Research & Planning

More PowerPoint presentations from Hester Mary Teasdale

Blog Task 4

Blog Task 5

I'm Here

I would classify the genre of ‘I’m Here’ to be romantic drama as it tells a story of two robots that live in a world together with people which tells us a bit about what the film represents and could possibly be about the future of robots. The main character Sheldon plays a character that lives a boring normal life however as the story goes on it begins to become more of the romantic genre as he meets a girl robot which you can tell he cares for very much because he gives up his own robotic parts too her when she looses an arm and a leg and when she is close to dying. I would describe the girl as more outgoing and confident then Sheldon and give him something to live for in the film as they did a lot of things together for example they went to a music concert together.  Sheldon was the total opposite of the girl as he seemed more shy and very kind as he would always greet people on the bus and be nice even though he didn’t know them. There was evidence of prejudice as the robots seemed to be more of the ‘poor class’ and the humans to be of a ‘higher class’ as in the film the robots were not allowed to drive cars and one lady in the film starts shouting at the girl robot saying she wasn’t allowed to be driving as if there was lack of respect for the robots and as if the humans didn’t trust them. I would summarize the story to be very cute. The girl robot seemed to live every day as if it was her last and very inconsiderate as she lost her arm and her leg which Sheldon happily gave up for her. This showed how loving their relationship was and showed how much they cared for each other. In the ending I thought it seemed to end on a sad note as the girl robot was left outside in a wheelchair holding Sheldon’s head. This suggests to me there isn’t a lot of hope for Sheldon and they were left on there own which seemed very sad. However overall I thought the film was very unusual but a good story of how the girl robot gave Sheldon a purpose to his life by her being in it. I think the audience for ‘I’m Here’ could be aimed at a broad range of people as it had no particular age range to the story however I wouldn’t say it was for younger children as I don’t think they would quite understand the meaning of the story as there is evidence of prejudice and a children audience would not understand this. I think Absolute sponsored 'I'm Here' maybe to suggest the uniqueness of the product like in the short film the robots stand out against the humans because they are different and new to the world. This could suggest that absolute is a different product not like the rest and to imply that it is a lot better then other products like it and encourage people and the audience of 'I'm Here' to buy the product. In addition the audience of 'I'm Here' could be similar to absolute and the managers of the product might want it to be sponsored by the short film to attract the same audiences.

A Favour - Review (Written Version)

The short film ‘A Favour’ is one which I had to speculate whether I liked it or not and I decided that it’s not one of my favourites, not because of the storyline as I think it’s an original, creative and simple idea, but because there was not much emotion involved in the scenes and in a completely personal view, just wasn’t keen on the whole mise-en-scene and camerawork of the short. It starts with the split-screen narratives of two contrasting families of a White British Male and a religious, Jewish European male. As the audience, we are placed on neither side as for yet and are being told this story through subjective character identification and in terms of narrative range; it is a restricted narration as we do not know the point of plot until the last scene. It could be seen as an episodic narrative as at first we think these two families are apparently disconnected but come together in normal circumstances, but as the end of plot reveals for the wrong reasons in terms of the white male. The first scenes include the contrasting moving images of two normal families completing what seems their normal morning routine so personally I wasn’t gripped at the start which I believe is essential as it is what makes the audience intrigued and interested. There was a mix of camerawork involving angles and movement, flicking from one to another, which I thought, was good as it was presenting just the average, rushed, family morning. In the car park scene, I thought although the diegetic music helped add realism, it was quite distracting as to focus on the significance of the conversation when these two males meet, as the audience suspect they are connected in some way and wish to make interpretations about how the plot will unfold.

Touch - Review (Written Version)

The short film ‘Touch’ was my favourite; it presented the life of a loved-up couple told through the touching of hand. The genre is mainly romance but can also be a hybrid as it involves loss of love one, appealing to the emotions and introducing sadness. The narrative is told through objective character identification as the story begins with a close-up of an elderly woman’s closed eyes which then from a quick fact cut, develops the story of two people falling in love and we as the audience follow their life in chronological order in the form of a montage of moving images. In every ones of these videos, there is the theme oh holding/touching hands, which is shown to present different emotions, such as love, courage, sadness and friendship. In Todorov’s narrative theory, there is a stable state of equilibrium throughout this short film, with positive disruptions, such as the lady giving birth. There is the recurring motif of the same close-up of the woman’s eyes to remind the audience she is remembering her past through flashback images, which is called an anachronic narrative in terms of Allan Cameron’s modular narrative types. There are also negative disruptions such as when she is holding her husband’s hand during his final moments, which is a sensitive scene, and we as the audience can’t help but feel sympathy for the woman who we have been placed with. In terms of camera works, there is evidence of hand-held work to add to the realism, as well as a good range of angles to show the significance of some scenes, for example when he proposed it was a high angle and through clever editing was coupled with close-ups of tracking the hands, mixed with a fast cut to the actual wedding. In addition, there were numerous transitions of mid-shots to show their emotions and the reason I think this film was successful was the huge range of different angles, sizes, transitions and editing to create a bigger effect. To again highlight the motif of hands, in some scenes, editing has been used to blur the rest of image but to remain sharp focus of hands, which helps be in keeping with the originality of the short.
For sound, there is a continuous simple, piano instrumental that is used to connote different emotions to go with every single scene. The purity of the music could represent the simple gift of love and family. I believe that the characterisation was really effective and the characters, both the younger couple, the old woman and at the end the decorator and her granddaughter; all presented that of normal people; making it easier to relate to them. The lighting was use differently for each scene, for example it was bright, sharp and high-key for the start of them falling in love which juxtaposes with the dark low-key lighting in her husband’s death, portraying the emotions of the characters; the whole mise-en-scene contributed to the atmosphere of the different videos and the versatility of what was happening in each scene. I liked how the plot ended with the same process of the start of her Grandmother’s relationship and what seems a new couple meeting for the first time and holding hands, showing how the process will start again in the form of a new family, leaving the ending open to imagination and interpretations; it’s the circle of life and a continuous narrative; this is what I think is most effective in terms of short films and why I chose this one as my favourite.