What's left to do...

• Finish editing the colour of the nightmare scenes 
• Finish the Overlays within the nightmare scenes (for example find a suitable position for the knife) 
• Edit the visual of Raine and the Seductress running from the bench – it is too long. 
• Cut down the visual of the candle  
• Maybe visual of the vodka? 
• Edit the stop frame pictures (i.e. make them darker etc, and more shadowy) 
• Put a voiceover over the nightmare scenes (i.e. the candle) 
• Find a scream/add the one that we recorded 
• Put the sound of the tap dripping on the stop frame segment 
• Create a soundtrack (dream like music which transcends to music that represents a nightmare) 
• Photoshop of the title Raine

Editing Process So Far

We began the editing process by watching through our clips and labeling what we thought were our best clips.  Also, we marked in some of the longer clips so that when we returned to use that clip we would know what part of the clip we wanted to use.  We laid our chosen clips on the timeline in chronological order so that we had a basic beginning middle and end.  We then started checking continuity and cut down/lengthened clips so that they flowed better.

When we weren't long into the editing process I think we all realised that some of our shots didn't work or weren't filmed as we'd imagined or that we'd missed out a shot that we hadn't thought of in between a change of scene.  Also, some of our shots were filmed as it started getting dark so aren't as good quality as other shots and we rushed them slightly to get all the shots in, so we didn't have enough shots to choose from.  Any of these issues are bound to affect our final product, however we have tried and will continue to try and create the film we envisioned and overcome any issues we come across.


Recently Perpe has researched Final Cut Pro techniques in response to effects and looks we want to give our clips but couldn't seem to achieve through experimentation.  This will improve the results we get at the end of the rest of our lessons and hopefully our film's final look will be something we are proud of.

We've had ups and downs, but in the end we've always ended the lessons with something we can all agree on and are happy with.

The Filming Process

We planned to film for at least four days (Monday-Thursday) in the second week of our half term.  Depending on the availability of our female protagonist would decide when we filmed in each location.  We decided that we didn't have to use our protagonist for the 'bathroom scene' as we don't see her face and we could use someone else's hand.  We wanted to spend two of the other days filming in the park and the other day of filming by the tunnel.

The Presentation: Raine

Notes for our Presentation

Presentation Notes

Notes typed and edited by Perpe


Synopsis:

·      When trying to create a concept we wanted to explore the two extremes of sleep (a state on vulnerability) and thus merged the idea of dream and nightmare.

·      We wanted to do something different and approach the subject of suicide from a different angle and felt that this was unique because it was created using a more realistic feel.

Actors:

·      In creating Rain, we’ve delved into the fine line between reality and dreaming and created this obviously troubled character. The name choice came quite naturally and it reflects the instability in everything surrounding her.

·      The seductress is one of those characters that you know as soon as you see her is trouble. The iconic white dress, adds to her surrealism, yet she is the one thing that stays the same, because what we see with her, is exactly what we get.

·      The Boyfriend is the ultimate deceiver. Aside from the seductress, we have created a character that Rain can fully trust, which we see in the way she responds to him and once that is taken away from her, the question is what is left for her? And by keeping her ambiguous the question is did she ever really have anything?

·      The small cast, allow us to focus more on Rain’s feelings etc.

Location:

·      We have decided to film in a massive park (Finsbury Park) so we can get to different extremes, the woodland and the more public access parks.

·      By keeping it simple, we help retain the realism.

Props:

·      The water bottle is integral to the whole film, because it is the core from which everything expands.

Storyboard for Raine

Short Film Pre-Production

Notes typed and edited by Roisin

Character Profiles

The female protagonist:

• Slim
• Nothing special
• Some unusual features
• Own sense of style - arty

The Seductress:

•  Pixie-like
• Light-footed (dancer)
• White Dress, pink lips (dream)
• Skimpy clothes/rah-rah skirt, red lips, dark eyes (nightmare)
• Represents the temptation to drink

The guy:

•  Normal looking
•  Similar look/style to Justin Bieber
• Represents the female protagonist’s addiction

The friends:

•   Own style

Production Schedule

Sunday 24^th – Friday 28^th October

(Actual days for each location depend on weather)

Two days park:

• Before dream sequence
• Part of dream sequence
• Part of nightmare sequence
• Female protagonist: 2 days
• Seductress: 2 days
• Guy: 2 days
• Friends: 1 day

One day tunnel/underpass:

• Transition from dream to nightmare
• Female protagonist and Seductress

One day leaving house, bathroom and symbolist shots:

• Mostly indoors
• Female protagonist (maybe Seductress)

Synopsis

A girl leaves her home with a bottle of, what appears to be, water and sits in her local park to watch the world go by.  However, everything changes and the world isn’t what she knew it to be; she enters a dream-like world and is led by a girl in white through a forest to a small gathering of friends who are happy to befriend the girl.  Amongst the friends is the girl’s dream man and he leads her farther into the forest.  After presenting her with a gift, the dream world shifts and becomes a nightmare.  The girl feels powerless against the horror and stops everything the only way she knows how to...

London Short Film Festival

The seventh London Short Film Festival took place in the capital in January 2010, spanning ten days and ten major London venues.  There were over 6,000 tickets sold and over 200 short films screened, made up exclusively of the work of Britain’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers.

The festival stretched from the city’s heart, Curzon Soho, to Rich Mix and Vibe Live in the East End and Cinephilia West and the Lexi on the Western Front.  South of the river, Roxy Bar and Screen hosted screenings for the first time and there was a special event at the Roundhouse.

The London Short Film Festival has been growing year on year to take in more films, live music, industry and training and diverse, high quality venues.  There were ten nominated films for Best Film of the Festival, which this year was won by ‘You’re The Stranger Here’, directed by Tom Geens. 

Short Film Festivals

Other than the internet, film festivals are the main way in which film-makers can share their shorts and audiences are able to see them.  There are so many film festivals and therefore so many opportunities for film-makers to promote their films.  All film festivals have their own rules and regulations for what can be submitted, however it is unlikely for one person’s film not to be eligible for entry to any film festivals.

          The Bondi Short Film Festival was established in 2000 due to the fact that the friends of its creator, Francis Coady, weren’t able to submit their films to other film festivals because they had shown their films in other states.  The Bondi Short Film Festival only has two regulations - it must be less than fifteen minutes long and Australian.

Short Film and the Internet

The short film industry today is predominantly over the internet and certain sites, or parts of sites, are dedicated to showing and sharing short films.  Without the internet, the industry could extinguish as it would be much more difficult to find and view short films.  This would make it harder to use short films as a pathway into film-making. 

BBC Film Network

The BBC has dedicated a part of its site to short films which can be viewed for free and anyone can submit a short which adheres to their guidelines.  They break down their films into categories and have a browser so the viewer can watch exactly the sort of film they're looking for.

Coffee Shorts

An indepedent film channel which only allows shorts to be uploaded that they've asked for specifically.  They discover short films over the web, at film festivals and from their friends.

Silver Films

  It was founded in 1996 and they use the phrase, "We believe that if you talk to people, rather than shout, they listen. If they’re listening, you can connect with them."  They produce the films and adverts themselves and when asked how they work their reply is, 'diligently.'

Youtube

As Youtube is a popular video sharing site, it was inevitable that it would become a way of promoting and showing short films from any film-maker of all different skill levels.

Shorts International

‘Shorts International’ is the world's leading short movie entertainment company, operating as a distributor, broadcaster and producer.  It was set-up some years ago by Carter Pilcher, an American investment banker, after he came across some really good short films made by a few talented friends.

The company has a catalogue of over 3000 short movies and runs subscription TV channels that show short films in six countries to about 12 million homes.  This includes ‘ShortsHD’, the first high definition channel dedicated to short movies.  The films are categorized into 30 and 60 minute thematic “zones” covering a variety of genres, such as comedies, musicals, documentaries, thrillers, dramas and animation.  Their short films are also available for download via ‘iTunes’.

In conjunction with ‘Magnolia Pictures’, ‘Shorts International’ annually releases ‘The Oscar Nominated Shorts Films’ to give audiences a chance to see all 10 Animated and Live Action Oscar Nominated Shorts prior to the Academy Awards.  Audiences for these have increased by more than 1000% in 5 years.

‘Shorts International’ and ‘Shorts Studios’, a production company dedicated to creating innovative short film content for brands such as Sony PlayStation and Nike, are headquartered in London with additional offices in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.

Springboard - Secrets

The audience sees someone entering a library holding a pile of papers, which are all different shapes and sizes and look like they've been ripped out of different notebooks etc.  A book/title cover will catch their eye and they will place what appears to be a carefully selected poem (they won't choose the poem from the top of the pile, but the audience doesn't see the poem so they can't be sure whether this person has written it themselves or whether they have written out other people's poetry) on the first page of full text, which shows that they have thought about what they are doing carefully.  As there is a close-up of the book being placed back upon the shelf, there will be a sequence of shots/photos of someone's life which quickly tells the audience what they have experienced and what the poem does in their life; the audience can't be sure if this is what will happen or what the protagonist imagines will happen.  This may happen a few times and as they leave they appear content with their actions, as they place the rest of the poems back in the coat pocket.  The protagonist would appear a bit of a loner, but is obviously happy with their life.

The film doesn't show a broken ritual, it depicts a typical ritual for the protagonist.  The effect of the poems may cause a broken ritual for someone else, however the protagonist isn't affected by the action of the film.

 

The entire film is set in a bathroom.  The film shows a girl standing in front of the mirror on different days, or at different times of the same day, and hearing different voices say, 'why can't you...?' which are supposed to be things she's heard during that day.  They will either be shown as a shot of the scene it happened in, just a voice over, or the person will appear in the reflection from the mirror.  In response to this, she cuts off some of her hair and this becomes a ritual.  She starts wearing a hat when she approaches the mirror and her face becomes more tear-stained.  The shots will be hand-held and the slightly shakey camera shots would emphasise her uneasiness in her own skin.  The film ends with her screaming at her reflection, 'why can't you change?!' and she grabs the mirror off the wall and smashes it on the floor.  The last shot is of her looking into her shattered reflection on the floor.

Prelim Task

We were set a task to practice continuity and camera technique by filming a sequence which included:

• A door being opened
• Match on action
• A conversation (involving shot reverse shot)

Freds Dead from BDC on Vimeo.

I worked with Callum and Rochelle and I believe our final product was successful, even after the problems we had during filming.  Its success was due to the fact that our subject wasn’t ‘over-the-top’, but was quite basic: a girl was upset because her goldfish had died.  Also, we re-recorded shots from different and the same angles to make sure we had enough shots to choose from for the purpose of continuity.

The first day we filmed, I felt our concentration was more on an entertaining storyline than lots of interesting shots.  When filming, we didn’t experience any problems until we tried to record out footage into the computer; this was when we realised our footage was faulty and we discovered that this was due to the camera being faulty, so we had to re-film everything.  When we filmed next, we changed our idea to something simpler so that we could concentrate on the techniques and a variety of angles to use.
 

Our group worked well together and appreciated each other’s suggestions during both the filming and editing stages.  When editing, we concentrated on the continuity between shots before focusing on the audio.  We decided to have music until the start of the dialogue, as we thought that everyday background noises wouldn’t attract the audience’s attention and we wanted them to feel emotion before they actually knew what the story was about.  So the music and images at the beginning were going to be quite intense and for the end credits we wanted a more comedic feel to reflect the contrast to the audience’s original expectations.

As Rochelle and I starred in the film, Callum did most of the filming, although Rochelle and I often gave our suggestions on shots and Rochelle helped with filming the earlier scenes that I was appearing in.  We all contributed well during editing; when any of us suggested something, the others would allow them to try it out and see how it looked.  I concentrated on keeping an eye on continuity by cutting clips and marking in and out at the correct times.

Uncle Jack by Jamin Winans

Uncle Jack uses comedy to tell an intense story; this is done by an uncle telling his niece a story while he risks his life escaping some people who are after him.  The use of different lens styles emphasises the chaotic mindset of the main character as he tries to escape his situation but not alert his niece to the danger he’s in.

As soon as the protagonist, Jack, discovers that it’s his niece on the phone, the music becomes circus-like, which emphasises the clown sitting next to him in the car and the fact that the conversation he has with her becomes an act to entertain her.  This musical detail is typical of Jamin Winans as he almost always composes the music for his films himself, so that he can convey the correct emotion through every aspect of his film.  When the story approaches the end, the circus-style music stops to signal the end of the act as Jack starts to reveal the reality of his situation.  

The shots don’t flow as they jump location to fit with his story; however, the story allows the audience to understand what’s going on.  The audience often aren’t told or shown how they get into or out of situations (e.g. when the clown is hanging off the balcony), but because this links to the story being told, the audience doesn’t notice the disjointed visuals as much.

The camera shots vary, as at times the camera is static but Steadicam and hand held camera are also used.  The lack of continuous use of one kind of shot or lens makes the audience feel as if they have been caught up in the chaotic situation.

Jamin Winans

Denver-based film maker Jamin Winans broke onto the indie scene with his short film, Spin, which played at over 75 film festivals and gained over 40 rewards.  Since 2003, his filmography contains six films:

• Blanston (2003)
• The Maze (2003)
• Spin (2005)
• 11:59 (2005)
• Ink (2009)
• Uncle Jack (2010)

He wrote, directed and edited these six films and he composed the music to all of them, apart from 11:59.  Both Jamin Winans and his wife, Kiowa Winans, contributed multiple roles in making their second feature length film, Ink, in addition to both being credited as executive producers.  Jamin wrote, directed and edited, as well as composed the original soundtrack for the film, while Kiowa is credited for the Art Direction, Costume Design and Sound Design. As no big studio picked up the film for theatrical and home distribution, it was produced by Winans's own independent production company, Double Edge Films (like most of his films), which pitched the movie directly to independent cinemas and also saw to the DVD, Blu-ray and online distribution themselves.  According to TorrentFreak, a file sharing news site, Ink was downloaded via BitTorrent 400,000 times in a single week and exposed the film to a large audience, leading to higher DVD and Blu-ray sales in return.  Jamin and Kiowa Winans wrote in their newsletter that they had "embraced the piracy" and are "happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure." Around Christmas 2009 the film was also released on Hulu.com for free viewing.

Winans appears to have certain actors which he prefers to use; Chris Kelly was cast in Blanston, 11:59, Ink and Uncle Jack; Quinn Hunchar acted in Ink and Uncle Jack; Steve Sealy appeared in Blanston, The Maze, 11:59 and Ink.

As Jamin Winans has large control over the making of his films, they each contain his unmistakable style of music and fast-paced editing, mixed with experimental editing and camera techniques.  Jamin Winans’ style has been called upon to make two adverts (which include his own musical compositions) and his latest short film, Uncle Jack, was created for Pentax to promote their new Pentax K-7 which is used for the entire film with only three different lenses.  This shows that Winans’ work is well appreciated and has its own sought-after style.

Research: 

www.imdb.com/nm1985821/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_(film)

www.youtube.com/DoubleEdgeFilms

White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl by Michel Gondry

This music video is complex and time consuming, due to the fact that it was created only using stop frame animation.  Gondry has even attempted to create a typical style video for this genre and include the band performing, however he had them created from Lego as well which gives a twist on live performance often seen in videos.

Even though the video does not include typical imagery for this genre, the camera shots used are similar to those in other music videos: close-up, mid-shot, long shot etc.

Michel Gondry

‘Every great idea is on the verge of being stupid’

Michel Gondry is a French film-maker who has been noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise-en-scène.  He has directed films, commercials and music videos as well as won awards for his screenwriting.

 

He was pioneer for lots of things in his adverts and video clips.  He invented the technique of several cameras taking pictures at the same time around somebody which was most famously used in The Matrix.  Also, he was the first to use morphing techniques in his video clips.

According to the Guinness World Records 2004, Michel Gondry's Levi's 501 Jeans "Drugstore" holds the record for "Most awards won by a TV commercial." The advert wasn't aired in North America because of the suggestive content involving latex condoms.

Avant-Garde

Avant-garde films employ filmmaking styles that are different from, and often opposed to, those used in mainstream commercial and documentary filmmaking.  The term is French for ‘ahead of the crowd’ or, in modern terms, ‘cutting edge’.

These ‘experimental’ films emerged in Europe in the 1920s when cinema was maturing as a medium and, at the same time, avant-garde movements in the visual arts were flourishing.  Filmmakers wanted to experiment with new ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions and the Dadaists and Surrealists were becoming very interested in cinema, which led to a number of artists, including Hans Richter and Jean Cocteau, contributing to Surrealist shorts. 

‘Ballet Mécanique’ (1924) a short film by artist Fernand Léger is considered one of experimental cinema’s masterpieces.  It uses a series of images of a woman's lips and teeth, close-up shots of ordinary objects, and repeated images of human activities and machines in rhythmic movement.

In 1928, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's short film ‘Un Chien Andalou’ came out and is generally considered to be the most famous experimental film.  This was Buñuel’s first movie and put him into film history.  He used shocking imagery in the film, such as the slicing of a woman's eyeball, and continued to use surreal imagery throughout his career, including scenes where chickens populate nightmares, women grow beards and aspiring saints are desired by luscious women.

The Soviet filmmakers also combined with modernist painting and photography at this time, and the films of Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Dovzhenko and Vsevolod Pudovkin were instrumental in providing an alternate model from that offered by classical Hollywood.  While not strictly experimental films, they contributed to the film language of the avant-garde.

The United States had some avant-garde filmmakers before World War II but it didn’t really take off there until the 1940s.  Much of the credit for the promotion of the American avant-garde filmmakers goes to Jonas Mekas, who founded Film Culture magazine in 1955.  This became the primary publicity organ for the American avant-garde film movement.

Research:

www.jahsonic.com

www.miracosta.cc.ca.us

www.antheil.org

en.wikipedia.org

www.imdb.com

History of Short Film

When film first began, all films were short films.  It wasn’t until the 1910s that the term came to be applied when audience demand instigated film-makers to create the first features.  Film developed quickly from the first film in 1895, Sortie d'Usine.

In the early 1900s, improvements in technology for recording and editing allowed film-makers to produce longer, multi-shot films.  In 1903, Edwin S. Porter made The Great Train Robbery which was the first film to really use narrative and film language and is often celebrated to be the first Western.  Film-makers’ creativity began to blossom at this time and in 1904, George Méliès created Journey to the Moon which used trickery and is considered to be the first sci-fi film.

The length and narrative complexity of feature films meant that they were regarded as more respectable than shorts.  They were favourably linked with theatre and opera which allowed them to draw in a better-paying audience.  Even though feature films were the main attraction of the cinema, shorts prevailed and were shown alongside news reels and live acts.

After the 1930s, fewer shorts were made for theatrical release.  However, animated shorts from studios like Leon Schlesinger Productions/Warner Bros. Cartoons were produced by motion picture companies that either owned their own theatre chains, like Loews Theatres, or forced theatres to take their shorts by selling them as part of an unalterable package with their big-name feature.  By the end of the Sixties, commercial cinema seemed to have evicted short films from its programming, but, at the start of children's films, short cartoons continued to be shown until the late Eighties.

Since 1981, music videos have become a new outlet for short film-makers.  Even feature length film directors have and continue to direct short films and music videos (e.g. Michel Gondry).  With the arrival of the Nineties, independent short film-making surged due to lightweight, affordable recording equipment which was easy to operate.

Rules of the Game by Tom Daley

This short film follows a groom as he walks around a large country house sharing his thoughts with the camera.  The use of a dirty, ordinary car and minimal cast members, suggest a low budget film.  In the opening scene, the woman the protagonist talks to appears in a hurry to escape his company.  He then spends the rest of the film by himself, which suggests that he feels alone.  As soon as he’s on his own he begins to talk to the camera, which makes the audience feel like they’re involved in the film.  The film has few characters as he describes his plans, which are acted out by himself to show that he is completely alone in the plan process.

The use of the words ‘you may already know it’ makes the audience think that the story will be predictable, which contrasts to the actual outcome.  The story is described positively until you hear the front door creak as he enters the house, which is dark and empty to capture the mood of the rest of the story. The house is used to describe things which have already happened in the past, which gives a visual to his narration.  The use of the loud splash of water and the underwater shot, followed by his sharp intake of breath, represents the paranoia he felt at the time being described.

When he speaks of confronting his fiancée he’s in a dark room, but when he admits that he hasn’t confronted her he opens the doors and goes outside, which shows that what he wanted to do remained in the dark recesses of his mind and was a big contrast to what he actually did.  The fact that he didn’t know what type of dance classes his fiancée did shows that the affair wasn’t the only thing he didn’t know about.

The repetition of the fact that his fiancée was having an affair with his best man enforces how hurt he was by this, even though he doesn’t show the emotion much whilst telling the story.  The intensity in his voice when describing what he wanted to do to his best man shows the audience how much he wanted revenge on his best man, rather than showing aggression to his fiancée.

The sound of the bell highlights the key point of his revenge, and the long description of why he had chosen that moment told the audience how much he had been thinking about and planning this.  He shows sadness in his face when talking about his fiancée, but hardens with aggression when mentioning his best man.  But when he talks to his best man on the phone he shows no sign of his feelings in his voice.  When the crossbow is revealed, the audience immediately realises how much this situation has hurt him, even though he hadn’t shown a lot of negative emotion during his narration.  The intense look on his face when he looks at the camera and says, ‘see you soon’ to his best man, tells the audience how serious he is about what he’s going to do.  The use of the song at the end of the film, with the first word ‘hopelessness’, enforces the hopelessness of his situation.

Spin by Jamin Winans

The film starts in an alleyway which is off a busy road; the audience knows this as they can hear and see cars passing all the time.  This makes the audience feel that the film will be completely set in the busy town because it was introduced before any characters.

When the male protagonist falls to the floor, the audience isn’t sure where he’s come from; they may assume he's jumped from a ledge of one of the buildings to escape something.  An electric guitar plays when he lands, which could imply that he’s a bad character.  Also, being followed to the floor by two suitcases suggests that he’s robbed somewhere and is trying to escape with the goods.  However, when he and the cases fall, the audience can see a circle of white light shining over where they fell, as if they were from Heaven, which contrasts to the negative feeling evoked by the electric guitar.  Could he be a fallen angel?  The loud drum beats heard as he gets up and walks away create tension, as they make the audience feel that something bad is going to happen.  The drum beats continue as he begins to approach a large group of people, which makes the audience wonder whether he’s there to do a deal with them.

The audience is then surprised to see the male protagonist stop and open his suitcases away from the group; this is something they weren’t expecting.  The tension then builds for the viewer as they are anxious to know what is in the cases and what he’s going to do with the contents.  The sight of a turntable would have confused the audience, as it doesn’t connect with their opinion of the character.  The music remains intense as he sets up his equipment, which tells the audience that there’s still something big to happen.  When his equipment is turned on, the sight of the people in front of him flickers; this may be the view from a CCTV camera nearby which has been affected, and implies his equipment is really powerful.

Eventually, the audience realises that the crowd is standing around someone who has been hit by a car; this confuses the audience further as they try to work out why he’s there and why he’s not rushing to help the person who’s unconscious on the ground.  Also, everyone seems oblivious to his arrival and the audience can’t be sure whether it’s because they’re all distracted or for some other reason.

As soon as he places his hand on the record to stop it playing, the background music gradually gets quieter.  This highlights the fact that his action has stopped everyone mid-action, and the shots change much more slowly to emphasise the sudden realisation for the audience that this DJ can control real-life with his turntable.  Then he’s seen rewinding real-life and watching the incident in reverse, enabling the audience to watch the accident happen and each person’s reaction to it.  After the viewer sees the accident a few times, they realise that the DJ is analysing what happened in the situation.  This gives the audience hope that he’s there to prevent it and that he either isn’t bad or he’s trying to repent by doing good deeds.

When the camera focuses on a ball it is clear that this is what caused the accident, and the viewer is aware that they have realised this at the same time as the DJ.  As he watches the path of the ball back, the audience is introduced to a child and her mother, as they are the ones in possession of the ball which caused the accident.  After the DJ’s redirected the ball, the audience relaxes and the music sounds resolved.  This leads the audience to wonder what other things the DJ is going to do with his turntable.  But, as the music starts up again and the camera zooms towards the DJ’s face, the audience realises that this situation isn’t over.

The ball rolls towards an elderly couple, one of whom is in a wheelchair, and a business man on his phone slips on the ball which knocks the old man over and the old woman’s wheelchair starts going into the road.  This emphasises the idea of a domino effect, which the ball caused in the first place but now the DJ’s interference has caused a different outcome to the effect.  The film becomes comic when the old woman does an over-the-top scream as she quite slowly rolls into the road and then the film cuts to the wheels of her chair flying through the air as the DJ ducks out the way.  After the situation has been rewound, the audience sees from the DJ’s point of view and notices that he’s analysing everyone else surrounding the situation; this is also the moment the rest of the characters involved in the domino effect are introduced.  The sign, belonging to the dancer, has the words ‘God Bless’ on it, which reinforces the idea of the DJ coming from Heaven.  Also, when the DJ has finished analysing everyone in the situation, the audience sees him look up to the sky, as if looking to God.

The sound of the old man bouncing the ball is diegetic, but it introduces a non-diegetic beat to the non-diegetic music that plays.  The music builds as the domino effect spreads to more people.

The comedic element of the film is reinforced by the idea of the film reaching equilibrium, until the little girl breaks her doll and the DJ is frustrated and decides to leave it until he feels as if the girl can see him.  As he walks away he stops and looks at the camera, as if to evoke to the audience his frustration and his feeling of obligation.  When he does help the little girl, this tells the audience that he is a nice guy.  After he has restored equilibrium, he runs away to avoid having to fix any other knock-on effects his actions may have caused.  This again creates a humourous feel to the film.

The fact that this film contains no dialogue, yet the audience knows exactly what's going on, shows how well the film is acted and edited.  Also, the music was composed by Jamin Winans (the director/writer/editor) himself, so he was able to produce the sound he wanted to convey to the audience the emotions he had envisioned for them.  He also used the technique of non-diegetic music instead of dialogue in the final scene to his second feature length film Ink, which I feel was more successful than if he had used the diegetic sounds, especially as a fight scene erupts and the music contains a soft piano which matches the emotion rather than the action.

The Camera

If a film maker doesn’t understand their camera, then the camera will never capture the shots that are desired and they’ll never make the film they envisioned.

The back of the camera:

• The switch at the top has three possible settings -

• ‘Auto Lock’ which has all the settings on automatic unless they have been specified otherwise
• ‘Manual’ which means that all the camera’s settings are manually changed unless the are specified to be automatic
• ‘Hold’ which means that the camera is fully automatic

• The button below it is the ‘Gain’ button which tries to allow more light, which doesn’t exist, into the shot.  It is measured in DB and ranges from 3-18, but higher than 12 is to be avoided as this affects the quality much more than the lower settings will

• ‘Shutter Speed’ allows more less frames to be taken a second (e.g. TV uses 24 frames per second and video uses 50fps).  To slow down footage you would increase the shutter speed and to speed up footage you would decrease it

• ‘White Balance’ has three settings (which are resembled by pictures which appear below the volume levels on the camera’s screen) ‘Tungsten’ which is used for indoor footage, ‘Outdoor’ which is used when filming outdoors and ‘Manual Custom’ which is used when a shot involves both indoor and outdoor light sources.  The best way to make sure the white balance is at the correct setting is to find something white, zoom in on it and adjust it until it appears white on the camera screen

• The ‘Menu’ button should only be used to check that you are filming in 'HD 1080i' and to make sure that the volume levels are displayed (and even if they are, the camera person should wear headphones and listen to the audio which is being recorded to listen out for any background noises which may be picked up)

From the back to the left-side:

• On the far right is the ‘Status Check’ button and to look at all statuses you use the scroll wheel on the back
• ‘Picture Profile’ doesn’t change
• If there is no ‘Focus’ picture on the LCD screen then the focus is set to automatic.  To focus you zoom into someone’s hair as this is a fine detail in the shot, but you don’t want to focus any closer than 80cm from what you’re filming.  The big ring on the camera is the focus ring and the small ring is the zoom ring
•  ‘Expanded Focus’ double checks that you’re in focus

The microphone switches:

• If there is only one mic, then all the switches should be up
• If there are two mics, then the first switch on the left (switches between stereo and mono) should be down

Between Focus and the mic switches:

• ‘Exposure/Iris’ – the iris defines how much light is let in the camera.  You can’t set the exposure when gain has been set
• The scroll wheel adds light until it can’t add any more and begins to add gain
• ‘Push Auto Focus’ asks the camera to focus quickly