2013: Post 3: Researching Short Film Content (1)

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In order to create a good short film, we will need to carry out relevant research so that we are able to portray our characters realistically. Our chosen topic is sexual grooming and this is what we will base our film on. This is a very diffucult topic to base a film on as it can occur in every day life with family and friends.

In our group we thought it would be a great idea to interview a child protection officer to find out some very useful information that will help give us a idea of the stages followed by a groomer. Throughout the interview we spoke about many ways and techniques of grooming. We also heard about how sexual grooming develops and who would experience grooming. The child protection officer who we interviewed has had experience.

In our group we discussed before the interview what we wanted to get out of the Child Protection Officer, the questions we asked were all relevant towards our film and we all had the chance to ask what we wanted. We recorded the interview so that all the information that we found out would be permanent and we could replay this back to help us throughout our project. The child protection officer gave us some great information that was very useful for our understanding of grooming. Some great examples were given and some fantastic ideas for our film developed within our group. The most interesting information I excrtracted from the interview was that sexual abuse can happen in any family or set of circumstances and that carers are sometimes duped into believing that their child is being cared for when they are actually being sexually abused. This involves the groomer appearing trustworthy.

Post 2:How to write a good short film script?

In class we looked at two articles that are related to our short film, title, author and date of articles. These articles gave us an idea of what our film was going to be about, and also gave us some great information on the genre. The articles that we looked at were very helpful as they gave us facts and information on what the stages of grooming were. These stages are very important to our film as they will help us create a more convincing story that will guide the audience into the plot. After we had chosen what our film was going to be based on we started to research grooming online, I found out the steps and actions a sexual groomer would include to achieve his objective. The articles that I found online explored how a sexual groomer will come across and interact with his victims and a sexual groomer will try and defend their case. A groomer will come across as a very nice, genuine person and will bribe their target into thinking that they are friendly. They use a lot of tactics to make their target believe that they are trying to gain a bond or relationship.

The information that I am showing here is a small summary of my research from reading an article about what makes a successful short film. By carrying this research out within my group I can produce a higher standard short film, and considering the key points mentioned below.

The article indicates that following these 10 crucial steps will help in making a short film:

1. Script your story idea

2. While thinking of an idea, make sure you write something attractive to your viewers

3. Write an outline

4. Develop character motivations.

5. Include a dramatic event in the narrative.

6. Response

7. Storyboard individual scenes.

8. Show your finished product to friends, family, teachers, etc.

9. Receive feedback and see what can be improved

10. Preserve with group

By reading these steps it gives me a idea of how to start a short film as before I would have struggled when thinking of the stages needed to create a film. I can now consider these point within a group and begin our pre-production for our short film.

2013 Post 1 - Researching Existing Short Films Part A

That Old One

My first post is to research a short film and analyse it in detail. Throughout the short film I will be focusing on media language such as camera, editing, sound, costume and mise-en-scene. I will be textually analysing a short film because we have to create our own film that is approximately 5 minutes long.

The example of a short film that I looked at was ‘That Old One’, The film uses a variety of lighting effects to show the character's situation in a different perspective, for example different lightings have been used to show when the main character of the short film was lying and the type of light used is a back light and side light. A green light is used to highlight the character when he is doing something wrong, this makes it easier for the viewers to understand whats going on.

When the character is woken he is wearing a smart suit. The character is married but his wedding ring does not appear on his finger, he then starts panicking and the film cuts to the multitude of scenaries he has been in. The costumes throughout the film change because when he gets back home to see his wife he then starts to consider that his wife could have also been sleeping with another man, his wife’s costume then changes and she is wearing a long black dress to make her look more appealing to males. The editing used is non-linear; this means that the editing cuts from different situation throughout the film to show what really could have happened. In the film there is no set location, There is only three locations used throughout the film and this is the walk home, his house and the apartment of the female who he slept with.

There is a variety of shots used such as long shots and medium close ups, the main shot used is a view shot and this is used to show the expression of the character in different scenario’s. In this particular film there are a lot of different scenarios that have been shown, therefore the shots used must be correct to show emotion and feeling within the characters facial expressions. 

‘That Old One’ uses a lot of props in a very clever way, for example the character is drinking a coffee and when he goes to drink it he then realises that his marriage ring is not appearing on his finger, another example of props being used is the condom box that he has in his pocket, when he find the box in his pocket he realises that it has not been opened so starts to wonder if he had got the female he slept with pregnant. The main prop used in this short film is the wedding ring it’s self, if he had woken up with his wedding ring on then most of these situations would have been irrelevant, when he finds his wedding ring another prop had been used, he finds the ring attached to his house key’s that were in his pocket.