A2 Media Studies Introduction
Hello, I'm Megan and I've just started my second year of Media Studies, in which I will be creating a short film in which I will also produce two ancillaries to accompany it. In my first lesson I have watched a series of different short films that were made by either Disney animators, aspiring filmmakers that have went on to be very successful, and short films that have been made by past students.
I have chosen 3 short films of the several I have watched, as I feel as they were very good in narrative, micro techniques, and execution.
Disney Animation:
I like this animation due to it being all in black and white, hence you forget about stylistic choices of the piece, but more about the narrative of the story. There is also no dialogue in this short film, hence micro techniques have to be used efficiently to portray the story easily to the audience so they can understand what is going on. For example, the establishing shot shows a man in the left third of the frame, showing negative space on the right side, therefore symbolising how he has no one to accompany him and may feel lonely.
Furthermore due to the lack of dialogue, this piece used sound effects and music to make up for the lack of narrative told through speech. There is a steady use of the piano, and also uses a lot of ambient sounds in the piece like the sound of the train.
This is something I'd like to take influence from as I feel as that sound is a very important factor when creating a film, as it can set a tone. Movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Drive are successful films known for their infamous soundtracks, hence supporting my idea of the micro technique being a very important one.
Aspiring Filmmaker:
This short film was created by Spike Jonze, who is known for his contribution to films like Where The Wild Things Are, and Her. He even has created many successful music videos, like Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, which was his breakthrough point.
I like this short film because of it's quirkiness of the music, and the innocence of the character as they're copying each other, to create a comedic tone. However, it has a twist at the end which makes it very tragic, hence becoming a hybrid. I think the mix of genres is very clever as the audience can feel several emotions from only a few minutes of footage, and could appeal to a wider audience as people usually decide what film they want to watch depending on the genre, therefore if a movie is a hybrid, there is a higher chance of more people wanting to watch it.
Something that I'd like the take influence from this short film, is the cinematography. There is an orchestration of angles as Hitchcock would say, as there is a variety of shot sizes, angles, and movements. It makes the piece more interesting to watch as there is more to pay attention to.
Past Student:
This short film was created by a media student like me, and I quite like it for it's narrative but most importantly for it's use of lighting. There is like a yellow tinge to the scenes, that accompanies the low key lighting, making it look very off putting and dingy. You can tell nothing is quite right. This is something I'd like to take influence from because of how the lighting sets the genre. You couldn't really use this lighting in the short film by Spike Jonze's due to his film being very quirky and light hearted in the start, however this one seems very dark, mysterious, and tense.
Another Aspiring Filmmaker:
This is a Short Film created by Jamin Winans, who went on to make films like Ink and The Frame. This adheres to being a good short film as it has a simple narrative, as it consists of a guy who can rewind time, and tries to find a perfect solution. It has a shark bite opening due to the tragedy that occurred among the citizens. Furthermore, it only has a select few characters and they all pay an important role to the narrative, to keep it going and keep the audience interested due to all the accidents they get in.
I'd take influence from the editing of this film, because it is very cleverly done due to the face paced scenes where he opens and closes his deck to rewind time, to emphasise how much he has done this due to the speed and ease he opens them.
I have chosen 3 short films of the several I have watched, as I feel as they were very good in narrative, micro techniques, and execution.
Disney Animation:
I like this animation due to it being all in black and white, hence you forget about stylistic choices of the piece, but more about the narrative of the story. There is also no dialogue in this short film, hence micro techniques have to be used efficiently to portray the story easily to the audience so they can understand what is going on. For example, the establishing shot shows a man in the left third of the frame, showing negative space on the right side, therefore symbolising how he has no one to accompany him and may feel lonely.
Furthermore due to the lack of dialogue, this piece used sound effects and music to make up for the lack of narrative told through speech. There is a steady use of the piano, and also uses a lot of ambient sounds in the piece like the sound of the train.
This is something I'd like to take influence from as I feel as that sound is a very important factor when creating a film, as it can set a tone. Movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Drive are successful films known for their infamous soundtracks, hence supporting my idea of the micro technique being a very important one.
Aspiring Filmmaker:
This short film was created by Spike Jonze, who is known for his contribution to films like Where The Wild Things Are, and Her. He even has created many successful music videos, like Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, which was his breakthrough point.
I like this short film because of it's quirkiness of the music, and the innocence of the character as they're copying each other, to create a comedic tone. However, it has a twist at the end which makes it very tragic, hence becoming a hybrid. I think the mix of genres is very clever as the audience can feel several emotions from only a few minutes of footage, and could appeal to a wider audience as people usually decide what film they want to watch depending on the genre, therefore if a movie is a hybrid, there is a higher chance of more people wanting to watch it.
Something that I'd like the take influence from this short film, is the cinematography. There is an orchestration of angles as Hitchcock would say, as there is a variety of shot sizes, angles, and movements. It makes the piece more interesting to watch as there is more to pay attention to.
Past Student:
This short film was created by a media student like me, and I quite like it for it's narrative but most importantly for it's use of lighting. There is like a yellow tinge to the scenes, that accompanies the low key lighting, making it look very off putting and dingy. You can tell nothing is quite right. This is something I'd like to take influence from because of how the lighting sets the genre. You couldn't really use this lighting in the short film by Spike Jonze's due to his film being very quirky and light hearted in the start, however this one seems very dark, mysterious, and tense.
Another Aspiring Filmmaker:
This is a Short Film created by Jamin Winans, who went on to make films like Ink and The Frame. This adheres to being a good short film as it has a simple narrative, as it consists of a guy who can rewind time, and tries to find a perfect solution. It has a shark bite opening due to the tragedy that occurred among the citizens. Furthermore, it only has a select few characters and they all pay an important role to the narrative, to keep it going and keep the audience interested due to all the accidents they get in.
I'd take influence from the editing of this film, because it is very cleverly done due to the face paced scenes where he opens and closes his deck to rewind time, to emphasise how much he has done this due to the speed and ease he opens them.
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