Analysing a shot from 'About A Girl'

Analysing this shot from 'About a Girl' gave me and my partner some ideas about how to portray the genre throughout the film using subtler techniques. We learnt that even the background and position of the character can reflect the genre and make the film look extremely effective. When planning our film at a more detailed level, we will try to include some subtle props that will accentuate the genre and make our film look effective and realistic. 

Looking at short films: 'Lovefield'

As you can see I have analyzed the short film 'Lovefield' by Mathieu Ratthe in terms of media language and genre. We found this extremely inspiring as it introduced the idea of a twist to shock the audience- something that we hadn't considered. I really liked that throughout the film we experienced a range of emotions as we were fooled into believing the film was a horror. The fantastic use of signs and codes which we would usually relate to horror because of stereotypes such as blood and knives etc, in fact created a completely different meaning.

The intensity of the twist is something that we want to create in our own film.

Gaining Inspiration

To get some ideas for our short film, we have decided to look at a few short films in order to gain inspiration as to what genre we could use. Many of the short films appear to be of the horror genre, which is something we are interested in pursuing. We have already looked at 'Smashed' and 'The Insane'; I really didn't enjoy 'The Insane' as I don't enjoy gory films and found it uncomfortable to watch.

Studying a short film 'Smashed'

View more documents from sianylou.

In order to get some inspiration for our film and think more deeply about how to represent certain ideas, we were set the task to analyze the short film 'Smashed'. We were told to look at how camera, edit, mise-en-scene and sound were used to portray significant elements. Looking in detail at how signs and codes were used to provoke the audience into responding in a certain way, made me realize how important the small details can be when it comes to producing an effective final product.

Welcome!

This blog will document my development in creating a short film- something i've never done before! I will be working with my friend Hannah Holden as we worked together on our AS project and discovered we work well as a team. This is a new experience for both of us so it will be interesting to see how our skills develop throughout the planning and production of the project.