Short Film Planning

Genre: Found footage horror

Plot: Friends go camping/hiking in the Forest whilst they are in the forest something stalks them and terrorises them as they try to survive as they witness a sacrifice.

Film form: dark natural colours, dark lighting use of natural lighting, no non diegetic music

The hunt has influence my work by using a similar style of filming by using found footage and also Elephant by using no music to create a disturbing.

Narrative: 1 or maybe 2 characters working out the enigma of who is stalking them 

evaluative analysis

Elephant is a short film using an obscure way of filming and presenting the narrative to the audience as no dialogue is present within the film having a run time of 39 minutes and keeps a consistent follow shot throughout the film through the perspective of multiple different people giving off a cold documentary style atmosphere as we follow multiple people throughout the narrative as they walk along the scene and shoot an innocent person and chillingly walk away unfazed at what they have done. throughout the film drama and crime genre conventions are portrayed for example the suspense gradually built in each scene as the lack of dialogue builds tension and this reinforced due to the lack of music being present throughout the film creating a more realistic and disturbing atmosphere. This short film has inspired my ideas for my short film by having more of a realistic tone by having a lack of editing and non diegetic music begin present within my short film to give a realistic tone and to build suspense and creating an eerie theme without using music and using film form to create this atmosphere.

Night Fishing is a South Korean short horror film having an obscure way of portraying the narrative by giving no context at the beginning of the narrative by having no dialogue present however through the beginning scene a follow shot conveys who the main character is. horror conventions are portrayed by the darkness of each scene and especially the scene where he is attacked by the woman who we initially think is a dead body and the next scene the roles are reversed and the woman is a shaman priestess performing a ritual at the funeral for the man who drowned in the river. This film inspires me to have a more grainy realistic found footage style way of filming as the entire film is shot on an iPhone 4 giving it an older grainy footage which creates more of an eerie atmosphere also similar to Elephant it has a lack of dialogue which has inspired me to use less or no dialogue within my short film to help reinforce that dark eerie tone and using this tone to further the narrative. And with this tone created in those short films has inspired my coursework to have a similar style and tone. 

The Hunt is another horror short film which consists of a search party looking around the woods as the main character gives exposition as he explains that cattle was initially found mutilated and now people have begun to be found the second half of the film consists of the search party being killed off  unlike the other two films this one follows a consistent narrative giving exposition and context giving off a more classic Hollywood style of film as this is very dialogue heavy whereas the other two have more of an experimental form of creating narrative and structure without dialogue and using the facial expressions of the characters around them and leaving much of the story up for interpretation whereas The Hunt doesn't really do this giving a clear backstory which then is used to progress the story having a realistic tone. Towards the ending a sci-fi theme is created as we come closer to finding out what happened to the animals and people which we find out in the beginning and this build up to the climax of the narrative and them finding out what the creature is helps create an enigma code for the audience whilst the film plays keeping the audience engaged with the narrative. Within my coursework i have created a similar enigmatic code which is hiding the identity of my antagonist to create this mystery but also to help create a frightening tone.  

With my production course work I have been greatly inspired by the short film The Hunt with a similar setting being in a forest whilst having a similar narrative of the protagonist being hunted down however instead of the antagonist being this feral creature like in The Hunt my short film will use similar aspects toward my antagonist by not showing their face and keeping them hidden from the audience adding tension to my work. Also within my storyboard there is no dialogue present like the other short films like Night Fishing and The Elephant and this lack of dialogue allows tension to build through sound and performance using facial expressions and jump scares to add horror and build lots more tension in scenes . Also I will use similar horror conventions of darkness as my short film takes place at night taking inspiration from the other short films. And with these inspirations from these short films my storyboard allows the audience to feel this unsettling atmosphere from the dark lighting, camera angles and antagonist help create this tone. 

i also have been inspired by other pieces of work like the Blair Witch Project as i initially wanted to film a found footage short film however this limits the camera flexibility and movement as I used long shots and tracking shots to connote to the protagonist being stalked from the very beginning but still keeping a similar setting and also being inspired by another short film called the Smiling Man because of the use of the camera utilizing over the shoulder shots to build tension which I have used within my story board and the close up at the end to add a final jump scare which also has inspired my storyboard and also with the introduction of the antagonist as I kept them hidden similar to the smiling man to create tension.     

 
             

week 5 analysis

Each of the selected short films experiment with film form for example in Le Jetee where the entire film is in still photos with a narration to tell the plot of the film  twist by the end, the atmosphere created within the film is a dark realistic sci fiction film set in a post nuclear France the enigma created is answered by the end of the film in place of the conventional positive ending (new equilibrium) in place of an abrupt ending having the main character killed and answers the enigma created at the beginning as we see the main character experiences trauma he had faced when he was a child as he sees a man get killed only to find out that was him. and also the conventional sci-fi genre themes are present as they experiment on the main character and of time travel being the main theme within the film. 

 Elephant is an unconventional allegorical short film where the entire film's narrative is in different perspectives as the camera tracks the main character in the scene as they shoot someone and the lack of dialogue creates an enigma for the audience as they question the random acts of violence but with further research the narrative is a commentary on the increase of violence in Northern Ireland and has a deeper meaning to the unorthodox narrative and lack of understanding the audience experience and the lack of character development add to the realism of the film as their is no significant character present just people.

The Wrong Trousers is the most conventional short film as it clearly follows Todorv's narrative theory as it shows the disruption of our characters equilibrium and also we see the development of the main characters especially Gromit as he overcomes the villain and saves Wallace . The genres present initially is a animated comedy but links to other genres like action and crime fiction as he enigma of the penguin who just moved in. The film is made through stop motion animation usually being more lighthearted as animations are usually targeted towards younger audiences but this seems to have more adult and darker tones as scenes when Gromit is starting to find out who Feathers Mcgraw is ans also a gun being present within the film.

Wasp is an Indie drama and this is present within the beginning as our main character who is a Zoe a mother of 4 instantly goes into conflict with another parent. Form the opening we see that Zoe priorities her pride over anything else as we see when she first talks to Dave she claims that she is babysitting her friends children and in the bar scene when she buys drinks she cant afford to keep her pride intact as we can tell that she doesn't like to admit her lack of money. The narrative structure is unconventional or is not as obvious as traditional films as we don't see a disruption of the equilibrium which gives the film a more realistic atmosphere as the neglect of children is a major theme within the film as the camera cut from Zoe in the bar to her children outside waiting for long amounts of time and it is implied that this is a regular occurrence.The film lacks a main enigma which needs to be solved but the only enigma which is present in the narrative is how much neglect her children have faced. characters are presented in a more realistic way for example Zoe is presented as the protagonist but not as a hero as she is the one neglecting her children and creating the conflict within the film.         

                

La Jetee (Chris Marker)

This french science fiction short film was created in 1962 and sticks to this genre as we are shown the experiments for time travel as the man being tested on has science equipment attached to him like tubes sticking out of his eyes and the setting being underground as the film is set in a post nuclear war helps create this science fiction atmosphere as photos of war torn France are used to portray the destruction from the atomic bombs.

the film uses a range of still images trough out the entire film using a photo-montage and barely uses any footage as we are  shown the narrative through a narrator as they tell the story of what happened and tells the story of a prisoner being experimented on, the colours used in the film are black and white.

The narrative structure uses the conventions like how the narrative comes full circle however their is no new resolution but an ending as the film begins with a prisoner underground begin experimented on as the scientists are researching time travel to see if they can fix the nuclear war which occurred totally desecrated natural life and our main character known as the prisoner who travels back in time and into the future. However we do see somewhat of Todorov's theory as the disturbance of the narrative could be from the main character finding out that he is meant to be executed by his jailers and the resolution is him escaping into the past and he is killed by a jailer who followed him and kills him and we find out that the event which scarred the main character when he was younger was his own death.         

Elephant (Alan Clarke)

Throughout the entire film has next to no dialogue present as the film takes place in Northern Ireland and during the time it was filmed they had a major problem at the time was known as "The Troubles" and this was where people were killing each other based on their beliefs and so the film depicts 18 murders and every scene repeats with the camera tracking the main character of the scene ( the murderer) as they walk to kill their victim and this is what happens throughout the film.

The use of unconventional narrative portrayal gives the film a more realistic cold tone and the use of a grainy 16 mm film creates an even more darker, realistic and unnerving atmosphere as each murder is followed through calmly. The film doesn't follow traditional structure as todorov's narrative theory is not traditionally portrayed as the narrative can be broken down into smaller ones with the main character essentially changing every scene.

The representation of violence within the film is portrayed to be normal due to how calm the murderers are when killing their victim and when the scene ends the camera lingers on the motionless body. The film is a social commentary of the underlying problems which Northern Ireland was facing during this time as the conflict between politics and nationalistic sides as the nationalist wanted self governance.       

Wasp

The plot of the short film consists of a young single mother named of 4 named Zoe living in Dartford living in poverty as she struggles to find food for her and her children, when one day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date and pretends that her children are not really hers as she is afraid that he wont like her and leaves them for hours as she is on her date. The main shots which are present throughout the film are close ups of the characters faces to express their emotions this shot was typically used on the mother as we see her reaction to leaving her kids and of the kids faces, the colours and lighting is unusually bright for the darker tone of the film as in the majority of the film natural colours like greens and blues stand out more and the natural lighting helps make these colours stand out. The minimalist style of no non diegetic music being present throughout the entire film and the camera switching to handheld adds realism to the film and story.

Conflict is present within the beginning of the film as Zoe has a fight with another mother as their children had a fight and connoting that she is presented as immature as she instantly goes to aggression when faced with conflict. The narrative is not like a typical narrative however it somewhat follows Todorov's theory as the mother meeting Dave and going out on a date with him as he disruption to the family is portrayed to be the main characters however he children are presented as the main characters more as they are shown starving and being left outside the bar for the whole day and this seems to be the norm to he children and the disruption is created as they know what their mum is going to do with Dave, and also the woman who Zoe has a fight with in the beginning asks her if she left her kids alone at home again reinforcing that the audience know that this is a common occurrence, the Zoe is seen as somewhat of an antagonist to the children as she neglects them. The resolution happens when Dave finds out about her children and the new equilibrium which is created is ambiguous but has an atmosphere of hope for the children.

Zoe is initially ashamed by her children especially when she speaks to Dave already having her pride tarnished as she loses the fight she then claims the children as not hers knowing that she is a failure as a mother and rather than admitting her poverty she pays for drinks which she cant afford to keep her small amount of pride she has left intact.   

                

Wallace and Gromit : The Wrong Trousers

The main genre of the short film is a comedy, short stop-motion animation but has links to the crime fiction genre as the villain in the short film is a wanted criminal and the narrative consists of Gromit stopping the penguin.

A major binary opposite within the short animation are the characters Gromit and Feathers McGraw as Gromit is presented as the protagonist and Feathers McGraw is the antagonist of the short film and their differences are presented when  McGraw's wallpaper is opposites to Gromit's wallpaper due to the colours of the wallpaper which presents them as strikingly opposite characters

The narrative of the film is linear and follows Gromit's perspective as it begins with the equilibrium as it is Gromit's birthday and they live their lives normally until Mcgraw moves in which is when the disruption begins to occur as  Mcgraw begins to push Gromit out of his room initially and finally pushes him out the house and the penguin uses the electric trousers to attempt to control Wallace and use him to steal a diamond. The recognition of the disruption happens when the penguin wears the hat and Gromit recognises it from the wanted poster and Gromit watches the penguin measure the height of the window.The solution to the disruption is when Gromit stops Mcgraw from stealing the diamond and saving Wallace from the electric trousers after this the new equilibrium is created by going back to their normal lives.

The only spoken words in he film are from Wallace and in the scene where Gromit follows and watches Mcgraw an ominous atmosphere is created due to the design of the background as the lighting is very different than the rest of the film as it connotes how shady Mcgraw is and this atmosphere is reinforced due to the lack of dialogue and the slightest amount of menacing music being present within the scene.

   

Shaun of the Dead: Social Background

The characters within the film are predominantly white and middle class as the main view of the film is through Shaun. it is set within a suburbia on the outskirts of London as suburban areas are stereo typically known to be filled with white people and were historically known to be built for only white people. Certain characters are presented on a spectrum of class as Liz's friends Dianne and David stand on the far side of the middle class which is shown within the opening scene as we find out that they got to the theatre and listed buildings also the clothing a they are dressed smartly and almost pretentious as Dianne is dressed in a colourful clothes and David looks like a ''chartered accountant''  whereas Ed is presented to be as working class as he is shown wearing a shirt and shorts and is presented as scruffy. Relationships and family are presented in a middle class way which is shown in the opening scene as Liz still not having met Shaun's parents is presented as a big deal to Liz's friends  as it is an expectation for your partner to meet their parents and Shaun also within the dumping scene Shaun promised Liz that he would drink wine as an alternative to beer.

Also a middle class expectation of growing up is a running theme throughout the film as Shaun's problem within the beginning of the film is him needing to grow up as Liz is the first to tell him this and he attempts this but fails and also Pete is another character which portrays a middle class expectation of living as he tells Shaun and Ed to grow up which is prevalent in the electro scene. Shaun is presented to be immature which is shown as his friend Ed and how Ed lives in the house as Pete says ''were not students anymore'' showing how Shaun and Pete need to grow up however we can see that Shaun is not as immature as Ed due to his clothing as he is shown wearing a dress shirt with a red tie sloppily on him showing that he has some maturity whereas Ed is always shown as scruffy wearing casual clothing and having no job but Pete is dressed smartly and is working in an office showing the spectrum of maturity within the house and the influence of both of them on Shaun leaves him in the middle of maturity and immaturity as Shaun has a dead end job in an electronics store.

 the theme of success is presented as Shaun faces a load of problems with his life within the beginning of the film as he is broken up with as he doesn't grow up in the middle class way for Liz as she wants to do more than go to the Winchester and wants do things more like her friends and we also see that Shaun's life doesn't fit with the expectation as he is constantly told to sort himself out.   

   

Shaun of the Dead: Narrative structure and Genres

Within the beginning of the film it is presented to be a romantic comedy as the narrative revolves around Shaun's relationship with his girlfriend Liz and the disruption occurs when Liz dumps Shaun as she wants him to change and has stereotypical romcom character archetypes just like how Shaun is presented to be the immature one in the relationship and Liz is presented as the mature one in the relationship which is immediately shown in the intro of the film as Liz is talking about how she

wants Shaun to change which is  whilst Shaun's face is blank throughout most of the scene also as the scene usually stays at a mid shot switching between Shaun's and Liz's face to present their personalities  and build on the stereotypical characters within the romcom genre also creating a comedic tone.

 As the film continues to be a romcom the zombie horror genre themes begin to seep through the romcom in stages. We first see the beginning of this before the disruption in the romcom genre when Shaun is in the flower shop scene as Shaun sees a zombie but disappears before we see anything else and we see the zombie horror genre themes begin to seep in before this when we see the newspapers in the intro shop scene which shows headlines of a disease and we see the news multiple times showing people in hazmat suits and the army but as an audience we don't take much notice but Shaun is totally oblivious to what is happening around him as he is totally focused on his relationship and how he is trying to fix it as the world around him is drastically changing due to the zombie apocalypse. The shop scene is exactly mirrored when the film is in different genres as Shaun is both shown to be completely oblivious to the world around him as in the beginning Shaun trips on the curb in both scenes but he second time we see this scene zombies are scattered around the background.

 Whilst the zombie horror themes begin to take over early within the film as Shaun tries to fix the disruption within his relationship and the disruption within the narrative but the disruption within the narrative of the zombie horror is what helps the create the new equilibrium of the romcom as Todorov's equilibrium theory states that a disruption of the equilibrium has to happen for the narrative to progress and the realisation of the disruption ends with a new equilibrium being created by the main character as they fix the disruption and the new equilibrium is different to the original equilibrium which is shown in Shaun of the Dead as originally the house Shaun lives in is presented as a stereotypical male house as it is shown as messy with beer cans and rubbish scattered within the living room however within the new equilibrium shows the house becoming more feminine however being at a compromise as the living room has a mixture of femininity and the original state of the living room. T
his set design is to show the development of both Shaun and Liz as characters and a development in their relationship as their problems have been solved and have found a compromise through the new equilibrium in the narrative as the problem of their friends holding each other back has been solved as they were killed showing that the two genres intertwine as the romcom problem of their friends effecting the relationship was solved by the zombies and also the zombies are a big reason that the relationship is fixed.         

Trainspotting: Themes and Binary Opposites

The theme of the past vs future is prevalent throughout the film as the scene in which Renton is in a club later on in the film as he narrates how everything is changing like music, drugs, and people as techno plays in the background and also the soundtrack has a lot of techno reinforcing this idea of changing times. Also an earlier scene close to the beginning where Renton is in another club contrasts with the later scene to express the change which is occurring as the earlier scene shows people drinking alcohol whilst people dance to generic 80s rock whereas the later scene people are on ecstasy and are having a rave also the places in which these scenes take place are different as the earlier scene takes place in Leith and the later scene takes place in London also the change in drugs as Renton talks about ecstasy becoming a lot more popular as the popularity of heroin losing popularity as this change in the film shows the change of culture from the 80s to 90s within these two scenes.  

Renton develops as time progresses throughout the film as he was once stuck in the past with his other friends he has now changed which leads on to another theme which is present in the film which is Betrayal. As Renton develops as a character he begins to hate the friends he had in the beginning thus leading to the ending of the film where Renton steals the money from the drug deal and escapes with the money and escapes the friendship he despised. And within that friend group two friends Begby and Spud are on two opposite spectrums as Begby is the most aggressive person in the friend group as in one of the final scenes in he bar presents this and how Renton is in the middle of both of them as Spud is presented to be more childlike and scared which is shown in the betrayal scene as Spud sees Renton is leaving and even though Renton somewhat offers Spud to come with him he doesn't showing how Spud is more scared of Begby and Sick Boy.  

Throughout the film a major theme which is prevalent is heroin and how it effects the characters and the world around them as the main character Renton uses heroin and heroin is used as an opposite to may other themes within the film such as for example family as Renton's parents are presented as a force which tries to get him to quit which is shown in the withdrawal scene as they kept him locked in his room. The scenes which have the parents are usually very bland with dark and dull colours always present giving those scenes a depressing, boring tone whereas the scenes which include heroin or drugs are usually in brightly coloured rooms with multiple colours and lights present.

  

Trainspotting: Opening

The beginning of the film throws the audience into an action packed scene later on in the film making the narrative non-linear as someone begins to narrate as a close up of a character presents to the audience that he is the main character as we are aligned with him due to seeing him and hearing his voice first and the character . Renton's narration seems to be a somewhat satirical look on life as he lists off things like"choose life, choose a job and choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments" as it seems that Renton is criticising the way society wants us to live and the audience knows that Renton is the main character as we have a freeze frame with his name making it obvious to the audience that he is the main character after aligning us with Renton. during his narration he says "choose your friends" and it cuts to a shot showing all of the other characters and Renton's friends having a football match however this scene can be somewhat seen as foreshadowing to the ending scene where he betrays them as he no longer wants to be dragged down by them anymore. The clips we see of the characters their personality is quickly shown and the audience gets a good idea what they are like for example the next character we see is Sick Boy who is shown to be a sly character as he trips an opponent and pretends that he didn't do it, the next character shown is Begbie who is shown to be an aggressive character as he slide tackles someone without caring and laughing, the next character shown is Spud who we see is shown as the unreliable and dumb character as he fails to catch the ball and the freeze frame is at a point where his facial expression reinforces this, the final character we are shown is Tommy and when we see him Renton talks about "rotting away at the end of it all" which is foreshadowing Tommy's death later on in the film  and we see him get surrounded which could be foreshadowing the way he dies from aids and how he is surrounded by death and no one can help him.

after this we see two scenes spliced together as Renton falls to the ground in both scenes and they cut between the two scenes as he rejects life and we find out that he does heroin and there is no reason why he is like this he just because he wants to which is a breath of fresh air for films as a character which is takes drugs like heroin would have a tragic backstory and have an explanation for why he does this Renton narrates and says he has no reason why he just wanted to do it. The younger audience would enjoy this film as in the media drugs are always demonised and are overexaggerated to be shown as instantly life destroying but the film shows drugs in a realistic way as it shows the effects of drugs but doesn't romanticise it either for example Tommy's death shows the dark reality of drugs and his death was caused from using used needles and contracting the HIV virus and the baby being killed due to neglect.

'The Worst Toilet in Scotland' scene
The beginning of the scene shows Renton picking up suppositories from a drug dealer and the atmosphere within the scene somewhat shows the dark realities of drugs as the room is dirty and bare except for the mattress however the colours present in this room makes the scene less grim as the bright colours of yellow and green which is present and this is also shown in the next scene where Renton walks along the flats at the bottom of the scene and more focus is put into the flats as the set of bland flats has been changed to have various colours to make this scene more vibrant as each set of curtains are bright colours.

When Renton enters the bar the camera switches from close ups of Renton's face and a POV shot of people staring at him until he enters 'The Worst Toilet in Scotland' and this shows up in text to create a comedic tone before we are shown the ghastly state of the toilet as its entirely covered in dirt and faeces with non diegetic sounds of flies reinforces the state of the scene. Renton uses the toilet to defecate and loses the suppositories which he used in the beginning of the scene and begins to look in the toilet which is blocked and is filled with dirty water and as this occurs Renton begins to go inside the toilet and is dragged away from a dark reality for a surrealist scene where he is swimming in a sea and finds the suppositories and goes back up to the surface to climb out of the toilet and this is done to give the audience a break from the harsh reality which is thoroughly present through the film and these surrealist scenes occur during the darkest scenes in the film.
   

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