Marking hide and seek

"Hide and Seek"

Good bits:

• Good idea
• Children acted well for their age
• A good variety of shots
• Excellent focus on mise en scene, clothing, cake etc
• Good continuety throughout
• Good use of dark and light to show different times

Bad Bits:

• Predictable story
• Seemed to change from the past to the present too quickly

How it helped me:

• A large amount of focus on mise en scene will help with the feel of the whole Short overall
• Be careful that the story doesn't seem to be rushed to an ending
• Child actors can work well but would need make sure they are good

Marking love hurts

"Love hurts"



Good bits:

• The sound worked well to add to the ambiance of the film along with the black and white balloon 
• The control of the camera was good most of the time
• The symbolism with the selective desaturation effect on the balloon.

Bad bits:

• It was  a very predictable film
• Occasionally the camera would be too shaky, during the POV shot from the girl
• A small variety of shots
• Some shots went on too long, especially when they are sitting on the bench, a close up of their hands would have helped break up the shot.
• More close ups to show emotion as it is a silent film

How it's helped me:

• Not to have shots that go on for a long time
• Choose music that fits well with my theme
• Close ups to show emotion are needed
• Use a variety of shots

Narnia lamp post scene (focus on shots)

For this scene we were given the script from the lampost scene in Narnia and told to recreate it with a focus on the shots used. Because of this we didn't record the dialogue sepereatly to remove wind and traffic noise.

How do people watch Shorts?

People and their Short watching...

People consume Shorts in a large variety of ways, youtube, cinema's, websites, film festivals ect.

Youtube:

It's probably the most popular way as their is a huge variety of Shorts on their and anyone can upload their Short. It is also free and easy to watch them so everyone with Internet access can watch them. As technology advances people can now watch youtube on their phones or tablets so it is also becoming a more accessible. People often watch them together with friends or watch alone and then share the link to their friends via social networking. Youtube also allows people to comment and offer feedback so a lot of amateur film makers use this as a way of getting feedback and advice from the public. 

Cinemas:

Many "art house" cinemas show a series of Shorts in one go for a small fee. The type of people that watch these are often more of the aficionado/buff section of the audience. They are more likely to go alone and want the Shorts to have more thought provoking or dark topics. The films shown here are usually student films that are nominated or upcoming film makers.

Websites:

Websites such as shortoftheweek showcase Short films that have won competitions or have been nominated ect. Again like youtube anyone with Internet access can watch these for free however they are not as popular as youtube but hold higher status if you film has been shown on them. A lot of people still watch films on these websites though, usually people with more of an interest in Shorts.

Film festivals:

People that go to these festivals will often be the same kind of people that go to watch Shorts at art house cinemas. They will watch Shorts that have been nominated to be shown and then wait to see which one is the winner. 

Best for me:

I think that youtube would be the best platform for me as it is easy, free, has a large audience and people can offer feedback easily to my film. It is also a good way to get yourself known and from their I could then attempt to enter my films into competitions to get them onto websites or in film festivals.