Conor Ellis Textual Analysis

Textual analysis 2

Textual analysis  – Post it

The second short film that I am analysing is called Post it. This film is directed by Michael Evans. This film is not typical of a genre that I might commonly associate with a feature length film. This film can only be done in short and is a light hearted film where two people are sticking nice messages on post it notes on random people in the street. I found this short film on YouTube where it has twenty four thousand views. This film was made to cheer people up and shows how people react to nice messages.

It isn’t typical of a genre that you may commonly associate with a feature length film as there is no proper point in the film just for the people to convey their message of simple happiness. A simple film of two main characters that have just met and decide to stick post it notes on people who they see on the high street.  This sort of film couldn’t be made into a feature film as there’s not enough to it and there is no proper genre name for it.

This film is about a man who is waiting at a bus stop with box. A Woman on a bench near the bus stop asks him to sit down and then asks what is in the box which the man is carrying. To which the man replies that it belonged to his recently deceased mother and contains some of her office items which includes post it notes. She decides to stick a nice message on a random guy on the bench next to her to see his reaction after getting a nice reply from him. She then decides to ask the man to join her and they then decide to walk around town happily planting these heart-warming messages to people they see on the street. This short film has a linear narrative with a beginning middle and end which just adds to the simplicity of this video. There was an initial equilibrium for the first two minutes in this short film. This is a period where there isn’t much action and is more dialogue.

This film includes a lot of basic shots. It begins with the use of a long shot to show the two main characters in the shot. It then changes to a medium shot where you see the two main characters a lot closer on the screen. To do this the cameraman zooms in slowly. They also use close ups to show the faces of the main characters and then moves to extreme close ups when showing the audience what has been written on the post it note. When the two characters are talking on the bench a lot of shot reverse shots are used to show the audience the facial expressions each character is showing. It can also show the audience which of the characters is talking at that time. The cameramen use a pan when the two main characters are walking down the high street. This allows the audience to continuously see where the two characters are heading. In this short film there are many slow cuts at the beginning but after the equilibrium there are quicker cuts to make it easier to change between the different people that they meet.  This short film obviously doesn’t have that high of a budget you can tell this by the simple mise en scene that the director uses. They use very simple and casual clothing and very simple locations with them only using a bus stop and a high street. This allowed them to not spend any extra cash on making the location.

This film has a clear encoded message which is always be cheerful or try and cheer other people up. It proves that just a simple message or action can cheer people up. The audience can see that when post its are seen by the public they usually smile or laugh. This film is largely apolitical. However it just shows people how easy it is to make people happy and how we should all try and act.

This short film is different in the way that it is simple but effective at getting its point across. It uses very few shots but this film has clearly been done on a low budget with very simple props and locations and having fewer shots only adds to the simplicity of the film.

Textual analysis

Textual analysis – Project Arbiter

The short film that I am analysing is called Project Arbiter, which is directed by Michael Chance. It is an action film which I found on YouTube. This film is typical of an action film in the way that the main character had to overcome a series of challenges and having to take on life threatening situations. It was made for fans of the action genre film and is targeted at not only these people but others who like watching films which are full of action and where the hero always has to overcome larger difficulties.

It is typical of the genre that you might commonly associate with a feature length film as it still follows many of the typical action film characteristics which a normal feature film would have just a bit more condensed with less characters and less time to include any narrative enigmas. However it still includes the whole main character struggling against overwhelming odds and just about coming out on top sort of thing that you come to expect from a normal action thriller film.

This short film is about a soldier who finds out about a deadly virus that the Nazis have created to try and win them the war. However this soldier then wears this mechanical suit which he has to use to stop the Nazis from spreading this virus. This film follows a linear narrative as it goes from the beginning to the middle and then the end with no flashbacks or a person narrating over the whole film. There is an initial equilibrium when the soldier and his colleague are in the plane discussing the objective of the mission. But then it’s time for the soldier to jump out of the plane and face the enemy and that’s when the action begins. There is also resolution with the main character knowing exactly what he has to achieve and is intent on completing his mission and destroying the Nazis plans of spreading this deadly virus.

The cameramen have used a variety of different in this short film with many point of view shots for the main character to show what he is seeing from inside his metal helmet. An extreme close up is also seen when the two Nazis are talking at the beginning of the film and shows just their eyes. They also use a shot reverse shot at the beginning when the main character and his colleague are talking on the plane. A long shot is used when you first see the Nazi villa so that the audience can see the location around it and where the first fighting scene is going to be held. When you first see the sickly woman in the Nazis villa there is also a medium close up so that you can see some of the effects of the virus while also seeing the woman’s face and how much she is struggling with the virus. In terms of editing the editor has used slow motion when the German tank fires at the soldier and narrowingly misses this was used to show the audience how close the shell was to hitting the soldier and adds suspense to the scene. They also use zoom when the Nazi officer is using binoculars and focusing in on the German division this allows the audience to get more of a feel of how far away the officer is. This film also uses plenty of quick fast cuts at times to make the film get more of a dramatic feeling by switching between the different characters in quick succession. However at times cuts are a bit slow allowing a flow of continuity to allow for easier following for the audience. This film uses both diagetic and non diagetic sound with diagetic sound for all the characters in this film when they are talking however non diagetic sound for all the music. The music in this film changes constantly with more dark and eerie music being used at the beginning with the two Nazis at the beginning talking about an evil scheme which is why the music sounds quite dark. You also notice how at one point there is now sound at all this is used for suspense at keeping the audience aware that something is about to happen. The costumes in this film all make sense with the Germans all wearing Nazi uniforms showing their allegiance to the Third Reich. With the American soldier wearing a big armoured suit which can turn invisible supposedly showing some sort of super soldier leading the mission. The villa that is also used is draped in Nazi flags and set in the middle of nowhere to keep the secret lab of the Nazis a secret.

The film seems to have decent CGI with the plane in the sky and the setting of the villa. This along with the matching Nazi uniforms and number of decent actors suggests that this film may have had a decent budget.

In conclusion this short film is a simple action thriller with many good shots which is set at the usual action thriller fans and anyone who wants a simple watch and watching the good guys always come out on top no matter the situation.

Initial Ideas

These are some of our first ideas over the narrative and structure of what type of film we would like to film:

Procrastination - Liam / Jack
Follows 6 or seven kids revising for their exams.
Follows the things they do to get out of doing revision.
The 6 or 7 people could have different ethnicity's and we then play off the stereotypes that people usually place on different ethnic types.

Relates to everyone in the group when it comes to exams.

Follows them in a documentary style as well as a narrative.

The Pessimist - Jack
Pessimistic guy trying to fulfill his life ambitions after being told he only has a few months to live.

This leads to him creating a bucket list which he wants to complete before he dies.

The Will - Conor
The film starts off with someone going through some old things and comes across a will.

The will leaves all money and possessions to his family and leaves him with a challenge.

We have some ideas as to what the challenge could be: Learning to drive, marathon or a boxing match.

The Will and Bucket list - Jack
This idea is the same as 'The will' and 'Bucket List'.

Someone is rooting through old things and comes across a will where they are left nothing but only their ancestors uncompleted Bucket list. They then set out trying to complete the bucket list.

This film idea gives us a lot to work with as we can have quite a thick narrative based around: character building, finding the will and completing the bucket list.

Intro to our group

Introduction to Our Group

This blog will show you our path from our first essays on analysing short films to our final ideas and final short film showing you our complete progress. As we see our main target audience of being people from around our age we know that our film will be based around things that people do or are in the process of doing.

Our group consists of three members who all took media last year. Our production is called WUB productions. We all enjoy dramas and this is one of the reasons we chose to do a short film. We also did intros to films last year for AS media which we hope will help in our production this year. 

Our three members are:
Conor Ellis- As well as taking part in a lot of the blog work, I will be directing the film and creating part of the soundtrack that will go towards our film.

Jack Watkin: Jack will be involved in directing, the recruitment of actors and doing most of the ancillary task aswell as taking part in the blog.

Liam Hodgson: Liam will be taking part in the blog and will also be involved in the production of the film as well as making sure the schedule is complete on time.

From left to right: Conor, Jack, Liam