Other Ideas from "Inspiration Week"

Another idea that i came up with for a short film was inspired but the photograph of the butterfly and the concept of a 'fly on the wall'. The story would follow a family argument from the point of a butterfly trapped in the house, flying from room to room developing the narrative. The butterfly is eventually caught by the little girl in the house who never speaks, and lets the butterfly out into the garden.

We also had an idea inspired from a piece of artwork showing an empty table. I came up with the idea of he camera being static throughout the short film. The narrative would happen around the table but never at the table, representing the family being disconnected.

Idea Generation

I was put into group with Maureen, Alana and Callum to create ideas for short films with inspiration from poetry, photographs, newspaper articles, song lyrics and art.

The first idea that we came up with was inspired by the poem "infidelities". The poem was about a women collecting penny's from her husbands pockets and places them on the windowsill. When one day he comes in, takes the penny's and then uses them in a phone-box to make a call "he could not make from the house".

Our short film based on this was going to follow the poem closely. We would start by having shots portraying the them as a happy couple, eating together and her folding his trousers and taking the change out of his pockets and placing them on the windowsill. The film would then have shots of the coins with voiceover from their perspective feeling guilty about how they will be spent. The coins gather dust, which reflects their guilt.

Eventually some of the coins are taken up by the husband and the camera cuts to a phone-box in the street at twilight. The camera takes up voyeuristic positions of the phone-box as the husband turns up, looks around and enters the phone-box, before the camera fades to black.

Our second idea was inspired by the lyrics of the song "Mr Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan and an ABBA song. The idea was based around an ex-drug seller who has died but cannot enter heaven until he does enough good to pay for his sins. He finds a depressed businessman who he begins to follow around playing the Tambourine as a kind of guardian angel. The businessman then meets a girl who he wants a relationship with and rejects Mr Tambourine. The relationship fails and he looks for his guardian angel Mr Tambourine but only finds another guardian angel who cannot play the same songs.

I have realised that the Mr Tambourine idea is not realistic for a short film, as there are too many aspects to the narrative to get across in the 4 minutes that we have. The idea is also very abstract and I am not sure how we would get any kind of message across to the audience.

Our first idea, based on "Infidelities", is a more realistic idea for a short as it has a very simple concept that can be portrayed easily to the audience. Our final idea will need to share a similarly simple concept, but at the same time be more creative.

Inspiration Week Blog 1

My original story that got back to me was:

Jonathan was a marine biologist...

Her name is lolly and she is a kinky nurse...

They met via a chatline for singles in the paper. They met up in the centre of primark...

As she walked into the shop she asked "Sorry, but do you sell bananas?"...

Suddenly, the van across the street opened and five strange people got out...

Her husband walks in and shoots the dude and has fish and chips for dinner.

From this I wrote the following synopsis for a film:

A lonely marine biologist turns to an internet site to find his soul-mate. After talking and sharing photo's with a nurse named lolly, he spots her in primark whilst out shopping. He is about to say hello before he hears her asking the check-out staff whether they sell banana's and begins to have second thoughts, thinking she may be insane. Suddenly a van pulls up outside the shop and 5 strange people get out and drag her into the van. Then a man turns up and starts shooting at the van before recognising the Jonathan. As the van drives away he tells Jonathan to come with him to the fish and chips shop where he will explain everything.

The equilibrium - Jonathan finding lolly online and chatting with her and generally feeling optimistic about the incident.

Disequilibrium - The primark incident and the following narrative of Jonathan and the other guy trying to find her and get her back from the people holding her captive and using drugs to suppress her sanity, hence why she was acting crazy and asking for bananas in primark.

The Equilibrium - They get her back safely, she goes cold turkey from the sanity suppressing drugs and gets together with Jonathan after all. The other guy's story is resolved.

Good vs Evil, Sanity vs Insanity, Two Guys vs Big Corporation, Male vs Female, Love vs Cynicism.

Convergance

Convergence describes the way in which media products cross over and can perform many different tasks. This ultimately means that short films are more and more accessible with the development of new technologies and convergence. Many mobile phones now have the ability to access the internet and sites such as youtube where shorts can be exhibited. Phones such as the popular Apple iPhone and Blackberry have this capability and nearly all new phones produced in the coming years will have this capability. New Samsung televisions now also internet capabilities as well as games consoles such as the Playstation 3 and the xbox 360.

On top of this television providers such as Sky TV have channels dedicated to short film such as 'Shorts International'. The BBC and other channels also often show short films in gaps in there schedules. This maybe would not have happened as much when there were only a limited amount of channels and air time.

Short Film Distribution, the Internet and the future...

Distribution of short films has changed dramatically since the turn of the century and with the rise of technologies that have now become indispensable to short films. The rise of the internet has created huge potential for the medium of shorts as they are small in file size and can be distributed around the world in seconds and posted up on video sites such as Youtube.com and Vimeo.com .

The rise of the internet has also been coupled with the availability of video equipment. Video cameras were, to the vast majority of people, unaffordable before the 21st century, and have only really become truly affordable and portable in the last ten years. The quality of home video equipment has also recently improved dramatically which is now supported by internet sites such as youtube.com with their HD compatibility.

This is all good news for short film as it makes it available to almost everybody for a fraction of the price years ago. As a result there has been a huge rise in amateur filmmakers who can afford to fund, exhibit and distribute their own short films on the internet.

The rise in short film festivals has also increased the popularity of shorts as it provides amateurs as well as professionals to gain recognition for their work and provides them with the possibility of being spotted and creating opportunities for them to break into the industry.

Festivals such as 'Future Shorts' combine all of these new technologies and concepts and provide a chance for filmmakers to distribute their work internationally as well as the opportunity to network with other filmmakers around the world. Future Shorts can distribute a filmmakers work to screenings in 60 cities in 18 countries in the world, as is quoted on their website: http://www.futureshorts.com/htmlViewer.php?id=12

This kind of international networking would never have been possible 20 years ago and shows how technological developments have opened new doors for short film as a medium and is why short film production and popularity will continue to increase as the technology develops and the equipments becomes more and more available.

The UK Film Council and Lottery Funding

Many British film festivals and film institutes in Britain gain funding from the UK film council, which is in turn funded by the national lottery. The chances are that if an amateur short filmmaker gains financial backing or filming opportunities from a film festival or institute, that money will have come from the UK film council and the national lottery. Film festivals such as the Encounters short film festival are funded by the UK film council. Short film is taken seriously within the UK film council as it is considered to be the training ground for future British filmmakers as well as acting talent. By funding festivals such as the Encounters short film festival the UK film council are hoping to kick-start the careers of future filmmakers and spot potential talent.

The UK film council have also introduced the 'Short Film Completion Fund' which aims to fund the completion of short films that show 'outstanding potential' but lack the funds to be completed to the films full potential. This is another example of how aspiring filmmakers have the opportunity to receive financial backing.

The national lottery fund British film as it is considered to be an integral part of British culture as well as being an industry that employs around 50,000 people in Britain. The film industry also turns over billions of pounds annually that goes back into the British economy. British film also promotes Britain around the world and can promote tourism.

Encounters

Encounters is a short film festival that is the result of the merging of two film festivals, Brief Encounters and Animated Encounters, in 2006 and has since become one of the most prestigious festivals for short filmmakers within the U.K.

Based in Bristol the festival consists of different regional and specialists awards including awards for under 12's as well as the 'Depict' award for a short under 90 seconds.

The festival is a registered charity and is run on sponsorship money contributed by companies such as the BBC and Kodak, as well as being funded mostly by Bristol City Council. The festival also get funding from the UK Film Councils Lottery Fund.

Maya Deren

Maya Deren was originally born in Ukraine but her family moved to New York shortly after her birth in 1922. She met he future husband, Alexandr Hackenschmied, a photographer and cameraman in Hollywood who encouraged her into the media of film.

After her fathers death she spent some of her inheritance on a 16mm camera and subsequently went on to produce possibly her most famous short film 'Meshes of the Afternoon' in 1943. She was very much known for being highly individualistic in her short film work and this is certainly reflected in 'Meshes of the Afternoon' as the overall theme of the film is extremely abstract and clearly reflects her mentality and ideas. This film in particular is often regarded as having set the tone for post war Avant Garde filmmaking and has been attributed for ensuring the success of Avant Garde filmmaking after the end of the second world war.

Deren reflects an anti-mainstream stance and her creative freedom throughout her filmmaking career. Her films such as 'Ritual in transfigured time' often feature creative spark, such as discontinuous editing and manipulating angles for effect.

The Big Shave

The Big Shave by Martin Scorsese was made in 1967 whilst Scorsese was still attending the New York University film school, which was where he made many short films. The Big Shave was a comment on the American war in Vietnam and the films alternative title was Viet 67. The film represents Scorsese's view of the Vietnam war by showing the main character pointlessly cutting himself, which reflects the pointlessness of the war and the the fact that America were only crippling themselves by fighting a war that they could not win. The repetition of the act also reflects the longevity of the war and the fact that America carried on fighting despite the fact that they supposedly were not making any progress whilst taking heavy casualties.

Cubs

Length: 9:52

Cubs is a disturbing short film directed by Tom Harper and was released in 2007, about the new illegal sport of Urban fox hunting. The low key lighting creates the films gritty and dark feel with the grim setting not well lit and many characters come across as being intimidating. The music used throughout the chase sequence is fast paced which reflects the action in the sequence. There are also low angle shots of the dogs which creates a sense of fear and gives the dogs a sense of power.

The film won the BBC New FIlmmakers Award in 2007 and is an example of how corporations such as the BBC are always opening competitions for Short film and is a good way to get noticed and gain funding for making more films.

Wasp

Length: 26 Minutes

Wasp is a dramatic short film released in 2003 and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film has won many awards since it's release including the Short Filmmaking Award from the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2005.

Andrea Arnold then went on to make a feature length film (Fishtank) in 2009, which not shares its gritty style with Wasp, but is also about gritty urban life in Britain. This is a prime example of how an aspiring director will move into making feature length film after gaining success and recognition with a short. The fact that the two films share similar style and narrative also show how Wasp was probably a training process for Arnold and gave her a clearer idea of what she wanted to achieve with Fishtank.