Short Film Research

We have watched many different short films preparing us to make our own in the coming year.
One of the films that we have watched is "Get Off My Land" by Douglas Ray,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00gs4yj
Only 4 minutes long this film still has quite an impact, it follows a young couple walking in the countryside one of which doesn't want to do so. The male character, obviously a city boy, isn't used to such muddy conditions whereas his female counterpart seems at home in the English countryside. When stopped for walking across private land the man, maybe trying to impress his girlfriend, begins having an argument with the farmer. When he tries to fight the farmer possibly to prove his "manhood" he believes he has won this round looking all to pleased with himself as the farmer walks away although his girlfriend is looking less than impressed by his supposed win over the upper classes. However, when the farmer returns with a shot gun his attitude and "hard man" persona soon disappears. This short is effective as you don't expect the farmer to actually shoot them for walking on his land, although this may be there stereotypical view of a farmer defending his property in some areas of the country. The directer of this short uses camera shots effectively in this piece, when the farmer shoots both the man and women you don't actually see the bullet hit them. When the man dies it is a long shot, you hear the gun go off and then see him fall to the ground. As for when the woman is shot you hear the shot go off and see a tree line with birds flying off at the sound. The final shot of the film concludes the film nicely with the farmer walking to his Jeep with two dead bodies on the ground and coming to the realisation that it was in fact a public footpath and he was in the wrong, however, this does not fase him in the slightest. This is a good short film, as even though two people get shot it is essentially a comedy, not in the typical laugh out loud sense but there is a sense of irony.

 

 

Another short film that I have watched whilst researching short films is the 2010 Oscar winning short film "The Crush". This film is about a young boy who falls in love with his teacher only to find out that she is engaged. Upon finding this out he challenges him to a duel for her affections.

 



Ancilliary Task Research - Movie Poster

Movie Poster are known as key art. Most films posters have; where it is - if it is selected cinemas or released nationwide, what it is and who is in it.
One of the most famous film poster designers is Bill Gold who designed the iconic "Casablanca" poster.

Some film posters are known as "star vehicles" they are just used to promote who is in the film rather what the film is about.

Before much is known about a film, teaser posters are released to peak the audience's interest in the film. For example there were a number of teaser posters released for the film "The Dark Knight"

Although the film is primarily based on Batman, the Joker plays a vital role in the film and this is seen in the posters. 3 of these teaser posters have references to the Joker. The first poster on the left shows a picture of Batman but he is made up of Joker cards and has a red smile painted on his face. There are also quotes from the Joker written over Batman's face. The second of the teaser posters shows a wall with the bat symbol but the way in which it looks like the Joker's smile. The third teaser poster which represents the Joker is the poster on the right, which has a photo of the late Health Ledger. Of all the teaser posters this is the only one where there is a photo of one of the main characters as the focal point of the poster. The final teaser poster the only teaser which doesn't show the Joker's character in any form.

Foley Sound

At the end of last year we did a workshop on Foley sound, this would help with our short film as we don't necessarily have to film the sound at the same time as recording the images.
Below is our final film

Photoshop Workshop

We have been doing a Photoshop workshop recently, James has come in to teach us how to use Adobe Photoshop.
In our first session we got a vegetable and a picture of an animal's eye then combined them. We then put it onto a background. I choose to do a mushroom on a background of a forest scape, as seen below. I then named my mushroom Fuggle so we added another element to the photo.

Below is my poster of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World"

 

 Here is my poster for "Adventureland"

This is the magazine cover that I edited for an article about "The Amazing Spiderman"