Summer Holiday work - Short films (Sarah)

Media studies summer homework 2014

http://moodle.centralsussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=42855

‘The Black Hole’

The film begins with the frame being shown by a black circle zooming out to represent the title of the film. The titling choice of a bold font in capital letters conveys the genre of horror/thriller. The decision of white contrasts on the black background, keeping a monochrome tone titling also fits in with the dull saturation in the film. The grey saturation sets a tone of mystery and also gives an insight to the characters

mood so in a way acting like pathetic fallacy.

As the title fades the foley sounds of a photocopier printing paper and the beeping of the machine sets the scene of an office. The lack of any soundtrack and choosing to use silence builds tension and indicates to the audience straight away something may not be right. There is a pan from a long shot through the dull office to a close up of the mans face. This is to introduce the character, the pan conveying he is alone in the room which is a convention of any horror and builds suspense. The male character then diegetically sighs and combined with his costume, the audience get a sense of his emotions. The scruffy hair and rolled up sleeves indicate he has been working all day and appears exhausted and bored. 

We are then taken to a long shot of the office and the man still continuing to stand at the photocopier. This is used to get a sense of the atmosphere. Many common office props are used to create the dull-looking setting, including;

• Old fashioned late 1990s/early 2000's style computers
• Grey lamps
• Clock on wall
• Pie charts in the background
• Over head lights

Close ups of the characters face are used to convey facial expression and mood. The other close ups such as the characters hands and the piece of paper are used to show the importance of the black hole or any other props. We are shown from a worms eye view medium shot in perspective of being inside the 'black hole' what the piece of paper really is, at this point for a few seconds it is unrestricted narration, before the man realises as he drops his cup into the hole. The non-diegetic sound used for this worms eye view shot is very low, vibrating and eerie and sounds almost underground-like, this is to represent what it is like inside the black hole.

When the audience is shown the door of the mystery room, there is a slow zoom in. The black edge effect created in post-production automatically gives a negative eerie effect. The prop of the 'keep out' sign also connotes there is something secretive in there. When reaching in the safe the eerie sound increases in pace, lifting the tension and preparing the audience that something bad may happen. There is a strong use of low key lighting here especially as the man enters the room, creating harsh shadows on the face produces an un-easy effect. The use of the flickering light is a convention of horror or thriller as it means the audience can only see flashes of what is in the frame. 

The extreme close up of tape falling from the safe is to show the man is officially locked in with no escape, resulting in the audience to feel shocked and on-edge. There is then three jump cuts of the safe from different distances, each time further away to show the mans isolation. The film ends with a straight cut to black with a cut of all sound to create drama, tension and fear. 

Silent things - (representation of disability) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiw7Ng3pBuk

Stereotypes

The director has gone against the stereotype that people with Aspbergers syndrome cannot make friends, with the man forming a friendship with both the disabled girl and the school girl. This changes the assumption that the audience might have that the man is alone and isolated.

The disabled girl cannot make eye contact which is also another stereotype of Aspergers.

People with Aspergers syndrome tend to develop intense interests that can appear almost obsessive, the director plays on this with the man being interested in kite flying and knowing a lot of information about ferrys. This is not neccesarily a bad stereotype, it's just another indicator to the audience that he has a disability.

How the audience is positioned

The young girl could represent positiivity in the film in a way that the audience is positioned to like her as she is accepting the mans disability and befriending him.

Silent Things is filmed in restricted narration because we the audience are positioned to know only as much as the characters which means we figure out each relationship as the film progesses.

At 4.57 there is an extreme long shot of the girl and man sitting on the beach with a ferry gliding across the sea infront of them. This could be a metaphor as the white ferry could represent ability and the girls thoughts that everything will go smoothly and she can take the man on the ferry. With the post representing disability, putting a barrier and problem in the way of this line of thought.

Technical codes used to construct disability 

Camera - close ups are used to convey facial expression and to make their disability clearer, such as how the disabled girl cannot make eye contact or the close up of her touching her neck. A lot of two shots are also used to compare characters and show their relationship. The extreme long shot at the beginning of the film of the disabled man and disabled woman kite flying with no one around could represent how isolated they feel as people with Aspergers stereotypically find it difficult to connect with people.

Editing - The main editing used in this film is straight cuts. However, the fade at the begining of the film is to show time progessing and convey the people are close enough to work together on the kite without need for speech.

Sound - The majority of the film is silent, filled with the faint non-diegetic sound of wind and sea

waves to set the scene. The silence from the ferry onwards could represent

Mise En Scene - The low key lighting of the disabled man and woman looking into eachothers eyes captured in close ups when the man leaves with the police is the only time they make eye contact which finally portrays their connection. The lighting gives a dramatc effect and the warm red tones give the impression of happiness and love and show their relationship. The darker lighting, dull saturation and cloudy weather the end of the film on the beach is used as pathetic fallacy to convey their emotions and the fact everything back to the same and they continue to live with their disability everyday. The use of casual clothing in costume makes the film take a realistic view and creates something much more believable.

binary oppositions 

• Ability/disability 

Power and status
An example of where the film portrays the stereotype that people with disability are less trusted than without a disability is when the girl says to the ferry officers "he made me get on the ferry with him" they are more inclined to believe her rather than the disabled man even though it was the girl who persuaded and asked him to come with her.

body language

The main character uses a lot of closed body language which give us a strong indication he has aspbergers syndrome before he announces it. Also on the ferry when he keeps his hands up to his face and won't allow anyone to touch him. The disabled girls body language conveyed anxiety through her use of hand movement and the was she walked. For example the two shot at the beach at 0.34 she plays with her hair on the left side of her face which creates a visual barrier with her hand between her and the male character who are at a distance from eachother. The repetion of the hand movement of her touching her neck is a sign of anxiety in aspergbers syndrome, the directer has chosen to use this as a connotation to inform the audience that the girl has a disability.

Mixtape (Audience) http://moodle.centralsussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=42853

Target audience -

• more aimed at females than males
  
  
• 30+
• with children
• white - there's no characters with a different ethnicity to white

It also could appeal to

• Early teens

This is because of the characters in the film, as it could be relatable

Demographics -

• The average demographic for Mixtape is C1/C2 - this is because it's aimed at middle class. You can tell this from references like when the girl is at "dancing". Working class may not be able to afford for their daughters to having dancing classes. There is an extreme long shot of the  housing when the boy goes next door. This housing is not the type of housing someone from an upper class person would be likely to have as it's semi-detached.
• They are also quite well spoken and do not use slang, so this is an indicator again they are not working class.

Psychographics - The audience is also reinforced by the psychographics as older people would be into:

• a feel-good film
• Relatable because of children and music
• nostalgic
• retro
• the mixtapes (popular in the 1980s)

Viewing platform/place of exhibition

• Online - younger audience
• Independent cinema

Content of film -

• mixtapes
• artist names (oasis, morrisey)
• nostalgic
• headphones
• furnishing of house
• picture vibrates to indicate the beat of the music
• memorable last piece of music/ uses old music e.g. A song from The Kinks in 1965 and the other song was from 1976

Pearl and dean theory - These groups could each apply for this film

Lovefield (Narrative) http://moodle.centralsussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=42854

This Is Me (Genre)

http://moodle.centralsussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=42854

Genre definition: The conventions and repetition of certain ideas to group films and create a style. Syntactic and sematic codes also help define the genre.

Altman and “Semantic and syntactic codes”

Semantic codes - An element in the film that uses genre connotations. An example in 'This Is Me' is the titles used, the title uses an animatic style font that uses a shattered effect to fade out. This animated, light font is a connotation of comedy so the audience is more likely to be expecting a humourous film.

Syntactic codes -  The opposite of what the connotations would be expected to lead on to. An example of this is when the man explains about the boys aeroplane, as the audience is not expecting that that is the reason he was put in hospital. 

Neale’s “Repetition and variation”

Steve Neale - 

• "genres are instances of repetition and difference"
• "genres are not systems, they are processes of systemisation"

Meaning as the audience we know of each film genre, we can expect the repetition of conventions of a genre in a film and assume narrative and plot lines.

Buckingham and “Negotiation and Change”. 

Buckingham argued that genre is constantly evolving through negotiation and change, with many films now using a 'hybrid' genre. This applies to This Is Me as it crosses comedy with a drama/documentary style film. In a way coming across as a 'Mockumentary'.  

Conventions/connotations that inform the audience of the genre

• Titles - the animated font 
• light music - humourous/not serious
• animation - bright colours/cartoon effect animation
• stereotype - that he's obese makes it more humourous 
• zoom out - of the close up of the mans face in the garden when he's saying about how good his garden is, it zooms out to a long shot where you see it's actually not a very nice garden is again humourous and ironic