Dogme95 Realism

Dogme 95 is a film making movement established in 1995 by the Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. They started this film movement to combat the Hollywood-ised nature of modern day film including mass special effects. Dogme was initiated to make film makers and audiences alike re think the art, effect and essence of film making.
The Vows of Chastity are a set of ten rules that Dogme 95 states needs to be employed in a film of this genre. They are as follows:
1. Filming must be done on location.
2. The sound must all be diegetic, including music
3. The camera must be hand-held
4. The film must be in colour without added special lighting
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden
6. The film must not include superficial i.e murder, weapons etc.
7. The film must take place in here and now
8. Genre movies are not acceptable
9. The final picture must not be in widescreen specifications
10. The Director must not be credited


The reason why this is so relevant to our film is that Dogme95 provides a sense of realism to the film, while being made with a very low budget. Also the Vows are very easy to follow, as many of them we don't have the potential to do anyway. For example we dont have special lighting, and even though we go against a few like genre and superficial actions and we need to be credited because its our coursework it doesnt matter because the few we can comply with will help the realism of our film. 


BH

Production: The End

For the end of the end of the film, i want a really strong ending to leave the audience feeling emotionally drained. Even though it is really hard to create i want to have a hanging scene end which sounds slightly drastic, but i think it would end the film with a 'wow factor' scene. The few examples which i looked at have used shots of swinging hanging feet, and the noose around the neck, with the top half of the body. The idea is that you are given enough implication of the act without seeing an explicit long shot showing the whole body hanging, which is obviously quite dangerous.

This link is a clip from Kidulthood, and is the only clip i found with the scene in it, so its slightly longer than needed but the last 7 seconds is what im looking at as it does exactly what i want to create.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFlpF-lvUE

BH

Short Film: BFI Moving Shorts

The British Film Institution created a compilation of short films they consider to be worth recognition. This is based on originality and production. However, the four i watched seemed to contain originality for originality's sake. What i mean by that is that they have been asked to create something original and they have come out with something very abstract. An example is a short film on the dvd called 'The first time it hits' which is just 3 minutes long. However in that three minutes there is not much else than some shots on the end of a skateboard, some close ups and extreme close ups of a teenage girl and a few of a boy. They manage to make it look very grainy and extremely home-made. Having said this it is supported and funded by ScreenYorkshire and it is Lottery funded.
Again, similaar to the virgin media shorts, the films i watched seemed to have no narrative, purely an idea around which the creators slightly adapt a few times.

BH

FONTS

The font used in film says masses about the genre, feel of the film and the quality; and thats not even talking about what the writing in the font actually says!


As we are using iMovie to create edit our film, i have shown a selection of the fonts we could potentially use for the titles.
A FOCAL FILM This is Coolvetica, and is our first choice. It gives nothing away about the film, with the basic capital letters, something completely necessary for the action thriller genre. 
A FOCAL FILM This is Chalkboard and suggests an element of fun, or a childish film which is obviously not what we are going for but this is here to show a really clear comparison.
A FOCAL FILM This is Big Caslon and suggests something a bit too regal for the film we wish to create which deals with slightly more gritty issues than this film suggests. You would see this font in, say, a period drama. Having said this it would not look too out of place as it is a versatile looking font, but the top font, coolvetica, is the best choice.


I did this post on my iMac at home and unfortunately the different fonts do not come out on Windows computers.


BH

More short film research

This is much more the idea that I wish to create. Even though its slightly longer (7 minutes too long) it has the components of a narrative that I want to make. The majority of short films, even slightly longer ones do not seem to have a narrative inbuilt, which severely  limits their effectiveness as short films, in my opinion. The actual idea is clever, and it is pulled off well; having said this, horror is the easiest genre to create and do a good job. You look at British horror films which works on small budgets with really effective results. The best part of the film is adding an massive twist to the end of the narrative which i wont spoil for you, but really tops off a great amateur effort.


Alongside this is the inclusion of some fantastic shots and really well done mise-en-scene, mainly the shots of London, empty in the middle of the night, and the train station. It starts off with these empty london streets, setting up the horror so well in a '28 Days Later' sort of fashion.

BH

Research into Short Films

The Virgin Media Short film competition is held every year, and is relevant to what we are doing but they generally focus on one idea and expand on it, utilising this one idea many times, with no proper narrative structure to it, merely several ideas on one idea. It is quite difficult to explain but there are a few examples:

The Vicious Cycle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvmcQKfGHFw
This short film is a perect example of what i am talking about. It is the same idea- a bike that goes in circles through time- and this idea never changes, merely camera angles change.

The Black Hole:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Un20p1NGuw
This film is edited with real quality, and the idea is flawless and inventive. But the same problem is that it is one idea put into different scenarios, such as the vending machine and the safe.

The problem with these examples is that the film i wish to create has a particular narrative to it, and the idea is to include all the features of a feature film but make it 5 minutes long. Maybe this will prove too hard, but it is the idea i hold on to.

BH

Movie style Soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zykzIgMNQqo This would be the type of soundtrack to which were looking for.