Monday, 25 January 2010
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Evaluation of Filming Process
As far as the filming process goes, the whole thing went rather well. The weather at the time was a hindrance as, typical for December, it was cold, limiting the time for which we could film before we had to take a break indoors. A lot of the filming was done in one take too, a risky venture so far as the editing is concerned. Finally, It seems necessary to go out and to film a final scene, as the footage we have doesn't consist of the entire storyline. All in all, the filming went well and I am pleased with what we have already got on film.
Research on Titles
The titles of a film often define it's genre and set the mood for what's to follow. As such, the titles of a film are important, and it's vital that they're done well.
On The Art Of The Title Sequence, the opening sequences of many feature length films are on the site, along with still frames and commentary. It's a good place to get good examples of how a title sequence is done normally.
Another site I've found is Watch The Titles, which, similarly to the site mentioned above, contains title and credit sequences of films, along with video commentary and other such clips. Although for the most part they seem to be from small, unknown films, some of the sequences they have are from feature films. All of the titles they have seem to be from feature films.
From looking on Youtube, I have noticed that the majority of short films, indeed all of the shorts that I have watched, tend to have very minimal title sequences, mainly simply the name of the person who made it and the film's name. As such, this is the angle we have taken with Invaded. Invaded starts with a couple of statistics about rape, followed by the production company name and the name of the film. The whole thing lasts no longer than 15 seconds, although that in itself makes Invaded's title sequence longer than the majority of the films I have seen.
Research on the Exhibition of Short Films
The first site I came across while looking for means of exhibiting a short film was the BBC Film Network site and it's section on the exhibition of shorts. Some of the exhibitors listed were FutureShorts, a group that runs short film screening events across the UK and Europe, along with Bitesize Cinema, a group that finds shorts worldwide and puts them into cinema screenings, as well as regional groups too, such as Kultur Cine Club in Leeds, a non-profit organisation which organises screenings around Leeds of short films and documentaries from around the world.
Channel 4 also exhibits people's short films through their 3 Minute Wonder section, exhibited frequently on their main C4 channel.
Many creators of short films also exhibit their own work on Youtube, clear from the countless number of shorts posted on the site, with millions of results on my own search for short films. In a way, exhibiting their films to the general public is a great way to get started, since anyone can post their own film, get honest comments from their own audience, and boost their own popularity. Many of the better films have links to websites where you can download their films for a small fee. Youtube is a great way for people to get free advertisement and to gain interest in their product.
Personally, I think Invaded would be best exhibited on Youtube to start, perhaps with ambitions to find a distributor in order to get it into cinema screenings. However, it would have to be posted with age limitations on it disallowing younger children from watching it.
Certificate research
The theme of the short film we have produced is of a sensitive nature. This naturally severely limits the age ratings available to the short film we have produced; "However, the most problematic themes (for example, drug abuse, sexual violence, paedophilia, incitement to racial hatred or violence) are unlikely to be appropriate at the most junior levels of classification. Correspondingly, there is no reason in principle why most themes, however difficult, could not be presented in a manner which allowed classification at ‘18’ or even ‘15’."- Quote BBFC Classifications Guideline, Page 14
However, with "Invaded", the nature of the film's theme is the only sensitive issue. The film may be given a certificate of 15, as reference to the rape itself in the short film is brief and doesn't dwell on detail, only insinuating what is about to happen. To quote the BBFC Classification Guidelines; at certificate 15, "No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds." Also, the film has no mention of any profanities. There is no nudity involved. There is violence involved, but it isn't glamourised, and it isn't gory, though some may say it dwells on causing pain to the recipient which would make the film appropriate only for an 18. The factor of the violence, along with the sensitivity of the theme involved, may mean the film is only appropriate for an 18 certificate.
For this research, I used the BBFC Classifications Guideline from the BBFC website.
Film Pitch
A film pitch is a short description of a media product, usually around 20 words, that is used to pitch a film idea to producers:
Invaded is a short film about a young woman dealing with an incident of rape portrayed in a hard hitting and powerful way.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Ideas for audience feedback
Ideas for audience feedback:
Video or voice interview
Post the short film to a website and get people to comment on it
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