The Impact of Visual Art Combined with Sound

I myself find it increasingly important to ensure that visual representation and symbolic and iconic visual images that mix with significant should be a constantly on the mind during the production of our film. Even though we are not producing a music video I feel that the video posted bellow explains how the relationship between image and sound has a vital effect on the final result.



A more appropriate example that suit our production better would be the combination of electric music and artistic camera shots that came together to make Frank Millers "Sin City" The film is shot in black and white however one item on screen will be in colour. That item varies from blood from a fresh wound to a characters shoes, however it ensure each and every shot comes across as artistic and has a powerful effect on the audience.



Im not saying myself or my group intend to mirror "Sin City" when it comes to the whole lightning and colour technique, but if we indeed wanted to this is how we would go about it:



By Harvey R.Young

Inspirations: M.Night Shymalan

Director M.Night Shymalan is famous for having twist endings in almost all of his films. Most of the time these are extremely successful and really shock the audience. For example one of his movies "The Village" had a huge twist ending which completely changed the plot. Our group was very inspired by some of his earlier work (The Sixth Sense, The Village, Signs) and especially their twists. As stated in other posts we really wanted to achieve a similar ending which leaves the audience puzzled and shocked. However M.Night receives a lot of criticism for this and is normally labeled a "one trick pony." Despite this he is still an influence on our group.

The film "Signs" was a huge influence on our production in terms of structure. We admired how at the beginning of the film very odd things are happening such as crop circles appearing in the main characters' farm but the characters and audience do not know who is making these. However throughout the film crop circles start appearing more all over the world and people finally realised that alien invaders are creating these. The ending is filled with tension as the main protagonists are trying to survive in a basement while the aliens are trying to break in to kill them. The film then ends with a signature M. Night Shymalan twist. We really liked this structure as things keep getting worse and worse for the main characters and the story gets really deep during the second half of the film. For our film we will probably follow a similar structure to this film as we feel it works extremely well.

Jack Windsor

Inspirations/influences

We have had several influences and inspirations from several different films. Films such as, Paranormal Activity, The Strangers, the Knowing and the Crazies give us great infleunce as we admire the eerie feeling they give the audience, aswell as the mystery, shock and "make you jump out of your seat" kind of nature. This is something we want to give off in our short film, focusing on the shock factor. We want to be different while at the same time follow cultures and trends.


By Michael Holttum

Ideas for the Film

Throughout the blogging process we are constantly changing the idea of our film, one thing we have discussed is creating a ghost story, something that we feel is fairly unique in short films. I myself have a very keen interest in the Horror genre, some of my favorite films come from this genre like 'The Shining' and 'Paranormal Activity' I feel I love these films mainly due to the thrill earned from being scared and the sudden rush that is felt after each scare. I also love the shock endings that usually occur at the end of the films, something that we would love to incorperate into our short film, to give a lasting effect to the audience.

Creating a film around the theme of Ghosts is extremely tough, and something we most definitely need to sit down, discuss and write every idea we come up with. The main thing we need to do, of course, is to make it scary, and sometimes the scariest parts of a film are the parts you can't see, and make the audience imagine what is occurring. A good example of this would be "The Haunting" or "The Amitiville Horror". Making the Ghost invisible is something we would definitely do if we were to create this type of film, the generic white sheets and chains are something we as a group are definitely going to steer clear from and instead use the power of sound and imagination to scare to scare our audience. As I mentioned before the original "The Haunting" is an outstanding example of a scary movie that uses light and shadow and angles to make a spooky atmosphere. Some shots of the house inside and out are frightening with this effect. The house does appear to be looking at you at certain angles, keeping the audience on edge with fear. The film's scares could be subtle but equally are effective.

By Anthony Wilson

Embracing New Technology

Jack Windsor and I have been doing a lot of research over the summer regarding film and film editing. The main reason we deemed this necessary is because with the thriller we didn’t need any kind of special effects however we had planned before the summer to do a post-apocalyptic action film. A lot of people advised us not to but me and Jack stumbled across a few YouTube videos showing just how realistic you could make a gun shot.
This was a major breakthrough for both me and Jack and the rest of the group because it meant we could now do whatever we like without having to worry about people just seeing another cliché sixth form short film. The program we will use to create the realistic action sequences will make our film look so much more professional as well as an exciting action film.
In the video below I and Jack both describe the impact that the software program we are going to use will have on the final film. We spent over £600 on the software so we aim to use it as much as possible in the final film.

The program we are going to use use is Adobe After Effects which is a special effects program that is used after we are done editing the film in Pinnacle. This program allows us to add in effects such as blood squirts, muzzle flashes, glass breaks and thousands of other effects. We were inspired to use this program after watching a video created by "freddiew2" on youtube showing how to create a professional muzzle flash. Harvey and I were very inspired by this video as the muzzle flashes created looked extremely realistic and he had a step by step tutorial showing how to replicate it. Below is the video:



As a group we all thought about using an HD Ready camera. We knew that whatever camera we used wouldn’t affect our marks, however by using an HD camera it would make our film seem more professional to our audience and hopefully wouldn’t seem like a mediocre school project. One of our influences towards this decision was last year’s film ‘The Quintessential Guide: To Dispose of a Body’ which was filmed entirely using an HD Camera. Our group were all very impressed with the quality of their footage and it made the film seem extremely professional.

However at this moment in time unfortunately none of our group owns an HD camera. Obviously without the HD camera we cannot film in HD. We are all trying to figure out a way of either buying or renting an HD camera as we want to make our film as good as it can possibly be.

By Jack Windsor and Harvey Young

Influence: The House That Drips Blood on Alex

'The House That Drips Blood on Alex' is a short horror film starring Tommy Wiseau (director of the cult classic 'The Room') It is about a man who purchases a new house on Blood street (pronouced Blued) and finds out that the house literally drips blood on him while he is both unconscious and conscious. This short film is very odd as it is technically a Horror film, however Wiseau and his co-star's unintentionally bad acting makes the film extremely humourous right from the start, which is a theme in everything Wiseau stars in.

The film possesses a shock ending which is something we want to incorporate into our own film. Alex (Wiseau) has grown tired of constantly having blood dripped on to him and decides to investigate the attic as this is where he believes the source of the blood is coming from. He discovers the blood is coming from a dead clone of himself, however this is never explained in the film. This leaves the audience with a lasting impression and makes them question what actually happened to Alex/Alex's clone. This is something we hope to achieve with our film as we want our ending to be so mysterious that nobody is entirely sure what happened. In my opinion a great twist/shock ending will turn a good short film into an excellent one because it makes the audience remember it.

Another aspect of the film which I admired was how the director could tell a story with a run time of around 12 minutes. Successful short films can range from 3 minutes long to around 40 minutes long. however our group was aiming for a run time of about 7 -10. 'The House that Drips Blood on Alex' showed me that we can create a successful film without having to make it too long.

Below is the Trailer to the film which I uploaded to Youtube myself which has gained over 30,000 views:






Jack Windsor

London short film festival

In January 2011, between the 7th and 16th, London will be holding its 8th annual short film festival. There is a competition where anyone, a student or a middle aged man could submit their short film. The short films are then short listed and short listed again until the best one is found, how this is done is by letting the public and recognisable figures in the industry view them and criticise and enjoy them.
The last short film festival in London (2010) was won by Tom Geens, he directed “You’re the stranger here”

2010 Facts & Figures
• Over 6000 tickets sold

• 42 events across 10 days and 10 venues

• 75% of events sold to capacity

• 8 major media partners and 16 creative programme partners

• Over 200 films screened

“The best short film festival in the world” – Guardian Guide

Tom Geens' 2010 winning short film:

Perfect Target Audience Profile

We believe that our main target audience would be extremely simular to us as people. So we used Georges Facebook profile, picking out key information to give an overall perfect example of our viewer.

Hey, the names George! :)
I'm a caucasion 18 year old student studying Film and Media studies at University. I come from a typical nuclear family with my mum dad and sister, who thankfully I am still very close to. I guess you could say I'm pretty middle class and am currently enjoying life with my like minded pals who all share simular interest in movies, books and almost everything in general, except music.

I love my classic rock like Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Stones. However, my mates are more into RnB and Hip Hop causing some hilarious arguments. We're always hitting up the cinema on Wednesday nights (2 for 1) to catch a film, and attending the London Film Festival, which was a great day out! But alas, being a student it is extremely tough for me to afford these trips out, so often get my movies from the internet ;).

I'd like to think I was pretty trendy always shopping at Topman and River Island for some hip new threads like skinny jeans and a polo ;) In my spare time I just love to sit down and watch a good film and devote all my attention to it, or maybe even just go for a drive in my Clio over to one of my mates house or watch a film with my room mate Sam and express what we feel the director was trying to achieve with the film to each other, aswell as maybe even hitting up Costa Coffee or Starbucks for a quick drink in a very relaxing environment, mmm a mocha, yes please :D


Another passion I have is art, in many different forms, I very much enjoy classical music and visiting art galleries on occassions and of course the art of film! I may not have studied art at all, but in my opinion my form of art would come in film. I am extremely enthusiastic about film loving every genre (especially horror) which in turn aspired me to study what I do, Stanley Kurbrick's The Shinning is not only my favourite horror movie, but could easily be considered as my favourite movie of all time, something about creepy children (especially girls) really gets to me!! Get into contact with me, I'm a fun loving guy who very much enjoys meeting new people!

After reviewing Georges profile I believe he is a true representation of the audience we are trying to reach, with his love of films and the fact that he studies them, I feel he will appreciate what we have tried to achieve with the film, as he seems to have a good knowledge of the subject. Along with the fact that he visits short film festivals as well as downloading short films off the internet it's clear to see that he will be one of the people who fit the criteria of viewing our film. Alongside the fact that our film fits into his favourite genre type, horror showing he enjoys films surrounding dark, bleak and eerie themes which is most definitely something we are trying to achieve.

By Anthony Wilson

About a Girl Brief Textual Analysis

By Anthony Wilson

Initial ideas

During one media lesson we all decided to brainstorm what we thought would be effective characters and locations. Here all some of our ideas which we thought could be really successful.

Characters:
• Clown
• Scarecrow
• Mother
• Child
• Father daughter
• Dog
• Tiger
Location:
• Haunted house
• Forest
• Hospital
• Alleyway
• Derelict area





Here is a Moodboard which Michael created showing our initial ideas.

Influence: Pixar Short films

Pixar have become famous for making outstanding animated shorts which are consistently nominated for best short film. What makes Pixar stand out from other short films is their revolutionary use of 3D animation. Pixar were one of the first in the field to make 3D animation believable. However the animation alone is not what makes Pixar shine. Pixar can also write genius storylines which are then intertwined with the animation to make an award-winning film that people from any age range can enjoy.

One of the main reasons Pixars shorts have been so successful could be due to the fact that most of the typical codes and conventions used in a short film are broken and the fact that the story isn't necessarily the main point of them, but rather the wonderful animation used to both engage and entertain the audience. One prime example would be from the short "Geri's game" where the protagonist would simply play a game of chess. No forms of rapid editing are used, but rather long takes, dissimilar to many other short films. I feel the long takes work very well at slowing down the pace and hope we use them in the final film we create.

Here is a list of Pixars' short films that have either won or been nominated for the Oscar of Best Short Film.

Luxo Jr. – Best Animated Short film Nominee
Tin Toy - Best Animated Short film Winner
Geri’s Game - Best Animated Short film Winner
For the Birds- Best Animated Short film Winner
Mike’s New Car - Best Animated Short film Nominee
Boudin’ - Best Animated Short film Nominee
One Man Band - Best Animated Short film Nominee
Lifted - Best Animated Short film Nominee
Presto - Best Animated Short film Nominee

By Jack Windsor and Anthony Wilson