Storyboard

As a joint effort me and Faye sat down and created our storyboard. We needed to create this as it allows you to plan out each shot you are going to do and to just generally arrange our ideas onto paper. It is used to show each shot of the music video with a list of key information e.g what is going on at that particular point. Storyboards allow the directors to visualise the film and shows the camera person what sort of shots shall be used, so that they are able to film it.

For our storyboard we outlined our basic ideas of the order everything will be seen in. However, we did not go into great detail as we all decided we would rather get straight into the physical part and start shooting as we guessed things would change once we start filming due to different ideas whilst on set; what looks good on paper might not actual suite the film once it has been shot etc. As we guessed, our ideas did development once on set, therefore things did change. 

The Pitch

Once in our group, me and Faye decided that we were going to create a music video. This appealed to us more than making a short film as making a short film is almost the same as what we did last year and making a documentary didn’t seem too interesting as me and Faye wanted to be creative in whatever we decided to do and making a music video seemed perfect for that. We also decided that our music video would include both performance and narrative, as most music videos follow this format.

Next we had to do decide on what song we were going to use for the video.We discussed a range of songs we could use coming up with ideas for a music video for each, some of these include:  

• You Me At Six – Save It For The Bedroom:

A music video based around a band perform and narrative of a stereotypical teenage house party, with scenes of drinking games, dancing, kissing etc whilst focusing on an ex- girlfriend character who tries it on with her ex- boyfriend but he openly rejects her after hearing about all her antics but the lad eventually finds a girls he likes with the ex girlfriends jealously being 

seen throughout.

• Biffy Clyro – Machines

Due to the sad and delicate tone of the song the idea for this was about a young couple who are in love but the boyfriend dies in a car accident. The video would have such scenes as the girl visiting his grave, crying herself to sleep and looking at old photos of them wishing he was still there. It would have a depressing tone to it. The video would also include performance of the male playing acoustically along to the song whilst lip syncing. 

Final Proposal: 

Eventually we decided that we were going to use a song by Katy Perry as she is an artist which we both immensely enjoyed listening to, having both us seen her in concert multiple times. We decided not to use a song which she had already released as we were afraid we would find it hard to think of ideas for the video as we would already know the original so well. We ended up on choosing the song ‘Not like the Movies’ from her ‘Teenage Dream’ album. This is a song which we both emotionally connected too and had ideas flowing for.

Once we decided to use that song we needed to come up with the concept for the video. We mind mapped various ideas and carefully listened to the lyrics of the song so that our narrative could go alongside it with actual meaning linked up together. At last we agreed upon going with the narrative of a young couple who had recently broken up and the girlfriend almost dreaming to get back with him. The video would follow the girlfriend’s heartbreak over the break up. It will show her reminiscing of times gone by with her ex-boyfriend, both good and bad. Whilst including performance of the girl lip syncing throughout.  

Audience Research

Audience research is a method used to find out about your target audience. For my audience research I conducted a questionnaire, this is one of the most common methods for gathering audience research. I decided to do a questionnaire as it was quick and easy to produce and get the data for. In my research group there were 10 participants.

Q1) What age are you?
- Below 12
- 12 – 15
- 16 - 19
- 20 – 23
- 23 – 26
- 26 – 30
- 30 +

Q2) Which do you prefer to watch?
- Music Video
- Documentary
- Short film

Q3) What attracts you to watching a music video?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Q4) What genre of music do you enjoy listening to?
- Rock
- Pop
- R&B
- Rap
- Hip Hop
- Classical
- Metal
- Other

Q5) What formats do you watch music videos on?
- Phone
- Internet
- Television
- Other

Q6) What type of music video do you prefer to watch?
- Abstract
- Performance
- Narrative
- Mixture

Q7) What attracts you to documentaries?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Q8) What formats do you watch documentaries on?
- Phone
- Internet
- Television
- Other

Q9) What attracts you to short films?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Q10) What formats do you watch short films on?
- Phone
- Internet
- Television
- Cinema
- Other

Summary of Questionnaire:

From the questionnaire I was able to summarise the answers I received, which will help me towards deciding what to make for my A2 production. Whether it be a music video, short film or a documentary. My original idea was to do a music video but I wished to see what others liked but due to this the majority of my questions are music video related.

After looking through the answers people had given to the questionnaire I was able to see that on general most of the participants would prefer to watch a music video. This was due to music being a part of everyday life for the participants, as they listen and watched music videos in spare time.

The majority of answers to question 3 when asked what attracted them to music videos, were along the same lines as they were attracted due to being able to watch their favourite artists. Also other answers said because some music videos are very visually engaging, mainly down to the use of special effects or they can have a strong emotional reaction to the video, which makes them want to watch it. Others answered that with performance videos, especially ones recorded at concerts it gives you a chance to see them in action or even bring back memories of seeing that artist perform. 

The most popular genre of music was R&B with 4 out of the 10 participants answering with that for question 4. Rock was the second most popular answer and others had an average response. However classical had no votes and therefore was the list popular genre of music.

For question 5 the most popular format to watch a music video on was the internet. Youtube would be a leading website for people to watch videos as this is where the majority of people go to watch them due to the high viewing figures music videos have on there. Also the internet is the most accessible way to but video premiers often show casing online. Television was the second most popular, as there is a wide range of music channels available.  

6 out of the 10 participants preferred to watch a music video with was a mixture of the different types of music video, them being: abstract; performance & narrative. This is because it is more engaging to watch and visual varied. 

Most people were attracted to documentaries in question 7 as documentaries offer an interesting and visual way to learn about a factual record; report or popular issue. Which without watching they would not have known about. 

Question 8 showed the results that 6 of the participants watched documentaries via the television. The other 4 watched documentaries through the internet, usually on sites such as BBC iplayer and 4od. 

The main reason as to why people were attracted to short films was due to being about to watch a story in a short period of time and not taking ages to get into the  meaning/plot of the film. Also they found them easy to watch and understand as they tend to get straight to the point. The usual twists which short films have also attracted people.

From question 10s results I was able to find out that the majority of people watched short films on the internet. Mostly on the BBC website, as they showcase short films but also on such mediums as Youtube and Vimeo.

Codes & Conventions of a Short Film

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits"

Short films can be professional or amateur productions. Most of them are around 10mintues long, however the time frame does vary. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals e.g: Cannes, Sundance etc. Short films are often made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all. Short films are usually funded by film grants, non profit organizations, sponsor, or out of pocket funds. These films are used by indie filmmakers to prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or film studios. They are usually made as stepping stones for new film makers.

They usually contain:

• Small number of characters - Predominately 2 -3 characters; of which one of them is the main. Due to the film being short there is not enough time to create a back story for the characters. Therefore character numbers are small to allow the viewer a small amount of time to relate to the characters.
• The ‘twist’ – short films nearly always have a ‘twist’ to the storyline. This twist is used to make the film more interesting due to its short time frame.
• Music – music is used as an emotional catalyst that often heightens the emotions that the viewer and/or the actor are feeling at the time in relation to what is playing on screen. It creates the atmosphere for the scene. 

Analysis of a Short Film: Geri's Game

Geri's Game
Director: Jan Pinkava

‘Geri’s Game’ is a short film directed and written by Jan Pinkava. It is an animated short film made by Pixar, which is a well known computer animation film studio best known for films such as the Toy Story, Cars etc.  The duration of the film is 04.41 seconds. Geri’s Game was the first Pixar Short created after Toy Story, the previous short being Knick Knack in 1989. The genre of this film is animation as it’s a completely animated film. The film was the first Pixar production to have a human main character; Geri's Game was produced with the goal to "take human and cloth animation to new heights". The face of the character "Geri" resembles actor Jonathan Harris, who also provided the voice of Geri for his later appearance in Toy Story 2. In Toy Story 2, Geri is a toy repairman who fixes Woody's torn arm. Chess pieces can be seen in his carrying case, in a nod to the short. The film's director, Jan Pinkava, says the character is loosely based on himself and his elderly relatives, particularly his grandfather who played chess very often. The film was praised and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1998. Considering its quite an old film now it has a good viewing figure on YouTube, with its views currently standing at:  1, 761, 734. Geri's Game was attached to the theatrical release of A Bug's Life and was subsequently featured on that film's VHS and DVD releases. It can also be found on the Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 DVD. There was also a VHS released in 1998 with only this short which is exceedingly rare. The target audience for this would be of the younger generation that being children due to it being attached to A Bug’s Life which was a film aimed at young children and that it was made by Pixar who’s films are always targeted at children, although they attract many different age ranges due to how successful and adaptable all their films are. 

The narrative of this short is set in park in autumn. It follows the story of Geri, an elderly man who is playing a game of chess against himself, as he physically moves from one side to another as he plays from black to white. As he changes from side to side his personality progresses and changes along with it, he either puts on or takes the glasses off to show the change. The two sides become more distinct with the “white” player being more thoughtful and the “black” side being more aggressive in his decisions. Black Geri nearly wins the game, however white Geri fakes a heart attack to distract black Geri and turns the board around, which leads to white Geri winning and Black Geri hands over a set of false teeth him, almost as a prize.

The film opens with a close up on Geri’s hand hovering over the chess board, obviously playing the game. From the very beginning and throughout a piece of incidental music is played, it has a happy upbeat tone to it and sounds as if it would be something a brass band would play, which is music you would stereotypically assume old people listen to. It was a quite slow temp as well and seems to compliment Geri’s personal character. A medium shot is then used to show Geri standing up at the chess table about to sit down, a medium close up is next used of Geri sitting down at the chess game as he puts his glasses on whilst sitting on the white side, and this is the first indication of the glasses being used to show different characters. 

The camera then cuts to a long shot of an empty park to establish where the location is. After this is a close up of Geri putting his glasses on the table to show a character change is about to happen and we then see this character change as there is a long shot of Geri walking around the table to get to the other side and is followed by a medium close up of Geri now playing on the black side. Yet again a long shot is used next to show him walking back around to the other side. An extreme close up is used to show a white chess piece being moved. Suddenly the editing pace quickens as there are cuts of black Geri vs White Geri as the game becomes more intense, now the incidental music has stopped to, to show the concentration of both Geri’s and to allow the viewer to understand each Geri more by his behaviours e.g when black Geri knocks a white peace off he has an cunning tone to his laugh, whilst white Geri is seen as pondering and nervous of what move to make next; during this sequence of shot reverse shot of the game,  there are close ups, extreme close ups and medium shots, also the incidental music starts again. As the game progresses, it seems as though there are two people playing; at one point, the hands of both "opponents" are in frame. A medium shot is then used to show white Geri’s over dramatic fake heart attack, we then seen white Geri sneakily peak over the table and turn the game around so that he is now winning. 

Finding that now he is the one with only his king left and discovering what has happened, Black Geri resigns the game and hands over a set of false teeth as the prize. White Geri puts them in, then chuckles and grins, and the camera pulls back to reveal him alone at the chessboard. The editing throughout this short film is all seamless cuts.

Analysis of a Short Film: Get Off My Land

Get Off My Land (2007)
Director: Douglas Ray

‘Get Off My Land’ is a short film written and directed Douglas Ray and promoted by the BBC – film networking which fundamentally showcases up and coming British film makers. It was funded by the UK Film Council and shot on location in the countryside. The films running time is exactly: 04.42 minutes long. Quite well known British actors are in this film, these being: Rafe Spall, Ruth Wilson and Robert Glenister.  Get Off My Land would come under the genre of black comedy, this is because of the dark comedy used at the ending when the farmer says “got a feeling this a public footpath”, which shows a dark humour in the fact he didn’t have to kill the ‘trespassers’ but is smiling at the fact he did. The target audience for this would be people over the age of 15 due to the violence shown; also being that it is a short film you would expect older adults to watch it as they are more likely to have an interest in watching short films than the younger generations do.  

The narrative for this short film is about land owner ship; it shows a young couple walking through a field in the countryside, who eventually get stopped by a farmer as he approaches them as he believes they are trespassing on ‘his land.’ The couple are convinced they are walking on a public footpath and not on his private property. Soon the boyfriend and farmer have a verbal confrontation with each other about who actually owns the land which results in the farmer saying “someone probably fought for it”, in which the boyfriend then wishes to fight, the farmers walks off to then return with a shotgun, murdering them both.

As it being a short film the film is restricted due to its time frame to the locations, therefore only one location is used throughout, this being the countryside. Also, due to the time constraint the audience were only able to watch the film from a subjective point of view. The dialogue was the most dominant feature to the film although it was not over complicated. There was no incidental music or non-diegetic sound only ambient sound. The opening titles were simple and to the point as the same with the end credits, this gives the film the tone of simplicity as its not elaborate etc.

A convention of short films is that there is always a twist to the plot, this convention occurs in the film when the farmer kills the boyfriend walks off and leaving the audience thinking he will leave the girlfriend unharmed to only then cut to a n extreme long of the woods with no noise until you suddenly hear another gunshot telling the audience that the girlfriend has now been killed too.

The editing was simple and limited with just the use of cuts; shot reverse shot (this can be seen when the boyfriend and farmer as having the confrontation); jump cuts when it changed from the couple walking to the scene when the famer approaches; and a simple fade at the start from the couple walking in the distance to the titles. The pace of the editing increases once the confrontation between the boyfriend and farmer heats up and then slows back down for the editing pace then slows back down when the murders take place.

The camera shots are not that varied either. The majority of shots are either long shots to show the location, close ups to show the characters facial expression and medium shots. There is also a pan at the beginning showing the couple walking into the distance to where they would eventually meet the farmer. The film contains handheld camerawork which gives the audience a more realistic atmosphere to the film. The prime example of the handheld camera work is when there is a close up on the girls face after her boyfriend had been shot, her face is covered in blood and she is clearly in a state of shock. 

Analysis of a Short Film: LOVEFIELD

LOVEFIELD (2008)
Director: Mathieu Ratthe

‘LOVEFIELD’ is a short film directed and produced by Mathieu Ratthe. At the beginning of the film (when usually any production companies that have been involved in a film etc are shown) is a logo for ‘Matt Ratt Productions’ which is the directors own production company, showing this film was solely made and funded by him. The films running time is nearly 05.30 minutes long.  The genre of this short is a thriller; this is due to the film containing conventions you would expect to see in a thriller film as it uses a build up of suspense, tension and excitement throughout. This film such as stereotypical thrillers  heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Also the convention of a plot twist which you find in both thrillers and short films is used at the end. The film received a good reception and won best short film at the Tremblant film festival in 2007. It’s also had quite a successful viewing rate on YouTube with figures currently standing at: 1, 075, 653. The target audience for this would be people are the age of 12+ this is due to its slight use of blood and the hinting of a murder at the start; also due to it being a short film you would expect mainly adults to take an interest and watch it because adults are the most likely age bracket to have an interest in short films.

The film opens with the title of the movies ‘LOVEFIELD’, it is shown in a simple form of white lettering over a long shot of a dried cornfield, this is also the establishing shot for when the titles fade out to show the audience where the film is set, on location in a cornfield. During in the title and from the beginning of the film and throughout incidental music is played which varies from slow and low pitched sound too fast and high pitched depending on the scene; this incidental music is used to surround and compliment the action taking place and to build up tension e.g the sudden fast music is played when the bloody knife is stabbed into the ground to provoke the audiences to a state of surprise and tension compared to when gentle music is used at the end once the baby is born to show happiness and peace. Diegetic is sound is also used for example with the swinging sign at the start with the crow sitting on top to give off an eerie feeling and then again with the crows squawking throughout.

The use of camera shots varies throughout. As mentioned before the film opens with an establishing shot, the camera than tilts to eventually get into a shot from within the dried up cornfield. Then is a close up on the crow which is used to foreshadow death and therefore gives the impression to the audience that something bad is going to happen. As the camera pans throughout the field the sound of a mobile phone becomes more prominent, till eventually the camera comes across an abandoned phone which is shot using a close up, this builds up the tension as you begin to wonder why there is a phone randomly abandoned in a field. Suddenly we hear crying and shrieks of a woman to then see a hand clutching the dried corn, it is clear the woman is in pain due to the shrieking. We then see a bloody rag which the audience start to wonder if the girl is being murdered, the camera continues to pan until we see what we presume is the girl’s foot which is bloody, bare and is clenching to show the pain she is experiencing. The camera then says on a close up of the foot; the foot stops moving and the incidental music builds up and gets high pitched to then suddenly stop along with the stopping of the foot.  We then she a knife being abruptly slammed into the ground covered n blood and leaving the audience thinking she is dead; when this happens the music happens with it to also build up tension to a sharp end when the knife is in the ground.  A tilt is then used to show the ‘killer’ which seems to look like a hillbilly with the camera specifically focusing on this skull and cross bone tattoo giving the audience a deeper impression of him as a murderer.  Then a long shot of him in the field alone is used to show the isolation of the location.  The camera then tracks the guy to his car as he runs at this point the audience presume he is running away from the scene of the crime.

Throughout all this the camera is constantly going back to a close up of the crow to use as foreshadowing and to force the viewer into a deeper belief that a murder has just took place. Eventually the man gets to his car which is parked on side of the road we see him hastily trying to get the boot of his car open, during in this scene the squawking of the crow is still heard to reinforce the idea of murderer and to make the audience feel uncomfortable.  We then see him grab a bin bag through a medium shot and then shot reverse shot is used between the man and the crow looking at each other intensely. The man then grabs a piece of cloth and begins to walk back to the supposed scene of the crime, as he is carrying these items the viewer believes he is going to get the body and take it away so there would be no evidence.

 Once the man returns to scene of the crime he is seen kneeling down to then cover up the camera with the cloth to show the covering up of the body, during in this the music gradually gets a harsher tone to its sound. Until, we are then presented with the sound of a baby crying and we see that its turns out the woman had given birth and the man was helping her through it. The mother is then introduced to us in a close up to emphasis the happiness she is feeling. The editing in this film is mainly cuts but there is a lot of use of fades especially when the camera moves throughout the cornfield.

The twist at the ending of this short film is one of the main conventions within the short film genre. Another convention used is its minimal use of dialogue. 

Codes & Conventions of a Documentary

History of Documentaries:

Documentary Films are non-fictional, "slice of life" factual works of art and are sometimes known as cinema verite. For many years, as films became more narrative-based, documentaries branched out and took many forms since their early beginnings - some of which have been termed propagandistic or non-objective.
Documentary films have comprised a very broad and diverse category of films. Examples of documentary forms include the following:

• 'biographical' films about a living or dead person (Madonna, John Lennon, Muhammad Ali - When We Were Kings (1996), Robert Crumb, Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time (1992), or Glenn Gould)
• a well-known event (Waco, Texas incident, the Holocaust, the Shackleton expedition to the Antarctic)
• a concert or rock festival (Woodstock or Altamont rock concerts (Woodstock (1970) and Gimme Shelter (1970)), The Song Remains the Same (1976), Stop Making Sense (1984), Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991))
• a comedy show (Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy shows)
• a live performance (Cuban musicians as in Buena Vista Social Club (1998), or the stage show Cirque du Soleil-Journey of Man (2000))
• a sociological or ethnographic examination following the lives of individuals over a period of time (e.g., Michael Apted's series of films: 28 Up (1984), 35 Up (1992) and 42 Up (1999), or Steve James' Hoop Dreams (1994))
• an expose including interviews (e.g., Michael Moore's social concerns films)
• a sports documentary (extreme sports, such as Extreme (1999) or To the Limit (1989), or surfing, such as in The Endless Summer (1966))
• a compilation film of collected footage from government sources
• a 'making of' film (such as the one regarding the filming of Apocalypse Now (1979), or Fitzcarraldo (1982))
• an examination of a specific subject area (e.g., nature- or science-related themes, or historical surveys, such as The Civil War, Jazz, Baseball, or World War II, etc.)
• spoof documentaries, termed 'mockumentaries' (such as This is Spinal Tap (1984), Zelig (1983), and Best in Show (2000))

The Earliest Documentaries:

Originally, the earliest documentaries in the US and France were either short newsreels, instructional pictures, records of current events, or travelogues (termedactualities) without any creative story-telling, narrative, or staging. The first attempts at film-making, by the Lumiere Brothers and others, were literal documentaries, e.g., a train entering a station, factory workers leaving a plant, etc.

The first documentary re-creation, Sigmund Lubin's one-reel The Unwritten Law (1907) (subtitled "A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy") dramatized the true-life murder -- on June 25, 1906 -- of prominent architect Stanford White by mentally unstable and jealous millionaire husband Harry Kendall Thaw over the affections of showgirl Evelyn Nesbit (who appeared as herself). [Alluring chorine Nesbit would become a brief sensation, and the basis for Richard Fleischer's biopic film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), portrayed by Joan Collins, and E.L. Doctorow's musical and film Ragtime (1981), portrayed by an Oscar-nominated Elizabeth McGovern.]

The first official documentary or non-fiction narrative film was Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the 

North (1922), an ethnographic look at the harsh life of Canadian Inuit Eskimos living in the Arctic, although some of the film's scenes of obsolete customs were staged. Flaherty, often regarded as the "Father of the Documentary Film," also made the landmark film Moana (1926) about Samoan Pacific islanders, although it was less successful. [The term 'documentary' was first used in a review of Flaherty's 1926 film.] 

http://www.filmsite.org/docfilms.html


Codes and Coventions:


A documentary is usually a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report. There are many codes and conventions for documentaries. The majority of documentaries will contain the main conventions but different conventions may be used depending on the type of documentary it is and what information/message it is trying to get across to its audience.

Codes and conventions of a documentary are:


Codes and conventions of documentaries are:

• Opening needs to capture the audience’s attention as quickly possible.
• The central question of the documentary has to be posed at the beginning in order to communicate to the audience what the documentary is about.
• Some quick snippets of interviews with good responses can also draw an audience in.
• Incidental music or even a soundtrack, relevant song should usually accompany the opening sequence during a visual montage. The music must not override the voiceover.
• Titles - the titles need to be announced in some dramatic form. E.g: name of show should burst onto screen
• Filming of real events - the filming of real events as they happen of real documentary; but this could prove difficult with certain things like trying to film a hurricane etc
• Archive footage - footage which has been previously recorded by a secondary source.
• Fly on the wall – filming of real people as they do real things focusing on their lives.
• Voiceovers – narration of what the programme is about giving key information and introducing topic of debate.
• Graphics – graphics in form of written texts, maps, drawing etc
• Interviews – An expert interview with someone who has sample knowledge of your topic and can give a clear insight into issue.
• Vox Pops – random interview with ordinary people on the street usually with a hand held camera.
• Talking Head – A shot of someone talking directly to the camera as a presenter. The authority figure and presents facts.
• Statistic – used to back up points made.
• Music - should be present in the documentary but shouldn't be dominate.