Short Film Research: Virgin Shorts

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/

This is a link to the website for virgins short films competition, showing the winners from the past 3 years.

"Virgin Media Shorts is all about shining a light on Britain's best film makers and giving them the biggest possible arena to showcase their work.

Whether they're a Shane Meadows in the making, or a Ridley Scott rising, we think every raw talent needs a break.

We're passionate about discovering hidden talent. And as the only people to offer TV, Broadband, Phone and Mobile, we're best placed to offer film makers the biggest arena to showcase their work - online, on TV, through mobile internet.

What's more, the top 12 films will be shown on 214 cinema screens across the UK. And one lucky winner could walk off with up to £30,000 and the chance to work direct with the UK Film Council and Virgin Media to shoot their next film."

Analysis of Horror Film Posters

This is the poster for the classic 1978 film Halloween, which has become not only one of the first but also one of the most well known Slasher movies of all time. It is quite obvious from the poster that it is for a horror film. Firstly the majority of the poster is black, a color that is often associated with evil and darkness which are 2 of the biggest themes in horror films, so it gives the audience the immediate idea that the film has a dark nature. Then when you move onto the picture on the poster it becomes very clear that the film will be a horror, and the image even suggests that the film belongs to the slasher sub-genre. The image shows what appears to be a mask, however the eyes of the mask add to the sense of unease created by the poster as behind the eyes and and the nose appears to only be fire adding to the super natural and dark theme of the poster. The other major part of the picture that suggests to the audience, is that the masked person is holding a knife. This immediately suggests danger to the audience, especially due to the fact that the knife is been held in a threatening way which leads to the audience believing whoever the masked figure is they are going to kill someone.


The poster above, despite been a horror poster, is now unfortunately quite outdated when it comes to the sort of posters that are been produced today. Therefore if we are going to be looking at horror posters to get inspiration as well as to understand the current conventions for creating a horror poster, we need to look at more modern posters like this one:

This is the poster for the 2007 remake of the original Halloween film. As you can see the poster has quite a lot of differences then the poster for the original which was released almost 30 years before this remake. The main color scheme of the poster is different to that of the previous poster, even though it does still use the same 2 major colors, Orange and Black. It is immediately obvious from the poster that the film is a horror film and there are several major reasons for the audience to immediately identify that this is a horror film. Like black, orange which is the major color used on this poster, is often associated with horror films. Orange often represents danger in films due to the fact that the main color of fire is orange and thus the color has got a reputation as been a color associated with darker events. Unlike the previous poster this poster gives a little bit more information about the plot and events of the film. As you can see in the face in the background that is made up different images from the film. The picture of the killer also shows a lot more and that he does actually appear to be human and not a supernatural figure as he appears to be on the previous poster and the image also immediately shows the viewer that it is a horror movie seen as the villain of the piece is carrying a knife and a decapitated head.

Short Film Planning: Main Narrative Idea

After doing quite a lot of research into our target audience, an audience we have eventually will be aimed at males aged 15 to 25 as they seem to be the most likely to enjoy a horror film. We also decided to fit the film into the Teen Centered Horror Sub Genre.

We have eventually decided that probably the best narrative idea that we came up with would be to work on a version of the horror film that we came up with earlier in the year. Look up previous blog entries under the title 'Death Trip'. To meet with the guidelines about having to use time as a theme, we have decided that the narrative of the film will involve flashbacks (Shown via a hand held Camera, that will act as the technology needed for the narrative). We also plan to use a technique that will present the audience with the real turn of events and a made up telling of the same event. A similar technique was used in the 2001 Drama The Hole:



Here is our basic narrative for the film:

Film starts with a policeman hammering on the door of the house, when the door unexpectedly swings open. As they walk down the hallway someone jumps out at them. One of the police officers leaves to investigate the scene of what the girl is describing, while his colleague interrogates the girl. The police officer in the woods stats to finds all the bodies of the missing teens and calls in for support from his colleague but there is no answer. He quickly returns to the house where he finds the house deserted with the only difference is a camera lying on the kitchen table. He picks up the camera and watches the events that really happened in the woods and then sees footage of his colleague watching the footage and then watches in horror as the camera drops. He turns around in horror and is killed by the girl they were trying to help.

Short Film Planning: Early Narrative Idea's

Short Film Early Narrative Idea's on Prezi

Introduction To Our Coursework

For our A2 coursework we were set the task of creating and filming a short film. The film must be close to 5 minutes run time and be appropriate to a target audience of our choice as well as fitting into a genre.

The film must also cover several key areas. These are the narrative devices that our film must include:

• The film must have a theme of time
• There must be a secondary theme of reference to technology
• There must be at least one narrative concept used
• There must be a specialized genre of sub-genre for the film

In addition to our film we must also use our practical skills to produce a film poster and then either a radio trailer for the film or a review of the film in the style of a film magazine

Still Life Review

In groups we were asked to produce 2 reviews for the short film Still Life. Because of this we choose to create one review each. A review from a typical film magazine e.g. Total Film and a review from a more specialist film magazine e.g. Site and sound, which was the review i choose to write and present:

Here is the film itself: