Short films

Stripes

I thought the narrative was quite simple in the film stripes, but it was presented in a clever way.  Instead of filming the story at an earlier stage (e.g. when they were in primary school) they chose to do it when both the bully and victim were a lot older, which is the less typical option out of the two. They made a typical story different by making the characters older, which changed their power and status (because when your older your more capable of looking after yourself). The location was quite simple. Although the location was a room we couldn’t see all of the room which kept the location a mystery for a while. The actors were quite good and strong, which made the narrative all the more realistic. How they achieved camera shots were very interesting. Instead of both characters being in one place they made one of the characters move around  in order to get more enchanting shots that looked more realistic. Due to the fact that one of the characters was tied down to a chair his movement was restricted, so they made the villain move up and down instead of allowing him to just sit in front of the victim. They played a lot of attention to props to add realism to the story e.g. there was a lot of blood and the victim looked sweaty and tired, which are signs of being scared or being under pressure/unusual conditions. I like the fact that there were only two characters because it helped make the idea even simpler. Whenever something dropped or someone walked around ect you could hear it. This helped build tension seeming as these on-screen/ off-screen sounds were randomly heard during moments of silence.  Sometimes a shot would be blurred and then focused. I think this shows us the perspective of the victim, who had been kidnapped in his own home. This gave the audience a new way to look at the short film. The audience automatically knew what was going due to the props of a chair and rope (he has been tied up) and the fact that the victim used the dialogue “this is my house” in an agonizing way. They were able to tell the story without going into too much detail into the back-story.

Short films

Offside

The fact that their listening to the radio instead of watching the football match suggests the characters are possibly in a third well country/away from home. The commentary from the radio was extremely clever because it was commenting on the football match and the tension and actions between the four soldiers. The commentary explained the chemistry between the soldiers very well and it even gave us a summary at the end of what happened by saying “no one can win in a situation like this”. The camera kept on cutting from the two soldiers with the radio to the other 2 soldiers (extreme close-up) to build up the tension the commentary was making already. I think it’s particularly smart that they used a football commentator’s voice because a football commentator builds up tension because their voice changes based on the mood of a match. You can feel what the commentators feeling and the atmosphere of the current situation when you listen to them. I was hanging off the edge of my seat to find out what happens next. Due to the commentators voice my actions resembled that of a football match. I felt disappointment and shock when the soldiers were killed. The commentary strengthened the connection between the audience and the film. The location looked like a desert, which suited the world of the film due to the fact that the characters were from the army. All the soldiers had guns, which also resembled the world of the film. The audience were able to make assumptions about the characters based on their costumes. The football match brought all the characters together and the moment it paused they were enemies again. Their friendship was symbolised by the extreme close-up’s and the close-ups of the characters faces. Their facial expressions were of them smiling and relaxing their guns. We could see the relationship of the characters developed due to those movements and those movements alone. The camera also kept on circling the soldiers in a circular motion, which is also the same camera movement used during fight scenes, which gave away the next scene.

Brainstorming of ideas and feedback

This is a list of all themes we thought of focusing on in the area of our subject matter

rites of passage.

Paintings

These paintings relate to our film idea in some shape or form. I did this in order to see how our film could be transformed into different forms of media and also in order for me to get some new idea's for our film.

I think the painting is about a young women or girl creating a world in which she is in control. She is seeing the world in the way she wishes it to be just like how children see the world in the way they wish it to be or in a different light. The fact that she is wearing white represents her as quite an innocent/pure girl, which is what children are said to be. The background is partly baby pink, which is a colour associated with little girls. The costume she is wearing is flows like a princess gown, which adds to the innocence and the idea of her still being a child. Although the girl in the painting appears to be innocent her facial expressions suggest otherwise. She looks stern and controlling due to her stance. Perhaps she is furious with e way her life is, so she got angry and changed it. This could explain why the colour green in the background seems to be dripping. It is also possible that the image is showing the viewer how although the young girl is making her own world the real world still manages to creep in. This is supported by the green in the background and also the low-key lighting in the background. Maybe the artist was trying to create a painting of the world through the perspective of a child.

This painting is called Cosmic composition by Paul Klee. The layout is quite distorted and boxed. It looks like a childish painting due to the objects drawn e.g. a house. It also looks like some of the objec ts in the painting were drawn with chalk. I think the painting is about how a child sees the world. The bright colours used and the fact that the painting looks like it’s at night time makes  objects like the sun in the painting look like a firework. I think this represents all the possibilities of the world and the dream to soar to new heights and discover new things. The child sees the beauty of life and in its possibilities in a world that’s been kept in the dark. The objects in the painting are trees, houses, moons and a sun that make up a typical street more or less. It’s such a simple painting but yet it looks so beautiful and full of possibilities. 

Character interviews

Character interviews

This is an interview I made up with characters from films in order to get an insight into what their character is like. I made up the questions and answers. This task helped me to think about how in-depth my character/character profiles needed to be.

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Diary entry 1

 Diary entry's on link https://penzu.com/p/5bd41946

Cinema Paradisco

There is a mid-shot of the main character as an old man looking at a movie that I think he made. His facial expression is sad because he misses the girl that he loves. There is also a close-up of the younger him kissing the girl he loves as a projection on a wall. When the older him is watching the movie of his love he is in a dark low-key lighting room. The only light that is visible is the one coming from the project of his love and he is on his own. I think that the main character has broken up inside ever since the girl he loved went away. I think his love for film got destroyed when she went away and he was only able to concentrate on that one film he made of her because it makes him feel closer to her. She is the light out of his darkness.

The music is quite romantic because it’s classical and it has violins in it witch is the type of music that is stereotypically romantic, which sets the mood. At this point the music resembled happy first love. When the lighting and thunder strikes the music becomes more dramatic, louder and passionate. It is only after the music changes that we see the older versions of the two main characters. This suggests that as well as a first love the characters also experience there first break-up. The fact that the romantic music become more passionate instead of dying hints at the fact that the couple never actually get over there first love and continue to search for each other.

There’s a shot reverse shot of the couple kissing and then lighting then back to the couple kissing in the rain. Rain in this instance could symbolise love and kissing in the rain is a scene used in many movies in order for a kiss to be more romantic. We can tell due to the couples intimate kisses that they are deeply in love with each other.

The trailer allows us to see the couple grow from a young age and slowly start to fall in love with each other only to be driven apart. We can tell it’s the couples first love because it’s the same couple that the camera allow us to see and we don’t see any other lover with that couple. This is in complete contrast to the Spanish film because it is clear that both of the brothers are in love with the girl e.g. there is a long shot of both of them dancing with her in a provocative manner. This love that was established isn’t a first love because originally in the clip we only saw the two brothers and we saw them kissing other girls. This love at the beginning wasn’t portrayed very romantically and it seemed meaningless in contrast to the love between the brothers and the girl they picked up on the way. Although it wasn’t the boy’s first girlfriend I think it was the girl’s first love, because it was the first one that actually meant something.