Casting Decisions

We felt that one of the most important aspects of the production was making the relationship and emotions believable on screen. Due to the difficulties in hiring high profile actors, we dedicated a lot of thought as to who should play the title characters, a couple which are in a deep relationship. We wanted to cast people who would play a believable older character (20+), proven dramatic credentials and were committed to the production. We also felt it was important to cast a couple that were different and engaging, who would grab the audience’s attention and who would establish a strong connection with the audience. The two actors we have cast complement each other well as a couple and we feel confident about their ability in portraying a believable relationship on screen. We felt that Charli and Renaud were similar as a couple to Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, stars of 500 days of summer. It is the relationship in that film that we wanted to re create with our actors.

Settings and Locations

Throughout our Short Film, there will be alot of different scenery and an often change of location to create a certain atmosphere that represents our film. A major location that will be represented in alot of our short film is South Weald Country Park. The location is surrounded by a forest of beautiful flowers and trees that co-exist with each other to form an atmosphere that is somewhat untouched and disreguarded by the hands and tools of human beings. This atmosphere is perfect for a number of the scenes in our film because of the fact that it works well with the two characters that are in love and helps set that calm and romantic atmosphere without the need of dialogue or music. Although music will be used to add to the effect, South Weald is the perfect setting for parts of our film for the simple reason that it is an isolated country park that will show our loving couple alone in love with little interest or needs from the outside world.

Another Location where we will be filming is Southend-on-sea. We have chosen the beach in Southend because of the fact that is well known for its peer, and also because of the murky water that makes up the sea. Although a murky beach would usually be an unsuitable place to make a film, in the context of our short film it is very effective in setting the atmosphere and the mood represented by our charcter in the chosen scenes that we are filming down there. Our main character is represented in many of the scenes as being very miserable and upset because of the loss of his wife. This mood is captured very effectively by the beach because of how the cold winter day, shows the viewer of how a once prosperous and warm beach in the summer time is now very lonely and desserted just like the character in our film.

Costa coffee located in Shenfield is also one of our chosen locations because of how it is a very normal and common place where people go to socialise. We use the coffee shop to stage a place where our couple first meet and lay eyes on each other. It is very effective for our thriller because of how it makes the story seem more realistic and believable because of how it is such a normal place for two people to meet. This is very important because of how the viewers can relate to what is happening.

St Mary's graveyard is one of the chosen locations for our film for a variety of different reasons. One of the reasons is because of how it is where our main characters wife is buried. Another reason is because of how it is a very well kept graveyard with well trimmed bushes and plants all around. This is important because it leads the viewer to believe that our main character loved his wife very much and made sure she was buried in a garden surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees.

Brief Sypnosis Pitch

As a group, we have all played an equal role in putting forward ideas and discussing what we feel would or wouldn't work for a successful short film. After much deliberation in and outside of lessons, we decided on a theme, storyline and the characters we want to use.
We decided that our film would fit into the genre of a 'romantic tragedy'. It will entirely consist of the story of a young couple, how they meet, how they fall in love, and how an illness could largely effect their relationship. We plan to portray each of these things through the use of different camera techniques, such as including wide shots of the couple looking alone in a wide, scenic setting to depict their iscolation from the rest of the world, and hopefully making the audience feel as though they are involved in the couple's relationship, and becoming more emotionally attached. We all agreed that drawing this reaction from the audience is the most important thing to achieve from our short film in order for it to be a success.

The film will begin with a shot of the main protagonist, a man who is in a graveyard, reflecting on the time that he met his partner. He will be flicking through a photo album of pictures of the two of them at romantic places such as a beach and next to a lake, which will then fade to a scene of the couple when that picture was taken. However, the troubles in their relationship will then be portrayed, with the impression that the scenes are from his reflective memory, through arguments and scenes of the girl ill in bed. This sudden downfall in the theme, from love to anger, will then turn to sadness as we see the man back in the graveyard next to her gravestone, and then wandering empty streets to highlight his loneliness now she has gone. We hope that this will create deep emotive reactions from the audience as they will sympathise with him after watching the relationship blossom. The film will end with a cliff hanger, as the final shots show the man at a train station, standing close to the platform, and as the train comes the audience are left with the unresolved enigma of whether he jumped or not. We feel that the use of a cliffhanger will be effective as it will stay in the audience's mind, and they will hopefully comtemplate their own perception of the ending after the film has ended.

In terms of our characters, we have based them on 'Summer' played by Zooey Deschanel and 'Tom' played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the film '500 Days of Summer' as we felt they were extremely effective in terms of the audience's abilty to relate to and like them. We have therefore taken this inspiration and applied it, particularly with the appearance and costumes of our own characters as this is also an aspect that we believed enhanced the overall production. The reason for this choice is that, in detailed discussion, we agreed that we wanted characters that weren't completely average and were slightly strange as this would make our short film have a unique and interesting edge to it.

Inspirations/Influences

Although we feel that our idea is unique, we have been influenced by many short films and feature length films that we have seen in the past in many aspects of planning our film. In particular, 500 Days of Summer has influenced many of the decisions and ideas we have made.

Relationship –

As the film is focused on the relationship between two people, we decided to look at other films that explore deep relationships. We wanted our couple to demonstrate unique qualities that would distinguish them from the traditional every day romantic couple seen on a number of films. We liked very much the chemistry and attraction of the couple in 500 Days of Summer. The film explores a relationship that is awkward and unique, and ultimately ends in failure, a convention that breaks somewhat the norm for romantic comedy films.
The character of Summer Finn played by Zooey Deschanel is seen as an ‘immature woman, who is a complex character and the consequence is heartbreak for the male character. Summer is perfection, but perfection has no depth. Summer is not a girl, she is a phase’. It is these attributes that we want to our female protagonist to demonstrate to show that she is a complex and interesting character, and someone the audience would find entertaining to watch. Similarly, our male protagonist should demonstrate similar attributes to the character of Tom in 500 days of summer played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. In that film, Tom is obsessed with summer, and additionally shows that he is a humorous, witty and a intelligent and unique guy. Together, the characters relationship will go through stages in the film, at first showing their initial attraction, followed by the relationship developing and becoming concrete, before finally ending with the female protagonist’s death. With the attributes and relationship that the characters will have, the film will have an emotional impact upon the audience.

Settings/Location –

Somewhat influenced by the relationship and demeanour of our characters, we wanted some of our locations to feel isolated and secluded.
Initially, the couple meet in a bustling coffee shop, and can be compared with in 500 days of Summer when the characters meet in a busy office. The next significant setting is an isolated beach, reflecting the characters relationship as one that shows the couple to be isolated, yet happy together. Similarly, this isolation is repeated when they are seen at South Weald Park. In 500 days of Summer, the couple have a ‘favourite spot’, frequented by the characters because of the appeal of the location.
We were inspired to use a similar idea, with South Weald being our couples ‘favourite spot’.

Laurence Ruthven

Target Audience Profile

The Target Audience for our film would predominately be female, aged between 16-30 years old. As the film explores relationships and is based on romance and tragedy it would most appeal to the female audience, however, males of a similar age would also make up the majority of the secondary audience. For our target audience we have used Sophie Smith as an example of the primary target audience.

Sophie is 17 years old, attends Sixth Form and has a wide interest education, socialising with friends, watching films and TV, Facebook and Twitter. Her favourite films include Forest Gump, 500 days of summer, Billy Elliott and Dirty Dancing. Jade is White, middle class and enjoys music by The Smiths. She represents the typical normal girl, from a middle class nuclear family.

Sophie regularly attends the cinema and has an avid intrest in films. Her favourite films revolve around a romantic plot, with two people conversing and ending up as a happy couple. Jade therefore would have an intrest in our short film. Additionally, Sophie studies Media at school, and so would be intrested in viewing a wide range of film types, including short films.

Codes and Conventions of Romantic Tragedy genre

There are several different conventions of the Romantic Tragedy genre. A moving and emotional soundtrack is an important aspect of this genre as the director helps to create mood and emotion simply through the soundtrack. The plot must also follow the general convention of a romantic film, but with the obvious tragedy at the end, e.g. the couple breaking up to fulfil the audience’s expectations. The narrative drive must be strong throughout, so that the audience may suspend belief and get caught up in the drama of the story, as well as the relationships on screen. This ‘suspense’ of the viewer is often referred to as verisimilitude, or the illusion of reality.

An audience viewing a Romantic Tragedy would expect disequilibrium that sees an initial meeting between the characters overcome and the couple enjoying their relationship, before an obstacle that threatens their relationship, possibly breaking that relationship. The audience expects to see the relationship severed at the end of the film, although it doesn’t necessarily mean that the characters are unhappy, as it is common for filmmakers to include happy endings even for Romantic Tragedies.

Examples of Romantic Tragedy films –

500 days of summer

Romeo and Juliet

The Break Up

Remember Me

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Notebook

Initial Ideas

From the beginning we wanted to follow the story of a disabled man. We thought that the idea of showing the struggles of a disabled man could provide an interesting and provocative narrative, but after further discussion, realised that the narrative would not have a good conclusion, and that there were several issues in exploring the issues of a disabled man.
After further discussion, we decided to come up with the concept of depicting a man who is contemplating suicide, after the loss of his lover. We felt that this was a strong narrative to take throughout the film, with the opportunity to build up the relationship and then see it end as the woman dies. Emotionally, it would have a strong impact on the audience, and would provide us the opportunity to use cinematography in an interesting and engaging way. The narrative would also be strengthened by the relationship being developed on screen, and then suddenly coming to an end. The controlling idea is very strong throughout, and is effective in maintaining the audience’s attention and emotion.

Mood Board

We devised a mood board from a collection of images which we feel summarize the main themes and moods of our short film.

Half of the board portrays our couple's relationship, including screen shots from the film '500 Days of Summer' from which we drew inspiration from the characters, Tom Hansen and Summer Finn played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The images show them to be in love and happy to be in eachothers' company which is what we would like our actors, Molly and Renaud, to achieve.

We also included other images which we found that represent some of the scenes that we want to feauture, for example a couple having a picnic and a couple at a beach, we have story boarded scenes of Molly and Renaud at these locations.

Also on this side of the board, we used images of South Weald Country Park as this is one of the actual locations we will be using to film some shots due to it's scenic appearance. The large, open fields will contribute to our portrayal of the couples' clear iscolation from the rest of the world, giving the impression that all they need is one another to make the audience focus on and understand their relationship.

We also included some pictures that represent the locations and shots that want to use. For example, the coffee cup represents the shots that we will take in a coffee shop which is where the couple will first meet. We also used the image of a couple's photobooth pictures, as this was an idea we had to create with our own actors to show a 'fun' side to their relationship.

However, the other side of the moodboard contrasts as it portrays the more sad, lonely theme that is present in the last part of the film. This is because the audience discover that the female character has passed away. We aim to use a zoom outwards from a close up of Renaud to show that he has been sitting in a graveyard throughout the film, and a gravestone (which is featured on the board) in front of him will show the audience that it must be her's.

We have also story boarded Renaud to be walking through empty streets to portray his loneliness, and therefore pictures of empty streets and bridges that we aim to replicate are included, they also depict the foggy, dim lighting that we aim to achieve as a form of pathetic fallacy.

There is also an image of an extreme close up on the board because we have planned to shoot a couple of these as a way of portraying Renaud's emotions, as well as the intensity of them.

Also featured are images of a train platform, this is because we aim to shoot Renaud standing alone on one through the use of a long shot to reinforce his loneliness again. The image of a moving train also shows what we hope to achieve on camera as the final shot before the screen fades to black, as a cliff hanger for the audience.

Institutional Analysis

The problem with trying to distribute a short film to an institution is that there is not a large market or range of institutions that show or try to advertise a lot of short films. Because there are so few examples of mediums in which short films can be specifically distributed, it is easier to get them out to online platforms. With the recent development of youtube as a genuine media outlet, short film-makers now have the means to be become famous and popular without grand scale productions or large institutional backing.

There is a niche in that successful film-makers enter short films to be shown at something like the London film festivals or an equal festival in another part of the world. Sometimes features are shown on different channels affiliated with Channel 4. They have 5 minute short films shown some valid documentaries to the programmes on their channel or highlighting talented young directors. Though the issue with these is that it has to be screaned many times by a pannel of media experts before it can be shown by these institutions. This is a problem for a lot of young aspiring young film-makers. Its not that films arent good enough its that they dont have the media contacts to sufficantly get there their production 'out there'.

The institutions themselves have made efforts to show short films through other mediums other than just the mainstream, traditional ones like television. They have made strides to show short films on their websites. This is an option we could utilise but even then our piece would have to go through an ammount of screening and gain support from the institution.



One of the more well known institutions is Film4. They have slots in their television programming in which they showcase the work of young up and coming dircetors and the older work of established directors. This is often in the form of short films. They are a well known distributor of films in this country and therefore a level of success is attached to having work "on the telly" with both media-related people and those that arent. Film4 would be a plauisble option for our films institution as it does encourage and showcase the work of new, young directors.

The short film is something that is still heavily part of the academy and long established film institutions. The London short film festival is still an anually held ceremony which is held in high regards by the film academy. It remains the city's most expansive and radically explosive film festival into its 7th denomination this upcoming January. With other 200 films , London short film festival is exclusively for the work of Britain's most exciting up-and-coming filmakers. For 10 days the country's most creative and fiercely independant filmakers have their work brandished around the nations most prestigous cinemas. This would not be a particularly medium in which to show our short film as we are limited in both our skills as filmakers and the experience we have. The rest of the films in the festival would be of a much higher standard than our film due to a higher level of experience and would more than likely have a larger budget.

Focus Group

For our focus group we decided to split male and female and have three from each, specifically for the focus group from an audience aged between 16-19 years old. We decided that splitting the two genders would help us to understand better what each gender thinks about short films. In both groups there are two who have studied or are studying media studies and so have a broader understanding of what goes into making films and what is required, while one has no experience in studying or making films, but has an external interest in them.

In terms of the male group, the feedback was largely positive. With regard to making a short film successful all three were united in their opinion that there should be an interesting storyline with lots of action/dialogue to keep the viewer entertained and interested for the short duration of the film. They all agreed that a Romantic Tragedy would make for a good genre for a short film, and in particular liked the idea of a cliff-hanger to make the audience think and recall that particular film.

In terms of the female group, we found surprisingly that their responses were more limited than those of the male group, yet still gathered positive feedback on the Romantic Tragedy genre, all of which agreed was a favourite film genre of theirs, and that it would make for a good short film. Again the idea of a cliff-hanger was favourably received. Overall, we were pleased with the feedback we received, but did want more expansion on some of the answers.

Questionnaire Results

Here are the results of our questionnaire.

From our results we discovered that many people do not actually watch short films. However we decided to still pursue the line of questions as we still needed to gain some feedback on our film. We were particularly pleased with the positive feedback regarding having a twist at the end of a short film as well as the audiences willingness to watch short films on YouTube. There was a mixed response for the Romantic genre within a short film but we believe this is mainly because not many people are aware or watch short films, and their initial expectations would not be to have a Romatic genre, more a thriller/horror genre.

Questionnaire

We decided as a group to come up with a questionnaire in order to gain a greater understanding of how short films are perceived outside of media students. Short films aren’t watched by the majority of the general public so this questionnaire will help decide what a general audience’s view is to making a successful short film. By understanding what the general audience want from a short film we can make our short film more accessible and interesting for the casual viewer.

Textual Analysis – Owl Creek Bridge by director John Giwa-Amu

Owl Creek Bridge is a modern day adaption of the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge that won Best Short Film at the 2007 BAFTA Cymru awards. The story was adapted to follow the last days of Khalid, a young boy who is caught by a gang of racist youths.

In terms of cinematography, the director uses many wide shots to help show the central protagonist’s Khalid’s isolation when up against the youths that are chasing him. The film opens with a wide shot of a bridge, surrounded by dense woods enforcing the idea that the area is secluded and isolated. Non – diegetic sound is heard when we see the group enter, with the sound taking a deep and dark tone, the connotations of which are danger. This idea of danger is fulfilled for the audience when we see an over the shoulder shot of the protagonist being held over the side of the bridge, the use of rope makes the audience aware of the dangerous intentions of the youths. Another over the shoulder shot is used when Khalid escapes and looks back at the youths, demonstrating to the audience that the protagonist is still in danger, helping to maintain tension within the scene. The director the uses a tracking shot of Khalid running through the forest, helping to maintain the pace of the scene, as well as maintaining the sense of danger.

The film then fades to black, and a change of non-diegetic soundtrack, with a softer tone taken, as well as a change to black and white predominant colours, showing a change in time and setting. As the scene progresses a low angle wide shot is used to show Khalid and the antagonist, and the danger and threat that he poses. A mid shot is used of the antagonist is then used as he is invited into Khalid’s house to highlight his slight distress at being invited into the house. A sting and a close up is used to bring us back to the original setting, and to help re create the sense of danger and tension surrounding Khalid’s situation. Similarly, the director reverses this technique later on when the danger is supposedly passed.

As the film continues back into a flashback at the dinner table, the director uses a close up of the antagonists face when Khalid jokes with his brother, to highlight the jealousy, and therefore possible motivation for his prejudice of Khalid. This motivation is reinforced in the next flashback, when the director uses a close up of the antagonists face standing at his front door, suggesting the antagonists apprehension in entering his house, reinforced when he does open the door and the line is heard ‘Where the **** have you been’, before a fast fade to black. The director uses a mix of non diegetic and diegetic sound during the chase scenes, as well as stings to help maintain the sense of danger and pace throughout. Khalid’s costume, which is ripped and dirty highlights the struggle he has faced in trying to escape the gang.

Finally the director uses a close up, with a jump cut of Khalid’s feet as he has been caught and hung again. The jump cut to Khalid’s motionless feet makes the audience aware of Khalid’s death, as does the following wide shot if just the main antagonist looking down at his body, showing the isolation that both characters shared.

Textual Analysis of Terry Tate: Office Linebacker

Terry Tate: Office Linebacker is a series of short television commercials created by Rawson Marshall Thurber for Reebok. It was first aired in 2003 at the Superbowl. The Superbowl being the highest profile game in the sport of American Football. Terry Tate is an American Football player who has been hired by an office firm to administer punishment to those breaking any of the companies rules. The way he administers the punishment is by tackling the perpitrators around the office enviroment.

The cinematography used is fairly simple. Most common shot we see is a mid shot of an office worker performing a slight wrongdoing then Terry Tate charges at the officeworker and tackles them. Tate's victims are then out of shot usually covered by a desk or filing cabinet. After the first of said instances Terry is being interviewed in a room alone. This is the first time he adresses someone outside the office enviroment. This is a shot with Tate in the middle of the screen at a usual height because this is again a mid-shot but it could be argued that is a a master shot as the audience is more formally introduced to Terry Tate and as we as an audience see a label at the bottom of the screen saying "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" . A different shot used is where one of Terry's colleges throws a soft drinks can into the trash bin when next to it is a recycling bin. Terry arrives with haste but as the company employee knows he has wronged he attempts to ammend his action by rummaging through the trash binto find the can. As this is happening the mid-shot of Terry's entire body gets closer and closer to represent that Terry is getting closer to attacking. This cresendos into a point of view shot with Terry Tate right in the face of the office worker who just in the nick of time finds his drinks can and places it in the recycling bin.

In terms of editing we obviously saw a great deal of cutting between the scenes with Terry Tate himself or his boss talking or the interview scenes of Terry. It could be said that the director used a degree of shot reverse shot in the scene with the recycling dilemma as we see both angles ( Terry and the victim). Most noticable is the uses of montage in the film. We see a collection of shots of Terry performing more usual office tasks like performing presentations and celebrating a fellow employees birthday this is used to show that Terry is fitting in, in the office enviroment. The other montage is of Tate tackling the same people he was fitting in with just moments before. These montages are in quick succesion to excentuate the comedy of what Tate is doing, reminding the audience that what he is doing is ludacris yet ammusing.

There are some intresting examples of sound in the piece. There is obviously a lot of diolouge between the characters which fits into the catogary of digetic sound. A lot of the diologue used by is aggresively adressing those that he has just tackled this is to go along with Tate being represented as a stereotypical American Football player who are often portrayed as violent and overly angry. Alternatively at other times Tate caringly adresses some of the female staff. This diolouge is again used for comedic effect as we see a contrast between the stereotype and then what we as an audience are seeing. A musical sting follows Terry Tate's first hit on an employee which then runs into the opening sequance accompanied by a score after the inital sting. The director also adds some pleonatsic sounds in post production to Terry Tate's tackles. These sounds are louder versions of what you would expect to hear. For example when Tate tackles someone into a filing cabinet which would usually be a fairly loud smack into metal instead sounds more like what we would expect from a car accident. This again adds to the stereotype that what Tate is doing is very dangerous and is the dominent male in the working enviroment which he also portrays in the earlier mentioned diolouge.

In terms of Mise en Scene Terry Tate: Office Linebacker has some very strong themes which will apply to the genre. An example of this is Terry's costume. He has the usual American Football apparell of a brightly coloured jersey and his hands are covered in athletic grip tape. This is in line with the American football side. In terms of the office side he is wearing black trousers and smart black shoes. This again continues with the theme of contrast creating humor. This contrast is again shown in the choice of settings. The office enviroment is obviously the most used which we expect but to fall in line with the American Football side of things we see Tate in his own area. This is a storage cupboard. It has Tate's jersey hanging on the wall to create an enviroment more similar to a locker room enviroment.

Textual Analysis - About A Girl

About A Girl

Directed by Brian Percival (2001)

8:30 minutes

The film begins with the opening shot of a girl dancing and singing to Britney Spears' song 'Stronger'. In terms of cinematography, a wide shot is used in order to include the prominent cloudy sky in the background. The fact that it fills most of the shot space draws the audience's attention to the weather as a possible form of pathetic fallacy, this dull and dreary setting may suggest that this is a representation of this girl's life, or a way of foreshadowing dark scenes that are yet to come in the film. The girl is also positioned at the right side of the screen, the fact that she is not in the middle enhances the impression that she is alone and isolated. The sound is also used to support this cinematography, as the girl is singing song lyrics such as 'I've had enough' and 'I'm stronger than yesterday, now it's nothing but my way, my loneliness ain't killing me no more.' This reinforces her impression of isolation, but also introduces the symbolic structure of hopefulness that occurs throughout the film. As this is the first shot, this could be used as an enigma for the audience, to make them wonder why she is hopeful and why she has had enough, before her life is revealed.

As the camera cuts to the next shot, the editing becomes very fast paced as a sequence of cuts to different, short clips of dialogue from the same girl are shown. In terms of the mise en scene of this scene, the girl's costume portrays her to be a white, low class, young teenager. She has gold hoop earrings and a white puffa jacket which is slightly dirty, the fact that this item of clothing is out of fashion also highlights that she is not very wealthy and is from a working class background. However it was a clever choice of costume as it makes her story believable that she had been pregnant and able to hide it under that jacket, although ironically the colour white is often a symbol of innocence, so the fact that this is faded and dirty also compliments the fact that this may be representitive of the actual truth.

As the girl continues to deliver her monologue whilst walking, the audience are able to view the setting in which she lives. There are shots of railings, which have connotations of inprisonment with the metal bars which may suggest that the area she lives in is unpleasant - this is supported by her dialogue, for example 'When I'm dead rich and famous and people want my autograph, and living in a top flat in London, and your still here eating your burgers and your knock off lager.' There are also unsightly buildings and graffiti in the background which add to this low class, unpleasant place to live.

The girl is talking about her family issues and seems to dislike her mother and idolise her father. However following shots of, for example, her mother frantically scratching a scratch card whilst the girl has her back to her suggests that she is unaware of her mother's struggle and hopes to become wealthier and provide a better life after she has said 'She never lets us have nothing... but she's always got enough for ciggies, does she think I'm soft or what?'. Whereas her father, who she describes to 'always want to know what I'm up to', doesn't seem to have any interest in his daughter which is depicted through the use of shots of him in a cafe with the girl, reading his paper and ignoring her completely. Similarly, she says 'He takes me to the pub and gets me a coke and a bag of crisps', which would make the audience assume that they spend time together and he treats her, however the reality is very different as, through the use of cinematography and mise en scene, it can be seen that she has been left outside on a bench next to a run down pub in cold weather, whilst sounds of men laughing inside show us that he neglects his daughter and is more interested in having a good time with friends. The camera pans out slowly to reveal her iscolation and loneliness, and we see this shot for over 15 seconds so it has a lasting effect on the audience as they become very sympathetic towards her.

The next shots continue to portray the girl's desperation for a better life of fame and fortune as she talks about forming a band with her friends. Mid shots of the girls on a bus clearly show her happiness in the presence of them, singing and dancing, and they are obviously the only people that can relate to her. This is also the first and only time we see the girl without the white coat on which suggests that she can be open and honest with them and be her true self.

Throughout the short film we have consistently seen the girl walking alongside a canal in the background and towards the end there are more obvious images of her sitting above it, seeing the vast amounts of rubbish. This could be seen to foreshadow the twist of the ending, when she throws her baby into this canal which tells the audience that she only considers it as rubbish as well which is a very contraversial and upsetting idea for the audience to be faced with, which makes it very effective. As she does throw the baby in the plastic bag into the water, the effect is increased by silence for the first time in the film, she is not singing or energetically delivering her monologue. This pause is therefore extremely effective. She then turns away and a very high angle of the girl walking away from the canal leaves the audience with the lasting impression that she is still vulnerable, even after her disturbing actions, and a feeling of sympathy for the girl may still exist.

BBFC Rating

The British Board of Film Classification defines the category of 15 to include the following -

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

There may be frequent use of strong language . The strongest terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.


We decided that our film would fall into this category as it includes many of the elements stated above. The theme of death and suicide is prevelant and strong and falls under the category of dangerous beahviour, as well as light references to sexual behaviour or activity.

Demographics

Demographics, is the term used to describe the different levels of classes in society. Demographics are often associated with the film industry because of how it helps determine what the overall target audience is. An example of this is the film pride and prejudice. Although this is enjoyed by many different classes in society, it could be said to be targeted at the upper class because of the traditional British accents and the lifestyles that these characters are said to live. This is a prime example of demographics being involved in films.


The levels of classes are often described in a method called the social ladder. This so called ladder describes the people who live within society and puts them in an order relating to their wealth and standard of living.


A- Stands for the upper middle class. A class associated with the rich and often famous. They are placed at the top of the social ladder because of how they have a very high standard of living. The social ladder is also used for political reasons. A class citizens are often targeted by Political parties because of how their wealth, can be of great help to a party fighting to become the ruling party. This method of Politics is often used at the time of an election because of how advertisements can be very expensive to run.


B- Stands for the middle class. Traditional stereotypes of the middle class are often seen as well educated people who act in a proper and respectful way to make themselves seem more upper class. Although the middle class do not experience the same standard of living compared to the upper middle, they share the same values and opinions and also the same work ethic. This makes them relatively upper class, with their values and views on behaviour but their net worth is what puts them in a different category.


C1- This represents the lower middle class. The lower middle class are often represented as being exactly in the middle of the social ladder. They are wealthy enough to sustain a comfortable and economically stable life with their wages which they make holding careers in fields such as junior management, roles in administration and supervisory.


C2- Stands for the skilled working class. A definition of a skilled worker is someone who has required over time a special set of skills. These skills are often associated with jobs in certain trades such as plumbers and electricians but they are also associated with jobs in building and construction. The standard wages of the skilled working class are varied because of how they are jobs that reward you for your hard work. The more work you put in the more money you earn, this is very true in plumbing for example because of how each different plumbing job earns a different wage, meaning that the more jobs you complete the more money you get.

D- Represents the working class. People who fit into this group are often part time workers who recieve a very low level of income. They have little or no qualifications and are often employed for jobs in manual labour. A large number of the working class are young people who have come out of school at the age of sixteen or above and have applied for work wherever they can. They start out with no experience and few qualifications and are used as manual labour until they have more to offer.

E- Represents the lowest level of subsistence. They are people who are unemployed or work part time and live their lives unsupported. They are often state pensioners and widows. Unieversity students can also be put into this category because of how they dont recieve an income but are often left out because of their prospects in the years after University.

S.W.O.T

SWOT analysis is a tool for auditing an organization and its environment. It is the first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. Opportunities and threats are external factors.

Codes & Conventions of a Short Film

Short films have a set of specific set of features that need to be utilised. As is evident in the name a short film needs to be shorter in length than a feature film. The length is usually between two and ten minutes. Though the length is a theme it is not the most important convention of the short film genre. There are other features that are more integral to the ideology of a short film.
More importantly a short film has a very strong and clear controlling idea. This is the one thing that must be clearly at the forefront of the short film throughout.
Aswell as this there is usually a very small cast of characters often only one or two. It is easier to follow just one story in the shorter timeframe rather than peeling off for different people's journeys in feature films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The protagonist remains allmost exclusively in the centre of the screen in the short film.
A regular occurance in a short film is that the ending is shocking and suprising. This is necessary because the audience of short films are likely to watch a lot of other media products from a range of institutions. If a certain short film is to leave an impact on the viewer it will need a shocking twist to engage the audience and force them to feel an emotion. If in a shorter length production an audience is unanomously upset or angry or ammused then it can be deemed as sucessful.
Voiceovers are common practice in short films. They are often used in shorter production as apposed to diolouge. It can be the voice of a narrator speaking over actions like for example in Tim Burton's Vincent. Or it could be the voice of the central protagonist voicing over their own action perhaps in the present or even speaking in heinsight in the past tense.

Definition of short films

Short Films
A short film is a motion picture that is considerably shorter in length than a regular feature film. An average film varies from 40 to about 90 minutes. The short film is the equivalent of a short story in the field of literature.
In the theatrical environment the short films are often shown prior to the feature film. It is usually considerably less complicated in terms of plot and only covers one or another small number of narrative threads. Most films of this genre focus on a single character or show one particular incident. The story can be seen to resemble that of a joke or fables told through the medium of the spoken word. A short film is more able to focus on difficult topics feature films often avoid. The short film-makers benefit from larger freedoms and make higher-risk films.


The short film genre splits itself into more sub-genres the most common of which are:
. Live action shot
. Animated short (hand drawn or CGI)
. Documentary short subject
. Experimental or more abstract short films

Evaluation of As Blog

Throughout year 12, our group had to carry out a large amount of research. Research that ranged from finding pictures on the internet to studying in detail films and programmes that related to our thriller. This Research would then be added onto the blog. Some of our research was very easy to add to the blog such as pictures and videos. We would download them from google and them move them to the blog. Other pieces of research such as finding out about related films and studying certain thrilling charcters was alot harder to blog. This led the group to the decision that for tricky pieces of research we would write into a small evaluation and post onto the blog. This made it easier for us to record all of our research which meant that the Blog was full of interesting and important information.

Throughout the planning of our thriller we were asked to make a textual analysis on a number of different thrillers. Our chosen thrillers consisted of the films se7en, Casino Royale and Cape Fear. These textual anlysis were key to our group achieving top marks. We knew this straight away because of the detail that was needed in each analysis and how important it was for us to gather an understanding of what a thriller should be and how they should be portrayed. This knowledge that we gathered from the analysis of the films played an important role in the filming of the thriller and helped us create the mood and atmosphere that made our thriller so successful.

One thing we learnt from year 12 and something we have a fair bit of experience in are Storyboards. We understand fully the importance of Storyboards because of how they were a big factor in the success of our thriller. We have just recently finished our stroryboards and being one of the earliest groups to have finished it gave us the time to re-do the storyboards on coloured sugarpaper with exact drawings and a clearer evaluation of each scene. This made the stroyboards more attractive and encouraged us to take a picture and post it on the blog. This gave the blog a splash of colour which made it stand it out compared to the pother blogs that we had previously written.

An important part of making any thriller is finding out your target Audience so you know exactly how you should carry out your advertising campaign. The target audience for our thriller was at first very tricky to make a decision. This was due to the fact that thriller's are often very clever films which are aimed to thrill the watcher. For this reason we were sure that are target Audience was eighteen years and above until our teacher at the time opened our eyes to the fact that all the characters in the film were under eighteen, meaning that this would attract other people under the age of eighteen to watch the film.

When it came to the layout of the blog, our group had a good understanding of how different media forms such as powerpoints, videos, pictures etc were the key way of gaining marks when it came to presentation. We used a huge variety of these different media forms in the blog not just for presentation purposes but also because of how it makes it more interesting for people to read. Pages and pages of text would of made the blog not just boring and tedious for the reader but also for us, the different powerpoints and videos we created made the whole experience alot more fun.

The organistaion of our blog was also very important when it came to achieving the higher grades. This was because of how the blogs had to fit into a certain order so the examiner would find it easier to track our progress throughout our time in Year 12. This made it possible for the examiner not just to mark our work, but also to mark us on how well we improved throughout the year. The technique that we used to make sure the blogs were in the right order was very simple, we kept track of the dates that we finished our blogs and then added them to the blog so that they kept a very precise and correct order. This also made the clarity and structure of the Blog very successful. It made the blog very easy to understand and also made it more interesting for the reader because all the blogs linked together. This made it very similar to a book in some ways because of how it made the reader want to read on.

All the credit for the balance of the blog goes to our teacher at the time, Mr Sheriff. He gave us a set of clear guidelines to make sure that we constantly mixed the blog up. An example of this is, when you look at our blog, it is very rare to see two of the same media forms one after the other. This was because of how Mr Sheriff drilled it into us that by using too much of one media form, for instance using only powerpoints to conduct our work, was a certain way of showing the examiner that we had little knowledge of the different media forms that could have been used throughout the blog.

You can probably tell from the way I have described our Blog, we were very happy with the way it went and the work that each member of the group put towards it. We stuck to the strict guidelines set by our teacher adding at times glints of our own humour and personalities making the blog a little bit lighter. Although the Blog was successful, there are still parts of it that could have been improved. We aimed to achieve the highest amount of Blogs compared to all the other groups in our class but we failed to do that because of how we lost our rythm towards the middle of the year. This is something that needs to be improved so our new blog that we are making this year can be even better than the one created last year