10 Short films research - Kazumi

1. Bitch
Director: Dom Bridges
Released date: 2009

• continuity editing is used throughout the film to convey realism and to create naturalistic atmosphere in a supermarket.
• the main character seems a very normal person as it could be anyone and allows the viewer to relate to him.
• non-diegetic sound flows to diegetic sound, which becomes a background music in a supermarket. this kind of music is similar to the records. it sounds like a music for western film as well. because the atmosphere of the scenery and the music is so different, it creates mysterious. 
• this film is hybrid. however it might has a combination of comedy, drama and crime.
• the narrative of this film is linear, as the scene begins with a man shopping and ends with the man trapped at cash register. (chronological order)

Todorov's 5 stage:

Equilibrium - when the guy walks around the supermarket

Disruption - when the old lady starts to stare at the guy

Confrontation - when the old lady ask the guy to say 'bye mum' to her

Resolution - when the guy says 'bye mum' to the old lady

New Equilibrium - the guy has to pay for the old lady's grocery

The effect of using Todorov's theory is that it creates confusion to the viewer. If the scene begins with the old lady walking away, then the viewer could guess what happened to the guy. However, because the film begins with the man shopping in the supermarket, the viewer will not know what happens to the guy later on.

Also, because there is no introduction of the old lady (eg. cross cutting), we cannot guess anything about her.

Genre - hybrid (mix of comedy, crime and drama)

Low-key lighting

this shot is close up of the main character. the low key lighting is used to create realism in the supermarket. it seems like the lighting is quite bright in the middle of the frame but the edges are darker compare to the middle the frame. 

Focus pulling

As we can see clearly, the focus is only spotted on the man, surrounding of him is all blurred out. this enhances the main character or stands out the key object/character.

I like the way they combined the dramatic atmosphere with crime. This might be a technique we can use  in our film. We can apply thriller or horror convention to our film and ends with something different.

2. Surprise
Director: Ben Dodd
Released date: 2008 

• this film is linear as the events happen chronologically; the scene starts with man's death in a bathroom and ends with him shaving his bear (before dying). 
• the effect of playing it backward is to give the viewer as same feeling as the dead character's. or to create more mysterious.
• as the title called 'surprise', playing it backward gives the viewer 'surprise'. Even the slomo shows more details of each movement and that gives the viewer a feeling of being a detective. 
• the film is hybrid, as we can't tell what this film categorises. however, this film might be have a combination of thriller and romance.
• this film is in black and white so we guess that this film is suspense. (dark and no saturation)

What I like about this film is that the director did not use any cut, only used single shot. Even the single shot, he twisted his idea of revealing the scene in imaginative way, playing it backward and in slomo.

3. The Ellington Kid
Director: Dan Sully
Released date: 2012

• As the characters in this film are mostly teenagers, the target audience for this film seem to be teenagers or young adult.

• this film is revealed in chronological order as the past events being spoken in present while flashback technique.
• the slight slomo is used in the flashback scene as we can see the each movements clearly. this leaves the enhances on the moves
• by focusing so many times on the knifes gives action code -  the viewer would think that something is going to happen in the kebab shop
• Claude Levi-Strauss's theory might be used in this film; black and white (race), customer and staff, night and morning/afternoon, open and close, etc.

Binary opposition:

morning - night

 

white - black (race)

staff - customer

 open - close

 

I think wherever there is binary opposition in the film, the effects of it is that its strengthened the one of them. For example, by putting the morning scene next to the night scene, the night scene shows extreme struggle between the two. Having both two, the viewer can compare the difference in two. When one of the staffs flips the sign to 'close' and locks the door, there is a meaning of locking the guys out from somebody's disturbance in the shop. 





4. Colour Bleed
Director: Peter Szewczyk
Released date: 2011

• In the first scene, when the main character is spraying the wall, match on action is used to show what the main character is doing. 
• Most of the shots in this scene are close ups, as which is used to enhance the action of the main character. 
• The use of depth of field is used to focus both her hand and her paint. 
• Off screen diegetic sound is used to create that there is a school or a lot of children around the place where she is. 
• it is linear as the events happen chronologically
• Roland Barthes theory can be applied to this film. For example, the action code is used to involve us to the film. We know something is going to happen to the main character, when one of her hands gets darker and darker. 

Example of Action code

This film contains realistic characters and settings. The genre of it is hybrid, as we cannot tell which categories to go in, even it has mix of fantasy and drama.

Low key lighting
the low key lighting is used in this film to create naturalistic atmosphere. the weather of the England is well recreated in this film as we can see the whole sequence looks quite dark and dim. This leaves a feeling of thriller or horror types of film as it is convention of thriller/horror.

Todorov's 5 stages:
1. Equilibrium - When she is spraying the wall

2. Disruption - when the old lady stamps onto her hand

3. Confrontation - when she pulls off her nail

4. Resolution - when its bleeds

5. New Equilibrium - when painted wall appears after her death

Although there are five of different stages in this film, there is same bird appearance in different scenes throughout this film. 

 

In all of above three images, we can see that they are in similar pose and colours. They bring peace and joy. We can tell that the bird is a symbol of peace or happiness because only the bird is coloured but everything else is dark and desaturated. I think Claude Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposition can be applied in this case, saturate and desaturate.

5. Two & Two
Director: Babak Anvari
Released date: 2010



(Narrative)

Todorov's 5 stage:

1. Equilibrium - students chatting in a classroom

2. Disruption - teacher says 2+2=5

3. Confrontation - one of the students correct his answer

4. Resolution - the student gets killed

5. New equilibrium

- other students write down the wrong answer on their notes

6. A Conversation Piece
Director: Joe Tunmer
Released date: 2009

• there are majority of close ups establishing their interior of their house. The first shot focuses on antique clock, then focuses on the other variety of antiques. The clock looks very analog and old. 
• From the lighting, we know the time is set in the morning because the colour looks quite cold and the clock showed eleven o’clock at the beginning. 
• A portrait picture of queen Elizabeth indicates them as English people. 
• The use of sound in this film is very interesting in a way of representation of gender. A high-pitched sound is used when the woman talks, while a low-pitched sound is used for the man’s talking. Everything else is gone silent, as the classic jazz music syncs to their lips and conversation. Although this classic jazz music is found somewhere, the representation of gender throughout is still stereotypical. As female normally has high voice and male has lower, this classic jazz music also fit to that typicality. The high-pitched trumpet sounds more aggressive compare to the low-pitched trumpet sounds calmer. The pace is also different on each ones; the high-pitched one sounds quicker than the low-pitched one. This represents a worries of the woman and calmness on the man. 

7. Lovefield

Director: Mathieu Ratthe
Released date: 2008

 
(Genre)

• We think that this film is horror, suspense or thriller film in the beginning. this is because there are few conventions of particular genre are used in the film. for example, a low-key lighting is used in the first scene, and it's in a field (rural), the viewer starts to worry about quietness and eeriness.
• sound of opening - enigma codes
• female crying & shouting / blood / shaky foot / dirts / sudden silence / blood on knife / blood over male's body - conventional in thriller/horror films
• Also, there is a crow cawing loudly. As everyone knows, crow cawing is usually about a bad sign, we think something is going to happen and starts to worry.
• this film is actually hybrid; it's a combination of thriller/horror and drama.
• lighting changes dramatically after the woman gave a birth - brighter/ambiance/saturate/no shadow
• music - orchestral

Claude Levi-Strauss's Binary Opposition:

dark & bright

serious & happy

old & young

8. Tune for Two
Director: Gunnar Järvstad
Released date: 2011

 
(Genre)

• the scene begins with male's feet dragging on the ground - conventional thriller films.
• use of low key lighting would also fit to the convention of thriller films.
• we think that this film is thriller film because we often see the body dragging when a person is near to death.
• this film is hybrid. it is a combination of comedy and thriller
• the narrative is linear as the events happen in chronological order 
• action code is used in this film when the villain puts his gun to the man's head

we often see this kind of scene in thriller film

Example of Action code

Representation
Both characters seems to be middle aged males. The social class of two is not obvious as their costumes are both similar and we are not able to hear them talking in this film. (they only sing)

Audience
I think the audience for this film is young adult males, as they are more interested in thriller films. I also think that comedy side of the film would appeal to the demographic as well.



9. Mr. Foley
Director: D.A.D.D.Y.
Released date: 2009

• there are both diegetic and non diegetic sound used in this film
• the whole film is about Foley so there are people creating sounds for patient's movements
• target audience for this film is older adults or people in film/media industry, because  people would not know about Foley.
• by not using so many sounds in one moment enhances each movements on the main character
• when the main character runs away, the pace of the sound quickens
• high key lighting is used to create joyful atmosphere
• this film might be categorised as a comedy as there is no other subject that would fit to this film (can be hybrid as well)
• Claude Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposition can be applied to this film, such as patient and nurse/doctor, bright and dark, silence and noise. etc
• this film is not obvious whether its linear or non linear, as the patient dies once and comes back after.

10. Table 7
Director: Marko Slavnic
Released date: 2010

• shot/ reverse shot is used to show the dialogue between a couple's conversation.
• by using cross cutting editing, it gradually reveals what behind them.
• the cigarette for the guy who is listening them create as if he is gangster or bad character.
• the enigma code is used while we seeing the guy writing down the notes of the couple's conversation, we think; who is he? what is he doing? why is he listening to their conversation? etc.
• the tracking shot is used to establish the inside of the restaurant
• lighting is set to low as the atmosphere in the restaurant seems to be formal and quiet, which fit to the restaurant
• the narrative of this film is linear as all the events happens in chronological order.
• lower key lighting is used in the guys office in the underground - conventional setting of suspense or crime
• the audience for this film can be young or middle aged couple as the story is about a couple
• the genre of this film can be romance but can also be hybrid as there are some thriller/suspense or crime film's conventional elements in the film such as low key lighting and setting in underground. etc

Examples of Enigma codes

Research into Short Film - Jarrad

Misstep (Sam Brewster)

Representation of social class:

• Mise en scene – costume. The main character (male) is wearing a suit which looks very neat and professional. This suggests that he is going to work and is doing a “white collar” job. This means that he is most likely middle class.
  
  

• Sound – diegetic sound in the house. The diegetic sound is classical music which is associated with people from a higher class (in this case middle class).

• Setting – expensive taste in furniture. There is also a big television and it is extremely tidy which suggests that they have money and time to make it look good and neat.

• Props – we can see a variety of props in the apartment which suggests that the couple are from a higher class. We can see him pick up a credit/debit card which again shows the audience that he has money. In addition, when he leaves the house there is a magazine named “RICH LIST 2012” which again shows he either is or has an interest in money.
  
  

• The actual setting of the house is in London, possibly in the center of London which is a very expensive area to live in. It shows that they can easily afford something like this meaning they may be from a higher class.

• Dialogue, close up & facial expression – when the man is in the car, his dialogue shows how he feels about people from a lower class. He says: “All they do is spend their day leeching and borrowing while the rest of us work for a living.” This shows the audience that he is from a higher class and he is looking down on those from a lower class.
  
• The director is using these representations to show stereotypes of the social groups. The message that the director is trying to get across is that just because someone is lower than you in terms of social class, doesn't mean they are all bad. The fact that the lower class worker at the train station catches him, shows that everyone needs help, regardless of who it is from.

Narrative

• The narrative of Misstep is non-linear. As the banker is walking down the station platform, he trips or missteps which is followed by a flashback to the morning before. This means that the events of the short film aren't in chronological order therefore making it non linear as the audience needed to know events that had happened beforehand. 

Todorov's 5 stage theory

• We could apply Todorov's 5 stage theory to this short film. The equilibrium is the man walking down the station platform which makes the audience feel as if everything is normal, the disruption is when he trips/missteps which makes the audience feel shocked that they don't know what happens to the man. The confrontation is a little while after when the man is grabbed by the worker at the station which makes the audience feel relieved as the man doesn't get hit by the train. Resolution is also here as it shows that the problem has been resolved and the new equilibrium is the realisation from the man that not all lower class people are bad which makes the audience maybe sympathise for the workers.
  

Audience

• The audience for Misstep is most likely going to be young adults (18-30) who would watch this sort of short film. I originally found it on Virgin Media shorts and it's classed as a thriller film. The reason why the audience for this is most likely young adults, is because a lot of young adults would rather watch a thriller movie over any other genre of movie and because young people tend to use computers (as this is from a website on the internet) more than older people.

Lovefield (Mathieu Ratthe)

• The genre of this film is a hybrid (or hybridity). This means that there is no specific genre for this film, however it's a combination of many main genres. For example, Lovefield is a combination of Horror (conventions used in the film such as the crow and the bloody cloth of the floor) and Drama.

Enigma Codes.

• The narrative of this short film is linear as all the events happen in chronological order and there are no flashbacks or jumps to random parts. It is continuous through the whole short film and makes sense. Roland Barthes theory about narrative can be applied to this short film. For example, enigma codes are used to create mystery within this short film...when we see the bloody/dirty foot, a man's bloody hand, the stabbing of a knife in the ground and the scream of a woman, we don't know what is really going on, possibly the idea that a woman has just been murdered or hurt.
  
• Claude Levi-Strauss' binary oppositions on narrative can also be applied to this short film. For example, the use of dark lighting at the beginning of the film is opposite to the light at the end. Light = good vs. Dark = evil.

  

  Binary Oppositions.

  
  
• There is no specific representation in this short film, but there are a few stereotypes within the short film. For example, the man is seen as the antagonist (enemy/bad guy) and the woman is seen as the defenseless protagonist. However, this short film seems to challenge the stereotypes by actually making it turn out that the man isn't the antagonist and the woman isn't the defenseless protagonist.

  

  Challenging stereotypes.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The audience for this short film is most likely going to be younger adults. As young adults have an interest in horror films, they will very much enjoy this. However, they might not get what they bargained for when they realise it isn't just a horror film but a drama as well. It also may be appealing to young adults as it is from YouTube. Since many young adults use YouTube, there is a higher chance of them finding this short film.

Bitch (Dom Bridges)

• The genre of Bitch by Dom Bridges is also a hybrid. There is no specific genre however it is a mix of Comedy and Crime. I think the audience forget however that this is partly crime because of the comedy behind it.
  
• Todorov's 5 stage theory can be applied to this short film. For example, (1) the equilibrium is the man walking around the supermarket which makes the audience feel as everything is normal, (2) the disruption is when the woman approaches the man and stares at him which makes the audience feel uncomfortable as it is breaking normality, (3) the confrontation is when the woman speaks to the man and asks him to say "bye mum" which makes the audience a bit confused but it is quite funny, (4) the resolution is when the man actually says "bye mum" which makes the audience feel as if the man did the right thing, (5) and the new equilibrium is when the man has to pay for the woman's shopping which makes the audience feel bad for the man but it's also funny. There isn't closure because we don't know whether he actually pays for the woman's shopping or not.
  
  
  
• The narrative of Bitch is linear as all of the events happen in chronological order. For example, there aren't any jump cuts or flashbacks so the audience know what is happening from the beginning to the end.
  
• The audience for this short film would probably be young adults, mostly male since it's in the comedy/crime genre. In addition, it is most likely to also be young adults because they have access to YouTube on their computers and phones.

Spring Clean (thebakery)

• The genre of Spring Clean is comedy. This is obvious because of the conventions within the short film. For example, when the man spills jam on his tie and goes to clean it off, it disappears. He makes a list of all the other things he wants to disappear and at the end they all end up to be in his basement.
• Todorov's 5 stage theory can be applied to this. (1) The equilibrium is the man living his daily life which makes the audience feel like everything is normal, (2) The disruption is when the man makes his tie disappear with the bottle of spray which makes the audience confused as to why his tie has disappeared, (3) The confrontation is when the man realises what he can do with this spray (get rid of anything he wanted) which makes the audience feel as if he is going to do some funny stuff, (4) The resolution is when he goes out and makes all the things he doesn't like disappear which makes the audience feel involved/relatable as most of the things that he gets rid of, not many people like and (5) The new equilibrium is when the man realises all of the disappeared objects are in his basement which makes the audience feel humored as the disappeared objects shouldn't be there.
• The narrative of Spring Clean is also linear as all of the events happen in chronological order. There aren't any flash backs or jump cuts to random events/scenes that happen.
• The audience for Spring Clean is most likely young adults, mostly male. This is because most younger men have a big interest in comedy films such as: Ted or The Hangover.

Homey (keepittidy)

• The genre of Homey is action/adventure. As the audience we can tell this through conventions used in the short film. These include things such as the music that plays while the boy is running down the playground, the effect of slow motion as the boy is running and the close up shot of the boys hand as he touches the fence.
• Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale can kind of be applied to this short film. The hero is the boy running, the villain or in this case villains are the other children trying to get him, dispatcher could possibly be the other boy who nods his head to the boy running and the helper could be the girl who screams which distracts the villains so the boy can run. However, some other characters such as the donor, the false hero, the princess and her father are missing from this.
• The audience for this short film is hard to identify as most action films target the young male adult category, however because this involves children, it may appear to other children as they may face similar situations in their lives at school or elsewhere.

Summary of Genre - Jarrad

GENRE

What is genre?

Genre in media is usually referred to as a category or a "type" of certain media products e.g. film, TV shows, music, magazines and video-games. There are many different genres in films which are made up by a variety of codes and conventions. As we are the audience we can tell from the codes and conventions in a film, what genre it is which is important as we might want to watch a specific film. Some genres include: Comedy, Horror, Thriller, Romance, Western, Drama and many more. 

 Theorists

Steve Neal - Steve Neal believes that genres are repeated often but are always very similar. He believes that without differentiation within genres, there would be no audience as it wouldn't attract anyone.

David Buckingham - David Buckingham believes that genres are not specifically created the same due to culture, but they are always changing and coming up with new ideas to create a differentiation within genres.

Media Language - Kazumi

Media Language
This refers to the 'tools' used by any text to communicate meaning. Each media text is a collection of signs, codes and conventions that communicate meaning and generate response for the consumer.

Key terms:

Technical codes

• camera work
• mise en scene
• editing
• sound

Conventions

Narrative conventions


Theorists:

• Barthes (action/enigma codes)
• Todorov (classic narrative structures)
• Bordwell and Thompson (plot/story; continuity devices)
• Altman (syntactical and semantic codes in genres)

Narrative - Kazumi

Narrative
Definition: The order of story material, and may be chronological or non-chronological. 

Narrative structures

• Linear structure - (chronological) with closure
• Linear structure - without closure  ex. Harry Potter. Avengers
• Non-linear structure - (non chronological)   ex. Pulp Fiction
• Multi strand - no closure/several narratives  ex. Inception. Momento
• Circular - non linear narrative (the film begins with the end of the story, and takes us on a journey to the same point of view)

Key terms:

• 'Narration' is the telling of a story, through a combination of audio and visual techniques.(by camera or voice over)

• Restricted narration - raises question. limited view of events.

• Unrestricted narration - we see everything

• Diegesis - 'narrative world'. the fiction world experienced by characters.

Narrative theorists:

• Tzvetan Todorov - classic narrative and story structure
• Vladimir Propp - the morphology of the Folk Tale
• Chris Vogler - The Hero's Journey
• Roland Barthes - Enigma and Action codes
• Claude Levi-Strauss - Binary oppositions
• Bordwell and Thompson - Plot and story

Todorov's 5 stages:

1. Equilibrium - when everything's normal
2. Disruption - when equilibrium is disturbed
3. Confrontation - recognition of the disruption and attempts to deal with it
4. Resolutiion - disrution and problems resolved
5. New Equilibrium - a new 'normality' made different from old by events in stages 2 & 3

Propp's character theory:

Hero - who seeks something

Villain - who opposes or blocks the hero's quest

Donor - who provides an object that has some 'magic' property

Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her way by providing a 'message'

False Hero - who disrupts the hero's hope of reward by pretending to be the hero

Helper - who helps the hero

Princess - who is the reward for the hero's hope and the object of the villain's scheming

Her father - who rewards the hero for his efforts