Stop Kife Crime Campaign.

The ad starts of as an animation. The character and settings look like a game, the music is fast and upbeat like it would be in this type of game. We then see other characters that also look like game characters. Two people pull out knives, and as one character stabs the other everything becomes real life, except for the boy who did the stabbing, he remains an animated game character. Also when it becomes real life time stretching is used and it becomes slow motion, the movements slow down and also the music, it goes to a muffled sound, like the boy if going deaf and the audience are hearing it from his point of view. We then hear police cars, radio, people crying and other weary noises, we see the police who are real arresting the character who is still animated, he is taken to the police station and put into a cell. He then becomes real, the ad cuts to black, with text on the screen, and with crying in the background. It then shows the boy flickering from real, to animated, back to real behind a cell door. The use of recognisable settings and people (such a youths and police) allow the audience to know what is going on and to understand everything that is happening as it happens really fast. Jump cuts are often used, and they switch from loads of different angles straight to others, this is because everything is happening so fast and it is made to look like a game, and in games jump cuts are also often used.

Spare A Life Campaign.

Straight away we see a youth taking a knife and we think it is going to be the stereotypical anti-knife crime ad, however this is different. We hear weary sounds like whistling, a heart beating and police sirens. We recognise all these sounds and recognise the block; it’s nothing out of the ordinary. However the boy walks out of the block and all of a sudden there is a young girl shouting at him, after this we see paramedics and surgeons giving this boy weird looks. After we see police, then a funeral and then cell mates. The audience understand what is going on; even though we haven’t seen the boy being stabbed we know that it has happened. It shows all the consequences using recognisable costumes, setting and sounds. The weary sounds and the use of the dark, cold surroundings show that the character is bad, or has done some bad. At the end the boy realises what has happened, and there is a close up of his horrified face. It then cuts to a black screen with text and a voice over for the moral of the campaign.

MTV Campaign.

The target audience for this text are teenage boys mainly, with the use of a young character the audience can relate to, with a bubbly and funny personality. They also use a hip hop song as background music. The MTV campaign ad is a parody of the MTV show 'Cribs', it is slightly comical as the character shows us round his new 'Crib' which is a prison. We see that as he walks around and he tries to be a funny character that the mise en scene is very dull. He wears only grey, along with other prisoners, who get angry when he talks to them. We see the prison walls just one colour, with loads of metal gates and plain furniture ECT. As he goes round pretending to enjoy the place, he is informing the audience in an attractive manor, he tells the audience about security, and life in prison, saying things like "we tear it up" as in fight, but at the same time mocking the situation. Although a fun character through the campaign he often puts his head down in disappointment, and says negative things. The audience know it is a prison even if they haven't seen one themselves, with the use of clothing, extra characters and the setting. The use of time stretching, speeding up certain moments gets through things quicker without having to cut out images that are important to the mise en scene. Repeated imagery is also used and it is a very effective way of highlighting certain points that may be important to the agenda of the short film. As it comes to the end of the ad, the music slows down and becomes more light a big contrast from the heavy base hip hop at the beginning. This contrast in music shows the feelings of the character, he fronts all the way through the ad, but at the end he is disappointed and the music changes with the mood. It is effective as the audience feel sympathetic and put themselves in the characters position.

Developing My Idea.

The agenda of my short film is to raise awareness of joint enterprise, knife crime and gangs as there is an increase in prosecution against gangs using the law of joint enterprise. I want to try and move away from the typical anti-knife crime ads, as there are so many similar ones. Instead of just boys I am going to use both boys and girls, so it will appeal to both sexes and hopefully grab their attention as it is from their genders perspective. It will be a mass audience, although it focuses on youth crime, it will appeal to most youths and also parents may be intrested. Although I don’t have a solid script yet, I do know certain angles, shots and editing techniques that I would like to use, such as point of view shots, split screen and time stretching when relevant. Also using Tzvetan Todorov narrative theory, I may start my short film with the death of some (who has been stabbed), and then unravel all the events that led to this circumstance, then using the dead body at the end. Or start showing the characters talking into the camera, this will then flashback to what happend originally. And at the end the camera will zoom out and the audeience will see that the characters were convicted and found guilty.

Ideas & Narrative: Disneys' Goofy.

Inspired idea:

Another one of my ideas was to use a goofy character to explain how to do something really simple but making many mistakes, just like the short Goofy cartoons by Walt Disney. Although this is cartoon, a simple real life adaption from it could simply be recorded and edited.

Talking about the storyline:

The plot is simply, it goes along with the storyline. A narrator talks the audience through "How to swim" whilst the famous Goofy, acts it out making it seem harder than it is. Basics steps like changing into a swimming costume and relaxing become such a over exagerated hard task for Goofy, and the plot follows him along his lesson, whilst he goes to the bottom of the sea and comes back up again.

Ideas & Narrative: Who Killed Deon?

Inspired idea:

One of my ideas was to raise awareness about joint enterprise, this would be for a campaign, which I would have to do research in to, however I did find a series of videos which help explain the law of joint enterprise, entitled “Who killed Deon?” It follows one storyline but from different points of views, each film lasting approximately 2 minutes, but still having an effect on the viewer as you see how the law works and how each character plays a part in the death of Deon.

Click This to See The Other Characters Point Of View.


Talking about the storyline:

The storyline of the short series of films are about a teenage boy (named Deon) who is seen with a girl, a jealous boyfriend finds out and then tells her to bring him to a party, the agrees even though she knows what is going to happen. When the boy arrives at the party the boyfriend gets his friend to stab him, resulting in the death of Deon. The plot shows the same story but from different points of view, the audience see it from the boyfriend’s point of view, the friend’s, the girlfriend’s, and a few other characters’. The films show how they are all involved in Deon’s death, even if it is a slight participation or a heavy participation in the event.

Short Films, Short Films & More Short Films.

Today the class looked at a few short films together, we had a short discussion and then went on to analyse them. I then went on looking at short films that related to ideas that i wanted to do myself, for some inspiration.


The Door:





The use of old fashioned music, with a black and white effect gives it the connotations of an original short film. The mise en scene also does this, until we see the car and notice it is actually in the present day. The actors also use exaggerated body language and facial expressions as there are no words, also used in old short films such as ones starring Charlie Chaplin.


Cancer Film Festival Winner:
Watching the start of the film we see a small girl looking like shes playing, but being naughty. She begins to cut off her hair, and the audience begin to think about the trouble shes going to be in when her parents see what has happend. But as the story progresses, and the parents do come home, the young girl offers her hair to her sick brother. The mood of the film then changes to an uplifting mood as it is quick, dramatic and heartwarming.





Blackhole:
The easy to follow storyline makes it friendly, and being set in the present time, happening in the space of 4 minuites makes it seem more realsitic and the audience won't get bored when watching. The clever use of editing makes it possible for the curious character to go through the vending machine and through the safe. The character then gets trapped in the safe which adds humour, and adds some kind of moral to the short film; stealing from a safe and then he is trapped in there.

The Begining.

The class was given the corsework, to do a short film, a poster and a double page spread for a magazine. I started thinking and brainstorming possible ideas for my short film, and came up with three main ideas.

-The first is a very traditional short film, it would be a silent, black and white film, where a bandit captures a girl and theres a unlikley hero who sets out to save her.

-The second was a simple idea inspired from the mini Goofy cartoons by Walt Disney. There would
be commentary whilst a simple task is done, but not so simple for the silly character, this would be slapstick or a simple comedy.

-The last idea was for a campagn on raising awareness for joint enterprise, this would also show diffrent outcomes at the end of how joint enterprise works. There would be slitely more characters than the other two but it would be more dramatic.


I also started looking at diffrent short films, which may help develp my ideas, or even spring new ones as I am still unsure of a complete idea.