Audience Feedback on Main Task: Session 1

Here is a video recording of the first of two planned qualitative feedback sessions for our short film. The audience was comrpised of media students and a media teacher, so Tom and I tried to ask questions that would take advantage of their heightened ability to pull texts apart and analyse them in-depth. 



The audience response wasn't, perhaps, as positive as we would have liked, but it still brought up some significant points. In summary, although the film is visually accomplished, and the sound is well edited, some of the audience found the surreal narrative too confusing, and this detracted from their enjoyment of the film.

An in-depth explanation of what we learned from all of our feedback can be found here in my Evaluation Prezi.

Evaluation

I have produced the Evaluation of my A2 practical production in the form of a Prezi presentation. The Prezi can be viewed embedded below in this post, but I would recommend that you view it on the official site by clicking below:

Click Here To View Prezi

Blaine Kenneally's A2 Media Evaluation on Prezi

Final Products

They've been a long time in the making, but here they finally are; our finished Short Film, together with our completed Magazine Review Page and Poster!

Short Film

Magazine Review Page

Poster

Editing: PROBLEM SOLVED!

Yes, that's right, the problem I ranted and raved about all last night has been solved.

After getting a good night's sleep, and thinking over the technician's suggestions, I was able to pop up to the media room this lunchtime with the method of solution at the front of my mind.

Opening the original Final Cut project, I imported one of yesterday's more successful exports, and used this to replace the expanding footage that was causing the problem. Using the exported version of the shot meant that the footage would be able to be cropped, because the footage itself was no longer expanding. After tweaking the measurement of the crop and making some last minute adjustments to the sound levels in places, the film was finally ready for export.

Although the export worked, the visual quality of it is not fantastic, so I may speak with the technician again on Monday to see if there is any way we can improve it.

Editing: THE PROBLEM OF THE EXPANDING FOOTAGE

After months of hard work, Tom and I have finally reached the point where are subsiduary products are complete, and we are ready to export our short film! 

Or, at least, that's what we thought this morning.

After waiting the best part of an hour whilst Final Cut exported our film as a .mov file, it was with some annoyance that I discovered that, due to our use of digital zoom in a key part of the film, the aspect ratio of the exported file had encountered some complications. 

The footage at original size - how we want it all to look.

The footage having scaled up, expanding out into the letterboxing lines.

We had produced the effect of a digital zoom by setting keyframes to gradually scale up the footage at that particular point in the film, but a by product of this was that the footage broke out of the size-boundaries of all the other footage, effectively moving into the area otherwise occupied by the black 'letterboxing' lines. 

At the time, we didn't think this technique would bring us many problems; we assumed that, on export, the resolution of the film would revert back to that which we filmed in: 1280x720, or '720p HD', with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Unfortunately, in actuality, Final Cut wanted to export the film with a 4:3 aspect ratio. With this aspect ratio, the 'letterboxing' lines at the top and bottom were present throughout the film, apart from at the moment when digital zoom was used, where the footage could actually be seen to scale up; the edge of the footage expanding out into these spaces, eventually filling the entire frame, and then disappearing again to reveal the original 'letterboxed' footage.

Things were beginning to grate. Alas, I persevered.

It made sense to look deeper into the export settings, to see if the film could be forced to crop down into a 1280x720 frame. There was an option to select 1280x720 as the resolution for the exported file, so this is what I did. I was pleasantly surprised when the progress bar popped up in a small window which read '2 minutes' for the time remaining, but that pleasantness soon turned to agrivation as the estimated completion time rocketed up to 'about an hour.' 

Oh, the joys of edititng. 

After finding some useful tasks to fill this time, such as helping Tom to take feedback on the subsiduary products and working on my evaluation Prezi, I returned to the computer to discover that the exported file was indeed of the resolution 1280x720. The footage itself, however, was not. The 'letterboxing' lines remained, and the entire video had been compressed vertically - or stretched horizontally, whichever you prefer - in order to fit a 1280x720 frame.

Okay, now things are getting annoying.

Stuck for answers, Tom and I consulted the technician, explaining our problem, and our futile attempts to solve it. We were provided with some brilliant suggestions, but all brought the possiblity of further disadvantages, such as a loss of quality through repeated exports. Adamant that there would be another, simpler solution, I returned to Final Cut to examine the export settings once again. 

EUREKA! 

In the window where a resolution of 1280x720 could be selected, I had found a tick-box labelled 'Control aspect ratio', which came with a drop-down list with the option to 'Crop' the film. Hopeful that this was our final solution, I set all of the options to 'best' to ensure the highest quality result, and then clicked export. 

Another hour or so to fill with other productive things. 

Disappointingly, the film had been cropped closer to what we wanted, but not all the way. Although they were much smaller, the 'letterboxing' lines at the top and bottom were still present, and the problem footage could still be seen expanding into these black areas.

By this time, it was close to 3:00pm, and I still needed lunch, so it was time to give things a break.

Unfortunately, it seems that there isn't a lot more we can do to solve the problem; we can only really make the scaling of the problem footage less noticeable by cropping the film to reduce the thickness of the 'letterboxing' lines that the footage expands into. Because we want to export tomorrow, and with export times being what they are, we can't afford to spend time tweaking settings, because we have other lessons to attend, so this is the solution we will have to settle for. 

If we do succeed in solving 'THE PROBLEM OF THE EXPANDING FOOTAGE', I will, of course, post the details here, but until then, I have other work to do...

Internal Monologue Script

Recently, most of the time I allocate for Media Studies has been spent on filming and editing the actual footage for our short film, so I haven't been able to post regularly.

As we reach the end of the filmmaking process, however, things have slowed down ever so slightly, so I've found the time to make this post about the internal monologue that will feature in our film. 

Below is the full internal monologue, and below that is an explanation of how and why it was written. Just like our shot lists, it was not written in the way an actual film script would have been, because this would have required much undue effort; Tom and I aren't selling the scripts, we merely need to record our ideas for our own later use, in a way which we can both understand and interpret quickly and easily. The bold writing is the spoken monologue itself, and the accompanying italics are notes to show where the line should be placed in the film.

Internal monologue

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From the very beginning of the process, Tom and I wanted the audience to be able to hear the protagonist's thoughts non-diegeticly, via an internal monologue. We wanted the character to seem both enigmatic and realistic, speaking in phrases that revealed the depth of his thought, but without providing specific detailing, or a definite context. The lack of detail would also add to the realism of the words as the character's own thoughts; when we think to ourselves, we rarely think in a way that would make a great amount of detailed sense if another person were to hear it spoken aloud.

We also wanted the film to have a certain message hidden within the mystery, so when writing the monologue, I tried to make every line a covert, inexplicit reference to some philosophical concept, or some dilemma of thought. For example, the line 'And you can't control circumstance, so you work with what you have,' alludes to the conflicting concepts of determinism and free-will, and the following line: 'Acting, not because you must, but because you can: doing, not because that's who you want to be, but because that's who you are,' touches on Aristotle's teleological interpretation of morality in Nicomachean Ethics (350 BCE), which is more explicitly mentioned in the teacher's dialogue during Scene 3.

Having only five-minutes of space for the entire film, I was also conscious of the need to be concise, and express as much as I could in as few words as possible. In other words, the monologue needed to be epigrammatic throughout. This was no more important than in the final lines of the monologue, where I wanted to leave viewers with something that would stick in their mind; that they would continue to think about after the film has finished. The final lines, shown below, address the viewer directly for maximum impact: 

'Don't lie to yourself about these things; justice is only a dream.

Have the conviction to accept this, and you'll take the world one step closer to that sleep.' 

With 'selflessness' the defining characteristic of our protagonist, the themes of 'justice': of what is fair and what is right, should be implicit throughout our film, and to explicitly mention 'justice' at the end should punctuate the film nicely.

As Tom and I have waded deeper and deeper into the production of our film, it has become increasingly surreal, and I wanted to acknowledge that at the end of the film with the mention of 'dreams,' just as I mentioned the theme of 'justice.' What this acknowledgement should do is assure the audience that, whilst the film isn't necessarily realistic by any means, that is no reason to not take heed of its moral sentiments.

Of course, I say all this now, but once we have recorded the monologue being spoken and added it to our footage, it may be too long, too melodramatic, or it simply may not fit the film. We may end up using every single line, or only a few, or somewhere in-between; there is really no way of knowing until Tom and I actually watch it for ourselves to see what works and what doesn't.

Production Photos

The actual process of directing and shooting a scene is very demanding, and it can often be quite stressful, so the documentation of the process for our blogs is easily overlooked. 

Luckily though, over the most recent days of filming, Tom has been ready with his iPhone, taking snapshots of anything and everything that we feel is important, and he has since compiled them, along with written explanations, in this post.

I think the photos do a great job of illustrating the work that goes into filming a scene, and the way in which Tom and I go about it.

On-Set Organisation

Planning and research are all well and good before a filming takes place, but you can't put what you've learnt into practise unless you're organised during the actual filming. 

When watching film or television, it's easy to forget the amount of work that goes in to producing a single scene, or a single shot, even! Obviously, seeing as Tom and I don't have the money (or, frankly, the authority) to be able to command a team of experts in fields of makeup, costume, set-design, lighting, cinematography, continuity, etc, we have to organise these things ourselves, to whatever extent in manageable. 

Here is a link to a post Tom has helpfully compiled about the different roles allocated by filmmakers. (Not all of these people are always needed on-set, but they all help in the overall organisation of a day's filming)

Here is Tom's post showing our 'call-sheet', which he drew up for use as a way of keeping track of dates and the exact tasks we were going to be carrying out.

My role in the organisation for filming has been to maintain the tripod and the camera, the latter involving:

• Ensuring batteries are charged, and that spares are ready.
• Freeing-up space on the memory card, so that we do not run out of storage whilst filming.

Also, for each day of filming, I have written lists of each shot we need, for the same reason as I did for my AS Media production: so that we are never wasting time wondering about which shot to capture next during filming. They are not laid out perfectly, and they are not presented neatly and tidily, but they do serve their purpose as a simple way of reminding and keeping track. Tom and I could have spent time and effort writing a pristine screenplay, and we did consider it, but the pay-off would never have been worth it; we are not selling a screenplay, we are making the film, so all we need is something practical, efficient and convenient that serves the purpose of a script. These shot-lists are shown below, some used, some yet to-be-used. 

Filming has commenced!

Yes, that's right, the filming of our short film has officially begun! 

Yesterday, we filmed a single shot from Scene 2 (information on the content of this scene can be found in the treatment and the animatic). Normally, we would have never considered shooting one shot of a one-minute scene on a separate day to the rest, but we thought that this single shot - of our protagonist walking out onto the school field as other students walk in - would prove difficult to film, so we wanted to start trying to capture this shot as soon as possible. 

Luckily, it all seemed to go well, and we have a useable piece of footage, exactly how we wanted it. Thanks to a friend's tripod, the camera does not shake, thanks to common decency (or perhaps general ignorance), no kids waved at or stared into the camera at an important point, and thanks to our actor's willing and patient nature, we have a piece of footage that will have relevance and make sense. 

The main disadvantage of filming the same scene across different days is that of consistency and continuity. Because the footage we have shot was taken on an overcast and windy day, the rest of the footage will have to be shot on a similar day. Either that, or we will have to re-shoot the 'walking out onto the field' shot when we shoot the rest of the scene, and just hope everything goes well again. 



Either way, I am glad the filming process is underway. So glad, in fact, that I quickly knocked together this teaser trailer, which I hope will give people an insight into the sort of the film Tom an I are aiming to produce.

Short Film Title: PENUMBRA

Yesterday, Tom and I recorded our latest Production Log, giving a general progress update and explaining our current situation. Unfortunately, yesterday evening, I realised that I had forgot to mention something relatively crucial: we have a title for our film!

Tom and I have been thinking about various title ideas for a while. 'Selfless' was a strong candidate, as this is the central concept that our film revolves around. However, both Tom and I thought that this was too obvious; too 'in your face,' for a film that we intend to have a great degree of subtlety.

One media lesson, we were trying to think of a title by explaining the plot of our film to people in different ways. We were focusing on the fact that the protagonist is doing good deeds; affecting other's lives for the better, without being noticed. A friend mentioned 'shadow' as a possibility, and whilst I liked the idea, I did not like the word 'shadow' itself. So later, I searched the internet for any interesting words related to 'shade' or 'shadow' that stood out. This is when I came across Penumbra, a title that Tom and I both liked.

Penumbra is a suitable title, not only because it is an interesting word to say and pronounce, but because it carries a meaning which is relevant to our film and adds to the meaning of the film. 

The word is used in many different contexts, each use with its own definition. The definitions that are relevant to us, from Dictionary.com, are as follows:

General definition: a shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area.

Legal definition: an area within which distinction or resolution is difficult or uncertain.

Tom and I are looking to exploit the 'two-step flow' model in the marketing of our film (where discussions about the film become a way of advertising - Click here for Tom's explanation), and we are confident that Penumbra will draw people's interest, whether they hear it spoken in a face-to-face conversation, or see it written on the internet or in print.



Above is a very short example of how the title could look at the beginning of the film.

Test Footage

Here, uploaded and edited by Tom, is the test footage we filmed with our main actor back in December. We performed the test, covering the entire first scene, so that we could confirm our choice of actor, and also generally so that we can tell if the film, with the shots and cuts we intend to use, is going to work.

Here is the unedited footage in its entirety: 

Scene one footage to be edited from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

And here is the footage edited similarly to how we hope it will be in the final cut: 

Scene one graveyard test from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

Writing a Treatment

As we mentioned in our first Production Log entry, Tom and I recently met to plan out our short film scene by scene. The plans I drew up from our conversation are shown below. They are organised scene by scene, and are intentionally rough; there is no division of different aspects, such as sound, narrative, dialogue and shots, there are merely bullet points for everything of importance. This is all that is needed for the time being, but the animatic we intend to make will reveal how all of these things function both individually, on different levels, and as one.

This morning, I began transforming these notes into a film treatment. As the Wikipedia article states, a treatment is the step between basic ideas for scene and the first screenplay, and seeing as I am going to be writing the script, I think it will be a useful step to take. The treatment will also be useful for Tom, because he is going to be taking photographs of the locations we want to use, and also researching the editing techniques we can use to achieve what we desire. For both of these processes, the treatment will serve as a useful reference.

I have literally just completed and uploaded the treatment, and here it is:

Treatment for a Short Film

It doesn't contain information on absolutely everything that will be included in the actual film, such a shot types and post-production effects, but it does describe all of the live action that we want to show on screen, and it does give a detailed description of the film's narrative. Although treatments are consistently written in the present tense, I felt that it was necessary to break this rule by writing in past tense for Scene 2, as this scene is set before all of the other events of the film, and I needed to indicate this in the treatment.

Sources of Inspiration

Since reading Tom's posts on Inspiration for Our Short Film and True Leaders of Film, I have been thinking about how films inspire us in different ways. As Tom shows in the former post, some inspiration is direct; we see a shot or technique used, we see the value and effect of it, and we subsequently try to recreate something similar in our own work. After reading the latter post though, I realised that, in role models: the people we admire and aspire to be like, we find a different kind of inspiration. The indirect inspiration that we gain from role models doesn't push us into recreating the work of a particular person, but it does encourage us to acheive similar things; to produce works that in some way match up to those of the role model, whether it be in content of the piece, its effect on an audience, or in the amount of success it has enjoyed. Whilst these two types of inspiration are equally valid, I believe that they are most powerful when combined.

In a previous post, I stated that, 'currently, we are aiming to produce a cerebral drama with a tint of mystery and noir.' Below, I have compiled a list of films that can be said to combine these elements of genre, where I find direct inspiration in the type of narratives and visual styles they contain, and indirect inspiration in the effect they have on an audience. 

Donnie Darko
Described as a 'beautifully twisted masterpeice' by Empire, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko is a film that suspended me in wonder from start to finish, and has maintained its position as my favourite film since first viewing. I personally revere the film because of its synthesis of creativity and complex thought, so that the audience are drawn in both by the appealingly dark aesthetic, and by their intrigue for the mysteries presented by the film.

The film seems even more astounding when we consider that it was Richard Kelly's directorial debut with a feature film, that it had a relatively small budget of $4.5 million, and that it was shot over a period of only 28 days! Kelly's masterpeice inspires me because it takes viewers on a thrilling and thought-provoking journey, with an unconventional narrative that people will puzzle over again and again. If Tom and I can develop a narrative that provokes thought in this way, then we will be very much satisfied that our project has been worthwhile.


The Films of Christopher Nolan

Memento, The Prestige, Inception, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were all directed by Christopher Nolan, and can all be said to combine the style of film noir with the genres of mystery and psychologcial thriller. Similarly to Richard Kelly in Donnie Darko, Nolan weaves complex thought and creativity together to present an audience with something that is both aesthetically and intellectually pleasing. However, I feel his genius surpasses that of Kelly, because whilst Kelly's post-Darko work has become increasingly reliant on far fetched sceince-fiction tropes, Nolan maintains an air of sublime mystery, darkness and suspense in every film he works on. Morevoer, he prevents audiences from becoming tired and acclimatised by giving each film its own distinct twist: 

• Memento could easily resemble any other contemporary thriller, were it not for the unconventional spin Nolan puts on the genre, revealing the narrative backwards in segments through the eyes of a character with an unusual form of memory loss.
• The Batman films provoke thought about society using the dystopia of Gotham City, but pays homage to the roots of the franchise with comic-book action.
• The Prestige is a film about illusion containing a plot that is an illusion in itself, but all of this is presented in the style of a period drama with a visceral Victorian London setting.
• Inception explores the intracacies of the human mind, the pervasive nature of love, and the existential crises we face, all within a conventional heist-movie narrative with a deeply emotional dramatic edge.

The intellectually challenging nature of Nolan's films has directly inspired me to work with Tom in weaving a narrative that will encourage people to think both openly and introspectively. His recurring method of giving each film a distinct twist has inspired me to try and do similar; to produce an intellectually thrilling short film containing enough drama to pack an emotional punch.

The Films of David Fincher
Although I have only watched two of Fincher's films: Fight Club and Se7en, it is clear that he chooses a distinct visual style for each of his films. In Se7en, it is the dank, dark brown, rainy mise-en-scene that provides the character for the film, and in Fight Club, it is a similar dark, dingy mise-en-scene, juxtaposed with visceral action and saturated lighting that makes it recognisable.

Recognisable is the key term here, and the reason Fincher's styles inspire me, because a distinct visual style gives a film easily recognisable properties that can be transferred to trailers, posters, reviews or any kind of advertisement material. Such a distinct visual style for our own film would obviously be desirable, as it would give our film the recognisable properties that we can use in our ancillary products of a poster and a film review.

Fortunately, Tom and I take much of our inspiration from similar sources, and since beginning the course, we have been discussing and sharing our favourite films to ensure that our respective visions for our own film and the ancillary products are as similar as they possibly can be. I am confident that we can use our overlapping sources of inspiration, along with our individual ideas, to create a short film that is both original and professional.

Genre Theory & Auter Theory

In my previous post, I wrote about 'genre' as a method of categorisation, and explained the restrictions of this method when applied to short films. After reading this post, our media teacher provided Tom and I with some reading material about Genre Theory and Auteur Theory. In this post, I will explore these theoretical fields, and explain their relevance to our practical production.

Genre Theory

This field encapsulates all study relating to the concept of 'genre,' from arguments surrounding its definition as a word in use, to analysis its utility in the modern world. Previously, I explained what I saw as the defining characteristics of a particular genre: narrative tropes, and the film's effect on the audience. I must stress, however, that this is only my personal perspective, and it is immediately clear from research that this is by no means a standard interpretation of 'genre.'

The concept of genre was first used by the Greeks, who felt that the type of person an author was determined the type of poetry they wrote. Evidence for this can be found in the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory, Poetics (c.335 BCE), where Greek philosopher Aristotle writes of poetry as having 'split into two kinds according to the poet's nature.' Whilst the distinction genre is used to draw here is very simple: that one author's work is different from another's, the implications of this are nonetheless very important; if there is a deterministic relationship between an author and his work, then genre relates to the process that created the work, and not just the work itself.

Jacques Derrida sporting a quintessentially philosophical look.

In The Law of Genre (1980), French philosopher and father of deconstruction Jacques Derrida articulated the idea of genre in relation to process, stating that texts actually participate in genres, rather than belonging to them. In a 1986 paper entitled History and Genre, Ralph Cohen responded to and built upon the ideas of Derrida, writing the following:

'...since each genre is composed of texts that accrue, the grouping is a process, not a determinate category. Genres are open categories. Each member alters the genre by adding, contradicting, or changing constituents, especially those of members most closely related to it. The process by which genres are established always involves the human need for distinction and interrelation. Since the purposes of critics who establish genres vary, it is self-evident that the same texts can belong to different groupings of genres and serve different generic purposes.'

In contemporary Genre Theory, British semiotician Daniel Chandler has stated that genres create order to simplify a mass of available information; to promote organisation instead of chaos. Whilst most modern theorists agree with Chandler as to the utility of genre, many still argue differently over the best method of categorisation. Jane Feuer, the Professor of Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, sees genre classification as being divisible into the three following methods:

• Aesthetic - Texts organised according to certain sets of characteristics.
• Ritual - If a text performs a 'ritual' associated with a 'system of ritual', then it is a practising member of that 'system.'
• Ideological - Texts promoting or evoking similar ideologies are part of the same category. (This is the method most commonly used when marketing a text.)

Conversely, in Writing Genres, Amy J. Devitt talks about genre as being a rhetorical device. She essentially states that genres are not free-standing entities, but are interconnected amongst themselves and the works they describe; they are generated from the culmination of every factor present in the construction and consumption of a text. Whilst this particular theory, with its fluid and versatile method of taxonomy, doesn't make the categorisation process any easier, it does allow for more choices, for both the consumer and the producer; genre is there simply to aid a decision, and consumers and producers are free to choose how to use it.

The idea of choice and personal freedom brings us nicely onto Auteur Theory.

Auteur Theory

Unlike Genre Theory, which is a field of study containing many different ideas, Auteur Theory is more comprehensive and distinct, making it a theory in itself. Advocates of Auteur Theory believe that a director's creative vision will always be apparent in their work, regardless of the production processes it endures.

Alfred Hitchcock

The theory takes its name from the French word for 'author,' because the first proponents of auterism were writers for the influential French film magazine of the 1950s, Cahiers du Cinéma. They praised filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and Jean Renoir for being the absolute 'auteurs' of their films. Part of the purpose of auterism was in promoting Alexandre Astuc's ideal approach to filmmaking, where directors would use cameras in the same way writers use pens, so that they are not hindered by conventions in film and storytelling.

Since the 1960s, Auteur Theory has been criticised by critics and screenwriters alike, who have argued that it is wrong to ascribe authorial merit to the Director alone, when screenwriters and producers have given an equal amount of creative input, if not more.

Contention or Collaboration?
Some critics and spectators see Genre Theory and Auteur Theory as being at odds with one another; they believe that the former argues that all films abide by a certain set of conventions, of which there is a finite amount, and they believe that the latter argues the opposite: that films are free from constraints, and the resultant product is purely dependent on the filmmaker's vision. I think advocates of this view misunderstand the ideas of Genre and Auteur theorists.

I am of the opinion that Genre Theory as a field of study and Auteur Theory as a hypothesis are interelated; I believe that the collective artistic voice of a production team does transcend genre (in the sense that genre can only categorise to a certain extent, and the influence of the artistic voice surpasses this extent, making a film unique within its genre), but I also believe that genre is important for filmmakers and viewers alike. Genre provides a method of taxonomy by which we can organise and identify our tastes, experiences and sources of inspiration; whether we subscribe to the tastes, experiences and sources of inspiration of others, or of the past, is an individuals own decision.

What Does it All Mean?
Well, for Tom and I, Auteur Theory instills a great amount of confidence; if filmmakers truly have total creative freedom and control, then together we can surely achieve exactly what we intend to. Genre Theory, whilst not so inspiring, is helpful all the same, for it affirms the usefullness of genre in organising our own ideas. My own personal study of genre has also assuaged my fear that genre constrains filmmakers' with conventions; I now see genre as something much more versatile and fluid, which tends to appear more concrete from the perspective of consumers, who are bombarded with genre categories in the process of marketing.

In summary, I now feel confident to continue taking our short film in the direction Tom and I want, and I see the utitlity of genre when it comes to marketing a film. In our subsidiary products, a review and a poster, we will include a combination of conventional factors from the overlap of genre that will no doubt be present in our film between mystery, film noir, and drama. This way, we can market the film to its most responsive audience, but also retain its uniqueness.

Genre & Short Films

Dictionary.com defines the noun 'genre' as follows: 

1. A class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like: the genre of epic poetry; the genre of symphonic music. 
2. Fine Arts A) paintings in which scenes of everyday life form the subject matter. B) a realistic style of painting using such subject matter.
3. Genus; kind; sort; style.

When we refer to a genre of film, then, we refer to a particular kind of film. When we say that a film is a particular 'kind' of film, we are asserting that it must belong to a certain category, and for such a category to exist, all the films within it must share some amount of common material.

The genres regularly used to categorise feature-length films are as follows, along with some of the associated characteristics:

• Horror - Scary, shocking, unnerving, dark, absurd.
• Thriller - Tense, complex, mysterious.
• Sci-fi - Futuristic, visually stunning, obscure.
• Comedy - Funny, simple, feel-good.
• Drama - Thought provoking, emotional, meaningful.
• Documentary - Factual, relevant, contemporary, witty.

Other genres such as Action, Mystery, Adventure and Crime can all be seen as subsidiary genres to those above.

An image from The Exorcist (1973), an iconic film of the horror genre.

Although people tend to relate genre just to the tone and effect of the film, the aspects that tie a film to a particular genre actually go much deeper. As I see it, genres are defined by narrative tropes and the intended effect on the audience. I use 'tropes' in the way it is defined by Meriam-webster.com: 

b : a common or overused theme or device : cliché 

Taking the 'Thriller' genre for example, a defining trope could be: an ambiguous event occurs and a character attempts to uncover and/or rectify the situation, and a defining effect could be: the audience are made to feel tense, and eager to follow the complex plot.

If you browse the internet looking for short films, you will find that the vast majority fall into the categories of comedy or drama, with only the occasional thriller, and perhaps even a rare horror short. This, I believe, is no coincidence, or even an artistic trend, but an inevitable result of the method of categorisation we apply when we talk of 'genre'. As I explained above, genres are defined by narrative tropes and the intended effect on the audience. Short films are restricted in terms of genre, because they cannot facilitate tropes that are suited to feature-length running times. In other words, there aren't a great amount of 5-minute thrillers, because filmmakers would be hard-pressed to convey a quintessential thriller trope in that short period of time.

It follows that, the longer a film's running time is, and the greaters its budget is, opening more avenues for creativity, the greater the film's capacity for tropes becomes. Because it is unfair, and less sensible, to judge a short film's genre on the tropes it contains, people generally rely on the other side of the coin: the film's effect on the audience. Personally, I beleive that short films mainly fall into the genres of either comedy or drama, because this is the greatest distinction anyone can make based on the effect on the audience alone. A comedy clearly makes people laugh, and a drama obviously draws out emotion, but a thriller could do either or both of these things, and still be called a thriller, as could a horror, documentary, or a sci-fi. In summary, short films have less scope in terms of genre, because they are less capable of facilitating the tropes that define a genre, and are judged solely on their effect on the audience, which will always be to either draw out emotion (like a drama) or make people laugh (like a comedy); otherwise the short film wouldn't be worthwhile.

Basing judgement on our ideas so far, I would categorise our short film as a drama. I think it is incredibly important, however, that we do not let this categorisation influence our piece; Tom and I take our inspiration from a great variety of sources, and it would most certainly be detrimental to restrict our creative input in order to comply with a particular genre. Nevertheless, I think it is worthwhile to clarrify and summarise ideas from time to time, to help ensure the planning and production is specific and achievable; the last thing we want is to begin drawing up a storyboard with no certain narrative, only a vague ordering of events. Therefore, I will state that, 'currently, we are aiming to produce a cerebral drama with a tint of mystery and noir.'

Considering this, my next step will be to research the work of directors whose films combine the elements Tom and I hope to combine in ours. After this, I will clarify our ideas for the films narrative in a synopsis or treatment, which will illustrate the chronology of the key scenes, their relevance, and the intended message of the film.

Directorial Techniques to Consider

Now that we have our initial ideas pinned down, it is important to begin considering the practical techniques we can actually use to convey those ideas. After listening to our pitch, our teacher provided us with some films that may be of interest to us. Among these were the films Apocalypto, for its ability to tell a story in a foreign language, even if watched without subtitles, and Dead Man's Shoes, for its distinctly British style in both a visual and narrative sense. 

Apocalypto
Apocalypto is an action epic made by Mel Gibson in 2006, which focuses on the story of one Mayan villager during the civilisation's demise. Although our aims in making a short film are pretty much polar-opposite to those of Gibson in his high-budget feature, Gibson does utilise techniques that we could also find useful. In our pitch, I explained that an important feature of our film would be an internal monologue of the protagonist. Because this monologue will dominate the film, we won't be including a great amount of diegetic dialogue. However, one of the main messages we want our film to carry is that 'selflessness often goes unrecognised,' and the lucidity of this message obviously depends upon the minor characters' reactions to the protagonist. If we are to keep the amount of dialogue to a minimum, and also illustrate the minor characters' ignorance of the protagonist's actions, then we must be efficient in visual storytelling.

This is where Apocalypto is relevant. All of the speech is in the Yucatec Maya language, and without subtitles, viewers such as Tom and I, who are far from fluent in the language, have to watch the film more closely to understand it. Viewing a film in this way makes the role of visuals in the storytelling much more apparent.

The excerpt below illustrates this well; even if it is muted, and the subtitles are ignored, the scene still makes sense. A story is told through the physical actions of the actors, the type of shot that captures them, and the way these shots are edited together. 



After watching the film with visual storytelling in mind, one thing that stood out to me was the abundance of eyeline matches. These are a staple in visual storytelling, because they exhibit the world of the film from a character's perspective, and provide justification for the way that character may act. Even if they are very short and subtle, they can convey important pieces of information. One example of a very subtle but important eyeline match can be seen at 2:54 in the video above; if it were not shown that the offering had been presented, then a factor of the negotiation between the two tribes would be lost, and the tribe of Jaguar Paw would seem much more easily persuaded. The fact that so much of the meaning of the scene would be changed by the omission of one shot illustrates the potency and importance of visual storytelling, and shows why it will be an important factor for Tom and I to consider during the production of our film.

Dead Man's Shoes
Dead Man's Shoes is a gritty independent thriller about a disaffected soldier who returns to his home town in the British midlands to take revenge on those who caused the death of his brother. As a film directed by Shane Meadows working with Warp Films, it works to most of the conventions of the vigilante/revenge thriller genre, but is set in a small town in the British midlands. Whilst the location initially seems incongruous, the beauty of Meadows' directing is in the way he can ground even the weirdest and wildest of events in reality through his use of characterisation and dialogue, so that they don't seem incongruous at all.

This aspect of Meadow's films can be seen in the below excerpt of Dead Man's Shoes. From 0:50 onwards, we see Meadows' interpretation of a conventional 'character stand-off'. Although we have many of the conventions of such a scene from a an old Western movie; namely two enemies sizing one-another up in quite a lengthy sequence to create a great amount of tension, Meadows manages to depict something that is quintessentially British. The characters are made to fit into both their location and the situation at hand; they look moderately intimidating as a gang, appear realistically unprosperous in the car they use and the way they dress, and seem quite uneducated in the way they ineloquently converse. At the same time, the protagonist, with whom the leader of the gang talks, is very unnerving in his arrogance, but without breaking the bounds of what is credible for such a person in his position. (This is all very much related to the concept of semiotics, which I introduced here on my AS blog)



Essentially, Meadows keeps his films sharp and interesting by providing the audience with a certain amount of social realism. Realism helps to captivate people, because they feel more willing to empathise and associate themselves with characters who could believably exist in this world. Realism will be a very important aspect of our short film, because whilst we are including surreal and ambiguous elements, we want the film to comment on the real world, and how real people interact. We will not be able to convey such a message unless the audience can conceivably relate the film to their own lives.

Another aspect that stood out to me on first viewing was that of the humour in the film. Despite its overly dark tone and tense atmosphere, Dead Man's Shoes contains some very funny moments, which help to break up the intensity of the plot in order to keep the audience just comfortable enough to continue watching. Many such moments contribute to the social realism of the piece, as real life is very rarely serious for extended periods of time. I feel that this kind of humour has almost become a trademark of British cinema, and a good example of it can be seen at 2:10 in the above clip, where we cut to a shot of the gang, squashed into the back of the car, debating what their leader is and should be doing.

Another illustration of this kind of humour can be found in the following clip from Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smocking Barrels from 1:00 onwards, where Vinnie Jones' character tells his son off for swearing, despite bringing him along in his day-to-day work as a loan shark. In this context, comedy is created because, whilst the sentiment of the father in not wanting his son to swear is realistic, the situation they are in at the time is not. 



Whilst I personally like this kind of 'socially realistic' humour very much, I do not think it would work particularly well in our short film. The humour works well in Dead Man's Shoes because, as I mentioned earlier, it eases the intensity of the plot and balances with the dark tone. Our film, however, must be short. Therefore, if we were to include a similar comedy moment, it would form a much bigger portion of the overall piece, and would definitely interfere with our surreal, cerebral tone. If we are to include any such humour, it won't be anything significant enough to be described as a 'moment' as such, and could be something as simple as one character insulting another.  

In summary, the directorial techniques which we will now consider are:

• Visual storytelling - use of eyeline matches and other such shots to convey information with minimum dialogue.
• Social realism - use of mise-en-scene, costume, location and characterisation to add a sense of realism and captivate the audience.

Pitch: Ideas and Inspiration for a Short Film

Since my last post, where I explained my decision to make a short film for my A2 Media practical unit, I have also decided to work on the film with Tom Palmer, and together we have combined ideas and shared our inspiration to develop a succinct plan for our film and its subsidiary projects. Below is a video of Tom and I pitching our initial ideas to the class, and also sharing some useful information we have found about the creation, distribution and exhibition of short films.


Project Pitch from Blaine Kenneally on Vimeo.

For further information on the visual inspiration for our short film, please follow this link to Tom's blog.

Choosing a Brief

Before the summer holidays, we were provided with a sheet of paper listing the various briefs we could undertake as our A2 production projects. Two immediately stood out, one involving the production of a music video and various other promotional materials for a band, and the other focusing on the production of a short film, along with some promotional materials linked to the film. Obviously, I cannot undertake both briefs, and I cannot mix or combine them in any way, so a decision must be made.

Music videos differ from other television and film products, because they can exist without a conventionally structured narrative. In the same way that music and lyrics doesn't have to tell a story to be classed as a song, music videos don't have to contain a conventionally structured narrative to be classed as music videos. By my definition, a basic narrative is a number of events, connected in some way, which function together to develop an idea. For me, it is the process of 'functioning together to develop an idea' that is most important to the definition, as it prevents connected events that make no alteration to an idea from being classed as a narrative. Almost all music videos contain this kind of narrative, but many still can't be said to contain a conventionally structured narrative, which I define as follows: a number of events, connected by character, location, or action, which function together in a lucid, logical way, usually with some kind of chronological ordering, to develop an idea. 

This video for Spiralling by Keane, for example, can be seen to contain a very basic narrative: there is a man sat in a chair watching some screens, there are marching robots, there is what seems to be a robotic woman also watching some screens, and at the end we are shown that the man bears resemblance to one of the marching robots. This is certainly a narrative, because from the contingency of the described events and the lyrics of the song, we can derive the message that modern life is confusing in its endless representations of representations. It seems to suggest that we turn ourselves into robot-like beings by consuming artifices as opposed to the experiences of 'real life'. The video does not, however, contain a conventionally structured narrative; it doesn't establish a sense of time and location, and whilst the events are connected in some ways (the presence of the screens), they don't function together in the same lucid, logical way that a television drama or blockbuster film does. Music videos generally connote basic messages and emotions through distinctive cinematography that works in conjunction with the music.The video below for Ulysses by Franz Ferdinand can be seen as another clear example of this trend.



So it is clear that there is a void between the material found in music videos, and that found in other media for film and television. It is within this void that the short film establishes itself. Generally, short films have a somewhat conventionally structured narrative, but because of their limited running time, they rely heavily on distinctive cinematography, and sometimes distinctive music and sound, to connote messages and emotions that enhance the basic story. 


Spider from Qoob TV on Vimeo.

The short film above, Spider by Nash Edgerton, is similar to television and film media as it has a conventional narrative that is structured chronologically. At the same time, there are many differences. Most strikingly, the events of the film, up until the last few moments, occur in real time, and yet they convey a story and a message that is a lot deeper. Also, the vast majority of the shots used are very intimate; being close in proximity to one character or another, and usually focusing on their facial expressions or the small actions they perform. There is no obvious non-diegetic sound in the film either; in moments without dialogue, viewers are left to listen to the sounds of passing traffic. Overall, these techniques give the viewer the feeling that they are also sat in the car with the characters, unseen and unnoticed, but able to watch and speculate in tension.

The film below, Strangers by Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv, whilst taking itself slightly more seriously than Spider, exhibits a very similar style of intimate cinematography, but is more overt with its use of sound. Whilst short films do contain a conventionally structured narrative, it is worth noting that it is still a very basic narrative; as a rule, short films revolve around a simple but distinct idea, and explore it with a small number of characters and without a great deal of dialogue. Both of the short films shown here can be seen to abide by this rule. 



Considering the respective factors of each medium, I think that I would prefer to work on a short film rather than a music video, because it seems less restricting in terms of content, with more freedom to create. The official specification for this brief is as follows:

10. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

• a poster for the film;
• a radio trailer for the film;
• a film magazine review page featuring the film.

Next, I will begin constructing basic ideas for the film and its subsidiary products, ready for pitching to the class.