Ideas Generation

“I smile sweetly and pretend to sympathize with my friends who are always fighting with their mothers.......
I would give my left arm just to have my mother alive to fight with”
A story based on a girl who lost her mother, finds it hard to relate to her friends who ar always fighting with their mothers.
Young girl who run away from home.
A girl who finds out she’s adopted wants to find her biological mother as she grown up thinking her mother died.
A mute girl who would love to communicate.
Fighting Chances
A story about communication, see Jessica would literally give her left arm to have a chance to fight with her mother, so she sits their as they speak over each other and complain and all she can do is watch the moving lips and over powering expressions they pull. Managing to only to smile and pretend to be sympathetic towards them.
Jessica is fighting to have a chance to communicate with her mother let alone that she would love a chance to talk to anyone.

Dirt Money
This short film idea was inspired by a poem under the title Infidelity; the film portrays a happy couple the story is told through the prospective of coins that the female has been saving aside and the husband takes to make calls that he can’t make at home to his mistress. Wife collects all pennies from her house. One day the husband takes them to use in a phone box to call his love interest.
Mr Tambourine Man
Inspired by Bob Dylan’s lyrics of the song with the same title, the story follows a young gentleman who meets a broken down Tambourine man who is stuck in limbo, he follows Jack the main character and a strong friendship is built with the tambourine man playing him song and untimely becoming a large part of Jacks life this is until he meets a possible love prospect and Mr Tambourine is pushed aside and moving on to another prospect. Jack having perused his relationship fails and realises the importance of Mr Tambourine but can’t get him back and finds that he can’t sleep without him playing a song.

My Father (Baba Yangu)

Baba Yangu DV-Vimeo Settings HD from BDC on Vimeo.

This is the completed short film staring Alana Steblecki, Elijah Baker and Sarah Hinds with special thanks to Lee Gichigi and Rasha Hamami.

Evaluation: Audience

Audience feedback come from both our form group and also a year twelve media class. In the first set of feedback we found that we got back alot of negative comments and the audience found the piece to be a stereotype of black father. the second group didn't pick up on this and neither have other people done so when I posted it on Facebook, eventhough its still a comment to keep in mind during distribution. Below are comments that got back after posting the video on my Facebook, I also have to keep in mind that I know the individuals so a positive is that they will tell me truth on their thoughts and encourouge growth in the work.

James Gitari

impressive. really nice opinions. the actor did a really good job.:)))))))

Elijah Authentic Baker 22 April

Nicely done:)

Yvonne Kabuye 22 April

Well done girlfriend u pulled through nice piece of work.Realli like the content in it what your tryin to get there to people.congrats.

Fai Fai Bowwow

i like this its captivating, i love how you kept it natrual with the background noise it does alot for the video, actors are blesd, although i must say if i was in the video now this would be sumfin elseeee lol xx nice work hun

The graphs show the feedback that we got from the questionnaire that we complied it shows that the audience questioned found the merge of drama and documetary worked well and found that the film didn’t underepresent any ground in society. The greatest and most consistant of comment is the strength of the scripting.

Inspiration Week

Inspiration Week
What a story is, A story is a narrative with a start, middle and end. The origins of a story vary many being made up by individuals and other rooting from folk stories.
A story can be: Fictional or non fiction
Biblical
Fairytale, folktales, tribal, fables, myths and legends

Setting
Themes
Series of events
Character plot
Structure: Equilibrium/ disequilibrium
Entertainment, popular culture
Play
Education
Situations
Art, poetry, cartoons, newspaper, music, fashion
Kuleshav Effect
Stories that we tell ourselves. Reflecting people and culturally specific.
Stories give us comfort.

Very Short Films

Very Short Films

Very short film is a term that come about to account for short films less than half an hour. Very short films referees to commercials or music videos a piece of film that has a viewing time of less than thirty minutes.

Johnathan Glazer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Glazer

Johathan Glazer named Director of the Year at the MTV 1997 awards is signed to the London based production company Academy films.

He wrote and directed three short films ‘Mad’, ‘Pool’ and ‘Commission’ but is greatly recognised for the ‘Guiness Surfer’ advert that he directed in 2000. An intresting factor of his work is his will to create and develop ideas from the start instead of the commonly know way of getting a written concept that all thats needed is knowledge in direction.

Glazer has developed a certain syle that appears constantly in his work, the commercials and music videos that he has directed contains dramtic over prowering action that draws its audience in with his outstanding use of atmospheric ideal setting.

Rabbit in your hedlight by Unckle

Directed by Jonathan Glazer

Time: 5:02

Brody Barker

KnowMore Productions

http://www.knowmorecreates.com/

Brody Barker is a writer and director. Barker runs a production company alongside his wife called KnowMoreProductions this was the company responsible for the twelve short films “T Takes”. that premiered at Sundance film festival and have strong casting of recognized actors.

Episode 1 starring Josh Hartnett
Episode 2 starring Morena Baccarin
Episode 3 starring Andre Royo
Episode 4 starring Brady Corbet
Episode 5 starring Michael Stahl-David
Episode 6 starring Saffron Burrows
Episode 7 starring Lukas Hass
Episode 8 starring Mark Webber
Episode 9 starring Jason Ritter
Episode 10 starring Josh Lucas
Episode 11 starring Michael Pitt

Historical Very Short Films.

An iconic music video thats recognized on history for breaking boundaries and setting records is the music video by Michael Jackson, exceeding all budgets of any music video the video set a different tone to music video and showed that creativity and narrative can cohabitate well.

Michael Jackson : Thriller

A 14 minute music video

Director: John Landis

Written by: John Landis and Michael Jackson

Released: 1983

Jonathan S Paul. (2008). Catching up with Brody Barker. Available: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/catching-up-with-brody-baker-t-takes-director/. Last accessed 24/01/10.

IMD. (). Damien O'Donnell. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_O'Donnell. Last accessed 26/01/10.

Armin Dressler. (). DirectorWriter . Available: http://www.yowin.com/shortfilms_1.html. Last accessed 26/01/10.

Eileen Elsey and Andrew Kelly (2002). In Short, A guide to Fil-making in the Digital Age. British Film Institute: BFI Publising. 23, 86, 102.

Stuart Jeffries. (). Creature conforms Official Website. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_Comforts. Last accessed 20/02/10.

Captivating Short Films

This post will see me listing a number of interesting films that I've come across during the duration of my research even-though i choose two to look more in depth in, in another post I saw important to mention these as they truly display the importance of short films.

Cubs

Directed by Tom Harper and runs for ten minutes, the film starts of innocently in a park and sees Ashley Walters picking out people from an orderly line that was made gain these reflects a theme that found in childhood, and we recognize him as the leader of the pack. the short is about an new urban sport thats taking place in the streets of london, Harper film gained a BAFTA nomination in 2007 for the film.

To Have and to Hold (2000)

Directed by John Hardwick this is a 13 minute film that dwells deep into the vows 'till death do as part' a

woman who is driving but distracted by her boyfriend and then thrown off by deer in the country side gets into an accident

her boyfriend dies and she's left holding on to his hand, we see fight to let go of his decaying body finally opting to cut his hand.

This short is a perfect example of simplicity being developed to create captivating pieces of realist drama.

Kill the Day (1997)

Lynne Ramsay directs an eighteen minute short in 1997 staring James Gallagher as an ex drug addict

in and out of prison. this was Ramsays first professional short film set in Glasgow. The film is a study if inner life of a

con artist and junkie whose the ability to differentiate between reality, memory and dream is escaping him.

Ramsay cleverly manipulates sound an effect of pulling the audience deeper into the non-liner narrative dislodging the

protagonist from his own story as he lays on his bed reflecting his life. its an absorbing dark film which is achieved through

its cinematography and use of soundtrack and lack of dialogue form the main character.

Shadowscan (2000)

Director: Tinge Krisman

Duration: 12 minutes

This is Krisman's third short film won a BAFTA in 2001, its a representation of an accident and emergency department and the

experiences of a doctor who is also taking drugs. The film reflects the early work style of notable director Lars Von Trier as it uses montages,

sound and ingenious lighting effects to convey a hallucinating atmosphere of the two characters that we follow.

Final Words

This blog has seen me explore the short film industry looking at its history and understanding how an individual can enter the industry. Looking at its history short film was the birth of cinema and with the changes of the world due to war, inequality and the fight for rights its been able to offer expression were through the british New Wave which bought forth documentaries or activism which dates back to the beginning and is still around today. Short Film industry is still a ripe industry it just not for the masses.