension) where events are unlikely to occur in real life - they transcend the bounds of human possibility and physical laws. They often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, and the extraordinary. They may appeal to both children and adults, depending upon the particular film.
Our film has a mystical character which is the werewolf. A werewolf is a common mystical character in films and all have very similar characteristics, wolf like that are really humans, very hairy, dark fur, big teeth, appear at a full moon and have a piercing howl

The Wolfman 2010 is a good example of a mystical film, and is very similar to our film idea.
This is a picture from this film which shows a typical looking werewolf:


This is a trailer from The Wolfman 2010


This trailer also shows many conventions of the thriller/mystical fantasy genre
A lot of the scenes with the werewolf are shot:
-at night
-in woods
-in bad weather like storms, rain and fog.
Our film will be shot in woods

Not only are werewolves used in films but also in T.V dramas and series
Doctor Who used the concept of a werewolf in one episode



A lot of this shows the typical conventions of a mystical thriller that contains a werewolf:
- Full moon
- Howl
- Human transforming into a werewolf

One convention that I noticed was that in a lot of films that use a werewolf was that they are set in around the 18th/19th century- this could be down to many reasons, the main one in my opinion is that during this time, supernatural and myths were believed to be truth because there wasn't scientific knowledge. This is going to be a convention that we are going to challenge. Our film isn't going to be set in the past but is going to be set in the present to fit in with our stalker/ Internet killer plot.

A film that isn't set in the 18th/19th Century is Twilight. This is similar to ours because its set in the present but uses mythical creatures like vampires. This is a useful film to watch because it will show us how to incorporate an old myth in with the present. The characters are also the same age as our characters which is useful.
A trailer from Twilight:

Group Members Presentations

Sarah- Polaroid

Sarahs idea was based upon a young boy who turned into a werewolf. Sarahs film was the film that gave us the idea on how to present the werewolf through a picture, because we don't have the skills or equipment to make it look proffesional or even like a real werewolf.
I really liked Sarahs idea, because it was obvious the plot was well thought through, problems that could have been faced have been tackled.

Phoebe-
Phoebes film was based upon a young boy. He arrives home to his parents house where there is a televised news report about girls going missing, the report describes the kind of clothes that the victim wears. The boy then goes upstairs and changes into the clothes that the report describes.

We during one of our lessons, we sat down and discussed each others ideas, we mind mapped possible plots and we found that if we took bits from each others film ideas we came up with in our opinion, a really interesting plot. After much discussion we had a plot in mind that all 3 of us were really happy with.

Group members (potential roles)

For one of our lessons our task was to come up with a film idea of own and present it to the class, the class would then give feedback about what they thought of our idea, questions they had and what they liked about it.
This is what feedback us in our group got on our individual ideas and what our potential roles could be.

Sarah:
Polaroid
Sarahs film is the most similar to our final idea.
Her presentation in class was very clear, well thought out and easy to follow.
Her basic concept was about a werewolf and her plot provided the answer to the problem of the getting a werewolf on screen, she came up with using a polaroid camera to get a picture of a werewolf instead of an actual werewolf on screen which is what we are incorparating in our film. I will go into further detail on my group members presentations in the next post.
I think that Sarah is going to be a valuable member of our group. She is creative and put a lot of input into discussions on our film treatment and came up with quite a lot of the ideas.

Phoebe
Phoebes film idea was presented to the class in a lot of detail and was well developed. Both her and my idea had the concept of a news report which is going to be used in our film. Phoebe has good, sound ideas which is going to be really useful in group disscusions.

As a group we work really well together and get on really well not just in the classroom, its important that we get on so that we can argree on ideas and complete work together without any issues.

Short examples

Black Hole

This is a short which is extremely popular on YouTube with over a million views. It shows a male, obviously bored with his job get given a piece of paper which is a black hole, this appears through the short to be a gift, he uses it to his advantage to get what he wants, however he becomes greedy and uses it to steal. The shorts seems to show the message of karma, how he was obviously bored with his life so he received something that would improve his life, however for him it end badly because he has used the gift in an unmoral way.



A review from the IMDB

"The Black Hole" is a short and deep tale of greed of human nature. It is impressive how the writers and directors Philip Sansom and Olly Williams were able to make a short of less than 3 minutes running time without any line and succeed in transmitting one of the seven deadly sins ( "Avaritia") so perfectly and with right dose of humor. My vote is nine.[out of 10]

These reviews are taken from www.cleancutmedia.com

As always, Clean Cut Media is always looking to bring the latest news, reviews and insightful articles in media influence on our culture. Clean Cut Media will also periodically post excellent pieces of advertising, well made videos and overall creative pieces of work. Considering so much of advertising these days resort to cheap emotional grabs, vulgar non-relevant references to sex, as well as send subtle messages that is detrimental to the way we view the world, the only true requirement to show on this site is that it is Clean Cut, thus the name! However we may post non-clean pieces of art for review and discussion. If you find any pieces of work worthy to share or review please comment! We’ll contact you directly and if you wish you can contribute your insight for the entry.

Short films require immense creativity and planning because an entire story must be condensed into 3-5 minutes. This piece is well done. Quick Commentary follows.

The Black Hole
Moving Towards Desire
What I find interesting in this short film is how the main character slowly gets more and more tempted to push the limits. He starts off just fascinated with his new discovery. He tries it out on the vending machine and ends up eating his reward. However once he gets a taste of the “power” of his discovery, he then decides to use it to enter a locked office to see what is inside. Then his eyes light up as he sees a safe and uses it to access some cash. Then rather than being happy with what he found, he decides to take it all. Both in his expression and his actions the small steps he takes towards what is wrong only escalates. I believe this is very true to reality.

Flight or Invisibility
Someone asked me recently, if you could fly or be invisible, which power would you like? I would easily choose invisibility, however I also acknowledged how I could imagine myself slowly getting myself into really bad trouble and morally questionable situations if I had that capability. Could you say with confidence you would never abuse such a power?

Getting from Point A to Point B – Subtle Power of Desire
This character probably never intended to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars and if he was told he would, he probably would laugh at the thought. But all it took is the access and slow seemingly harmless steps and there he was stealing the money he probably never dreamed of stealing. This is a short film so the progress went quickly, but we can see this happening in the real world across longer periods of time. No one starts wanting to steal, wanting to murder, wanting to commit adultery, wanting to get drunk, hurting people and betraying trust relationships. How many times have I found myself in point B and wondered how I got to this point. So how do we get from point A to point B? Gradual steps. It would be foolish for us to think we are not capable of doing really bad things (yes even murder!) just because we can’t imagine ourselves getting there. It is the small subtle steps that goes unnoticed that contribute to our moral degradation. It is so important for all people to be on our guard to protect ourselves from becoming insensitive to pushing boundaries and rationalizing what we do.

I found this short really interesting. What I liked the most was the titles, as they appeared through an actual black hole. The fit the movie and looked really effective. I also like the fact that there isn't any dialogue or music but the film is still good quality.

Strangers

This is another very popular short film on YouTube with over a million views. Like I said in my previous post, shorts are given the opportunity to tackle important and sometimes difficult issues. Strangers tells the compelling tale of two young men, one Arab and one Jewish who are motivated by fear to overcome their racial prejudice and hatred when suddenly confronted with a menacing gang of skinheads.



This review was taken from http://ereztadmor.tumblr.com/strangersshortfilm

I enjoyed watching the short film, “Strangers” and consider it a “must-see” film. This short film review imparts to viewers what I like about “Strangers.”The short film does not have dialogue and message was conveyed through facial expression, signs and symbols (of what each group represents). It is a story about a Jew and a Muslim, who has a racial division, and what brought them together.

The short film started with a man who stepped onto the train and sat in one of the seats near another man. At that point, the group to which each character belong to were being established. Both men looked at each other in an unfriendly manner. The man who entered the train and took a seat is a Jew. The viewer would guess this as he discreetly played with his necklace (sign of Israel). Meanwhile, the man already seated is a Muslim (as shown by the characters in the newspaper he is reading). Clearly, both men dislike each other from history (“Six-Day War,” June 5, 1967 to June 10, 1967, between Israel and the armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria).

Meanwhile, a third (3rd) group appeared in the train, the Nazis. The Nazi symbol was prominent when one of the men drew a Nazi sign on the Muslim newspaper. Another Nazi sign is shown at the back of the head of one of the Nazi. The Nazis disliked the Muslim man as they started harassing the Muslim man.

Only when the phone of the Jew rang did the Nazis stopped harassing the Muslim man. At that point, it was very clear that the man is Jew since his ringtone was Jewish (it would have been nicer if the ringtone were shorter). From World War 2 history, Nazis also dislike the Jews. The Jew man knew that the Nazis would harass him next. He made eye contact with the Muslim man to run. Both Arab and Jew ran avoiding the Nazis.

I enjoyed watching this short film as the story unfolds and each character’s group was slowly revealed. The suspense grew as I watched their facial expressions (along hearing the background sounds).

Over-all, this short film was professionally made. It has a good story, the actors performed well, and it is very well produced. Though the story is simple, it made a profound impact.

I really liked this film because it was well shot and the plot was really interesting and again little dialogue is used but the actions speak louder.

What is a 'short'?

Our task it to make a short film, but what exactly is a short?

Short film is a technical description originally coined in the North American film industry in the early period of cinema.

Although the North American definition generally refers to films between 20 and 40 minutes, the definition refers to much shorter films in Europe, Latin America and Australasia. In New Zealand, for instance, the description can be used to describe any film that has a duration longer than one minute and shorter than 15 minutes. The North American definition also tends to focus much more on character whereas the European and Australasian forms tend to depend much more on visual drama and plot twists.

Since the 1980s, the term "short subject" has come to be used interchangeably with "short film," an international, academic term used to mean a contemporary non-commercial motion picture that is substantially shorter than the average commercial feature film. There is no clear definition of the maximum length of a short film, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences classify it as 40 minutes, while the Internet Movie Database refers to any film lasting less than 45 minutes as a short subject. The short-film form is to the full-length film what the short story is to a full-fledged novel.

Short films often focus on difficult topics which longer, more commercial films usually avoid. Filmmakers benefit from larger freedoms and can take higher risks, but they must rely on festival and art house exhibition to achieve public display. Most short films are better known outside the United States than within, due to less rigidity of audience expectation as to program content, arrangement and length outside the U.S.

Short filmmaking is also growing in popularity among amateurs and enthusiasts, who are taking advantage of affordable equipment. "Prosumer" or semi-professional cameras now cost under £3000, and free or low-cost software is widely available that is capable of video editing, post-production work and DVD authoring.

Very short films are sometimes considered as a category of their own. They are the film equivalent of microfiction, like the 60 Word Story. The International Festival of Very Shorts is a festival based in Paris which shows only films less than three minutes long. Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has presented and promoted a collection of one-minute films across multiple media since September 2006.

Such films can also be easily distributed via the Internet; Across the Hall, for example, was solely distributed on the Internet. Certain websites which encourage the submission of user-created short films, such as YouTube, Openfilm, BritFilms and Newgrounds have attracted large communities of artists and viewers, whereas sites such as BBC Film Network focus on showcasing curated British shorts.

Welcome!

This is my A2 media blog :)
It's going to show my processes from coming with an idea for a short 5 minuite film to actually having the final film made.
I'm going to be working with Sarah and Phoebe (links to their blogs are in the sidebar) I was very happy with our group because they are both reliable and hardworking and I know I can count on them when making the film :)