Short Film Conventions

Before I decide on an idea for my short film I am going to look into some of the conventions by doing a textual analysis of an existing short film.

Textual Analysis:

Seconds

Camera angles

In 'Seconds' camera angles are used in a range of imaginative ways. For example, the opening sequence is a string of extreme close-ups that clearly set out the main theme.

Extreme close-up of clock - shows it is about seconds

Extreme close-up of tooth brush - shows its morning

Extreme close-up of car keys - shows he's going out 

Close-ups feature quite heavily throughout the film. I think this is because it uses both footage and still photographs in its narrative. Usually when it is showing footage the film is aiming to highlight the intimacy of the two characters relationship and using close-ups enables them to convey this more effectively.

Close-up 

Close -up 

Close-up 

Extreme close-up

I think the producer has chosen to use a large amount of close-ups because they are the best camera angle to use when you want to show a lot of detail.

The other camera angles used in the film are different forms of mid-shot (as shown below) and long shots. These shots are all useful when establishing the scene but they can also be used to highlight a certain feeling, for example, isolation.

Mid-shot - establishes the scene

Low angle mid-shot - again establishes the scene but the higher angle suggests their relationship is stronger

Long-shot - establishes the scene and shows they are happy being the only two together

h
High angle mid-shot - shows they are looking up through the hanging papers

Mise en scene

The use of Mise en scene in 'Seconds,' as in any film, is used to help set the scene. In 'Seconds' it is used specifically to help indicate the passage of time. The narrative follows a relationship as it passes through 1 week to 1 month to 1 year to 1 life time and the scenes or actions taking place have been chosen to highlight this. For example, when the voice over is talking about how many seconds are in a week the footage is of the couple on their first date. We can tell this because they are in a bar and are both dressed nicely.

Mise en scene suggests first date

The second time period being talked about in the voice over is the amount of seconds in a month. Here the footage is of the couple walking through a park. This suggests that their relationship has moved on but not to a serious stage yet.

Mise en scene suggests a relatively new relationship

The third amount of seconds the voice over tells us is the amount of seconds in a year. Now that time is becoming longer it is getting harder to portray so here the director uses a series of photographs of them on holiday to show that they have moved onto that stage in their relationship. This suggests that their relationship has become more serious as they have been away together.

Mise on scene shows that their relationship is more serious

Finally, the last period of time talked about is a lifetime. This will have been hard to portray as they can't gain footage from the future so they have had to find other ways of implying a lifetime spent together. Mise en scene helps them do this here by showing the couple together looking happy and flashing through all the photographs that have previously been shown as well as adding some new ones. This, in turn, suggests they will stay together for a whole life time.

Mise en scene shows the couple are happy so will stay together - the sun setting in this photo also shows that another day has been spent together. 

Editing Techniques

As with any short film 'Seconds' uses transitions to make the film flow more easily. However, 'Seconds' doesn't tend to change the transitions it uses. Since photographs are interspersed between the footage the film uses jump cuts to give the impression that it is flicking through photographs of a person's life.

The one transition that is slightly more imaginative is at the end when the two people on the bench are erased from the picture. Here the people are faded off the bench to give the impression they were never there at all.

Here you can see the couple being faded out

The use of still photographs with the moving image in 'Seconds' is one of the more unique editing techniques used in the film. I say this because throughout the film each of the sections I mentioned in the mise en scene section above combine photographs with moving image to convey the passage of time. Depending on how long is being talked about depends on the amount of photographs. For example, 1 day no photographs used where as 1 year features about 16.

The second more interesting editing technique used in the film is the use of speed. The speed with which the photos are flicked through increases over the course of the lifetime section which again helps to show the passage of time.

The final more unusual use of an editing techniques is the use of rewind. At the end of the film the voice over is talking about how 1 second can make or erase a lifetime and so it rewinds through several of the pieces of footage we have seen before.

Sound

Finally I move onto sound. 'Seconds' uses entirely non-diegetic sound which means it has all been added during the editing process. It uses music to convey the mood but most importantly it uses a voice over. Without the voice over the film wouldn't make sense as it is all about how 1 second could create or erase a lifetime that could have happened. This is portrayed through a man's decision to say "Hi" to girl at a cafe. If he does they stay together forever and if he doesn't he'll never see her again.

The music in the film plays a big part in setting the mood. Although it is most likely only there to make the voice over sound less harsh it still tells the audience that something bad is going to happen just before the lifetime is erased as it modulates to a minor key. This happens when they are back in the cafe. He is just about to say something but then she walks off, effectively erasing their entire lifetime.

Thinking about saying hi

Girl walking off

The final use of non-diagetic sound used in the film is the sound of a ticking clock. At the start and end of the film there is a ticking sound indicating the passing seconds. At the start of the film all the actions a synchronised with the music in that the footage (e.g. the toothbrush I showed in my camera angles section) changes with each tick.

Conventions of a short film:

From this textual analysis I have decided that the conventions of short films are:

• Simple story line - follow one thing (no complicated sub-plots or similar)
• Simple structure - clearly defined beginning middle and end
• Little dialogue - tend to use little/no dialogue or a voice over
• Simple background music in place of dialogue (tends to be classical/piano music with no contradicting melodies)
• Camera work, editing techniques, mise en scene and sound are key to helping convey the mood as there is little dialogue

In my short film I intend to stick to these conventions as far as possible as I want my film to be an authentic short. 

Seminal Films

A Trip to the Moon

Now that I have decided to produce a short film I have been looking at the seminal film 'A Trip to the Moon' to get a sense for the well know conventions of the genre.

The short film 'A Trip to the Moon' by George Melies was produced in 1902 and released in black and white and colour. The colour version was produced in Elisabeth Thuillier's colouring lab in Paris where each frame was individually hand painted.

George Melies 'A Trip to the Moon:' 

Black and White - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk 

Colour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8QPehtzs_c 

It is a seminal piece of film with the iconic image of the moon landing still being recognised today. 

Iconic image of the moon landing from George Melies 'A Trip to the Moon' 

'A Trip to the Moon' has influenced many other short films as well as artists outside of the short film industry. For example the band 'Smashing Pumpkins' modelled the music video for their single 'Tonight Tonight' on the story.

'Tonight Tonight' - Smashing Pumpkins:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOG3eus4ZSo

Although I intend to used some concepts from other texts in my film I will only take some ideas and not the whole thing as Smashing Pumpkins have with a 'Trip to the Moon.'

More information on George Melies 'A Trip to the Moon:' 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon

Primary and Secondary Research

Here is a brief presentation on the advantages and disadvantages of primary and secondary research. 

Main Task Proposal

After carefully considering the advantages and disadvantages of each task I have decided to do task 3.

3. A short film in its entirety, lasting approxiately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

• A poster for the film
• A radio trailer for the film
• A film magazine review page featuring the film

Out of these I am going to make:

• a poster for the film
• a film magazine review page featuring the film

I have chosen these two tasks because my AS coursework taught me about using word processing programmes such as pages to create professional looking print texts.

Research

A major part of the coursework process will be the research I carry out. Here are the main forms of research I will be using.

• As I am making my film I will be sure to get audience feedback so that I can craft my film according to my target audience (primary)
• I will do textual analysis of existing short films, film posters for my genre and review pages so that I can follow the conventions effectivley (secondary)

Textual Analysis of A Day in the Life of Henry

Camera Work

In my short film I used a series of different shots to narrate the story of Henry's day as if through his owners eyes. For example, my film opens with a close up of Henry's face as he is excited to see me. The next shot is a tracking shot as he is running with the ball and the camera is following him.  At the next point, when he is chewing his bottle I used a high angle mid-close up. When he is chewing a shoe in the next shot it starts with a high angle mid-close up but it then zooms in as the camera moves closer to Henry to retrieve the shoe. The penultimate shot is a mid-long shot of Henry looking innocent. This adds an element of humour as the shots before were of him being naughty. Finally the film closes with a mid-shot of Henry in his owner's arms before it zooms to a close up of his face to finish.

Sound

I decided not to use a voice over in my film as I thought it would make it seem more real without one. Instead I used music to give my film a background that was more interesting than silence. In the opening scenes when Henry is excited, playing and being naughty I used a fast paced piece of music. This not only portrays the fact that he is happy and excited, but also the fact that he is a puppy. When the film gets to the shot of Henry looking innocent I decided to make the music stop completely. I think this adds an element of innocence because it takes away any distractions so that the viewer only focuses on the shot. I also think it adds humour because the music ends so abruptly and the shot changes so quickly. Finally in the scene where Henry is being spun around I used a piece of music called 'Puppy Love.' I chose this music because of it's lyrics and because it's opening was a perfect fit with Henry's spin.

Editing Techniques

In terms of editing techniques I kept things quite simple. For example, throughout the film I used simple transitions. The first transition I use is a page turn to go from the title 'It's a dogs life' to the opening shot of Henry wagging his tail. From here, most of the rest of the video uses cuts to switch between footage and text. I intersperse text on a black background between each shot to break the video down a bit however, I also use text on the footage to clearly illustrate what's going on. Another transition I use is a jump cut. I use this when it goes from the photograph of what Henry had done to the window sill to him looking innocent. I used a jump cut here because I wanted the transition to be sudden to add an element of humour. The final transition I use is from here to the final shot where Henry is twirled around by his owner. Here I use a circular transition. Ideally I would have used a love heart but there wasn't one available so I used the circle instead. I was trying to convey the sense that the viewer is looking through a window into Henry's life and I believe this is the effect it gives.

However, transitions weren't the only editing techniques I used in my short film. During the shot where Henry is chasing the ball I have sped the footage up. I did this to portray more clearly to the viewer the sense that Henry is being chased with the ball. Similarly, in the last shot where Henry is being twirled around I slowed the footage down. I decided to use slow motion here because I wanted to give a sense of it being a love scene and this technique is a convention of love scenes. To truly convey this idea of a love scene I also altered the saturation of the final shot to give it a pink tinge as if the viewer is looking at the scene through 'rose tinted glasses.'

Mise En Scene

In my film I wanted to give the viewer the sense that Henry is a happy dog in a happy home. For this reason I made sure that all of the footage I filmed was filmed in a house. This meant that any props etc. were conventional of a home environment. In terms of getting Henry to use certain things for the film I mainly had to rely on chance. For example, he isn't always interested in a ball so I had to make sure I was on standby with the camera for any opportunity for me to film him playing with his toys or chewing my shoe!

In conclusion I believe the camera work, sound, editing techniques and mise en scene I used all contributed well to the overall effect I was trying to convey which was the idea of a happy dog in a happy home.

Evaluation

Whilst creating my one minute short film I have learnt many things about filming a piece from scratch. One of the main things I have learnt, that I will take on to my final coursework piece, is that you need to film a lot more footage than you will actually use. Due to this I now know to do as much filming as possible in preparation for my final piece to ensure I get all of the shots I want.

Creativity

To begin with I found it hard to decide on a topic for my one minute short film. I had a lot of ideas but wanted to do all of them. My initial ideas included, A day in the life of...

• a dog
• a girl
• a geek
• a superhero
• a computer
• a disney princess

Some of my ideas were easier to film than others and in the end I chose which idea to do based on this. I knew I didn't have vast amounts of time and so instead of filming something I would have had to use someone else in, I decided I would do 'A day in the life of a dog' because I can film my dog at any time of the day. Next time I will probably make my decision based on similar criteria.

Research and Planning

Before I could start my film I looked at existing short films to gain ideas. I looked at many short films on Youtube and identified the conventions. I found that short films tend to,

• Have a simple story line - follow one thing (no complicated sub-plots or similar)
• Have a simple structure  - clearly defined beginning middle and end 
• Little dialogue - tend to use little or no dialogue or a voice over
• Use simple background music in place of dialogue (tends to be classical/piano music with no contradicting melodies) 
• Due to little dialogue, editing techniques, camera work and mise en scene are key to showing the passage of time etc. 

When making my short film I tried to comply with these conventions. For example, my story line and structure were simple, and the background music I used was mainly instrumental. I didn't use a voice over because I didn't use a point of view shot and there was no other dialogue because dog's can't talk. 

Digital Technology and Post Production

I used imovie to create my final video as I have previous experience of using the programme from when I did BTEC Media at GCSE but before I began making my final film I experimented with Final Cut Pro.

We filmed this in front of a green screen then keyed out the background and replaced it with the Britain's Got Talent logo. I then added some sound affects and music and sped up the footage so that it fitted with the music. Finally I added some text to get the final product below.

Final Cut Pro Test

On my final video I put together the footage from different shoots I had done. I then added some text to commentate because I didn't have a voice over. Next I chose my music. I knew I wanted to use Puppy Love for the ending but I spent ages trying to find the right piece of music for the opening. Finally I edited the colours on the final piece of footage to give it a pink tinge as though the viewer was looking through rose tinted glasses. 

A day in the life of Henry Final!

This is my final one minute short film called 'A day in the life of Henry.' I hope you enjoy.