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Mix-tape

This film is the winner of the virgin media shorts competition 2009, and another one of my favourites, not many people I don't think will get this film, however I see that this film says a lot more than it seems, a little boy with a crush on what seems to be his best friend and he makes her an old cassette mix-tape because she likes the music, she puts it on and he can hear it as they live next door, and then it turns into some sort of music video, yet again the narrative is so simple but yet effective, its not particularly that clever but enjoyable, the music choice in this film makes it what it is as it is upbeat yet old music, feel good music. A little bit of dialogue to introduce the narrative and some very clever camera work and shot types.

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The Black Hole

This video from the 2008 virgin media shorts competition is a favourite short film of mine, although this film is not as amateur as you would expect which is the reason why it is good, you still cannot take away the fact that it is a brilliant yet simple idea which is how short films should be, a simple narrative with no complex dialogue or head splitting twists, it is interesting, funny almost and has great effects.

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Baby bus

I really liked this video because it is controversial, it also deals with a topic which is very common in this country, it is a very short film lasting less than two minutes, but yet is very powerful, the animation of the babies mouth moving whilst speaking to his mother was impressive and also the script written for the baby seemed really professional and believable. Although you could only hear the voice and not see the actor himself, his voice made a real impact and gripped me straight away, he was the reason the video was so powerful.

Short film research

Encounters short film festival - http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/ - Encounters International Film Festival is the umbrella title for two of the UK's leading film festivals Brief Encounters and Animated Encounters, with a host of cross-over attractions, at venues in and around the Harbourside area of Bristol, UK.

London film festival - http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/- The London Short Film Festival, the city’s most expansive and radically explosive film festival.With over 200 short films, LSFF’s programme is exclusively with the work of Britain’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers.

Virgin media short film festival - http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/ - Virgin Media Shorts is all about shining a light on Britain's best film makers and giving them the biggest possible arena to showcase their work. the top 12 films will be shown on 214 cinema screens across the UK. And one lucky winner could walk off with up to £30,000 and the chance to work direct with the UK Film Council and Virgin Media to shoot their next film.

Why are short films good for directors and film creators?

Short films are a starting point for new talent in the film making industry. It lets production companies see what talent is out there. It is good for directors to show off their talent, it gives them their big break. Spike Jonze, Joe Nussbaum, Alex Merkin and even high acclaimed director Martin Scorsese used short film to get himself recognised.

Short films by these directors

Spike Jonze - "Im here", "How they get there"

Joe Nussbaum - "George Lucas in Love"

Martin Scorsese - "Versuvius VI", "Its not just you Murray"

Alex Merkin - "Across the hall" (original short film)

  

These are the posters for the short films, "I'm here", "Across the hall", and "George Lucas in love". You can see from the posters that they are not produced by Hollywood and are quite amateurish and low budget, they seem raw and the picture on the poster is the most important thing, unlike a Hollywood poster which mainly concentrates on the stars on the poster and the title of the film.
The "I'm here" poster shows that the film is about a romance, yet also a futuristic fantasy hybrid as well due to the robots. The "Across the hall" poster shows that it is a film full of suspense, a thriller slash action hybrid, with the character hiding or looking as if he is going to pounce on the other character, with the character sweating shows that their has been some action. The "George Lucas in love" shows there is a comedy aspect with the vague expression on the George Lucas character, and the small man drinking tea and the obese character sat eating. It is meant to seem quite serious but clearly this impression is not given, the cartoon style pictures gives an innocence and shows that it is not serious.

                                                                                        

Across the Hall

Differences between the theatrical trailer of the hollywood adaptation and the original short film trailer

 The theatrical trailer has a complete narrative, just form the trailer you can gather a lot about what the films is about, it is a short film within itself. It gets you interested by showing the basics of the what the film is about without giving too much away. In this trailer, it uses fast cutting from scene to scene, it has some action packed thrilling moments to get the viewer gripped, with slow, dramatic music packed with bass, to intensify the trailer.
Compared to the theatrical trailer of the hollywood adaptation of the original short film, this trailer gives you exactly the same information on what the film is about with similar droning music, despite being half as long and using only a few scenes, so in actual fact the theatrical trailer excessively uses scenes, which arent needed.
I believe the short film trailer is actually better because it seems more raw and gritty rather than the glamorous look of the hollywood film. It is shorter and gets straight to the point, it gets me interested straight away.



Across the Hall Theatrical Trailer from Fivelion Productions on Vimeo.


Across the Hall (Short Film) Trailer from Gary Gimelfarb on Vimeo.

Viral marketing strategies

Films of this generation have become more than just films, before a film is released films often create a fan a base which boosts the interest in the film using viral marketing. I have three examples of this which had very successful campaigns:



The Dark Knight



The Blair witch project

Cloverfield

 

These three films are recognised for the viral marketing campaigns, The Dark Knight although it is a batman film, the film focused more on the joker, before the film was released a fictional place was newspaper was created called the gotham times, which is where most people know the batman character is situated. This started the mystery and the craze which is the joker. A website was created and games placed on the website where people have to collect clues. people were giving masks to run around the fictional gotham city looking like the joker. It got so far where people were able to phone a man acting as the joker, cakes were delivered to peoples houses with moblie phones hidden inside and a number in icing on the cake, all these activities created such a hype for the film before it was even released and generated money, as with the power of the media, people became engaged and it became more than just a film.

The Blair witch project viral campaign was one of the first of its kind, before its release in america in 1999, Posters and news stories were printed showing that three college students had gone missing, thus making people believe that in fact all of this was real and not fictional, people believed that the footage and the events happening on screen were real, and the three students had died and were in fact actors. This film with a budget of $20,000 to $25,000, generated over $200,000,000 world wide. Even when it was discovered that the film was a hoax people still wanted to see it because of its already very popular status. Cloverfield is one of the most modern viral campaigns and one of the biggest, the website was very successful with people signing up to try and discover what in fact caused all the destruction in the film, it was kept a mystery, it made people eager to see it, if people knew what the film was about before viewing it, it would not have generated as much money, the mystery sold the film, this is a prime example of what a viral campaign does and how they can be successful. Other examples include paranormal activity, district 9, super 8.