RESEARCH / PLANNING: SHORT FILM ADVICE

Short Film festivals have given me a huge amount of inspiration, practical tips, understanding about the short film festival circuit and even how to present an award-winning treatment.
From The Edinburgh Short Film Festival 2019:

An article written by Lee of Shore Scripts offered a range of practical tips about submitting films to the short film circuit but as we are more at the stage of deciding our treatment, the advice that struck us most forcibly was the third point here: "Make sure that the film has something to say and the film will take the viewer on a journey."

The Edinburgh Short Film Festival website also included an inspiring model of a film treatment by Ben Tricklebank

Emmy winner Ben Tricklebank's treatment for his short Young Man's Game is here. The presentation of the treatment inspired me with its clarity and organization. 

It was organised into sections:

• The story
• The film (several images)
• Cast
• Location
• Wardrobe

ADVANCED PRODUCTION: FILM PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE

Trailers are primarily promotional products that form part of a package. Show that you understand this by designing a visual post in which all parts of the promotional campaign are shown.
Select a trailer (and perhaps its teaser trailer) and its film poster as a pair, along with its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Aim to pick a recent production that offers inspiration to your production team because it is a similar genre, budget or approach.
Gather the elements before creating your layout.
For instance, you could investigate WT's Yesterday

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM AT THE SMALLS FILM FESTIVAL

The Moderator's report to us for 2019 included this comment:
"Research evidence was appropriate and often wide-ranging and detailed. Candidates showed clearly how they identified and planned to use conventions from existing media texts. This was applied through planning and production work, and in a number of cases, informed the creative critical reflection."

So pay attention to this advice!

When you complete this research, ensure that you have checked through all the leads in the class blog sidebar under SHORT FILM. One such lead is the link for The Smalls Film Festival (about 'small' films). One of their categories is 'Bite Size', that is, no longer than 3 minutes - somewhat similar to your own brief. 

The Award Categories for 2019 are Animation, Bite Size, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Music Video, Student Film and The Environment.

The short film format lends itself to television advertisements as it is compact in structure.
Comic Relief's Wise Words was shown at The Smalls.

Design a post that introduces The Smalls Film Festival, its aims and anything relevant (such as the Bite Size category - relevant for us) and add the textual analysis suggested in the next paragraph.

What platform will you use to present this post? You'll need the short included.

Analyse this short film, noting its genre, style, how it conveyed its message, the camerawork and sound editing that might give you inspiration: what aspects might you use yourself? Who is its target audience? Why do you think it makes an effective short? Is it the theme of common 'connectedness' ("We all ...")

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/comic-relief-wise-words-wonderhood-studios/1578689

SHORT FILM RESEARCH: THE MASS OF MEN

We now look at The Mass of Men dir. Gabriel Gauchet NFTS as part of classwork. You will make a separate post for this (and for every short / trailer that you analyse).

What makes it a powerful short film?

Which scenes would you pick if you were making the material into a trailer?

PRELIMINARY EXERCISES

You create evidence to show that you have understood the language of still images as well as of moving image. 

Save your work to a desktop folder for the moment; we will make our individual blogs later.

Today's lesson is modelled by students from previous years, so check out their Preliminary exercises, as we did in the lesson.

Your document: PRELIMINARY EXERCISES with the following opening sentence, then your evidence of first the stills then the continuity exercise.

I have studied the language of film using Daniel Chandler's The Language of Television and Film

Take a selection of the following still photos.  Read what Prof. Chandler says that they are used for so that you can write a line or two yourself to caption your photo:
LS long shot
MS mid shot
CU close up
BCU or ECU big close up / extreme close up
Low level
High level
Bird's eye view
Canted angle

Your CONTINUITY EXERCISE
This is to show that you have had a chance to practise 'Hollywood editing' or 'continuity editing', that is, putting together a series of clips that delvers a simple narrative.

Suggested shots:
Establishing shot
Tracking shot
Tilt up / tilt down
Pan left / pan right
CU
Focus pull / zoom in
Two shot (shot with two people in it)
Over the shoulder shot
POV (point of view shot)
Shot / reverse shot

In the edit, you will LABEL THE SHOTS
If you wish, add non-diegetic sound (like music or sound effects).