Student-made short films: textual analysis

Man's Best Friend

This student's short film is a documentary about a teenage boy as he makes the transition to become a dog. I quite like this film because its different and unique, as well as being very well produced. The film features multiple characters, many of whom being family members of the main character, Jonny. The actors for the characters are well chosen and they all make the film realistic and entertaining. The short film is short in multiple locations, some of which include the park, hospital and Jonny's home. 

Networked

This is an A grade piece of A2 coursework about the effects of the internet and social media on the lives of teenagers. In the short film we see a male character who mysteriously dies after opening a message from a friend on Facebook. The film uses a range of camera angles that help to tell the narrative and show the actions of the characters. This is something that I will consider when it comes to making my own coursework piece as these shots used are interesting. I also think that the story behind this short film is intriguing and well-thought out as the majority of the target audience for the piece will use social media in almost every day of their lives, and so they can in some ways relate to the main male character. There are only three male characters in this short film and the casting of them helps to identify with the target audience, as they are of similar ages. There is only one main location used in this film, which is the boy's bedroom. This shows that for a film to be good and effective, it does not need a vast majority of locations, but instead an intriguing plot and a mix of camera angles.

Alone

This coursework piece follows the activities of a young girl after she wakes up to find that her entire family, and the rest of world, have died after an outbreak of a deadly flu virus. I think that this short film has been shot very well and a lot of thought has gone into the production of this piece. I also think that the use of a young girl as the 'abandoned' character is very good as it attracts the audience's attention as we want to sympathise with her and the fact that she is all alone. The use of various shot types helps to tell the story well and to show the emotion of the little girl. I also like how towards the end of the film we see the little girl being reunited with her family on the beach, where we assume that she too has become a victim of the virus. 

Textual analysis of music videos: student made

Macklemore - Can't Hold Us

This student's music video uses lip syncing to give the impression that the characters are performing the song live. This video has a good balance between narrative and 'live performance' and is intriguing and interesting to watch. The video features three teenage boys, with two dressed as robbers in the stereotypical striped shirts. The video features a few different locations but it is all mainly shot in London, like Trafalgar Square.

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

The majority of this video uses lip sync as it is mainly a live performance by the female character singing. The video also features some narrative as we can a female and a male character that we can interpret to have once been dating but they have now broken up and so this song is about the ending of the relationship. A few locations are used in the video, the main location being the yard or outdoor space in which the majority of the video is shot. There is also use of a house in which we see the female character destroying a bedroom and in another scene in the bath tub submerging herself in water. There are not really any other pieces of dialogue in the video, apart from at the very beginning but this does not have much relevance to the rest of the video.

Canopy Climbers - Stuck

This student's music video uses narrative and live performance to portray the song. There are two main male characters, one of which we see lip syncing the song and the other playing a main role in the narrative part of the video. This video features many locations, many of which vary between outside shots and scenes inside buildings.

Textual analysis of music videos: professionally made

Years & Years - King

In this music video we see three male characters, who are also the members of the band, Years & Years. As well as these three men, we can see multiple other people dressed completely in white. This video has more of a narrative and story telling side compared to being a live performance, although there is some lip syncing, as we can see the artist is singing the song and there are scenes in which we see two artists playing instruments that are featured in the track. This could imply some aspect of live performance within the music video. Used in this video are the three following locations:

1. the house that most of the music video is featured in
2. the street in which one of the characters walks
3. the sea (or river) that is only featured for a short period of time

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

This music video features a majority of live performance, although not concert footage, but we see the band performing their song, maybe through lip-syncing, to an audience in a narrative-style situation. As the video focuses mainly on the band there aren't really any other characters in the video, except for the caretaker but he plays a role of no particular importance to the story behind the video. The entirety of the video is set in a single location, that being the gym of an American high school. There is also no other dialogue in the video.

OK Go - Needing/Getting

I think this music video is great as it definitely makes you remember the band. The video is a live performance and features the four band members driving around a field/desert like location. Attached to the car are multiple poles and paddles that are used to strum and hit instruments as the car passes by them. Whilst driving around, the four men are singing the song, however in some cases lip syncing may have been used to guarantee a clearer sound. 

Apart from this, there is no other dialogue or narrative to the video and we do not see any other characters.

Preliminary task

For our A2 coursework we have to create either a music video or short film, along with the ancillary products that would be sold along with it. This means posters, magazine covers, interviews or DVD cases.

 

At the moment we are currently doing research and planning tasks for our preliminary pieces, for which my group: me, Charlie and Luke, have decided to do a music video!

 

For our music video we are going to create a minute long section of a music video for the song What's New Pussycat by Tom Jones.

We have decided to film this in a cattery because it links to the song and will be cool!

Hello!

This is the new blog for my A2 Media Studies work, in which I will be posting research and planning pieces for my coursework. The idea for my coursework is to either create a short film or a music video.