I would rate this film 7/10
My memorable scene would be Renton’s mental break down as he tries to recover from withdrawal from heroin. This is because it gave Danny Boil the most creative freedom, and we saw this clearly in such unique ways with the baby, Bud in chains, his parents trying to help him, and the way everything culminated together into one scene made us sympathise with the way Renton’s mind is twisted at this time because of the heroin
Realism
Verisimilitude – Making something look real and believable
Social realism – drawing attention to real socio-political conditions, mainly the harsher parts of reality
Magic realism – Taking a fantasy theme in a real tone, such as synchronised dance numbers, or fairies appearing in the real world
Hyperreality – an inability for the conscience to distinguish reality from simulated reality, e.g. exaggeration or a compression of time
Visual style
Iconography – Where certain images/icons take interpreted meaning
Intertextuality – relations between different, texts, films plotlines or styles
Visual/sound motifs – patterns or sounds that are repeated throughout a movie that convey a meaning
Colour grading – The act of manipulating colours in a scene to create mood
Auteur trademarks – things that are recognisable and easily linked to a director/actor
Tone
Pathos – something that brings out pity/sadness in the viewer
Bathos – change in tone from serious to ridiculous
suspense – a sense of extended anxiousness or excitement in anticipation
comedy – something with the purpose of creating amusement in the viewer
dramatic irony – where the audience has more information than the character to create effect
distancing effect – techniques used where the audience is alienated from the emotional involvement in movie
This is England
Trainspotting
I am happy with the final product, I believe that most aspects were effective in conveying the horror theme of the short film, however there was definitely room for improvement.
Things I would change for next time:
-Lighting, use extra lighting to make subjects fuller, and to decrease noise in a shot.
-Sound, use the more professional mic combined with the clap technique so that audio isn’t shrouded over environmental sounds and white noise, and becomes clearer. I also want to gain sound effects more practically next time, as I wanted to make C’s voice sound like it was behind the door, and I couldn’t achieve that through editing, so instead I wanted to physically record my lines from behind the door, but ran out of time to do so. Another thing I would like to do differently next time is utilising sound effects and underscores more to enhance the mood of the scene, which I feel this film lacked.
-scheduling, have a more organised schedule for actors, and possibly choose cast with a freer timetable as to leave room for error and reshoots.
-Editing, I need to learn how to use Premier Pro more effectively and fluently, as I struggled to move large chunks of clips around quickly, and I should also get inspiration from other short films to see how they edit their films, what effects they use, how they make cuts seamless, etc…
-Cinematography, despite the hand held feel of the film adding human elements, I felt that the film could sometimes benefit from the camera being more steady, and to do this I should prop my hands and camera onto a moveable box I could take with me to film certain shots.
first filming: Friday 17th November
Got the majority of shots filmed on the day, however I found that lighting was an issue, especially with the day light changing throughout the day, meaning I would have to reshoot some shots the next session. Also we had an actor missing on the day, meaning we could not shoot all of the shots.
after editing, I found shots that needed to be reshot because some looked choppy and found it better if they were one continuous shot.
second filming: Wednesday 22nd November
Finished filming the rest of shots, however was very restrained with time due to lack of availability previous days, and limited time with the room. Unfortunately the natural lighting was a bit too dark, but it was the only time I had.
I’ll give this film a 8/10
A memorable scene for me is just after the rally speech, and it went on a montage of Shawn and the others abusing citizens. This is because it would cut away to Shawn laughing, smiling and agreeing with this racist ideology which really struck me as children of Shawn’s age are supposed to be pure and innocent, and this is when we as an audience realise how gang life has corrupted and brainwashed him.
Stereotypes – a highly popularized and exaggerated belief (usually done through media) of a type of person characterised into their most basic form.
An example of a stereotype is how Hollywood portrayed native American tribes. In the film ‘The Lone Ranger’ the native American’s take people and hold them captive, however this goes against the reality that the federal law and many state laws go against this, and this type of rituals have been on the decline from Native Americans since the late 19th century
Countertypes – A character that breaks the social convention of stereotypes, and goes out of it’s way to show the counter opposite of the regular stereotype.
An example of a countertype is how native Americans are portrayed in the film ‘Dance with wolves’. This is because it shows an accurate representation of Native American culture, putting them in a good light, and showing their simplistic and attractive lifestyle compared to previous representations which show them as aggressive and uncivilised.
