Short Films

On the 6th October 2011, I watched a variety of short films and answered various questions on them, these being:

1)Identify the themes of the film - what was the directors aim?
2)Describe what you consider to be the main focus of the film
3)Did you like/dislike the film and why?
4)Was the film successful/unsuccessful in dealing with its subject matter and why

5)Was there an element of the film that stood out?
6)How does the film form (structure and style) and how does it relate to its content (subject and matter)
7)Discuss two techniques used in the film which you found interesting

8)Is the sound used in an appropriate/successful way?

As a group we watched 6 short films which were called: The life size zoetrope, Strange Lights, Blight, Daybreak Express, Terminal Bar and Paperboys. As a group we answered the 8 questions as listed above and said what we liked/disliked and what we found effective from each film and whether this would inspire in any of our individual film making.

Towards the end of the session we watched a further two short films; Steel homes and Christmas with Dad. I will now answer the following 8 questions from before about these films.

Steel homes
1 and 2)The main themes of this short film were to do with the fact that the people featured in this film have had problems and want to store personal belonging of theirs or a family member/close friend as they mean something to them in what they call a "steel home". The main themes highlighted by the director (Eva Weber) of this film are to do with isolation and feeling alone and the directors aim is to show these through the camera angles and mise en scene used etc.
3)I did like this film in the way it was created and the fact that we never saw the characters in the film actually speaking and was just a voice over, this interlinked with the main themes of isolation and being alone and wanting to keep these belongings in one of these "steel homes". I also liked the fact that the whole film was in the one location of the steel homes itself and it made me realise how important that these "steel homes" are to some people.
4)I think the film was very successful in dealing with its subject matter as just from me watching it, I automatically felt the emotions in which the characters were feeling and the use of edits such as fade/blurs helped with this as it created the whole feeling of "isolation" which I personally think was the directors main aim.
5)Two techniques that were used in this film that I found interesting was firstly, the decision of not seeing the characters actually speaking and just hearing the voice overs. This was good and bad at the same time. I wanted to see the characters faces matched to their voices, but the at the same time, by not letting us see the faces with the voices it created this whole "anonymous" feeling which related well to the main theme running through the film which was isolation. another technique used in the film which I particularly liked was the fact it was all filmed in the same location. This was done successfully and really captured the whole sensation as to what having these "steel homes" is like for these people.

Christmas with Dad
1 and 2) This was a documentary type drama based on a young dad (Aj) who has two kids with a woman and another one on the way and also has to look after her previous 5 kids. I think the directors aim (Connor McCormack) in this short film was to show the audience about Aj's lifestyle at Christmas and to tell us about him as a person. This is shown in the way that when he speaks to the cameras he opens up about the health problems in his family and that his father was blind and how in approximately two years time, the same thing would happen to him. He then goes on to talk about how he is worried that this is going to affect him being able to look after the children, especially his new baby which hasn't been born yet. This makes the audience feel more sympathy towards him as looking at the family before, my attitude had instantly changed.
3)I did like this film as i believe the features of this short film worked well together and I think the main purpose was portrayed to the audience successfully. However, although the film was called "Christmas with dad" it would have been nice to have a heard a bit more speech from the other characters, being the children and his wife, just to see their point of view on the situation this family is in.
4)The use of sound in this short film is simple, yet effective. There are a few "jingle" type sounds that are played a couple of times through transitions to show the different scenes. These jingles are used to show the fact that its the build up to Christmas in this household. There is no other music or sound effects used, but I think this is good because its a documentary based short film and if there was a complex soundtrack it would take away the simplicity of the camera work and initial themes and aims of the film that the director is trying to pursue to the audience.

Overall, I enjoyed this session very much in looking at the short films that already exist today and how they can come in such a variety of form and are all trying to pursue different things. this session as given me a lot of inspiration for when it comes to creating my own short film later on during this course.