Auter Theory

Short films

A short film is any film that is not long enough to be considered a feature film. Earlier in my coursework I outlined some key variations between both Short films and Feature length films, in which I highlighted differences in duration, amount of characters and types of audiences for each type of film.

Auteur Theory, theory of filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture. A auteur film director is a director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author.

The characteristics of the Auter Theory: The three concentic cirlces

- Outer cirlce: Technique
- Middle cirlce: Personal Stlye
- Inner cirlce: Interior Meaning

The theory the body of a director's work rather than isolated masterpieces

'The greatness of a movie is not jut on its cuts, joints and connections, but in the extensive slowness of its camera movements' 

Filming

Here is some of my Wedding footage prior to editing.  

Over the summer I went to my cousins wedding in Nuneton. I wanted to make a documentary on this as this is something personal to me and I feel that it would appeal to a wider audience with interests in various cultures and traditions. Not only this, but being in this culture myself I had an advantage of having experienced the event first hand and having access to scenes of the wedding that cannot be viewed from outsider's perspective. 

This is at the start of the wedding day where the groom is leaving the house and walking to the wedding car, ready to head to the ceremony at the temple. I wish to feature this at the beggining of my docuentary as this was the first scene that I filmed at was the early stages of the wedding which will lead up to the final climax.

This video was filmed at the wedding reception, where the bride and groom are newly married and take photos with close family and friends. I feel that the ambience in this scene help the audience to receive a better sense of the level of fulfilment felt by those partaking in in the event. 

Technology // Camera and Filming Equipment

Getting the right filming equipment is important, because this is a key element in my film making process. I have decided to use both a digital camera called 'Power Shot' by Canon and the iPad 2 by Apple. Both of these digital equipment are good because they allow me to incorporate different editing techniques that I can combine together to achieve the best result. For example, with the Canon digital camera I could include effects such as slow motion or even increasing the speed of the footage in particular scenes. Although my short film may not include every effect in the finished result, I think its important to test out various special effects as if they are used correctly they can work really well.

Here are some images of my technical filming equipment:

Close up of Canon Camera

This is the Canon 'Power Shot' camera. I like this because of the many effects that the camera enables me to use as well as the high quality of the shots taken. The camera is light weight which is beneficial to me as its easily portable. I like the fact that the lens moves outward whenever I want to zoom, making it easier to grasp each shot. (I took this photo with my iPhone).

Close up of Canon Camera and iPad 2

                                         
 I wanted to use the iPad as part of my equipment because I feel that the quality of each shot is better than the Canon camera itself. However the iPad does not include any of the special effects that I feel are necessary for my film. The only issue I had with the iPad is the heavy mass, as this makes it difficult to carry around when filming.

Close up of iPad 2 and Camera from the front

Readings - Audience & Text

When producing my short film I had to consider the readings that my audience will consider too.


When producing my short film I had to consider the readings that my audience will consider too.

Approaches to audience:
1.) How does the text work on the audience?

My short film will be in a natural setting. I will not be including animation in my film as I want it to come across as real as possible to the audience. I think that choosing a life like setting will be beneficial as the audience may be able to relate to my film, which is part of my aim. I would like my film to inspire people.

2.) How do audience use the text?

In the process of making my film I always had intentions that my audience would be active. I think that audience opinion and response to media texts is vital as this is the only way that media and (more specifically) film producers can reach out to consumers and understand things that people like or dislike, agree or disagree with. I would like my audience to be active because this way I can actually see whether people go with the flow or put forward any critical opinions - this is how we grow. Most importantly, I will be able to evaluate whether or not I was successful in making my text relate to the audience and making people understand the film that I produce

3.) In what ways are the audience involved in the production of the text?

In the production of my film I carried out surveys as a way of reaching out to audiences and seeing what their opinions are on:

- A title for my film
- Gender of characters
- Setting (natural or refined)

Title: Out of the following three options, 'Cultural Variations' is the title that people liked the most...
- Cultural Variations (winner)
- Stereotypes of Asians
- How to be Indie

In terms of gender, my survey results found that ...
- Female
- Male
- Both

'Female' characters would be most appropriate for my short film. This is because the genre of film that I am producing is likely to have greater impact on female audiences. However, my results may be biased because I asked members of my female dominated school. Having said this I did try to avoid making my results unfair by asking male members of the sixth form too.

In relation to the setting of my film, I found that a 'natural' setting would be most effective for making my film something that people can relate to. Even though I have a relatively young target audience I think that making my film animated will attract younger members of my audience exclusively.

Target Audience?

'Audience' is possible the most vital concept throughout media studies. This is because all media texts are produced with some form of audience in mind. More often than not, if a producer is successful in creating text that an audience can understand, they make money from this audience. If something is being planned and there is no audience apparent, then it should be produced no further.
Media producers define their audience by:

- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Religion
- Sexuality
- Occupation
- Education
- Annual income
- Lifestyle

So before I actually make my short film, I need to consider my target audience, as this is who I will be aiming to please the most. Various short  films are made for different groups of people depending mainly on the genre and form of the film itself. A good example of this is is Disney, as it mainly targets young children and their families. Disney attempts to appeal to all types of age ranges, by having animated films and television shows for kids, Disney Channel and  Radio Disney for teenagers as well as films that appeal to adults as well. As well as this, Disney Land is designed to be inclusive for all members of families as opposed to children or teenagers specifically.

My project has an element of humour as well as an inner message. As I will be doing a comparison of two people's lives from separate cultures, I want to emphasise the equivalence of the characters in society today, regardless of any stereotypes that may occur unconsciously throughout the start of the film.
 Aside from the arguably intellectual sense of the film I aim to approach the situation from a light hearted and potentially humorous perspective. If I do this successfully (wish me luck) this will appeal to younger audiences, and older members of society will understand the film and message that it contains. As my film is not aiming at one particular age group I am not trying to appeal to a niche audience or a particular socio-economic group, but rather a wide range of people. By this I mean the cultural, the explorer, the mainstream, the aspirer, the young, the old and everyone in between, regardless of social status or ethnic background. Having said this, my film is for a class project at a secondary school, so I my target audience will be from ages 14-18 years old.
 Even though I am not deliberately going to aim at pleasing a specific gender, I have a gut feeling that this type of film will appeal to females more than males. This is only because the characters that will be acting for me are females themselves and I feel that women and girls in society will be able to relate to my film more intensively.

My philosophy

In my opinion short films are are good way of getting messages across to audiences in a relatively short period of time. I like how characters can be established quickly and audiences are not sitting down, bored in one position, staring at a screen for too long. Short films can be remembered easily and that is the main reason I prefer them to longitudinal|feature length movies.

When I make my short film I will be sticking to some self-imposed rules:

- Hand held camera; any movement or immobility will be permitted.
- The film must be in colour
- The film must not contain superficial action i.e. murders and weapons
- The director may be credited

Susumu Hani - Film Director | His influence

' I am always interested in individual people, in capturing a very truthful image of what is inside them. This is a little different from focusing on society' 

                                                                                                             - Susumu Hani

This approach and outlook on film is significant because it is unique, and sustaining. It not only proposes that film directors have their own form of motivation for creating great films but also implies that Susumu himself refrains from using one singular, strict method of production, but in fact has different strategies for various types of people, and is always creating something individual as a result. 

Deciding my AUDIENCE, GENRE and NARRATIVE

Audience: 

Defining a target audience is important as the content (of the film in this case) can be matched to the audience requirements or expectations. The better matched the audience are to the content or product, the higher the chances of the best results and profit. A target audience is simply the large (or small) group of people that are the most associated or the most relevant to the media product being produced.

A few posts back I listed some of the many ways that audiences can be defined. I also briefly highlighted who my film will appeal to the most and why. So, I am now going to get straight into profiling my audience:

- Gender :
My short film is not going to be aiming at one sex in particular, however I have my suspicions of how this will result in relation to who will be the most attracted to my content. As the characters that will be acting in my film are female, I think that it will be mainly girls and women that will be able to relate to my film. The camera will act as an observer in that it will be watching the girl's every move. Having said this, the film itself will not be viewed from either a male or female point of view and the camera is not taking a specific role in terms of gender. Critics may argue that my film may be gender biased due to personal opinions that develop in association to the 'gender' of the camera. The concept of 'male gaze' may become apparent if some audiences believe that the camera has acted in a certain way viewing the female characters in an objectified manner.

- Culture and Ethnicity :
In terms of racial profiling, this is where I think my film will be audience biased. As the film I am creating is circulated around the concept of two different cultures, I may find that this has an impact on my audience. In other words, people from either a western, British ethnicity or from an Asian background may find it easier to relate to the short film.

-Lifestyle current//desired  :
 In relation to lifestyle, my target audience will be the 'thinkers', As my film will be informative, I think that targeting a specific group of people that have a particularly strong ability to understand inner depth and meaning of content that they are exposed is something that I aim for. I make the assumption that my target audience, with this critical way of thinking are going to be young, ambitious people. Here are some of the characteristics that I expect my target audience to have and who's expectations and desires I will be aiming to underpin more exclusively ... these people are:

- Socially driven
- Socio-economically introverted
- Diversely motivated

As my target audience is so diverse, there will be various financial and social situations that will be considered. I am not going to set a particular socio-economic group in relation to income, however as these people will be relatively young, I am going to make an assumption that many of them will be students like myself. Therefore, excluding family income and basing this on individuals alone, majority of these individuals are going to have low income due to studying and having a part-time or weekend job. This is the only financial classification that I am in a position to make, as my target audience and film content is highly divergent, attracting (hopefully) lots of different people.

Genre:

Here is a quick list of some of the key genres within film: 

-Action films 

-Adventure films  

- Comedy films 

- Crime films 

-Fantasy films

-Faction films

-Historical films

-Horror films

- Mystery films

-Political films

-Romance films

-Satire films

-Science Fiction films

-Urban films

-Animation films

-Thriller films

- Cultural films

For my short film, I will be using the genres of Comedy | Documentary. Comedies are light hearted films designed with a purpose to amuse and provoke laughter by uses of exaggeration. I think that this is fitting for my short film , because I will be approaching the situation of cultural variations from a non-serious light hearted approach. I will be doing this by manipulating each scenario and doing a comparison of the same activities in different ways of life, however remaining with use of emphasis on the alikeness of the characters. 

Representations: 

Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, and experiences from one particular perspective. It is almost impossible to portray every single aspect of an individual through a short film, therefore certain features/elements of their personality are underlined and stand out. Representations that I intend to create of the characters are:

- Young 16 year old girls (age)

- Females (gender)

- Indian and English (Ethnicity/race)

- Financially stable 

- Good Job// career 

- Both British 

Who is being represented? 

In my short film two British girls with different ethical and racial identities will be represented as similar despite having clear differences in their daily activities and expectations of themselves both from their own point of view and their environment. 

What are they doing? 

The behaviour and activities of the characters in the film will be typical, however the variations in the activities due to cultural differences will be apparent and so they 'typical' behaviour may seem new to some audiences and may therefore be considered atypical. The actions of the characters will be natural and will therefore be conforming to the genre to some extent.

Why are they present? 

The purpose of the characters Raveena and Georgia, is to portray two cultures and emphasise the distinction of their actions, as well as reinforce the similarity between the individuals. 

Where are they?

The characters will be represented as natural as opposed to being portrayed as artificial, the entire setting will be normal and destinations include places of worship (Sikh temple & Church) and the characters being at home. Everything will be standard. 

Ideas for 5 Minute Short Film - Planning

For my final A2 Media coursework task, I will be creating a short 5 minute film.

Here are some ideas for my film:

- Life of a baby (pregnancy)
- Time traveller
- Life of a teacher
- Visiting Dubai (documentary)
- Visiting Rome (documentary)


After  brainstorming many ideas and considering what would be an interesting and engaging short film I have come to a conclusion that I am going to film an Indian wedding documentary. I decided to film a documentary because they are shorter duration than most films and they constitute a broad category of film.

Most short films have a small number of characters and a basic plot. Therefore filming an Indian wedding is idealistic because the storyline is simple and it will be easy to establish the main characters - The Bride and Groom. 

Research Methods

Audience research is a process that highlights all production that is related to the media and everything that we as audiences have watched has been planned and explored so that it can be the best of its ability in terms of quality and success.

'Research' on the whole is very expensive, however companies do not seem to stop spending so much money on this. Here are some reasons why:

- So that audiences react to the product in the correct way 

- To ensure that the final product can be completed successfully in the given time limit

- Media products are costly produce 

- To ensure that the correct audience is attracted

There are two general types of data; qualitative data is information about qualities - information that cannot actually be measured. e.g.'s include: 'the softness of a cat' or 'the colour of the sky'. On the other hand, quantitative data is data about quantities - information that can be measured and portrayed with the use of numbers. Examples of this include 'your height' and the 'number of pennies in your pocket'.

Primary research -  Primary research is an original research method used to collect information for a specific purpose. This is where there is no data available for you, you have to collect everything from the start of your investigation by yourself. These means designing your questionnaires, collecting the data from people yourself and analysing the data yourself too. Primary sources of research include; surveys, interviews and the analysis of existing texts. In an interview (for example) you could ask quantitative and qualitative questions. Qualitative questions are questions that are open and have no set answer, which results in higher quality answers. On the other hand quantitative questions are closed questions that have multiple choice answers such as yes or no, and these have set answers.

Secondary research - Secondary research is where you already have the necessary data available. When using secondary methods you do not need to start from scratch, you just use the information collected already by other organisations as a basis for your research. Examples of sources for secondary research are; newspapers, books and the internet.

Both methods of research have advantages and disadvantages: 

- Primary research is time consuming and may sometimes be expensive. 

- Secondary research is more time efficient as you are using other people's collection of primary research, although this method of research may not be suitable for everyone's needs. 

In my data collection I will be using primary research to conduct my own surveys. I chose to do this because I think that a survey will be easy to distribute and the data will be easy to collect. I will also be using both qualitative and quantitative questions within my data collection process. I will be doing this because I hope to receive both high quality and honest answers. For example I may ask questions about my short film poster. I want my audience and the rest of the public to tell me their honest opinion on various aspects of my film process so that I can create a result that the public and myself are happy with.  Having said this, something that I will have to consider when conducting a survey is the amount of participants I use to collect my data as it may be challenging to collect the right amount of data. To support this data collection process I may also use qualitative interviews with my target audience. This way I can compare the various data that I will have collected which will then be used for further analysis. A positive aspect of using an interview to collect data is that it is an effective way of collecting, analysing and sharing qualitative data. On the other hand a con of this collection method is that it may be difficult to organise, participants may be difficult to find and interviews are time consuming. 

  

Codes and Conventions of short films

For the creation of my own short film, I decided to take a look at some codes and conventions of short films.

Here is a collection of some of my research so far and what I have found in relation to this.

History of Short Films

A short film is similar to any other film in relation to chronology (beginning, middle and end) however, the only variation being that the duration is significantly longer, usually under 40 minutes.
Short films are also often low budget, and are produced by independent directors. Like many other films, short films can occasionally intend to get a message across seriously, and can just be made stemming from a light hearted approach with aims to simply entertain.
Unlike feature length films, short films are usually shown in film festivals and through video streaming websites, and unfortunately over the recent years short films have decreased in popularity.
Having said this, short films frequently receive awards at festivals such as 'Sundance Festival'.
In the beginning all films were short. The earliest cinema audiences were highly satisfied with witnessing man's latest technological outburst, even if it was just small snippets of daily activities transformed into comedic scenes.. However  as the start of the twentieth century began to prevail, films started to increase in duration.
 The very earliest films were presented to public audiences in the year 1894 via Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, a very immediate viewing designed for individual viewing exclusively. These short and sharp scenes often consisted of points of interest conveying celebrities, royal processions and current affaires of everyday life.

One of the best known films from this era is arguably the 'Lumiere brothers' Arrival of a train at Ls Cioatat in the year 1895. This would have been a significant viewing as from an audience perspective, all that would have been visible was a huge train coming directly toward the individual viewing the film. The short duration of these one-shot films were very appropriate for the Victorian modes of representation at the time. It is argued that 'short films were the norm' because the content of many short films was based on already existing entertainment media such as variety acts and lantern shows.

Short films began in the 1910's, in the United States of  America. The films at the start were either animated or live action and were maid purely to make people laugh and were therefore intensely comical. Although the popularity of these films fell dramatically after 20 years, they started to regain fame in the year 1955.
Many argue that this return in vogue was because of Charlie Chaplin who started making short films, however since this year short films have not been so popular.
Here is Charlie  Chaplin's first ever short film. Charlie himself disliked the film, whereas critics love it.

http://youtu.be/b9o-GIG4RIc


Raindance film festival is an indpendent film festival and film school that operates in major cities across the globe, particualrly in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The highly accredited organisation made a list of seven rules for writing short films:

1.) The shorter the better
2.) Make it visual
3.) Find single moments
4.) Tell a story
5.) Engage the reader
6.) Beware of the cliches
7.) Rules of writing still need to be considere

Classical Hollywood Cinema

Classical Hollywood Cinema is a term by David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson. In a study, the authors completed an analysis on a random selection of 100 Hollywood films from 1917 to 1960. They concluded that during this period a distinctive cinematic style developed that they called classical Hollywood style. This style, was a set of unwritten rules which was widely accepted by film makers. These authors also believed that this style has become essential due to the world wide dominance of Hollywood cinema.

Hollywood cinema directors wanted the scenes in films to look both formal and real, despite being shot in a highly controlled environment. This was so that the surroundings looked real to the viewers.

Here are some examples of realistic and formal typical Hollywood scenes. 

IMR - What is it?

The Institutional Mode of Representation is the dominant mode of film construction, which became apparent in 1914. This means that every sector of film production including camera work, editing and sound is formed produced in the same way as many other majority films.
The IMR is characterised by the attempt to make a completely exclusive fictional world on screen, in relation to imagination and how far it can go, an audience is 100% involved with what is occurring on screen.

- Films are constructed by a pattern of shots, with every individual shot providing the viewer with information of some kind.
- The film is perceived as an entire environment around the viewer, by uses of three dimensional effects with the use of lighting and editing
- Character psychology is key - camera techniques, such as close ups on faces of characters help the audience to sum up each characters intentions, involving themselves in the film and its understanding.

Evaluation of 1 minute short film

What could have been improved for this one minute short film?

To start with, I feel as though the equipment that was used to create the short film was causing some problems. The Panasonic camera that I used to film was not the best piece of equipment to use as it was simply not compatible with the Macs that contained the editing software. Therefore for future reference, I will ensure that the equipment I use, including the camera that I film on, is appropriate for my chosen editing software to prevent minor issues like the one I have experienced and save time.
I feel that less issues in the future will prevent loss of time and will be much easier for me to show my innovation to a standard that I am satisfied with. Due to having to re-film I feel as though my short one minute clip was not as high quality as I hoped it would have been, but I am glad I have overcome this minor issue at the start of my Media A2 filming process so that I can continue the rest of the filming with minimal difficulty.

What am I happy with?

I am glad knowing that I can cope with problems that may arise under time pressure, which has given me confidence for my future filming projects, including my short 5 minute film. I am also feeling more optimistic about editing with final cut pro in the near future. I enjoyed choosing appropriate music to go with my footage, deciding what was the right music was a fun experience, because I learnt that music I expect to work does not always work out. I thoroughly enjoyed making a storyboard, it was a positive experience testing all the various scenes that would be entertaining, and although it took time to film and choose the best scenes, it was worth it in the end. All in all despite a few minor technical issues I am happy with my one minute short film and look forward to filming more!

Making a short 1 minute film

For my first A2 Media project I had to make a short one minute clip about ' A day in the life of...' and chose what to make the clip about. This could have been anything at all, a person, a place or even an animal.

After a lot of thinking and heavy discussion  a final conclusion was made, to make a clip about me. The title of the video was called 'A day in the life of Avi'.

I thought that this would make a good one minute film because:

- I could re-film any scenes that I was not completely satisfied with easily, without any complications.
 This is more effective than filming an animal or a place, because I could not guarantee that I can film the exact same scenes again

- People seem to find my views on life and daily activities entertaining

- Eliminates the need to make a booked/slot time to film as this can be done in free time

I created a storyboard which clearly identified all the various scenes that were going to be included in my 1 minute film as well as the camera angles that were going to be manipulated. These included:

• Start of the day (waking up)                                      
• Daily activities
• Direct comparisons of reality and fantasy  

• Close ups 
• Panning shots 
• Worms eye shots 
• Various zooms 
• HA (high angle shots)

Editing was a challenge because final cut pro was not so simple to use. The software was not only demanding but it was not fast at loading which I feel was my greatest complication as this made quick tasks become very time consuming. However after learning all of the various effects and understanding the software, it was definitely something that I am happy that I experienced and I now feel comfortable editing on this software in the future. I used the camera angles that I not only felt were appropriate for the context of the short film but also what I felt was achievable from a regular camera.

Next, I had to think about the sound that I was going to use. Unfortunately the original sound that I had prepared for the short film prior to uploading onto final cut pro did not transfer to the standard that I would have hoped which made the quality of the sound lower than I had wanted. So, in order to overcome this issue, I redownloaded the song 'FLAWLESS' by Beyonce on a mobile phone using the software 'imovie'  and placed the music on top of the footage in order to overcome my problem. 

For the main plot of the clip I thought that it would be best to have two key elements to base the short film on, a fantasy and a reality. In this case, it was my ideal perception of life vs. reality.

As I was working in a group, there were a few minor issues that we had to overcome.
1.) Finding time outside of our media lesson so that we could film the footage for the short film and edit it effectively.
2.) Equipment errors - We faced an issue at the start of the filming process, as the camera that myself and my group and filmed on was not compatible with the new Apple Mac software that we needed to edit the footage on. Therefore we lost the original scenes that we had filmed and lost some editing time, to meet the deadline. Luckily, our first scenes were filmed right away and we noticed the issue in time. Therefore we were able to re-film some scenes and were able to raise them to a better standard than we had hoped, which was a positive outcome from this camera error.