Short Film Research

1. STAGE 2
RESEARCH +
EXPERIMENTS
Charlie Atkin

2. 11
2
3
1
Favourite Part Of A Movie
Story
Camera Work
Editing
Music

3. 6
6
3
2
Ages Of My Survey Partakers
16
17
18
19

4. 6
7
3
2
Favourite Platform To Watch Films On
Netflix
Illegal Sites
Cinema
Television

5. 10
7
Genders Of My Survey Takers
Male
Female

6. 1
2
5
5
1
1
1
1
Genders Of My Survey Takers
Thriller Fantasy
Action Comedy
Horror Sci-Fi
Drama Musical

7. Thor: Ragnarok: Production
The Matrix

8.  Research viewing figures, sales figures, demographic and psychographic info.
Look up article, features or stories related to your potential audience
Edge of Tomorrow
Happy Death Day

9. My primary audience research showed me that a majority of the people who
enjoyed horror where around the age of 16 – 20, it also showed me that people who
enjoyed my short film idea where also around the same age so from my primary
research I found out that my target audience is gender neutral and around the age
of 16 to 20.
My secondary research showed me that a majority of people who enjoyed films that
were similar to mine were in the age of 16 to 20, most of the secondary research I
did showed me that my primary research was very accurate and that my primary
research data was valid.

10. U – Suitable for everyone, suitable for audiences aged 4 or over. U films should be
set within a positive framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any
violence, threat or horror.
PG – A PG film shouldn’t unsettle a child aged around eight or older.
Unaccompanied children of any age may watch but parents are advised to consider
whether the content may upset their child
12/12A – No one younger than 12 may see a 12 unless accompanied by an adult.
Adults planning on taking a child to a 12A film should consider whether or not the
film is suitable.
15 – No one aged younger than 15 may see a 15 in a cinema.
18 – Suitable only for adults
R18 – The R18 category is a special and legally-restricted classification primarily for
explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults.

11. I believe my film will be at the most a 15 or a 12 at most, because it very difficult to
get a U rating as anything could upset a child and I don’t think I would put in a
counterbalance.
This short film could unsettle a child aged eight or over as there is a horror plot that
some children could find scary so I don’t think that my short film would be valid to be
a PG.
The short film could classify as a 12/12a but I think that I would play it safe and rate
my short film as a 15 so that it doesn’t effect anyone of the younger age. This then
also means I have a lot of freedom when it comes to shooting my movie and the
editing of the short film.
I don’t think that my film would need to be rated 18 or R18 because there is nothing
that could cause my film to be rated that highly.

12.  Research potential production techniques you might want to use
or feel would be most appropriate – these can be related to
camera, editing, story, sound, etc
 You should look at a minimum of 3 related products in your
research.
 You should collect clips/still images/how to guides/etc that might
help you. When watching scenes from films, etc you could also
ask potential target audience what they think.
 You will need to add extra slides!
 With each technique you should assess whether you can use it or
how you might employ or why you may want to disregard it
completely

13. Birds Eye View – This shot is
very powerful, as it can give the
viewer exposition as to where
they are and it helps to show
everything in the scene, this lets
the viewer understand the Mise
En Scene so they can
understand what is happening in
the upcoming shots. This shot
also makes the viewer feel
omnipotent and powerful, this is
why this shot is also known as a
God’s Eye Shot.

14. A J Cut is where the audio from
the next shot starts in the current
shot, I could use this when my
character has woken up for the
3rd or 4th time, when they are
confused they could begin to
hear the alarm going off again
even though they have stopped
the alarm. Then the character
suddenly wakes up again. The
audio carrying over would imply
that the character knows what is
happening.

15. Canted angle is mainly used to
portray psychological uneasiness
or tension, I could use this and
increase the tilt each time my
character wakes up as they will
become more and more
confused each time they wake up
and the Dutch Tilt will help to
portray this easier than my
character saying they are
disoriented.

16. EXPERIMENTS
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
Be prepared to add extra slides

17. During filming for the test film I was acting so a lot of the filming
control was out of my hands. But we used a Canon 700d and
an 18 – 55mm lens to record the footage, when it came to
camera operation we handed the camera to Randall, me and
Leon helped to point Randall on where to put the camera for it
to make sense in the scene, so we could also focus the
camera on the main character in shot. So we would put the
camera on one side of the corridor when we wanted to focus
on Leon and on the other side when it was focusing on us. And
on the shots where we needed to get me, Leon and Jude we
used the corner, this allowed us to have the two sides of the
corridor and also allowed us to have the camera showing me,
Leon and Jude in frame.

18. Overall I do not believe that what we achieved what I am looking to
achieve as in the final video we only had low angle shots tilting up
to our faces and level shots that had no tilt at all, we also did not
use any Dutch tilt or a natural lighting, there is only a dark shot
because the lights hadn’t turned on yet.

19. During the editing process I only used on transition so that I could get
a feeling on how they work and how they look between some shots
and which shots look better with transitions and which look better
without. The editing process was mainly used to cut down the around
7 minutes of footage into a 60 second short film, getting the footage
down to the 60 second mark was difficult and having more transitions
in the film would have extended the film even more. In this editing I
didn’t experiment with colour grading, so hopefully in the short film I
will be able to colour grade the film and add a darker tone to the film
and maybe a subtle grain.

20. Elements of my experiments that I would keep would be the
shortening of all of the footage down into the time restraints and the
use of minimal transitions as I think they might take away from the
suspense that a jump cut or a cut on action might create. I think I
will also use colour grading to add a darker overtone to the film and
a grain will add a subtle texture to the flats that might be in my
shots.

21. During the audio process I learnt about the Foley process and how the
Foley process works. I learnt that the footage is silenced and then in a
studio environment Foley Artists recreate the specific sound effects that
are needed for the shot, such as footsteps, they can either record these
noises as what they actually are or they can recreate them with
something similar, such as horses running which can be recreated with
cups getting hit against each other. For this task I used opening a door
inside college and the sound of the door sounded very similar to the
sound a fridge would make when being opened. Whereas for the sound
effects such as footsteps and running we actually just recorded normal
footsteps and running.

22. I would like to use Foley in my short film as it can enhance the
video as I can add small sound effects in the background that you
wouldn’t be able to hear normally such as eerie sounds in the
background, and it can also enhance the video even more such as
when the phone assistant is activated, that sound probably
wouldn’t have been heard so with Foley I can add this sound over
the top and make it so it is heard.

23. Time – Time may be a restraint as I don’t believe I can shoot any of my needed
scenes within college time so it may be difficult to arrange times for a crew around
college times and around work.
Personnel – Some people may fall ill or they may become injured making it difficult
to record and do stuff on my own.
Cost – I don’t believe that the video will cost me anything but if it does I don’t believe
it will be a big problem.
Technical – I don't think that we will have any technical problems but if we do we will
be able to resolve the issues with our knowledge of the equipment and if we are
having major issues we will be able to find a solution on the internet
Location – I believe that the only issue with the location is some people may have
issues travelling to and from the location if it is not a college day.
Organisational – Organisational wise I believe I will be able to organize a day when
everyone isn’t busy so we don’t have a time restraint and take as many takes of the
footage as we need