SHORT STORY #3

His Story

http://www.poemsonly.com/his-story/#more-2003

This poem has a good narrative which would be fairly easy to portray through film, the poem shows the effect that bullying has on a person.

SHORT STORY #2

Death in the Morning

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/free-form-death-in-the-morning-death-death-death-death-death-death-death-death-death-death-

This poem explores the death of a loved one which a lot of people can relate to. It would be very interesting to portray through film, although it would be quite hard to.

SHORT STORY #1

The Empty House

http://www.shortstoryarchive.com/b/empty_house.html

This story stuck out to me from the first few sentences. It strikes me as a story that would be fairly simple to convert into a short film, but would still make an interesting film. I decided to aim in the direction of horror stories to find a suitable idea for our film. A problem i encountered in doing this is that alot of the short stories feature a monster, ghost or some other type of unusual character that would be hard to include in the film.

LUCKY (short film by Nash Edgerton)

This film follows the conventions you would expect to find in an action film. It features the writer and director Nash Edgerton playing a seemingly all action man stuck in the boot of a moving car attempting to escape. There is no dialogue and little music though, almost all sounds are diagetic perhaps to give the film a more realistic feel. The film follows the protagonists struggle to free himself and pull the car to a halt. He uses a wide range of shots in this sequence including one that arcs across the front of the car to combat the 180 degree rule, which i think was very successful. The film-maker uses various cinematic techniques to show the characters struggle, overall i think the sequence is successful in its portrayal of the protagonists attempted escape which eventually contradicts the feeling that he has escaped the audience gets by blowing the car up with him in it. This links to Lovefield in that it tricks the audience in to feeling one thing, then, the opposite happens.

BITCH (short film by Dom Bridges)

This humerus short film follows a normal young man queuing behind an elderly lady in a supermarket. The opening sequence shows the directors name, and other members of the crew on various products on the conveyor belt, this is a nice way to introduce the film, it immediately sets the scene but also introduces the makers of the film. The films protagonist, a young male, seems like the character who would be causing the trouble. He looks slightly menacing at the beginning where as the old women seems innocent, we then learn the opposite. Therefore taking the stance of Lovefield and lucky, where you think one thing will happen and the opposite does.

LOVEFIELD (short film by Mathieu Ratthe)

This film builds suspense very well, it starts off with quite dull colours, grey skys and the continuing sound of a bird squawking. All of these components build an eerie atmosphere as the camera pans through the corn field. These elements all give this film the feel of a horror film. After a few moments on tension building techniques and sounds we hear the sound of a womens voice begin to increase in volume, she continues to cry while the shot pans across the floor until it reaches a close up of her foot which then lies motionless on the floor. Then a knife is thrust into the ground which shocks the audience and is also successful in building the illusion of this being a horror film. As the film continues we see the apparent murderer, a hill billy looking character, wearing a trucker cap, a vest and some dungarees which are a fairly conventional costume choice for a horror film. The man acts suspiciously as he rummages through the car looking for something to conceal the body in but when he returns we see him wrapping a new born baby in blankets where the realisation of what has actually happened hits us with the colours becoming more vibrant and the smiles on the faces of the mother and the man who helped her give birth, contradicting the image the audience had in there heads. The film at first feels like a typical horror film portraying death, where really the film shows the opposite in birth.

DOGME 95

Dogme 95 is a style of film making that includes the following guidelines.

• Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.
• The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.
• The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
• The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
• Optical work and filters are forbidden.
• The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
• Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).
• Genre movies are not acceptable.
• The final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, that is, not widescreen. (Originally, the requirement was that the film had to be filmed on Academy 35mm film, but the rule was relaxed to allow low-budget productions.)
• The director must not be credited.

Here is an example of a dogme film that i analysed last year in film studies called Gypo.

MY FAVOURITE DIRECTORS

MARTIN SCORSESE, Films seen:

- Goodfellas

- The Departed

- Casino

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/

ALFRED HITCHCOCK, Films seen:

- The Birds

- To Catch A Thief

- Rear window

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/

QUENTIN TARANTINO, Films seen:

- Death Proof

- Pulp Fiction

- Kill Bill

- Reservoir Dogs

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/

FRENCH NEW WAVE

French New Wave is a term often associated with a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, it was influenced by italian classical hollywood cinema and Neorealism associated with a group of French filmmakers from that period because of their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful iconoclasm. Although never a formally organized movement, it is an example ofeuropean art cinema.

FILM NOIR

Film Noir or black film is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black and white visual style that has roots in german expressionist cinematography. The term was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas. The question of whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of ongoing debate.

AVANT-GARDE FILM

Avant-garde is a French term that literally translates to advanced guard, it means innovative or, ahead of the time and is generally more experimental than conventional film. Avant-garde film makers experiment with new ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions. The objective is to steer clear of typical film conventions.

A film that springs to mind that demonstrates this is called "Rope" directed by Alfred Hitchcock in which the film is taking place in real time and being edited so as to appear as a single continuous shot through the use of long takes. I'm not sure if this film falls under the category of avant garde but its struck me as experimental.

CINÉMA VÉRITÉ

Cinéma vérité "truthful cinema", is a documentary style of cinematography. it combines naturalistic techniques with cinematic editing, camera work and stage set-ups.

it was developed by French film directors in the 1960’s. Their production techniques did not depend on star quality actors, sets, props, casts of thousands, special effects and big budgets which was and is the trend in Hollywood films. The cinema verite directors would tend to use non-actors, small hand- held cameras, and actual homes and surroundings as their location for a film.

Cinema verite reminds me of the dogme 95 technique which i learnt about in film studies last year. The techniques used are fairly similar in terms of them using fairly basic equipment and filming is done on location without the use of props and sets, although there are a number of other rules which don't apply to cinema verite.

Here is an example of a Cinéma vérité

THE BRIEF

Short Film

The OCR brief asks you to produce a short film and two from these three:

• Poster.
• Radio Trailer.
  
• Film magazine review page.