Analysis of a short film

A MESSAGE FROM FALLUJAH

Storyline Daniel Crane is an American civil engineer who, nearing the end of a three month stint trying to help rebuild war torn Iraq, is intoxicated by the exotic people and surrounds. On the morning of his last day in Fallujah he stays for "One more cup of habibi". This is all it takes for Daniel to find himself beaten and alone, a hostage in the drama of war. As hope of living fades, he is left with one last wish, to tell his wife how much he really loves her. Lance Henriksen delivers a heart wrenching performance as Daniel Crane, taking the viewer on a deeply personal journey of heartfelt desire. A Message From Fallujah puts aside the politics and rationalisation of war, to show that in the end, it doesn't matter in what name the violence is committed. For the dead, the homeless and the orphans, the effect is still the same. Daniel is attacked and as they throw the black bag over his head he is oblivious as to what is hapening until he wakes up in an abandoned room alone and he is left there for months. The hostage is trapped and cannot escape we know as we can see in the room him sitting in the room alone. This short film is similar to ours in ways such as that the main character gets kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned room and cannot escape. The genre of both this short film and our short film is thriller/crime. There are some inconography is both films such as guns or weapons that are used. Also scenes of violence are shown in the films which make it a crime also. 

Characters In this short film the main character is 'Daniel Crane.' He gets kindnapped and held hostage in the film where he is put is a desolate room and is left there alone. This is practically dentical to the beginning of our short film as in ours 'Jason' is attacked by being hit over the head until he is unconscious and is then dragged to an abandoned room where he is then kept. In both films we see the main character banging an pleading for help as they are left there alone and there is no way of escape. The other characters in the film are the kidnappers who capture him and lock him up in the room and plan to leave him there. Little do they know to begin with Daniel has escaped from the room through the window. Also 'Daniels' wife and children are shown in the film. In the scene where he is out in the open desert they are shown getting into a car and he tries running after and chasing them, this shows Daniels motivation to escape, to get back to his family. Also towards the beginning of the film we hear a voice over plea from his wife encouraging whoever has him held hostage to give it up and release him. 

Cinematography  In the short film a large variety of shots are used in order to create different emotions and emphasise expressions throughout the film. 

 In the two shots shown on the left close up shots are used. The first close up (top left) shows his happiness and relief to be speaking to his wife on the phone and also he speaks to his son. The phone then cuts off and the camera shows that the wire has been cut. The camera then shows the second close up in the scene(bottom left) which shows his realisation that he is going to die and that it was a set up. 











The next two shots are coupled and a long shot is used to show what has happened to a man as he has been beheaded. We can see this as the terrorists are holding only his head by the hair. The second shot moves into a mid shot to show the audience that the man is infact Daniel and he has died at the end of the film. The twist was that he thought he had been saved but it was all part of the plan. 

  
   

 This next shot is a close up. It shows the frustration in Daniels face as he cannot understand what the little boy is telling him as he continues to speak another language.

The next shot fades from a close up with Daniel being in focus to a long shot where the young boy is in the frame as well and the camera then focus' on him to show he is dead. 

In this shot opposite Daniels wife and baby are shown using a long/mid shot. By having this shot it shows the audience what Daniel is running towards trying to reach his family and it shows us why Daniel is so desperate to escape. 

Mise-en-scene

 Here in the two shots shown to the right the lighting changes in the differen't scenes.  In the image on top (top right) the lighting is very bright. This is because in the scene the helicopter hovers outside the window and the light is shining into the room which is why Daniel escapes out of the window as he thinks it is his saviour but as he climbs out of the window the helicopter flys off leaving him trapped still.

In this image there are flashes of light to show comotion and the hectic atmosphere are shootings take place into the building where the characters are holding Daniel.

 In the film props such as :guns, photographs, helicopter and blood are shown. These are all typical iconnography of a thriller film. The guns are used in order to portray an authoritive figure of the terrorists. The photograph is of Daniels family which shows the audience the reason for his desperation and motivation to escape and make it back to his family. Also blood is shown as the end of the film especially on Daniels bandage cloth which is a clue to the audience that Daneil is dead. 

No makeup is used in the film on any of the characters, mainly because they are male and are out in the middle of Iraq and so the characters do not have to be portrayed as attractice ect, Daniels face is dirty and looks in pain because of the dust and blood ect on it. However we do see his wife from a distance which looks to be wearing makeup. This is to portray her positively as he is desperate to get back to meet her as they are currently seperated.

The costume worn by Daniel is an orange prision smock, this represents his capture and takes his personal identity away from his and makes him appear as just a figure this could be so that the terrorists find it easier to kill him although i suspect they wouldn't hesistate anyway. The terrorists are dressed in turbans and robes which is what you would stereotypically expect to see people dressed in in Iraq. 

Sound/music In the scene where Daniel has escaped and is running away from the place where he was held hostage, the music is deep and fast paced. This creates tension as it is possible at any minute that Daniel could be caught and something disasterous could happen. This leaves the audience is suspense as they are eager to find out what is going to happen next. In the scene where 'Daniel' is in the helicopter the music is different to before, it is a higher pitch and slower which creates a more posotive attitude and the music creates a hopeful tone in the fact that he is finally going home to his family. 

Editing

There isn't that much editing in the film as it is a linear film and the filming is contiuous as the scenes follow on from one to the other. 

In the two shots opposite there is a change in saturation to show that the day changes from night to day. This shows the time in which Daniel has been out in the open after he escaped, it emphasizes how long he has been trapped and trying to escape.

The next shot fades from a close up  with Daniel being in focus to a long shot where the young boy is in the
 frame as well and the camera then
 focus' on him to show he is dead. 

Research into film posters

The 6 main actors and the dog are the main focus point of this poster, as they are in the centre and take up a large proportion of the entire poster. They are the main characters in the film.

 The protagonist is the man in the blue jacket with the red undershirt holding the dog lead. This follows the convention of the main characters being the main focus point of a film poster. 

The small lower case text in the black colour works well with the white background as they contrast and it has a German slogan underneath in the same

font and colour.

The slogan and the credits is a convention of all film posters and its placing on the page is a typical place to put the slogan.

"Coming soon" is a strong convention of a film poster as it gives a sense of anticipation for when the film will be released.

The text font of the title stands out as the white font contrasts with the orange background. Also the title is different to the Actors names and the sins as they are in block capitals but the title looks to be in lower case and a different font all together.

The text colour of the sins blends in with the yellow/orange colouring of the main part of the poster then crossed off with a vibrant red colouring. The title is prominent as it is centralised and positioned on the bottom.

The actors faces and names are also a key feature of this film poster and most others. The reason for this is that they are a selling point to the film as they are two very famous and well-known actors that could persuade an audience to watch the film. Their facial expressions looking directly at the audience gives the poster some realism and interaction, we can only see the neck to head on these characters as they are easily recognisable faces in the film industry.

The tagline of the poster is positioned at the bottom of the poster and it is difficult to see this is reflecting the film as the tagline reads "seven deadly sins, seven ways to die" this shows the genre of the film (thriller) and some of the action involved as it is a deceptive film.



The "House" is in a  red font giving a strong representation of danger and the splatted effect looks like blood conveying murder.

The cloud cover over the house shows a gloomy setting which is a typical convention of a horror film.

The forest and woods is the setting in which the house is. This looks quite a secluded which is also a typical convention of a horror film.

The tagline gives a slight insight into what the film will be about. It reads "If bad people hurt someone you love how far would you go to hurt them back". This shows us that this film will include some sort of revenge theme.

The main image of the house is a haunted house and looks like it will be the main setting for this film and is a typical convention of a horror film.

Research into viral ads

'Why So Serious? and 'The Dark Knight' are viral ads for Batman the Dark Knight by Warner Brothers to help promote the Batman film. The campaign was launched around 15 months prior to the release of the film and witnessed participation from millions of enthusiasts from across the world. The campaign revolved around 'The Joker' one of the characters of the movie, and was set in the fictional Gotham city.

The campaign started with teasers followed by campaign for the district attorney of Gotham City in which Harvey Dent was contesting. The introduction of The Joker followed quickly, and from then on, the participants were engaged in games and scavenger hunts through clues and were also rewarded from time to time, not only materially, but also in the form of posters, teaser trailers, memorabilia, participation in the events related to the movie, and finally tickets to the movie. These activities helped in sustaining the interest of the audience in the movie and also in the ARG.

The ARG was highly successful and helped in establishing connection between the previous Batman movie, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The campaign ended from where the film took off. The success of any ARG is measured through user content and the Dark Knight ARG resulted in thousands of blog posts, Google searches, websites and participants. The success of ARG translated into the success of the film, and it went on to become one of the few films to gross over US$ 1 billion in box office collections.

RESEARCH INTO FILM POSTERS.

A film poster is used to advertise a film which is printed by studios in all varies of size and different content for different markets both domestic and international. They normally contain an image with text around the image. The image is usually of the main character or character's in their environment or a scene  They are usually shown to be superior. the image is usually the targets feature on the poster.  The text on film posters usually contains the film title in large lettering and often the names of the main actors in smaller font. It may also include a tag line, the name of the director or the release date, etc. Film posters are displayed inside and on the outside of cinemas, and elsewhere on the street or in shops, some are on the side of busses (not as common). They can also be found on websites. Film posters have been around for a while however weren't as publicised and as big of a feature like they are now. 
Thriller/Crime posters below:
Parker:

This poster has a very simplistic approach. On the image the character in the middle is presumed to be the main character in the film, as he in the centre and the image of him takes up majority of the film poster. The iconography represents him to be a superior character e.g. the suit he's wearing and he's holding a gun. he also looks very laid back and confident. There is also a silhouette of he other character who will be another significant character in the film.

The tagline of this film poster is ' TO GET AWAY CLEAN, YOU HAVE TO PLAY DIRTY' this shows that this film is related to crime and the genre will be a crime/thriller. The position of the tagline is right under the name of the film which will is important because it relates to the genre of the film.

The film name 'PARKER' is the largest font on the film poster so audiences know that this is the name of the film.The font is large, bold and white which contrasts with the red and black colours also on the poster which helps it stand out. Right above the name of the film is two actors names who stars in the film, which allows the audience to know clearly that these are the main chnaratcers in this film. This can also be an effective way to draw certain audiences to the film if they like these actors.

This film was one of the biggest influences of our film, its a thriller/crime film called 'Buried'

The sell lines 'CLAUSTROPHOBIC, SUSPENSEFUL, AND JUST PLAIN AWESOME' emphasises just how good the film is and will encourage people to go see it once released. The colour scheme of this film poster connotes the theme with very dull colours, browns black and oranges. The orange resembles the lighter shown in the image of the man holding it.

The image in the film takes up the majority of the poster and is of the man buried alive which shows the audience that there is a man (Ryan Reynolds) in a dangerous position and could die if he doesn't escape which will interest the audience into wanting to see the film to know the end result of the film. This is the only character shown on the image which means that he is the main character and the film is completely based around him in this environment and inferior position. The audience may also be drawn to the film because the main character is the actor Ryan Reynolds who may be audiences favoured actor.

The films title is all yellow and oranges and is very effective because it states that there is a limited amount of time to escape. The patches of brown within the film poster can also connote that the character is buried underground and the patches of brown connote the mud underneath the ground. This film can also play on peoples vunrebility of being claustrophobic and them being stuck in this situation, which may trigger curiosity in the audience to get see the film as they may not be able to see themselves escaping. 

The directors are shown at the bottom but very faintly which shows its less significant to everything else, however if the audience see a director or producer they like from previous films this may attract them to go see this film , as they like their previous work.

Ideas for a viral advert

Some ideas for virally advertising my film would be;
- Radio Trailers
- Video clips
- Links on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
- Posters
Just general advertising techniques that we can use for as little cost as possible and to get the word out about are film to as many people as possible the more people that know about the film the bigger the chance of more people going to watch it.
Radio Trailers are a good way to get out to a mass audience but people arent often concentrating too much when listening to radios so would have an attention grabbing trailer or they would have already know of the film for it to get there attention.
Video Clips on social media would be my personal favourite technique for virally advertising the film. Get the actors of the film to make a silly behind the scenes of how some shots were done post it on social media, then the audience will watch it and feel a certain bond with them and are likely to want to watch the film. This would obviously be completely free aswell and could potentially reach a mass audience with the right backing.
Posters/ Billboards old way of advertising but effective slap the film poster on main roads/sides of buses does reach a mass audience but would cost alot so would need to be a big budget film, which our film is not.

Production Logo

LANDSCAPE VERSION OF THE LOGO.

















PORTRAIT VERSION OF THE LOGO.

RESEARCH, DETAILS & EXAMPLES OF INFLUENCES FOR OUR FILM.

One of the biggest influence of our film was Buried. Buried is a film about a man who is working as U.S truck driver in Iraq after an attack he wakes up to find he has been buried alive.  The only possessions he is left with are a lighter and a mobile phone. This influenced our film in which we wanted to have the person being took to be attacked and then wake up to find themselves in a small room on themselves, with the only possessions they have within that room is a mobile phone. The story line is very similar to ours, as it is also a race against time to escape this death trap or he will be left there to die, this was a big influence on our film as we thought this would be a good way to make the storyline a lot more interesting as the audience will be aware time is running out making them intrigued as to what is going to happen and also feel tense throughout the short film.

One of the other influences in our film was The Social Network, in this film there is an element of greed within a friendship which ends up leading to one of the friends betraying another to get what they desire. We decided to use this theme as it is important factor that the friend would betray their friend to get what they desire the most which in our film is a large amount of money.

The title sequence that influenced us is Gladiator. This is because of its simplicity however even though it is very simple the title sequence still allows the audience to know the genre of the film. The music on this title sequence also is quite dark and eerie and allows the audience to fully understand this film will be a thriller/drama film. The music especially has inspired us for our music in the title sequence and will try to get similar music that has an element of darkness.

List of tricky shots/edits/effects

Tricky shots/edits/effects

Distorted point of view- We want a shot from Jason's point of view looking at his attacker blurred to show his distorted state.

First you'll want to set the Canvas to Image+Wireframe mode.The Distort Tool is found in the Tool Palette within the Crop Tool tray.  You can also turn on the Distort Tool by pressing the D key on your keyboard.

Once you have selected the Distort Tool, click on the image in the Canvas and use the corner handles to "warp" the clip footage.  You can stretch it to the side or up or down.  You can do it to multiple corners to give the illusion of a certain perspective. Key framing the distort attribute can create an interesting effect. So the Distort Tool is used mainly to give you unique shapes that you normally wouldn't have with a standard image.  It is important to understand that the system resource requirements for processing clips with distortion applied.

Filming in low light- We are filming a lot of our shots in the dark.1. Add some light if possible.2.Use the biggest aperture your camera allows.3. Slow down your shutter speed to brighten your footage.4. Reduce the frame rate in your video camera to let more light in.5. Increase your video camera gain.6. Reduce the video noise in post with filters and plugins.7. Use a digital SLR camera to shoot video in low light

 

ANALYSIS OF VIDEO QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS.

ANALYSIS OF OUR VIDEO QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS.

We asked 6 different people (3 boys and 3 girls) that were all Barnsley College students aged 17. Seven different questions were asked about what they thought about our short film. The first question asked of the 6 people was their name, age and occupation, which they all gave answers to. We then asked them questions about our film.

Q1: What genre do you think our film is?

All six people said the genre is Thriller however some people said different sub-genres within this genre. 4 people said the sub-genre would be a crime/thriller and one person said a drama/thriller. We could maybe have more iconography that connotes crime within our film.

Q2: What age range do you think our film is aimed at?

5/6 people said they think the youngest age would be 12 year olds. One person said 15 and upwards, this may mean our film isn’t clear of what age it would be acceptable to watch it at, we took this into consideration and took less violence out of our film. All eight people said adults would be likely to watch it as it would still be of interest to them.

Q3: What age rating would you give it?

5/6 people said our certificate of the film would be a 12 because there is little violence in the film. However one person said a 15, this could be because of the violence in our film and the complex story, similar to the question above we did take a bit of violence out of the film to make it more eligible for a certificate 12.

Q4: What gender do you think our film is aimed at?

5/6 people said the film would be mainly aimed at males as the film has more masculine aspects in it such as crime and money. Which is mainly the target audience of our film. However one person did say the film is unisex therefore we could maybe have more masculine elements for it to be clearer that it is mainly a male target audience.

Q5: What would you rate out film out of 10?

2/6 people rated our film an eight, 3/6 people rated our film a nine and 1/6 rated our film a 10. We are really pleased with these ratings as we were aiming for at least a 7/10 rating.

Q6: What part of the storyline appeals to you most?

3/6 people said they liked the plot twist in our film  (which is the fact the person who kidnaps him and holds him ransom is his friend), which we were aiming for people to notice and enjoy. One of the people we interviewed said they enjoyed the tension at the beginning of the film when Jason is getting followed then attacked. One of the people we interviewed said they enjoyed the fact it was a crime thriller and the other person said they thought the whole film was appealing.

Q7: What do you think we could improve about our film?

One of the people we interviewed said we could maybe improve the tension in the film; we took this into consideration and have created more tension throughout the middle stage of the film.

One of the other people we interviewed said we could improve the setting, which we took into consideration, and have bought props to make the one of the settings look more dangerous and secluded. Finally 4/6 people said in their opinion there was nothing to improve.

Pre production audience questionnaire results

Click here for questionnaire results

Pre production audience questionnaire link to share

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1eluG6rV3iKJncLhFffy9alX_JCaymJiASHR33dkkAF4/viewform?usp=send_form

Pre production audience questionnaire

MAKEUP, COSTUME AND PROPS

Makeup

Only one of the characters in our film will be wearing makeup especially to enhance his character which is Jason. We will be applying makeup to Jason to make his face look a little dusty and a little bloody just to show the pain that he has been through. When he gets hit around the head with the tool Jason' head would have been injured and the blood will show this. Also he has been captured and is trapped in this dark and dusty room so the makeup would be ideal to make his face look tarnished. We are going to use eyeshadow to create the dusty effect on Jason and are going to add either some fake blood or lipstick to create the smudged blood effect. This is shown in the video below. 

Costumes

The characters in our film will all be wearing quite casual everyday clothes to show to the audience that they are just a regular bunch of people and that something like this can can potentially happen to anyone. Jason will be wearing regular clothes e.g jeans, a top and a jacket with just some casual shoes e.g trainers just to show to people that he is just a regular man. Towards the middle of the film when Jason is trapped we are planning on making his clothes look a little rough and raggy just to show what he has been through. Dale will be wearing a hooded coat so that we cannot see his identity until the end of the film when his face is revealed as this is the twist in our film. Jason's brother (Joel) will also be wearing just regular clothes to show that he is just a regular person with nothing about him that would make the audience think he would be more likely involved in something like this.

Props

One of the props we will be needing in our film will be two mobile phones. One of the phones will be given to Dale and the other to Jason. These props are important in order for the characters in the film to be able to communicate. Throughout the film the phones a re used a lot when Jason and Dale are talking to each other about the situation. 

Another prop that is required for our film is a bag filled with money. this is the money that Joel leaves in the bin outside but Dale takes it. We can do this by cutting rectangular pieces of paper up and stacking it underneath an actual note to make it look like money. 

We also need a blunt object that Jason is hit around the head with when he gets knocked out. This could be a hammer or a pole.

We are going to need a body bag in order to film as when Jason is knocked out we were planning on dragging the body bag around the street to the room to make it look like Jason is being taken to the place where he is going to be held. 

Risk assessment

LOCATION PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTION

Location Photos:

Photo one:

The beginning of the scenes are set on Wombwell high street near a lot of pubs, shops etc. Where we film is located near alleyways. The reason for the beginning of the short film to be set in this location is to make the film seem realistic and that nothing dangerous will happen as it is set on a high street, and the audience wouldn’t expect anything to happen in the middle of a high street as it isn’t a secluded area. However there are some secluded areas such as the alleyways in which one of the characters begins walking up making them become a lot more vulnerable as they’re in a secluded place.

Photo two:

The next location is based in a small room with nothing inside it but the character. This room is located in Barnsley College the Old Mill building. However we made some changes to it in the film to make it appear like it wasn’t a store room in a college. The reason for some majority of the scenes to be filmed here is to because it is a single room in which the character is trapped in, it shows they will be at discomfort in a tiny room and are powerless inside it. Also the room being small gives them very little space in which they feel worried about it.

Photo three:

The location of the next scenes are based in are of the character that has been kidnapped (Jason) brothers house. This location is found in Wombwell, which has significance being here as Wombwell was the place Jason was took from, which indicates to the audience he was took from his hometown near his home. The filming is based inside the house to make it look like everyday life and nothing too out of the ordinary is happening.

Photo 4:

The final location in this film is based back outside in Barnsley near the college. The reason for the scenes being based here is for similar reasons as the location of the first scenes it is set in quite an open area which is opposite to what the audience would be expecting. It also keeps the film realistic and in everyday life and isn’t in a location that is too out of the ordinary.