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.

Short Film Idea

After my original idea about creating a Documentary based around the backstage and preparation of the upcoming tour of Libera, was vetoed - not by the teachers but by the manager of Libera - I resorted to having another look on the BBC Film Network at Documentaries that have been produced and uploaded onto that website.

After browsing through the collection I found a Documentary called The Seafront which was a short documentary based in Portsmouth (although I didn't know this at the time) about Beach Life.

It concentrates on four subjects all with different stories about why they love and enjoy the beach so much.

This has been more of my influence to create a short documentary based in Portsmouth and Haling Island documenting the scenery, the two sides of life in Portsmouth - busy touristy area and then the normal living of Portsmouth.

Inspiration Week Blog 4

Other stimuli that were there to help us create short film ideas included pictures of modern art. Two of these pictures we decided to use as influences. One of these was a picture of an empty dining room table with a low light above it. The second picture was of a tent filled with applique names. Underneath the picture featured the caption "All the people I have ever slept with." We were then informed that the artist was sexually abused as a child, meaning some of these names weren't what we initially thought.

Using the two pieces of art, we came up with the idea of incorporating each of the names from the tent as characters who have all been abused in some way around the empty dining table. It would be one static shot looking at the dining table. This would then be the setting where ghostly figures would all dissolve into each other showing their stories.

The artist who painted this picture created a lot of other pictures that involved isolation. The artist [insert name] was always interested in portraying what was not there as opposed to what was there.

We drew on this idea of emptiness and isolation, in that the Dining Room Table never got sat at, but was the subject of where all these horrible things happened.

Inspiration Week Blog 3

In our third Inspiration Week lesson, we were placed into our groups that we would be working with whilst making our final project. For this, however, I was put into another group as I am working on my own.

In the classroom, there were a number of tables set out with different types of stimuli to help us, or 'inspire us.' These included song lyrics, poetry, newspaper articles and pieces of modern art. For each of these different stimuli we had to come up with an idea for a short film. From there, we had to choose two of our stronger ideas and develop them to become our main ideas for a short film.

Idea 1 - "Mr. Tambourine Man"

Our stimulus for Idea 1 was song lyrics. We had three choices, but we chose to use one main song and take an influence from another song. These songs were "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan and "I Have A Dream" by Abba.

This short film featured our two main characters: Jack, a working male who was a bit down. His job was running his life and had no time for relationships. He needed a pick-me-up. Our other character is Mr. Tambourine Man. He is an Angel who is stuck in Limbo waiting to be judged for his entrance to Heaven or Hell. After committing a life full of sin, he is sent to Earth to repent of his sins by doing good.

He meets Jack and plays the soundtrack to his life on his Tambourine. Their relationship grows until Jack finally meets a girl. Mr. Tambourine Man becomes upset with this as he is gradually being rejected and pushed away. Jack starts to then feel down again for rejecting him and asks for another Mr. Tambourine Man. But this Tambourine Man cannot play the Tambourine.

Idea 2 - "Dirty Money"

Our second short film idea was influenced by a poem called "Infidelities." It told the story of a woman who was collecting coins from her husbands trouser pocket and placing them on the window-sill. As they sit there, they collect dust, or guilt, until the husband one day picks them up to make a phone call he can't make from the house phone.

It is portrayed through the narration of the coins. It starts off as the couple being portrayed as a happy couple, with the wife making dinner and folding the husbands pants, at which time she places the coins on the window-sill. As they sit there, they gradually collect dust, which is portrayed as their guilt toward being used for the mystery calls to the mistress. They feel sorry and guilty for the wife as they know what they are going to be used for.

Until one day, the husband picks the coins up and goes off to make a phone call. The last shot is a voyeuristic shot from behind a tree where the husband acts edgy, looking all around before entering the phone-box.

Inspiration Week Blog 2

In this lesson of Inspiration Week, we were given a stimulus to create a short story. This stimulus was in the format of a postcard that had been taken from a book published by an artist. This book featured over thousands of postcards that people had written their secrets on.

It was called 'Post Secrets' by Frank Warren. Using these secrets we were asked to mindmap some ideas and then come up with a synopsis for an idea of a short film.

My Postcard:

"I'm afraid to answer the telephone."

Some of my ideas on my mindmap included:

• A similar kind of movie to Phonebooth - but without answering the phone.
• It can be a horror movie, where she lets the phone go to answer machine and hears a voice that is gradually getting closer to her location.
• Could be a short movie that the girl doesn't want to answer the phone because she doesn't want to go out with the guy calling her.

I then decided on an idea and wrote a synopsis:

"The phone would ring, but it always went to answer machine.

Hannah was a recluse. She lived in a farmhouse miles from any civilisation. But this was not always the way she had been. Hannah was living with a dark and deep secret that only she knew. It had been eating away at her for years. But how had somebody else come to know of this secret?"

After this, we were asked to write our own secret on a postcard. This postcard would then be passed on to somebody else in the class and they would have to write a synopsis for a short film idea.

I received a postcard that featured the following secret:

"After watching an interview with Lady Gaga, I have changed my opinion of her."

I wrote the synopsis:

"Hannah was sitting at home on a Monday morning flicking through the music channels. She didn't have a job and enjoyed not socialising with friends. Whilst flicking through she heard Lady Gaga's Pokerface. Although despising her, thinking she was a stuck-up, pompous brat, she decided to keep watching.

Little did she know, this interview would change not only her opinion, but her whole life."

Inspiration Week - Blog 1

In the first lesson of "Inspiration Week" we played a short exercise that involved writing one thing on a piece of paper, folding it over and passing it on to somebody else. For my piece of paper, I had to write the name and profession of a Male character. From then on, the piece of paper was passed around the classroom until we finished and it was returned to me so that I could see the story that had been written. 

My first post - Male character and Profession.

The next post was to give a female character and her profession.

The next post was to say how they met.

 

The next post was to give one line of dialogue.

The next post was to explain a major event. 

Lastly, this post was to end the story.

From this story that was created we then had to come up with a synopsis for a short film. We were told that we could alter it slightly if we needed to. 

My synopsis was:

"A police duo began an ordinary evening on duty. That was until they got a call over the radio that would make their night shift a living hell. Will they save the town and go down the pub? Or will this tragedy destroy the whole town?"

From this synopsis, we then had to fill in a sheet relating our story to th

e Todorov concept of equilibrium/disequilibrium. 

And then again, from the synopsis, we were asked to create a table of Binary Opposites conforming to the concept or Levi-Strauss.

Concept	Opposition
Police (Good)	Criminal (Evil)
Human	Animal
Peace	Disturbance

Textual Analysis - Lovefield

'Lovefield' is a 6 minute American short film created by Mathieu Ratthe.

It starts off with an empty field of crops, looking very dry and as though they haven't had rain for a number of years. You get the sense of the emptiness by the wind noises and the eery strings music that are playing very clashing notes. As the music dies out you get the sounds of creeky signs and you see the very famous symbol of Mathieu Ratthe films: the Black Crow. This creates a tense feeling and is then aided by the sound of a mobile phone beeping. As the camera moves past the phone, we start to see more and more things scattered on the floor and begin to hear a female crying. You see blood spattered clothing and the female stops moving as a Knife is stabbed into the ground. The music and sound effects build this up to sound like a typical horror film where somebody has been killed.

As we move up to start to see a character profile, we don't get to see his face, but instead it focuses on the Black Crow. This indicates to us that a death has occurred. As the man starts to look around he then runs toward the car, where you think he is about to drive off being the guilty murderer. But instead he heads to the back of the vehicle and retrieves a blanket. At this point you are still not sure what he is going to do ... is he going to wrap the body up and dispose of it.

As the film then later moves onto reveal that the female was screaming because she was giving birth.

The whole sequence leading up to the revelation gets you in the mood of feeling scared and wanting to know what is happening. And of course the title "Lovefield" gives it away after you realise that it is actually a happy film.

This is very effective in getting the audience worried and scared, but makes them relieved when they found out the whole truth.

Textual Analysis - Body

Click here to watch 'Body' via BBC Film Network

Body is a 4 minute Artists' Moving Image that was created by Zhivko Dimitrov. It shares similarities with 'Journey To The Moon' by Georges Melies and 'The Man With The Beautiful Eyes.' 

It is a very different approach to short film, but would be seen as an Avant Garde, Experimental Piece as you really have to think about what is going on in the piece. It is inspired by phenomenology and the role of the human body in shaping perceptions of reality. 'Body' follows the journey of a fictional character in search for answers to the grand questions of life (using similar style sketches to 'Monty Python, The Meaning of Life), the universe, and everything. The character sets off on a voyage through space in a fantasy world made up of organic body matter.

Dimitrov uses a number of different textures and materials to create this piece, most vividly the main character being made out of Newspaper. Another is the use of chains and necklaces, possibly resembling the characters confinement to Earth. 

The music is very simple featuring a few notes that are repeated in a different order. It can also be seen as experimental fitting nicely with the video. The bright, vibrant colours are very attractive and shares similarities to 'The Man With The Beautiful Eyes.' 

This is a quirky short film and very different to other short films I have watched, but you can see that Dimitrov has really gone back to looking at the earliest examples of short films. 

Textual Analysis - Cheat Neutral

Click here to watch 'Cheat Neutral' via BBC Film Network

Cheat Neutral is a 13 minute documentary Directed by Beth Stratford in 2007. This satirical documentary follows the creators of a website CheatNeutral that allows people that have cheated on their partners to 'offset' their infidelity to a global network of fidelity.  The documentary follows Alex Randall and Christian Hunt as they try to sell the idea of cheat offsetting to a bemused public. From the streets of Cardiff to the Houses of Parliament, they spark an important and timely debate about the inadequacies of carbon offsetting.

This is a quite high profile production as they have footage from one of the creators being interviewed on BBC News. There is also footage from the House of Commons and also features audio of interviews on American Radio Stations. 

This doesn't follow the normal style of documentary making. It seems to have a video diary style at some points and also gives the audience the feel that this has been rehearsed at points. However, some very interesting techniques is the used of non-diegetic sound and the speeding up of footage in the post-production stage. When the footage is sped up and the soundtrack is played, it reminds the viewer of a type of silent film, and you expect word screens to pop up at any minute. 

The whole website went global reaching Australia and the US, meaning that this documentary/short film was a huge success and is actually featured on the homepage of the website. 

It is a very different take on some of the other short films that I have watched, but it is nice to watch something that is very different and actually makes you laugh. 

Textual Analysis - Salaryman 6

Click here to watch 'Salaryman 6' via BBC Film Network

Salaryman 6 is a seven minute drama that is based on one character called Shiode. After Shiode loses his memory, he pieces together his rather boring and repetitive life with the help of his modified camera. 

This short film begins with the ending of Shiode waking up from his daze, starting his memory loss. Although, it is more a case of Short Term Memory loss, in that he cannot remember what happens the day before. Shiode is a very isolated person that is very alone. This is not only portrayed through the physical sense that he is never with anybody else, but the sheer size of his apartment block and that every apartment is identical. His apartment is this tiny little part of this huge block, much like he is one tiny little part of not only the world, but his corporation. 

He explains that he decides to take pictures of his days, but using his specially modified camera that takes pictures automatically. He hangs the camera round his neck so that it takes pictures all day. 

As the film begins, the pace is quite slow with slow editing, but as the film progresses the rate of editing becomes much faster as though the audience knows what is happening and Knight (The Director) is just trying to show us the important parts of the camera flashing. 

Near the end it is revealed to us how mundane and repetitive his life is, showing the same four pictures over four days. The whole concept and ideology within this film is about loneliness and solitude. And it is conveyed through all Shiode's surroundings being white. White being a blank canvas. A canvas for his whole life to start again. 

Textual Analysis - Ashes

Click here to watch 'Ashes' via BBC Film Network. 

Ashes is a ten minute improvised drama about a man who travels to Anfield in order to scatter his father's ashes. It follows the two characters not only on their physical journey, but also the emotional journey as they become closer and closer as father and son. 

Being an improvised drama allows not only the actors to play around with dialogue, but also allows the camera shots and movement to be a bit experimental. It also means that some of the camera shots are filmed in a voyeuristic style as they couldn't give away that they were filming the two actors. It had to seem as though they were two ordinary people. This meant that when the father was asking for directions from the Taxi Driver, there were doors being opened in the way and people were walking across in front of the camera. 

As the short film progresses, the audience begins to feel attached to the two characters and almost as though they are actually father and son. You also feel quite sad for the Father after the son throws the Urn into the Mersey. However, despite this, you get a feeling that perhaps the Father doesn't mind that this has happened. The Father is a Liverpool supporter (the football shirt gives this away) and could suggest that his father was a Liverpool supporter. It suggests that it was agreed that his ashes would be scattered in the place he loves, but not quite in the sense that he was finally left bobbing up and down amongst leaves and various bits of rubbish in the water. 

I think this film is a really effective production, especially being improvised. It seems to have a more realistic flow as opposed to something that has been completely scripted. 

Directors

Many Directors of feature length films came from a background of short film making. Among these is US Director Martin Scorsese and British Film Director Shane Meadows. 

Meadows has been making short films since 1994 over 40 short films. Some of these were promotional music videos, some were documentaries and some were films. He has also directed eight feature length films, his most famous, 'This Is England' winning him the British Independent Film Award 2006. 

Meadows suffered from bullying when he was at school after his father was suspected of killing a child that he discovered something that comes across in some of his films. 

Despite having made it in the feature length films, Meadows continues to create short films as he stated in an interview that he would never forget what got him to where he is, something that some Hollywood Directors originating from short films seem to forget. 

'The Stairwell' Shane Meadows' shortest film lasting 39 seconds and was filmed on a mobile phone. It features two people walking on a staircase, one heading up the other heading down, until the meet by violently bumping into each other.

It is a very simple situation, that happens to everybody. However, Meadows has created huge tension in the build up to the incident and has made the incident more violent than you would think by the huge reaction by the two actors. 

The use of the shots when the two characters are walking up the stairs seem as though the characters are gliding like ghosts, but this may be the way Meadows has attached the camera. It may be on a pedestal or attached to the actor itself. 

This all adds to the tension of not knowing what is going to happen, and the lighting helps to achieve this also.  

As mentioned above, Martin Scorsese started out in the short film area. One of his most famous films, 'The Big Shave' was a six minute film produced in 1967. It features a gentleman shaving away his hair, then his skin in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene. A number of film critics have interpreted the process of self-mutilation as a metaphor to the "self-destructive involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War," which was prompted by the film's alternative title, 'Viet '67.'  This was considered due to idea that this man is continuing to shave, when it isn't necessary, similar to that of the US being in Vietnam when it wasn't necessary. 

The very graphic dripping of blood into the very white sink can also be linked to the metaphor of the Vietnam War. The blood was staining the sink, but this person continued without even hesitating, whilst people were dying in Vietnam and it didn't seem to bother the US. 

Unlike Shane Meadows, Martin Scorsese didn't return to making short films after his success with feature length films such as 'Taxi Driver' and 'Goodfellas'.

Distribution of Short Films

Short films very rarely have a successful distribution. Unlike that of mainstream, where Production companies rake in the profit during this process. Because short films aren't as popular as mainstream cinemas it can be seen that there isn't much of an audience, and they cannot rely simply on box office and DVD sales. 

There are a number of successful short films that make it onto Compilation DVDs. These feature a number of different short films that have been successful and these are most useful in schools that are studying short films. Very few make it onto a DVD on its own. One such exception was Chris Cunningham's 'Rubber Johnny.' This was a 6 minute film that was distributed by Warp Films in 2005. It was suggested that this was released on its own as it was an accompanying video for the music of Aphex Twin and it seemed that this may help sales of their records. 

Another example is the work of Shane Meadows who has a DVD Compilation of just his work. 

With the technological advancement and convergence, short films are becoming easily accessible via the internet. Sites such as Youtube and BBC Film Network this is a quick process of distribution and it is beneficial to short film makers as it doesn't cost them a lot of money, and their work can be broadcast around the world.

Recently over the Christmas holidays, iTunes had an application called '12 Days of Christmas.' This was free to download from the App Store and each day consisted of the user receiving a free gift. One of these gifts was 'Peter and The Wolf' - a short film that has been distributed to viewers via iTunes and an Application.  

Exhibition of Short Films

The exhibition of short films within cinemas is almost impossible. Nowadays, the most likely places to have your short films exhibited are short film festivals or specialist screenings, and now with the increase in modern technology, on the internet. 

They are now even more ways of broadcasting short films over the internet and to a better level than Youtube. These can include 'Future Shorts' although to view the short films, it transfers you to a Youtube Channel. 

One that is slightly more recognised is BBC Film Network. It is an easy to use platform that allows young aspiring filmmakers to upload their short films and to be able to view other filmmakers videos also. 

It is structured in the same way as BBC iPlayer. It has a simple layout with tabs that are easy to navigate between pages and uses labels and tags to make it easy to find a particular film or genre. 

Production of Short Films

Coffee Films is a British Independent Film Company. It was established in 1996 as a Short Film Collective and Coffee Films incorporated in 2003. Within a year, it was recognised as one of Europe's best young production companies. It later progressed to creating documentaries on wildlife and music and gained critical acclaim for its documentary 'Last of the Scottish Wildcats.'

Over the years, Coffee Films has produced a huge range of different films, experimenting with technique, style, genre and generally the moving image. They range from classic five minute black and white films to hour long documentaries.

These include 'How To Disappear Completely' - an 8 minute DV film following a young photographer who can no longer stand the ugly face of society and turns his back on it. Shot for just £500 "the film they called a waste of time" has won several awards, been called a masterpiece and screened across four continents over the last three years.

Click Here to watch 'How To Disappear Completely'

They are currently producing three more films concentrating on realistic, gritty storylines such as 'Dealer' - a low budget 40 minute Hi-8 black and white/colour short following a week in the life of a young drug dealer living in the south east England commuter belt.

They also work in collaboration with Coffee Shorts. Coffee Shorts is an independent short film production company that was founded in 2003. They have only produced and released 7 short films, but they also showcase other young aspiring filmmakers work.

Development of Short Films

Cinema Extreme is a major UK Short Film funding awards scheme. It was founded in 2002, and is funded by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and Film 4. The project has been managed by The Bureau with the aim "to seek out and develop filmmakers with a distinctive directorial voice and cinematic flair."

Since it's launch in 2002, it has been highly successful and has helped many aspiring filmmakers and directors to create a short film, that has actually helped them get into the film industry. The awards that have been given have ranged from £25,000 - £30,000.

One example of this is Andrea Arnold's short film Wasp catapulted Andrea to direct Red Road which won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2006.

A Clip from Wasp

Red Road Trailer

The Cinema Extreme funding scheme allowed Andrea Arnold to create her short film which has then pushed her into creating a British feature film, which won a number of awards.