PLANNING: THINKING ABOUT THE WRITING STICKY NOTES

Today we brainstormed possible notes and sayings we could use on our sticky notes, that the nice guy leaves behind for the girl. We decided to make them short and sweet, so as not to distract from the main plot line and to ensure the audience would be able to have enough time to read them. Here is a selection we came up with:

• "Shall I compare thee to a summers day"
• "you have beautiful eyes"
• "You make time stand still"
• "Pretty as a picture" 
• "can you feel the chemistry"
• "Ma belle" 

We decided that we would place the sticky notes deliberately onto books they related to in order to show a connection. For example we placed "Can you feel the chemistry", onto a chemistry textbook; as well as placing "Pretty as a picture", onto an art book. We found that by doing this it made the notes seem clever and original. This also positions the male character as thoughtful and intelligent, qualities the protagonist is looking for in a man. 

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

Today we created an official storyboard, in order that we could map out the different scenes we wanted to film as well as where we needed to film and who is needed. This helps us to determine the plot line and ensure that the story makes sense and incorporates the codes and conventions of short films such as a plot twist. This also helps us to generate our call sheets to maintain our organisation. 

PLANNING:CREATING A ROUGH STORYBOARD

Today we decided to make a rough outline of a storyboard for our short film 'checkout'. We wanted to work out a general outline as to what we wanted to feature on the film. We came up with characters, a plot twist and an ending. This helped us to create a proper storyboard with a lot more detail.

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

This is our Shot list it shows clearly each seperate scene we need to film as well as what we need, who we need and any other sound or sound effects required. The shot list is helpful in organising us and ensuring that we have and film all we need to.

RESEARCH: DIRECTORS LABEL AND CINEMA 16

Directors label is a series of DVD's, which include short film's, music videos and video art. It is a series that combines the works of directors Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze and Michael Gondry and showcases there works.

This is a unique and alternative way from film festivals to commend and show off shorts films. As opposed to film festivals with a DVD an audience is able to watch the film over and over again, and have a physical copy for themselves. This is seen as a better platform for short film directors and proves there work to be of a high standard and quality.

Cinema 16 is another DVD, which director Luke Morris compiled a selection of British, European and American directors work. The DVD sold more than 5,000 copies in the first 12 months showing the huge success and popularity that it had. 

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

The London Short Film Festival (9th-18th January 2015) offers the opportunity to "see the UK's best short films".

Film making is promoted strongly through film festivals with invitation to anyone to submit there own entries of work. There is a summer fundraiser which is backed by social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which helps to raise awareness to ensure that the festival remains running as the websites blog post explains:   

• "LSFF Artistic Director Philip Ilson chats about the forthcoming fundraiser event and looks at how the Festival has managed to survive over twelve years."

 




































Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, is the UK's leading short film and animation festival. It is 
Watershed's annual event which brings together film makers and industry professionals. Over 2,000 films are submitted each year, and the curatorial group selects around 200 to screen in competition during the festival. Funding mostly comes from a wide range of local, national and international sponsors, such as the BFI, The National Lottery Fund, Briston City Council and Media Programme.

This is a great way of getting your work noticed as it is a famous and prestigious film festival. If your work is deemed good enough it can feature on the official website, thus promoting your work to a larger audience. 

RESEARCH: LIFE IN THE DAY RIDLEY SCOTT

As part of our research into the short film genre, we studied Ridley Scott's Life in a Day  
(dir. Kevin McDonald, 2011) from an artistic and institutional point of view.

• This is an excellent example of a crowd sourced film. It is made from a collection of video clips made by the general public from all around the world, on one single day, 24 July 2010. It shows what people do from sunrise to sunset, featuring every aspect of normal life for many different types of people. 

• This film highlights on the trend of consumers as producers. This type of film would not have be able to have been made 10 or so years ago as people did not have the knowledge or the technology to be able to film and contribute there own footage, for a project like this. Film editor Joe Walker said that the film "couldn't have been made without technology. Ten years ago it would've been impossible."
•  For Michael Wesch, this illustrates what he calls "Participatory Culture" as he explains in this video.

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•  This shorts films distribution methods were fairly unconventional as the film was put onto YouTube free of charge for everybody to be able to watch. The film also had conventional P&A film posters on display in order to advertise it to a larger audience.
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This film illustrates convergence, the coming together of a variety of technologies. And it highlights upon the technological advances of the modern day, that the web 2.0 has allowed. Macdonald explained that YouTube "allowed us to tap into a pre-existing community of people around the world and to have a means of distributing information about the film and then receiving people's 'dailies.'
   

RESEARCH:PREZI ON CODES AND CONVENTIONS IN SHORT FILMS

RESEARCH: FINDING INFORMATION FOR MY PREZI

Codes and conventions of short films.

Length: A short film will most commonly last between 3 to 20 minutes, however the length varies greatly and can last as little as a minute and up to 40.

Storyline's: Storyline's are generally kept simple and easy to follow and will be based over a short period of time. The narrative is usually condensed and there will be limited dialogue. Instead characters will be developed through images and actions rather than extended and lengthy dialogue sequences.

Character: Due to the length and simplicity in storyline, a short film will usually introduce between 1 and 3 main characters as creating back stories and developing characters is again limited. This is also done in order to keep the audience engaged and be able to follow the storyline.

Twist: Including a twist is a common convention in short film although this is not a general rule and not all short films will use this format. However, a twist allows the film maker to tell a short story in an interesting way and they are able to do this as the short storyline gives less clues to the ending.


Creativity: Short films tend to be fairly abstract and alternative in order to show off director talent.
The director or film maker are able to use more creative techniques placing their own signature look on the piece as there is less pressure to make a profitable film for a large audience.

Budget: Budgets for short film are usually quite low. Short films are unlikely to make any money which effects the amount spent in the making and they are often made by first time film makers or experimental artists and film makers with no or little funding. This effects the overall look of the film creating a more home made or arty look.

Audience: Short films have a lot smaller and niche audience than mainstream due to the creative nature, length and simple storyline. Although largely accessible, many are not aware of short film. 


Opposition to Mainstream: All of these codes and conventions laregly make short film in opposition to mainstream. They hold a very different format and style to each other and short film will usually try to give audiences a different outlet of film to the mainstream.

RESEARCH: SCOOP IT ON SHORT FILM RESEARCH

 I decided to make a Scoop It in order to display the research I did on short films. The scoop It displays clearly what websites I used for my research as well as a screen grab showing the an interactive website, which allows you to click on it and be taken directly to the website. 

Click Here to see the scoop it 

RESEARCH: THE CRUSH-SHORT FILM

Today in the lesson we watched an award winning short film called "The Crush". 

The Crush is an Irish live action short film. The film's runtime is approximately 15 minutes. It was written and directed by first-timer Michael Creagh, and produced by Damon Quinn. Creagh cast his eight-year-old son Oran in the lead role of the story. The story sees an eight-year-old schoolboy fall in love with his teacher, Miss Purdy. One day he gives her a toy ring to show his affection. But when he bumps into Miss Purdy and her boyfriend having just bought a very real engagement ring he becomes heartbroken and angry. Devastated, Ardal challenges Miss Purdy’s fiancé to a duel to the death. 

The film was awarded Best Irish Short at the 23rd Foyle Film Festival. On 25 January 2011, it was nominated for the Academy award live action short film at the 83rd academy awards. 

The film has several codes and conventions, that are good to take inspiration from. For example, some codes and conventions that can be linked to a western film, could include the shot reverse shot, displaying young Ardal challenging Miss Purdy's boyfriend in a stand off. Also the soundtrack played over the sense is associated to that of a western film, thus making the audience make a connection between this scene and a wild west cowboy stand off. 

Whilst young Ardal is staring at his teacher in awe, the use of slow motion, enhanced colour and a soft, angelic soundtrack, signify to the audience the codes and conventions of a romance theme. Therefore suggesting to the audience that the young boy is in love with his teacher. 

As well the film includes all the main ingredients for any short film, such as enigma, suspense, plot twist and action. By having all of these the film instantly entices its audience and holds them throughout the film without them losing interest.