Researching into Short Films - Craig Devine: This is the life.

We know that a film has certain conventions to conform to, such as titles (traditionally) at the start of the film, a soundtrack, etc which this short film did contain.

We watched the short film in class, and wrote notes about it. This is what I wrote:

• This short film had the title at the start of the film, it was in a very average, typical, non fancy white font on a black background in the center of the screen.

• The establishing shot was of the kitchen, it definitely had that kitchen-sink realism, of the white working class British drama conventions. The camera work had a documentary-film style to it as it was hand-held throughout the film. It was as if we were sitting at the table watching the family in their morning routine.

• There was a close up of the mothers face, she looked stressed out, anxious about something. The ambiguity and question of what this may be, is answered practically straight away. I suppose this was due to the fact that this is a short film, so there is no real time to hide information from the viewers like in normal films.

• There is non-diagetic slow, melancholy, soft acoustic guitar is heard. Craig Devine uses a sound bridge to link that shot to the next. In the next shot (of the teenage sister picking up her younger brother from school in a shopping trolley in the hope to humour him) the sound reaches its optimum level to reveal the state of mind and mood of the characters and storyline itself.

• There are a few shots of the sister and brother on their journey home looking happy and without a care in the world. Then this is juxtaposed by the next shot of the father (who has just got out of prison) standing outside their house. This scene looks fabricated somewhat in its appearance. The mise en scene implies the financially difficulties that the family may be in, it most certainly suggests lack of money through the garbage in their front garden.

• We see the obvious contrast of views between the siblings of their father. The long shot shows the girl run up to her father and swings her arms around him, whilst seeing the boy in shallow focus in the background. We also see the boy looking inquisitively at his father in a low angled shot. And we see a close up of the fathers face, looking very disheartened to say the least.

• There is a static low angled shot, the family looks very uncomfortable. There are the subtle exchange of glances from the boy to the father and vice versa.

• There is then an extreme long shot of a car parked and a boy standing outside by the side of it. There is a sequence of shot reverse close up shots from the boy back to the father. It is evident that the father has forgot to pick him up from school as there are no other children around.

• The boy is shown in a medium close up in the car, then there is panning around the car which shows air fresheners hung up and tobacco on the dashboard.

• There is then some confrontation, as the father is trying to rekindle the father-son relationship he probably once had, but he was not successful. However, it is evident that whenever anything good happens, any happy experiences occur, this melancholy instrumental non-diagetic sound comes in to match the mood. The father says, "This is the life, this is the life" whilst finally having fun with his son again epitomising life.

• Again, much like earlier on in the film, whenever something fun happens, it is cut short and opposed by a not-so-happy scene. The non-diagetic sound is replaced with the diagetic sound of the childrens' parents arguing.

• Again, just like the previous sequence of, low times, happy times, low times, happy times. This scene is followed by everyone's face smiling, the camera pans around the families faces which look genuinely happy and comfortable with life for once (non-diagetic sound is heard again).

• Then, it is juxtaposed by a low angled medium close up shot of the father. The mise en scene show that he is in a probation officers office. The walls are plain and white, it was a pencil holder in shallow focus at the bottom, right hand side of the shot, with a calender in the top left hand side of the shot behind the father. The documentary adopted camera style is used again (no tripod, so it is hand-held), it feels like we are in the room with him.

• Finally, the last scene is a happy one, it has the happy-go-lucky non-diagetic sound playing again. It has panning from the father to the son playing a game in the garden wit the sister. The scene (and the film) is ended with a freeze frame of the boy in the air being held up above his fathers head - this is the life.

• It fades to black and the credits appear.
  

  
  
  

Continuation of Researching into Music Video's - Johnny Cash - Hurt.

We watched Johnny Cash's melancholy performance/narrative music video called Hurt. It straight away felt very emotional, down-beat and even quite depressing. In the twilight of his career, Johnny Cash's masculine voice is filled with pain and remorse which flows very well with the raw acoustic guitar he is playing. We see archive footage of his life/ home videos throughout the music video to force genuine meaning and to provoke our emotions to be let out.


It starts with an establishing shot, which is a medium long shot of Johnny Cash performing in his house with his guitar.


There is then a close up of an aged Johnny Cash. His face looks worn and tired.


It flicks to a close up of the American flag, showing that he lived the "American Dream", he was an American Icon, a musician, a rockstar in his day.


Then we see a close up of the "House of Cash Museum - closed to the public" - this proves that there was a period of time where this man was a genuine idol, he had a museum of his belongings and meaningful merchandise, now his followers have aged with him, and maybe that generation have slowly disappeared.


He is shown again, medium long shot, in a very smart black suit. This is relevant mise en scene, as he was known as the "man in black". His house around him is cluttered, dark, antiques are seen - it is almost showing his whole fortune and fame in this one medium long shot of him in his sitting room.


We then see Johnny open his piano for what it seems like one final time, but when he sings about the "needle" he looks down in shame (close up of face in darkness).


We see black and white archive home video footage of Johnny Cash on a steam train, he seems happy, satisfied and content.


Then as he sings, "Everyone I know, goes away in the end" and we see a close up of a photograph of his mother hung up on the wall in his house (sepia brown tint).


We switch to the inside of the Johnny Cash Museum and there is a close up of a broken Golden Record (which you would get when you sell 250000 copies of his music) - so this must have been a huge achievement, but now it is left abandoned and meaningless.


There is a long shot of a prison, to reveal that he had actually gone to prison and he use to visit them regularly as he would represent the underclass people.


There is then a medium high angled shot of Johnny Cash in some sort of movie saying "You stay away from me here" this seems as though he is talking to the Devil.


We then see a close of a lobster, caviar etc - showing he has lived a prosperous life.


Then there again is archive footage of Johnny Cash with his child visiting his old small house (long shot).


 They switch to a long shot showing money, wealth and a huge meal on the table in front of him. It looks a lot like some sort or reenactment of the Last Supper, except Jesus has his disciples around him, but Johnny has no one. There is a close up of Johnny pouring red wine from a glass onto the table - this symbolises that fame and fortune means nothing unless you have love from your family and friends (this is shown when he sings "you can have it all, my fortune of dirt").


Then we see a close up of Johnny Cash and his wife - it looks like they were on their wedding day.


The next time he sings "my sweetest friend" we see a long shot of Johnny sitting down singing and the staircase behind him with his wife looking down at him on his right hand side (much like an angel, or maybe with the Christian ideology, she could be seen as Mary on the right hand side of Jesus).


We again see archive footage of the Johnny Cash laughing with his wife, then a long shot of a flood - this must have had some sort of impact on his life years ago.


We see a fast montage of archive movies of Christ being sacrificed - maybe this symbolises Johnny Cash feeling that he has been sacrificed be critics. Then we see him crying.


We see a medium close up of a dove, this reveals freedom, or maybe his longing for freedom.


The penultimate shot we see is archive footage of one of the first on stage performances the young Johnny Cash had done, it then fades to black.. Finally, the last shot is a medium long shot of the aged Johnny Cash closing his piano, and stroking it lovingly - this is the closure of his career.

Researching into Music video's - Lyrics of Johnny Cash - Hurt.

We had the lyrics to Johnny Cash's song "Hurt" and then try to find connotations of what the words were portraying.


We had to think about the lyrics, what they mean, what we think the song is actually about and how the video might represent the lyrics.


Here is a scanned version of my original copy of the lyrics and my notes...

Researching Documentaries... Tyson - The Movie.

In A2 Media we have to choose to make either an opening to a documentary, a music video or a short film. I have come to the decision (after many weeks of deliberation over the holidays) that I am going to attempt to create a music video.

However, we still have to research into all of our possibilities in class. Firstly, we were researching documentaries - we watched the opening of a biographical documentary about the life of Mike Tyson.

We had to make notes on the content, editing, graphics/text, voice overs, narrative structure, archive etc. I tried to make notes in chronological order as a followed.




The opening was very unconventional, it was more like a feature film opening than a documentary opening. It was a black background with random coloured fade in fade out titles- this was maybe used to represent Mike Tyson's very colourful, but dark life.

We realised there was non diagetic music of crowd noise and the Rocky soundtrack - this was a very relevant choice of sound, it symbolises the obvious fact that Tyson was a boxer; his life and fame is focused and based on his profession.


Setting the scene, the establishing shot was a high angled shot of Mike Tyson and Trevor Berbick. This is archive, slightly blurred, late 80's video footage, it seems to be the original voice-over commentary of the fight. It cuts to a close up, shot reverse shots of the two boxers.

Editing is fast, fragmented and non-linear - the documentary had overlapping and split screens, showing 2 - 3 scenes at once moving around the screen.

There's a sequence of unique shots that are freeze framed whilst the titles are still appearing. And swipe transitions are used to allow the shots to exit the screen - the swipe transitions may be used to represent the clean and precise punches of boxers (especially Tyson).


There are action replays, highlighting key punches and are freeze framed - this is again unconventional of a documentary. Yet, it is the conventions of sport programmes highlighting key parts of the games.

Whilst one shot freezes, another appears carrying on the fight as a continuation. The punches sound like they have been heightened/over dubbed. They sound harsh and fierce, almost bone crunching.


There is a freeze frame of the end of the match, just like the Rocky film, with Tyson's hand being held up showing he is the winner. We hear the original quote "...he could reign for a long long time."


The iconic bell is head, the scene fades to black. Then "TYSON" in a very masculine, sharp, ever last typography. The name is filled with fire, this represents conflict, anger, danger and the sense of lack of control.


We see various split screen shots of Tyson's face (close-ups showing his subtle wrinkles), we see his eyes (extreme close-ups showing his genuine vulnerability) showing the hurt, the ageing, the pain. We hear his voice, sounding worn and weary, we hear him talking about his problems as a child with his health and his family.

When we see Tyson in a long shot walking along the sea - the waves reveal tranquility, or turmoil, as well as an unpredictable state of mind. He is walking along the sunset - representing the end of his career maybe. He has a family, but this shot may be illustrating him reflecting, he may feel alone in this world, his life was surrounded by his career, and now it is over.

 

We see Tyson in a medium long shot, sitting on his sofa in what looks like a very modern looking apartment. He looks mature and calm (in about his mid 40's) wearing a posh shirt with cuff links. When we hear Tyson talk about moving to Brooklyn as a child, anchorage is used, we see archive footage of the streets of Brooklyn in the late 80's maybe (this footage may have been brought from a library to solidify his meaning).

 

This was all in the first 5 minutes, I thought that this documentary was very unconventional. Although it was easy to understand that it would be a biographical documentary, as throughout the opening and when Tyson was talking - he was the main focus, the archive was about him, pictures of him, footage of his fights and victories; also, there was no interviewer - just Tyson talking about his life experiences.

 

There was no text to show dates on the archive footage from what I recall, and usually for simple reality purposes, there will usually be dates.

Here's a short clip of the documentary, in it you will see evidence of the archive footage:

My Tasks...

These are the task I have to follow to ensure that I have a successful year in Media Studies:

Task 1: Create A2 Media Blog Address
Task 2: Research Into Existing Products
Task 3: Mind Mapping Of Initial Ideas
Task 4: Audience Research
Task 5: Script 
Task 6: Storyboards
Task 7: Role Allocation
Task 8: Final Proposal
Task 9: Casting
Task 10: Filming
Task 11: Editing
Task 12: Create Print Artefacts
Task 13: Audience Feedback