http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004tb3f

This genre of short films closely relates to our short film as it is a drama with elements of fantasy and a non-naturalistic style to it. The narrative follows one character Darren in a dream like state of who is trying to remember past events, this is shown by a clone of himself.

The style of this short film is quite dark and can be reflected in the lighting throughout shots of his memory. However when shots of his current dream like or death state are shown you get this effect by the light airy lighting suggesting it is unreal. The setting and location of the short film is interesting as it really highlights the unrealistic atmosphere and can be found when looking at the mise en scene, the scenes change from a deserted beach with a slightly eery feel to it, to a dark night in an urban area of which also has creepy elements within. The costume of the main character Darren with a dark blue suit shows formality maybe to do with his job as a tv host or another connotation that the suit is the clothing of where he life took a turning point and he murdered the boy and he cannot turn away from it, or hide from it. The blood stain is significant because you believe the man to be dying himself when actually it is the blood of the teenager he killed. The verisimilitude is incredibly successful in many ways although it is unlikely and unrealistic you believe that each shot is a snippet of this mans mind and the madness and distress he is feeling. The way they have used shots of a dilating pupil and eye shows the death of the boy but also the awakening of the man to his crime.

The camera shots significantly reflect the nature of the film. Fast moving shots and pans to show the panic while Darren is running from the group of teenagers. Slow moving shots to show his reflection on the past. The shots range from mid shots to show his life before the murder and slightly closer shots to reflect the intensity of moments. There are also extreme close-ups to show the intense relationship between Darren and his girlfriend and the moment she reveals they are having a baby.

The sound in this film is hugely effective it ranges from soft piano non- digectic sound to show the remembrance and reflection time. Fast pace electronic non digetic sound to show the pace of movement in shot when Darren is fleeing from the gang. And an ear-piercing screech to show the pain inside Darrens head and him struggling to see straight and think straight.

The editing in this short film is also very succesful as it follows the technique of cutting back and forth from scenes and jumping time. This is effective for the story is all about his memories and memories flicker just like the way the shots are edited.

The whole narrative of the story is well though out from the doubled characters to the title of the short film “Tomorrows Forecast” which not only corresponds with Darrens career predicting the weather on a game show, but also a forecast and prediction to what will happen in his life tomorrow. For example the sign; “Game Show Host Killer” which shapes Darrens choice on what to do.

The genre and narrative are incredibly similar to our short film idea and can be useful for inspiration for shot ideas, although this is a much darker approach and we look to making a more light-hearted friendly short film.

2. Radio trailer The radio trailer another type of medium gives us another area of media to focus on to promote our short film. Sound will be our key tool and we can use a conventions like a voice over to advertise our film.

At that moment his first flash forward begins where a woman falls in front of him tripping and dropping all of her stuff. The train is about to leave and Lucas dashes forward past the woman and jumps on the train. His second path he stops and helps the woman up but missing his train. We then see his two lives, one life where he gets an amazing  job and has a lot of money, a nice car, we see elements of his life as a rich man but his loneliness. His next life the woman who he helps turns out to be the love of his life we see the second option of being happily married in an average home, yet facing struggling to pay for bills.

 Both flash forwards end with a letter being opened, the first life being a letter for a huge bonus cheque however he has no-one to celebrate it. The other life we see him open a letter with photos of their baby scans of which he celebrates with his wife. The ending shot consists of the lasting choice and the beginning shot is repeated where the woman falls and he has to make his choice however the initial choice is not revealed and left down to the audience.

The preliminary excercise demonstrated a lack of understanding at collecting enough shots with limited angles and strange angles which normally wouldn’t be used. This consisted of a titled angle from below on a close up of a character which we made sure was not included and carefully considered when filming Jacinto. The actors we used also did not portray something we wanted and our Jacinto project was carefully casted so we got the right feel for the piece.

When editing we did our best to create a successful story and advancing plot for the lack of footage we had. The editing was simple and plain and we didn’t experiment as much as we did with Jacinto because there was no real developing storyline or interesting plot to play around with different techniques of editing, and the lack of music and sound effects can be compared with Jacinto and only use of digetic sound. However the bits we learnt from the preliminary task were essential for the real thing. For example the 180 degree rule was learnt during this and we made sure during filming we stuck to this rule even if it meant going back and filming more.

When filming Jacinto we had the time, and location to experiment with plenty of different shots, given more time however i would work on getting some more imaginative creative shots which aren’t very often used. We even had time to go back and re-shoot bits of which we thought there may be problems during editing with the 180 degree rule so changed a few shots and gathered a lot of footage compared to the preliminary task footage.

The editing was a lot more complex than before. And took a while, apart from roughly placing the plot together, we paid particular attention to detail and did several assemblies before our final copy. We paid detail to sound and certain shots and were more picky compared to before. We then gave the piece a more filmic feel and added in music and sound effects to really capture the story and plot of which we did not do before. It ended up successful and I think its fair to say our group can be proud of our film opening.

These would be typical to what our child audience would be interested in. Although their parents are influential on them, media and advertising would reach them specifically and in peak times such as christmas our film would be ideal for a christmas present.

Leanne McAdam, Evie; Lucy

Similarities;

Similar ages (9,10)

Security of teddy and lamp post

Innocent

Playful

Young and childlike

They both have to keep a secret

They both have older siblings

They are both new to an area

They both go into a magical land

Both feature in fantasy films

They both play hide and seek

Differences;

Evie doesn’t find the world where as Lucy does and she has to persuade her siblings that its true

Set in different time periods; Present day and world war 2

Costume- Present day clothing compared to period costume

Lucy exposed to a war and has to evacuate, where as Evie’s situation is moving house.