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Borrowed Time:
Unfortunately, I could only find a trailer for this film. There was no full version of the film available for free, the only full version that I could find was £1.49. However, from the trailer, I can tell that this is a very good and professional film. The main character is animated, however, he looks quite realistic. The creators of the film have obviously put a lot of time and effort into this film. I think that the more realistic an animation is the more professional it looks. The respondent that said this was their favourite short film said that this film had a "Important emotional message, memorable simple narrative packed into 7 minute of footage". Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the emotional message or the memorable simple narrative as I am unable to watch the whole film. From the trailer, I assume that this is a good film. However, my film will not be anything like this as I will be filming it, not animating it. |
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Take Good Care Of My Baby:
One respondent said that 'Take Good Care Of My Baby' a short film actually made by myself, is their favourite short film. This film was created quite early on in my first year of doing Creative Media, but I am still very proud of. I used various techniques such as multi-camera, which was self taught as we have not studied this yet in college. I think this film was good and had a lasting impact on whoever this respondent was because of the realism of the film. The film was based around a teenage pregnancy in the 1960s and how young girls in this situation would be treated. I feel that the film followed a good story line that was interesting and gripping. The genre was a Period Drama and I feel that this was quite obvious throughout as it was quite dramatic at times and the mise-en-scene and costumes suited the era nicely. The respondent that chose this film as their favourite said that it "dealt with a real problem and very relevant, good story line, good acting and excellent sound track and filming". I was very pleased with this review as it shows that other people noticed I put time and thought into the story line, filming and making sure the sound track suited what was on screen. The acting was quite good from some characters in the film but I feel as if a couple could have done a little better. Hopefully my film on mental health will receive as good a reputation as this film does, as I want my final film for my first year to be amazing. |
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Alfred Hitchcock:
Alfred Hitchcock was an English American film producer and director. Born in Leytonstone, London on the 13th August 1899, Hitchcock is one of the most notable filmmakers ever; especially in the genre of psychological thrillers. I have only watched one of Alfred Hitchcock's films, and that film was his most famous one; 'Psycho'. I watched this film after being shown a little bit of it in college. I found the film fascinating and very gripping. Normally I find it hard to concentrate on films that are in black and white as I like colourful films, but I found this one amazing. The characters and their stories were all very believable and relatable; which is the aim of a drama film. Other films he has produced include: The Birds, Vertigo and Rear Window. Throughout his career, he was a multiple nominee and winner of various awards. He received two Golden Globes, eight Laurel Awards, five Lifetime Achievement Awards and the first BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award. He was nominated five times for an Academy Award for best director and nominated for 11 Oscars for his film 'Rebecca'. In 1940 he won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940 and another film of his 'Foreign Correspondent' was nominated for the same award. |
James Cameron:
Born on the 16th August 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, James Cameron is one of the most successful filmmakers of his generation. Some of Cameron's most notable films include Titanic, The Terminator, Avatar and Aliens. Over the years, he has won many awards including Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. He is also one of the few filmmakers that has won three Oscars in one evening. On top of these, he has won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Drama and Best Director. The reason James Cameron is such an influential director to me is because of the film Titanic. I found the film amazing, and have watched it so many times I can recite almost every word! Everything about Titanic is perfect in my eyes. The costumes, the lighting, the mise-en-scene, the acting, the editing and the story-line. Although the story of the Titanic is a very tragic real-life story, Cameron created a believable fiction story which fits so well with the real one. The amount of research that has gone into the real Titanic story is obvious throughout the whole of the Titanic film. The events that happen in the film are accurate and realistic, the set has been decorated immaculately to match the interior and exterior of the actual ship, and it is so believable; which is the aim of a drama film. Cameron also created lovable and believable characters in Jack and Rose. An unlikely pairing but as we watch their relationship grow throughout the film, we can really sympathise with how difficult it is for them to be together during that period of time and how the time they do have with each other is so short. I hope that my film can reflect the work of James Cameron's in the way that I will research my topic thoroughly to show what life is like for someone with mental health conditions. I will show focus on my setting by making it realistic and believable and I will also create lovable characters in which my audience can relate to and sympathise with. |
In this clip, we see how Jack is expected to act differently to his normal down-to-earth self. He has to try as best as he can to fit in with the first class people who he is dining with. However, he still remains true to himself and remains polite and respectful.
The audience feels sympathetic towards Jack in this situation as we saw him get ready for this event, and it is obvious he is very out of his depth. Rose's family are embarrassingly intimidating towards Jack, asking him questions to make him feel bad about himself and not as worthy as they are. Portraying Jack as this lovable naive young man makes the audience feel sorry for him and dislike Rose's family for the way they act towards him. The lighting in this scene is a lot lighter and brighter to the scenes where Jack and Rose are in the third class area. This could show how things are better for the first class people. |
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I really liked this film. It was just over 1 minute long but it covered many aspects of what people suffering with social anxiety go through.
From looking at the comments, there were people watching the video aged from around 14 up to 26. Most of the comments were stating how relatable this video was and people would talk of their own experiences with the condition. Here are some of the comments that were on this video: |
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This was an amazing insight into the life of someone with depression. I felt that I could understand how this girl feels and what she goes through everyday, and most of the comments also said how relatable this film was.
From the comments I found that people stating their ages were also suffering from depression. These were quite young people of around 12 to 18 years old. This is so upsetting as teenage years should be some of the best years of your life, but depression has ruined that for some of these people. Here are some of the comments I found on this video: |
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I found this film really good too. It shows how isolated someone can feel when things go wrong for them inside their head.
From reading the comments a lot of people found that they could relate to this film. There are comments where people would tell their stories (like the ones below) and people would contact each other offering help and support. I think this is really important because if people with mental health conditions turn to short films to make them feel as if they are not alone, and it connects them with similar people, it is important to be able to target it at a certain audience that can relate to it. |
From analysing my results, I found that there was a lot of varied answers.
In the first question, I asked 'How old are you?'. Before I even looked at the responses, I already knew I was going to get a mixed bag of answers because I roughly knew the ages of the people I had sent it to. The youngest respondent was 16 years old, and the oldest respondent was 59 years old. I think it is good that I received answers from a variety of different age groups to ensure that I have opinions from everybody that may watch my film; not just people my age. I am hoping to make this film mainly for teenagers and young adults, but I also want it to be suitable for people who are older and younger because mental illnesses can effect anyone at any age! |
In question number two, I asked people what gender they are. Twelve of the respondents were female, six were male and one preferred not to say.
From this, I can see that there were twice as many females than males that responded to my questionnaire. Gender is an important part when making a short film, as although it is politically incorrect to stereotype genders, different sexes often prefer different things. |
In the third question, I asked whether my respondents would watch a film about mental illnesses. Thankfully all of them said yes, apart from two that said maybe.
I am glad that I got this result because it shows that the topic of my film is something that people will want to see and will hopefully enjoy seeing. Had I received more nos than yeses, I would probably have to reconsider the topic of my film to suit what the target audience want to see. |
In the fourth question, I decided to ask what mental illnesses people would like to see portrayed in my film. The top three answers were:
1. Depression 2. Anxiety 3. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) I think all of these would work well in a short film as they are quite common mental illnesses, yet other people who do not suffer from it lack in understanding of these conditions. However, personally, I think OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) would be the best mental illness to feature in my film. There are so many common misconceptions in society regarding OCD that really irritate me. Most people think OCD is all about cleanliness, tidiness and keeping things in certain orders. It is often laughed off as a joke when a tidy or organised person says "I'm so OCD". Although they may have OCD, it isn't anything like how some people experience it. Some OCD sufferers experience distressing thoughts and images in their heads, causing upset. This upset makes them them perform certain rituals to avoid bad things from happening to themselves or people they love. These rituals could include hand washing, blinking a certain number of times or anything to make themselves feel better. These thoughts and rituals can literally take over a person's life and effect everything they do. I feel very passionately about wanting to change the stereotypical OCD sufferer's image, as society and the media have created a false identity to this really horrible illness in which people find humour in something that can be so painful to some people. |
In my final question, I asked what age group my film should be aimed at. I recieved another mixed bag of answers, but the majority of people said that it should be aimed at all ages; and I couldn't agree more!
Mental illnesses are often stereotyped to be a depressed teenager who self harms. However, that is so not true. Mental illness can effect children, teenagers, adults and the elderly. I know a lot of teenagers who have suffered with some kind of mental illness, and a lot of adults who have too. All of them are different and not two people's stories are the same. From this question I have decided that I am going to aim my film at a teenage target audience (because that is the second most popular answer), but make sure that it is suitable for all ages and I will need to consider featuring different things that people of all ages can relate to. |
TV - Advantages and Disadvantages:
However, there are ways of getting your film out there and noticed; giving you a better chance of being aired on TV. Ways of doing this is to enter yourself into various film festivals, and hope you get noticed through people working in the industry being there. Another thing you could do is contact a small independent cinema that shows short films. There are quite a few of them around that will play student films to an audience for a small(ish) fee, but if it could get you noticed and get you a few contacts, it is worth every penny. However, when a film is broadcasted on television, there are some advantages and disadvantages to it being on there. Some disadvantages to having a film broadcasted on TV is that there are a lot of TV critics that will be waiting to watch your film and review it. A lot of these critics do not hold back and will not be afraid to give you a bad review where it's deserved. This can be damaging for your reputation as a filmmaker and could put you off. An advantage to having a film shown on TV is that you get all kinds of people watching it. You never know who is watching so you could just find that someone in the industry could see it and love it, then you could make it big. However, it is very unlikely that my film would be shown on television. When you see a film on TV, it is often a very famous film that has won awards, features famous actors or has been shown in the cinema. This is very very unlikely to happen to me anytime soon so I do not think I will be seeing my film on TV! |
Vimeo - Advantages and Disadvantages:
Vimeo is a video sharing platform which was created in 2004. It was founded by a group of filmmakers who wanted to share their work in film, and videos of their personal lives. In time, the community at Vimeo grew and now millions of people from around the world use Vimeo everyday. Since 2007, high-definition videos are able to be shared using the platform. I think that Vimeo could be a great place to share my short film. It has many users from all around the world. I feel as if those that use Vimeo are more into serious filmmaking rather than amateur productions. Even though I am only a student and I have not really being doing short films for long, I would like my work to be noticed by those in the media industry and for my work to be taken seriously. This could be an an advantage to choosing Vimeo as it is more likely I could be noticed by professionals. However, a disadvantage to using Vimeo is that it is not as popular as it's predecessors (YouTube for example). To be completely honest, I always use YouTube over anything else. I have only watched a couple of things on Vimeo and that is only if it isn't on YouTube. I feel that even though more serious filmmakers will use Vimeo, the audience capacity will not be as big as other websites. |
YouTube - Advantages and Disadvantages:
YouTube is the most popular video sharing platform, and is one of the biggest websites on the internet (second biggest website after Google). Whenever I want to watch something (whether that be music videos, short films, vlogs, tutorials) I always use YouTube. Anyone aged 13 and over can upload videos to YouTube, and being one of the biggest websites on the internet, it is possible to get a large amount of viewers in a short space of time (if advertised properly). A lot of filmmakers get recognised for their work via YouTube, and YouTube 'vloggers' can also make it big through being noticed through their videos. An advantage to using YouTube is that anyone can watch my videos, and this could potentially attract people in the industry to contact me. A disadvantage is that there are so many videos on YouTube, that if I do not advertise my film well enough, it might not get many views and could just get forgotten. Overall, I think that YouTube would be a good place to broadcast my short film. It is possible it could get ignored, but I am going to try and publicise it to as many people as possible. |
Netflix - Advantages and Disadvantages:
Netflix is a website/app that allows people to subscribe and pay a monthly fee to watch and download as many movies and series as they like. Netflix shows famous films, television series and independent films. I feel as though Netflix could be a great place for my short film to be aired because there are a large number of people that use it and it is a good place to get noticed. However, due to it's popularity, a disadvantage to Netflix is that it is unlikely that amongst all the other filmmakers with more professional equipment and money than I have, my film will be chosen and I will be forgotten. |
Medium Info graphic: |
Genre Info graphic: |
[1] A 'U' rated film (also referred to as Universal) is a film that is suitable for audiences aged four years and older.
Films with a U rating should be positvely written and should be offer a reassuring balance between violence, threat and horror. Language or behaviour which features discrimination is unacceptable unless the film clearly features that it is wrong. Drugs are also unacceptable. Any references towards drugs must be infrequent and have a clear educational purpose/anti-drug message which is suitable for younger children. Imitable behaviour must be disapproved of and feature no use of realistic or accessible weapons. Occasional use of very mild bad language is acceptable. Nudity with no sexual context is acceptable. Mild sexual behaviour such as kissing is acceptable. Any threat should be mild and should have a reassuring outcome. Violence should be mild, and preferably comedic, animated or unrealistic (e.g. Tom and Jerry). |
[2] PG stands for parental guidance. Meaning that the film is potentially unsuitable for young children, but it should not cause distress to a child aged eight or older. Children of any age can watch PG films unaccompanied but it is recommended that parents consider whether it may upset young or sensitive children.
Discrimination within PG films is unacceptable, unless it is shown disapproval. There should be no references to illegal drugs or drug misuse, uless it carries a suitable anti-drug message. Dangerous behaviour which could be copied by children should not be shown, especially if it displayed as being safe or fun. Weapons which could be easily accessible should not be glamorised. Mild bad language can be used in a non-aggressive manner, and infrequently. Nudity cannot be shown in a sexual context. Sexual activity may be shown discretely, and any sex references should be innuendo only. Threatening behaviour should not be too intense. Violence should be mild and not show detail. |
[4] A film rated 15, cannot be shown to anyone under the age of 15 in a cinema.
Discrimination language/behaviour should not be endorsed, although racist and homophobic language/themes may feature. Illegal drugs and drug misuse must not be encouraged within the films, and especially not show instructional detail. Easily accessible substances such as aerosols is also unacceptable. Dangerous behaviour such as suicide and self-harming should not show detail which could be copied. The deception of easily accessible weapons is permitted depending on realism, context and setting. Strong language can be sued, depending on the manner and frequency, and context. Sexual activity can be portrayed without strong detail. Verbal referencees to sex are unlikely to be acceptable depending on the context. Work that purposely aims to arouse or cause sexual stimulation is not acceptable. Threat may be strong, but sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable. Violence can be strong but must not show infliction of pain or injury. Verbal references to sexual violence may be shown but visual displays must be discreet and justified by the context. |
[4] 18 rated films are only suitable for adults. Nobody younger than 18 may watch an 18 rated film in a cinema.
Detailed portrayal of matters that would be unacceptable in films rated under 18, are acceptable in films of an 18 age rating. Violent/dangerous acts can be shown in detail, along with illegal drug use and sexual violence. There may be more explicit footage of sexual activity, some in which are purposely to arouse. - Sex education at 18: Where films use sex material to inform viewers about matters in human sexuality and health, with a purpose to educate. Explicit images may be shown. - Sex Works at 18: Purposely used for sexual arousal and stimulation. This may feature clear images of real sex and fetish material. Very strong sexual images will be rated to the R18 category. |