Synopisis

Our final film idea is about a girl who is put in a coma after being in a car accident with a boy who she chooses to go with at a bar, whilst her old friend (Ben) keeps ringing her, expressing his feelings for her. After the accident the girl cannot remember anything, until she looks back at her laptop and her phone and listening to the voice mail from Ben. Then realizing her feelings for Ben. Ending with the first scene again, so the film is looking back like a flashback. Using one of our main factors time, and the life support machine used for the girl in her comma used as the technology.

Short Film Ideas.

For our short film idea, we thought of doing a type of  'Chick flick', this was because it is the genre which me and the people in my group enjoy the most. Our ideas so far are to do about a 'nerdy' boy who likes a girl and another boy who also likes the same girl. The girl as to choose between 'nerdy boy or the other boy. However when she has to choose the boy she likes dies. This is just a rough idea we have not come up with the exact story but we know the basic idea of the story. Therefore we need to plan our idea abit more.

Audience Research

These are the questions I asked my class about films/short films:


Which genre of films do you prefer?
Horror
Rom Com
Comedy
Action
Other

What makes a good short film?
Content
Making of film
Props
Other

Where do you mostly watch films?
Cinemas
DVDs
Internet
Television
Other

Do you prefer longer short films, or 2/3minute ones?
Longer
Shorter
Other

This is the answers to my research:

Reviews

The film I have chosen is PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2.

On Rotten Tomatoes it got a 62% liking rate and most people who commented it were late teens and above due to the film being a 15. Most people were saying that the film was effectively creepy however some said it did not lead anywhere.
 (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paranormal_activity_2/)

 On IMDB got a 6.3/10 rating and the people who liked it were again older as the age limit on the film, however on this site people who did not like the first paranormal activity did not liked the second and people who liked the first one were dissapointed with the second film.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536044/)

On the Empire reviews it got a 5* rating, again the people commenting are again older, and people's reviews were very mixed some loved it while others thought it was a waste of money. (http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136856)

Storyboard

storyboard for a short film from abigail bell on Vimeo.

This is a video of a story board we created, when we were playing around with ideas and linking it Spike Jonze 'I'm Here'.

Mise en Scene

 We used the purple filter first and tried to get the effect if evil with the blood on the background and the axe to the head.

 We then used the light close, which also gives the horror effect as facial features are disfigured making it almost creepy.

 The green filter worked best I thought, gives the feel of a monster or horror, especially with the background of blood and the face positioned down, gives the feel of vulnerability.

Mise En Scene

Viral Marketing Strategies.

Films like the 'Dark Knight' the Batman film, got the audiences involved and made a big build up months before the film was brought out.

Before the film came out the producers of the film made campaigns which included fake election posters, creating a real world of Gotham City.

Websites were made for the campaign, and people voted on these sites. (http://www.whysoserious.com/)

The producers made this to make a larger impact on the film for when it was brought out. It created a wider audience for the film and made it for well known for when the film was actually released.

Other films that made the audience make the film was 'real' were Cloverfield, District 9 and The Blair Witch Project.

Across the hall

THEATRICAL FILM

Across The Hall Feature Film Trailer from Gary Gimelfarb on Vimeo.

SHORT FILM

Across the Hall (Short Film) Trailer from Gary Gimelfarb on Vimeo.

For me, the theatrical trailer is more complex and has too much of the typical 'Hollywood' mimics to understand what the film is about. It has the uneasy music which builds up tension and anticipation for the film. Also it has cross-cutting, flashing from clip to clip which also builds tension, and an atmosphere for the film. On the other hand, the short trailer version was easier to grasp the story line, and understand what the film was about in my opinion. It doesn't have the big Hollywood effects as the other did and in my opinion does not need them as I prefer this trailer. Looking at these helps me see how I will prefer to make my trailer for my short film when it comes to it and also gives me an idea with what will look good and effective and what would not.

Narrative

POSTER

This is my poster for the short film I'M HERE by Spike Jonze. We made our own poster up for practice as we will be making our own poster eventually for our short film when we make it.

Above is the original poster for the film I'm here is the poster on the left, I used this to base my idea for my poster.

Short Films

http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/

This website is for the film festivals where people send their short films to. People can watch the films and specially make short films to try and win these film festivals. People from all over send their films in to these festivals, the festivals can help them be recognized and could potentially help them make a career out of film making. Therefore these festivals can mean a great deal to some people.

Why are they good for directors?

They are good for directors due to the fact that they can see in a small clip if someone is a good film maker and see what they can produce and see if the people who make the short films are any good to them. In addition a few people after making short films have gone on to doing bigger things such as these directors of these short films:

I'm Here, the director is called Spike Jonze and  has gone on to film making such as Where the Wild things are, also has gone on to music videos and also a producer of the television programme Jackass on MTV. And currently a director of VBStv.

George Lucas in Love, the director is called Joe Nussbaum, who has gone on to direct films such as American Pie - the naked mile, Sleepover and Sydney White. He also won Official Star Wars Fan Films in 2004. 

Across the Hall, this director is called Alex Merkin, who has gone on to make more films and make his short film in to a full film. Which includes some well known actors such as Brittany Murphy.

 
 Across the Hall (Short Film) Trailer from Gary Gimelfarb on Vimeo.
 

Above is the short film trailer for 'Across the Hall'.

 
 
Across The Hall Feature Film Trailer from Gary Gimelfarb on Vimeo.
 

Above is the featured length film trailer version of 'Across the Hall'

In the short film version I think the general story is more easy to follow. Also it has less effects to it so therefore it shows you just the film. Whereas the featured length version had the token Hollywood narrator and the camera effects. In addition it had the music which made you nervous to what is going to happen next. Also it is longer than the short film version however I find it harder to understand the storyline from the longer version rather than the shorter.

Short Films

Here are some short films:

This short film is called I'm Here and is made by Spike Jonze. This is a longer short film as it is 30minutes. I like this film because of they way he has put it together using computer graphics and also using the mixture of people and robots. The films about two robots who like each other and the male robot keeps giving the female robot parts of his body to keep her 'alive'. Even though it is a 'short film', it still tells a story and this is another reason I like the film.

(the film is in three parts however this is just part 1)

This film is called Roni Size Brown Paper Bag. I like this short film because instead on normal dialogue the story is a song, which makes it different to normal short films which is why it is good. In addition I like the camera effects used for example the rewinding and then re-playing it again.

The final short film I'm going to show is Mars, this film is about a girl who is a leader of a gang and gives her self a 'cool' image by being mean to class mates however she makes friends with another girl who is not so popular which makes the other girls repuation down. The film is in subtitles as it is in another language.

(the film is is two parts, this is part 1)

Introduction

This is an introduction to my A2 coursework work. In my coursework I will be making a short film which will be five minutes long with some other pupils from within my media class at college. We will be planning and looking in to how to make a good short film by looking in to different genres and audiences and also developing our own ideas to make which hopefully be a good short film. In addition I will make two ancillary tasks on my own.

Genre

Why is genre an important factor of filmmaking?

Genre is the classification of media texts into groups which have similar characteristics. Genre is an important aspect of filmmaking due to the fact that different genre's will appeal to different audiences, therefore depending on what audience a filmmaker is targeting will more than likely depend on the choice of genre. For example, the film 'Superbad', has the genre of a comedy, therefore this would be important to a filmmaker as they will have made the film to make the audience laugh at the film, so the filmmaker will have focused on this genre purposely. In addition, the genre of a film would also be important because if people see the trailer of the film and it is a popular genre such as horror or a thriller, people will be more interested to see the film. Consequently, when filmmakers are doing research before making a film, genre will be a main focus as they need to see which genre will appeal most and see how the audiences differ due to this. Also, if the filmmaker has identified what genre their film will be, they need to add the typical conventions to make the genre recognisable, for example, a gangster film would have some of the following: car chases, guns, villains, heroes and villains etc. Therefore I believe the genre is very important when making a film, as you need to know what category your film would fall under and how it could affect your film or audience.

Hybrid Genres

Hybrid genres are films with more than one genre. For example, the film 'Kill Bill', has elements of an action, thriller and a Western genre making it a hybrid genre. Filmmakers do this to make the film more exciting and more appealing to different audiences, and try to keep the audiences entertained and make it different from your typical one genre film.