1. What are your overall thoughts of the film?

2. What are your overall thoughts of the film?

3.What did you think about the two settings?

4.What is your opinion on the sound in the film?

5. What do you think could be improved on?

From when we were researching Goldilocks' costume for Just Right we came across several different outfits but all around the same blue and white theme. On the descriptions of these outfits there was a common occurrence of people writing 'works just as well for a Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy costume' or other similar characters appearing all together.

After finding this we showed our audience this photo:

We then asked them which fairytale character they thought it belonged to, the results were a mix of Goldilocks, Alice in Wonderland and Dorothys with no majority. Due to Goldiclosk already having the blonde curly hair we didn't want her to have a yellow dress as well so wanted to stick with the blue dress. We will therefore be having to rely on other elements around the costume of Golidlocks on the ancillary task poster. 

We want to create a curiosity with our audience so they are intrigues about the character and plot rather than be confused as to who it is and be asking the wrong questions. By having the bear in the shot in the poster and the well known phrase from the fairytale 'just right' above the shot it should be clear to the audience who the character is. We are also using the conventions from the fantasy genre where the main character is the focus of the shot and the colouring (pitch black and pastel colours) are used to suggest the battle between good vs. evil. 

We haven't been able to find any short film radio adverts and have therefore done our research on these feature length films:

Gravity

Pacific Rim

The Conjuring

The Great Gatsby

Which you can listen to here.

Each advert has a similar set up with extracts from the movie, voiceover, and background music setting the scene for the genre of the movie.

SET UP OF:

GRAVITY -

(continuos background music)
Quote
Voiceover "critics"
Quote
Voiceover "opinion with quality fact"
Quote
Voiceover "opinion"
Quote
Voiceover "film of the year"
Quote
Voiceover "director/film by"
Quote
Voiceover "starring"
Quote
Voiceover "title, release date"

PACIFIC RIM

(Continuos background music)
Quote
Voiceover "director/film by"
Quote
Voiceover "Warner Bros."
Quote
Voiceover "Pacific Rim/Release"

THE CONJURING

(Continuous background music)
Voiceover "Director of.."
Quote
Voiceover "Critics call it"
Quote
Voiceover "Opinion, opinion"
Quote
Voiceover "Opinion"
Quote -continued in background
Voiceover "The Conjuring/Release"

THE GREAT GATSBY

(Continuous background music)
Quote
Voiceover "Music by"
Quote
Voiceover "Leonardo DiCaprio"
Quote
Voiceover "Directed by/Release"

Jasmine - FEMALE - 18

Prosopagnosia Questions - Audience Research 

1. What was your favourite element of the film?

The lighting created interesting shadows which helped identify the genre of the film 

1. What were your thoughts on the cross cut/parallel editing between scenes?

I found it slightly confusing, I’d prefer it if there was more story conveyed in the first scene before they cut to different ones.

1. Did you like the darkness in lighting during the interrogation? 

Yes.

1. How did you feel in the close up shots of the main character?

Felt he was slightly crazy, but also felt sympathy towards him as he was clearly distressed.

The Gatherer Questions - Audience Research

1. What was your favourite element of the film?

I liked the extreme psychopathic character, because it made the film more engaging.

1. What were your thoughts on the cross cut/parallel editing between scenes compared to prosopagnosia?

I preferred it in this one compared to prosopagnosia, it was easier to follow in this film.

1. Did you like the darkness in lighting compared to prosopagnosia during the interrogation?

I preferred the more extreme darkness in prosopagnosia.

1. Which differences did you prefer in the interrogation scenes between this film and prosopagnosia?

I liked the use of props in this interrogation as it added to the storyline and made it more visually interesting. I liked the humming and banging the handcuffs compared to the generic soundtrack in prosopagnosia. 

1. How did you feel in the close up shots of the main character?

Uneasy, wasn’t any sympathy for this character, he just freaked me out a bit. 

--The Gatherer--

'A small town is being terrorised by a serial arsonists. Detective Matthews is closing in on who he thinks is the suspect. But can he prove it?'

The Gatherer uses an interrogation as its main filming point and uses other shots about the crime intermittent throughout the 10 minutes. In this interrogation scene there are several shots that have a similar essence to the shots we have planned with regards to set up, lighting and positioning.


1. Close up of the criminals hands in cuffs, relaxed and half in light in the foreground and darker in the background. With further close ups of evidence and the zippo lighter splitting up the constant shot-reverse-shots, adding a variety to the film - making it easier to watch. The use of the shot of the flame also adds to the intensity of the interrogation which we will be doing except with close ups of Goldilocks rather than props.

2. The medium shot to the side showing the two sides of the table showing the binary opposite characters - assisted my the detective being in more lighting and angled slightly towards the camera, and the criminal faced slightly away from the shot and in darker light, which we will be aiming to replicated with Mr Pearce and Goldilocks.

3. In these two shots of a birds eye view of the files/evidence supplied my the detective we hope to do something similar - however we will have one file open and include mugshots of Goldilocks and a brief file on her which we will make. I also like how polaroids have been used and give an older feel to the shot (even though the film is set in recent years).

4. These following shots are all similar to the angles and distances to what we hope to get in our filming, although shot reverse shot is needed to keep the interaction flowing between the two characters, a change in distance to the characters is helpful to break up the same shots that can eventually just become tedious and boring.

 These two shots of the closer shots of the criminal we like as it adds to the intensity of the thriller and helps build up the tension - especially as the two facial expressions he's pulling are so opposite you could class the character as bipolar.

On Short of the Week I found a film in the thriller genre called AFK set in the modern day and is based around the "cyber 9/11 attack" on America's power and nuclear warheads. The story is based around an interrogation between an AMerican detective and one of the criminals and there were several aspects of the film that we will be trying to achieve in 'Just Right'.
Firstly;

Below are shots of close ups of the antagonist and different parts of his body that give clues as to who he is/what type of character he is. The close ups of his hands in cuffs tell us immediately he's 'the bad guy' the ring on his hand also tells us that he's married but all of his tattoos and dark clothing mirrors his dark side of his character.

We hope to achieve something similar with close ups of Goldilocks at the beginning of the interrogation, including close up of her feet swinging off the chair, her hair, parts of her clothing and her hands cuffed on the table with blood splatters.

During the interrogation in this film there were very limited in their range of camera shots and angles, they relied more on the non diegetic sound and music to create tension. They stuck to a shot-reverse-shot but on the same side of the table and therefore breaking the 180 rule.

They did however have this long shot from the side of the table:

Having all of the camera shots on this side of the table does make the audience feel like they're in the room with them and watching it live rather than if they stuck to the 180 rule and was just a conversation between the protagonist and antagonist. We were hoping to have this shot in our film as well, but closer to the table. 

Throughout the interrogation scene we also liked the lighting in the room where there is the chiaroscuro effect and the light is in the middle partially showing their faces - however we will be intensifying this and making the background pitch black and there will just be one single overhead light. 

This genre offers narrative with space for debates on

• Criminality
• Gender
• Race
• Policing 
• Social/cultural values

Crime dramas tend to focus on the kind of crimes that is the most anxiety inducing in the general public such as murder and serial killings.

Key elements to a film in this genre which contribute to audience pleasure -

• Question of morality 
• Debates about innocence/guilt 
• Resolution to a mystery 
• Verisimilitude - audience can see the representation of 'ordinary people' 
• Power struggles within the police force and between the police and the criminals  

This genre is predominantly male, especially in the police. The common characteristics of police officers/detectives/teams in crime dramas include:

• Teamwork and pleasure in success
• Conflict between different modes of policing 
• Father/son relationship between experienced detective and new sidekick 
• Sacrifices of private life made by dedicated police e.g divorce 
• Threat to police's private lives

Crime dramas range greatly to who their main focus is. Commonly, they'll focus on the law enforcement side of it and the struggles of the main detective - its quite rare for it to focus on the criminals side of the story. 

Crime has several sub genres - 

• Crime comedies
• Crime thrillers 
• Film noir
• Heist films 
• Hood films
• Legal dramas
• Mob films
• Mystery
• Police procedural  

Upon research we found a short film Get Off My Land, it is;

• 4 minutes long
• Drama
• Comedy

I applied my previous post to this film:

Within a short space of time we meet all 3 characters, the man, woman and the farmer/land owner. We also begin to start asking questions a matter of seconds into the film. Firstly we see the woman's shoes, walking boots and clothing appropriate for the setting, and the man's shoes, white converse covered in mud and wearing jeans. He wiped off some of the mud and it become apparent that she wants to be there, he doesn't and there is tension between the two. The audience is made to question
1. Who are these people and their relationship
2. Why is she mad at him
3. What are they doing here and why?

A few moments later when we meet the land owner, we see the couples goal and the problem standing in their way. Their goal being wanting to have a walk in the countryside and the problem standing in their way when conflict arises from the farmer claiming it is his land and the man claiming its a public footpath.

Drama and tension arises between the man and land owner when a fight is suggested between the two. It then, very quickly reaches the climax of the film when out of shot the land owner shoots and kills both the man and woman. Following this, the punchline where the land owner breaks the fourth wall and says "I think this is a public footpath".

This film shows everything that we found in research and previous knowledge in that:

• The audience is asking questions straight away
• The goal/conflict is known within 2 minutes
• Original idea
• Climax/punchline that the audience wasn't expecting - no repetition
• Didn't waste time on backstory (why there was tension between the couple)

Luckily, at the beginning of the year I was on a short film screenwriting course with the BFI - I therefore already have a lot of existing knowledge on the conventions of a short film. With this knowledge and further research we have a good depth in the understanding of the conventions of a short film.

Rules I learnt from the BFI;

1. Don't waste time on back story.

We were taught that making the script incredibly intricate with back stories to then explain the big finish within an 8 minute period doesn't work, and any 'backstory' is a waste of screen time and should only be used for feature length movies and TV dramas etc. Our script does have a backstory (the fairytale) but screen time isn't wasted on it as the audience who watches our film is likely to already know the fairytale and therefore nothing will have to be explained. 

2. Avoid repetition/ Punchline twists 

Although repetition does work in comedy, using it extensively in short films doesn't work as on average you have 5-8 minutes and repetition can become predictable, unfunny, and generally fall flat. If there is a great punchline twist in the short film then it should be short and witty as the audience can get tired and disappointed throughout the 6 minutes to hear a joke that they saw coming.  

3. The first page is everything

As you have very limited time to grab the viewer, the first page of the script (1 minute) is very precious and shouldn't be wasted. The viewer will want to know as soon as possible;

• The main character 
• Basic characteristics 
• Their problem/goal
• What's standing in the way

How long should a short film be?

On the screenwriting course we looked through several different lengths of short film and the different impacts and styles of film the length of it has.  We have also looked at websites such as films short  and the film network which each specify and refine searches due to length. The films short has specific sections for films under 5 minutes, which there are several, and then films 5+ minutes, which we have found films no longer than 20 minutes. On the film network, they refine their length searches by 0-2 minutes, 2-5 minutes, 5-10 minutes and 10+ minutes, where we have also found no film longer than 20 minutes. From this research and what I was previously taught, 20 minutes seems to be the maximum length for a short film. 

The films under approx. 3 minutes tend to have very little dialogue and are very visual, usually comedic. There are also a lot of animated films at this length, and are very artistic. I've noticed a trend where the ideas in this length of film aren't 100% original and completely different, but the artistic twists and style of film make them unique. They also tend to include only 1, or very minimal actors (usually less than 3-4).

Example: A Film About Poo

The films from 4-7 minutes  have more dialogue in them and generally go into more depth with characters, and have more characters that the shorter films. If these films do have only 2 or 3 characters, they all have significant speaking parts. Generally we haven't found any animations at this length, but we have found film that include more special effects than animations. Its also at this length that we find more dramas and a range in genres as they now have the time to have the set up/goals/obstructions/over coming/reaching goal.

Example: Clowns vs Society 

The films that were 8-12 minutes long were all generally dramas/suspense thrillers, however horror was practically not there, gore may have been involved but wasn't the main focus. Special effects were also very minimal or non existent in this length of film, and were on average quite dialogue heavy and aimed to make the audience become emotionally invested in the character. 

The rest of the films that were 12-20 minutes long, we found, were very hard to stay invested in the film and finish. When a short film gets to this length, it become similar to an episode of a programme on TV and more often than not, dragged. Nearly all the films this length were drama/tragedy and involved a singular person struggling to cope, which made the watching experiences very 'samey'.

Example: Detour

Our script is 8 pages (including descriptions) and we predict after filming and editing it will come out as around 6-8 minutes.

Other Conventions:

Budget:

When budgeting a short film the first things that need to be included are all the aspects that are essential;

• Cast and crew 
• Location
• Travel
• Camera, Lights
• Equipment 
• Post production and marketing 

Applying this to our film, luckily we won't have to pay any of our cast and crew, hire equipment or pay for post production/marketing but we do need to arrange a date and pay for 'The Island' prison cells (£30 and hour). 

On Zoe's blog she has gone into further detail about Goldilocks' appearance, which you can see here.

I have written our first of two surveys looking into our audience for our short film. This survey is just a general questionnaire, to get a grasp on age group, gender and the main elements of short films they enjoy. We will be sharing this survey via social media and face to face questioning, once we have our data from this survey we will be contacting the people who said they enjoyed crime and thriller most (if they want us to contact them) and will give them our second 'in depth' survey looking into the finer details and preferences of the genre. 

Short Film Questionnaire: http://www.stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=69C5A6A0-D8E5-433C-B626-66339211EA38&

1. Which age category would be applicable to you?

12-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+

2.  Are you:

Male Female 

3. Do you watch short films?

Yes No

   3a. If not, why not?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. How regularly do you watch short films?

Daily Weekly Monthly Few times a year

5. Rank from 1-6 (1 being the best) your preferred genre.

Crime _

Thriller _

Horror _

Comedy _

Romance _

Tragedy _

6. Whats your favourite aspect of your first choice?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. In your opinion what are the 3 most important things you look for in a short film?

(1)

(2)

(3)

8. Would you be happy for us to contact you in the future depending on your answers?

Yes No

If yes, please provide contact:

____________________________________ 

Please email your response back to jol0611@gordanoschool.org.uk

Thank you for your time.

Jess Olson 

VOTES: 29

VOTES: 20

VOTES: 12

VOTES: 4

From our results we can see the publics favourite choice of of the 4, we particularly like this choice as you can't see the girls face and it adds an element of mystery to it. In addiction to this, she is hugging the bear, suggesting friendship and innocence, we will be testing out different colour schemes and effects to the pictures that we will take with our actress to suggest darker connotations that link with the short film. We will experiment with different shots as well including the focus, the enhanced/weakened definition of the colour however we will be keeping the same pose at the bottom of the shot in a medium-long shot.

We will also play around with our text (whats actually written, size of font etc.) as we have a lot of room around the picture of Goldilocks and the bear. Once we have done this we will create a second survey to give back to our audience to vote on their favourite. 

1. Se7en

  A 1995 American néo-noir crime psychological thriller.
   The film follows the newly transferred David Mills and the soon-to-retire William Somerset, two homocide detectives who become deeply involved the the case of a sadistic serial killer whose meticulously planned murders correspond to the seven deadly sins.
   We only meet the serial killer (Doe) 90 minutes into the 127 minute movie where he turns himself into the detectives and therefore has minimal dialogue in comparison to the other characters. Therefore this dialogue manages to have a large impact on the movie in a very small space of time.
    Doe claims to represent the sin of envy, he was envious of detective Mills' normal life, and murdered his wife after failing to "play husband" with her. He then taunts Mills with the knowledge that his wife was pregnant, asking if Mills will kill him and become "Wrath". Somerset fails to control Mills as he shoots Doe serval times completing Doe's work, and essentially, letting the bad guy win.
   From this dialogue, Doe builds up by speaking with a hateful tone and full of spite as he speaks about his victims to the two detectives in the car, he also continuously talks from the car to the end of the film. This makes the detectives engulfed in Doe's voice and thoughts becoming increasing annoying if not disturbing, when Somerset leaves Doe with detective Mills, Mills is left with Doe's calmer tone of voice but persistently taunting him, trying to push him over the edge (which he eventually does). Although Doe makes Mills' hatred towards him personal, we believe that if he didn't continuously talk to him, slowly building up the "wrath" Mills may not have killed him.
   Dialogue - Sophisticated, educated
   Tone of voice - Sharp, hateful - leeds into normal but persistent

2. Misery
   A 1990 American psychological thriller film based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name.
     Misery is about a psychotic fan who holds her favourite author captive and forces him to write her stories. Annie Wilkes is the 'psycho' in the movie is a nurse by training, she became one of the stereotypes of a nurse as a torturer and angel of death. Annie is cunning, brutal and devious who hides her malice behind a childish cheery facade. She despises profanity, to the point that she will fly into fits of rage if its used infant of her. She instead expresses anger with childishly strange phrases such as "cockadoodie", "mister man", "dirty bird", "dirty bird", "oogie", "fiddly-foof" and "rooty-patooties". She also has violent tantrums over insignificant matters.
    We think we can echo her personality and characteristics in our short film, as Goldilocks is initially young, innocent and cheery but then sporadically shouts in tantrums and has a much darker personality. Both Annie and our version of Goldilocks we see as almost bipolar, but our Goldilocks won't be as depressed as Annie as she won't have the same bouts of depression or evidence of self-harming.
   Dialogue - Childish
   Tone of voice - Mix of soft, cheery, and shouting/hateful

3. The Dark Knight

   The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film.
The Dark Knight is about when Batman (with the help of police lieutenant James Gordon and district attorney Harvey Dent) raises the stakes on his war on crime by setting out to dismantle the remaining mafia group that plague the streets. The partnership proves effective, until the mob draw Batman into combat with stopping a criminal lunatic known as 'The Joker' from unleashing a reign of chaos that would make Gotham an anarchy.
   The Joker is probably one of the most well known villains in the comic and movie world, apart from his physical appearance and acts of violence, The Joker's dialogue has a huge impact on the movie and makes his character. However, we feel that what he's saying is frightening and threatening etc. but its the way he speaks that makes The Joker as evil as he is.
   His tone is very deep and dark, he sounds old in his voice due to the harshness, he does have elements of the childish-fun side of the joker in the comics with his laugh, but in the dark knight there is no humour, The Joker is sadistic and has no empathy, his version of humour and fun is causing chaos.
   Dialogue - Threatening, simple in understanding
   Tone - Dark and harsh
 

Zoe and I will be looking at movies in the crime/thriller genre that are dialogue heavy. As our script is mainly dialogue we will be studying these movies and looking for recurring elements that make these movies enjoyable rather than boring and a feeling as though they're dragging. We will mainly be looking at the dialect of the villains/criminals and the way they speak and present themselves. Also looking at how their characteristics match our research into traits of psychopaths and serial killers.

1. Se7en

2. The Usual Suspects

3. Silence of the Lambs

4. Misery

5. The Dark Knight

During research we have found 2 different outfits for Goldilocks, when googling just ‘Goldilocks’ she appears in a blue dress with a white pinafore. If we googled ‘Goldilocks outfit’ all the dresses are the same style as the previous search but the dress is yellow and white instead.

All results came up with the character having neat, yellow ringlets with no make-up - apart from rosy cheeks. All of the drawn and realistic depictions of her are very young and innocent looking which we will be sticking to for the basics of her costume, but twisting it to give her new psychopathic characteristics.

We will be dressing her in the blue dress and white pinafore rather than the yellow for two reasons. Firstly, that we believe all the dress up outfits are yellow just to prevent confusion from Alice in Wonderland. We believe that this confusion won’t be made in our short film as we will have the tight yellow ringlets and when the dialogue begins, it becomes obvious which fairytale character she is. Secondly, as her hair is yellow as well, we don’t want all of the colours to blend together. We will be keeping the no make-up innocent face, but will be covering her face, hair, and dress with blood splatters as she would have just been arrested from the crime scene. All of this will add to our theme of twisted, psychopathic innocence.

Tops:

In the 1960s, men's shirt collars got longer and wider and men started wearing high-collared jackets. Coats, jackets and long-sleeved shirts were nylon or polyester. The shirts worn were usually printed with paisley or bold prints like optic art and psychedelic prints. It was common for men to wear mismatched patterns. Pique polo shirts were worn as casual sportswear. Later in the decade tie-dyed shirts became fashionable.

Bottoms:

Men in the '60s often wore velvet trousers and black slacks. Sometimes men wore trousers with multicoloured stripes or plaid prints. Trousers with flared legs were also popular. When the mod look came into fashion in the early '60s in England, men started wearing single-breasted collarless jackets and slim, tapered trousers. Frayed jeans that were fitted through the leg and flared at the bottom (known as bell-bottoms) came into fashion in the late '60s.

Shoes:
Shoes that came into fashion for men were footwear made of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a shiny plastic. Ankle boots with a side zipper closure and one-inch heels were often worn, especially with trousers that featured tapered legs. Sometimes the shape of the shoes was pointed, but loafers with a square toe were also fashionable. In the late '60s, during the hippie era, it was common for men to wear sandals or sneakers.

Accessories:

Just like women accessorise, it was common for men in the 1960s to accessorise as well. It was fashionable to wear wide neckties printed with patterns such as paisley or stripes, with combinations like sky blue, brown and orange. Other ties were in bright solid colours such as orange and red. In the late '60s, some men wore bandannas around their foreheads, love beads, medallion necklaces and leather belts with large buckles.

TV Shows/Films:

Mad Men

The Man From U.N.C.L.E

  - TV show (1964)

  - Movie (2015)

The Boat That Rocked 

Legend

Catch Me If You Can