Evaluation question one-
In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When creating our short film idea and making it the best it
could possibly be, as a group we had to consider what is going to be a
successful storyline and plot. As short films can range from a concise 5
minutes to a 30 minute film, we wanted to have an interesting plot idea to gain
a large target audience. At the start of the project I and my group
brainstormed a lot of different ideas in order to have a variety of
opportunities. But due to our lack of location opportunities and our minimal
amount of actors, we completely changed our plot ideas from the three initial
ideas to a new and improved idea to suit our plot of one character and one
location. Regarding the idea and narrative we wanted to focus one a wider issue
within society today to enlighten certain audiences to a taboo subject within
many communities and societies. As a group we knew that we wanted to portray a
powerful and meaningful message to the audience that would be relatable to many
audiences. Once we decided on our overall idea, being teenage suicide and
bullying, after we were set back by the limitations of our three initial ideas,
we decided to look at other examples in the media today that convey this theme
well. One example that we examined was Netflix’s ‘’13 Reasons Why’’. We looked
at this series that followed a teenage girl’s life of moving to a new school
and being bullied, unfortunately leading to her taking her own life at the end
of the series. Our group liked the narrative of this as it conveyed a powerful
message to the audience, which was what we wanted to do initially. Therefore we
gained inspiration from this series and created a narrative of a girl being
bullied over social media by anonymous users, leading her to take her own life
at the end of the short film.
Sound in drama films is a very important micro-element that
plays a big part in creating mood and atmosphere for the audience. The
soundtrack, non-diegetic and diegetic sounds that are used help create meaning
and enhance the mood of the plot straight away. One example of a short film
that has a very significant soundtrack which sets the mood straight away at the
start of the short film is ‘’ONE BY ONE’’. Towards the start of the short film
the soundtrack starts to play as the shot of the little boy fades in of him on
the beach. The soundtrack consists of a piano based sound which automatically
gives off a dramatic or sad feeling to the audience, which sets the mood from
the outset of the short film. Another example of sound is the voice over of the
female character within episodes of ‘’13 Reasons Why’’. Throughout each episode
the female character expresses her feelings through a voice over. This example
of sound gives a raw and depth representation of her emotions which adds to the
drama genre. In contrast, our short film does not have any dialogue involved,
which we thought was the best thing to do as it would have taken away the emotion
from the soundtrack that we picked to be used throughout our short film,
‘’Anything But Social’’.
Focusing on our group plot of our short film, being bullying
and suicide, for the micro-element Mise en Scene, I wanted to find a short film
that focused on the problems within schools, regarding bullying. Therefore the
short film ‘’ I’m Truly Sorry’’ is the best example of a short film that
focuses on bullying. It follows a boy who is part of a group of boys that bully
one particular girl from the start of the film. It follows how the boy becomes
aware of his little sister being bullied over social media, and how he starts
to realise how much bullying can actually affect someone seriously. Therefore
he stops getting involved in bullying this one particular girl and apologises
to her. The type of mise en scene that is used in this short film are things
like mobile phones and laptops, and
locations include places such as schools and classrooms, which are key places
that are prone to bullying and singling out people for differences. Therefore
when creating our short film we wanted to mirror some of these ideas In order
to portray the seriousness of the narrative, by including our main prop being a
mobile phone, which emphasizes the online bullying being the main problem with
our main character Lucy. We also wanted our Mise en scene to fit specific
stereotypes of the drama genre, therefore by using only one location, it
prevents the audience to become disoriented in the plot as well as successfully
conveying the isolation of the character throughout the film.
The short film ‘’Bully’’ uses a range of camera and movement
throughout the film in order to create a sense of emotion and a tense
atmosphere. The angles of the camera really addresses the serious themes of the
actor that is being bullied, by making him look weak and powerless. The short
film uses shots such as extreme close up shots, tracking shots and high-angles
shots. The extreme close up that is used in the ‘’Bully’’ is key to the
audience in expressing the character raw emotions and feelings at that point in
the film. Therefore when creating our own film, we wanted to portray to the
audience the down fall of fragility of the character Lucy throughout the plot
of the film. We wanted to use a range of shots such as; close ups, medium shots
and high-angled shots to really portray the narrative of the film and express
the character’s emotions clearly to the audience. This would also make it easy
for the audience to understand where the character stands in the particular
part of the film without them getting confused. We also wanted to include
flashbacks in our narrative to create a sense of meaning for the character as
the audience gets to know the character and have an insight of her past, and
how she has got worse throughout the plot towards the end.
The micro-element
Editing can affect the way in which a short film is portrayed to the audience
watching, as it play a huge part in creating an interesting plot and narrative.
Due to this, as a group we wanted to address a serious matter happening in the
world today, therefore we needed our editing techniques to have a wide range. An
example of a type of editing that can be used to create a flowing storyline is continuity
editing. This is used in many drama short films, in order to make the plot
appear more realistic to the audience and enables the audience to gain a
connection with what is happening in the short film. It is important for the
editing to be smooth and clear in order for the audience to connect with the characters
and plot. In the short film ‘’I Miss You’’ there is huge amounts of continuity
editing throughout, to help make the story flow and to prevent the audience
watching to get disorientated within the plot. There is also frequent cuts to
different memories of the character narrating the story, and includes a montage
of all of the shots. This can be compared with our short film idea, Anything
But Social, as we have included a montage of clips from the character Lucy’s past.
The frequent jump cuts used in ‘’I Miss You’’ inspired us to include the past
of Lucy, in order for the audience to be emotionally connected with her,
leading to them be more engaged with her story.
