Taylor Kennard: January 2010

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Enough

“Enough” is a 90 second dramatic short directed by Tor Kristoffersen. The piece was awarded shortlist 2008 winner on Depict! A website specialised in ultra short films, films that last under 90 seconds. The short is based around the subject of knife crime an issue found in headlines every week in Britain. With ultra shorts each shot must tell as much of the story as possible due to the duration and I feel this piece works with them constraints better than most others from the website.

The film starts with a shot of a middle aged man awoken by the sound of youths outside his front door, we are then shown these youths who in a gang are viciously attacking another youth, the shot then jumps back to the man who we now see is clutching a glass of alcohol, with the time of day shown to the audience with use of sunlight through the window it is visibly clear that the man is an alcoholic. The shots then cut quickly from the man to the gang until the man approaches the youths and the gang decided to run. After attempting to help the victim the shot returns to the man’s house where he opens a suitcase containing a police officer’s uniform and a baton this shot, after clutching the baton the camera cuts to a school picture of a young boy, the audience are expected to put two and two together that the victim beaten by the gang was possibly his son or his son was a victim to previous knife crime from the gang. In just a limited amount of shots a quit complex story is explained by the contents of each shot. The man lost his son to knife crime which result in him picking up a drinking problem this later caused him being fired from the force and all the while having to live on a street where gang culture is popular, reminding him of his loses every day. At the point where the coin drops and the audience put together the shots to work out the story the words Enough appear on the screen and the man decides to peruse the gang after finding them he approaches the one carrying the knife at the beginning and threatens him with the baton whilst repeatedly asking for the knife, the camera shots speed up as the confrontation takes place to go with the confusion, anger and frustration of the situation, soon enough a close up shows one of the gang stabbing the man and as he falls to the ground the gang run much like the fight at the start of the film however this time the boy being confronted doesn’t run he stands still before assisting the man and shouting dad, this is when the tables turn and the story the audience thought they had cleverly put together gets quickly diverted, whilst the audience are still shocked and realise the man was not suffering a loss but frustration and misery his once young son is now part of a gang and carrying a knife the sounds of the cries for help slowly fade out as the picture turns to black. I think this piece proves that with the right shots and contents even a 90 second film can carry a complex story and can pack a powerful punch with a smart twist.

Short Film Festivals

For short films there is no red carpet premiere, there is no huge budget marketing, actor’s interviews on day time TV or huge distribution to the largest cinema chains in the world. Opposed to feature length Hollywood films the recognition, reviews and awards given to short film all come from short film festivals. There are many film festivals around the world each specialise in different genres, some festivals maybe target towards more professional directors where some are directed towards amateur and aspiring directors either way the showcase, nomination and award for a short film are what the directors are hoping for, there is hardly ever a large cash prize and instead of the awards being seen to help market and boost sales of the film like an Oscar would boost the sales of a new Hollywood blockbuster. In a short films case an award from a short film festival would boost the recognition of the director, the award would open new doors for them and those who have won awards at amateur film festivals may later go on to enter professional short film awards. This is why short film is seen as a step for aspiring directors to make their way up the ladder in the film making industry.
Here are some of the festivals that take place around the world.

Sundance
Sundance is a short film festival located in Utah, America that runs from the 21st to the 31st of January. The festival started back in 1978 and is now acclaimed as the largest independent film festival in the USA, the festival was created as an attempt to attract more film makers to Utah; they also wanted to highlight potential of what independent film could be. The festival is divided into two main categories American and international, within these categories the festival concentrates on dramatic and documentary short films.

Encounters
Encounters originally started in 1995 as a one off festival to celebrate 100 years of cinema but due to the festival being so popular it has taken place every year between 17-21 November leading up to now. The festival is British and is based in Bristol, it is also open for anyone to enter, that’s not say that it will instantly go through as each video is watched then decided on whether to showcase at the festival or not. There are many animation shorts broadcasted at the festival but other categories do consist of comedy, music videos and documentaries.

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

History of short films

There is debate that the first short film or first film for that matter was created by Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb who used a series of photographs in a device known as a kineticscope however the piece was never publicly displayed. Most class the lumiere brothers “la sortie d l’uise a lyon” as the first film, a piece created four years after Thomas Edison’s creation filmed with the worlds first video camera. The camera itself was created using highly sensitive photographic plates. La sortie d l’uise a lyon translated as the workers leaving the factory ran for 47 seconds and filmed a single static shot of literally workers leaving a factory, as basic as the piece sounds now at the time was a milestone in the history of media. The first collection of short films at the time where not classed as shorts until feature lengths were first created and the media industry saw the birth of Hollywood.

The birth of Hollywood saw feature length films become the centre o the film industry. The use of arranged sequences and having scenes put together proved to be very popular and as a market opened for films feature lengths were rapidly being produced and distributed and Hollywood grew with 5 major film companies growing with it, in result Hollywood created film genres, codes and conventions and studio systems. However this brought and ended to what was previously known as short film and from the 1930’s onward short film had rare activity until Hollywood brought short film back into the picture. Hollywood decided to use short film as a channel to experiment with narrative, shots, camera movement and sound with minimal financial budget and therefore far less risks. Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas were just two of the directors used for this specific work creating shorts such as the Big Shave by Martin Scorsese a piece the experimented with blood and gore as a man repeatedly shaves away at his face the same concept was mimicked by many classical films which if not for the experimentation of Martin Scorsese wouldn’t have been able to make, or not for a longer period anyway. Short film also underwent the taking to Avant Garde a phrase translated as art house film, these films where directed by people who couldn’t find there style fitting in with Hollywood or the mainstream and as artists they were full of creativity and artistic outlook and decided to use film to experiment with their concepts and ideas. One of the most famous case studies of Avant Garde film is a short titled “The Burning Horse” directed by Maya Deren.

Friday, 22 January 2010

Two cars one night

Two cars one night is directed by Taika Waititi and follows the story of 3 young children in new Zealand waiting in a car park for their parents to return, the narrative of the short shows an unlikely relationship build between the main protagonist and a girl who is also waiting in the car park. the video has been described as a tale of first love that sees a relationship that is first based on rivalry develop in to freindship. we learn that love can be found in the most unlikely places.

The film starts with a shot of two boys sitting in the front of car looking bored, whilst one reads the other looks on at the pub they are park in front of waiting to see his parents return. The director shows that the two boys have been waiting a long duration for their parents return by speeding up footage of cars entering and exiting the car park, this also helps to portray the state of mind of the two boys as well as the lack of sound and the use of black and white. There is no sound, no music, no conversation just the sound of the cars moving along as the adults enter the pub whilst the boys are stuck waiting, the black and white makes the picture very dull unlike the colourful worlds children are usually focused in. I think it is clear that the director is trying to portray the dull and boring situation that we have all encountered at some point in our child hood, waiting for parents to return to the car whilst we try our hardest to find ways to kill the time. A few seconds later a car pulls up alongside Ed’s car, the adults exit the car leaving Polly in the same situation as Romeo and his brother Ed, there is a short moment where Romeo and the girl exchange glances then they both return to the world of their individual cars. The next part shows the personalities of both the brothers and the contrasts between those personalities, our protagonist Romeo comes across as a fidget and being loud both characteristics of someone who is annoying and immature. His younger brother Ed on the other hand is very calm and quiet, as Ed is pretending to drive the car and make loud car sounds his younger brother sits in quiet and reads this is the opposite to what most people may expect as the younger sibling is usually the less mature one. At this point I think that Romeo is using his methods of killing time to also get the attention of the girl who gazes on at their car who has also become bored very quickly whilst waiting for her parents and after Ed’s brother states that she is starring Romeo makes contact the only way a 9 year old boy knows how to especially to a girl, by being rude. After already mocking her and telling her not to look at him as her face may wreck the car he attempts to start a conversation by saying “oi ugly”, after Polly shows no reaction to Romeo’s annoying behaviour he gives up and to our a surprise after a short silence Polly unexpectedly retaliates by shouting back “oi dick” her banter continues until Romeo finally retaliates making clear she won the argument the two found themselves in. The silence then continues this time showing Polly trying to kill time by fiddling with the cars mirror and watching smokers exit and enter the pub, here the director speeds up the footage again but uses a technique in which the light from the cigarettes remains leaving a scribble of light through the eyes of Polly. When an elderly cyclist approaches the cars, whilst Polly winds up her window in fear Ed remains his cool by leaving it open and nodding at the cyclist. Romeo soon exits his car and scares Polly by creeping up on her, he starts conversation but this time tries to impress Polly instead of mock her, he starts by pretending he can drive and then attempts to prove the point by asking his brother, here it is clear that Ed is used to his annoying brothers behaviour by simply saying no and keeping his answers short whilst he concentrates on his book, even when Romeo begins calling him gay he shows no interest and replies “probably”. The conversation is really light hearted and sweet with humorous lines and behaviour. After attempting to impress Polly Romeo goes on to compliment her by being impressed by her ring, here I believe the story has shown development of attraction and interaction, at early years males show affection to females by being rude and it is known that when a boy is horrible to a girl it is a sign that he likes her. Later years maybe teen and up attempts to impress girls are on males agenda when it comes to attraction, lies or dramatised truths are used to impress a girl into being attracted to you where as in the end most males learn that the strongest way to attract a girl is to make them happy and the most effective way to do this is by complimenting them, in this case Romeo is complimenting the beauty of Polly’s ring, a ring that is later given to Romeo when Polly’s parents return to the car, when Romeo asks why Polly says “so you remember me” concluding of what started as rivalry as a friendship or first love.

Codes and conventions of short films

Short film can be described as a channel of media that has no boundaries and therefore can concentrate on the creativity of the piece rather than its story or cast, this is why it is used by many aspiring directors to portray their style and creativity. Unlike all other aspects of media short film has no unwritten codes and conventions, there is no necessary structure or common themes which results in my eyes as a blank canvas where a director can create anything he or she wishes. Short films pronoun low budgets and niche audience prove this point further this is because the director has no target audience to please and is not loaning or paying large sums with the expectations of making a profit from the short film. The only real code and convention found with short films is what defines it as a short film, its duration. The short film must be under 50 minutes anything other would be classed as a feature film; this isn’t to say the piece should last the whole 50 minutes and most only last between 5 – 20 minutes. The unique aspect of short films (the lack of codes and conventions) can also be seen by some as a downside to short films this is because in theory it is possible for anyone to make short film and can therefore take away the creativity and uniqueness that goes in to short film by those who create more commercial pieces or create pieces with mainstream themes.