A short film is any film that can be a featurefilm but has to be forty minutes or less inlcuding the credits. They can be professional or amateur productions. They often made by independent film makers, are non profit with low or no budget. They rarely have a large budget. The money they get are often awarded by the government, a non profit organisation, sponsor or even out of their own pocket. These films are often created to prove a film makers talent to gain support, inlcuding financial, for future productions.
Longer films were rare before the 1920's and this was the most popular period for short/feature films.
Thriller film codes and convention
A thriller is a film which follows specific devices in order to build a certain effect. In thriller films the narrative will often centre around a crime that has or will take place, for example the film Taken starring Liam Neeson, or the film From Hell starring Johnny Depp. They try to have a lot of action to 'thrill' the audience. They are often set in ordinary situations where something unordinary occurs. They almost always have a protagonist and an antagonist to which the narrative centres around. One major feature of the thriller genre is dramatic irony is always used. the audience know what is going to happen or are aware of what some of the characters are not. These are all conventions of the thriller genre.
Short film ideas
When brainstorming ideas for our thriller short film we came up with some really abstract ideas. However we decided to go with the Jane the Ripper idea as we knew we would be able to extensively research the hostory of Jack the Ripper to help us create a modern tale to an old myth.
Jack the ripper background research
The influx of Irish immigrants to the Whitechapel area at the time led to overcrowding and poverty. This poverty drove many women in to prostitution.
Jack the ripper got his name due to the serial killings committed in the impoverished area of Whitechapel in 1888. It is said that at least five or six killings have been linked to Jack the ripper however there could be many more.
Attacks supposedly carried out by the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to suggestions that he or she was a doctor or butcher, based on the evidence of weapons and the mutilations that occurred
Get off my land short film
Get off my land analysis
The short film, Get off my land, genre is comedy. This is demonstrated through dialogue and narrative. For example when the farmer shoots the two people for being on “his land” when in fact they are on a public footpath.
The first thing the audience hears is the diegetic sound of birds chirping. Ironically this is also the last sounds the audience hear during the credits. This is ironic as the peaceful sound allows the audience to feel that order has been restored such as in Todorov’s theory, even though two people have just been killed.
The first shot that is seen by the audience is a low angle of a character’s shoes. The audience can immediately recognise that this character is out of place as they are in a muddy field knee deep in mud. This is one of the techniques that demonstrates to the audience the genre of comedy.
During this short film it becomes apparent that a hand held camera is used to catch the action. In one shot it looks as if the camera is moving with the wind. These sharp camera movements builds tension for the audience, hinting something is going to happen.
A fade out in to the opening credits, is used of two characters walking in the field which could also be seen as another establishing shot as it gives a little more away to the audience of the setting where the action is going to take place.
The first piece of dialogue that is spoken, the audience cannot see the character’s face. The reason for this could be to create humour as the audience can only see his actions and the emotions of his companion.
Throughout the clip there of five sighs by the characters to create humour at the character’s annoyance. A mid shot of the female character at this point reinforces to the audience the tension between the two characters which the audience could find humorous due to each other’s reactions.
Shot reverse shot is used to show the conversation between the two companions and the famer. The editing increases in pace to make a short take. This builds tensions for the audience creating a sub genre of thriller. An over the shoulder shot is also used to show the farmer walking away in the background and demonstrates something significant is going to happen due to the farmer walk9ng away. A tilt downwards is then used to show the audience the gun. This shows that it is a significant object that builds tension by knowing what could happen next.
In the setting on the farm natural light beaming strong from the sun is present, to create verisimilitude the character’s squint to see. Special effects/ make up is used by blood being splattered on one of the characters face, as another shock factor to the audience, it adds to the sub genre of horror by adding some gore.
More mise-en-scene is the costume that the farmer wears. The green coat, wellington boots and the famer’s hat. This is another technique that created verisimilitude for the audience to identify with.
The sound effect of a gunshot is used to supply the audience with a sense of realism. Even though the audience do not see the second gunshot happen the narrative of what has happened is still clear, this adds to the shock.
At the end it is clear that this short film follows Todorov’s theory of equilibrium turning to chaos, before returning back to equilibrium, the birds chirping at the beginning and again at the end during the credits reinforces the genre of dark, ironical comedy.
It also supports Vladimir Propp’s theory of their being a hero, a villain and a heroin. The villain being the farmer, the heroine being the female character trying to calm the situation and lastly the male character attempting to be a hero but instead comes across more comical.
Telling Mark short film
Telling Mark analysis
Telling mark is another short film with the genre of drama. This short film follows conventions of short films. It only has one setting which is the same flat.
Levi Strauss’ idea of binary oppositions can be applied to the first shot of a man and a woman both in the kitchen cooking. This is binary opposition as it is the opposite to what the audience would expect as traditional of the man also being in the kitchen.
A sound bridge of a telephone ringing is used from the title sequence through to the next scene of action. This creates tension for when the instrumental music starts which builds even more tension leading the audience to believe the main action is going to take place soon.
When the three characters are standing in the lift they are in the shape of triangle. This represents the triangle of power between them. The female is standing at the tip of the triangle showing the audience that she holds the most power. This is also represented to the audience through her dialogue which is spoken in a strong tone. The character also takes charge of the conversation.
In the short film special effects are used in the form of sepia colouring. This makes the audience feel like they are looking at CCTV. This has the effect of verisimilitude as it makes the scene look more real.
Props are used in the short film to also create verisimilitude for example cigarettes. The costumes that the characters wear are smart evening gowns or suits so match the setting of the dinner and it also adds to the drama.
However it doesn’t follow Todorov’s sequence of equilibrium as it doesn’t start off as being equilibrium, turning in to conflict then being resolved and returning in to equilibrium. There is a sort of parallel where this does happen, everything is fine with friends visiting for dinner, then there is conflict of people not turning up and an argument and then everything retuning to normal when the main male character is told the truth. However this isn’t the case as for the character everything has not been resolved as it is revealed that his wife died and he has been in denial. Therefore it is a cruel twist and not a convention of Todorov’s theory.
Love does grown on trees short film
Love does grow on trees analysis
Love does grow on trees is a comedy about a young boy experiencing adventures as he is growing up. This immediately pulls in a male orientated audience as they can easily relate to the story of what the young boy is going through.
On more than one occasion the boy looks at the camera which helps the audience to sympathise and understand the character and also creates verisimilitude as the audience feel personally connected as though the boy is looking at the m for help.
The first shot is of a two line script “This film is set in a time before the internet, the more innocent days of the late 1980’s”. This immediately narrows down the audience as being a teenager at this specific time which allows them to relate and transports them back to the time.
A convention that this short film follows is the short cast list. There is one main character and two other smaller characters in the film. Most short films only have between one and three characters as there is not enough time to introduce any more characters.
One of the sound techniques used is a sound bridge carrying the sound of heavy breathing from one scene to the next. Another sound bridge used is the young characters mum voice calling him. (The audience never see the mum’s character only hear her which is another convention of only having a few characters in a short film).
High and low angles are used throughout this film to express to the audience the order of importance of characters or objects. For example a high looking down at the boy is used when he is looking up the adult magazine shelf in a newsagent. This shows the audience that he is not old enough to read the magazines.
Another convention used is typical camera movements and angles such as shot reverse shot to show characters in conversations. Also master shots are used to set the scenes which happens on more than one occasion throughout short films as the locations changes very quickly making the change of setting more noticeable.
The audience gets the feeling when they watch this short film that it is in a documentary style as the camera tracks the boys movements its as though they are tracking his life like in a documentary. Another reason the audience could get the feeling of a documentary if the camera never finds the boy, he always walks in to the frame as if the camera isn’t there.
Playground short film
Playground analysis
Playground is a short film narrated by the main character which gives a documentary feel to the film and creates verisimilitude . The genre of this film is drama with a sub-genre of horror. It conveys this genre to the audience by having creepy non-diagetic sound. This builds tension for the audience. Another way the genre’s is portrayed is the lighting. The natural lighting is dark which scares the audience and lets them in that the storyline is scary. The headlights of the car on the grave are similar to eyes and could represent the audiences’ eyes on the grave.
A technique used is juxtaposition of the two storylines running alongside at the same time. The live action of the male character kidnapping the hitchhiker and him also in the grave after. This thickens the storyline and allows more of the story to be told in a time adding impact to the audience and also giving the audience time to try and guess what is happening.
Shot reverse shot is used at the same time as over the shoulder shot to show the audience the conversation between the two characters. This also masks there emotions from the audience keeping the audience in suspense.
The audience at first rarely see all of the character’s faces. This could represent only seeing half of their personalities.
The music played is ironically happy upbeat music, contradicting the tone of the short film. The music fades in to the background so that it doesn’t distract from the killing.
The killer is wearing trainers to show that he is out of place and that it was not planned and calculated like the other victims, which hints to the audience the outcome. Another piece of irony is the smiley face key ring. This adds another sub-genre of dark comedy as in a twisted way it makes the audience laugh.
Our short film synopsis
Jane, a young bride thought she had found the man of her dreams, tall, dark and handsome. They were in love, well she loved him. She was infatuated with him. She adored him. She idolised him. She would kill for him. He cheated...
Film poster analysis
Collage for ideas for our film review double page spread and poster
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| The collage in progress |
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| We did a marker pen test to find which pen would be best to use in our collage. |
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| Collage sketch to decide on the layout. |
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| One of the marker's we decided to use for the collage. |
Target Audience
What age category do you
fit in to?
15-25
25-35
35-55
55+
Roughly, how often do you
watch a thriller film?
Once a week
Once a month
Every 2 months
Every 6 months
Once a year
Never
Other
On a scale of 1-10 (10
being the highest) how would you rate the thriller genre on entertainment?
1
10
Which sub-genre of thriller
would you find the most interesting to watch?
Disaster thriller
Psychological thriller
Crime thriller
Romance thriller
What type of narrative
would you prefer in a psychological thriller?
Plot twists
Time distortion
Cross narrative strands
Conspiracy
Do you prefer a film to…?
Challenge you as an
audience member
Or explain the plot fully
as you go along
Have you watched the
following films? If so rate them on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest)
We gave this questionnaire to 50 people, most of which were Media students or who had studied media at some point. Here are some of the results put in to a chart.
Bar chart showing the age of the particpants who took the questionnaire.
Bar chart showing how often the partipants watch a thrill film.
From this research we can conclude that the thriller genre is a genre that is liked by a wide target audience but mainly from an audience of a lower age, roughly 15-35. This questionnaire gives us a focus for our film.
Target audience
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| This is the film auditions poster we put up around our college to attract interest for the actors in our film. |
Audience theory
In our film we used the vicar from Bexleyheath Church as this was the church we used to film the church scenes. Unfortunately we could not use a vicar named Tim Hatwell as he had a full schedule. Tim was the vicar in the Film Love Actually starring Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth and would have been the perfect choice for the film as he is the vicar at another local church. Another reason we decided not to use him as the viar in the film was because we felt the church didnt have the period features we wanted for our film as you can see in the pictures below.
This is Bishop Ridley church where Tim Hatwell is the vicar.
Tim on IMDb.com as a credit in the film Love Actually
This is the Youtube link for the scene with Tim in.
Character Analysis
This is Paul played by Rezwan Hussain. He is a young lad not ready to settle down and ultimately cheats on his fiance leaving her at the altar for another woman, Sarah. In the film he wears casual clothes including jeans, again simple and not out of the ordinary. He is six foot tall and is outgoing and ther hero/victim in the story.
Propp
Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of
action' or functions. Propp came up with seven different character types:
1)The hero, usually male, is the agent who restores the narrative equilibrium
often by embarking upon a quest (or search).
2) The villain who usually creates the narrative disruption.
3) The donor gives the hero something, it may be an object, information or
advice, which helps in resolution of the narrative.
4)The helper aids the hero in the task of restoring equilibrium.
5) The princess (the victim) is usually the character most threatened by the
villain and has to be saved, at the climax, by the hero.
6)The dispatcher sends the hero on her or his task
7)The false hero appears to be good but is revealed, at the narrative's end, to
have been bad
Characters can fulfil more than one sphere character type, for example; a princess
may also be a helper.We are going to include this theory in our film to keep in line with theorys of film. According to our film their is a hero, the male who tries to have the princess towards the end. The donor which is the vicar who tries to give Jane advice on her wedding day. Although jane is the villain she is also the false hero as she appears to be a victim at the beginning but is revealed to actually be the villain at the end.
Todorov
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
1. a state of equilibrium at the outset;
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium
This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us and can be applied to many
‘mainstream’ film narratives.We are going to apply this to our film but with a twist. The twist is that equilibrium doesn't exist at all especially at the end as it results in the death of Propps 'princess' and 'hero'. It could also be suggested that there isn't equilibrium at the start either as the 'false hero' is left at the alter.
Mood slide
This mood slide represents some of the codes included in the thriller genre. For example the use of some props such as blood and knives.
Film Classification
When deciding what classificion to give our film, we had a look on the British Board for Film Classification (the bbfc). The website states their are different guidlines for different classifications. Their are six classification: 'U', 'PG', '12A'/'12', '15', '18' and 'R18'. The guidelines include language, nudity, violence and theme. The guidelines for giving a film a '15' classification are, for language, there can be frequent use of swear words and even the strongest words are accepted but only if justified by the context in which they are used. For violence the bbfc states the violence can be strong as long as it does not dwell on pain or injury. However the strongest gory images are likely to be unacceptable.
For our film we chose the classification of a '15' as it fitted best with our storyline and script. It gave us the freedom to inlclude the use of a swear word and some blood for effect. If we had chosen a '12' rating we would not of been show any blood as it states "There can be no emphasis on injuries or blood". This would limit the intensity of our thriller
Location Background research
When deciding what locations we would choose to use we wanted locations that felt familiar so that the audience could relate to the locations. Therefore one of the locations we used was in Thamesmead in South East London. In the area there are streams and rivers but also dark allyways and streets that fitted well with our story. This is where we are going to film a lot of the stalking scenes.
Another location is Bexleyheath Chirst church. We picked the lication according to the same criteria ad the previous location which is was perfect for the film but we also picked these locations for practicality. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for the group and our actors to film and these locations are not far away.
This beautiful nineteenth century church in Bexleyheath was stunning on the inside and out and the grand features were something that we wanted to include in the film for effect.
