short film research

1. STAGE 2
RESEARCH +
EXPERIMENTS
Kieran Beal

2.  According to my research gathered from the results on my survey, my target
audience is 16-19 years of age and the majority of them are male (60%) with
their two most favourite film genres being comedy, action thrillers.
 When asked for the reasons behind this the most popular responses were that
watching action films are far more engaging and the action packed scenes help
to keep their attention when watching a movie, and comedy was preferred due
to not having to put much thought into the film, or the comedic value of the
film helping them to forget about real life issues. However a close third is the
mystery genre due to the ambiguous endings and the ability to let the viewers
come to their own conclusion on the subject matter of the film.
 Horror is by far the least favoured genre, and the reasons can be shortened
down to a few answers 1.Horror movies are boring and not engaging 2.They
don't like being scared by the media they consume and 3. Horror movies today
feel tired and cliché, and they rely far too much on jump scares and over used
horror tropes, rather than creating original, psychological horror.

3. Looking at IMDB shows that favourable movies amongst teens are by far
comedies, action films or even a combination of both such as the 'American pie'
trilogy or the 'kick a**' movies, and while these films are hardly critically
acclaimed, scoring an average of 6.5 to 7.2, they are still films that are admired
by the occult following they have gained over the years, never scoring below 7/10
with fans, however some users are dissatisfied with the mix of comedy and
action, saying the movie should have chosen a side and stuck with it instead of
trying to flip between the two genres.
As mentioned previously it seems the target audience is in the age category of
16-19 years, The NRS social grade doesn't typically matter as long as that social
class has a way of viewing media, particularly films, the psychographic however
seems to fall mainly into the achiever category.

4.  Age- 16-19
 Gender- Male:60% Female:40%
 Favoured genres: comedy and action/thriller
 Least favourite genre: horror
 NRS grade: anywhere typically on the scale
 Psychographic: achiever
 Sexuality: doesn't matter

5.  My film would likely be classed as a PG by the BBFC due to the implication of
potential violence and threatening figures but no prolonged scenes of violence,
childish humour and lack of adult language in conclusion of the show, and
while the end of the film does have a dark implication at the end but it is only
hinted at and left ambiguous at conclusion, as my film doesn't include any
drugs, nudity or discrimination and as a result would likely be rated a PG, if
not a U.

6.  Medium shot
 Close up
 Continuity editing
 jump cut
 pan
 canted angle
 background light
 fill light
 mood music

7.  One of the most iconic moments of the close p shot being used
in film, is during the moment in the shining when Jack
Torrance, breaks through the door to the bathroom and shouts
"HERE'S JOHNNY", close up shot is used here to show the
detail in his face, the spirit that has possessed him and this
shows the insanity that has taken his mind. This method of
filming is exceptionally useful and simple if you wish to get a
close up on the characters face to see all of their emotions and
expressions and as a result I would likely use this technique. I
would probably use this in parts that require showing the
emotion on the characters face, when it matters most, for
instance the moment of shock and realisation when they
realise they are stuck in the stone age for instance, because in
these scenes it's crucial the audience know that such a
daunting and surreal experience is indeed having an effect of
the character.

8. -The jump cut technique is a popular choice of camera technique in cinema,
particularly used in action/thrillers and even more specifically during chase
sequences, this is done to ensure that the audience remains engaged as it
makes the scene run quicker, as well as making it more intense than one
continuous long shot of two characters chasing each the down road. An
excellent example of when this technique is employed is during the chase
scenes of the hit film 'hot fuzz', in this scene Sergeant Angel is chasing
down a shoplifter, and while I may not be able to execute jump cuts as well
or as frequently as this film does, due to my lack of camera experience and
time constraints, I may still be able to use them in my own project should
the need arise. I would likely use it during any chase or action scene during
my short film to keep the audience engaged but in addition to this it will
also allow me to create a scene like this without relying on one location
and/or person, and is more interesting to watch than one long continuous
shot without professional choreography.

9.  Canted angles are generally used during action scenes in movies, they
can be used with different types of zoom including close up and medium
shot, however sometimes they can be used in a long shot, an excellent
example of this is during the turning corridor scene during 'Inception',
this scene was difficult to shoot for many reasons, but the canted angle
was used here to make the scene more disorienting to represent the
twisted fake reality the characters are currently in. However after
watching a video on how this scene was created I will have to use the
much simpler method of a canted stand or simply handheld, these two
methods are possible but the way they did it in Inception was using
sophisticated filming and camera equipment I don't have access to.
Despite this fact I think this type of shot would be useful during scenes
of building intensity but not action, for instance when the main character
gets stuck in time, the canted angle can be used to highlight the confusion
and disorientation of the situation.
 (I have placed videos in my blog post either showing specific scenes from
these films or showing the process that went into making them)

10. EXPERIMENTS
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
Be prepared to add extra slides

11.  The tools that we utilised in our
experiments were simple, a high
resolution camera for recording our
practise short film, then using
websites to find royalty free music
(where possible)
 In the Shaun of the dead edit we used
a high quality micro-phone recorder to
gather sound effects for the edit, both
of these experiments were conducted
using Premiere Pro and are both
uploaded to my blog.
 The method to do this was to gather a
sound effect for walking for example,
in addition to this make it in sync
with the walking of Shaun in the
scene, syncing up the audio with the
actions in the scene was done through
premiere pro, cutting down sound
clips and using the best parts of those
clips in the actual experiment.

12.  I won't take anything from my Shaun of the dead edit to use the
actual project because non of the sound used it are suitable to what
I need to do, in addition to this I didn’t collect all the sounds
needed to complete that project to the full. This doesn’t mean that I
won't be using the same technique however, the audio recording
software that I used to record those sounds was still a good method
to pick up what the camera can't and if done correct can be used to
record good sound effects.
 With my initial practice film completed I'm unsure as to what
exactly I want to take from it to my project, however I believe that
I will use the technique of establishing shots before the actual full
film starts, as well as using jump cuts to different positions
throughout the more intense scenes.

13.  As mentioned previously I
would most commonly use
jump cuts to transition
between scenes because of
the ease of execution,
another easy cut to use is to
cut to black temporarily and
then restore to a different
scene, this is a process that I
used in my practise film and
I found it exceedingly useful.
It's not the smoothest of
transitions but it does work
to remove time from a scene
if it is taking too long.

14.  I think I will use the cut to black transitions in my movie but I
think jump cuts are going to be the more popular choice simply
because they interrupt the flow of a movie much less than a
cut to black transition.
 I don't know if I want to use the same audio recording
hardware to make sound effects for the film because of how
sensitive they are, it is good that it picks up the sound in detail
but unfortunately they also do a goof job at picking up
background noise and this is very heard to filter out unless you
are in an echo proof room which I simply don’t have access to.
 However I do believe that is will use similar camera angles that I
used in my original practise film, the only varying difference
between them is that I will likely use more close up shots in this
film and fewer long shots that focus on the background and no the
character, shots will also likely not last as long to keep the scene
moving.

15.  Despite not typically wanting to use the same device in my
project, it may come in handy for recording some of the smaller
sound effects I can't either find or make. With that being said I
don't think I will use the microphone to record larger and more
important sounds such as walking, this is because while the
sound is clear it can be difficult to line up the walking sound
with the actual walking in the film, it can be more or less lined
up if you are walking at the right pace when recording but
otherwise it can make editing it together a time consuming
ordeal.

16.  List all the potential constraints that might affect or limit your production, you should
consider issues from each of these categories:
 Time/Personnel/Cost/Technical/Location/Organisational
 Due to the weather closing college for the majority of a week for our pre
 Due to bad weather closing college for several days it has put major time constraints on
the project and so I will have to narrow my time down for planning else I will not have the
time to actually film my project.
 I won't have any budget for the film so this means I can't get any special props, makeup
or costume unless can find it, this also means I will rely on fellow students if I need to
have additional characters in a scene however this was my plan to begin with.
 I will rely upon college to provide the technical equipment I need for the project unless I
already posses some of the equipment that I need, location is severely limited and is most
likely to take place at college, my home or a neighbouring town as locations to shoot my
film, I will try to be consistent with my locations so that it doesn’t look confusing.
 I will have to book any special equipment in advance before filming if I want to be able to
acquire any. If I need any extra characters I will make a note to let possible candidates
know in advance to see if they can and if so what days they are able to do it.