Preliminary task - Storyboards

These are the storyboards drawn by Connie but overall the group contributed in the making of this short film.  In the first shot you see the main character sitting on a bench. The next shot is a tilt from his stomach to his angry/ hungry face. with the grumbling sound effect which will be added during the editing, the audience will instantly realise what is going on. The third shot is an over the shoulder shot which shows the audience that he's begun his journey to hunt and devour food. The camera zooms out to show a long/ tracking shot of the character. The fifth and sixth shot is an establishing shot that shows the audience that he's entering the cafe.

Next, we show the audience that he's leaving the cafe and we do this by having a close up of his shoes leaving the premises. The next shot is a close up of him opening his food and the ninth shot is an extreme close up of him smiling. Even though there hasn't been any dialogue yet, the audience understands that this short film is about food. The next couple of shots just show the audience that he's on his way back to a place where he can he peacefully and silently. In the eleventh shot he walks in from the right to sit down and in the twelfth shot is a high angle shot to both show his shoulders and the food on the table.

This next shot begins with a fan behind him blowing his hair, making it seem holy and glorious. When he's about to take a bite, he's interrupted by the other character in the background. This is when the fan stops blowing and they exchange dialogue. During the dialogue, we're going to use pull focus. To show the audience that the other character is leaving we have a long shot of him apologising and walking off the frame. The main character then continues to eat and it ends with the 'HAPPINESS' title before it cuts to black.

Preliminary Task - Location

For our preliminary task we considered filming in a cafe nearby the school and of course we would be filming at school. Because our theme is food which links in with the theme of happiness, we decided that an actual cafe would fit the story. We didn't want to stick with using the canteen or the common room canteen because it wouldn't give the audience the specific atmosphere that we wanted the audience would feel. Going to a cafe would be more relatable than a school canteen. For a short film it can widen the target audience because it can relate to anyone at any age.

Cafe De Niro on the left
Graveney School on the right

Preliminary Task - Synopsis

When a man in the street suddenly notices how hungry he is, he begins his journey to the nearest cafe. The journey is brief, but as the man becomes hungrier, his mood declines quickly. However, he eventually gets the food he craves and he feels happy once again.

Preliminary Task

After being told what to do for our preliminary task, we started planning straight away. As we were given the theme of happiness we wanted to focus on food. Yesterday we started discussing what we plan on filming next Tuesday during our double lesson and we also had a list of camera shots that we should include in our short film. For example, we needed to include extreme close up, close up, medium close up, medium shot, mid-long shot, long shot, establishing shot, tilt, and high angle. Whilst we were working on the storyboards would try to include and tick off every shot so that we would have a variety of shots in our short film. Overall, we came up with 15 shots and we hope that this fits the 45 second- 60 second requirement. Moreover, we have two actors and a dialogue scene. We have also included points where we use shallow focus and pull focus.

Because we are filming next Tuesday we also needed to think about what to bring with us. We will need to bring a high quality recording camera, a telephoto lens for the shallow and pull focus, a microphone, a monopod and a tripod. For costume, we plan on sticking with whatever our main characters (Harry and Eddy) are wearing and for props we will need enough money to buy the food on the day and a strong fan for one of the shots.

What makes a 'short film' a short film?

In my opinion, I think that a short film consists of a topic explored and shown to its audience. I think that the shorter the film the better it is. There are many things that you can show to an audience in 4 or 5 minutes and if you are exploring a specific topic, you can easily tell a story. This can be shown by having a beginning, middle and end  to it but the overall narrative might begin when it ends. It can be part of a certain genre and a short film can barely have any dialogue. A short film can also tell its audience that there's a deeper meaning behind what they see because its more 'show' than tell.

Short films can make audiences engage quickly and they could do this through sound. For example, the horror genre focuses on non-diegetic music to create tension and an eerie atmosphere. Without the music, the film won't make the audience feel scared or threatened. In addition, in horror short films they use sound effects like whispers or gasps.

Short films can be featured in short film festivals like Tropfest and TV channels like ShortsTV, however, most short films do end up on YouTube.

'Knock' 2011 Short film Analysis

Knock (2011) Short Horror film Link

For this short film, there were three characters. The first character we're introduced with is a white blonde girl talking to her friend about studying. As you can see in the gif above, the camera pans to the left to show the audience our first/ main character; this gives a creepy atmosphere as if someone is watching her. Although the room is poorly lit, she wears a yellow top that brightens up the room. The colour of the apple logo on her laptop is red and this suggests the danger that's about to happen. It then cuts to a shot of the guy she is talking to. He is placed in the centre of the frame making the audience focus on him and this is when we're introduced to the second character. They exchange dialogue with the guy asking her questions for an upcoming test. Because its a video call, the close up on his face clearly show his facial expressions. Unlike the lighting in the girl's room, his background is white and well lit making it look better as an individual shot.

The last character that we're introduced to is a person/ thing that knocks on the door. This character creates suspense and tension without having to be in the shot. He/ she/ it is the main part of this short film. The camera shot used to create this tension are main horror conventions like a door thats slightly opened and the sounds used would be a phone ringing or something dropping on the floor. The director may have only used two characters that are seen on screen because it doesn't distract the audience from the idea that theres another character that is creating tension/ danger.

The story is constructed in a way where it doesn't follow the narrative theory. The ending is vague and it doesn't explain who has been knocking or what happened to her. At the very end we see an image of the girl but she's lying on the floor with the door open behind her.

The cinematography used in the beginning of this short film are mid shots and close ups. This helps show the audience her reactions through facial expressions. In addition, the lighting was very low key and it did not have back lighting that could help give her a slight glow so that she doesn't look part of the background.

The mise en scene used to convey meaning in this short film was not up to high standards. As she was wearing an ordinary yellow top and a pair of shorts, this helped the audience understand that she was ready for bed, therefore she went into the bathroom to brush her teeth but when she heard the knocking she went on to find the mysterious person/ thing. She dropped her toothbrush out of fear, but then picked up a baseball bat. During this there was a shot where it showed the audience the toothbrush. As you know, the lighting in this short film was already bad enough but this shot shows the only well lit thing which was the toothbrush. The sound used in this short film were minor chords and sting instruments. This is one of the many horror film conventions which helped create slight tension.

There are many areas which could be improved, for example the plot of this short film doesn't explain much and some certain shots don't flow. Another example would be the shots where she's trying to go to sleep and the camera focuses on the time. it begins with a shot of 00:01 on the clock and ends with 4:44 It also then cuts in between each with a close up of her face. This was not done very well because i feel like it was overdone and the certain times almost seem comical e.g. 4:44am They could improve by explaining the story more and take away all those high angle shots. Although it makes her look small and 'vulnerable,' it doesn't look right. They could also improve by having better lighting.

This makes it a short film because it has a beginning, middle and end to the story. Although it wasn't clear, it does introduce the characters and it does have conventions in relation to the chosen genre which is horror.