Pixar "Short Films" (Textual Analysis)

There are many film companies that produce short films, but when it comes to animated “short films” there is only one Production Company worth mentioning, Pixar.
Pixar have become world know for their short films as many of them are shown before their feature length films. An example of this is day and night that was shown before Toy Story 3. What makes Pixar stand out from other short film makers is the use of story line and the ability to produce 3D animation that makes people of all ages enjoy them. For this is the reason Pixar are constantly nominated for many film awards. Since Pixar started to use 3D animation they have dominated the field and now are the biggest producer of 3D animated films.
Pixar have been able to make short films that appeal to a large target audience for a several reasons, one of which is that they break some codes and conventions of a film and replaces them with codes and conventions of short films. For example a feature length film must have fast cuts, complex story line and not be repetitive. Some Pixar short films break all of these, for example day and night starts with an animated character the body of day, the character is upbeat and lively and so is the soundtrack that accompanies it. The day character then meets the night character who is sleeping, night wakes up and yawns, and the soundtrack is downbeat and slow. The two characters then interact with each other; this is then repeated several times. Because these conventions have been used it makes Pixar’s short films enjoyable for everyone.

He's Just Not That Into You - change of girl inspiration

'He's Just Not That Into You' is one of my all time favourite movies. Around the time we were drawing our storyboards I happened to watch this film, and noticed the scene below was similar to one we wanted to create in our short film; and the rest of my group agreed with me. The only difference we would like to achieve with this camera movement is whilst the camera is only facing the male character; the girl character would change to ‘girl 2’ leaving an enigma for the audience to uncover.

Pool Permission

Collectively our group decided we wanted to manipulate the opening scene by enforcing our controlling idea of water as early on as possible. This in turn enhances the unconscious minds of our audience to have water and swimming in their thoughts throughout the short film. Yet we wanted to create two sets of images. The first of which is that the male lead is comfortable in the water as he is a strong swimmer and has no fear when dealing with it, yet we did not wish to associate this with the second imagine of him in the pool for the scene of his death. We finally came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to film the opening scene in a separate pool, preferably a public pool. Yet permission is needed before we could film. Since it is not permitted to film in most public pools it was then decided to ask the Shenfield P.E Department if we were able to use the school pool. With the permission of Mrs. White we were able to film on Thursday 30^th September 2010 and Thursday 14^th October 2010.

Since this post was first published we have had to ask permission to film here several more times, for re-shooting and re-framing some scenes. these dates are as follows Wednesday 17th November and Thursday 16th December. On these dates Mrs. White again agreed to letting us film with the exception of a member of the P.E. department sitting in on our filming session due to health and safety. 

Restaurant Permission

For some of the scenes in our short film we need to film in a restaurant, this is where one of our 360 degree shots is filmed and where the audience discover one of the vital twists in our “short”. The restaurant we have chosen to film in is the Masala zone in Ongar. On Tuesday 12th October I went to the restaurant and asked for permission to film there. The owner was fine with this and arrangements have been made to film in the weeks to follow.

Risk Assessment

Our Story Board

Controlling ideas

For a short film to be effective in keeping the audience entertained it must have a strong controlling idea. A controlling idea is essentially the idea that the film revolves around, usually the controlling idea isn’t revealed to the audience until the end of the film. It is common for many short films to have more than one controlling ideas.

We have decided to have more than one controlling idea in our short film. Our controlling ideas are;

1. Murder
2. Swimming/ Drowning
3. Romance/ Betrayal

We chose murder, swimming and romance as our controlling ideas because these are areas that we think will interest the audience and influence our story line.

We have chosen more than one controlling idea because we feel, as a group, that this will add a sense of mystery to the film. We also chose multiple ideas because we felt it would give us more option with story line, setting & locations and target audience.

Moodboard

As a group we decided compile a mood board to summarize and show our first thoughts and themes for our short film. The pictures show a wide range of different ideas that we would like to be featured in our final product.

Three of the pictures include water, one of our main controlling ideas; however each picture is different to the other two. 2 of the pictures show a couple enjoying time around water, and the third shows a mysterious death of an unknown figure. This is important as a main theme as this is eventually how our protagonist’s life ends.

Four other pictures show the same man on dates with two other woman, presuming that these two woman do not know about the other one and so therefore the man is seen as a ‘player’.

There is also an image of an expensive car, and as a couple sit around a pool they are being served champagne, portraying the man’s wealth.

Locations & settings

For our short film to be effective location & setting is everything. As a group we brain stormed our initial ideas with possible location and settings. These are the final locations and settings we chose with a brief description of why we chose them.

This is the setting for some scenes in our film. We have chosen this house as a main location as it fits in with our genre and story line. the protagonist is a successful business man, and this house and car would suit his life style and pay cheque. The pool in the back garden allows us to shoot the “murder scene”, along with some other shots, for example the day to night shot.

One other location that we need to film at is a restaurant; this is the one we have chosen. The Masala Zone is an Indian restaurant not to far from Ongar, we chose this restaurant as we felt it ha the correct décor inside to fit with the mise en scene of our film. This is the setting for our first of two 360 degree shots.

For the start of our film the protagonist will be swimming, the pool we have chosen to use for this scene is Shenfield high school swimming pool. We chose this pool because of the ease of access and this was the only pool that allowed us to film.

Influences and Inspirations

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Script

As we have decided to not use any dialogue throughout our 5 minute short film, a script is not required. Since the equipment we had available to us is not of the highest quality, the sound recorded made may not be picked up, this in turn deteriorates the quality of our film. It was also pointed out that the use of speech may pull the audience’s attention away from the twist of the story to the content said. Collectively we agreed that this would destroy the atmosphere created by the music and images.

Location Ideas

Under Taking S.W.O.T Analysis

S.W.O.T Analysis

S.W.O.T analysis is used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It allows us to extract and identify the internal and external factors that are adverse and favorable into reaching the aims and objectives. To begin a S.W.O.T analysis there must be an initial idea or objective that should be stated. This objective will then be evaluated through each of the four S.W.A.T stages.

Initial Ideas

Codes and Conventions of a Romantic Thriller

Codes and Conventons of Short Films

The codes and conventions of short films is what makes up the basic structure to which everyone follows to create a successful outcome. When analysing short films in class we discovered they all followed the same codes and conventions as each other, with each using the structure in interesting and imaginative ways. To thrive in our coursework we as a group all need to follow the set codes and conventions.

- A short film will more often than not start with a situation that needs to be helped or solved; this will help to engage the viewer more quickly
- Only a few main characters will be used as there is not enough time to introduce a lot of main characters, however some lower key extras are used to help the progression of the film
- The budget for the film will not be as high as when a Hollywood film company creates a film (especially as they don’t tend to produce them) and as the short film industry does not have as much funding and they also lack in conglomerate backing
- Short films rarely include the use of CGI (special effects), this probably stems from the lack of funding
- The main key feature of a short film is the length of the film, each one will normally last around 3 to 10 minutes
- Short films may start with disequilibrium or on the other hand they could follow a completely different idea, but what is clear is that short films don’t have to follow a structure like having a beginning, middle and ending
- Locations are vital in short films to the narrative as they provide representations to the audience about certain characters

A short film will primarily consist of one main plot; this is because of the length of the film and to help the audience understand the plot and reduce the confusion between 2 or 3 plots happening in the space of 3 to 10 minutes. This means a short film cannot develop and lead to a sub plot meaning that the whole of the short film is leading up to the final climax. Flashbacks can be used in short films as a positive impact, they can help keep focus on the protagonists story and relate to less main characters and explain their meaning for being in the film. Although the most important and crucial feature of a short film is keeping the plot as simple as possible, although adding some complexity which does not cause confusion. A basic structure with cleverly added complexity will eventually lead to effective enigmas.

Stereotypes in short films are vital as they aid the audience simplified conceptions of specific individuals/ or social groups. The stereotypes of a character also contribute to the elements of mise en scene around them. If a character has dialect then he or she will portray to the audience what social class they originate from, and provide more background knowledge. The iconography, lighting and decor of the environment the story is told in also have a way unfolding the story.

Distribution of short films is largely different to that of ‘blockbusters’. Feature length films are produced on a high budget and then distributed globally to main stream cinemas; short films however mostly put across a stern point and sometimes educate the audience. They are largely distributed on the internet through the popular site YouTube, film festivals, independent cinemas, and on television (BBC, Film 4).

Psychographics and Advertisers Social Grades

Psychographics
VALS (values, attitudes ad lifestyles) was developed in the USA in the early 1970’s. The original categorisations were:

1. Belongers – traditionalist, cautious and conforming conservatives; “nest builders”; stay-at-homers. Susceptible to advertising of pension plans, house insurance, DIY etc.

2. Emulators – smaller, more impressionable group, often young. Identity seekers. Lacking in self-confidence, confused and vulnerable. Advertisers prey on their insecurities offering them role models, heroes and the reassurance of group acceptance and friendship.

3. Emulator-Achievers – materialists (the yuppies of the 80s), acquisitive consumer; favour designer labels; consumer goods as evidence of accomplishment, success and good taste.

4. societially-conscious achievers: “greying hippies”; children of the 60’s; concerned more with personal rather than professional or financial fulfilment; against conspicuous consumption; the “green” market. Sceptical of advertising.

5. Need-directed – minimum-wage earners or those receiving welfare benefits. Mainly concerned to survive rather than ‘consume’ in the advertisers’ sense. As far as advertisers are concerned, they scarcely exist.

Advertisers Social Grades
A) Upper Middle 4% of population
Higher Managerial, Proffesional and
Administrative
B) Middle 21.9% of population
Intermediate Managerial, Professional
and Administrative
C1) Lower Middle 29% of population
Supervisory, Clerical, Junior Managerial,
Professional Administrative
C2) Skilled Working Class 20.7% of population
Lower Management
D) Working Class excl Skilled 16.2% of population
excl skilled. Semi and Unskilled
E) Lowest Level of Subistance 8.1% of population
State Pensioner, Widows without another person to support them. Casual or owest grade worker

(Figures correct as off 2006)

What is a Short Film?

A Short film is a technical description that originated from the North American film industry in the early years of cinema.

When the concept of a short film first came about they were typically between 20 to 40 minutes long. It wasn’t until years later that the film length of short films started to change.

The change in length came as directors from Europe, Latin America and other countries started to produce them. Now-a-days short films have a duration longer than one minute but shorter than 15 minutes.

The original North American Short Films tended to focus on the character or characters seen within the production, whereas the newer Short films from European directors tend to focus much more on visual drama and plot twists.

Textual Analysis - About a Girl

About a Girl is a nine minute short film that won a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film in 2001 and several film festival awards. It was directed by Brian Percival, a British director who mainly works in television.

About a Girl begins with a silhouette standing in front of a prominent cloudy sky background, you believe the figure to be a girl. As the character begins to sing and dance to the song ‘Stronger’ by Britney Spears you identify that you was right when predicting the figure was that of a girl. As you look at the wide shot of the weather you begin to wonder if the weather is fore shadowing a gloomy event which is about to happen in this girls life. As you listen to the lyrics you begin to realise that they do support that of the shot seen; ‘my loneliness ain’t killing me no more’ is symbolic to the audience that the first shot is showing her isolation and her continued isolation throughout the film. This beginning scene attracts the viewers well enough to keep them captivated to find out what next is going to happen. The captivation of the audience is cleverly done by the director using a strong enigma for the audience to witness.

This is then cut rapidly to a close up of the girl talking in a strong Mancunian accent. This is when it begins to become clear that her monologue is highly relied on by the film for narrating the story. As she carries on walking and talking for a while you see Manchester’s industrial area and a canal, it soon becomes clear that the girl and the canal are the controlling ideas of the short film. In terms of mise en scene the girls costume has clear representation of her being from a working class background and a white British teenager. She wears a white puffa jacket throughout, the colour white representing innocence and gold hoop earrings; an outfit which wouldn’t be thought of as highly fashionable or expensive so yet again reinforcing the idea that she does not come from a high class family. As she continues to walk along the canal she randomly talks about every day things, from quotes of what her parents have said or her dream of becoming a famous pop star, matters that any 13 year old will talk about.

The monologue is interrupted at different times when the director has felt that extra information is needed and a flashback is cleverly used. These range from her singing on the bus with her friends, carrying shopping with her mum and sister, outings with her dad, testing perfumes for her bands ‘image’ and her mum scratching a scratch card; something that represents a dream world that her mum desires, the girls dream of becoming famous may stem from this desire.

We learn that the girl’s parents are now divorced and no longer live together. You begin to realise the girl idolises her father and is seen asking him if she can move in with him, although he does not agree to this she does express that he is interested in her and 'always want to know what I'm up to'. The girl however is mislead and must not truly understand the meaning of somebody being interested in her ‘He takes me to the pub and gets me a coke and a bag of crisps, bless' however we see that she is sat outside a rowdy pub, alone listening to her CD player, this making the audience become sympathetic towards her and leaves a lasting effect on the audience, coincidently ‘stronger’ is playing again. As you see an listen to the girl sing ‘Stronger’ again you begin to think is she trying to persuade herself to do exactly what the song tells her to do ‘You might think that I won't make it on my own but now I'm stronger than yesterday’.

The director obviously wants to leave a clear and almost disturbing message to leave with the audience, the director achieves this with an unexpected event which leaves viewers shocked and keeps them talking over the ending again and again. Quickly at different times during the film you see her carrying a white plastic bag, something you think nothing out of the ordinary, that is until a high angle camera shot reveals her dropping it into the canal; as she throws the bag into the canal it becomes not just not just a controlling idea but however now a main feature of the film. As an underwater shot reveals the plastic bag contained, which we presume to be hers, a dead baby we again presume that she was incapable of looking after him/her so decided to dispose of him/her. You than realise she is influenced by people around her as her mother threw the puppy she found hidden in her sisters room into the canal and now she has thrown the dead baby into the same place. At the beginning of the monologue the girl talks about disposing of dental floss into the toilet, later the dog into the canal and now the dead baby, slowly the importance of the object increases each time.

Doodle Bug

From a black silent screen the words Doodle Bug appear with eyes shifting from left to right taking on the position of the two o’s presenting to the audience the title of the film. The shifty eyes and still silent sound alongside the colours shown within the frame instantly give the audience a creepy and supernatural feel to the genre of the film. The slow introduction of eerie music combined with the fade into the shot of a half dressed man crouched over clenching a shoe, this reinforces the idea that an unknown act is going to happen in the film with the final result having a negative impact on the character. The zoom out allows the audience to view the characters surroundings, the compact, claustrophobic room instinctively give the audience reasoning as to why the man is crouched, yet with the sudden leap to the ground it could suggest his animal instinct is coming in to play as he is preying on an unknown object. When he leaps up clenching the shoe to his chest he switches roles from the hunter to the hunted, as his body language suggest that there is something he fears. The slow pan again makes the audiences view limited, unknowingly creating them to feel as if they too are being preyed upon. As the clock ticks the tension and suspense within the shot begins to rapidly increase, the ticking may symbolise the countdown till something dreadful happens to the man. As each sound is dramatically enhanced the anticipation felt by the audience increases in conjunction with it, this is having an obvious effect on the male as he becomes progressively frantic within all his actions. The audience then become confused as he sits in the corner fearfully. When he reveals the smaller version of himself the viewer is then able to quickly to work out a small fragment of the story forcing them in to a false sense of security. The death of the small man shocks the audience as they are able to see the unthinkable truth. The never ending cycle is one that has been so creatively done in a sense that the audience are unaware of the outcome till the very end, allowing it to have a huge impact on the viewer through a combination of shock horror surprise and sadness for the male, as he signs for his own death.

Evaluation of our AS Blog

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