Exhibition

Because my short film is completely different from most, it is rather difficult to decide where it can be exhibited. For example, it is not the type of thing that can be exhibited in most film festivals. However, it can be uploaded onto the BBC Film Network, it is already being exhibited on Youtube and Vimeo which is easy to access and send links to friends and family or possible employers for reference to work that has been created.

The Rushes Soho Short Film Festival has a Documentary Category, which could be a possible entry for my short film. At current the submission for RSSF is closed and won’t be reopening until the RSSF 2011. When it re-opens I will submit my completed video and see if it can make it through.

One of the most obvious places for the exhibition of my short film would be the Portsmouth City Council website. It was mentioned and advised that I send the video to the Council or the Tourist Office, as it could be a way of attracting visitors to the city. This is something that I am currently looking into and emailing the appropriate people.

Audience

With short films being such a niche target audience In general it is quite difficult to define a target audience for my short film alone. With most short films gaining audiences through word of mouth and on specialist Internet sites such as the BBC Film Network and Youtube, or entering their films into Film Festivals such as the Rushes Soho Short Film Festival, I originally targeted my piece at males and females aged between 17 and 24. These people are most likely to be at University and studying so this would be most effective for them. Having to change the idea of my short film meant having to change the target audience. I decided to go for a wider audience, but of course with the nature of the film, it is targeted at people that are looking for somewhere to go with their family during the summer, and I believe my video is a perfect example of this.

It does this by giving a solid narration about activities and the history of Portsmouth, which after looking at my influences, is the key to a good promotional video.

To gain more feedback, I created a ten-question questionnaire to hand out to people that I know. I did this by sending emails and sending a link to the Youtube Channel of BDC and asked people to watch and answer the questions. This was very useful as it provided a non-bias viewpoint of somebody that was watching it for the first time. It was important that I included a wide range of questions including what people liked about it, whether they knew anything about Portsmouth before, whether it would make them want to visit and what would they want to see.

One positive comment that came from most viewers was that they believed the piece was very informative and enlightened them to what Portsmouth is about. Three of the ten questionnaires said that the establishing shots of the water lapping upon the shore made them even want to go to Portsmouth in the summer. This was what I aimed to achieve.

A criticism and improvement that could be made to it was to include some interviews, at least one with perhaps a tourist attraction manager. It was felt by my audience that this would have added more ‘weight’ to the piece making it more like a documentary.

Thanks to this audience feedback, it has made me realise that my video piece has been quite successful in what I aimed to achieve, but as expected doesn’t quite fit the Documentary criteria.

Influences

Some of my influences came from a short film called ‘The Seafront’ – a documentary piece based around different peoples experiences at the beach. It used very picturesque establishing shots, which was something I tried to achieve, and believe I did.

My original idea was influenced by this to have a short documentary focusing on a key issue in an area. I was then influenced by one of my teachers who happened to mention the issue of ‘townies against students.’ This was a topic reported on in the news known as “Student Bashing” where residents of the University town would violently attack students on nights out. This was to become the focus of my documentary.

I was influenced by a number of stories I read in the newspapers and carried this up. However, when I couldn’t get permission to film in certain locations and could not get hold of anybody to talk about the subject, I had to abort the idea and then focused on the ‘promotional tourist’ approach. I then researched videos of this genre, which was quite difficult, but finally found the style of video on the Thompson Holiday Channel on Sky. This was exactly the type of thing that I needed to look at to get an idea on how tourist videos look and sound.

Another one of my influences was looking back at ‘The Handler’ – the single camera drama I created. I wanted to achieve more establishing shots that portrayed the location and told the ‘story’ without necessarily having to have any dialogue or narration.

Completed Short Film

After watching my completed video I can see that what I have managed to create has been successful and I am pleased with what I have achieved. I can also see that there are a few areas that could be improved and if I had the chance to reshoot it, I know that it would change a lot.

Aesthetically, I have achieved what I had originally wanted. I aimed to shoot my project with shots that highlighted the beauty of Portsmouth, by using low angle shots of the sea with the sun glistening on the surface. I was lucky that on the first day of shooting ‘Portsmouth’ the weather was in my favour with blue skies and the sun shining, which allowed me to get the picturesque shots. The next day allowed me to film a contrasting view of Portsmouth with grey skies and rough seas. Although this breaks the continuity of the visuals, it gives the audience a realistic view of the location in both types of weather.

Despite most short films having a narrative, I chose to create a short documentary, originally on the clash between students and townies in Portsmouth. This didn’t go ahead due to permission not being granted to film in certain locations, which resulted in my short film turning into a ‘promotional tourist’ video for Portsmouth. Because there are no defining codes and conventions for a short film, as identified in class, there is no way of saying that it conforms to those codes and conventions. However, as I have defined my video as being a ‘promotional tourist’ video, I think that my video fulfils that well.

Working on my own was both easy and hard. It was easier to work on my own as I had full control of the project and the visual styling. However, it becomes quite difficult having to do all the paperwork individually and coming up with an initial idea, which took a while. 

Portsmouth - The Waterfront City - Filming

In the lead up to going to Portsmouth, I was constantly emailing members of certain organisations, to try and gain permission to film in the locations.
I was successful in gaining permission to film in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and that would be my first port of call. I was unsuccessful in gaining permission to film in and around Portsmouth City Centre and was unsuccessful in gaining permission to film in Gunwharf Quays.
This limited my initial idea of creating a documentary based on the issue of young people drinking and how thaty affects town living and residents.

Due to not getting permission - I couldn't focus on this, so ended up focusing on the tourist approach to Portsmouth. I was down there for two days and filmed everything that I had been authorised, then had to film on the sly other bits and pieces that I needed to complete. And I still need one more shot.

Location Details

D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery
Clarence Esplanade
Southsea
PO5 3NT

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HMS Warrior
Victory Gate, Main Road,
H M Naval Base,
Portsmouth
PO1 3QX‎

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Gunwharf Quays
Portsmouth Habour
Portsmouth
PO1 3TZ

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Spinnaker Tower - see above

Portsmouth IOW Car Ferry Terminal
Gunwharf Road
Portsmouth

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Portsmouth Continental Ferry Terminal
Wharf Road
Portsmouth
PO2 8

(Including Whale Island for location of filming)

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"Moodboard"

These pictures are of Portsmouth - specifically Gun Wharf Quays. Also featured are screenshots of my influence The Seafront. The very top picture is an area plan of Gun Wharf. As you can see, the majority of the area is occupied by shops and restaurants with some very modern and expensive apartments.