The Wrong Night Presentation

Narrative Theory Applied

The Black Hole

  Todorov's Theory:

1. Equilibrium: Everything is normal: A man is working in a office and seems as if he is sleep depraved.
2. Disequilibrium: The stability is disrupted: The printer stops working, the worker kicks the printer and it prints out a black circle on a normal piece of paper.
3. Recognition: Realisation of the disruption: The man realises that this black circle has the power to make things go through it, for example taking a snack from the vending machine.
4. Restoring order: action against the disruption: The worker goes into the room with the safe using the piece of paper with the black hole, then puts the black hole on the safe and starts taking money out of it, till his whole body is inside.
5. New equilibrium: restoration of an equilibrium: The man gets stuck in the safe , which shows that his greediness got the best of him and that there is no restored equilibrium but a new one.
   
   
   
   
   Barthes Theory:
   
   
   1.Establishment of the plot or theme: The film starts by showing a man who is working in a office and seems as if he is sleep depraved. This shows that the film will be based around this character.
   2. Development of the problem, an enigma, an increase in tension: The printer stops working, the worker kicks the printer and it prints out a black circle on a normal piece of paper. The man realises that this black circle has the power to make things go through it, for example taking a snack from the vending machine. The worker goes into the room with the safe using the piece of paper with the black hole, then puts the black hole on the safe and starts taking money out of it, till his whole body is inside. This starts to build the tension of the film.
   3. Resolution of the plot: The man gets stuck in the safe , which shows that his greediness got the best of him. This is where there is the resolution.
   
   
   
   
   Kate Domaille's Theory:
   
   
    We could say that one of Kate Domaille's narrative types relates to this character: Achilles.
   
   
   Achilles: The fatal flaw that will eventually lead to the destruction of the character. We could say that this relates to the the character in the way that his greed got the better of him which led to him getting stuck in the safe.
   
   
    
   
   
   
   

Evaluation Slide Questions 1-4

Review Of Film From Last Year

Hostile Hospitality

Overall I thought the film was well made with good acting. The storyline built the tension and the mystery for the viewers and kept them hooked throughout the short film. One of the points I noticed throughout the film was that the lighting was sometimes to do dark and maybe some more lighting effects could have been added, so that the viewer can understand more what is going on. In addition, Short films generally have twists at the end, which this film does have, but i felt like it wasn't clear enough of what actually happened. However, this didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying the film.

Character Mood board

Type Of Cast For Short Film

Possible Cast For Barman

Possible Cast For Mike

Possible Cast For Becky

Final Poster

Institutional Research

Institutional Research

One of the major avenues into funding short films is form government institutions, and specifically in the UK, public money that is invested into short films is now distributed by the British Film Institute (BFI). This is a charity that promotes and protects filmmaking in the UK as well as providing funding to independent film makers both emerging and established. Funding budget varies per category, starting at £5000 for the iShorts sponsorship to £20,000 in the documentary short film category. People who are successful in applying to these funding opportunities receive editorial support, industry mentoring and networking opportunities. Similarly to this funding by government institutions, filmmakers can seek funding through sponsorships offered by film festivals, such as Sundance. It offers grants and workshops to applicants whose work they see potential in offer ongoing support to advance the development and production of independent work.

Furthermore, corporate sponsorship for a short film is always an exciting opportunity, however, this is not usually open to new and emerging talent, more so established short film writers and directors. For example, 'The Scarecrow' is a short film created for Chipotle by Academy Award-winning Moonbot Studios, that has fantastic emotional storytelling but is also used as an advertising tool. Outside of external sponsorship, if film-makers are truly passionate about this work they can always self-fund their own project on the hope that its merits speak for itself and their talents get recognised. Crowdshare or Crowdfund would also be an online tool to raise money independently.

For the distribution of short films, it is very effective for short films of a branded content to be broadcast on television or online in order to gain exposure. Even though they will be marketed to sell the product or company, their work will also be showcased and their talents will also need to be payed for when broadcasting. Additionally, social media channels, for independent film makers or for companies, is a vital asset. Posting on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms will be beneficial to raise awareness of your work. Outside of this, there are film festivals and competitions in which you can submit your short film: BFI, Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival. All are celebrations of art which encourage new talent and nurture new ideas in the forms of short film and showcase the winning applicants.

Exhibiting short films does not usually happen on mainstream broadcast mediums and is usually exists digitally and online. Sites such as Youtube or Vimeo are good hosting platforms to create a portfolio of work that you can exhibit for free, which therefore makes your talents accessible to potential new job opportunities, career paths, and investments. Specifically, Short of the Week, is a website specifically launched to archive and showcase new and emerging talent in the category of short film. In addition, short film such as La Luna or Lava created by pixar, and exhibited in cinemas as content to be rolled before the main feature film of a 12 or PG age classification.

Generally speaking, the target audience of a short film will be someone who is right brained, quite artistic and inquisitive up to the age of around 70, as the short nature of the medium for the 'Baby Boomer' generation would be so far removed from that they are familiar with. However, practically speaking there is no specific target audience for short films. People can be of any culture, race, religion, age, or sex. The target audience is those who are passionate about film and playing around with the craft of film making to see what exciting things it can do.

Advanced Short Film Analysis 1

Manah Manah

This incredibly unique short film is very rich for cinematic analysis as it is very playful with technical codes, genre, narrative. The work opens up with an intriguing POV shot of someone being pulled through a snow covered field which is disorientating for the viewer but triggers their interest. This POV shot forces the audience to ask questions about the event, location, and who this possible victim is. There is no backstory or reasoning given which makes the opening that much more interesting and makes the audience actively participate. The camera work pulls out to a shot-reverse-shot to evoke the confrontation between the two characters: the attacker and the victim. Initially this highlights the difference in emotions between the two characters until they engage in humming 'Manah manah' in which the shot then shows the similar emotions they express, making the film that much more bazar by bewildering. Furthermore, establishing shots are used to show the surrounding landscapes in which this is taking place. Interestingly, the work ends in a POV shot juts as it opened. Except this time it is through the eyes of the murdered victim in the grave.

Accompanying the various camera angles to this is the Mise-en-scene. Establishing shots depict the isolated characters in a barren snow covered field surrounded by forests. Iconography of a Thriller or Nordic Noir is established through this landscape but also the close ups of the blood, the gun and the shovel which generates confusion and mystery in the work.

From a genre aspect this short film transforms from a Thriller in the beginning, a black comedy in the middle, and then a Thriller at the end. It opens up with mystery and suspense, then changes into a surreal but hilarious black comedy during the song, and then again reverts back to a Thriller in the attacker act of murder. Questions are still left unanswered at the end, but the viewer puts asking these questions out of their mind during the comedy scene. Therefore, the short film is composed of two different genres in three different stages. This directly relates to Todorov's Narrative Theory in which a story begins with an equilibrium, a disruptive event creates a disequilibrium, and then the new equilibrium is re-established. However in this case of 'Manah Mana!' it is the complete reverse. It begins with a disequilibrium, relief in comedy that creates an equilibrium as the two characters engage in song together, and then the film ends with a new disequilibrium where the victim is murdered after singing the song.

'Manah Manah' is a convention of the short film genre in its length and that it condenses a lot action and emotion in such a short period of time. As a viewer you suspend disbelief, but the inevitable that you suspect from the very beginning (murder) happens anyway.

Fortnightly review 2

Photoshop Process

Image Selection For Magazine

InDesign Techniques

Editing Techniques

The Wrong Night Magazine

The Shoot

The shoot of our short film which is part of our coursework took place in a pub in Putney, called The Coat & Badge. We also shot in my house, and the street where I live.

The main problem was that there seemed to be sound difficulties due to the surroundings we were shooting in. A good example would be when we were shooting outside the pub, there were quite a few planes that flew over and it made it harder to hear what the actors were saying.

When we were at the pub, we didn't manage to film all the shots we wanted to for the first scene, due to the short time frame we had (from 10:00 to 11:30 am). When we were filming outside the pub, near to the end it started raining, so we had to wait some time for it to stop and had to do quite a few retakes. This cost us some of the time we had to film at the pub.

The shooting of scene 3 was at times difficult. Some instances were when my younger sister had a piano lesson and when my dog would bark. But nevertheless it was the right decision to film at my house.

Overall, the shoot was successful. There were of course some minor filming/sound mistakes, which we will deal with when editing our short film.





 

The Wrong Night Rough Cut

The Wrong Night Final Cut

The Wrong Night Likely Pub Location

The Wrong Night First Rough Cut Evaluation

The first problem that we became aware of in our editing process was the quality of dialogue between the characters of Mike, Becky, and The Barman. In some instances we made the shots of some scenes too short or cut too much, which results in an overlap of dialogue, as shown in the scene where Mike and Becky first enter her apartment. Also, with the actual content of the dialogue, there is sometimes too much information given that we now realize has no significant importance to the narrative. In fixing these problems it will help the film flow better, be more time efficient, and engage the viewers more.

Similar to this, we realized there was a problem of the length and angle of some shots. Outside the pub, the closeup of Becky smiling is far too short for the viewer to understand her emotions and reaction towards her encounter with Mike. It needs to be lengthened in order for viewers to feel some sort of connection with her. The character needs to be understandable and sympathetic to the audience for the 'moment of realisation' to have its biggest impact. Futhermore, when the couple are inside her home, there is a headshot of Mike that is not framed in the centre. At the moment it looks awkward and not the level of quality that we are aiming for. To improve this, we will look through our footage and see if there is an alternate shot we can substitute this for. One shot that we feel is too long in length is after Mike pacing in the hallway after he has realised what he has done. Although this is good to portray Mike's psychological battle, it is overdone and loses its effect. Sometimes less is more. This needs to be cut down and be more snappy to heighten the dramatic realisation.

We realized that transitions between shots were very blunt and static. In the next edit we wish to include transitions between shots in order to help the story to unfold. For example when the location changes from the external pub scene to the street scene outside Becky's home, it is very abrupt. A transition, such as a fade to black, would work well here indicating a passage of time. Other transitions could support the narrative in showing the passage of time in moments such as when Mike passes out and the very end scene.

We think in our second edit we need to concentrate more on our editing which we didn't do as much on our first draft. Looking more into this feature could really inhance the qulity of our short film. For example in Becky's home the lighting is quite poor and the facial features a hardly visable. This needs to be lightnened up in the second cut by using post production special effects. Also to enhance the colour of this film we should look into colour grading to make the film more visually effective. We could experiment with colour by perhaps having flashback scenes in black and white and having present scens in colour, and experiment with lighting by having a black vignette, blink around the edges of the frame when Mike is about to pass out. This could be quite an effective cinematic tool.

Regarding sound the audio quality was affected by the envirement of the location, such as a plane flying overhead in the external pub scene and wind crackling the microphone on the street scene. We could have avoided this by reshooting, however this was not an option for us. At the pub we were working in timed restrictions and on the street the wind was forcasted throughout the day. Therefore, we will filter out these interuptions by editiing them out through splitting or subsitutuing the audios. Moreover we should consider the use of non diegetic sound to help the film become more engageing. We should consider the options of having an overarching soundtrack, or different music to accompany different emotional moments.

Possible Soundtracks

Possible Images For Poster