Past short movies made for A2

In class we were shown a couple of short films made by the previous year for A2 media studies. one that I saw in particular really stood out to me and that was Swarm. its an animation film made up of photos. It starts off with an innocent letter coming thought the letter box, but when placed on the table it rips its self open and out comes…a blue sticky note!  from there on it gets worse with more sticky notes appearing and staring to follow the character in the film. In the end they all “swarm” up the stairs and all you can see is an army of sticky notes spreading all over the floors and wall untill they mob the sleeping guy, who we see wake up in a final close up shot of his face covered with sticky notes as he suddenly opens his eyes in horror. The story line I think is good because it has a good beging, middle and end that leaves you on a cliff hanger. The music is also very good as it reflects the mood of the scene. The music they use builds up the tension perfectly whenever sticky notes appear, suggesting that something bad is going to happen. they dont use any diologe in the film just music which suits their film as it speaks for its self.

The pictures that were taken are intressting and are made up of different types of shots. they are edited together smoothly and the cuts are done in the right places- like when you see  clock and it cuts and shows a different time to show how its now later on.

watching this film was really helpfull as it has got me thinking about the possabilities of making an animation. It looks like a lot of hard work taking the photos yet in the end it looks really good when they are played together.

http://youtu.be/AlrrrwuBpeE

virgin media shorts

To start off my research into different films I have looked at a number of short films on virgin media shorts. on this website they have lots of short films that people have created and entered into a competition to see which is best. Looking at a few of these films has given me an insight into the different films you can make , for example it can be an animated film made up of pictures, an arty film with lots of mixed media or just a normal shot film. what was also interesting when looking at the films is the variety of different shots used in the films and the amount of editing done to get the scenes and shots to play “smoothly”.

A dissident elephant at the fun fair, This was the first short film I looked at by  Sasha. It is an animated about an elephant that goes to the fair, but everything does not allow elephants. what was interesting about this film is that it is made up of lots of drawn pictures that have been played together really fast to create a moving image, I never knew you could do this sort of thing! but it must take ages as you have to draw the same picture over and over again just so it moves slightly and in the end it was not even a very long film. although this film is interesting in the fact I have never seen anything like it before, it has however a rubbish story line that does not make sense.

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/1412/a-dissident-elephant-at-the-fun-fair#ooid=I5dTVsMjqY7B7t6tSIjuI6bWR9IxInFy

The second film I watched is called The shoe lace,  by Andy Lambert. This short film is about a person supposedly dead on the ground whilst every everyone ignores him and carrys on waiting for their bus. One man however stops and has not idea whats going on. in the end he does not do anything but just ties his shoe lace. The story line  does not make much sense. It was also ment to be a comedy but I did not find it funny at all. In the film it only has one camera shot; a wide shot that  allows the audience to see whats going on and the everyday life continuing around them. I like  how it just uses one shot as this keeps it simple, however it could have been made more interesting perhaps if you had close-ups of people’s expressions when they saw the “dead” person.

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/1141/the-shoelace#ooid=4wMmlqMjojBd1HyLWHzLAd0bsndnfIGy

Overall they were both were good short films and have shown me a couple of new things, like animation with pictures and a film using one shot only. but I think they have been let down by the storyline which could have been made better if they were made clearer and given a bit of humor.

 

what I am doing

This year for A2 media our task is to produce a 5 min short film and 2 accompanying media such as a poster or radio advert to go with the film.

First I will be making my film. to do this I will have to practise making a film editing, camera shots, learning how to use a video camera and coming up with interesting storylines. I will also have to look at a number of different films before I make mine and I will also have to look closely at the technical aspects of making a film.

Last year I learnt a lot about different camera angles and how to take good quality photos for my magazine, so this year I think I will find it easier as I know some shots and am confident trying out different ones. I think it will be hard learning how to edit a film and shooting on from my own idea as I have never done this before but, its going to be a welcoming challenge.

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog 🙂 on my blog it will be all about A2 media work creating a film.