Stop motion - Plasticine snake

After learning about different forms of animation, we decided to have a go at stop motion! Although the process took a lot of time (lots of patience needed), the effect does look great, and is definitely something I wish to incorporate in our piece. Because of it being so time consuming I am glad we have decided only to use stop motion for a small proportion of the short film. 

Short film - Mockumentary.

A mockumentary is a term used to describe documentary styled film portrayed in a comical way. An example of a feature film mockumentary would be Borat. If done well, doing a short film in a mockumentary style format, can be funny and interesting to watch.

As an example of a mockumentary used in short film, one of the best I've come across is 'The Crusader'. The film is seven minutes long, and is a documentary on a middle aged man called Lee Philips, who is in the process on suing Warner Bros for mis-interpretation. Lee believes he is Batman, and that Warner Bros based their character on his life. It is the perfect example of a mockumentary, as it's very funny and clever, whilst maintaining a documetary style format, with actors providing characters who are completely serious in their actions. This way of presenting a ridiculous idea in a very serious way (as a documentary) is what makes a mockumatary comical and entertaining to watch.

This style of short film is something I want to explore a little more. I did this by creating a very basic short film.  The idea of the film is a short and ridiculous one (something every mocumentary needs). The documentary is on the strange life of a boy at Wymondham high school, who has for many years, had an obsession with a chair. The obsession is so extreme that he takes it everywhere he goes. The documentary includes both scenes of Patrick partaking in activities with his chair, interviews with fellow students, and an interview with Patrick's teacher.

Initial Idea

We have decided we want to do a short film based around a superhero. This story is about weird happenings in a town that have been brought to the attention of the town council. The town council concludes that these supernatural disturbances are the work of a super-powered vigilante. The film opens with a shot of someone's room. The room is covered in posters, newspapers clippings and fan mail. We seem a computer on and the screen shows the blog of our mysterious vigilante. The owner of the room is the caretaker of the town hall (yet to be named so I shall refer to him as character 1 for now). the council will throughout the film discuss and attempt to formulate a profile of this superhero. During the film there will be indications pointing towards Character 1 being the superhero, and that working as a caretaker is his way of covering up his secret identity. The aim of the film is to completely convince the audience that Character 1 is the superhero, so that when the hero's actual identity is revealed.. the audience are surprised. This is the killer twist I hope to pull off!

Accumulating Ideas

To begin with Jack and I set out to do a standard interview. Interviewing one of us explaining what we plan to do with our idea. This developed into a short comedy. Admittedly it didn't end up being the long and detailed interview we were planning on originally, but it did give us the chance to experiment using camera angles that break the fourth wall. We did this in a manner similar to that used in shows such as 'peep show' and 'how not to live your life'. These two comedy shows were what we had in the back of our minds when we were shooting this piece. Using this style of filming enables the actor to directly communicate with the audience. This is something that works very well in a relaxed and comical show.

Peep Show

Mindmap - initial thoughts

Initial thoughts.

Having watched a few short films to gather ideas on the styes of short films, I have decided with my partner (Jack Gould), that a short film gives us the possibility to create a fantasy storyline without thoroughly explaining characters. Short film has the advantage of taking an interesting idea and displaying it to the audience in a way where setting, characters and the storyline don't have to be fully explained like you would do in a feature film. Not being prevented by these barriers allows short film directors and writers the opportunity to be more creative. This can include mixing up the narrative, doing something unpredictable,  or leaving the audience to fill in the gaps. This idea of doing something unpredictable and  leaving the audience still guessing at the end of the film is something that appeals to me, and something we wish to incorporate in our piece.

Difficulties with short film

Although short film allows for a greater variety of narratives and filming styles, it also comes with difficulties and limitations. What I believe to be the main difficulty with shooting a successful short film is not having the time to establish good characterisation. As I've said before, characterisation is the process of conveying a character through speech, thought or through the character's actions. Displaying a character's background and personality through speech and actions takes time and lots of dialogue. This is a luxury that is not available when shooting a short film. The minimal characterisation that is used in short film has to be basic, as anything detailed needs to time and multiple scenes to develop. This will be a problem when shooting my piece as well. With only 5 minutes, there is minimal time to establish characters, and so maybe I need to concentrate more on creating an interesting storyline than displaying good characterisation.

Short Film: in a nutshell

A short film is something that isn't considered long enough to be classed as a feature film. A short film is defined as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". Short films have been around a lot longer than feature films. Partly to do with the time, money, and resources needed to produce a feature film. Short films lent themselves to early directors who wanted to experiement with different genres, narratives, camera angles and other effects. Short films are easier to make, don't have to conform to the structures of a feature film, and have the capabilities to do something that is unlike something that has been done before.