Short Tasks

Madonna Music Video from Sam Ryder on Vimeo.

This is the short music video that myself, Mark and Alex have made. The song is called 'Candy Shop' which was made by Madonna.This is a quite fast paced song so our main aim was to make sure that the shots we use were very short and fast paced so that it works well with the song. also what we added in to improve the pace of this was the short zoom in shots of the shelf of chocolate and sweets. this is good because it is then relevant to what she is singing about and it isn't completely random which would confuse the audience. these shots are very fast and short in length which also keeps in time with the song.

To start off the filming we decided that we needed somebody that didn't get easily and would do pretty much anything we asked them so that we could make a good short music video. So we got our friend Craig involved to do the dancing and acting for us. We asked Craig to do some 'sexual' movements for us, for example thrusting his hips because we thought that in this song when she says 'candy shop' in the song we think that is a sexual innuendo. Using the sexual movements would reinforce this idea so that our music video was stronger. After this we all decided that having just Craig in this music video wouldn't be enough for it to be good. So thinking this Mark then decided to involve himself in the actual video. Mark was doing a similar thing to Craig by trying to stay with the beat of the song.

When we were editing this music video we wanted it all to run quite smoothly instead of it being really jumpy because we didn't think it looked very good. So what we did was when we were filming one shot at the end of it we would point the camera up away from the main action on the screen and then to start off the next shot we would start it pointing upwards and bring it down so you can see whats happening in that scene. We think this made it look like a fade shot which we thought was better that just jump cuts. Also what we did was as you can see in our music video we did a zoom shot of some sweets and chocolate. We thought that this would be a good thing to involve as the actual song is called 'Candy Shop'.

Overall I think that the music video was a success based on the content and some of the editing choices we made such as the zoom in on the sweets and the fact that we tried to include some content that were relevant to what she was singing about. However i think some of the shots that we used were a very poor quality so next time we would need to either re take the shot or take more time when shooting it. Also I think that the action in some of the music video was quite repetitive so maybe we would need some more content in order for it to be better. The things i have learnt from making this music video is that when you are filming you need to make sure that the content you are filming is relevant to the song and the lyrics. Also i learnt that the shot lengths aren't very long so it needs to be a fast changing video so that the audience doesn't get bored.

Sure Advert from Sam Ryder on Vimeo.

This is the advert that myself, Mark and Alex have made. The product that we were advertising was a can of 'sure' deodorant. We thought that because it is deodorant this product would mainly be aimed at sportsmen to put ion before the event that they are doing so using this thought we decided to base the advert around an athlete. We thought this would also open up to other people who have active lifestyles and would need to use this during the day.

So because advertising is meant to make that product look good or better than another we decided to compare two different types of deodorant. Mark volunteered to be the actor in our advert so we got him to dress up as a sportsman and run around the track. at first we got mark spray on the 'sure' deodorant and then to run around with a dry t-shirt to indicate that he wasn't sweating when wearing that deodorant. After that we soaked his t-shirt with water to make it look like sweat. We then got him to spray on the other deodorant and run around the track which made him look like he was sweating. This made the 'sure' deodorant look a lot better which is good advertising. Also what we did at the end of the advert was add in a slogan. the slogan was 'Be SURE to choose the right one'. We involved the name of the product in the slogan as we thought this made it a lot more powerful and catchy.

Overall I think that the advert was a success based on the content and some of the editing choices we made such as the slogan at the end and showing off the product we were trying to sell. However i think some of the shots that we used were a very poor quality so next time we would need to either re take the shot or take more time when shooting it. Also I think that the shot times in our advert were a little bit too short. Some of them flashed across the screen before the audience could see what was going on so next time this is something that we could improve on. The things i have learnt from making this advert is that when you are filming you need to make sure that the product you are selling is the main focus in it and that you need to make that product look good in order to sell it. Also make sure i take care with the editing more so that the shot times aren't too short.

From doing these tasks i have learned a lot to help me with my short film. Although they may be a completely different type of genre to the one i have chosen as my main task the different types of shots can still be related across to a short film. i have learned that it is importnant to have lots of different shots because then they arent being dragged out too long so that they are boring and it doesnt look like we havent got enough footage. Also by getting lots of shots you can also show that some things in your product are a lot more important in the shot and this makes the audience realise what it is. For example in my advert i have done a close up of the deoderant can that we are trying to sell. This indicates to the audince that I am trying to sell this one and not the other. Also I ahev done a shot with just Mark in it showing him either sweating a lot or not at all. This shows the audience that we are trying to say the first deoderant is a lot better than the first. It makes an advert successful and will therefore sell the product a lot better.

 

Another point that i have learned from doing these short tasks would be making sure that the content in a certain product normally has to relate to whatever music that there is to go with it. For example for the msuic video that i made has shots of sweets or in another word, candy. This is good because it relates to what she is singing about andf also the name of the song which is 'Candy Shop'. I think that this is really important because if it wasnt like this then people would probably get really confused to what the song and video is actually about. I thik i can relate thjis to y music video ebcause in certain parts of it, it is either a really tense moment or just a normal casual day. So in my short film when Harry is walking throuigh the woods towards Glen with the hammer we had a really tense song going on in the background to build up the audience and get them on the edge of there seat. This iis very effective because then they are more interested and will want to watch it a lot more.

History and Development of Short Films

About Short Films

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. There isn't a rule that exists to where that boundary is drawn. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says that a short film is "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". Short films are normally screened at local, national or international film festivals. Short films are often made by independent film makers for nonprofit where they either have a very low budget or no budget at all. However in very rare cases they have big budgets which would be funded by film grants, sponsors or nonprofit organisations.

History

The very first short films were presented to the public in 1894 which were shown through Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope. This was like a peepshow device which was only for individual viewing. These and the projected films that succeeded them were often one-shot “actuality” or “interest” films showing celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life. The best known film from this time would probably be the Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895), which was to have had audiences running away in terror as a they believed the train hurtling towards them was actually going to hit them. However in the early 1900s there were major improvements in recording and editing technology which then allowed film-makers to produce longer, multi-shot films. Some of the most memorable longer short films from the pre-features era include Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon (1902) where a group of astronomers build an improbable space ship and encounter some acrobatic moon men and also Edwin S Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903) which is often celebrated as the first Western.

Progression

There are only a few big companies that create short films now because of the technology that they can use they can make a long film just as easily. For example Pixar used to run a short film just before one of there feature films to either fill a gap before the feature was about to start or to promote something else. Also because Disney have taken over Pixar they have also been making short films to run along side there feature films. Because of the technology progression in the past years these short films have been able to be shown to a much larger audience compared to the individual audience that was shown by the Kinetoscope in 1894. They can be shown on the Internet on websites such as YouTube and Vimeo. They are also shown at some short film exhibitions. This would be classed as there main way to reach there audiences.

This is an example of a short film that Disney have made in the year 2012. The short film was directed by John Kahrs. John Karhs an American animator and film maker who in 2013, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for this film 'Paperman'. Disney have also made many more popular short films that are made for all different types of audiences.