Research and Planning: Analysis of short films

gasman by Lynn ramsey

Gasman from Holy Cow Productions on Vimeo.

Synoptic
It's the Christmas season. With her mom's help, Lynne, a girl of perhaps eight, dresses up; her younger brother Steven plays with a toy car. The children leave with their dad, who's affectionate with them. They walk down a railroad track where an unkempt woman waits with two children, about the same age as Lynne and Steven. The children go with them. They're all headed to a holiday party at a pub. Lynne notices that the girl acts all too familiar with her dad. What's going on? 


Gasman won Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Fest (Jury Prize), the BAFTA Awards (Scotland), and the Atlantic Film Fest. It was also nominated for Best Short Film at the BAFTA Awards and the Cannes Film Fest (Golden Palm).

Gasman uses diegetic sounds throughout the short film. The music is very symbolic through this. The first song you hear is a Christmas song. This tells you what period of year it is and what the party is for. This film is very stereotypical. This is because the family is very split with the mum and dad not doing stuff together. Also the dad typically takes the kids to the pub so he can see his mates instead of spending time with them. The music that is on in the pub has the lyrics 'Wheres your father gone'. This related to the story-line. It links up for when the main little girl asks the other girl to get off her daddy's lap. When the other little girl replies she doesn't get it. This shows that she doesn't know about her dads second family. 

EIGHT by stephen daldrey
Billy elliot 

A day in the life of an eight-year-old soccer fan who has to come to terms with living in a strange new town and the loss of his father.

13 mins, colour 

The short & curlies by Mike Leigh

A shop girl and her admirer struggle to find love and some common ground. This early signature comedy by Mike Leigh, starring David Thewlis and Alison Steadman, saw Leigh collaborate with many of the cast and crew he has gone on to work with throughout his career. The film was the first in Channel 4’s series of short films to which it lent its name.

The Suburbs - Arcarde Fire (Short film) (draft)

For my short film i would like to look at doing one based on a music album. This won't be a music video but a short film which represents what the music album wants to and has a story plot to it. An example of this is 'The suburbs' by Arcade Fire, The band made a 30 minute short film with there album as a soundtrack and the storyline based around the album 'The suburbs'. The director to this was Spike Jonze.
Scenes From The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
http://www.alluc.to/movies/watch-scenes-from-the-suburbs-2011-online/311760.html

Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f49yRhJ0NjI&feature=player_embedded

This short film has the same idea as 'Scenes From The Suburbs' as it is a short film for an album. This short film is animated however so these 2 short films have contrasts. 

Research & Planning: textual analysis (draft)

George Lucas In Love by Joe Nussbaum (1999)

Synoptic
George Lucas has 3 days to finish a script to graduate from college. He has no ideas so he decides to walk to the theature to gather some ideas. On the way he bump into loads of people who remind you of people that are in 'Star Wars'. When he arrivies to the theature he meets a girl called Marian (with her hair done up in buns on the sides of her head) who encourages him to write what he knows and feels.



Georges Lucas In Love from Fitzcairn on Vimeo.

This short film is a Romanic comedy. The opening starts with george lucas writing on a typewriter, he writes he start of what is on the actual Star Wars. This short film is a good parody on Star wars with the intertexual references. It has diegetic and non diegetic sounds, the non diegetic sounds make the atmosphere different. this short film is good for post modernism.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203523/

Day break express by D.A. Pennebaker (1953)

This short is film is based around a train journey from sunrise to sunset at the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City, America. This 5 minute short film was the first film that Pennebaker made, it is under a documentary genre as it shows a journey. 

This short film has non diegetic music over the top, this means that the music has been put in from another source. The music is ambient so it gives you a certian feel for it when watching it. It is filmed in colour which is quite early and it is developed very well. The journey is filmed very well the camera play is very different. It's like he has experimented with his angles. This is filmed during the end of modernism so you can see how he is experimenting and how the genres and times are changing. He is filming in new york so you can see the developing building and how everything's getting bigger and changing. 

Short Film Lesson

The last man on earth

Synopsis

A man thinks he is the last man alive on earth. He has coped for 5 weeks with it and he's had enough. So he goes to the local pub and decides to record himself talking about how he's the last man on earth and how he has made a mixture which will kill him. He drinks the poison and swallows it. Once he's done that his phone rings. 

The genre of this short film is a comedy, however you also can call it post apocalyptic. The way the story is told is through narration. The narration is done by the main man. The representations what is given of this man is that he is very weak and depressed. He is weak as he's only been looking for other people for 5 weeks. Another representation you could say is that he is an alcoholic, when you see him in the pub he has already drunk half a bottle of vodka and he doesn't look that drunk. He is quite educated as he knows where to find the ingredients for a mixture and what ingredients to put in it. There isn't much intertextual references but it does show an iPhone but i don't think it was placed deliberately. The locations used looks like a well built up suburb, it reminds me of London, however there is no big buildings to show where it is. The likely audience are film seekers. I think it would be a male audience who find films instead of waiting for them to come out. 

About a girl 

4 Short Films Rivaling from matthew pettifer