LO1: Analysis of different short films

Example 1- Sight

 
The narrative of this short film is where people have a system "sight system" impeded in their eyes, this lets them see things that are not there (e.g. they can project a tv show onto a blank wall to watch tv), this system is used by everyone in the film. This shows a man doing everyday tasks, cooking, watching tv, playing games and picking outfits. The man also goes on a date where he reveals he works for the company, later the girl learns he is just testing the date app for his company. When the girl finds out but he mind controls her to stay which shows the system to take over peoples thoughts.
First it shows the man laid on his living room floor, it switches to what he would see through his system which is him playing a diving game. Next he goes to the fridge, here the system shows what is in each pot, this is again shown through the system, this continues to showing him cooking, eating and watching tv. The majority of the trailer is shot through the characters perspectives, this is to show the audience what they see and the sight system which helps to build the narrative as if this wasn't included the audience wouldn't understand.
There are two characters in this trailer, the male is seen as quite powerful as he works for the sight system and so has control over the women, the woman is portrayed as quite vulnerable as she is open to being programmed to act a certain way.
This uses a lot of effects and graphics to show what the person sees through their system, this is edited on afterwards to give this effect. They have visably edited on the eyes of the people and screen that the person sees. As this is a Sci-fi short film it uses these elements to fit with the genre.
They use a tracking shot in the begining of the film, this shows the mans bare room which helps to build the concept of him imputing virtual reality into the room to show what he sees. They use tracking and panning shots throughout when he is moving from room to room, this minimises the use of editing as it follows him. Close ups are used when we see from his perspective, this is because I needs to seem realistic and show what he is seeing.
the visual effects are very important for this genre of film as sci-fi films usually included high levels of technology.This is done in this film by adding graphics to show what he sees through the system it helps the audience understand the film.

Example 2- Another Angle


 This is a nature documentary/short film which looks at the different side of Sheffield as many just know Sheffield as an industrial city and not the creatures and wildlife within it. This first starts off with an establishing shot of Sheffield, this shows the range of wildlife to industrial city, next it shows close up shots of the different animals within it (squirrels, ducks, etc). A tracking shot is used in the title screen as it follows a river, this creates spectacle for the audience to keep them interested. A timelapse is used  on a lake and the sky, this shows the pacing of time, this is often used in nature filming as it again creates spectacle an meaning. They have also used the timelapse of the sky to show the time of filming as it is early morning. The narrative of this short film is about following Sheffield's nature around and learning about it. Some of this was shot in the peak district where they were tracking deer, this isn't far from the city centre  so can be impressive for the audience and very reachable. Next they look at a duck who uses actons to attract a mate, quite a lot of this is shot as establishing shots (using a drone, this helps to see the split between the city and nature in Sheffield). As this is more of a documentary style short film it doesn't have strong characterisation. This also has limited editing and visual effects as they want to focus to be on the animals rather than the editing.                                                                                                                                                                Example 3- Deep it
This is a short film about street crime, it uses the main character telling his story to a youth group to narrate the film. The purpose of this is to raise awareness of knife crime and the impact it can have. First it uses establishing shots to show the area where the film is set, this is run down part of the city with council flats and crime, a voice over is also used to introduce the film which is from him talking to the youths. The characters in this are a group of 4 boys (Miles, Waren, Toby and Cads) and one girl (Lara), the main boy(Miles) works for his father and his father doesn't like his friends as he believes them to be a waste of space, this lets the audience see what his life is like and connect with him more as they see his skills. The Laras brother isn't impressed with her being with one of the boys (Cads) and so goes looking for him, although Miles is with her when her brother sees them and mistaken him for Cads, the brother beats up Miles as Cads is watching and doesn't defend him. The film then flashes back to reality and then to the story again. As Cads didn't defend Miles get angry and plans to fight him but it goes wrong and Cads end up getting stabbed, later it is revealed he was stabbed in his spine which left him paralysed. This is the most indepth narrative of all three, this is because they want to get a strong message across. A lot of this is shot at a medium, this is again to not distract the audience from the true message of the film, also this is used so the audience can see what is going on. They used slow-mo when Cads was stabbed, this was to connote how time stopped and makes it more realistic as sometimes when incidents happen like this everything seems like it is slow-mo, this  creates effect for the audience and makes it more dramatic. This switches between past and present quite frequently, this is to show the reaction of the youths as he is telling the story, a significant part of this is when one of the youths claim the story didn't effect him and he learnt nothing but still throw away his knife. this shows that he was indeed effected by it. The title is used at the end as they do a pan up shot of the city, this would leave an impact on the audience as it is the last thing they see.                                                                                                                                 Example 4- Red handed

                      This is a  action comedy, it features a man who is trying to get fit by running in the forest, he gets teased by the fitter people doing the same route so he goes off track to run alone. He runs into a man who has bloody hands and holding a gun next to a dead boy, he appeared to be trying to dig a hole to burry the body and weapon. The suspected killer says that it wasn't him and dropped the gun but then when the other man went to get it they began to fight over the gun, eventually the man hit the suspected killer over the head with a shovel, killing him, he was being watched by another man who ran away when he saw this. next the actual killer arrives with another body but soon discovers the man and the jogger  comes back to find the actual killer there who then shoots him. There isn't much audio throughout this but it still conveys the story, this is because there were lots of trying shots so it was following the story along easily. Most of this was shot as a tracking shot following him running through the forest. They used slow-mo in the fight scene to show the action taking place, this fits with an action genre of the film. Audio was overlaid on top of the video, this adds the comedy element as the narrator jokes about starting with 2 victims and ending with 4. The characterisation isn't very detailed as there is the main character (a large man trying to loose weight by running) the first suspected killer (another runner who stumbled across the body at the wrong time), the murderer who was trying to dispose of the bodies and then the other explorer who stumbled upon the bodies and runner.