Research and Planning-Case Studies
My first narrative is similar to
James Lee: ‘short and sweet- A cute animation’ (February 3rd 2012)
as his story is about adorable, little creatures trying to find love. The
extract follows a linear narrative structure of the pink creature longing to be
loved and find the right person, which is shot using animation to display a
comic affect for the audience. The theme expresses the concept of love being
hard to find and how people are so determined to acquire it. The characters are
represented via their colour which is stereotypical as the female is pink and
the male is blue; however the person the pink creature admires the most is a
taller peachy-pink male, who appears quite laid back: wearing glasses and
smoking whilst tossing a coin. Initially, the audience are aware of what
characters represent what gender; yet I believe the moral of the story is to
fall for your own kind; hence the cooler male being a peachy-pink colour it
connotes how your own kind is better rather than falling for someone who is
completely opposite for you. The cutting rate is quite slow throughout the
movie to depict the drama going on within the long shots; although it also uses
close ups to show the pink creature’s facial expression so we gain an better
understanding of what is occurring. There are numerous sounds being used for
example: the establishing shot begins with a non-diegetic upbeat tempo
accompanied by the pink creature happily walking; whereas further on in the
scene we hear diegetic sounds of the creature speaking and rain falling to
portray a reality crisis and gloominess falling down upon them, yet in the
animated world. The film is targeted at a unisex range of people aged 10-27
years of age who enjoy comedy through the great wonders of animation or people
in general who want entertainment to relax.
This short film gave me a concept
of a teenage girl and boy meeting every Wednesdays at opposite sides of a tube
station, they will only communicate through various types of body language,
smiles and writing on notepads (animation will be included here) as they both
are returning from college. It will consist of a simple narrative structure of
them both wanting to go out; yet the girl being stood up by the boy. In addition, the following Wednesday the boy see’s the girl yet with
another guy, whom he previously encountered problems with, on the day he was
supposed to go on his first date with the girl on the other side of the
platform. The technique which inspired me from the extract is the use of
exerting animation which keeps the audience entertained and the form of how
they openly display emotions of the creature smiling- when she saw the tall
handsome male and crying, sad or upset- when she was rejected due to her height
- these are all stereotypical features of teenage girl; hence are audience is
predominantly female as they can relate to the feelings of rejection being
expressed. Whereas in reality films, the character always expresses emotion
through body language only. However animation breaks that condition of making
the emotion come to life as all its surrounding for example: the weather,
location and atmosphere are reflecting reality which emphasises being in love
can happen anywhere at any time, this also emphasises with the audience of
females as they can relate to this with real life scenarios of being in love or
facing rejection.
My second short film is a
romantic comedy following a simple, linear narrative structure: ‘Ben and Jackie’
by: JMGmedia (February 28th 2011). It is about a taxi driver (Ben)
who falls in love with a passenger (Jackie) that he takes shopping every
Monday. The film is shot in live action, through a master shot of the exterior
of the front car window, which give us an insight of what is occurring. The
establishing shot features captions to introduce the predominant characters,
which also provides us with selective focus on depths of fields, which supplies
us on feeling included and gains us a clear focal view of action taking place.
This is aided by the diegetic sounds of the radio being played, people talking,
and a voice over of Ben which reinforces the realism of his stereotypical life
of being represented as an archetypal taxi driver who is alone and has a
low-paid job; whereas, Jackie is connoted as being a beautiful young girl who
is a regular customer. The narrative applies Todorov’s theory (1960), of a
state of equilibrium which held a peaceful and calm beginning of him taking his passengers to their
destinations; Yet, ends with a recognition that a change has occurred which is
Jackie introducing her boyfriend to him. The general narrative problem is of Ben living
an average life of a single male who has no hope in the future; until he meets
the women of his dreams but they cannot be together as of the people in her
life, which Ben falls onto the belief of him always being unlucky and hopeless.
The main target audience for this film is anyone who can relate to narrative or
has difficulties expressing themselves to their loved ones which is
predominantly the unisex gender of both failing to attempt to tell the opposite
sex their feelings for another. However, the element of comedy displays Ben
always having the worst customers for example: the Muslim male who calls Ben a
racist, the group of boys fighting in his cab and the drunk who vomits- these
are all portrayed to highlight the funny and hilarious scenes which keeps the
audience engaged and entertained throughout the movie as well as the romantic
genre flowing through, giving the overall view of the short film being
simplistically sweet yet sad.
This has helped me to illustrate
a narrative structure that will be about a man on a quest to find love and
experience it which is in similitude to ‘Ben and Jackie’ but it will be more
modern, containing comedy. The egoistic male will approach any woman and try
his luck in a weird, ridiculous manner; but the man will be rejected by all
women until he learns that he needs to let love find him. This affects the
audience as it can implicate love cannot be searched but it can be found. The
techniques I will be demonstrating is: using voice over of the male character to
portray what he is feeling and thinking, long shots on when the male and female
character so the audience can identify their characteristics for example: their
clothing, accessories and what they do for a living and master shots to get a
clear and precise view of what is occurring throughout the short film which
will also
My final example: ‘Just My Luck’
directed by Donald Petrie in 2006. In Manhattan, Ashley Albright (Lindsay
Lohan) is a lucky woman and very successful in the agency where she works. The
clumsy Jake Hardin (Chris Pine) is an unlucky aspirant manager of the rock band
McFly, who is unsuccessfully trying to contact the entrepreneur Damon Phillips
to promote his band. When Ashley meets Jake in a masquerade party, they kiss
each other, swapping her fortune with his bad luck. The scene which has
enthused me the most is when Jake is firstly introduced in a medium shot scene
he is represented as a messy nerd, in a
car key green outfit portraying him as scruffy and dishevelled. The scene of
him exiting his house, whilst the non-diegetic sounds of a ‘splat!’ of bird poo
falls onto his shoulder and him hopelessly responding “thanks” shows it is a
normal routine that he wakes up to in the morning. Also, him walking across the
streets and nearly getting run over by a man on a bike and car shows how he is
not careful and also seems to be tied misfortune. This has given me the idea of
inserting a comedic effect in my short film of the male character always
stumbling on bad luck, for example: being late, forgetting his wallet, keys and
phone, missing the bus, and getting splashed by a puddle- which will entice the
audience and keep them amused. Throughout the film of ‘Just My Luck’ there is a
slow cutting rate of how the event of good or back luck appears for both
characters as it appears spontaneous and natural- I will be applying this
method in my film to show how unordinary and unexpected events can occur.
Could Not Find Specific Scene For
'Just My Luck' On Youtube.
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