CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH - Short Films

First I am going to research 3 Short films and review them and also say how they influenced my work that I am currently doing.

SHORT FILM 1: The Most Beautiful Thing

The Most Beautiful Thing is a short film about two people who meet and we figure out the women in the film is deaf and finds it hard to speak. I have chosen a few main points through this film that I think are what makes it such a good short film. 

First off the sound that is used in the film is very important for me. The non- dietetic soundtrack at the start of the film is moving as it is associate with loneliness and sadness. Even if you just listened to the film and didn't see the moving image you would know that it is a sad part of the film because the music is that powerful.

The first shot in the film is also the main character sitting on this bench by himself. The mise en scene from this scene indicates that he is by himself and he is purposely pushed to one side of the bench to show us that he is not purposely trying to be a log, he is inviting people to sit there, but nobody does. I think this shows very clearly this character does not have many friends as is currently very sad.
The rule of the third is also used in the opening shot.We find out about 30 seconds into the film that he may be worried about going to prom with somebody and that he doesn't want to be the only person alone. Everything he does seems to be currently wrong. He get's hit by other pupils as they are walking past and also keeps seeing other couples together ready for prom.

I think this film is shot handheld because it gives the viewer more of a sense that we are in the situation with him, in a way to be him. The filmmakers want us to feel sorry for him as much as possible so they are in a way trying to put us in his situation so we can feel it.

We see more shots as loneliness as he travels home and it is edited in a way that he is shown as very isolated and purposely made to be the only person in a  lot of the shots. The main character then is finally seen in a shot with somebody else. It is someone we saw earlier on who seemed to blank the main character when he said hello. He says hello again ad she still ignores him, then we get the reference. She is deaf and cannot hear what he was saying to him, she wasn't ignoring him and then he instantly feels better. He is not alone. I like this because it seems like he is all alone, but now he has someone to be with and "talk to".        

He gets to know the girl and just as he is about to ask her to prom he sees her with somebody else on their bench. He then turns around and thinks that it is all over after everything he went through.

The costume in this scene shows that the main character is a "nerd" and we can read into that by saying that it probably means he doesn't have many friends.

Through the music we know that he has gone back into a sad mood as the music had changed to uplifting and happy but has now changed to the style of music we heard at the start when he was alone.
This whole film seems like it is being filmed either on a handheld camera or purposely filmed without using a tripod. It gives the film the feeling that we are on the journey with this character and we feel what he is going through. The film is also mainly focused on him so that's why we have that connection to him.

As the film comes to an end the two main characters meet each other again and the boy is mad as he thinks she is now going to the prom with someone else, he turns around and walks off. She then says something for the first time in the film which is slightly surprising as we did not expect it after what she had written earlier.
Once she explains to him he is happy and they hug.

This short film has influenced my work in a few ways:
Firstly,it has made me realise how much of an impact the sound has in any film. For me it is what made this film so good was the layers of sound throughout. The music a long with how the characters say certain things, it really makes a massive difference.
Secondly, it shows me that a use of tripod in every scene actually may make the film worse. Being handheld and even slightly shaky at times gives you better shots and immerses the viewer even more.


SHORT FILM 2: I MISS YOU

I Miss you is a short film about a couple who use to be together and then remember why they broke up. The first thing I noticed is throughout the whole film there is no diegetic sound. The whole film is music and voice overs. Normally I think this can work well but it wasn't the best in this film because the narration wasn't that immersive.

This is one of the opening shots and we see the two characters together, I personally would have liked some dialogue that is diegetic or possibly even some laughter to show they like each other, but the voice over continues and it starts to loose me a little.

I really liked the lighting in this film however,  the movie cinema shot is great as it only shows us the light that would see on their faces if there was a film playing behind the camera. I think that works really well in this montage sequence. The clothes in the shots show us that these are typical teenagers and that is how it relates to a lot of people, if they where dressed very posh it could loose viewers but as they are like most of us the story really draws us in through that.

 I like the shot on the left as it gives a great field of view, it is an incredible shot and it also shows the closeness of the two characters. We can read into this and can tell they are close friends and most likely boyfriend and girlfriend. It starts as a wide shot and then closes in to a near close up to really immerse us in what he is saying. I would say this is denotive as it is directing attention of the viewer into the scene and we are focusing on the relationship between the two people we see on screen.

I think the handheld camera is once again important in this film as it gives a good grounding and makes it feel very real, as if we could be one of the characters in the scene.

I can't really tell if it is or not but I think they use a flashback to show what the relationship was like and this gives us good context of what the whole film means, he still likes her but the bad reasons outweigh the good.

I wasn't a big fan of the ending, I feel it was an editing mistake to leave the ending so open, anything could have happened, but I guess that is the point of a short film, sometimes we have to use our imagination to fill the gaps.


SHORT FILM 3: TEXT ME

 This film is about two teenagers on a date and they can't stop texting. The opening shot shows us straight away that it will most likely be a date, an Italian restaurant. It's a symbolic place that many people go for a night out and the music that is playing also clarify to us that it's Italian, if we missed that.

The camerawork is good as it shows not tells (As Steve Coombes keeps telling us) It shows the prices of the food on the menu then we look into his wallet and we can see he has hardly any money, showing to us that he cannot afford it.

The film is very samey and we get the same shots over and over and it doesn't use too many impressive camera techniques to make the viewers experience better, infact its basically the same shot every time once we get inside.

The costume of the boy shows us that he is very normal, probably nerdy meaning that we can denote that he is probably shy and won't be great in a conversation with the girl once she does arrive. The girls costume is pretty much a polar opposite, very fancy and bold showing she is probably a popular person at school and she probably won't like being on a date with a nerd.

The scene uses a mixture of diegetic and non diegetic. In a way it uses a fake non diegetic sound, the music in the background is playing

which sets the scene but it is not as intrusive as if it was put over the top of the couple talking. It's most diegetic sound with the two talking but there is a little added non diegetic sound to add emphasis.

The two find a similarity through the film and that is that they both have to wear glasses, it's a small addition that makes the characters bond but it doesn't really add too much to the film for me, which in general isn't that great. It's a good concept but I'd say it was poorly executed.



In a way the sound is Asynchronous as the Italian music shows that they could be posh and upper class but infact one side of the table is not which in a way makes the film a little more funny as it looks like both characters shouldn't really be in that situation.
Most of the shots used in this are Medium shots but sometimes close ups are used to express the emotions but for me personally the film likes to stick with the same back and forth medium shot which in a way disconnects us from the two characters as they are disconnected themselves through constantly being on their phones.