Post 17: Job Roles Research

To gain a better understanding of the different job roles in the film industry which we would have to fill in our group, I have carried out research into what each one consists of. Knowing what the roles consist of will make it easier to divide them up between us with regards to our skills. As well as this, knowing the different job roles and knowing who is responsible for them will help our group work together efficiently. I looked at a website which listed the different roles in film making and what they consisted of.

-Producer: producers are an important part of the production office; they have overall control of every aspect of a film’s production. They bring together the screenwriters, director, cast, the finances and production team and are responsible for all these elements and consequently the successfulness of the film.

- Director: after the producer the director has one of the most important jobs within the direction department. The director is in charge of interpreting the script, developing what shots are going to be used (this is done through the use of a storyboard), directing actors and crew and making important decisions concerning the film.  There are other roles within the direction department such as assistant directors and runners; however, the director is the principle role.

- Editor: the editor is responsible for assembling raw material into a finished product suitable for the target audience; this is one of the most crucial elements of film making. The material they work with may consist of unedited camera footage, dialogue, sound effects, graphics and special effects. During editing they make sure that the story is put together correctly using the script to achieve a complete film. The editor may be part of a team or many editors who take responsibility for different sections of the film (this ensures a shorter time between filming ending and the film being finished) and they usually work closely with the director to achieve the desired end result.

 
-  Camera: camera crews normally involve people who are the most highly skilled specialists in the entire film crew. These people work with very delicate and expensive equipment. Within a camera department, there are many different jobs such as Camera Operator, 1^st Assistant Camera, 2^nd Assistant Camera, Steadicam Operator and many more. All of these people are responsible for what will ultimately be shown to the audience.

- Lighting: lighting is very important in film making; there is natural lighting (from the sun) but artificial lighting is most commonly used as it can create atmosphere, mood and genre. Jobs within the lighting department include Lighting Technician, Moving Lighting Operator, Director of Photography as well as others.

- Production Sound: sound within a film is extremely important as the dialogue conveys a lot of the storyline and emotion from the characters. Ensuring the dialogue is clear is very complex, as the sound department need to get rid of any unwanted noise and place the microphones in the best places possible. Some jobs within the sound department include the following, Production Sound Mixer, Boom Operator and the Sound Assistant.

- Location Manager: a location managers' main role is to find suitable locations to film and that are close in design to the directors vision. They do a lot of research including calculating the costs of hiring and shooting on the chosen set/location, this role starts before the filming has begun therefore it is busy for them as they have to find the location and be on the set to make sure the location is fine for the director. They also begin negotiations over contracts and fees for the location working within the budget the director gave them. As well as this they have to look after the set once the filming has finished because they need to ensure that the location is securely locked as well as clean before they return it to the owners.

- Art Department: the art department is responsible for making a location suitable for filming as well as being in charge of creating all the props. This department is usually the largest in any film crew and includes people with imagination and a hard work ethic towards creating the appropriate settings. Jobs within the art department consist of; Production designer, Art Director, Set Decorator, Storyboard Artist as well as many others.

All of these departments and roles are crucial when making a film ad there are clear links between the departments and what they do. A director and producer will work together to make sure they are on the same wavelength about what is going to be produced. Then the director will work with all the different departments to make sure they all understand what they are expected to do. Different departments will then work together to make sure they are aiming for the same particular theme or design, for example the lighting department would work with the camera department to make sure the angles are right to get the best effect and the camera department would also work with the editor and director to make sure the best shot is used.

In our group we will be taking on some of the above job titles whilst filming, such as director, boom operator, editor, location manager, as well as a camera operator. The reasons for these being, the director can ensure the filming is running smoothly and that it all gets done and the camera operator can position the camera in order to get the shots required. The boom operator will need to place the boom pole in a suitable place in order to hear the dialogue and the location manager can find the best places for us to film that fit the needs of that scene, they will also be responsible for keeping the filming to schedules and leaving the location the way we found it. The editor will be needed to go through whatever footage the director shoots and edit it and put it together to create a powerful story. There will be several other jobs that members of our group will have to fulfil as well as these for example making sure the actors know which scene we are filming and what they need to have with them.

There may be a few difficulties when it comes to dividing up the jobs within our group as there are only four of us and so we will have to work twice as hard to make sure we get them all done. We also need to make sure that we divide the roles up fairly so one person isn’t given more to do than anyone else. Doing this and working well together should hopefully avoid and jobs left undone or not done well. As well as this we can divide the jobs up according to people’s individual strength so that we are working efficiently together and everyone in the group knows what they are doing. With good communication and cooperation we will be able to create a successful short film.

Post 16: Why make a short film? Who is the target audience?

Why make a short film?

I decided to research into why people make short films. To help me understand why, I looked at two articles from The Telegraph.

The First Article I looked at explained the history of short films and how it was the ‘norm’ for all films to be short because of the minimal technology around and as the technology began to develop in the 1900’s so did the films being made. Short films were made during world war two as a means of propaganda and were a way of communicating between the government and people they would be shown in British cinemas before feature length films. In the 1960’s short film makers were able to branch out into different styles and genres of film an example of this is music videos. The Article finishes by saying that as technology develops the use of short films is, arguably, increasing because Hollywood directors are releasing their own short films on the internet.

This article has been helpful in explaining how short films have changed over the years and the audiences they appeal to. This could be very useful when it comes to picking a target audience for our film.

The Second Article that I looked at focused on ten films that have helped to launch actor’s career’s and set up major studios. The article explains how aspiring young film makers, actors and writers start by working on short films to gain the experience and understanding they need to kick- start their careers in feature films.

Seeing how people who start by creating short films have gone on to create feature length films has given my group and I the incentive to work hard on our short film. Working on short films can give you the foundations to a good career in the film industry, it doesn’t matter how low the budget is or how little help and backing you receive. 

Who is the audience for a short film?

To obtain a better understanding of the kind of audience that watches short films I looked at three different websites and articles.

Slide Share Short Film Target Audience gives information about the demographic and psychographics of the audience of a short film. The demographics are the audience members that watch the short films because they want to see a certain director, actor or receive inspiration for their own short films.

The psychographics can be divided in to three sections in order to differentiate between the different demographics within the short film audience. The three sections are:

-Succeeders: people who like to think they’re in control.

- Aspirers: people who strive for bigger and better things.

- Individuals: people who want to be separate from the crowd, individual thinkers. 

After finding this out I wanted to know how audiences would be able to see the short films that are made and what distribution methods are used. I found that one of the primary ways in which they are distributed is through the use of the internet and websites such as YouTube. However, a lot of film makers distribute their films through a more traditional rout of film festivals. Film festivals mean that there is a greater chance of the film being spotted and having people what to see more from the creators or actors in it.

For short film makers choosing the method by which their film is distributed can affect the kind of audience they receive. Using the internet means that potentially anyone can see it, however, people may not be aware that it has been released without the use of a film festival which may draw larger crowds (audience members), on the other hand if they distribute it through a short film festival it is only going to attract audiences that have an interest in short films.

Film festivals seemed to be a major part of distributing films and promoting them so I looked into the main two short film festivals.

- Short International: this is one of the major short film festivals in world with the biggest short film catalogue. Not only does it show the latest releases but it shows them in any country that has cinema including America and Europe. Short International doesn’t just screen the films it also presents an annual Shorts Film Award every year to recognise the contributions of all the film makers in the short film industry.

- London Short Film Festival: this is another major UK film festival which has been running for over 10years. It screens over 220 films each year from a variety of film makers from across the country.

These are just two of the many short film festivals that happen every year to showcase the newest short films for audiences who enjoy them. I think that the potential target audience for short films are successors who are interested in finding young talented film makers and people that enjoy short films and are interested in the short film industry. These people would be extremely interested in what types of short films are being made and would want to make their own opinion on whether they think they were successful or not.

How are short films distributed?

There are many different genres in short film, just as there are with feature length films, such as Romance, Animation, Drama, Comedy, Action and Horror. According to the internet movie database IMDB Animation is the most popular genre with films such as Tangled Ever After (2012), The Lorax short stories (1972) and Ice Age a Mammoth Christmas (2011).

However as we don’t have the access to the equipment needed to create an animated short film, or the time and skills needed, I found out that the next most popular is films in the Drama genre. This is a great benefit for our group as our film can be classed in the Drama genre because of the realistic story line. This means that we have to make sure that the script doesn’t fall into any other genre such as romance or comedy.

From the research I have carried out and all the films I have looked at I have notice that the duration of a short film ranges from about 5 minutes to 30minutes long. However it depends on the purpose of the film and who has produced it and many film festivals put time limits of about 40-45 minutes maximum of what they will screen. The average time of a successful short film generally tends to be 15-20 minutes which allows time for a storyline to be built up and have depth whilst keeping the audience’s attention and interest.

After researching this and looking at time limits my group and I have decided to make our film between 5 and 10 minutes long. This gives us enough time to have a convincing storyline with a twist or two added in to it presented clearly and without losing the audience’s interest. However we have to make sure that we include demonstrate different techniques often used in short films.

It is also important to structure short films well and evenly with a beginning middle and end, this is referred to as the three act structure. I found this website which gave me helpful information about the Three Act Structure.

Almost all short films are based on a storytelling technique which was first introduced by Aristotle, the three act structure. Aristotle said ‘a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the events of the plot must causally relate to one another as being either necessary or probable. This effects the audience as by having a short film structure inspired by the three act structure they automatically have a clear understanding of what to expect in the sense of; beginning - rough idea of location, main characters and basic plot, middle - a problem has surfaced and the characters try to solve it, end - a conclusion on the problem.’ It is also important that the audience are left asking questions, we hope to do this in our film, in particular with the last line.

Post 15a: Media Language

In class we learnt about the different types of sound design and how we could use them in our own film.

o   Diegetic: this is a sound that other characters would be able to hear.  For example a song on a radio as a character drives down the motorway or someone coughing audibly during a scene.

o   Non-Diegetic: this is a sound that the characters cannot hear and is not part of the world of the story. It includes a musical soundtrack or a voiceover (however this excludes a narration by a character within the story – referred to as an internal monologue and is diegetic).

o   Sound Bridge: a sound bridge is used to ease the transition between shots. They can occur at the beginning of one scene when the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins. Alternatively, they can occur at the end of a scene, when the sound from the next scene is heard before the image appears on the screen.

 

o   Motif/ Theme: a motif is a specific sound associated with a character and a theme is a specific sound associated with a film for example the iconic jaws motif is played whenever the shark is coming.

 

o   Foley: a foley artist is a person, who recreates non-computerised sound effects.

 

o   Sound Perspective: determines if the sound is close or distant and whether it is bounced off something (like a wall) and then heard or is heard directly from its source.

o   Wild track: a wild track is re-recorded sound (specific sounds) that you are then able to emphasise for example a fist hitting a table.

o   Atmosphere track: this is a layer of extra backing track to lay over another to allow you to alter background noises.

Post 15: Media Language: The Five C's of Cinematography

I decided to read an article by Joseph V. Mascelli to help my understanding of The 5 C’s of Cinematography and see how it could help us in planning and shooting our film. In the article he gives a short summary of the entire book and explains what the 5 C’s are and how they affect a film.

 

 

 

 

1.      Camera Angles

‘Camera placement is determined by narrative significance’

This will be helpful when it comes to filming out short film because it will remind my group that we can move the camera to give certain shots a greater effect. We could tilt the camera up (low angled shot) at the groomer to show his power over the young girl and have a high angled shot looking down on Sophie to show her vulnerability.

2.      Continuity

‘Good continuity encourages the viewer to become absorbed in the story- telling, without bothersome distractions’

If we don’t have continuity throughout our film it will look unprofessional, we will have to make sure the props are in the same place each take and that the actors are in the same positions.  We also have to make sure that the action happening on screen has continuity, this is done through the use of shot-reverse-shot and match on action. If the continuity is not constant throughout it will not only reduce the quality of our film but it can also distract the audience from our storyline.

3.      Cutting

‘It is possible to cut away to anything happening anywhere at any time’

We don’t have to have the story of our film told in a liner timeline, we can jump backward and forward, we can switch from one event that’s happening to another. This will be useful for our montages; we can cut from one shot to another so the audience can see more than if we stuck to one thing.

4.      Close-ups

‘The stronger the motive for using a close-up, the more the close-up can help make the story-telling truly effective’

Close-ups in our film will be to show the emotions of the characters and to show the importance of them to the audience. We will have to make sure that we only use close ups when we feel it is necessary so that when we do they have a greater effect.

5.      Composition

‘Good composition is the arrangement of pictorial elements to form a unified harmonious whole’

We will make sure each shot looks good and has good composition to encourage the audience’s eyes to concentrate on the important elements on the screen. Each shot should also work well with the shot before and after to give a better overall composition.

We want to ensure our film is as good as possible and to do that we have researched lots of different aspects of film making. I think that the 5 C’s will help strengthen and improve the quality of our film.

 

Post 14: Research Short Films and their use of lighting.

I decided to look at some short films and carry out textural analysis on them to explore the use of lighting in each of them.

The first film I watched was Flung by Fiona Walton

 

 

“‘Flung' explores the moment when the worlds of a tormented young boy and an alienated old man collide with unforeseen consequences for them both. Sympathy shifts from one character to another as the boy's interaction with the old man becomes increasingly cruel. An emotional story that brings together two, not so very different lives.”

Flung was shot in black and white and with a lot of obvious natural lighting. However there are still small aspects of different lighting techniques being used. Although there is no obvious three point lighting being used, the camera has been placed at angles where the natural light has the same effect as the artificial light would. The natural light has been used a lot throughout this film as it is obvious they couldn’t use colour gels to change the tone or the temperature.

When the young boy has his hood up his face is darker due to the small shadow the hood is causing. This suggests that there is a darker, possibly meaner, side to the young boy which is revealed when he makes fun out of an old man. Both of the characters in this film have dark clothing on which could suggest that they are lonely characters. There obvious use natural light is evident in the film as it is set outdoors, but the use of shadows on the characters throughout the short film can help to add tense and mysterious atmospheres.

I think the techniques that have been used work well on this film and help to make it look realistic.

 

The next film I looked at was Playground by Mark Kuczewski

 

“‘Short thriller about a man who pics up a young female hitchhiker. As the awkwardness builds in the car we find out more about the man's past and what his intentions really are.”

There was a large range of lighting techniques used in this film; direction is one of the most obvious. At the beginning the screen is lit from the bottom right hand side only illuminating half of the character’s face and leaving the other half in shadow. Lighting is also used to highlight different areas of the car and to make it seem as if it is moving through a tunnel.

Throughout the film the audience only sees half of the man’s face and half of the woman’s face, this insinuates that there is something going on between the two for example; an argument or they’re both keeping a secret from one another. 

The lighting in this film helps create suspense and mystery about the characters and what’s happened. It also helps create different effects like the car moving through the tunnel.

 

The final film I watched was All My Dreams on VHS by Timothy X Atack

“‘James never misses his dreams - he records them straight to VHS using Dreamspoon wireless technology. But when a work colleague, Erica, stops by one evening, she finds something surprising amongst the titles. Curiosity gets the better of her and the evening takes an unexpected turn.”

This film uses a lot natural lighting to make the settings look realistic, as someone who wasn’t present when it was being filmed I don’t know if a white balance was used but it may have to make sure the end result didn’t look blue or orange.

When Erica is watching the video, the dark room with little lighting; a blue light seemingly from the TV makes the room seem colder, helps create a dark and mysterious atmosphere, and a lamp illuminating the rest of the videos, suggesting to the audience something sinister is on the tapes.

The film uses both natural and artificial light to create mood and atmosphere, after watching all three of the short films we have some ideas about the different lighting techniques we can use to make sure our film is realistic and give certain parts more emphasis.

Post 13: Media Language - Lighting 3 (Source & Colour)

Source and Colour

Source and colour are two important aspects of lighting to remember when filming. When speaking about source of lighting three point lighting is often referred to. Developed by classical Hollywood film makers, three point lighting consists of using three different lights to illuminate an object or person. The three lights are the key light, which focuses on the subject, the fill light, which fills the entire scene and helps diffuse shadows, and the back light, this focuses on the background and also diffuses shadows.

Our group decided that to learn about the different lighting techniques it would be easier for us to try them so we knew what we were talking about.

Three Point Lighting Test

We first experimented with three point lighting; the images below show the different parts of the screen being lit up using the different lights. The key light illuminated the person and created large shadows behind her, the fill light subtly illuminated the entire screen which was a complete contrast to the background light which lit the background and ignored the person creating a silhouette.

 

Key Light                            Fill Light

 

 

Background Light

Colour Gels and White Balance

Colour Gels can be used to change the colour of the scene, there are CTOs and CTBs. These consist of colour gels being used in order to change the lighting, for example blue colour gels work by making the room seem warmer, whereas orange colour gels are used to make the room seem cooler.

The white balance works by making the colours appear more realistic. It keeps scenes from looking unnatural.

We carried out a short experiment to test the different colour gels and to see what effect they would have. We put the camera in a corridor, which was already full of natural light, and set up the white balance on it, we then held colour gels in front on the lights and saw the effect they had on the screen.

We carried out to main experiments: White Balance to Half Orange and White Balance to Half Blue.

Orange Gel                              Blue Gel

 

By using coloured gels to white balance provides the DOP with the opportunity to warm up or cool down a scene for special effect. As seen from the orange gel used, the images can go a steely blue which is often used to create 'day for night' scenes.

 

 

Post 12: Media Language Lighting 2 (Quality & Direction)

The quality and direction of light are also very important when filming. In order to understand and learn about how to use light in our own film, my group and I researched these two aspects and at the end carried out our own experiments with light.

Quality- when referring to lighting, quality means the intensity of the illumination that the audience are viewing. This can be described in to ways, hard and soft. Hard light creates large, bold shadows with obvious textures and edges. Soft lighting is indirect or diffused which blurs contours and textures and has a softer contrast between light and shade.

Direction- this refers to the direction in which the light travels from the point of origin and the effects it creates. Every light has a point where it is at its brightest and lowest. When it is at its brightest it creates a spot light and when it’s at its lowest it blends in. the direction of light can come from anywhere; left, right, high or low.

Madonna- Vogue Video

The Madonna vogue video is a great example of showing how the direction and quality of light affect the object or persons importance. There are many different techniques used throughout the video such as light shining in different directions with different qualities and three point lighting. The lighting is stylistic and replicates the strong contrasting light and dark shadows which we saw in film noir.

The screen shot of Madonna’s face shows that she is the most important person in the video with a plain background and her face being strongly illuminated in the classic film noir style.

This screen shot shows a girl in the middle of the screen picking things up from the stage. She is made the focus of this shot with the large back light behind her creating a shadow effect with the contrast of the bright light and the girl’s dark clothes.

In the last screen shot there is a man sat in a chair who is being illuminated from the bottom left hand corner which causes an attached shadow on his face from the position of his hand.