Research into Statistics-

At the very end of our short film Anything but Social, as a group we decided that we wanted to include statistics regarding cyber-bullying and teenage suicide. We wanted to do this because we wanted to discuss a wider issue within society today which, may not be a common discussion within a community, but is a very common danger to young people in society today. It also explores the effects and consequences it has on young people. 

The statistics we are including at the end of our short film are- 

• Approximately 160,000 teens reportedly skip school everyday because they are bullied, and 1 in 10 teens drop out of school due to repeated bullying.
• More than half of teens have witnessed cyber bullying on social media and don't say anything about it
• 1 in 6 parents know their child has been bullied via a social networking site
• 30 percent of victims have turned to self-harming behaviour, which has increased by 6 percent from 2013

By completing research around the subject of cyber-bullying, we were able to gain this information from the links below-

https://nobullying.com/bullying-statistics-2014/

https://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/cyberbullying-social-media.htm

https://www.teensafe.com/blog/cyber-bullying-facts-and-statistics/

http://enough.org/stats_cyberbullying

Credits In Short Films

There are many differsnt caterogories in which the titles at the start and the end of the film that are used focus on. The film conpany that produced the film is nto always mentioned at the start of the opening titles. Catergories of which are included in opening titles are:

• Title of the actual film
• Writers
• Actors and performers (can appear in the closing credits also)
• Productions and editorial

Closing Credits-

• Performers and Cast
• Consultants and advice
• Crafts; animations, design, costume, camera, graphics, photography, make-up, sound and soudtracks, special effects
• Editorial and productions
• Facilities
• Engineering
• Locations
• Music and dance
• Specialisms (stunts, animation etc)
• Websites
• 'With Thanks...'
• Writers, Creators and Formats

Hybrid Genres Research

There are many different genres that can be manipulated into sub-genres within the film industry. The mainstream, usual genres that are used within the film industry are;

-Drama
-Romance
-Comedy
-Sci-Fi
-Action and Adventure
-Horror
-Historical
-Documentary
-Thriller
-Crime

Sub-genres that can be created out of the drama genre are;

-Melodrama

-Romantic Drama

-Crime Drama

-Realistic Drama

-Historical Drama

-Teen Drama

-Musical Drama

Audience Research - Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that my group and I formed-

Research- Questionnaire Response Examples

Overall, our questionnaire was very successful as we got 164 responses. After sending out our questionnaire, it was clear to us that there were a range of different people who had answered, regarding gender and age. Both a range of males and females had answered our questionnaire, which gave us a direct representation of what both genders enjoyed watching concerning short films. There was also a huge range and variety in age within the answers, varying from 11-30+. We recognised that the category 11-17 was the most popular age of responses, which is perfect for us as that is our target audience that we are aiming for. Our second most popular age range was 18-23, which is also extremely helpful in the fact that they could be a part of our demographic as well as the 11-17 age range. 

Which gender would you expect the protagonist to be?

The answers for this question showed,  56.3% of the responses claimed that it could have either gender as the protagonist, 37.3% said that the protagonist would most likely to be male. This left female being 6.8%. 

Which Gender would you expect to be victim?

57.1% claimed that the victim could be either gender, 39.1% said that females are most likely to be the victim in short films and the last part of the pie diagram exemplifies the small population of responses that  believe men are most likely to be the victim, which is the very small percentage of 3.8. 

Which gender would you expect to be the antagonist, (villain)?

In the results that were collected, it was shown that most of the responses chose either gender, but the male section was a lot more popular than the female section with it being 37.3% as the males and the females as 6.4%.

What is your favourite genre of film?

Comedy- 38.5%

Romance- 16.1%

Drama -13%

Thriller -22.4%

Horror -8.1%

As seen in the diagram, action and documentary are very small slices of the pie diagram, which symbolises that they are the least favourite of the options. 

What style of narrative do you prefer?

60.2% of the responses revealed that they preferred a Linear narrative, which means a narrative that is in a chronological order type style and 39.8% liked the idea of a non-linear style narrative which means the narrative is disjointed and scattered, which can be argued as more suitable for a short film as they are seen as more alternative and different. 

Have you ever watched a short film?

From this question we gathered the information that short films within our age range are presented as not a very popular type of film. This is shown by the percentages of no and yes compared with one another. 55.9% claimed not to have watched a short film, and 44.1% claimed that they had watched a short film.

If the answer was yes previously, what is your favourite short film that you have watched?

We found that the top answers were Lava, The Paper Man and Frozen Even After. Most of these short films are animation and a lot of the short films were specifically made by Pixar. Here are some examples of the answers we received-

What platform would you use to watch a short film?


For this questions there were many different types of answers in which the responses told us. Examples of these platforms are Youtube, Netflix, on a website, Vimeo, TV, DVD and Show box. And it shown through the diagram below that Youtube was the most popular platform that is used for the public to watch short films, with Netflix coming in second with 22.4%.

What excites you when watching a drama film?

These answers were crucial to our group due to the fact that we can use the most popular answers given in the responses to vary what we include in our own sort film, in order to grasp the best attention we would like to have from the specific target audience ranging from the age of 12 on wards, as our age certification for our short film aiming to be a 12.

What is your favourite choice of ending for a short film?

In this question we gained critical information  which could most definitely help with shaping the ending of our short film. Our plan as a group we decided to leave our short film on a cliff-hanger/open-ended. This is because we are enabling the audience to interpret it in any way they wish to and as a group we wanted to give our ending a powerful feeling to let the audience ponder on what happens next. 

Costumes

Here are some sketches of the costumes that are going to be used in our short film;

As our short film includes flashbacks pf different events of our main character, Lucy, being bullied , we will be using 7 outfits. Six out of the seven outfits will be pyjamas. These will be casual, relaxed pyjamas that normal teenagers, the same age as Lucy would wear, specifically girls. The pyjamas have a double meaning due to the fact that although they are stereo typically a comfortable choice of clothing and a good representation of relaxation, it also enhances the idea of our main character, Lucy being scared and uncomfortable in her own home as the flashbacks occur to enlarge the fact that she has been bullied ever since she has moved to her new school. 

The last outfit that will be worn by Lucy is a pair of plain jeans and a jumper. This is an example of the face that Lucy has lost hope and care in her appearance as she doesn't care about what she looks like. This is done at the stage in the short film when her personality becomes more insecure with no confidence or energy to put any effort in with what she looks like. Therefore the casual clothing helps us as a group portray emotions and feelings for the character. 

List of Props

List of Props-

Phone:

• Her obsession- representation of teenagers within society today (wider issue)
• Where the cyber-bullying stems from

Book:

• Other obsession/hobby- this is the reason why she gets bullied.
• Passionate about reading
• Stereotypically what a ‘nerd’ would do

Glasses:

• Stereotypically ‘nerdy’ and ‘smart’

Bed:

• Her safe place- where she feels most comfortable and where she feels secure
• Contrasts as it’s also where she ends her life at the end of the short film
• Creates a double meaning

Bottle of pills:

• Indexical sign for death or danger- creates a tense atmosphere
• The pills are white- the colour white can represent ‘purity’- contradicts the events happening in the film
• They foreshadow the forthcoming events - her death
• Bottle is medical - mums pills- she takes too many- shows the immaturity of her knowledge.

Character Analysis

Character Analysis-

Victim/Main character:

The main character in our film is a young girl named Lucy Merill. She is a 17 year old who has brown eyes and dark blonde hair and lives with her mum and dad. Lucy and her parents have moved house and she is facing the challenge of settling into her new house and ‘fitting in’ at her new school. As lucy has moved to a new school, she has had to disconnect from her previous friends and start her new life alone. At her old school she had some friends from her childhood who had similar hobbies to her, but at her new school she is finding it incredibly hard to make new ones as she is quite anxious and shy. At her new school the people do not like her as she doesn’t fit their idea of ‘normal’. This is because Lucy enjoys reading books and likes photography and is hoping to get a profession in journalism. Lucy has come from a privileged upbringing where most materialistic things were handed to her, this is why the bullies turn on her. They believe that, as she lives in a semi-detached house in London, England and is considered wealthy, she doesn’t belong in the rougher environment of her new school. These bullies pick on her because she is different and cannot relate to their nurturing.

Bully number1:

Due to lucy’s wealthy upbringing and how her dad had to relocate his job, the family have now moved into a rougher, urban area. In this area, the people speak and act differently to lucy therefore lucy is seen as ‘different’. As well as this, there is an element of jealousy as Lucy is quite well-off and the people that are now around her think that she is a ‘snob’. This then creates our first bully, who is known as the most popular girl in school. The element of jealousy stimulates a one-sided rivalry between this girl and lucy. Due to the first bully having a big group of friends circled around her at all times, this is causes other people to feel jealousy towards Lucy. As seen in the text messages, the bullies are uneducated as they use slang.  

Hand Written Storyboard

Budget of Short films

The budget of a short film can range from a very low budget, to no budget at all. This is because all film companies that produce short films are independent film companies. Therefore to produce a short film, the company would need to gain funding by the BFI, which is an institution which helps to fund a short film production in order for it to be distributed successfully. Here is a list of funding companies, that help with supporting the short film industry in the UK;

BFI Institution







Creative England






Creative Europe Desk UK






Creative Scotland







Film London 








BBC Films






Channel 4





iFeatures

Location Recce

For our location, our group decided to change our ideas due to the question and answers by our peers, after our pitch. Considering what was said in the questions, as a group we decided to minimise our amount of locations to only one, Lucy's house. In our film you will only see a minimum number of rooms being the characters bedroom, bathroom and the hallway. This choice was made due to the fact that we wanted to cut down on locations in our film in order to reduce disorientation for the audience as having too many locations may become confusing for people that are watching.