FINAL FINAL FINAL DRAFT OF CASE STUDY! =D

Research and Planning-Case Studies

My first narrative is similar to James Lee: ‘short and sweet- A cute animation’ (February 3^rd 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; therefore the animation exaggerates this in the entire short film.

My second short film is a romantic comedy following a simple, linear narrative structure: ‘Ben and Jackie’ by: JMGmedia (February 28^th 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 which reinforces realism for example: their clothing, accessories and what they do for a living and master shots will aid to gain the audience access into their personal life for example: a wide shot of a stereotypical teenage male, student’s bedroom is imagined to be messy with clothes everywhere, books on the floor, posters, untidy bed and a hobby object (preferably a guitar/skateboard). This is to get a clear and precise view of what is occurring throughout the short film which will make scenes appear natural and spontaneous as it exerts a sense of a typical family home.

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 which is: adversity. Also, the panning shot of 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 events of good or bad luck and normality 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. The technique I will be utilising is: having a medium shot of time passing by whilst my male character wakes up late preparing to go to college, I will either be denoting: someone grabbing toast from a toaster or putting the kettle then blurring this and making the background clock the depth of field in order to emphasise on time- this will display the norms of a typical household to the audience. Moreover, for additional emphasis on misfortunate luck e.g. trying to open the male character’s front door as he forgets the bouquet of flowers and chocolate - I will be shooting a wide shot then zooming in closer on the male to gain the audiences attention this will also be supported by the non-diegetic music playing in the background (Yolando Be cool- We are no Americano) as it will help to elevate humour and entertainment for the viewers as it is a clichéd, tacky song.