After looking at both types of brainstorming and the methods behind them I have decided to use the mind mapping technique. i decided on this technique as I have used it many times before and have produced many good ideas because of this method.
I shall produce an online version of my mind map instead of a hand drawn version.
What Is A Rico Cluster?: "Clustering can help writers to make their creative right and analytic left brain hemispheres work together. During the clustering process, the right hemisphere runs wild. When reviewing the cluster, the left hemisphere puts the ideas in order and turns them into a coherent text."
This quote explains the basic idea of clustering and how it works.
What Do You Need To Cluster?:
•a big sheet of paper (plain works best), •pens in different colours and •at least 10 minutes without interruptions - the longer the better.
How Do You Cluster?:
•Write a word in the middle of the sheet of paper and circle it. •Write down the first thing that comes to mind next to it, circle it and connect the two circles with a line. •Write down the next thing you associate either with the word in the middle or your first association. Draw a line to the circle it is connected to. •Keep repeating this process. As you add more words and phrases, you might find that they connect to more than just one circle. Draw lines to all circles. •Don't censor your associations. Write down anything that comes up. •By adding words and phrases and linking them to other circles, you will create a web of connected ideas. •Once you filled the page or when you feel you've put down enough associations, review your cluster. Mark ideas that belong together in the same colour, cross out ideas that don't seem to be related to anything else and identify the order in which you want to present the ideas. This is essentially an outline of your story or article.
As you can see this process is slightly longer than mind mapping. Also you may not be guaranteed many ideas on your first attempt.
What Is Mind Mapping?: "A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps structuring information, helping you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas."
"A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing."
These two quotes summarise what a mind map is and does but what are the benefits of mind mapping?:
•Presenting information •Gaining insight on complex subjects •Jogging your creativity
How Do We Create A minmap: There Are Three Simple Steps:
•Start in the middle of a blank page, writing or drawing the idea you intend to develop. I would suggest that you use the page in landscape orientation. •Develop the related subtopics around this central topic, connecting each of them to the center with a line. •Repeat the same process for the subtopics, generating lower-level subtopics as you see fit, connecting each of those to the corresponding subtopic.
Final Thoughts:
Mind maps are nice and simple to create and are very useful as they can jog your memory of things you may have forgotten about.
This website reviews all of the latest short films and has links to them this should be great for helping my research. As you can see the website is reviewing films at a previous film festival in the horror genre. I will look at all of the Genre's the website reviews before making my final decision on the genre I want to base my short film.
I have been analysing short films and what they contin as well as planning to create a short film however I have not actually looked up what makes a short film a short film. This is what I have found:
"any film that has a duration longer than one minute and shorter than 15 minutes." "Come in a variety of genres from comedy to thriller"
"The definition dilemma arises when we overlook the fact that short film is not a genre description or category but rather a generic term used ever since the early days of cinema to describe all possible forms and genres of film. What makes short film interesting, though, is not its reduction to an indistinguishable format, but above all its hybrid variety. In the short film, elements of early cinema live on into the present."
"It encompasses both black-and-white and hand-coloured films, documentaries, fiction, experimental films, animation, dramas and melodramas, thrillers and horror films, slapstick and comedy, as well as commercials, cultural and educational films and artists films."
This short film was made in 2007 and shot in Melbourne Victoria, Australia by director Lucas Crandles and was released through the company dark heart productions. They won the Melbourne Film Award:
Camera: – distance, angle, movement: Opening variety of close ups, long shots, variety of midshot’s, low angles high angles: The variety of shots and angles show the conversation and who is controlling who where the man in the white is being offered money to push the button and kill someone and the other man in black says if he does not he will be allowed to leave however he will never see the button again. This is cleverly shot with a variety of shots and the use of the variety of shots keep the audience in suspense at what the main characters decision is going to be. The narrative moves forward quickly where we are automaticly introduced into a senario where as a normal film would have taken a lot longer to set the scene and characters. The use of camera is effective because it allows us to establish exactly who is good and who is evil as well as luring the audience in to keep them guessing.
Editing: – speed, style…: Cutting, fading out from titles: The pace of the piece is very fast and keeps the audience in suspense where the conversation is always cut to and from each character adding this tension between them and keeping the viewers interested. The fading out from the titles reinforces this idea of religion and heaven etc as we connote white with heaven and black with death. The editing is faster than a feature film because of the cange in length however shots still last long enough for the audience to undertsand what is going on.
Sound: – effects, musical score…:Digetic and non digetic sounds: The conversation is shot in a cleaver way because the character in white speaks really fast however the character in black speaks very slowly and clearly. This reinforces the idea of control in the situation as the man in black is not under any pressure however the man in white is forced to take a life changing decision. There is the use of synchronous tension music playing in the background of the piece which helps reinforce the suspense of the piece and in a way helping fasten the pace as it gets louder and quiter at various points throughout the film. Mise-en-scene: – props, costume, setting, lighting, colour…:The use of the black briefcase, the dark desk and black chair and the black button, white background, white door. The use of mise en scene in this piece is interesting because the whole seen is shot in a white background and the door is also painted white, this instantly gives the idea of heaven and good and as we find out in the end of the extract the door did lead to the path of good, however when the man explains that he wants the lawyer to kill someone this illusion fades instantly. Also the characters clothing is smart here because the man in the white is being asked to kill someone and is innocent (white is iconic for innocence) and the man in black (can be iconic for evil/ the devil) is asking him to kill and is not innocent. The director has followed the stereotypes of good and bad here. Finally the use of props in the scene helps add tension and show who is in control in this conversation. They also are symbolic for death e.g. the black chair, the black button and black briefcase where to do with death and greed to see if the man would fall to tempatation Where the button and briefcase can have both positive and negative connotations and the desk and chair show the idea of power and control and even blackmail. At the end it is revealed that the connotations are correct and that the white door leads to heaven and that the black button leads to hell which follows stereotypes of life and death.
Titles: – font, colour, placement, over black / over clip…:A quote from the Corinthians in black text on a white background. The use of the black text on a white background is symbolic for religion light and darkness good and evil etc and the use of the quote from the Corinthians is an indexical sign for religion and god and a higher power possibly even the devil.
Annimated French Spoof of The matrix and winner of a number of short film awards:
Camera: – distance, angle, movement…: Establishing extreme long shots, long shots mid shots close ups, high angles, tracking,panning, zooming and low angles:The variety of shots help establish the futuristic, sci fi genre of the piece, there are a variety of shots from els of the dark alley where we begin to close ups of the rat in the iconic glasses and suit with superpowers as seen in the matrix movies. The short film also uses the same green computer coding to change the scenes or settings similar in the movie, which shows the similarities between both films. The use of the dark city shown in long shots and the rat in close ups suggests that he runs this city and because of the mise en scene used the city is shown as a dangerous place. We also see a few close ups of a chicken with a basket of eggs and we connote this as she is innocent because we assume that she is the mother. There are also variety of angles especially on both th rat and the chicken the rat is shown in lower angles which connotes importance and power in the extract however the chicken is shot from high angles connoting weakness and possibly even helplessness. The use of zooming also helps show which characters are important good bad etc. Finally the use of tracking and panning helps speed the pace of the extract and keeps the audience interested and in suspense. overall there are a similar number of angls shots and effects used in this short film as there are in scenes from real feature films.
Editing: – speed, style: cutting,fading,The symbolic computer programming, slow motion: The use of the symbolic computer programming helps the audience to establish genre as a sci fi as well as adding suspense to the piece. The use of the variety of cuts adds a fast pace to the scene as well as adding suspense and tension especially if the rat is fighting or flying etc making the rat the main character and clear hero of the story. Finally the use of slow motion is also used the same way as it is used in the matrix films themselves. This keeps the audience in suspense and interested and helps show different angles of characters e.g. rat slow mo in mid air about to punch shows power and control where as slow mo of chicken falling also shows weakness etc. Overall the use of editing is pretty similar and in some cases almost exact to those in the matrix feature films.
Sound: – effects, musical score…: Non digetic sound: The non digetic sound is parallel as it is up beat rock style which matches the piece as again helping to add pace, suspense and tension as well as establishing the character. However it is more the music you are likely to find in an action film however similar music was used in the matrix as it is a hybrid film (its both sci fi and action).
Mise-en-scene: – props, costume, setting, lighting, colour:The dark city, The dark train, the rats clothes, the chicken. The use of mise en scene helps establish the characters and settings especially the use of the dark city and the train because the use of these as the use of the darkness connotes danger. The rat’s clothes are also important as this is a spoof and to fit in the same category as the matrix the main character follows the same iconic conventions as the main character “Neo” in the matrix where the rat is wearing the same clothes, this helps reinforce the genre as well as subverting it as you connote suits with action films such as james bond etc. Finally the use of the chicken and it’s eggs are also important despite the fact that this is a spoof as we connote the chicken as being innocent however the director has subverted this connotation where actually it is evil. The mise en scene is slightly different to the origional feature films, however this is due to the fact that this is a spoof.
Titles: – font, colour, placement, over black / over clip…:The use of the green font similar to the colour. The use of the green font is important as this is a spoof and it uses the closest font to the symbolic computer programming in the real movie which again is helping to establish the genre of the film.
A variety of people's films who I am going to analyse again this could give me ideas such as genre and establish what a short film has to have to be considered a short film.
This website is like YouTube where you can watch short films online, rate and favourite them, they also advertise a lot of short film awards and use up to date new media technologies such as facebook and video hosting to keep in touch and up to date with the latest films.
here is a great website that could really help my ideas and inspire me for my final project I will upload a few of these videos and add my thoughts and opinions on what I like and dislike about the videos and what aspects I could consider in my final project.
Here is an example of the latest short film to be showing, as you can see the company offer tickets for the public and for Buisness purposes, as you can already see this is an award winning piece and by showcasing their work like this are likely to win a lot more.
I am going to be creating a short film. I am currently researching the conventions of short films from what type and genre from animation to just normal footage and from comedy, action etc I will upload my findings to my blog and will decide on a final idea and genre.
My Brief is to: "Create A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animation or a combination of both, together with: •a poster for the film •a film magazine review page featuring the film"
I decided to go for the short film option instead of the advertisement, music promo or film trailer because I felt that I would have the better ideas for a short film and I have a vast range of options such as optimal shooting time of five minutes which gives me plenty of time. I have also very good skills using adobe photoshop and I feel that creating both a poster and movie review will not be as tough as say a radio broadcast with the advertising project.
At first I wanted to do a movie trailer however I felt that it was too challenging and that I did not have the skills needed in order to complete this task where I would have to shoot a lot of different scenes of the movie because that is what a movie trailer shows you where as a short film can have as little or as many settings possible. Also the music video and advertisement project I felt that I did not have the skills needed in terms of editing and again my ideas where limited however with the short film I can adapt from several ideas.
