Short Film Analysis : BBC Student Work

Clip 1- Coming Of Age

A boy suddenly finds himself facing huge responsibilities in a dangerous, dystopian world set in 2035 Britain. He must overcome his fears and face his enemies to save the people he loves. Coming of Age was shot on a micro budget of just £150 with a tiny crew of just four people. The main character is about 16 years old and he has to look after his sister who is sick. The boy has lot of flashbacks of the troubles he has had to cope with whilst trying to survive. The camera uses lots of techniques, a dominant one being a close up to express depressive facial expressions and does really well in representing sheer emotion. Some of the locations are very effective to the video; long shots are used over hills to show his responsibility against the huge scenery he is surrounded by. With the shots being so personal you really feel like you are the main character and can identify with his struggles. The violence is put into tension rather than horror, the quiet music and lack of dialogue makes it a lot more meaningful and less artificial. When running the cutting edits make the pace seem a lot faster and also uses the blackout edit which increases its theme throughout.

Clip 2- Two & Two

In a drab, anonymous grey school governed by a strict authoritarian regime, an apparently unremarkable day is turned on its head following a seemingly ridiculous announcement.

Disbelieving at first, the all-male, identically uniformed pupils are informed that what they had always been taught as fact is no longer true. When the incredulous students speak out, what initially seems laughably absurd becomes desperately real as they are forced to question how far they will go to stand up for their beliefs. Two & Two is an allegory for the absurdness of dictatorship and tyranny - and the resilience of the human spirit. The editing cuts are hardly noticeable, the scene is shot in one classroom so have few diverse angle shots, one being from the back of the room to display the whole scene. When the main characters emerge they have medium-close ups to display emotion such as anger and confusion.

Clip 3 - The Last Regal Kingsize

On the day of a militant religious gathering, Stewy, a disturbed Protestant boy seizes his chance to join a gang of local delinquents. For the prize of a packet cigarettes he entices a young boy out from the safety of his home. The result is devastating. While their fathers march through the decaying streets of Glasgow their sons take a sinister journey into the dark heart of modern Britain. Duty, Service, Glory - The Last Regal Kingsize reveals the reality behind belonging... is betrayal. A ground-breaking synthesis of ethnographic study, real-life characters and hypnotic music and photography, this poetic but unsentimental short is the first drama from acclaimed documentary-maker Simon Hipkins. The video tried to demonstrate modern social realism. As it starts off with a young boy we instantly know he is the main character, and we begin to feel sympathetic towards his character as we see his perspective. The music is mellow and it plays as background music to the strong Scottish dialogue. The cuts are invisible which would be expected in social realism type movies. The camera angles are very basic, no creative camera movement is used as they don’t want to over complicate the message of the film, or create forced opinions on the audience through creating irony etc.

Feed The fish

Feed the Fish Evaluation

Me and my group discussed themes for the feed the fish film, and eventually decided on British Gangster with the use of irony. We use inside and outside when filming, we felt this would make it more mundane and widespread. The kitchen scene was the prime example of when we wanted to include irony where 'feed the fish' meant edible fish fingers. However to give it variety would put a story line behind it with impressionable dialogue that made the film more complex and less comedic. We all brought in suitable clothing on the days of filming, mostly being formal to fit the 'gangsters' role.

We had to ensure that we all were available through certain days of the week such as lunch times and after school. Rosie brought inn her own camera with good lens to make sure the film was high quality, and I think this really benefited the film after editing; as it made it look more professional. We all worked well in a group, almost everyone took part as characters or through filming, so the morale was fairly good when the task came along. Everyone had opinions on what they thought it should include and luckily we were all very appreciative of each others ideas.

Before shooting each clip we verbally planned the camera angles we wanted to use, however when it came to filming we had a few jump cuts from where the acting needed to be cut. We used the computer to display a rainbow fish at the end of the film, this was with the aim to make it humerous and also use some sort of visual technology to make it seem less simple. Furthermore, we filmed a scene after school one day with Rosie's car, filming inside and outside and zooming up on details to cause tension and excitement. However when it came to the editing we didn't feel the scene was relevant or compulsory for the film, other factors also included the weather change from mid day to dark which didn't fit in with the time frame planned, so we decided not to use it.

During peer assessment when the class had to watch each others film, we received lots of constructive criticism. They felt there was one or two jump cuts which should have been prevented, they also thought that the part with dialogue in it was not steady and appeared to be shaking. Furthermore the lighting was far too bright in most scenes and it gave it less high quality, although it was very hard to avoid in the time scale we were given. It was also noticeable that the frames were cut, however we explained that during editing we could not flip the shot without it being cut.

Moreover, they stated that there was lots of irrelevant background noise, however this could not always be prevented as we had to use available rooms that could not drain background noise. Although at the start of one shot someone said 'cut' which should definitely have been noticed and re-shot if we had more time.They also felt that there was no symmetry in the camera angles and needed more suitable and variety shots. There is also one scene that we had to use two different characters for one person, although there was effort to avoid this being noticeable some people still noticed this error. On the other hand there was some postitive feedback from peers, some saying that the acting was at very high standard and are use of clothing and accents were very entertaining.

Overall I think the film went well, we worked well as a group and the film came out in good quality. If i had the chance to do it again I would make the actors/actresses freeze when camera angles needed to change, as it would reduce jump cuts to make it look more smoothe. All critisisms given by peers I would avoid doing again, but this task has been very useful in learning and progressing.