Aims
and Context
- Short
film with urban techniques.
- Target
audience, could appeal to film students, middle-class male/female.
- Applying
editing and cinematography to give the audience an idea about the younger
brother, emotion of the main character.
- Relationship
with friend and bother doesn't last, low-key black and white,
location-Paris (Eiffel Tower), emotional non diegetic music.
- As the
editor, I was using conventions from other films to inspire me and help
improve my skills, I used films like city of god.
Reflective
Analysis
For
my coursework I have chosen to do a short film with urban techniques, which
include the environment and the relationships the characters will have, in it
called 'Brothers'. This film is based on multiple different films I have used
as my influences, the main influence I have used to make this short was La Haine.
The element from La Haine which inspired to make our film was an unhappy
ending and how relationships don’t last in urban stories. For the film La Haine
it would the three friends Vinz, Said and Hubert, but for my film it would be
the main character and his little brother, also his friends as well at the end.
I used these influences to help try and make my short film successful and to
try and gain the attention of my target audience, this meant I was targeting
people that would enjoy these films which includes film students who will try
and see the relationships with urban stories.
As
I have already the main influence for my film is Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine, it also inspired the title
of the film as well because I thought the main characters were very close and
almost seemed like siblings which is why I called it ‘Brothers’. But at the end
of this film the relationship between the three friends don’t last which is why
I wanted to re-create that element of relations don’t last. I also re-created
the technique of making the film in black and white instead of colour, this is
because I think it reflects on the misfortune of the main character after the audience
finds out his little brother has died. Plus we used the same urban environment
and set it in Paris, because some parts of Paris like the Projects contain a
lot of crime and youth hanging around doing nothing in these areas. Causing it
to be a more urban environment. Another Influence I used to help me with my
short film was Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, this film inspired my
editing of the film to try and improve it for my target audience. For example,
when rocket, the main character of City of God, was grown up it showed a faded
panning shot of him going back to younger. This used editing to show time has
changed and gone back and inspired me when I wanted to show time had passed
dramatically. Near the beginning of my film it showed the main character’s
little brother in a back garden and then disappearing, showing through the
editing that he had died and a lot of time had passed for the main character,
but only a few seconds had passed for the audience. Also when Jamie filmed
close up of the main characters face to show the emotion of the main character,
I had to make sure that the shot was in the right place and fit in and didn’t
seem out of place either, so that it could show the emotions and the feelings
of the main character and it made sense with the rest of the film as well. Plus
because there wasn’t a lot of talking within our short film I had to make sure
that the editing and the shots were put together correctly so it made sense and
briefly explains to the target audience as well.
The
film that Jamie and I produced tried to make it as successful as possible in
terms of meeting it’s and aims and context. This including using the urban
element and style by using influences to help me as well. The short film
‘Brothers’ met some of the aims and context because it did have different
elements that we re-created from our influences and can appeal to the target
audience we wanted. As the editor I did come across some difficulties as well,
for example, when I was using the non-diegetic music I was having problems
trying to fit the music in with the clips and not seem out of place. This
became a problem overall and it did make the film less successful and with the
right music it could improve and emphasise the misfortune and depression the
main character is going through. However, I did think I was successful when
trying to get a message to the audience, for example, when I had to tell the
audience that the main character’s little brother was dead, I thought that I
did the right thing by fading him away from the shot. However this could’ve
been improved because some people watching might not have understood and they
might think that he is missing or not know how he is related to the main
character at all and not understanding the rest of the film. Jamie the camera
man had taken some good shots and used different techniques as well like
backward tracking shots and establishing shots as well, which helped give the
target audience understand the film and entertain them more as well. However I
think that this needed improving as well, this could be changed by adding more
shots and different techniques as well to give it more of a story and help the
audience to understand what is happening and could give more of an explanation
of what our short film is.
In
conclusion I think the use of our influences helped to make our film and make
it successful for our target audience. But Jamie and I both need to work a lot
harder by adding more shots, changing the non-diegetic music and making it
easier to understand for the audience to make it even more successful and
entertaining for our target audience. The issue with my film is that it could
have been a lot better if we made some of the shots and non-diegetic music fit
into the film, instead it looks out of place and could confuse some of the
audience members.
