Short film research

About a girl

Black silhouette

Lighting: Dark, natural lighting feels more authentic, suggests it may be colder weather.

Expression: The actor uses facial expressions and body language to show their emotions such as having hands in her pockets when she walks to suggest it might be cold.

Accent shows that this film was based in Manchester

The film felt quite mysterious and left people feeling confused at the end as the narrative felt quick

There were fast cuts while she was talking which connotes that she is feeling a lot of different emotions and she's experiencing them all at once, and it shows that the thoughts and feelings are coming out all at once

Use of direct address makes the audience feel included

The film feels relatable as she explains family issues with financial instability and damaged relationships, which the audience may feel they have experienced.

Costume: She was wearing the same outfit throughout, which shows their financial problems as they can't afford new clothes

The harsh lighting connotes sadness and aggression, which relates to how the character is feeling.

Finley

Chiaroscuro

Non-diegetic sound to create eeriness

A doll prop is used as that is generally associated with horror and makes the audience feel freaked. 

Binary opposites, very confident vs very scared

Close up shot to capture emotion

Baseball bat prop to show that the characters are scared but ready to fight

Fast camera pans show the rising action in the scene

Building up tension in the scene before calming down

Person left alone in house shows that something creepy may happen

Knife rack creates a rising action

Using a black cat suggests bad luck as their is a superstitions that crossing paths with a black cat is bad luck

The villain isn't very good at killing people, which creates an element of comedy

Floorboard creaking suggest it may be an old house and are generally associated with horror films.

Intertitle to show when the scene is set (Continuity and narrative)

Black fade out to show a change is setting or time

The good characters mock the bad, which shows who actually has power

Slow sad music to show the emotion the doll is feeling

There is a lack of character background so that you can't establish a relationship towards the characters.

 Plot twist to keep viewers on edge

Location is small and limited as there is a low budget

There are only a few characters that appear in the film which is a typical convention of a short film

The Detective

Establishing shot/ chiaroscuro

Dubbed voice over (monologue)

Mise-en-scene, use of props such as cigar, typewriter etc shows the time that it is set and  the cigar gives a masculine powerful feel to the character.

Art-deco type font

Todorov narrative theory (Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition Repair the Damage and Equilibrium again)

In my own short film i will work on using some of these conventions. We chose the name October 31st as our narrative was a killer on halloween and there is already a franchise and movies called halloween so we had to be creative to avoid any copyright issues. Our genre is a horror/comdey so we had to include aspects of horror movies and comedic movies such as loud incidental music and short, funny lines that may mock or play down the threat. We can also include colour themes like red and black, which are portrayed in many horror films as red is a signal of danger and anger and black is mysterious as you cant see into it like an abyss. In our short film we use aspects of mise-en-scene such as costume, props, proxemics and lighting. In our short film we will all be directing, filming and acting as it is only a group of 3 of us.