Props (Planning)

Props List

- Fake Blood
- Cigarettes
- Sweets

- Gym bag to Carrie the in 
- Sweets 

Escape Car 

- Mugs

- Desk lamp

- Radio

- News Paper

- Fake gun (maybe)
-Masks
-Table

Above you can see all the props that we plan to use for our shot film. the lamp will act as a on set light source to help light the actors faces (masks) while they divided the loot round the table. A sample of the props above can be found on site of the location, these include the lamp, Desk and Radio. Adrian has confirmed that he can take care of the gun. Jamel uses a gym bag as a school so we can use that. I will let Jamel and Adrian explain them in detail our reasoning behind each prop and the relevance it will have in our shot film

Costume (Summary)

So, regarding the costumes that we've got sorted out for our film we can concur:

• Adrian bought the Pig Mask. He also got the white shirts and black trousers sorted out. Adrian also made sure the shirts and trousers were tailored to each actor's height and build.
• Oli bought the Horse Mask and the Old Man Mask as well as putting the costumes together - he made sure that the actors could see properly through the masks and if they didn't fit he would send the masks back. 
• I did the bulk of the research for the costumes with assistance from my peers. The main inspirations for the costumes were from different films and games, as well as themselves being intertextual references to those that we were inspired by. We combined simplicity of the black and white which represents life and death - as well as being an intertextual reference to Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with the complexity of the masks which represented the personalities of the characters which we drew inspiration from Hotline Miami to put into our film.

Costume

So these are the three masks we are using for the characters in our short film. We purchased them off Amazon; while we did this, we took into account our budget. Rationing our money appropriately was central to the success of our short film - if we spent too much in the wrong direction, not only could we get ourselves in debt but we could also lack the necessary funds needed to purchase vital props and items, as well as renting any costumes (e.g. suits that our characters wear).

The masks that we have bought were shipped internationally, so we had to take that into account too. If we didn't purchase them in the correct time frame prior to our filming (in other words, if we didn't buy them before our allotted filming time), not only would we lose our filming slot but we would not get any of the filming done - unless we decided to film some of the scenes that didn't require all masks. However, this is not optimal as not only would require more working hours, but there is a large risk of the continuity editing errors unless we were meticulous in making sure our backgrounds, lighting and costumes were the same.

The Pig Mask

The Horse Mask

The Chicken Mask

This is a link to some gameplay for Hotline Miami:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_BinoS1Ug

These costumes are an intertextual reference to the cult videogame mentioned in a previous post - Hotline Miami. This is the most distinctive media text that I was inspired by to integrate into our costumes - especially since it upheld narrative enigma, as well as looking "interesting" since the masks aren't just the professional robber standard (a black balaclava or ski mask). So it was something different in that sense, which we felt would be less boring and less stereotypical.

The other half of the costume that we decided to integrate into our film are plain black suits OR smart clothing. E.g. white shirt, black trouser.

.
We got the idea of this from Reservoir Dogs. Reservoir Dogs is a popular film directed by Quentin Tarantino during the early 90s. Similar to Hotline Miami, Reservoir Dogs gained notoriety/still holds a reputation due to its violent nature, as well as being associated with Tarantino who is known for filming, producing and screenwriting movies that are popular due to their violent nature, E.g. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Django, Planet Terror etc.

As you can see, the suits that we are thinking of using are slightly similar in nature to the suits that the characters in the film are wearing (other than Joe and Nice Guy Eddie who are in plain clothing in the back). Because the characters in our short film are distinguished from our masks, there is no reason for there to be any specified names. For example 'Mr Pink' (furthest to the right), can be identified from 'Mr Blonde' (furthest to the left) though they're wearing matching suits. We have masks to identify our characters.

The other similarity between the two is the cult status they both hold, and Reservoir Dogs is still a popular film that is widely watched today and most possibly still will be in the future. Hotline Miami is still widely played though it came out several years ago.

Costume (Planning)

Intertextual references?
Symbolism?
Simple or Complex?

We are currently trying to figure out what is needed to make successful costumes for our movie. We know that it has to link to postmodernism somehow, so we need to create an intertextual reference to it. For the clothing we are thinking of something simplistic from popular postmodern movies that we have seen.
For example, Jules in Pulp Fiction and The Robbers in Reservoir Dogs have the same clothing pattern.

So the suits hit two birds with one stone. They mark our intertextuality check, and they also hit the simplicity that we are possibly looking for. However we want to accentuate the personality of the characters. We can do this through different means. Hair, Masks, Makeup etc. 

Our first thought was to get a friend who does makeup art to do the makeup for our characters. We could get something along the lines of The Joker, or Armies, Animals etc.

The main problem with this is re-shoots and continuity - if we need to re-shoot and an actor isn't available then we will have to redo shots - we can't superimpose faces onto other actors like they do professionally, which was an important point that Oli pointed out.

Adrian suggested that we look into similarly themed masks, such as those from horror films to exemplify the bad personalities of our characters, such as those below e.g. Cenobites from Hellraiser, such as chatterbox.

Oli suggests a milder approach to the costume - otherwise it'll be too distracting to the audience. They will be concentrating more on the costumes than the actual plot itself.

Thus we decided to put forward the idea of another costume that I saw in a game I'd played – Hotline Miami. They are all animalistic in nature and there is a wide variety to choose from, therefore we could possibly choose one to represent the personalities of the characters. See the examples below:

Target Audience (Summary)

Overall from Adrian's target audience research we can obtain that our short film will have a 60/40 gender split favoring males with a social class of A,B, and C1. Aspirational students with psychographics of the succeeder, aspirer and individualist can be concluded to be attracted towards our short film

Target Audience (Presentation)

Target Audience (Planning/Research)

We investigated our Target Audiences for short films, but unfortunately the case with short film is that the information regarding the demographics - ethnicity, gender, age and class, and the seven psychographics - were difficult to find because short film as a subculture of film is a niche, however the flip side of this is that the information regarding the audience that watch short film is going to be very specific. In Layman's terms, information on short film audiences are hard to find because not many people watch them, but when we do find information it's rich and gives us great(er) insight.

What we found in the information regarding the audiences is interesting.

They are of specific classes, and the average audience member of short film will most likely be in one of these classes:

• A
• B
• C1

As we can see, it's relatively limited to the top 3 demographics classes - however a large quantity of these audiences are composed of students which may explain the demographic better. This is because students are more exposed to short film as it is seen as a modern movement, and they will be more educated on it. This links to the age of short film audiences, most of them will be young due to fact that they are students, as well as the fact that short film is advertised through social media such as YouTube, Tumblr and Twitter - which is what younger people or generations are used to. They are also performed at social clubs for adolescents, such as Youth Centres and Art Cinemas. An example of one close to us is the old fire station that was renovated to become an arts centre.  This is not to say however, that older generations of people don't watch these films. They are just a much smaller percentage of the audience, however again linking to education they may be brought to it through general interest or due to the fact that their line of work is dictated around Media and Film. We can also assume word of mouth and association plays a part in this too, where audiences will bring friends and family along. 

The ethnicity of the audiences are mainly Caucasian - however this can be explained by a simple Geographical hypothesis. Short Films are much more prevalent in the West, e.g. Europe, America. Though these continents are multicultural for the most part, the largest ethnic demographic are Caucasians. Short films do not get much exposure either in relation to Box Office movies, thus the niche of demographic. 

The gender split of the audiences in short film is mainly 50/50, however in instances of it being edged more towards one sex it is usually towards females. This is because statistically females make up a larger percentage of Art colleges and courses - short film is sometimes seen as an artistic expression, therefore there is a larger probability if given enough exposure a short film can have a significant female audience.

The Psychographics of Short Film are:

• Succeeders: This stems from the fact that short films can provide a pathway for directors and people with an aspiration to do well in their line of work to achieve higher positions in the industry.
• Aspirers: Linking to the succeeders, aspirers could be freelance filmmakers or students out of college/university looking for a chance to succeed in their line of work and to break into the industry.
• Individualists: Individualists are separate and individual thinkers that are distanced from the majority or crowd. Because short films themselves are a niche, this gives individualists a chance to associate themselves with a minority group. Individualists also go against the trend and is seen as containing "Maverick Thinking", which is practically where original ideas are being implemented into X film. This can be seen through films such as The Gunfighter and Black Hole. 

Skeletal Storyline

Visual representation of a skeletal storyline.

We pitched the idea of the storyline by creating a skeleton which did not explicitly define the genre or narrative. It provided a shell or basic outline to go with, and was a mix of what we had explored through our textual analysis essays, and our investigations in genre and narrative in short film. At first we had conflicting ideas on what we wanted to do, but decided to implement what we thought was "the best" from each plot we conceived.

Robbers steal something. 

Plot leads up to the robbers emptying their bag

Something disturbs the equilibrium in the scene, e.g some of the stuff goes missing

They have a standoff

*Use foley effects for gunshots or digetic sound effects*

The character who steals it is caught but is dead

Final Initial Idea

As we had three initial ideas, we decided that the best course of action for our development in this project and to find a compromise, we decided to take what we thought was best in each and place it into the storyline for our script.

What we have decided to put into the film

• So our film will include the costumes that we saw were an intertextual reference to Hotline Miami.
• The costumes that we were inspired by from Reservoir Dogs – more intertextual references.
• A slight "action" transcript that we pitched from the second initial idea. Adrian was inspired by films such as The Matrix and Losses (the short film he analysed. The Matrix in itself is a postmodern short film that exploits the genre of "Gun-Fu", which we decided to implement into the storyline. This will be shown through a Mexican Standoff.
• We decided to take what we liked in the Western genre (Mexican standoffs), and what we saw in The Heist and Reservoir Dogs as well as Pulp Fiction with the crime-thriller genre.

What we have decided to omit

• Dialogue. We know how we wanted the story to develop but we didn't want to rely on the dialogue to take us from point A to B "do, not say" – we want to rely on the shots, mise-en-scene and body language of the actors themselves. This is prevalent in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ending. No dialogue is used and the shots, crescendo in music and body language as well as editing pace are used to create a successful scene.
• The narrator. Like with the dialogue, we decided to omit it.
• The alien. The alien was just used to make an absurd storyline. The general consensus was that it mainly wasn't needed. Indeed it would most likely have confused the audiences as it does not fit well with the generic convention of using few and simple characters.

Initial Idea (Adrian Pitch)

Over the summer holidays I came up with a number of ideas for our film. The following is the one I pitched to the group:

Black screen. 

Writing fades onto the black background. “They say that the moment you die, your life flashes before your eyes.”

Establishing shot, showing the location. Nighttime. Protagonist is being pulled into the frame. 

Cut to the first scene as a bag is being pulled off the protagonist’s head.

Close up on the protagonist (P)’s face. He looks stressed and exhausted, but not scared.

Slow zoom out to a medium long shot reveals that there is a gun pointed at his head by a henchman (H). P is tied to a chair.

Cut to the Antagonist (A), who is walking around in the room.

SRS and mainly CUs used for the following conversation.

A: “We have been through this often enough. What is the code?!”

P: “I’m not telling you anything!”

A: “In that case I regret to say that you are no longer of any value to me. (To the henchman) Kill him!”

As the henchman pulls the trigger, slow motion is used. The camera moves away from the ECU on the trigger and moves around the protagonist. Slow motion is still in effect.

((Then, the camera moves above the protagonist, showing the whole scene from a bird’s-eye view.))

At this moment, the protagonist’s flashback begins.

In a few very short scenes with hardly, if any, diegetic sound, we see extracts from P’s life (his parents holding him as a baby, him walking as a child, etc).

As we approach the present, the scenes get longer, giving not only a bit more background info on who P is and his relationship to A, but also explaining how he got into this situation.

However, the flashback then reveals a weak spot of the henchman (e.g. when he ties P to the chair): A combat knife attached to his leg. The fact that this is of major importance is corroborated by a CU on the knife.

Suddenly the flashback ends. The protagonist, previously in a seemingly hopeless situation, grabs the knife and stabs the henchman in the leg, just as the latter pulls the trigger.

The bullet misses its target, we can hear H scream in pain. Cut to A who turns around, looking surprised and, as he realises what has happened, scared.

A short hand to hand fight between P and H leaves H defeated.

A tries to flee. P grabs the knife and throws it at A.

Camera follows the knife as it flies through the room, then cut so we see A from the front as he collapses: The knife hit its target.

So, this is the idea I came up with. Being a fan of action-adventure films I wanted my movie to be of this genre.

I included generic conventions of both, the action-adventure generic hybrid, as well as of short films.

The narrative follows the typical pattern for short films with equilibrium, disequilibrium and a twist, features only a small number of actors and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats.

Initial Idea (Oli Pitch)

Here is a brain storm of my initial ideas that I pitched to the group. 

Initial Idea (Jamal Pitch)

Initially when we first considered going down the route of making a short film, we brainstormed several ideas regarding the plot and initial ideas which related to the Action-Thriller genre which is the genre we firstly wanted to use in our movie. However, as our knowledge of short films developed and we realised there is a large percentage of films that do not correlate around the genre of Action-Thriller and is geared more post-modernism and "quirky"/skewed perceptions, we decided to follow into that style of filming and the plots that usually follow those.


We have realised that postmodernism acts on creating hyperbolic situations in a variety of narratives, to destroy "suspension of disbelief" because the narrative, camera angles and mise en scene combine to created a distorted perception of the situation. For example, Blade Runner used post-modernism to create an unbelievable fantasy world, where 40s fashion and the idea of AI have carried into modern day - with a twist. Kill Bill, uses post modernism to create a hyperbolic narrative, that combines both "Western themes" with "Eastern screenplay" which results in an unbelievable film (literally speaking) - e.g. theme of revenge, and Western music paralleled with Eastern narrative, dialogue, screenplay and culture. The short film "The Gunfighter" plays on the Western genre of films, and links the audience and the film through the narrator, where all the characters are aware of his presence. - again, creating an unbelievable situation.

What we have decided to do, is practically create an unbelievable film like the prior two mentioned. We used ideas we got from films that Myself, Adrian and Oli watched - such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, as well as Short Films - such as 2&2, The Gunfighter, and The Heist. What resulted was a mixture of the aftermath of a bank robbery, an unconventional loot and weapons, as well as masks that I was inspired by the game below to include.

Hotline Miami's cover. You'll see how the costumes you see on the front relate to our film when you visit the "Costume" section.

Just some brainstorm I put together 

A2 Short Film Analysis (Hide and Seek)

1. Shooting material appropriate
Controlled use of camera 1/3
The camera is not very controlled throughout the film. Camera movement is is hardly present and shots are often unsteady.
Attention to framing 1/3
The framing does not appear to be thought through and is badly executed. In many places, tighter framing would have been more appropriate.
Variety of shot sizes 2/3
A number of different shot sizes were used, such as wide shots, medium shots and close ups.
Close attention to mise en scene 1/3
The narrative would have allowed for very interesting mise en scene, however once again, there is a lot of room for improvement. The location is very basic. Costumes and make-up are simple, but effective. The acting is poor, however the main characters are children, so this has to be taken into account. The lighting is not controlled.

2. Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
Making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions 2/4
A small number of different transitions were used, however not always appropriate and there could have been a lot more work put into this.
Making selective and appropriate use of captions 1/4
Although existend, the captions used were close to unreadable
Making selective and appropriate use of other effects 2/4
Dark filter put on the scenes set in the past.

3. Recording and editing sound with images appropriately 5/16
Relationship between images and sound is poor. The song 'Candy' is played whilst a young girl plays hide and seek. Voices are too quiet multiple times throughout the film. Cut are generally very obvious which breaks the continuity.

Total marks: 15/40

Level 2:
There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills.

I find that a very low Level 2 rating is appropriate for this piece of work as it is basic throughout. There are some criteria where the candidate proved higher ability, such as including a variety of shot sizes, however this alone does not justify a grade higher than a low level 2.

Here are a number of screen shots from the film to justify my grading:

'Candy' by Robbie Williams – not fitting to the little girl

These captions are barely readable

Close up

Interesting shot

Captions not aesthetically pleasing

Difference between past and present,
most likely achieved throuh a filter added in post.

Diffrence between past and present

This shot could have been a lot tighter

Watch Hide and Seek here.

A2 Short Film Analysis (Stranded)

1. Shooting material appropriate
Including controlled use of camera 1/3
The use of camera movement was poor and in some cases inappropriate to the film
Attention to framing 1.5/3
The framing is average.
Variety of shot sizes 1.5/3
Some shots used. (Not an exhaustive list) Wide shots, medium shots, high and low shots.
Attention to mise en scene 1/3
The attention to MIS is again, average at best. The killer's casual sneakers are seen beneath the black sheet that he/she wears.

2. Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
Making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions 1.5/4

The shot transitions are not fluid, thus making it seem amateur.

Making selective and appropriate use of captions 3/4
Appropriate captions were used throughout the film as needed.
Making selective and appropriate use of other effects 2/4

Lack of effects used, however there are some cuts and fade ins and outs.

3. Recording and editing sound with images appropriately 11/16

Some implementation of appropriate diagetic sound, e.g. engine rattling, relevent tone of music, diagetic music from radio, screams. Dialogue was poor, however

Total marks: 22.5/40

Level 2

I find that a Level 2 rating is appropriate for this coursework as it meets the criteria listed above to a mediocre standard.

Here are a number of screen shots from the film to justify my grading:

A2 Short Film Analysis (Dolper)

1. Shooting material appropriate
Including controlled use of the camera 2/3
Throughout the film they display a sophisticated level of camera control.
Attention to framing 3/3
Its clear extensive planning into there shots. Great shot compositions
Variety of shot sizes 3/3
Everything from extreme close ups to wide shots have been used
Close attention to mise en scene 3/3
A clear attention to the props, setting and clothing
2. Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
Making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions 4/4
A lovely array of shot transitions have been used

Making selective and appropriate use of captions 4/4
the captions have been carefully to great effect

Making selective and appropriate use of other effects 4/4
realistic gun shots and mysterious noises are two good examples of appropriate use of effects.

3. Recording and editing sound with images appropriately 15/16
everything flows well together demonstrating a sophisticated, well edited film.

Total marks:39/40

Level: 4
The film demonstrated a creative and sophisticated selection of shots, effects, captions and mise en scene which resulting in them only dropping one mark on recording and editing.

Appropriate titles added in post production

Shallow focus

Close up

Pull focus

Over the shoulder shot

High angle shot

Effects added in post production

Appropriate titles

A2 Short Film Analysis (AQUA)

1. Shooting material appropriate
Including controlled use of camera 3/3
The camera is very controlled throughout the whole film. Camera movement is motivated and shots are steady where appropriate.
Attention to framing 3/3
The framing is very well thought through and executed.
Variety of shot sizes 3/3
A large number of different shot sizes were used. There are wide shots, close ups and over the shoulder shots, just to name a few.
Close attention to mise en scene 3/3
The mise en scene in this movie is very well set out. A number of (different rooms and the sea) are featured. Costumes and make-up are appropriate. The acting is good. The lighting fits well with the narrative.

2. Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
Making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions 3/4
A number of different transitions were used, however not always appropriate.
Making selective and appropriate use of captions 4/4
Captions were used appropriately both for the credits as well as the two quotes at the beginning and end of the film.
Making selective and appropriate use of other effects 3/4
A number of effects were used, however not always looking very realistic.

3. Recording and editing sound with images appropriately 13/16
Although this criterion applies more for music videos than for short films, the relationship between sound and images is exceptional. The music accelerates and decelerates where appropriate and sound effects are frequently used in clever ways (e.g. the whoosh during the crash zoom into the phone).

Total marks: 35/40

Level 4:
The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills.

I find that a Level 4 rating is appropriate for this coursework as it meets the criteria listed above consistently and to a high standard.

Here are a number of screen shots from the film to justify my grading:

A quote which drives the narrative – good use of captions

Brilliant mise en scene, as shown here by an under-water shot

Lightning, added in post – good use of effects

Range of interesting shots

Range of interesting shots

Range of interesting shots

Camera movement – a pan accross the cupboard

Pull focus

Well thought through framing, allowing the audience to see
what is going on in the background

Parallel action

Watch AQUA here