Short Films

'About a girl'. Brian Percival (2001)

This was very cleverly shot, as the camerman constantly moved the camara around the girl walking. The scene could have been very dull and ordinary but Brian Percival moved the camera at different distances to the girls face to make the film more exciting. Technically, he started by walking with the camera which gave a shakey aspect to the film and it felt like you were walking with the girl. As the film progressed he used a trolley to make the film much smoother. At the very end of the film, when the baby was left in the canal, a few different shots were used, firstly a shot from under the water and this was done in a swimming pool hence the scene seemed slightly too bright. There was also a panning shot of the water and a crancxe would of had to been used for this. As a story, the film was really interesting, the girl who was portrayed as being very innocent and young actually was carrying the burden of a dead baby yet she showed no emotion. She seemed quite distant from her family and closer to her friends who were also portrayed as very innocent, it was clear that she had told noone about the baby. Visually, the mood and lighting of the inner city was purposefully very dull, dark and dreary and in contrast when she went into the expensive perfume shop it was very bright and colourful. I found this short film really interesting and theres aspects of the film i can take into consideration.
'Boy and Bicycle'. Ridley Scott (1958)

This was Ridley Scott's first short film and this was clear by the very experimental shots her used. He said that he sat in the back of hsi fathers car to film the boy on the bicycle. I liked the fact he used black and white film, it gave a real sense of contrast between light and dark especially in his bedroom when there was the window as the only light source. Visually, it was interesting to watch with so many different angles but as a narrative the story had no real purpose or statement, the boy missed school but that was about all. I think the main purpose of the film was just to experiment with different ideas and some of them worked and some didn't. i particularly liked the shot of the bike wheel, it was really interesting how he decided to shoot the film from the ground looking up through the bike wheel at his face.
'Terminal Bar'. Stefan Nadelman (2002)

In this short film i felt that the narrative was not as strong as about a girl but i really liked the idea of making a film out of totally using still shots. Some of the photo's that Nadelman had taken , for example, of the drug dealer and the dirty street life around the bar. Technically the film would have been fairly easy to make as all he had to do was arrange stills but the actually photos he took were technically quite good, it wasn't obvious that he used and special equipment. I found the film interesting from the idea that the photo's he took had to tell a story, which meant the photos needed to be really strong and had to relate. I really liked the way he had taken so many portrait shots of differnet people from around the bar and in black and white. The photos were arranged in the film really well i thought and the way he commented upon different faces made the film into more of a story than simply a gallery of his photos. I would like to take the idea of taking alot of photos of differnt faces and putting stories to them.