Deconstructing shortfilms-2

I believed the videos that i deconstructed earlier were to amateur. i therefore selected few other short films and deconstructed them.

The first film i selected is:
               http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/3196/boys

CONCEPT:The Short film 'BOYS' is based on the relationship of a boy with his mother and the rest of the family and how with time you learn the true value of things that you previously take for granted.
This short film falls under the genre of Drama. It touches reality based issues. The conventions of this genre are very prominently found in this short film as well such as characters are totally reality based,
it deals with a lot of human emotions etc.

NARRATIVE: The story line revolves around 3 main characters. The film is about a boy who does not treat her mother well, fights with her all the time and abuses her. his grand father tells him his story and how his life changed after his mother passed away, making him realize his mistake and what importance these relationships hold in life.

POINT OF VIEW: This short film gives a first person point of view where the grandfather tells his story about his mother.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The film uses different types of shots,movements and angles that help us in understanding the concept.
eg:

This shot is a close-up of the boy. This shot has great impact. It shows the emotions of the young boy and how he responded to what his grand father told him. This shot was necessary for us(the audience)

to see that all what the grand father said actually effected him.

Similarly,

This shot is a long shot of the grand father. This image not only shows the surrounding but also the body language of the character that not only help us in establishing the character but also gives an overall of what the character is upto through his body language.

The following is a point of view shot:

This shot gives a perspective. At the denotative level, we see only see the old man looking out at his children but at Connotative level we see the emotions of the old man. How happy he is to see his grand child realizing his mistakes.

The lights used throughout the film is very soft and natural. Minimal artificial sources of lights have been used which overall give a very realistic feel to the film.

Main props that help build the story basically are the tablets the old man takes. These props indicate that the old man has health issues,which later lead to his death.

Throughout the film,digetic sound is been used however, towards the end of the movie non digetic sound is being used.

REPRESENTATION:The movie represents boys- genreally their psyche and their attitude and on the other hand it also represents old age.

The film ends with a scene where the old man meets his mother. At the denotation level we just see the son meeting her mother but at the connotation level it would mean that the old man is dead.

Continuity shots and editing techniques

Continuity shot refers to arranging the sequence of shots to suggest a progression of events.the common type of shots that we studied under this category included the 180 degree shot, L-cut, shot reverse shot, eye line match, buffer shot and match on action.

Understanding these shots seemed a bit difficult to me in the start however later,through practice i did understand the usage of these shots and what meaning is created through using these shots.

• According to what we learnt, 180 degree shot is one in which the camera is placed at a 180 degree on the same axis to record 2 people. To what i understand the basic reason behind using this shot is to keep audience orientated. Eg the following scenes taken from 'The Vow' Can help illustrate this concept.

       

• transitions shots are those shots that transit one scene to a totally different scene. EG

in this scene the couple is going in a car which later transforms into the scene where we see the actor laying on the hospital bed.

• similarly, L-cut is another type of continuity shot where the director deliberately di-synchronizes 2 shots to attract audience attention to what is being spoken rather than what is being showed.
• shot reverse shot is similar to a 180 degree shot where the camera is continuously shifting from one person to the other (eg in an converstaion) to get the action and then the reaction.
• eye-line match occurs whereby the first shot establishes a character's position while the following shot establishes the character's action.
• buffer shot is a post production shot. Basically it functions as a shot that is added to cover up for mistakes made in the film.
• match on action shot is the one that is used to complete an action.

·         Fast cutting is an editing technique that fastens the shot to show hyperactivity

• Slow cutting is the opposite of fast cutting where one  scene is longer than 15 seconds. eg

•    

Lights.

Lights have an important role to play in video-graphy. There are certain effects that can be created throuh lights. On our trip to the sets of Syed Noor, we were shown the different types of lights normally used in Pakistan.

The key lights used in Lollywood

The most common forms of lights used in Pakistani film industry is the key and the background light. it was very helpful studying the lights used in Pakistani film Industry and then comparing it to those used in Hollywood.
The scene i selected for studying lights is from the movie 'INSIDIOUS'
Its a very basic scene in which they are bringing Delton back.

The first scene uses a general low key lighting in the background.This means that the light used is soft in nature and is not adequate enough creating shadows.The main subject is not clearly lightened up.

Similarly, the lights used in this shot is called the back light. The main source of light is at the back and it gives an outline to the characters.

This scene has both key and fill light. Key light refers to the main light which falls on the character directly. The Fill Light softens and extends the illumination provided by the key light, and makes more of the subject visible

De-constructing shortfilms-1

I learnt somewhere that the basic ideology behind de-constructing any short film or music video is basically to expose the story line of the media product, to expose the technical aspects and lastly to expose the com-positional elements.

The assignment given to us was to select any 6 short films of our choice and then DE-construct them. The short films that i chose were submitted to me for a school competition. these are made by A-level students of different schools. The reason behind choosing these videos was very simple. I believe that De-constructing their work would give me better understanding. We stand on the same level and De-constructing their work would eventually help me with my media project.

1. CONCEPT: This first film that i selected is of a boy who lost his eyes during a fight in his school. One of his school fellow,envy of him, throws some solution into his eyes making him blind for life. the film shows how this boy deals with the obstacles he faces. This movie falls under the genre of tragic-drama as this movie deals with realistic characters and with emotional themes.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The overall cinematography was average. They followed some of the conventions that fall under this genre. Attention has been paid to the rules of composition such as the head room,rule of thirds etc however the camera movement was too jerky.

They started with a very commonly used establishing shot which is also called as a long/vista shot.The camera then pans to the main character.

First picture is the establishing shot.                        This is the shot where the character is established.

In these shots we can see that natural day light is being used giving a fresh feel.

Similarly, other stationary shots include the zoom in and zoom out and also panning which has been used several times throughout the movie.

FOR EXAMPLE:

 

                                                                                                              zoom in of the hand.

Zoom in/out was very necessary in this scene to show the emotions of the character. 

Similar lighting is being used.Location is the same. The only addition is of the props

A prop is the term we give to objects in the setting which play a part in the action, rather than just being part of the background, for example, a glass containing some poisoned wine. Props establish the character.

As we see in these pictures. The basic props used are the brush, color pallet, board an glasses. All these props are supporting the character.

We can judge from this scene that the main character is either an artist or enjoys to paint. The glasses(along with the expression on his face) also denotes that the boy is blind.

Similarly colors and light have an important role to play to. The following shot was done in black and white.

Though verbally we are not told that this shot shows some past time but through the black and white effect we can deduce that they are talking in retrospect.

  

This video also have some continuity shots mainly match on action and shot reverse shot.

                        

In the first picture we see that  boy1 is hitting boy2. Picture 2 shows boy2 being hit. This is referred to as match on action. The scene in one shot is being completed in shot (as shown above)


Similarly the next pictures show shot reverse shot:

      They have also used different types of shots i.e Long shot, medium shot and closeups.

Mid shot

Long shot

Close up

Very minimal dialogues have been used and the character is associating with the audience through the background music that is very melo-dramatic.
Throughout the movie, representation of blind people is very prominent. The problems such people have to deal with.

SEMIOTICS:  (commonly known as the study of signs)signs are made up of two sums:
THE SIGNIFIER(physical object)  and  THE SIGNIFIED (the mental concept)and semiotics work on two distinct level- Denotation and Connotation.
The film has been supported by signs through out that helped us understand the concept. Eg The painting that  the young boy makes of a horse can be referred to as  the denotation. where as the connotation suggests that the painting shows frustration and misery.

Audience surveys

Having audience feedback is very vital if you want your product to be successful as they are the one we make our products for. They can suggest improvements and give their personal preference which would eventually result in a better product.
For this purpose my partner and I carried out a questionnaire.Here are the screen shots of the questionnaire.

Identifing genre

THE GENRE I HAVE SELECTED FOR MY SHORT FILM IS 'DRAMA'

As discussed earlier, drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. these themes basically involve child abuse,poverty, sexual abuse,moral dilemas,corruption, society and much more.

So basically drama films are usually based on real life examples and represents common man in one way or another.
Like many other genres, drama is also sub-categorized into genres like social drama, romantic-drama,psycho-drama,melo-drama,docu-drama etc. 

My movie would be based on social drama.This basically is a dramatic treatment of social issues that very powerfully connects audience emotions with real life situations.Such films are not only meant for entertainment but also use creative methods to reinforce and portray a message to the audience.

This genre includes films like 'The dead man walking','Black Friday' and 'This is England'

I have identified my genre as a Social Drama as it is takes a very social approach of how one fights against the status quo. How he challenges the authorities and what consequence he then has to face. This is one genre that i believe we all can relate to as it deals with the real issues and that was the main reason i went with this genre.

The main conventions of a social drama according to me is a dramatic narrative.All movies of this genre has representation of either a social group, a specific gender or  a specific system.

In my short film I would be using realistic characters,representing those who oppose dictatorship.  

Genre Study

(Research by: Riffah Munir and Zainab Zahid)
It is true that identifying genre's helps establishing your audience. Genre may be defined as category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter. Genre usually classifies the different codes and conventions and the iconography associated with different themes that make up what we call 'GENRE'.

Though there are many different genres in Film making however the ones i really like include Romantic films, Comedy, Action,Horror and drama.

Romantic:

According to my understanding, Romance films are those that revolve around two main characters that share an emotional bond. This genre aims to provoke strong emotional feelings amongst the audience. These movies may not specifically be about love at first sight but also forbidden love,love triangles and sacrificial love. For example, Titanic, twilight,Vow are famous films that are counted under this category.

 

The first picture is a poster of the famous film 'Titanic',second is the poster of 'Twilight' and the third picture is also a poster of the film 'The Vow.

All the three films are considered to be of the romantic genre as the three follow the code and conventions that have already been recognized for romantic films.This would include innocent expressions,love chemistry between the two characters, helplessness,tragedy, happiness and some drama.

Following are some screen shots from the movie titanic that depict the above mentioned codes of a romantic film:

 This screen shot from titanic shows the chemistry and emotional bond that is shared by the main characters. This is an important element of the romantic films.

Similarly this screen shot shows the emotion of happiness.

This picture depicts the feeling of sadness.

Similarly when it comes to Iconography, the lead actresses wear flowy and colorful clothes. High key lighting is used to show happy moments in a scene whereas low key lighting maybe used to show sadness and gloominess in a scene.  

Similarly, flowers, wedding rings are common props used in this genre.

Comedy:

Comedy is a genre that uses humor,fun,laughter as a driving force.The basic aim is to provide entertainment to the audience in the form of lighthearted stories and funny characters. Comedy genre comes in two formats:Comedian led comedy or situational comedy and can further be sub categorized as romantic-comedy, thriller-comedy etc.
Famous films of this genre include Ted, thats my boy and a thousand words.

         

The three above mentioned films are all situational based.

Action:
After watching Inception, the dark knight rises i deduced that the typical conventions of an action based movie would include the following elements:
weapons,fights,missions & motives,hi-tech,massive destruction, femme fatale.
Action movies are not realistic.The cast would always include the main protagonist(main character) and several helpers.The locations used are also such that are very challenging and worsen the conditions for the hero.
Few action movies such as batman, superman have super heroic characters   

 

Horror:
Films like Insidious and Paranormal are part of this genre. Each film has some common element of violence and fear and some sort of super natural existence such as demons etc.

The pictures above show the existence of super naturals.
Cinematography plays a very important role in this genre. Very expressive camera angles are used and POV shots are very prominent to create the desired effect.both digetic and non digetic sounds are used.
such films are set in small communities or isolated places.

High usage of dark colours like black, red blue is prominent in all movies of this genre.

Drama:
According to Wikipedia  A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. 

Grammar filmfest

            Though not directly related to our course work, yet this film making competition held in LGS JT helped us alot. It not only taught us camera handling techniques but also gave us a first hand experience on video editing. It was a good learning experience and gave us a better understanding on how to use editing software's  the cinematography, managing time and most importantly team work.We participated in the music video category and managed to secure the first position.                                                                                                

our video was based on ones relationship with God. how he knows the different identities of the world and how negates each one of them.

the video:

(BULLAH KE JAANA)

                                                       the team receiving the trophy