Short Film "8"

After looking through some short films as part of my product research, this specific production, "8" stood out for me the most.

This is a short film based upon two characters in an unknown war time following their game of  'cat and mouse'.

I found that this mainly stood out  because of  it's use of direct address and the range of close up shots it uses on the characters to emphasize their emotions, or in this case lack of emotion.

Another reason why I enjoyed it was because of the pace of the story line. Personally I found it a challenge during my AS production to get the pace right, so that the audience isn't waiting too long for the build up but at the same time making sure the rhythm of the piece isn't too quick; this is one of the reasons why admired this production so much, because I felt it got the balance just right. I wasn't waiting for too long for the outcome to lose interest but it wasn't too fast that it missed it's potential for dramatic tension.

I also liked the lack of dramatic musical soundtrack, as it made the situation more realistic and raw for the viewer. The diegetic sound was very sharp which fit with the serious and intense topic of which this short production was based upon.  

'Feel Good' songs!

One of my ideas for a music video involves using a popular, sing a - long, feel good classic that everyone knows but often forgets about... so preferably not a recent song.

To start off my audience research I have gathered a list of popular 'Feel Good' songs and  asked people which of those songs are:

1) Their favorite feel good song (maybe to dance and sing along to)
2) which of these songs they thought would be most popular/ best known

The List of  'Feel Good' songs were:

• I'm a Believer - Smash Mouth (The Monkees)
• 500 Miles - The Proclaimers 
• Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
• Don't Stop Me Now - Queen 
• Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
• Dancing In The Moonlight - Toploader
• Don't Stop Believing - Journey
• Don't Stop (thinking about tomorrow) - Fleetwood Mac
• Faith - George Michael
• Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
• Living On a Prayer- Bon Jovi

The two most popular answers for question one were:
Dancing In The Moonlight  (most popular)
Don't Stop Me Now (second most popular

For the second question the most popular results were:
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (most popular)
500 Miles (second most popular)

As for personal choice, it's between 'Dancing In The Moonlight' and 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go'. Depending on what ideas and research I come up with, I will not yet be making a final decision.

Product Brief (Music)

The brief i have decided to go for is:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
- A website homepage for the band
- A cover for its release on DVD
- A magazine advertisement for the DVD 

I have chosen this brief as i feel that I will be able to work with it more effectively as apposed to the other briefs because of my strong interest in the music industry.

Short story Music video

This is one of Rudimental's music videos called 'Waiting all night'. I chose this music video because it links with both of the briefs that I chose to explore. As well as it being a music video it has the structure of a short film. 

During this video I picked up on a few elements of film language that I would like to look into as I found that the collective use of them was very effective and feel that I may like to eventually incorporate them into my product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97vR2V4vTs

I personally like the use of the handheld camera. It makes the audience feel more involved in the situation, like you are actually experiencing it with them. This is a technique I would like to explore as i feel there is a very fine line between it being effective and it looking cheep.

Another technique that was used was direct address.

I think it is very important and effective the way we see a character's story and the impact of a life changing event. As well as having a very powerful and  dramatic story line it is also one of inspiration, and has a very uplifting ending as we have seen the character build on his struggles and eventually get through them. This is a form of structure I would like to look into a bit more as it has had a huge emotional and thought provoking effect on it's audience.

I like the transformation from diegetic sound at the beginning of the video to the backing sound of the song. I would like to experiment with mixing diegetic sound and backing track in the context of  music video and I think it can be used really effectively to draw in the audience.

Narrowing down the briefs

In today's lesson we touched upon the different briefs available for the A2 course. 

After the lesson I went through the briefs and eliminated the ones that didn't stand out or interest me as much as the two that I managed to narrow it down to.

The first brief is:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three option:

- A website homepage for the band 

- A cover for it's release on DVD

- A magazine advertisement for the DVD 

For this brief I would create a music video as well as a magazine advertisement and a website homepage for the band. I am very keen to look further into this brief  as I am interested in a wide range of music and and therefore I am constantly involved with the different forms and elements of media the music industry surrounds itself with.

The second brief is:

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

-A poster for the film

-A radio trailer for the film

-A film magazine review page featuring the film.

I am interested in short films as i like the concept of being able to tell a story or depict a situation in such a short space of time and I like how the combination of different techniques can have such an impact without lasting the standard 2 hours of a feature length film.