the young method actor

Developed idea "If walls could speak"

How the director made Iron Man vs Bruce Lee

He mainly uses tools to hold the shape as he moves to stop frame animate the characters and then adjusts lighting and contrast to give it a cinema feel and finally green screen the holders out, technical but very effective

Iron Man VS Bruce Lee by Patrick Boivin

This is a piece of stop frame animation but has a unique characteristic of continuity and action unlike most stop frame pieces. It uses technical aspects from film and the conventions of camera work but applies them into a stop frame movie, The film opens into instant action framing iron man ,flying, in a long shot as the camera appears to track back, the director adds a higher level of verisimilitude and makes the sequences feel more alive with small details that make a big impact such as the director uses depth of field and blurs to denote speed and keep the audiences attention on the action, another convention he uses is character mannerisms ,mostly seen in real life films, for example the way Bruce Lee touches his nose and bops around making him more authentic and real. Again the director introduces charters instantly and assorts authority by filming the two in a low angle adding to there life like dominer, sound is key to this piece it has parallel sound and is edited so the action is fluent and fast using quick transition as seen as straight cuts.
in the background the director has chosen to show ordinary household objects such as books laps and doors as well as filming the fight against skirting boards this reinforces the location and size of the characters and keeps the scene fantasy and artificial which is heightened by the bright artificial lighting. the director uses the camera well and films the scene using many zooms and longer shots which adds continuity but also keeps the film as if it was not stop fame giving it a more realistic style.
This is the most impressive use of stop frame animation, it has fluidity and a realistic composition, sound is key and it seems to be crated after the sound so the sequences fit and are parallel.

Teeth - directed by hn Kennedy & Ruairí O'Brien

This short film has a sense of humor and suttle quality, its style of cinematography has a look of beauty and uses tone and colour to grate effect. the feature opens with a extreme long shot introducing the audience to lake , again one of the four areas i pick out in the previous features, the grey dark tone instead of creating a sinister feel creates this wholesome type structure that is reinforced by the friendliness of the characters and the sound bridge of laughter. as the extract moves on non diagetic music is played that connotes play fullness and tranquility, again adding to the suttle friendly nature of the film, the pace is slow and uses dip to black transitions reflecting how time has passed, as the opening moves through extreme long shot to long shot both portraying the characters in shiloetts the director has established a air of mystery linking it to the unknown nature of fishing the main subject within the narrative.
finally the audience are introduced to the main charters two elderly men in old fashioned , grandad like , attire. The is no dialog in this short film and it relays on body language and facial expression to convey emotion and feeling which it dose successfully, the power of this silent dialog is easy to see and the directors use it well to build a whit and wholesome like atmosphere. one of the men sneezes and losses his teeth, which through a series of jump shots reveals the other to find this very humorous and causes him to laugh for a long period of time , his laughter creates a sound bridge between the faster paced shots but also through the dip to black transition showing a change in time, with his laughter linking the two time periods.
non diagetic music is still playing throughout until the lagging man hooks a fish, as the struggle of playing the fish in continuous the director uses a variety of close ups, mid shots and long shots to build pace and signify the struggle of the event, the level of verisimilitude is heightened by the stopping of music and the dominance of diagetic sound parrel to what is on screen. Luck is with this man today first by not loosing his teeth and now catching fish this ideology is symbolised through a shot where the laughing man is in the foreground , dominate, and the sad teeth less man is sitting in the background with his back to camera denoting sadness. however as he looks back non diagetic music is suddenly added to signify a change in hart which is duplicated by the mans facial expression changing simultaneously. the man puts his teeth in the fishes mouth and turns in hope to his friend, a graphic match is used putting the laughing man in the background and the unlucky man now in the foreground showing a change in dominance and enthuses which reveals the man to look ridiculous in the new teeth and with that he troughs them into the lake, leaving the laughing man shot in a close up stunned and helpless, with that the film end suddenly with a straight cut to black leaving the audience grinning.
in conclusion this film is pleasant and friendly the grey tones subvert common conventions instead of creating a cold sinister look, show a friendly humorous atmosphere. the directors use this silent dialog that instantly reveals a friendship between the two character but also convey emotion effectively. the film has a simplistic slow pace and uses no complicated themes or techniques and by doing so create an effective pleasant happy film that is a joy to watch, thoughts i took from this is simple is sometime better and i will now look at my own idea and think of how i can make it effective without over doing the sequence

The Black Hole directed by Phil and Olly

The short film opens with a tracking mid shot moving the camera to the left where a young male adult , tired and worn in exterior , stands framed in a mid shot. The comic serif styled font appears through a super imposed black whole at the start of the film linking narrative with editing techniques. Sound is key to this short film in that it creates a continuous sound bridge but also adds to the dull office boring atmosphere, this is reinforced by the lighting used within the scenes, the director has used only artificial light and picked a location with dull cold tones such as grey and light blue to convey the atmoshpere though mise-en-scene.
The only actor in the beginning of the feature is always framed fully revealing background and location giving the audience the impression and conformation he is alone, however the director uses a variety of camera shots such as close ups when the actor is irritated by the printer and is shown repeatedly tapping the printed and kicking the printed which focuses the audience on his frustration again adding to the annoying boring office culture created. In the first 10 seconds the director has introduced character established location and some sort of narrative 3 of the areas i picked out as being a common convention of any film or short film , something i must apply in my own project.
As the scene progresses and the actor interacts with the "Alain" hole the director has chosen to , when shooting through the hole putting the audience in place of the mysterious object , use non diagetic sound of a unfamiliar drowning sound effect, reinforcing its alien like properties. When the character uses the whole to get a free chocolate bar a close up revealing him chewing , in a greedy manner , shows the audience his change in emotion going from amazement to greed and law braking intent as the close up is used to show the actors expression change vividly. The man uses the hole to steal cash this is the start of his demise which in turn builds the pace of the scene where the director uses a quicker transition but more variety in shot such as when watching it is clearly shown he is framed in long shots, mid shots and close ups in quick concession adding to the pace and drama. parallel sound is used to signify drama and a frantic scene as well as the actor showing panic in expression and body language which suddenly comes to a climax with the man falling into the whole trapped!
The short film i feel looks at the greed of man and hes ability to abuse a power, looking at the techniques used it is clear short film directors engage the audience almost instantly revealing the 3 of the four main areas , location - character - narrative and genre, camera shots are used for different purpose such as a close up will reveal intent and key point be it props or reaction, long shots show location and can de-power a character and mid shots are used in dialog and as a link to long shots and close ups.

initial ideas

This is my initial brainstorm, i came up with three initial ideas and plan to do more. My best idea i feel is the idea about walls and if they could speak it has more room for improvement and a stronger narrative to go with. I have thought of particular shot composition but plan to make more ides as well as develop this one.

audience

feature film to short film

From analysing both feature films and short films i have seen both similarities and differences. A short film has to engage and draw the audience in straight away because of the time limit, therefore the use of camera and editing is developed and more intricate to change the style within the first few seconds. Each short film is different and has unique narratives however a common convention that runs throughout is its pace of the narrative, the story has to be simplistic and easy to understand because the characters and emotions have to portrayed to the audience almost instantly within each scene. feature films have a big budget and can take a longer time to introduce both characters and narrative. By looking at The Italian Job directed by peter collinson we can see that the extract opens with a extreme long shot to establish location and a montarge of shots as a red race car meanders up a italian mountain side, this particular scene takes roughly two minutes thirty seconds for a shot film this is a long time period and as a title sequence is impossible to do simply because of the time limit. In contrast lovefield directed by Mathieu Ratthe, the feature takes 1.30 seconds to reveal to the audience some action and characters and finishes with in 5 minuets ,a common time that most short film directors use, this is a full minute shorted than The Italian Job which only shows titles for the first 2 - 3 minutes.

not finished

LOVEFIELD by Mathieu Ratthe

The feature opens with a series of extreme long shots, showing the far landscape and emptiness of this field reinforcing size and being alone, establishing location . dissolve cuts are used to signify a transition in time and specific place again adding to the fact no -one is around. The cinematography has a cold dull tone and is carried through in the titles colour scheme of silver and grey. the pace of editing is slow and ambiance of the crops is heard in the background, on top of this non diagetic sound is added to bring in what will become a dramatic piece of music adding tension and mystery of the extract. The director has used symbolic signifiers and iconography to lure the audience in to a state of UN-ease and shock, this ideology is soon converted into a completely different look and mood a convention the director creates through symbolism and then turns the meaning of each subject.
the first symbolic signifier the audience see is the black crow which connotes death and tragedy, the squawk of the bird acts as a sound bridge in the film bringing each shot in with continuity and a good flow. as the camera tracks back raveling objects that denote a incident depth of field is used to focus on specific parts such as the mobile phone which is indexical to the lack of communication the victim has again reinforced by diagetic sound of the phone ringing constantly, as this scene progresses only diagetic sound of the woman screaming is heard as the continuous tracking shot frames a close up of her hands grabbing the straw and her feet moving in a struggle, the realistic diagetic sound adds to the verilisimilitude of the scene and creates a higher level of tension. the music comes to crescendo and the foot is centralised (not moving) then suddenly a second crescendo is parallel to the hand slamming a knife in the ground. the audience are convinced a murder or assault has taken place the iconography and the way the extract is shot , not revealing the face of the victims, reflects this view. however the pace builds as the man who is stereotypically dressed in a hill billy attire runs to the black car as he opens the boot, by going to the boot again links him to murder and as he holds a black bag it reinforces the attitude that he is a criminal and the protagonist of the film, jump cuts are used between the man and the crow as it hits the roof of the car this has no non diagetic sound and gives the impression that we as the audience are the crow looking in powerless to this mans actions.
finally the scene is at a fast pace music is loud and violins play at a high pitch iconic to the thriller genre adding to the tension of the scene when suddenly all sound comes to a climax and a baby's cry is heard, as the baby is moved into the frame diagetic sound of there laughter is heard and the tone of the scene changes from cold grey to a warm orange reflecting the change in mood and meaning of the film, the pace becomes slow and parallel peaceful music is added, the film ends in a long shot revealing a tractor as the police arrive showing the true mans identity and the true films narrative.

key point
the best thing about this film is how the director has taken iconography and sybolic subjects and used them to create a tense opening which is then turned on its head to reavel a happy ending. this could be done the other way!

Armageddon

Armageddon 1998 directed by Michael Bay 

The director instantly establishes genre one of the four areas i highlighted in my last post , narrative- genre- character- location, the scene opens with a extreme long shot panning around space then centralizing earth in the centre of the frame, by setting the initial scene is space it instantly resembles the sci-fi genre establishing genre through iconic signs and symbolic subjects of science, in both mise-en-scene and dialog. this film is a sub genre which means it blends two genres in this case sci-fi and action, to establish the film as action the scene soon builds to a fast pace extract as the meteor hits earth while fire is used again to set the title of the film alight as it explodes all signifiers that relate to the action genre, finally the use the US government and army reinforces genre and something i think directors use to establish genre is actors. By casting Bruce willis , a big action film actor , again links the film to the action genre. 

     A wipe transition is used to show a different location where the audience are shown nasa working on a satellite again reinforcing genre. the pace builds and as the meteor hits again a symbolic close up is used revealing the american flag ripping apart, this reflects how this natural force can destroy Earths most powerful nation with ease, which is symbolic and hints at the possibility of the events of a meteor hit but also links the possible narrative of the film. so within the first few minutes the director has linked genre and narrative 2 of the 4 areas i feel that most directors establish at the start of the film an example of this is in The Italian Job , which i posted before this analysis. within this scene there is a dual narrative between the meteor hitting and the pentagon trying to figure out the impact, with quick straight cuts to different location such as the pentagon - nasa - government office - new york adds to the national threat and the lack of understanding from the US , showing them as inferior. dialog is always key to an media text be it tv drama or film narrative can be established and key lines of dialog can be just as important as semiology in the first 5 minutes repetition of "unidentified" and "surprised" again shows the US to be inferior to this natural destruction.

     the director introduces a variety of characters all from different classes jobs and background, first we identify with the main instructor at NASA and then we are introduced to the black "slag spoken" poor but charismatic individual and finally Carl a man who seems to be a lower class than the people at NASA this is shown through his attire the director has put him in very casual cheaper clothes than the NASA workers. by having the range of characters and people reinforces how powerful this natural disaster is and the range f classes shows how this meteor will effect each class and each nation , making it a global issue and something the whole human race come together to fight this issue 

not finished