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.