Target Audience

Institutions Research

About a girl was produced by Brian Percival and Eight was produced by Working Title Films. Working title films is currently a division of Universal studios having originally been run by Polygram, Eight was produced whilst under Polygram. Brian Percival produced and directed About A Girl, Percival is an award winning director and many of his works have been critically acclaimed including About A Girl for which he won best British short film. Because Percival doesn’t work for a specific company he has been able to make many mini-series and has even directed several episodes of Downton Abbey.  

Working Title make many short films and they also produce feature films, I think that Working Title Films would be a perfect company to produce my short film because have extensive experience in the field and would be able to strongly publicise the film. 

Music Mania - AS Project - Skills Development

This is my finished magazine from my AS course. Although i was pleased with the finished article at the time looking back there are some points that i could have improved on and i aim to show that in my A2 work. I feel that my front page was my best piece of work out of the three images shown, but i think that i could have done much better with my contents page the images i picked arent coherent and two of them don't even look like they should be in a music magazine. I feel that i could have done better with my double page spread but over all i am happy with the final product.  

A2 Preliminary Task - Room Decor

This is my preliminary task. Although i feel that the finished video was good i think that it would have been better if i had taken a few differently angled shots. 

Mood Boards

 This is my mood board showing my brain storming of ideas in order to come up with a suitable stimulus for my project. By using the mood board i was able to look at which ideas would be more practical.

 This is my mood board showing the expansion of the idea that i think will be best to do for my project. i have looked at what i would do as part of the film and where i have derived some of my ideas, i have also looked at specifics for the filming.

A Thousand Miles - Deconstruction

The main reason that I wanted to deconstruct this music video is because of the wide range of camera angles and the dynamic camera set up. All of the video is shot using a wide angled lens and I feel that this is a very interesting because most music videos are either shot in a cinematic view or have all of the shot taken up by the artist while here only half of the shot is taken up for 90% of the video. Also the diverse use of scenery appealed to me because I intend to use many different locations when filming my project, I would like to use many different camera angles like the angles used in this video and I would strongly consider using a wider angled lens like the one used here.

The music video starts with a shot of the inside of a garage with a blue and white clothe a red drum and several cupboards and shelves. Carlton then walks in and removes the blue cloth and reveals a piano underneath, Carlton sits on the piano stool and the camera starts moving backwards and she starts playing the piano. Obviously to get this effect the camera has been positioned on the back of a car or van while the piano is on a trailer being pulled by the vehicle, this is filmed in a medium shot. After the camera has pulled away from the house, Carlton is shot in a medium close up still traveling on the trailer going along a suburban street as she is going along she starts singing. The camera then zooms in on the piano keys to watch Carlton playing, as it zooms back out the vehicle has stopped and Carlton is outside of a children’s birthday party with a bouncy castle the camera slowly starts to track across as if to take your attention to the party before stopping and then starting to track back to the side of the piano.

The scene jumps and the camera is still in the same position before it pans across the piano moving toward the back, as it approaches the back it starts to move to a higher angled shot before we get a perspective shot of the piano keys with Carlton still playing. For the next 15 seconds the shot jumps back and forth between medium close up shots of Carlton from the side and the back of the piano, there are also two scenes where there is a boy on a trampoline behind her and a group of bikers riding along what looks like a mountainous road. In the next scene the trailer had been removed from the car and the piano is in front of a piece of public art which is made up of registration plates and hub caps from car wheels, while this contrasts with the mountainous background I think in this scene in particular the director has wanted to show how beautiful both can be. As the scene goes back to the camera on the back of the car we get another medium close up from a slightly higher angle, as the scene moves on unlike the other scenes the piano is stopped in the middle of the road and the bikers ride past.

As the song becomes more melancholy the camera brings into view a group of joggers, obviously moving more slowly than the bikers and so mimicking the tempo of the song. The piano is then moved into the city where we see Carlton outside of a shop where the camera zooms in on her face before eventually zooming out to a high angle shot. Because the song is quite upbeat I think that the director has made a conscious decision to make the video look happy film while the sun was shining and have the people in it look like they are having fun. The video follows the lyrics of the song like a plot and so when there is a more upbeat point in the song the video jumped from scene to scene quickly but when it becomes more melancholy the scenes become longer. 

About a Girl (2001) Short Film Deconstruction

About A Girl starts with an establishing shot of the girl standing in a filed, dancing and singing with a dusky evening sky as the backdrop. The scene then rapidly jumps to the girl walking along a path; she breaks the 4^th wall and directly addresses the camera.

      Most of the film is shot using a handheld camera so it gives the effect that you are there or a POV shot of whoever she is talking to, it is all shot in a dingy, grim looking town as the girls walks along the canal side. The girl is dressed in a typical ‘chav’ style with her hoop earrings, Nike puffer jacket, jeans and trainers. She seems like she is poor and ill educated particularly in the way that she speaks, she’s only 13 but she still doesn’t speak using any complicated words and she swears a bit too, she also speaks in an accent representative of the north west. Throughout the film there are quick jumps where the girl finishes speaking and then starts on a different point almost as if the jumps are mimicking her speech or as if it is showing that she cant stick to the one point at a time, showing a child like attention span.

     

There aren’t any sound effects used all of the sound is digetic and naturally occurring, it is edited so that it cuts across from her point to a scene which backs up her point. The editing backs up the stereotype of the girl as it cuts to scenes of her being disrespectful to her parents, a shop assistant and her friends, it could show that she has issues with authority brought on from a rough childhood. You get the impression that she either doesn’t get treat well by or just generally doesn’t get on with her mam as she constantly refers to her negatively but whilst she does this she speaks patronistically about her dad she makes fun of him but she stills seems to prefer him. It seems though that her mam lacks any real power, we get an over the shoulder shot of the mam looking toward the girl and it seems like she is being represented as being on a lower level to the girl.

       

There are a few things from this film that I would use in my project but there are also some things that I do not like and wouldn’t use, firstly I like the effect given by the girl walking along the canal and talking directly into the camera I think that it Is a very effective style. I also like the way in which the director has edited the film so that every time the girl makes a point it cuts to a scene which backs up the point.       

      

It seems as if the director is trying to make a point about not only the girl that we see but about young girls on council estates and council estates in general. As the girl walks along the canal looking sad she walks past 2 lads who are fishing she says that they wont catch anything so one of the lads sticks his finger up at her rather than getting on with it, this also furthers the message to the audience that the council estate is a rough place and an unsafe place for the girl to be. Towards the end the girl talks about getting a dog that her mam had the neighbours drown in the canal, during the scene as the camera tracks the girl it cuts to a reaction shot of her looking sad and dejected in reference to the dog. 

The girl throws a carrier bag into the canal saying that she is good at hiding things, the bag unfurls and a dead baby floats out and then the girl says that she is going to get an ice cream, she seems completely unfazed by what she has done. I feel that this is because the director was trying to put across a message that the girl not knowing any better than to get rid of something she doesn’t want, can end in grim consequences and so adults should be careful what they do especially on a rough estate.    

Eight (1998) Short Film Deconstruction

Eight starts with an establishing pan across a beach, with a violin playing in the background. The camera pans across to a football before pulling to a high angle shot of a boy who kicks the ball into the air, he then starts shouting ‘my name is Jonathan and I am eight’ you can see straight away that he is just like any young boy, covered in mud and dust with his trainers on and his shorts and imitation Liverpool shirt on. In the next scene he also has a plastic sheet, a net and an oar. He speaks with the typical zeal that a child would with great energy and speed but his speech is mature for his age as the camera tracks and zooms in on Jonathan along the beach he starts listing a timeline to build up his story.

        In the next scene as he sits at the dinner table with a polo shirt on we get deceived by him because he speaks in such a mature manner, you think that he is about to burst out with a revelation about his dad but rather the camera pans across to a plant pot he tells us that his dad was a flower person, there is no natural lighting in the house instead it is dimly lit by house lights. As the next scene starts we see a contrast between the room in Jonathans house and the room in Terry’s house it seems more modern and it seems like there is more money and effort involved in the making up of the room. 

To show how much the football means to the boys they are almost exclusively seen wearing football shirts and whilst in Terry’s home they re-watch England vs Argentina on tape celebrating the goals as if the match was live. We then see the boys running along the promenade with the camera tracking them from the other side of the road, they are carrying a cone, stereo and rope. Jonathon is then seen on a make shift football pitch on the beach from an establishing shot, as he plays match commentary from the England match, we see another establishing shot of the garden this time before it cuts away to a scene of Jonathon hiding his football and shirt in the shed. We see how much he values the shirt as he meticulously folds it and puts it away in a suit case for protection before his mam comes in and takes it. We get a true understanding of Jonathon’s view on his mam as he imitates her telling him to get a hobby before we get three clips of him doing so. Although he respects his mam and loves her he also loves football as it is the last thing he has to link to his father, we see a high angle shot of his mam standing on the path as he looks down on her. You can see by the way she is dressed that they don’t have much money as she wears a grey cardigan, black trousers and trainers. It then cuts back across the room to Jonathon’s t-shirt, a new shirt he is colouring in to replace his other one. 

We see Jonathon and terry at the promenade again and we get to see his attempts of getting a new dad because his mam is struggling to get one for him, we see Jonathon and terry at their school as the camera zooms out to show them sitting in their uniform as Jonathon gets upset with terry for saying that his dad was a caretaker. 

We than see the true nature of the message being put across as Jonathon sits by himself playing subbueto, he tells us that he never knew his dad because he died at a football match before he was born. “He wasn’t playing or nottin’ he was just watching” before it cuts back to Jonathon on the beach where he say “That’s all…just watching” by this point the sky is turning black and the shot across the beach re-enforces the melancholy tone enforcing an empathetic effect. Jonathon goes on to say with a sad tone in his voice “before that he was an astronaut” as he is kneeling down he starts singing ‘you’ll never walk alone’ before the violin starts again and Jonathon say “Goodbye” it is unclear though if Jonathan is saying goodbye to the audience or whether he is saying goodbye to his dad. 

          Eight focuses on Jonathon’s struggle to come to terms with his dads death in the Hillsborough disaster and how his connection to football and Liverpool F.C keeps his dad with him always.