Analysing three short films

FILM 1-Case Study One

TITLE: Think For Yourself       DIRECTOR: not stated        DATE: On YouTube: 10^th April 2013

SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM AND THE EXTRACT I HAVE CHOSEN: I have chosen an extract which focuses on the stereotypical mind of people in society today. It is a form of discrimination as in this film the man with Islamic clothing on is thought of to be a criminal and someone who will do harm to others around him whereas the other character who is dressed in a suit and coat is seen to be someone who is portrayed as ‘normal’. The opposite then happens, the woman who thought that the Muslim man was a criminal is shown that it is in fact the other man who is the criminal as he is carrying drugs and the Muslim man is innocent and he is shown to be friendly and caring as he greets his children.  

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Linear

HOW ARE THE CHARACTERS REPRESENTED? : Character one who is the Muslim man is represented at the start to be someone who is hiding something and needs to get to his destination as he has a bag in his hand which is held across his shoulder. He is then represented as a kind a loving man as he helps his daughter with her scooter and then he is seen walking with his family. The other man is represented as a business man who is minding his own business but as soon as the undercover police arrive he is shown to be the real criminal, his dress sense is quite deceiving. The other character in this short film who speculates everything is a woman who is dressed in casual clothes for a winter’s day with a coat and she is walking alongside her daughter who is seen to be 4 years old. She is represented as a typical stereotypical woman.

USE OF CAMERA: At the start of this film we are shown a long shot which shows us the businessman walking, this allows us to see his clothing and what he looks like as he walks down the path whilst looking around. The next shot is an upper body shot which shows the woman and her daughter walking. We are then shown a long shot of the Muslim man walking which allows us to see his clothing and the bag he is holding in his hand. We are then shown a close up of the woman as she looks across to the man and starts to think all sorts of things in her head. There is then a close up of the man’s bag which allows us to think that the woman think the man has something suspicious in the bag. As he looks at her the extreme close up shows us the fear in her eyes as she stops and watches him walk. The medium close up shows the woman look back as she hears something and the long shot shows us the police running out of their car. We can now imagine what the woman thinks; the police are here for the Muslim man. The upper body and long shots show us the woman holding her daughter close to her and the Muslim man walking casually as nothing is bothering him, not even the sound of the police running up behind him. We are then shown a close up of the other man as he looks back and starts running as he is the real criminal. The medium close ups show us the scene of the man being held by a passer-by and the police catching up with him. We are then shown the medium close up of the woman as she comes to realise that she thought the wrong man was the criminal and she had it all wrong.

USE OF EDITING: The cutting on action is quite a slow pace and there are many focus pulls in the scenes. When the woman looks at the Muslim man in fear the focus is pulled and we can see the man as she sees him, she is then blurred out. The shot reverse shots show us the man and the woman constantly. Almost all of the editing is done in slow motion to show each characters emotion and to show the surroundings.

MISE EN SCENE: The area that this is shot in is a very empty place and the only people in this film are in the location. There are no passer-by’s apart from one man. The fact that there is no other person walking by the attention is focused more on the woman and how she is speculating in her mind.

SOUND: There is only non-diegetic sound that is used in this short film. As there is more drama involved, the volume increases.

TARGET AUDIENCE: The target audience for this short film is 16-25 year olds.

WHAT IDEAS COULD YOU USE IN YOUR OWN SHORT FILM? : Based on this short film the ideas that I could use in my own short film is that I could try to edit some scenes so they are in slow motion to show different parts of someone's life or show how while everyone is rustling and bustling in the city there are still major things that are happening. 
Logistics & Feasibility: 
In terms of actors we could make it really stereotypical as this will make the audience talk and maybe even relate to the film. For example, Muslim's are shown in a bad light due to certain people. If we incorporated this into our film then it would be much more realistic. 
In terms of location we would once again film in a popular location and this will add to the fact that even if you think an area is multicultural there will still be racism/stereotypical people who are not open minded and who do not understand that not everyone is the same. 
We would also have to make sure that people knew that we were filming as if they didn't some may try to intervene. 

FILM 2- Case Study Two




  TITLE: So Unfair      DIRECTOR: Andres Almarza     DATE: On YouTube: 25^th November 2012

SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM AND THE EXTRACT I HAVE CHOSEN: This film is based on discrimination in the work place due to race. In the film there is a man and a woman who have applied for the same job role. The woman is an American who is from a 100% Caucasian family while the man is also an American but comes from a 100% Hispanic family. Due to this he is denied the job while the woman is accepted for the job. I have chosen this extract as it comes under the theme of discrimination but it is shown in a different way. In this case, in the workplace.

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Linear

HOW ARE THE CHARACTERS REPRESENTED? : In the film the woman who owns the company is represented as a strong firm woman who came make decisions but she bases them on her own belief system. She is very biased when making a decision. The man who is Hispanic is seen as a genuinely nice guy who is baffled by the decision of the employer. The Caucasian woman is seen to be confident but she gets away with being a unworthy candidate. The receptionist is also seen to be quite one sided when it comes to being nice to interviewees.

USE OF CAMERA: The long shot shows us the arrival of two cars in the car park in front of the work place. The medium close up shows as what the woman looks like and the same with the man. The long shot shows us that they are both equal before they have entered the interview room. The long shot them shows us the next woman who is the employer. She quite happily greets the Caucasian woman and takes her into the interviewing room. The over the shoulder shots show the conversation between the two women as general conversation is exchanged. The close ups show us that the woman is very informal as she has her hand to her face when she is talking and as she gets her coffee she stops talking and then realises that she is being spoken to. The employer however still considers her. The extreme close up shows us that the woman’s CV is not up to a good standard and her excuses are completely overlooked. The long shot then shows us the woman walking out of the office with a smile on her face, pleased with herself. We are then shown a medium close up of the man who smiles at the woman but she takes no notice. The long shot once again shows us the employer walking towards the next interviewee who is the Hispanic man. She doesn't shake his hand which shows us that she clearly has a problem from the first moment. Again, the over the shoulder shots show us the conversation between the two. The extreme close up of the computer screen shows us the CV of the man and we can clearly see that he has many years of experience and he has graduated from many places. This shows us that he is a strong candidate unlike the other woman. There is then an exchange of words at the long shot shows us the man walking out of the office, while he says goodbye to the receptionist she doesn't even look at him.

USE OF EDITING: Whilst moving from scene to scene the cutting on action is in quite a slow pace. The use of focus pull is quite clear to us as we can see the two candidates in the seating area one by one. The shot reverse shots show us the conversation between the two.

MISE EN SCENE: The location of the short film is set in an office with quite dull colours. There is a seating area and an office room where interviews take place. The main equipment used and needed is the desk and the computer on which the CVs are being read.

SOUND: The short film starts off with non-diegetic sound and then changes to diegetic sound of the employer greeting the first interviewee who is the woman. Throughout their conversation the non-diegetic sound starts in the background.  The diegetic sound is exchanged again when the receptionist says ‘have a nice day’ to the woman. The diegetic sound continues throughout until the interviews end and the non-diegetic sound appears much clearer until it fades out.

TARGET AUDIENCE: The target audience for this is adults who may have experienced this type of discrimination whilst applying for a job, I would say 25+

WHAT IDEAS COULD YOU USE IN YOUR OWN SHORT FILM? : Based on this film the ideas that I could use in my own short film could be showing two different people in the same place but at different times rather than at the same time. 
Logistics & Feasibility:
This idea could potentially be seen as something boring. We would have to make sure that the reasons for discrimination were quite controversial in order to create a discussion and to make people more interested in the film. 
In terms of actors we could get two completely different actors who are worlds apart. Or we could get two different actors who looked pretty much the same but they couldn't be more different. We would also have to consider the location and not make it the same as this film. Instead of discrimination in the workplace, we could film discrimination at school between a teacher and pupils are in a social setting. 


FILM 3- Case Study Three 


TITLE: The Girl that lived  DIRECTOR: Holly Streetter  DATE: On YouTube: 30th Dec 2013

SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM AND THE EXTRACT I HAVE CHOSEN: I have chosen this extract which deals with the problem of Schizophrenia and Suicide. The reason why I have chosen this film is because my short film may be based on a mental illness. I am yet to discuss this idea further with my group. This film is about a girl who is very much normal at the start but then something triggers her thought pattern and she changes. It then shows how the mental illness Schizophrenia affects her everyday life and how this illness can lead to suicide.

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Linear and retrospective 

HOW ARE THE CHARACTERS REPRESENTED? : The characters in this film are represented as normal people who go about their everyday life. There is only one main character who is dresses in a very causal way, like a normal teenager. The second character who is shown at the end is the girls mother who is also dressed normally for a winters day.

USE OF CAMERA: The use of camera in this film is good as there are many over the shoulder shots and there are shots where the camera is moving which makes us feel as if we are the character and shows us the view from her point and how she sees everything. There are also extreme close ups to show the emotion on the girls face as she deals with the voices in her head. Full body shots show us her clothing and how she dresses and how the Schizophrenia kicks in and makes her appearance seem very different to the start of the film. The birds eye view is also a good camera shot towards the end of the film because it shows us the location and we can see the important part of the film. Also the mid shots are very good as there are many in this film and once again show us the actions of the girl who is dealing with Schizophrenia.

USE OF EDITING: The editing used in this film is the cut on action. In some parts of the film the cut on action is quite fast which shows how her mind must be, going from a normal pace to a very fast past as her thinking rapidly increases. We are also a very slow cut on action as her thinking sometimes slows down.

MISE EN SCENE: The mise en scene is the way that the character is dressed. At the start of the film she is very formally dresses and she has a normal routine as she is running late and we can see that she's in a hurry to get to work. We then see that once she changes and the Schizophrenia kicks in her outfits change. She starts to dress casually and then she starts to look scruffy as her hair is all over the place in certain shots. The location goes from her house to empty estates to empty parks and finally a bridge. That is where she jumps ff and commits suicide. At the end of the film we are show flowers that have been laid down for her on the bridge and we are shown a teddy which shows that although she was grown up and shown as a teenager she was still a child in her mothers eyes. The book is a main prop as the book that's named 'The Girl that lived' is featured at the start of the film is the book that makes her change in the first place. At the end her mother picks up the book and we can see that the story will repeat.

SOUND: The use of sound in this film is good. The non diagetic sound of the instrumental music plays in the start where writing then appears on the screen related to the film. The sound then changes to diagetic where we can hear the girl in the film talking. This continues throughout. We can also hear the non diagetic sound of a voice over in different parts of the film.

TARGET AUDIENCE: The target audience for this film are teenager aged 15 and above because I think that Schizophrenia can affect anyone at any age but it occurs mostly in teenagers. I also think that this short film could be aimed at parents as a reminder that they should keep an eye on their children.

WHAT IDEAS COULD YOU USE IN YOUR OWN SHORT FILM?: Based on this film I think the ideas that I could use in my own film are the background music at the start of the film and the writing that comes up on the screen which is related to the film but directly aimed at the audience. I think that by doing that we are creating a relationship with the viewer and it keeps them engaged as they will take notice in what the film is really about and pay much more attention.
Logistics & Feasibility: 
We would have to make sure that this topic is portrayed in a sensitive light taking everything into consideration because a mental illness can be a very hard topic for certain people to talk about. In terms of locations, we would have to film it near a bridge or a canal but we would need to ensure that all filming is done in a safe way as working from heights can be dangerous if the necessary precautions are not held.