Distribution

The best place to view and show short film is on the Internet and that is how we will show our short. Our film is already on facebook for our fiends to see it and also on youtube and vimeo for the world to see, there haven't been many hits yet but over time i hope the film will become more popular. All the student film festivals i found want some submison money and they didn't have much to show for it so i felt it was a bit of a con. In terms of competitions i couldn't find many there were suitable for student but i did find a promising one from the BBC called the BBC film network, we have sent the short to them hopefully they will take an interest and enjoy the film. Also i entered the short in a competition via youtube link, the competition is called future shorts not sure how it will fair it seemed quite high production this is all i have heard from them in four days -

Submission received

Dear Louis Spanswick O\'Brien

Thank you for submitting Lazy Days to us. If you have chosen to submit a DVD copy of your film, please send it clearly marked with your Submission Number to:: FUTURE SHORTS, 71 Leonard Street London EC2A 4QU We look forward to receiving your film. Please note that we cannot return preview copies.

Submission ID:: 0000005520

All the best, Future Shorts Programming.

and the BBC haven't got back to me either but in good time i hope they will. I couldn't find a big market for student filming in the UK everybody wants more money and professionalism behind it so i really do hope the BBC find an interest. Overall i feel the best way for the film to get recognised is by streaming via facebook and vimeo, its free, easily acsesable and fast this is our best option. Now all we can do is push the video out there a bit more in short film enthusiast blogs and networks and hope for the best.

Audience

Our short film is designed to target a more niche audience, people who are interested in short film and go out of their way to watch it. Not having a mainstream audience means that we don't have to make a film to attract an audience, enthusiasts are our target so we made the short look how we wanted it to. The short has a quirky narrative involving a television stalking a man, this different style of story is what we wanted to make adding a comedic side to it helps engage an audience keeping them entertained and laughing. The music for the short i feel fits well, the start piece is slow blues guitar which sets the mood for the short giving it pace and style completely miss-guiding the audience from what the are to expect. The music that plays when the television is stalking the main character gives great comedic effect, it engages the audience and has perfect timing i feel this is a great pull factor to our short. At the start the pace is slow fitting with the music but when you see the telly for the first time the pace picks up and become really engaging for the audience, but towards the end it slows down and i feel the slow end is the weak point of our short and the audience can start to loose interest.

As a group we showed our short film to a class of year 12 student, students who have not been taught about short film all they know is what they have seen in their own time. After the screening we gave them a questionnaire (group blog) to gain some feed back and the outcome was pretty positive. The feedback showed the audience had i miss understanding off the moral message, we tried to give the impression of technology grip on society today but only two or three got that from the film. They also said the cuts between the stakling looked a bit naff and the end got a bit slow and uninteresting, which is fair enough as i also feel that theese were the film weak points aswell. Overall i think the feedback was pretty positive, they enjoyed the film and a lot said they liked the fact their was an older person playing the main character as it made it look less student like.

The short was posted onto youtube, facebook and vimeo, i did ask people to comment on it but there was only one person to comment was simons mum so there wasnt much interst online. I could have pushed it more but if people wern't intrested i didn't want to force it down them also i was happy with what the year 12 said, if the evaluation had more time i feel people would have stumbled across it and gave feedback.

Influences

I feel that inspiration week really helped for the first idea 'tramps', we were looking at news stories and one was about tramps. I Quickly thought of the idea 'tramps' and we all agreed on it and it began to go into production. In all honesty i feel that the short films i looked at weren't influential at all. We got our visual style and script from a film called 'Withnail and i' and a comedy scetch on the mitchell and webb look called 'sir Digby chicken cesear'. We picked up on the script for these straight away the black comedy really influenced the script for 'tramps' we wanted to capture the darkness of homeless life but a the comedic effect. The mise en scene from both pieces helped develop 'tramps', the double act, grittiness, costume and outrageousness really help to finalizing our idea.
For 'Tramps' the main theme was to finish where it started for example tramps opening shot was also the last shot, they went through a big ordeal but one of them comes out a tiny bit richer. the idea came from a short film we watched in the BFI called -"postal delivery"- Directed by John Beech 1971 - this was my influence for the whole 'coming around' idea which also happens in the end of 'Lazy Days', where at the end he's stalked by a laptop instead of a television. The idea for 'Lazy days' didn't come from inspiration week or the short films we watched, but from an incident that happened to Simon. After tramps fell through Simon quickly came up with idea and we all liked it, we began working on it straight away, making storyboards, synopsis etc. and filmed a few days later.

Lazy Days-Vimeo Settings HD from BDC on Vimeo.

completed short film

I am pleased with the outcome of lazy days its a nice slow paced film which fits well with the narrative as it is a slow paced story. I feel the continuity is great it needed to flow and be clean for the piece especially with the telly stalker scenes. The music fits well with the short the blues helps emphasize the slow pace and laziness and also gives it good comedic effect, however i do feel the cuts in the music is too potent and it sticks out. The fades between the telly appearing work well footage in-between would have dragged out the film, the cuts keep it short and sweet. We had problems with the camera and the boom kept getting in shot, so in one scene the camera jumps awkwardly jumps towards the character and looks odd, also the end scene seem a bit drawn out and uninteresting.

I feel the short fits well within the codes and conventions of short film, firstly the film is just under 4 minuets long therefore classing it as a short. Also most of the films we looked at during the research lessons had a moral message to them, so does ours the television stalking the main character symbolizes technology grip on todays society and how to much can be a bad thing. A lot of short films can have a quirky for example 'the post box' is a short i watched at the bfi were a man gets his hand stuck in a post box and makes a fortune, theme i feel 'lazy days' does with the telly and laptop following the main character seem quite a surreal theme. Twice in the short the main character looks directly at the camera at the audience breaking the fourth wall, this is nearly never done in feature length as it gives the fell that the main character knows we are watching. Lastly 'lazy days' has no dialouge it works through facial expressions and actions we couldnt possibly make a feature lenght out of it the film would be very boring, its the perfect script for a short.

I feel i had a big hand in the filming i was there everyday and i took on a lot of the shooting during those days. as the filming was at my house it was very easy also the actor lives with me as well so filming was a breeze, i add my contribution by directing the actor, inputting how i feel shots should be framed and working out how to make the jump cuts work e.g. bus stop scene. In the day in between the two days of filming i set up the camera in the front room and filmed day time television every 30 minuets for 20 seconds just to make sure we had enough footage for the time lapse scene. I feel we all put in a fair amount of editing during i did alot of log and capture, i laid down the genral story line giving our short structre, i edited it to an 'unfinshed' version, then we did alot of cutting down with all the shots making them shortter, i did alot of playing about with the piece giving it the right pace, colour and tone. Lastly pre-production for lazy days was a bit rushed as our idea tramps fell through we had to quickly make a new idea. I put alot of effort into 'tramps' compared to 'lazy days' but i still put work alot of work in not so much with the idea but the visual style, camera and paperwork you can see my contrabution on my group blog.

codes and conventions

'lazy days' fits into the genre of short film first off it is less than 5 minutes long which defines it as a short film. Also most of the films we looked at during lesson had a moral message to them so does ours the television stalking the main character symbolizes technology grip on todays society. some short films can have a quirky and theme i feel 'lazy days' does with the telly and laptop following the main character seem quite a surreal theme.

editorial process

i feel we all put in a fair amount of editing during i did alot of log and capture, i laid down the genral story line giving our short structre, i edited it to an 'unfinshed' version, then we did alot of cutting down with all the shots making them shortter, i did alot of playing about with the piece giving it the right pace, colour and tone. i missed a few of editing due to illness but it was a fast process all of the group being profiteint in final cut was came across no hicups and agian finished it with ease.

filming our short film

filming lazy days was relatively easy there was only two locations and it spanned out over two days the first with simon, were we filmed everything except the bus stop and throwing out the telly scene the second i filmed the latter with bethan. I feel i had a big hand in the filming i was there everyday and i took on alot of the shooting during those days. as the filming was at my house it was very easy also the actor lives with me as well so filming was a breeze, i add my contribution by directing the actor, inputting how i feel shots should be framed, working out how to make the jump cuts work e.g. bus stop scene. in the day in between the two days of filming i set up the camera in the front room and filmed day time television every 30 minuets for 20 seconds just to make sure we had enough footage for the time lapse scene. ovarall the filming was enjoyable due to one of the actors not turning up for filming 'tramps' we had to change our idea but im glad we did, we had more than enough footage and i feel that this was a better idea.

directors

i have chosen to look at a director called Neill Blomkamp, born in johannesburg 1979 he is famous for his documentary-style, hand held, cinema vertie technique and also blending naturalistic with computer generated effects. Blomkamp at 16 he began working for an animation company called deadtime. His family moved to Vancouver where he enrolled in film school after graduating he work as a visual effects artist at the embassy visual effects. whilst working as a visual effects artist he made four successful short films. Blomkamp's first big break came when he was asked to direct an upcoming film adapt from a video game, when this fell through the producer, peter jackson decided to make a feature length of one of Blomkamp's earlier shorts. Neill Blomkamp has won four academy awards and one golden globe thanks to short film Blomkamp has started a career in feature length films.

short film messages and ideologies

In many short films there is an underling message or moral, just like feature in length films, music and books the author director or artist uses this media to show a point. here are some examples in short film "the big shave" directed by martin scorsese the young man shaves his face till he bleeds, this represents how the war in Vietnam was unnecessarily destroying the youth of america. "about a girl" directed by Brian Precival it is about a young girl telling the camera of her dreams and ambitions mixed with stories of abuse and domestic violence. The 'underside' of the story is revealed at the end when the girl throws a plastic bag containing a dead baby into a canal. the short is saying something about todays society and is a shocking image of underage pregnancy in the UK. Not all shorts have an underling message but most do many short are a way of expressing a directors view or opinion.

film festivals

Short film is one of the main gateways of becoming a director, film festivals are the best way to get your short film shown to the right crowd. there are film festivals all over the UK and the world. their is a huge diversity of films shown and even particular festivals for particular shorts. "Sundance" is one of the largest independent film festivals in the USA, held in january the festival is the premier showcase for new york from american and international independent filmmakers.

"raindance" is the UK equivalent of sundance it being the largest independent film festival in the UK.

there are also festivals dedicated to short films, for example "brief encounters" started off in 1995 in bristol it was meant to be a one off event but because of its popularity it has carried on since. Without these festivals there would be no place for short film to be exhibited and watch by the right people to have new great talent recognized.

avant-garde short film

avant garde short film started as a protest against Hollywood, it used the minds of some fantastic artists to create work that would break the mould of cinema. avant garde literally turns reality on its head, it uses narrative, camera and mise-en-scene to disrupt the norm and engulf the viewers senses. avant garde is always a vehicle for the filmmakers expression. avant garde started in the 1940's and "meshes of the afternoon" was the one to break the mold, it set the bone for USA avant-garde filmmaking. "the berlin horse" is simply a horse running backwards with harsh filters and a simple piano playing over it. this is a ground breaking work and is one of the best examples of the power in avant garde. avant garde is still being made and shown in art galleries all over the world and has been influence to such films as the "rocky horror picture show" and pink floyds "the wall".

BFI archives

as a group the class went to the BFI and had a look at their archives these are the 3 films that stuck with me the most:
-"Borderline"- Directed by Alex Chandon
"borderline" is a short which uses optical illusions, good camera movement and very skilled editing. it take an average urban landscape (London) and change to look unnatural and out of the ordinary to play with your mind.

-"postal delivery"- Directed by John Beech 1971
This short has a quirky story line where a man traps his hand in a post box gets beaten up, robbed and loses everything. an old woman helps him and feeds him then he draws on the pavement with chalk, becomes and inspirational street artist, earns a million and finds true love all with his hand stuck in a letter box.

-"the x-rays"- directed by G.A.smith 1897
this is an early film for cinema the short uses a quick cut and a costume change to give the impression you are looking at two people through an x-ray camera. This film must have been when editing and different camera tricks were being found, out it very impressive for it time.

Codes and Conventions

looking into short films i have found that its not the actual short film that follows codes and conventions but the production side that does follow them for example films are considered to be short films when there under 50 minutes in length. short film. the main common features that short films share is that the production is the same they have small budgets, small crew. short films can range from "rubber johnny" to avante-garde "the berlin horse" it doesn't have code or rules to follow you can be as independent and different as you want.

video activism

some artists and film makers use video activism to support economical, environmental and justice campaigns, they use short film to capture there point and get it across in a quick and informal way. witness videos are one of the most common form of video activism used mainly by protest group but one of the most famous was the Rodney king case. Rodney king was an African American man when on the 3rd of march 1991 was a victim of police brutality a bystander, George Holliday videotaped much of the incident from a distance. when the four police were trailed the got off without charge this then sparked the Los Angeles riots. to this day video activism is still trying to get there points across from the japanese whaling industry to the war on terror, Green peace and many other activist groups are making these short films to teach the world and make us understand about issues we need to stop.

protest and free cinema

free cinema was a british documentary film movment that was founded in the 1950's. the movement began with a programme of three short films at the national film theatre, London on 5 February 1956. The programme was such a success that five further programmes appeared under the Free Cinema banner before the founders decided to end the series; the last event was held in March 1959. 'we are the lambeth boys' by Karel reisz was the fisrt showing of working class people on british television documentries like these was influence to fly on the wall documentaries and incedently britsh new wave cinema. a manifesto was written for free cinema by Lindsay Anderson and Lorenza Mazzetti it said:

These films were not made together; nor with the

idea of showing them together. But when they came

together, we felt they had an attitude in common.

Implicit in this attitude is a belief in freedom,

in the importance of people and the significance of

the everyday.

As filmmakers we believe that

No film can be too personal.

The image speaks. Sound amplifies and comments.

Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim.

An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude.

free cinema films were made with a next to none budget with small 16mm cameras they had unpaid staff, funded by the bfi and most importantly style and attitude.

the history of short film

Short film started of the cinema industry in 1985 you would go to a cinema and pay to see short film the first being 'sortie de l'usine' created by the Lumière brothers this was the first commercial film to make money. Short film carried on untill in 1914 when the hollywood studio system came to be which made 90 minute films and put death to the short film. the studio system brought in genres and longer films so people could eat drink see a film in the genre they prefered and it will all have been done in a 2 hour slot ready for the next veiwing this dominated cinema leaving no breathing space for short film. from the 1930's onwards short film was regarded as an activity rather than a profession. currentley hollywood makes short films for cheap experimentation to scout new talent try new characters, storys, themes and so on.

beyond worlds by armand de saint-salvy

the film is about a deaf woman having the feeling she is being stalked by a man but at the end of her day when she returns to her car to go home, a man tries to car jack her and the man she thought to be stalking her turns out to be her saviour.

the film cut back and fouth to the deaf womans perspective and the blind mans perspective to really convince you and show how hard it is esspesially in the car jacking scene it make it very frightening.

the film shows odinary life with disabilities and how in a real life situation people can come together and over come these situations wilst not being able to see or hear which are what we rely on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJlVNxBbrU8

Alive in joburg by Neill Blomkamp

Alivie in joburg is a fictional sci-fi but with a documentary style twist. it looks at the contact of an alien space ship which brakes down directly over johannesburg. the aliens are rescued from the ship and relocated into a massive refugee camp called district 9 quickly turns into a slum. the film looks at both sides of the problem the human side wants the aliens to go, they raid and roit to afford enough for the next meal. the aliens can't leave and they want electricity and running water but they are denied these things and kept inside disctirct 9. the "MNU" werec the corperation who took over the alien operation and there the ones who keep them detained in district 9 but also the "MNU" keep alot of secrets and mistreat the aliens. the film keeps you wondering who are the protagonists with the aliens mugging and murdering or the humans keeping them in slums and not giving them proper rights. the film cut from documentary style to cinimatic style but it still uses a handheld feel to make it seem like it was filmed by someone there and keeps it flowing. lastly the film must of had quite a substantual budget as it has two helicopters and very good special effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTll8k_BBys

tales of horror

33 5 minuet film were on this dvd by various different director some famous including takashi shimizu "the grudge" and hiroshi takahashi "ring 2" nearly all of the films were based around one person in there small flat, also alot of them are about ghosts.

my favorite of them all was a film called "spilt water" by norio tsuruta. the film is of a mum and daughter who have lost the father of the family, this is explained in the first 5 seconds by the daughter reminiscing about her father. the final scene is the key scene where the ghost of the father walks past subtley the mother notices but the daughter dosn't see him. the mum tells the daughter that he was smiling showing the father has always been there and the fact he was smiling shows that there is life after death and that he has always been with them.