Here are some posters from existing short films. Overall the posters have very similar connotations and use a Chiaroscuro effect. They all have their primary colour of black that almost 'seeps' onto the poster. This create a look of shadows giving a con notion os mystery and that there is something hiding in the dark. This is furthered by the contrasting light parts of the posters. This puts emphasis on the light parts attracting the audiences' attention as well as further suggesting there is something to hide in the dark.

This theme also work with the concept of fear. This happens because we cannot see in the dark and therefore anything could be there. This plays with our imagination and associations of childhood fear. This helps with the horror and thriller genres as they also used aspects of fear and tension.


 I will be breaking down the posters here:

• Drowned at birth
• Must Peeter
• Voices
• Room 107

Audience survey results from zoeellis



When looking at the results I found that our primary audience is 12-19 year old females. After that 12-19 and 30-39 year old males. This is quite a wide range so we have decided that our audience will be people who watch short films. We chose this because this group is quite small and niche and when looking at question 5 two of the top genres were thriller and crime. The people who chose these genres were a mix of ages and gender so we decided that gender and age won't effect our audience because they have something in common: they all watch short films.

Looking at some short films this is what i have seen for the fonts.

 The fly 

This has the most simple font with the header being the same font only smaller. This has a very simple look which suits the film because the plot of the film is very simple but effective. The film also being 4 minutes long adds to the more simple effect.

Prosopagnosia

This short film has two types of font. The header complements the other font. They both help gives off

a more sophisticated but cold connotation which fits in very well with the films crime thriller genre.

 The black hole

This film has a more cartoony feel to it. This font is also simple but the connotation gives a more

comedy feel to it which again suits the genre.

Get off my land

This has a very small font that suits the simplicity of this short film. The film ends without any drama or

big fight scenes despite the built up of tension during the film so this font which displays after the last scene helps to continue this.

All of these fonts use a simple white font with a style that has connotations to fit with the style of film, however, these are very subtle. 

What is binary opposition?

A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.

So what did Strauss do? 

He looked at many myths and other stories from across different cultures and broke them down. He attempted to find out how they were all similar and that they were all manifestations of the same language. What he found was that all the stories have binary opposites.

Here is a slide show with more info: 

How is this useful to me?

In my short film we are portraying the character of Goldilocks as the opposite of her 'typical' character. Here we are uses a psychopathic killer instead of the innocent girl. This itself is a type of opposition but more obvious than that are the two main characters.

The DCI is portraying the side of justice/good/old and Goldilocks is on the lawless/evil/young side. These character tropes are binary opposites of each other. Strauss' theory can be used because he said that without the opposites then the media would be unbalanced. To avoid this we need to make sure that the DCI acts as the counter weight.



Click on picture to see the original post. Not made by me.

Here is the post I made about Todorov

I looked at the short film Prosopagnosia as this film had a police and crime genre. The short's plot was told mainly my dialogue and this is how we are basing out film off so it was good to look at how a short film has done so successfully. 

The main setting for this short film is in an interrogation room. This is identical to my short film. Here low key lighting is used to create a dark background with the character's faces illuminated. This creates a serious connotation. It also helps the audience to focus on the character's faces and helps to define the emotions.

The other main character in this short film is the DCI. This is characterised by the officers costume and near by props. He is wearing a suit and has a file open which suggests that he has information has displays a typical modern inspector theme. 

Another point is that the two characters have very different postures. Here the witness is sitting forward and has a very tense body language where as the DCI is leaning backwards and is more relaxed.

The use of the low key lighting helps to emphasise the character's facial expressions. Having the contrast puts the audiences attention straight onto the face. This is useful in this film because there is a lot of dialogue so seeing the character's expressions helps to understand how the character feels about what is being said. This can also help the audience to decide themselves if he is guilty or not.


Replace with Gifs https://vimeo.com/35014952

Characters: Usually male characters are used as the protagonist or even a mainly male cast. This is to do with stereotypes. Males are usually portrayed because society stereotypes the job of a police officer or detective as male. Examples of a mainly Male cast are Hot Fuzz and Reservoir Dogs.

A typical character is the male detective protagonist:

• Usually divorced
• Seen as tough and independent
• Has underworld connections
• often bends or breaks law to get job done
• Social pragmatism of the modern police investigator. 

Plot: Often follows a 'who did it' plot where we chase after a killer of a crime. Usually the victim is known and portrayed as innocent. Red herrings and plot twist are commonly used to keep the show entertaining as we unravel the plot. The audience will be involved as they use the clues to help solve the crime or by routing for a side/character.

Sub-genres: A crime series or film will usually have two types of sub genre. either taking a violent and action route, or a detective and mystery genre.

Setting:

• Urban inner city
• Police offices
• Open streets
• Warehouses

Looking at the short film The Fly this is what I have seen that is effective and would like to include in my own short film:

The Fly:
The short film has a similar setting to my short film. The film looks like it is set in the 80s. This is mainly shown by the costume and other mise en scene. Here you can clearly see three main aspects. This is one of the first scenes that the audience sees so they first impressions of the genre and setting will be made here.

1. The first aspect is the use of costume. Here the character is wearing a leather jacket which was very common during the 80s. The character takes up most of the shot so the costume is clearly shown to the audience and the connotations this gives is very clear to the audience that this character is from the 80s or a similar time. 
2. The second aspect is the car. The car is is both the foreground and the middle ground. This car is used to help put the setting into context. Here an old car is shown but the car looks used but not old. This really helps the audience to make the connections that this short film is set in the 80s as a car that age would look more rundown in this day.
3. The last is slightly more hidden. This scene uses conventions of other 80s films. The background is blurred out as the depth of feild is shallow so the wall behind doesn't stand out but it does add to cthe connotations  

The setting of the film takes place in only one area. This is shown above. Shots of the door with diagetic sounds suggest that the other characters are inside but the inside is not shown. This use of one scene works because three areas are shown as individual areas. This is the car, inside the building and the surrounding area. All are used in different places during the short film but only this area is used for the whole 6 minutes. 

The camera shots and movements are varied these include an extreme close up, a crane shot, and a panning shot. The variety of shots help to keep the viewer interested as each shot is in the same setting so having a different angle or movement stops each shot from being repetitive. This is important because most of my film will take place in one room and has heavy dialogue. 

When creating my own film I will be using these ideas as these are effective and use similar concepts to my own film. 

When doing research into conventions of short films Here I realised a list of things that I need to make sure to include or change about our short film.

1. Short films are part of a niche market. We need to be aware of this as the audience for our short film will be precise. This is useful to us as it help to know who exactly our audience is going to be but we need to make sure that our film will appeal to those audience members. Here is a link to a post explaining who are audience is
2. One consideration we looked at was characters. Our film uses a number of characters and normally there is only one or two characters. In our film only two characters have line as the other five characters are more mentioned and therefore don't add anything much to the role by knowing their background. Here is a link to the posts I made explaining who are characters are. 
3. As we are students our film doesn't have a budget. To make sure that we can make the film Jess and I had to think carefully about all the resources we could use. In the end the only thing that will cost us is filming in The Island which is £35 and hour.

Outline of a short film

Short films are usually 5-10 minuets in length with only a few characters. In terms of culture short films are very widespread. In the US short films aren't popular but in the UK there is market for them and there a film festivals about short films. Voice overs are a common feature as having a voice over can help to explain how or where the characters are. Also some short films don't have any dialogue and as the films are short and simple lengthy dialogue is not needed.

Characters

The characters are either main characters or a background character. This is because short films don't have time to fully develop a story into the history or mindset of a character and if there are too many characters they will each feel superficial and hard for the audience to relate and understand the characters.

Budget

Most short films have either a very short film or no budget at all. To keep budgets low directing and filming and writing are usually done by the same people. Actors are amateurs and there isn't a big soundtrack. Very locations are used and not much CGI if any is used.

Good example is The Black Hole which is based in one location - an office, with only one character.

Concept

Most films are about normal events or are realistic. This helps with the budgeting but it also appeals to audiences well as they can easily relate to the characters or situations. Usually short films will have a single problem that the characters will overcome.

Twist

Most short films include a 'twist'. This could be a super power, something abnormal or a plot twist. This helps to keep the film interesting as most short films have a very normal or basic setting. Unlike Feature length films short films are more likely to end in a cliffhanger or not fully explaining what happens and is left either ambiguous or up to the audience to decide what happened afterwards.

This idea of a twist can be applied to Todorov. His theory of Equilibrium follows: Equilibrium; Disequilibrium; New Equilibrium.

In short films the equilibrium the start shows everything as normal. The twist in the film or the problem encountered is the disequilibrium; and the new equilibrium is when the problem is solved or the character accepts the new equilibrium.

Examples

Sites such as shortoftheweek.com show a whole list of short films.

Short films with similar genre to ours include:

The Fly

Prosopagnosia

The offering

Crime film is a genre that revolves around the action of a criminal mastermind. A Crime film will often revolve around the criminal himself, chronicling his rise and fall. Some Crime films will have a storyline that follows the criminal's victim, yet others follow the person in pursuit of the criminal. This genre tends to be fast paced with an air of mystery – this mystery can come from the plot or from the characters themselves.

Examples of crime films are:

Batman: When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, the caped crusader must come to terms with one of the greatest psychological tests of his ability to fight injustice.

Reservoir Dogs: After a simple jewellery heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

Snatch: Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Legend: The film tells the story of the identical twin gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, two of the most notorious criminals in British history, and their organised crime empire in the East End of London during the 1960s.

In the sixties this style of dress was exceedingly popular. Women would wear dresses, below knee length, with short to no sleeves. The dresses usually have a waistband around the middle to accent the woman's shape but the fabrics were thick and stayed in place giving a modest look to them. Patterns were used either as a printed pattern or the embroidery or texture. The colours are usually pinks or blue. This fits in with the original goldilocks costume we have in mind.

 

Other aspects to note are that girls fashion was a copy of adult fashion so there isn't much variation. The accessories they wore were very minimal usually just earrings in each ear. Girls usually had plain white socks under their shoes  Gloves were very common for both women and girls. Our film is set in the sixties so Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood will need to have costumes that fit into the similar style. Luckily Goldilocks' costume looks very similar to the above pictures. We will just need to add gloves and the appropriate shoes to make the costume complete. 

The two characters that we are using that are based of fairytales are Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood. Both of these characters have big similarities and they are often seen together in drawings such as above.

Both the characters are portrayed as girls but both of the stories have been changed over time. Also both the stories take place in the woods with the girls more or less on their own. Lastly both stories include a wild animal that is seen as dangerous. Because of these similarities we want to have Red play a cameo in our short film.

This effect will help give the world that our film is set in slightly more depth by showing that there is more than one fairytale story that has been twisted.

Goldilocks’ costume from zoeellis

Here is a link to Jess' post about men's fashion in the 60s.

Traits of a psychopath:

1. Uncaring

2. Shallow emotions

3. Irresponsibility 

4. Insincere speech

5. Overconfidence

6. Narrowing of attention

7. Selfishness

8. Violence

Traits of a serial killer:

1. Childhood abuse or neglect

2. Poor school record, despite intelligence

3. Excessive antisocial behaviour

4. Compulsive fascinating

5. Head injuries

6. Voyurism

7. Bed wetting

8. Arson

9. Animal cruelty

Taken from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindmelding/201301/what-is-psychopath-0

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/11/19/9-traits-of-a-potential-serial-killer-know-the-signs-2447394?lt_source=external,manual

We created a survey and sent it out to some of our audience. Most of the respondents were people who took part in a BFI workshop that looked at short films.  Here is a link to the survey that we sent out. Below is the raw data that we have. I will post later showing the conclusions of the results.

                         

Slidehsow results from zoeellis

The original story about the three bears is about three sized bears and an old woman. Unlike the Brothers Grimm tales this has an open and less twisted ending.

"Out the little old Woman jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out of the wood, and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her."

We are using the idea that she was caught by the police but incorporating the Brothers Grimm style fairytales as well as the modern version where the old woman is a young girl called goldilocks.

Click Here to read the original story.