Research

For our a2 media film, we have to research and analyse short films.

On Friday 16th September, a scriptwriter called Jan came to our school to talk about film ideas and what not to do in a short film. He gave Sam and I some useful advice. For example, he told us to test the idea with other people, preferably not with friends and family. This way we get an honest opinion of our idea and whether it's a good idea. He also encouraged us not to have a film idea with murders and suicide as we won't be able to fit all of the story in 5 minutes. Jan was very helpful and gave us new ideas for our film idea.

Narrative Theory

Vladimir Propp- Through studying folk tales and legends from different countries, he identified 32 categories of action (functions). He also identified 8 characters functions.

The hero- on the quest (search)
The villain- opposes the hero
The donor-helps the hero
The dispatcher- starts the hero on his way
The false hero-tempts the hero away
The helper- helps the hero
The princess- reward for the hero
Her father- rewards the hero

Many films agree with these functions, for example Star Wars.

Tzvetan Todorov- He says there are 5 stages to a narrative.

Equilibrium
A disruption by an event
A realisation the disruption has happened
Attempt to repair the damage
A restoration of equilibrium

This can be applied to both fiction and non fiction films, and most adverts use this structure. One example is news stories, and how they depend on establishing how an equilibrium is established.

Claude Levi-Strauss- He focused on the opposites (binary oppositions) and he noticed that they structure texts and films. This theory is mostly used by horror films with Good vs Evil, however there can be other opposites such as Villain vs Hero and Supernatural vs Human. These are used in adverts to show a before and after to convince audiences to buy the products. This is used particularly when advertising washing powder. News reports also use binary opposites, with 'good' and 'bad'

Rolande Barthes- Believed in the negotiated meaning concept between the institution and audience, where the audience produces new meanings of the film with use of personal experience e.g cultural context becomes as important as the content. Barthes came up with 5 codes that keep audiences interested in the story/ film.

The Hermeneutic Code-This is the 'hook' or mystery left by the film, for audiences for resolve. This is mostly used in detective series, for example in Sherlock, at the end of season 3 they leave us with a hook, and leaves the audiences asking questions
The Proairetic Code- This is sometimes called the action code and it is the moment where one action implies another action is about to take place.
Referential Code-This code is sometimes known as Intertextuality. It means when one text refers to another.
Symbolic Code-This refers to the 'deeper' meaning of a film. This is not applicable in every film.
Semantic Code- An element in a film that suggests a particular meaning, by connotation.

Conventions

Bullying-Stop It

Bullying- Stop it is a short film focused around the impacts of bullying. It surrounds the story of a boy at school, who bullies a young girl, unaware of the consequences. However, he gets a surprise when he realises his sister is being bullied, and he changes his ways.

This film follows the convention of a short film as it only focuses on 2-3 people, (the boy, the sister, and the person being bullied) They also film at a few locations, the school, their home and the care home. This is due to low budgeting and not having much money. This is also why they have minimal actors. The story line is an everyday situation (1.5 million young people (50%) have been bullied within the past year.) therefore people can relate to the story, and intrigues the audience.

However, the film also follows conventions of a drama, with the film ending with a happy ending of the boy apologising to the bully victim, and them being friends. Tension is also created for the audiences when he is trying to find his sister in a frantic rush. Most dramas are filmed in realistic settings, with realistic characters.

See Me

See me is a short film by Film4 set in school.. It features 3 children who are in detention after school, and one teacher who is looking after them. Film4 describe it as 'Three sixteen year old school girls and their thirtysomething teacher are trapped in one room on school detention. They're bored and waiting for something to happen... and then it does.'

This film follows the conventions of a short film through the use of minimal characters. Even though the film is 19 minutes long, we only ever see the teacher and the 3 pupils, however one other person is mentioned, This may be due to low budgeting and not having having time to create a backstory. The storyline is kept simple so audiences can understand the film. However some bits are quite confusing, for example trying to work out who her boyfriend is and how he knows the teacher, but audiences can guess after a while who it is. The story contains twists that also is a convention of a short film, One twist is who her boyfriend is as audiences wouldn't expect it. This is to keep audiences engaged,

It also follows the convention of a drama. See me is set in a realistic situation ( a school classroom) it also contains a conflict between the teacher and the pupil which creates pain for both of them, and makes the audience feel sympathy for them. However, the film doesn't end with a happy ending, which breaks the convention of drama, and in my opinion i believe the ending is bad as it is anti climatic, and a bit boring. Nothing really happens at the end, they just sit there smoking a cigarette.