TEXTUAL ANALYSIS | SINISTER FILM POSTER

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

Conventional narratives follows the same basic pattern in the way they construct a story.

Todorov defined the 3 main parts of a narrative suture (beginning, middle and end) as the equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium.

- Equilibrium- the balanced normality of the world of any story

-Disequilibrium- the unbalance world between the problem in the story and the climax

-New Equilibrium- a return to normality at the end- returning

 However, Classical Hollywood Structure differs slightly:

1. Situation or Exposition- This is needed at the beginning of all narratives to set the scene of the film. This is were basic information is given to the audience, allowing them to build up a clear picture in their heads. Where are they? Why are they there? How are they there? What will happen next? When did they get there?
2. Complication- These are events which happen to occur purposely to make a problem. This is the section that takes up most time in a film.
3. Climax- This is the significant moment where the problems are actually solved by someone, someone normally being the hero or the good person.
4. Resolution- This is the part of the narrative where the world of the text returns to some sort of normality if any and there complications are now the past. This is conventionally the part of the film or narrative where all the loose ends of the plot are tied up and the questions are answered.

I intend for my short film to follow Todorov's Structure as by it being a short film it doesn't allow for as much depth as what i would need to fufill Hollywoods structure.

DARREN S COOK | GUEST SPEAKER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw3StNd67dl

Darren is an independent film maker and is known for his editing, directing and producing  a variety of short films. As he is a step-dad to a fellow classmate we were fortunate to be able to have him come in as a guest speaker to share his knowledge about creating short films.

Whilst Darren was in our class, we watched a number of short films he had been involved with whether it be producing it or directing it. He inspired us all by saying 'this job is a passion, what I do day-to-day enables me to challenge my creativity and that anything is achievable, the only thing stopping something coming to life is you'.

All the films Darren has worked on has had a low budget but it was not obvious at all. He told us that in order to succesfull on a low budget 'you have to be a person that people want to work with for free.' Darren explained that he often ended up working with friends, co-workers and family to reduce the budgets of projects he has completed. Furthermore, he tends to re-vamp old props in order to make them look new as well as simply going to charity shops to find low costing props and even costumes.

One aspect he spoke about was the editing and he told us about the story where he was editing part of a advert I believe for a company and the producers and directors shot the footage they wanted and gave Darren a short amount of time to edit it all together. He said ''it takes 1 hour for every 1 minute of filming to edit'' therefore say if he was editing a movie, it would take him over 100 hours to edit the film together therefore the editing is the most time consuming process as a whole.

PRE PRODUCTION | RESEARCH METHODS

Types of Research

- Surveys and Questionnaires (Primary Research)
- Interview (Primary)
- Textual Analysis (Primary Research)
- Email | Letters (Primary Research)

- Industry Websites (Secondary Research)
- Books | Newspapers (Secondary Research)
- Radio | T.V
- Internet search engines such as: Google | Yahoo | Bing (Secondary Research)
- Audience Feedback

Quantitative Data: This is data that is either statistical or numerical.  This type of data can be gathered from Questionnaires where I may find patterns or trends with answers that were given to me. For example, I did a simple yes no survey on whether or not my target audience liked the title 'Seeing Red'. 82% voted yes and thus I kept the name.

Qualitative Data: This is data that is based on words. For example this type of data may result from using research methods such as books and magazines.

Data that I used:

- Short film blog
- Textual Analysis of other existing short films
- Looked at all of my previous notes that I made in class.
- Internet
- Looked at other existing short films for inspiration
- Survey

Primary Research: Pro's and Con's

Textual Analysis:
Pro: - Gives me an insight into how to make my own short film providing me with codes and conventions typical of other films and how i should go about creating my own. 
Con: - I needed to be careful when analysing other existing texts as I have to make sure that I  only observe and do not copy other ideas

Questionnaires:
Pro: - I can get answers quickly, making the entire data collection time efficient. It's FREE
Con: - Responses may be social desirability bias, i.e. telling me what i want to hear. If the questions are not planned cautiously then answers may not actually be helpful or relevant, E.g 'Is my film good?' I may have received an answer saying 'yea' or 'quite good'. Instead, questions should begin with how, why, where.

Secondary Research: Pro's and Con's

Internet:
- Copyright issues
- Sites such as Wikipedia may not be accurate and can therefore be unreliable
- SPAM with the internet and cons to donate money as well as pop up adverts while you are researching,
- Information from the internet may be irrelevant
- Information overload | too much detail makes it increasingly difficult to filter and select information 

PRE PRODUCTION | MY ACTORS

For my short film, I wanted my main characters to be of the same age as my target audience enabling them to become relatable to them. This was easy to have happen as my target audience is the same age as my peer group. 
I chose Avneet Gill and Ella Young to play the main characters as they are both pretty and attractive females who succeed in acting. By using attractive females I am conforming to the stereotype of all films who classically do not use unattractive actors/actresses. 

RECCE

When producing a short film, it is vital to conform to the codes and conventions. One crucial convention is limited locations. This is so that the film is not portrayed as too complex and gives the audience time to establish the settings where the characters are based.

I also wanted my film to be relatable to my audience so I opted to use every day locations such as school and a home both of which my audience will be familiar with.