Tuesday, 11 December 2012

First Filming Plan! - Johs Dom, John



Filming plan for Friday 14th December

We will take a numbered copy of all the shots that we have in our story board and cross them off as we film them. This way we will get all the shots that we need to get, and not waste much time.

The following is a plan of the day we are filming on Friday

Dom and Josh in Brighton pick up gear 12:15

Dom and Josh in Brighton by 12:45-1:00

Make way to seafront whilst taking hand shots of following
·         Interesting shops?, i.e the lanes? The historic weapon shop? Cake shops?
·         The pavilion
·         Both piers
·         Interesting vehicles i.e Vespa
·         Fruit stall?
·         Sea life
·         The sea
·         Watch tower (contradicting because of time difference)
·         Couple on bench
·         Family at beach
·         Flowers if seen
·         Other interesting/fell good events places on the day

Get plenty of content so we can film all shots involving Callum before it gets dark

At 1:20 John and Callum head down to Brighton
John takes shots of Callum on train and train itself

At 2:00 or earlier all meet to do shots in the station.

Then head down to the seafront. Whilst heading down, film the shots of the street walks and front walks.

Once at the sea front film all reaction shot involving Callum, and traveling shot involving callum

Sunday 16th of December

Josh and Dom film shot of the downs.

Monday, 10 December 2012

Health and safety considerations

The most dangerous location that we will be filming at will be Brighton station. Trains are constantly arriving and departing the station so we need to be aware of them. Especially early in the morning, hundreds of commuters arrive at Brighton to go to work. We need to be cautious of other people on the platforms. To get around this, we should make it clear that we are filming, by displaying signs.

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Script


Monologue Script






Introduction
Monday, one hour twenty-two hours, (Pause, looks at watch ) 7 seconds till work. Sometimes I feel like I'm a slow motion person in a fast paced world. Everybody else just rushes past me, fighting to get to work, earn money, go home, eat dinner and go to bed. No idea that the world  they are drudging around in is actually picturesque, if you take the time to stop and look at it. Why do they take this world for granted?




you see, when you go througbn life too fast, you don't notice/see the little things, that make it special

theyre (the bottyful things) not going anywhere, but they are (the workers)

1 minute (pause looks at watch) 23 seconds. baclk to the fairytale/reality whioch one?

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Locations: Update - John, Dom

We decided early on that we'd need a place with "a view" to film at - and the closest, cheapest, most known location near us is Brighton. We'll be filming mainly on the sea front and in and around the lanes on the way.



Originally, we had the idea of going to London and filming there - this fell through, however, as travel to and from is quite expensive compared to going somewhere closer like Brighton. Chances are, we'd have to make multiple trips in order to get all the footage we had wanted. This isn't too difficult to do if we go to Brighton, as the trip only costs a few pounds, and takes roughly 10 minutes.

by John

Below our a few snapshots of our potential Locations.

Brighton Station

Brighton Train Station 
this would be good for showing the protagonists commute, however, we are wary of the practicality of this.

Greenwhich
London (Greenwich)
 As mentioned above by John, the cost of travel is just too much for us! Also, the setting is very recognisable to be near canary wharf/ the city and we don't want it to seem as if he has a well paid, top job associated with this: i.e he is 'stuck in a rut'. We didn't want to give that impression so we dropped this location. As you can tell it was raining a lot on the day I took the picture! Weather is definitely a consideration when filming as most of our film takes place outside. We will take this into consideration for effect. i.e we don't want it to be raining as it suggests sadness, we aren't really considering using pathetic fallacy

Brighton Seaside
Brighton Seaside
this is more what we had in mind: as Brighton is mentioned above. This shows the tranquillity that he escapes to. The practical side of it also mentioned above by John

Brighton seems like the winning choice. Its busy with a large town environment, enough to get across our idea of the rush and dull humdrum of the 9-5 pace  etc. It has the beach amongst other things that we can show, where he escapes: not to mention the pier.

By Dom



Actors - Josh

Actors

For our main character, we have chosen Callum Twigg from Drama and Theatre Studies at Haywards Heath. This is because Callum has had plenty of acting experience in productions outside the college and can look the part for our short film. For our main female character, we have chose Molly Lavender.   This is because Molly is also studying drama at college. She has appeared in a number of productions, including Bugsy Malone and chorus roles in MAD Productions. In one clip of our short film, there will be a shot of a elderly couple sitting on a bench from behind. The actors who play these characters is unknown. We hope there will be some elderly people waling along the beach that would want to appear in our film for a few seconds. 

Animatic - Dom, Josh, John

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Initial Sound Ideas - Dom

One idea for a soundtrack light hearted guitar rift for example. Something to convey a uplifting mood and then get more deep and romantic when needed. I.e when he meets the girl the same music could be played to symbolise. Also when the character takes a snapshot, we are likely to use some non diegetic sound to symbolise. Not necessarily an obvious camera noise, but possibly a subtle click, kept consistent throughout.

As we are in a large town by the coast, diegetic sounds such as seagulls, cars, crowds, horns etc will need to be added to get a sense of the bustle around him. they could also be quietened when he is capturing a scene to emphasise the way he picks out things other people would miss.

Their will also be a monologue over our film. the main character will be describing why he is taking these shots. Ideally his voice should be cheery and not too harsh to fit the uplifting mood

Narration voice and style would be similar to this virgin media short peoples choice award winner. PJ lucky 13: Tiny Planet Explorer


These are few examples of the kind of soundtracks we are considering.
Example 1
Alternatively, if copyright is a problem, our friend is a musician who has been playing guitar for many years. He has agreed to help out in the production of a soundtrack. This holds advantages such as we can  tailor our own soundtrack to the film. However it would have to be all composed after the footage had been edited.

Here is an example of his music.

Another possible style of soundtrack is something like the one used in Little Larry. It reminds me of routine and the monotonous working life our character is in.



Synopsis - Dom

We follow one day in the life of our main character who see's the world a little differently from the rest of us. He focuses on the positive points of his day and the things around him that make his day special and  remembers them. He  'captures the moment' as a memory.  we show his way of seeing the world around him, by looking through his hands  and 'taking a snapshot' of the moment. Whether this be people places or events that occur that make his day that extra bit special, despite the omniscient monotonous 9-5 outlook on life. Our character captures, memories and cherishes them that make his day that bit brighter. However, he still feels he hasn't found the one event that will not just make one day brighter, but every day brighter.

The character starts off in an opening shot on top of a large hill overlooking the valley beneath: where the film is set. His occupation is a dull going nowhere admin job, for a small data collection firm: we will show this via costume and props, hence why he escapes by capturing moments and focusing on the good points of the day. Travelling, from work with, he envisages and captures little things that make his day. For example, one is a picture of a beach the other an old couple on a bench or another idea is the beach and waves crashing against the pier etc. So basically, he is commuting, and he picks out things that make his day special, yet he is looking for something that will make everyday brighter: this is at the end when he meets the girl which he previously saw through his hands.A monologue explaining his 'frames' will help the audience associate the main character with not being a bit of a stalker. soundtrack when he see's the girl will also get across the point its a romantic thing not a stalker thing.

Essentially, he captures the special moments on his commute that make his day amazing: concludes with meeting the girl on way home from work. Possible switch between saturated colour and vibrancy to show this.

Inspiration from american beauty: the idea of taking images.

The monologue in Love Sick  gave us the idea to use it in our own film because it gives a more in depth reason to why he is capturing memories.

Also, we want our monologue to be in a similar style to this and Tiny Planet Explorer

First tests for the hand camera - Josh Brown

For our short film, we had an idea that our main character, could use his hands as a camera. He could simply hold up his hands in a square shape, and just take a photo of the object he is admiring. In order for the picture to stay in the square shape made by his hands, we had to do some tests. Below are our first tests using a green screen, trying to get the image to stay inside the hands.


 This was our very first test. We stuck a small square of green card to the back of Josh's hands and moved them around the frame and tracked them with the camera. We then imported this movie file into Final Cut Pro to see what the clip would look like if the image behind the hands would move with the hands on the green screen.



This was our first attempt at trying to move the image with Josh's hands. As you can see from the clip, the image moves around inside the hands, this looks very unprofessional. Our media technician said if we used Adobe After Effects, we could anchor the image to my hands, meaning we would not have to use the green screen which is much easier because even during our very first test we found it hard. 


As you can see in this clip we did not use the green screen as a base for the image in the hands. After Effects allowed us to simply anchor the image to the hands. We noticed a significant improvement in image movement. This looks far more impressive.

Josh Brown

Evolution of our Plot - By John

Our plot has gone through several different versions incorporating the idea of capturing memories. We decided against making the main character be on his death bed, looking back over life. The original idea was for him to go back to key moments and remember them, as though his life was flashing before his eyes. A similar idea we had was of someone who looked back on all the things he couldn't do, and tried to relive them in his head.

The plot line we decided to stick with is far more feel good. The main character goes through a day of his life and frames parts the wants he wants to remember with his hands, much like a photographer would if they wanted to see what a scene might look like. He does this throughout the film, and highlights what he enjoys, what he likes about his day. Midway through, we would have our protagonist walk passed a girl whom he admires. He would frame her like the rest of his enjoyable moments, and move on with his day. Right at the end, in the last scene, they would cross paths again, and this time they go to frame each other at the same time.

Originally, the protagonist and the girl would be going around taking these hand pictures of each other in alternating scenes. However, this didn't make much of a plot, nor did it leave any feeling of feel good. If anything, it was far more creepy than romantic. We were going to have them meet and frame each other in the end, just like our final plot line.

Our plot then evolved into just following the protagonists interaction with this girl, and taking "pictures" with his hand. This, however, gave off the completely wrong idea and made the film seem far more creepy than feel good. In an attempt to fix this, we decided that a monologue would be needed to portray the main character's emotions correctly - which we eventually kept in our final idea as well.

The process that we have gone through has been extremely helpful for the evolution of our plot line, without it we'd be stuck with a story that just wasn't gripping enough, or we couldn't get 5 minutes out of. Going through several iterations of the same idea has created more and more ideas and has, when brought all together, after trimming off the excess, has given us a relatively good plot for our film.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Ideas and inspriation

We had an idea that took inspiration from the latest Motorola Razr UK advert.Motorola RAZR UK Commercial. The last clip in the advert shows a woman's hand acting as a camera taking pictures of a running dog. We had similarly the same idea but instead of a solid hand we would make a hand shape like this, and use the empty space inside the hands as a viewing screen.

Monday, 19 November 2012

Applying 5 key concepts to short films - John Hodge

Dream Girl - By Alice Seabright

The film follows a young man on the subway, who promptly gets into a usually "awkward" situation - a passenger falls asleep on him.

There is lots about this film I love - the realism, the sound, the camera work - it just portrays so much without even having the characters talk.

Representation

Daily commuters appear to be the only consistent social group represented in this short film. As they travel by train, presumably daily, this situation might be quite common - especially having the seating the same way they did in the film. Stereotypically, the reaction would be of annoyance, having the person who was fallen asleep on either getting up and moving, or just pushing them off. On the contrary, the male is very gentle when he attempts to push her off his shoulder when he arrives at his stop. This, however, is quite stereotypical in the fact it's a woman he's dealing with - but as she was sleeping it could either be trying not to wake her up out of courtesy, whether or not she was a woman.

The situation feels very real - the diegetic sound, setting and actors all contribute towards this. It's almost like a constructed documentary, if I had to label it. Because the situation is a familiar one for most of us, there's no need to add anything extra to put the situation into context. Thus why we are dumped into the scene as though we are also sitting inside the train.






Because this situation is one we are familiar with, and have witnessed, the seat we are given in this shot feels very similar. It seems as though Dream Girl is trying to take a (relatively) common situation, and spin it in it's head.

It appears like this film is trying to question how some of us react to others on public transport. Rather than with delicacy and understanding, we seem to jump to conclusions that they are being inconsiderate of their situation. Much like in this scene, except the passengers react differently. It's more of an "Oh, now what?" reaction, rather than one of distaste.





The faces pulled are meant to give off a sort of comic effect, in addition to portraying the fact that they aren't too fussed about it, and could be also from familiarity of the situation as well.

Narrative

The story consists of all that happens within and just outside the doors of the train, so we have no idea where the woman was before she got on the train. We have no idea why she's tired, but that's because it's not an important aspect of the story - all that we need to know is that she is tired and accidentally fell asleep on someones shoulder. Obviously, one implies the other, we just do not know any specific details.

A linear narrative also helped with the realism of this film, time flows like it should.

Todorov's theory of narrative structure can be applied to this short film. The equilibrium is before the woman falls asleep on the guys shoulder, with the falling asleep on the shoulder being the disruption. It appears that this short film has multiple equilibrium's and disruptions, as when the guy pushes her off and leaves, he decides to come back into the train and let her keep lying on his shoulder, meaning that the original disruption became equilibrium, making the guy getting up to leave the disruption, leaving the resolution being the moment he sits back down and pulls her back over.


Genre

This film, from my own knowledge, appears to bring something slightly new and quirky to the table. It is extremely realistic, with only a few camera shots of outside of the train, whereas the rest are inside. It also feels as though you are jumping around to different people's points of view, instead of just viewing it from to the side or above as an all-seeing all-knowing spectator.

Audience

As I found the film on VirginMediaShorts, I'd expect those who are passionate about film to watch this. In addition to this, any other short film makers might be interested. In addition to this, those who daily travel on public transport may appreciate this more than those who commute by car - sharing a train with someone as opposed to being alone in a car on the way to work.

The fact that this film plays on one very well known and extremely embarrassing event that could happen on public transport would be very appealing to the viewer. The ending also, the fact he goes back into the train and lets her sleep on his shoulder again - the social norm would be to just go to your destination, but the guy made a decision to stay with the girl.


  • Tivo Award Winner 2012 (VirginMediaShorts)



LUCKY 13: PJ, Tiny Planet Explorer 

"A boys journey through the universe to find a wondrous new planet to explore."

Another winner from VMS2012, I chose this film because it's story telling was fantastic, and personally appealed to me in it's references. While a simple premise, the film maker does a lot to make it stand out and make it entertaining.

Representation



Only one social group appears to be portrayed in this film - the late teens early twenties young male. This is clearly portrayed through the use of props, such as many things a child would have had in the 1990s. This male is in a situation where he wants to move planet, which is an exaggerated version of moving out of home and into their own house. And in this particular representation, he is shown to be indecisive, as having a lack of direction and above all completely unprepared. The edited shots of the "small planets", showed him going from one play to another after something about the planet he had found didn't sit well with him. "My new home was made not by choice, but by lack of preparations." The changes made to the film, and having them loop around to meet each other, completely warps out perception of that world. They use the distortion of the characters figure to help portray the fact that it wasn't particularly easy being on these planets, with his "molecular structure" being messed around with.



The style, overall, is very quirky and comedic, which was influenced by the audience, which was in turn influenced by the moral. By having a young man play a role where he goes to move to another planet, you are trying to appeal to an audience who were kids in the 90s - thus the reason for the 90s references, such as the Gameboy, Zelda Ocarina and Mario underwear. This is popular culture that would be recognised by the target audience. This also appears to be aimed at just females, if going by stereotypes. All the "pop culture" references in the props are from video games, which may or may not be more likely to be identified by the males.

Narrative

We are thrown straight into where he makes the decision to leave, leaving the back story up to the audiences imagination. We are also cut off by the time he is forced to settle down, having taken too long to find any suitable place. In relation to Todorov's theory, it appears that the film starts just after the disruption, causing him to leave (if there was one). It also finishes with a seemingly meager solution, being nothing more than settling with what he had found, thus leaving us with no closure. Does he go off to find a new planet after he's become more prepared? Is he stuck their now with the provisions he bought? We wont know.

Genre


This film is clearly Adventure (with it being labelled so on VMS) and comedy. The comedy seems to stem from the voice over from the characters, and the various conversations over the phone he has before he embarks on his adventure. Typically, short films use genre to set a tone for the whole film, and make it somewhat predictable in what it's going to be like. In this case, its going to involve adventure and comedy - exploration, and potentially funny moments. Already, this paints a picture in the audience's mind of what the film is going to be like, so they are not too shocked because they expected something completely different.

Audience

As mentioned when talking about representation, this film is aimed at young males who are around the time of leaving education or entering university or just looking to live on their own / away from where they would usually live. The references also mentioned in representation may please the target audience, who are presumably young males born in the 1990s. 

5 key concepts of 4 short films by Josh Brown

The 4 short films I will be analyzing are:

·         Future.INC

·         Crush No.472

·         FINAL ARMAGEDDON DOT COM

·         Love Sick



FUTURE.INC


FUTURE.INC is a 2 minute 20 second short film that I found on Virgin Media Shorts. It is about a woman living alone in the present time. She works in cardiac science or a similarly related job. She sees a news story on a brand new futuristic dating website that puts you in touch with people from the future. In the end, the woman attempts to freeze herself for 300 years so she can be with the 24th century man she met using the new website. However, the film leaves us in a cliff-hanger as it never reveals if her plan works. Directed by Martin Sterling.



Representation


·         This short film attracts a wide range of social groups. If there were to be specific groups targeted, it would have to be technology lovers. This is because the application used in the film on the woman’s tablet PC is full of futuristic technology.



·         The main character in the film is well presented. The audience is allowed collect parts of her identity to figure out what kind of person she is. The woman is young and single, living in an apartment and whose work seems to be long and dull according to her reaction at the start of the film. From the young and single parts, we can guess that maybe the woman is seeking a relationship. She seems eager to meet someone, especially when she hears about Future.Inc.

·         The representations are mostly positive because the woman is portrayed as loving and very selfless that she is trying to be with this man form the future by freezing herself. However it might represent her as a bit too eager and needy as a result of her drastic measures, unlike most woman in reality.




Looking at he image above, there are clear traditional semantic codes of femininity and romance seen here. The woman is in pajamas, eating ice cream in bed whilst talking to her future man. These codes can also be seen in other romantic movies during the equilibrium or development of the story.



Narrative


·         The chronology of the film is linear. There are some shots in the middle of the film which seem to skip to a moment and back again. For example the woman is seen to be exercising, then runs to answer a message. The shot then goes to a clip where she is paying her rent for the next 3 centuries and then finally back to her exercising again.

·         The plot has an unrecognizable theory. The story seems to be nearly completely linear. Todorov’s theory on plot can be lightly applied. The equilibrium is the girl is young, single living alone; the disruption could be the idea of dating 24th century people. The recognition could be that she wishes to be with the man but she can’t. The attempted repair part seen is where the woman decides to freeze and then shock herself when she is in the 24th century. However the last part is the re-equilibrium cannot be applied because we never see if her plan is successful and if it was, then it would not be the same as the beginning.



Gender


·        On Virgin Media Shorts, this short film is classed under Science-Fiction.


·         Rick Altman’s theory of semantic codes can be traced in this film. One example of a semantic code could be when the woman is tucked up in bed eating ice cream in her pyjamas. These collected characteristics can be gathered and used to represent to woman to the audience.

·        


Audience


·         On Virgin Media Shorts, this film is classed under Sci-Fi. This film could then expect future loving and/or social networking audiences to watch it.

·         The film is clever, quirky and fast paced. This keeps the audience’s attention high. I was pleased with the film mainly because it made me wonder if her plan could be possible. This means it pleases audiences if they think about it more.


Media Language


·          




Crush No.472


Crush No.472 is a 2 minute 20 second short film on Virgin Media Shorts. It consists of a man standing in a queue at a cafe when he spots a pretty woman at the front. He starts talking to himself in his mind. From her actions, he attempts to figure out what type of person she is. He over-exaggerates a lot of his thoughts which ads comedy to this film. I thought this short film would be great because he is collecting her identity to figure her out by the way she is being presented which is what I am doing in this work. Directed by Jess Scott Hunter.

Representation


·         This film could attract a more social audience and cafe users. The film is clearly identifiable as a comedy. This is a result of the actions, expressions and thoughts of the man in the queue.

·         When the woman approaches the counter, the man begins to panic because he thinks they will part before they even meet. The man continues to quickly process thoughts in his head until he realises that the woman has been at the till for a while. Then he starts to begin to seem angry and patronising. This is partly stereotypical as men look down on women and see them as incompetent and incapable, however we know this to be false.


·         The representation of the man could be a negative and misleading representation because it portrays him as weird, freaky and needy. He seems to care about getting his order more than meeting the girl.

·         The representation of the woman is positive as she seems like a legit, regular person. Some semantic codes concerning her dress and shoes show that she is a well presented higher working class woman.

·          

Narrative


·         The chronology of Crush No.472 is completely linear.

·         Todorov’s theory of narrative and event happenings can apply to this film. The equilibrium is the man standing in the café like he does regularly. The disruption is when he spots the new pretty woman standing ahead of him in the queue. The recognition is when he realizes that the woman is taking her time at the register and that she has in fact been to the café before because he sees her loyalty card. The attempt to get back to the equilibrium state is when he shouts at the woman and finally the re-equilibrium is when he resumes as normal standing in the queue.



Genre


·         The film is categorized under comedy on Virgin Media Shorts. This is because the film comes across as quirky to the audience.

·         David Buckingham’s theory of constantly changing genres can be applied the Crush No.472. There is no argument that the film was intended to be comedic, however there is a slight hint of romance. This is due to the man analysing the woman. “He well-moisturised ankles”, “So intoxicating is your beauty”, “With your infectious sense of calmness and serenity”.

 

·         These quotes firstly portray the man as romantic until things change for the worse. This film almost comes off as a rom-com as a result but not quite because the couple never fall in love. So it falls between comedy and rom-com.

Audience


·         I would expect more social people and café users to watch this movie because they can relate themselves to this situation although possibly not as quite extremely shown in this film.

·         Others would find this short film funny because it is quirky and enjoyable. The man’s thoughts entertain the audience because he comes up with extreme and unlikely thoughts.

·         Crush No.472 was Jess Scott Hunter’s first short film shown on the internet. They have made another short film about French parkour staring David Belle.

Media Language


·         One shot that I found particularly interesting is the point of view shot when the man is being slapped by the woman.


·         This shot gave a sense of action from the man’s view. It was a hint of action that the audience were enabled to experience that made the scene a little more interesting.







FINAL ARMAGEDDON DOT COM



  • Final Armageddon Dot Com is a 2 minutes 30 second short film found on Virgin Media Shorts. WE are introduced to a father who appears to be saving his family's life from a great flood. He has built an arc, and persuades his family to come aboard and live their lives on the water. I thought this movie incorporated the use of sound effects very well due to the continuous thunder and rain soundtrack. I liked it because it was unusual but clever. Directed by Rob Spence.


Representation


  • From the dialogue, the audience assumes that global warming has gotten too high and as a consequence, the earth is beginning to flood. One social group that may be interested in this film could be environmentalists and other such hobbies or jobs. This is due to the included themes of the environment.


  • In the film, we see the main character Sam, trying to save his family from a soon arriving flood. Sam is seen to be a bit mental by us the audience. The way he has built an entire wooden arc seems a bit dramatic and his partner Christina describes hm as “Not well”. So from these few clues, we begin to think has partially lost his mind just because its heavily raining. However his representation all becomes clear at the end of the video when his prediction of a flood was true.



Narrative


  • The chronological order of this short film appears to be linear because we start before the flood and end after the flood.


  • Todorov's theory can't be applied to this short film. This is because at the beginning of the film we don't see an equilibrium or a re-equilibrium because we never see what their everyday lifestyle is like. It could be said that when they are on the arc floating on the water is a re-equilibrium. However, it's not what like the situation was like before the disruption (the storm).



Genre


  • This film is classed under Action & Adventure on Virgin Media Shorts. I would class this film as an adventure film only because the family are doing something probably never done before and so they are adventuring into the unknown. I could not Identify any other clear genre's in this film.




Audience


  • I was pleased with this short film because I found it clever an uncommon. I have never seen this type of short film before so it was nice to see something very different.


  • I would expect enviromentalists and people who care about various aspects of the natural world to watch this filmThe fact that Sam is obessed with global warming and even went to the measures of crushing his family car could attract this audience.




Media Language


  • A theory I found hard applying to this film is Rick Altman's theory. His ideas of semantic and syntactic codes couldn’t be found here. One big object is the arc, but the rest of the film doesn't relate to the story of Noah's arc, or anything else along the lines so semantic codes were difficult to find.



Love Sick



Love sick is a 4 minute 31 second short film that I found on YouTube. The film is all about a man looking for a relationship. He chases a number of women around a city until the moment comes where they have to separate as a result of a dispute. There is no dialogue in this film, only a voice over which we can identify as being the main character's. Directed and written by Kevin Lacy.


Representation


  • Whilst watching this short film, I could identify two noticeable genres. The story of this film can be identified as a romance because the character is trying to find and fight for love. To accompany it, the plot and some events in the film seem comic. This should equal to a romcom (romantic comedy). On the other hand, there are qualities to the movie which makes it seem different.


  • This movie breaks the stereotype because traditionally, it was females who would usually be chasing men. We know that in the more modern times this is untrue and females are more independent. But if we were to put this in a traditional perspective, the stereotype has been switched over because the man now seems like the needy dependant person.


  • Social groups relevant to this film could be people who are looking for relationships, people already in relationships that could relate to this film as partially what they went through to get a partner.


Narrative


  • From the film, we assume that the chronology is linear. There is a possibility that we start and end at different. We gather that it is all in one day because he is wearing the same clothes throughout the film and so is the boy introduced to us as “Justin Beiber”.





  • Todorov's theory is again challenging to apply to this short film because it's difficult to identify what the equilibrium and disruption is. The equilibrium could be when he just gets rejected by a woman and is again on the lookout, or it could be when he is chasing a new woman. The disruption could also be either of these.



Genre


  • This movie to me mainly seemed like a romance because the man is trying desperately to find his one true soul mate, despite him losing interest in a woman as soon as he find another. There are also conventions of a comedy too, for example the relation to Justin Bieber is funny because the name calling is unexpected. If this movie were to be a romance and a comedy, that would result in a romcom. However, there are qualities missing from this short film to make it a romcom. Such as the toned down amount of comedy and the contrapuntal music in the background.


Audience


  • Love Sick is a very popular and successful short film that has over 490,000 views on YouTube. It has won the following awards:
  • WINNER - Fringe Film Festival 2011 - Grand Jury Prize
    WINNER - Fear No Film 2011 - Utah Short Film of the Year
    WINNER - CityWeekly Artys 2011 - Reader's Choice Award
    WINNER - Salt Lake Comedy Festival 2012 - Best Actor - Josh Cameron

OFFICIAL SELECTION - Action on Film Festival 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION - HollyShorts Film Festival 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Who Likes Short Shorts Festival Spring 2011
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Film-Sharing Festival (Germany)
(Evidence taken from the video page on YouTube)


  • In my opinion, I think the audience for Love Sick would attract a teenage onwards age group and a mixture of male and female views. I would also estimate the social class viewing this short film would be higher working class and lower middle class people. This would be due to the attitude and dialogue coming from the main character.


Media Language


·         In love sick, there are a few semantic codes that I spotted. Just after his second rejection, he goes to the park and sits on a bench. Audiences usually see this in a romance, when a couple break up, the chances are, one of the two will go sit on a park bench to think things over.

           


·         For this small clip of the man on the bench, they used a tracking shot simply going from left to right behind him. I thought this shot was interesting, especially the direction in which the decided to track. Going from left to right made it seem like a timeline. He was going along it and suddenly he ends up and stops there.