Documentary

Documentaries are films that follow the occurrence of an event, and report on it in a non-fictional manner and are generally aimed to inform. They often contain interviews with experts and are based around certain areas of particular interest such as historical events, topical news, obscure trends, and anything that people might like to be informed about.

Generic conventions:

• Documentaries often include reconstructions or re-enactments, people re-enacting incidents that have already occurred but perhaps have not been recorded previously, for example, if someone wanted to create a documentary on crime or more specifically something like muggings, they may re-enact a mugging to demonstrate it. 
• Voice-overs are a common feature within documentaries, for example David Attenborough's nature documentaries, he commonly does voice-overs while the camera focuses on creatures or aspects of nature.
• Interviews are often featured within documentaries as well, usually with recognised experts in the field that the documentary is based on.
• Breaking of the fourth wall is often prevalent within documentaries, with people often addressing camera crew, or the audience directly, explaining the current situation to the viewers, possibly commenting on events that are unfolding in the scene.

Generally documentaries aren't really suited to short films as its difficult to cover any topic in any great detail in a short space of time, trying to explain something like the skater subculture for example just wouldn't be possible.
However if someone wanted to give a bias view of something, for example portraying skater subculture as negative, it may be a good way to influence what people think of it, by showing only one side of what it is and what takes place within it, they could cause people to look upon it poorly and if this is the creators intention it may be used to great effect.

If I was to do a documentary it would probably be on the skater subculture, purely because it's a widely misrepresented and in my opinion 'hard done by' group of people of which 99% mean absolutely no harm to anyone, and I would like a chance to represent these people in a way that truly reflects who they are and what they are.

 

 

 

 

Comedy

Comedy is a genre that nearly everyone enjoys, however most people have a unique sense of humour, and so they generally lean towards a particular sub genre of comedy and this is where comedy shines as a genre. Because there is so many different types of comedy, e.g. slapstick, spoof and satire to name a few, there is a huge range of comedy films, ranging from spoof films such as 'Epic movie' which caters to a very childish adult humour, with lots of slapstick and sexual innuendos, to more real to life comedies making fun of awkward real life situations such as 'The 40 year old virgin'.

Generic conventions of comedy:

• Comedy generally uses a naturalistic approach to camerawork
• Often set in places for social gatherings such as bars, cafes, restaurants etc.
• Diegetic sound is important within comedy as many of the jokes within comedy films are spoken and presented during conversations
• Characters are often very stereotypical as this affirms people's pre-established ideas of people they may not encounter in real life or situations they will never find themselves in, such as 'Pineapple Express's 'Saul' who fits a very stereotypical image of a weed dealer
• Props are also commonly used within the genre of comedy, especially within the slapstick subgenre

Comedy is a difficult genre for short or feature length films as an actor with enough charisma to deliver scripted jokes and make it seem natural and funny is hard to find and requires a lot of takes to finally get right, given the limited options I have when it comes to people acting in my coursework it seems unlikely that I would choose this genre.
However comedy would be easier in the sense that constructing the settings would not really be an  issue as there is many places that are viable for shooting in the local area, such as one of the many pubs in town.
I watched a few short comedy films to help my understanding of the genre and found that most of them failed to really make me laugh, a few smiles here and there but nothing really to tell my friends about. I think this is a good representation of how difficult the genre is to get right within a short film, the two that made me smile the most, were 'elevator' and 'no offence', these films however were only really of note for their topical humour, with one making jokes about obesity and swine flu and the other about the commonly used idiom 'No offence' and how people seem to think it excuses them for being rude.
In 'Elevator' the character that the camera follows throughout the film spends most of his time inside the elevator and the camera has to work with tight camera angles, despite the size differences of all the people and the tight camera angles, the camera work is very good, with the majority of the shots looking in on the elevator from where the doors would be.
The film has no actual dialogue but instead uses close ups of things in the mise-en scene to create and tell jokes, such as the close up of the maximum weight the elevator can hold, implying that the elevator is going to fall and that the character is in danger, while no else seems to be taking notice.
This is effective and a good technique because this way actors do not have to worry about being experienced and having a charismatic personality while delivering the jokes scripted which can really make or break a comedy film.

Horror

Horror is another massive genre that has had a huge variety of entries, some good, some bad and some bordering on criminal. The horror genre is very vast and has many sub genres like horror-comedies, fantasy-horror, zombie films and many more. One of the genre defining directors was Alfred Hitchcock, who directed Psycho.
Many of the generic conventions of the genre can be taken from this film alone, such as his use of the iconic music that is associated with Psycho. Sound is very important and useful within horror, its excellent for building suspense within a scene and has been used in many films such as 'the exorcist' and 'Jaws' to great effect with the jaws soundtrack and tubular bells from 'The exorcist' becoming widely recognised soundtracks.
The music from psycho is excellent at building suspense, using high pitched, sharp, repetitive sounds.

• Another generic convention within horror films is having a deformed/disturbing character that is usually the antagonist, this is prominent in films such as the grudge, a paranormal horror/thriller.
• There is often a 'typically blonde' character that usually dies
• The mise-en scene is usually very dark and gloomy, this reduces visibility and increases nervousness of the audience by making them unsure as to what's coming next
• Usually in isolated locations such as the wilderness or in the sewers, somewhere that it would be difficult for people to assist the characters if they were in distress.

Horror films are well suited for short films as often with feature length films the suspense becomes too drawn out, and the effect that was previously keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, ends up becoming boring. With a short film this is not a problem and having just one major 'scare' is very effective. These films are also often left on a cliff-hanger which is effective and works because the audience has not spent the entire film investing in the back story of the characters and is just enjoying the film based on its horror aspects.
A good example of this is the short film 'lights out'  posted to the left. The film is very short and consists of seeing a dark figure getting ever closer when the lights go off with the final shot posted below.
The final shot is a jump scare, with the face of the 'demon' or 'monster' being shown just before the screen cuts to black, leaving the fate of the character to the imagination but obviously implying that they have suffered some terrible fate. This is effective as after the audience has jumped and recovered from being scared and recomposed themselves, they then begin to contemplate the fate of the character and this means the story sticks with you and continues to scare the watchers after the film has finished, when they themselves are sitting home alone and are about to turn the lights off.
One thing that would be difficult however would be building the suspense throughout the film, this is a challenge throughout the entire genre of horror and is not specific to short films. However the limited time frame does make it difficult to use the time to effectively build suspense. Because as a producer, I would need to tell some sort of story in amongst the suspense building and have some form of recognisable structure to the plot, as well as building suspense and creating a scary setting.

If I was to do a horror film I would do a crash landed pilot in the forest who is isolated and lost and believes he is being chased by something and every time he stands still that something gets closer and so as exhaustion sets in this 'thing' that is chasing him gets ever closer.

Romance

The romance genre is a widely recognised genre that has had many entries into it that have received a lot of recognition, as a result the generic conventions of this genre are recognised by nearly everyone.

Generic conventions of romance:

One of the key areas of film is sound and music, and in romance films especially so, they have very recognisably, music, for example 'Notting hill' has a very typical romantic soundtrack, slow paced but happy, creating an air of tension/excitement/anticipation, as well as often creating intimacy within a scene. This is used across all sorts of romance films such as 'The notebook', 'Friends with benefits' and many more across the genre.

Todorov's theory of narrative structure, Todorov proposed that films are structured in three parts, equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium again. Romance films generically follow this structure more often than not, with many films starting out with a happy couple who then end up having some sort of conflict that the main body of the film focuses on resolving and when the equilibrium has been restored the film comes to an end. For example even less traditional cross-genre romance films such as 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the world' follow this narrative structure. With the film starting out with Scott being just an average guy, then meeting the girl, literally of his dreams, he has to fight seven of her evil exes to then finally end up with the girl, this narrative structure is present in a lot of films but especially so in romance films.

Romance films often have a very urban setting, set in a city, sometimes based around a workplace where a chance encounter is viable to happen. For example Date night is based in new York, about a couple trying to enjoy their night and shenanigans ensue.

Often used in romance films is dim lighting to create intimacy within a scene, the image to the left demonstrates how dim lighting is used during intimate moments within the film. Another thing that is commonplace is using dark places with natural light bursting through in intense but small amounts, also demonstrated in the image below.

 

Romance films are fairly difficult to do within the limited time frame that a short film allows for, this is because of the need to connect with the characters, if there is no time for the audience to connect with the characters they will not engage with the film or really care about what happens to them at the end of the film, so making effective use of screen time and creating meaningful and deep scenes that will engage the audience is essential.

Romantic comedies however, might be easier, as this sub-genre aims to create a feel good feeling and engage the audience differently by making them laugh. Obviously writing good comedy is difficult in any film and would be a challenge, but is probably more suited to a short film. This allows the audience to care for the characters by making them likeable and funny rather than trying to get the audience to empathise and sympathise with the characters in emotionally complex situations which requires more of a connection to the characters.

http://shortsbay.com/film/vicky-and-sam
The short film link posted above is a short romance film called 'Vicky and Sam'. It is about three film writers in a diner that are trying to think of a romance film idea and everything they pitch becomes real life, including what happens between the couple Vicky and Sam and this eventually involves the writers and the couple's stories entwining and coming to a close after the couple and the writers have been through a couple tricky situations.

Genre

All genres have recognised generic conventions that need to be present in a piece of film for them to fit into said genre. A common example of this is within horror films, there is often a supernatural theme present, this a generic convention of the horror genre, demonstrated in films such as 'Paranormal activity', 'The ring' and 'Woman in black'.
In my next few posts I will be evaluating some genres for a short film, discussing the generic conventions of each genre, producing a textual analysis of a media product already released in each genre and briefly discussing and outlining how I would handle the production of a short film in said genre.

Ideas on narrative

I recently decided to try and attempt mixing a narrative structure with video recordings of the instrumentals, for example close ups of the drum skins being hit, possibly a good opportunity for a slow motion shot to add some variety to the speed of the piece.

ideas-lighting

I am considering using some inspiration from Spike Jonze, he uses very bright shots with a lot of natural light shining through, I am thinking of adapting this, in the style of the current video of Narcs 'RHS', using a dark backdrop and lighting the focus of the shot with an almost spotlight effect to focus the audience on what I'm trying to get them to see and hopefully fit some interesting things in the background of the mis-en-scene that they would not notice until watching it through for the second or third time.

Close up ideas

In the video of RHS there is a line that is repeated, until there is a final whisper before a breakdown, and for this section of the video I was thinking of doing a close up of a mouth whispering the lyrics before the breakdown, like the picture below. How this is going to be integrated into my music video to compliment the rest of the narrative is yet to be decided, but it is an idea I would definitely like to implement.

 

Ideas

I'm currently thinking of doing a narrative music video of this song 'RHS' by a band called Narcs, the official video is posted above, I am unsure as yet as to whether or not I am going to produce an interpretation of this video or do something completely different, but have a few ideas for some shots that I wish to integrate into my short film.

Auteur:Spike Jonze

In preparation for our coursework piece this year we are looking at an auteur and the one I have chosen to look at is Spike Jonze. Spike Jonze is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television ranging from adverts for Coca-Cola to shooting footage for skateboarding videos for Sonic Youths.
Spike is famous for very original and imaginative pieces of work such as 'Her', a very forward thinking and mature piece of film about a man who falls in love with an AI.
All auteurs have certain styles and traits that mark their work as theirs, one thing Spike Jonze uses quite often in his work is very light filled shots, with really bright and pure, natural light shining through, as you can see from the screenshot from the film 'Her' above and another from one of his other works 'Where the wild things are' below.