Our Main Task

Our main task is a short film, we picked this task as we feel that it is something we are all interested in and that it is our strongest field of work. Our task is to make a film lasting approximately 5 minutes. Within the short film category we have to look at various genres, one genre that appealed to us all was the ‘Found film’ genre. The main found film genre revolves around a person or group of people finding some lost footage. This is good for a short film as there is little need for character development and you can go straight into the plot. Our secondary products are the film poster and magazine review. We decided on these because we have experience using programs such as Photoshop, and we feel that we can get the most out of this.

Comparing the conventions of British and American film.

For this I looked at two different films, one a full length British film and the other an American short.

My British film of choice was A Clockwork Orange; directed by Stanley Kubrick. The audience for this film has a niche market, mainly due to the films narrative. The film features the character Alex de Large living in a surreal and modern England. The beginning of the story focuses around Alex and his group for who he calls his ‘brothers’ and their ultraviolent ways, which include mugging, rape and eventually murder. Alex is sent to prison after breaking into an old woman’s house and accidently killing her, followed by the betrayal of Alex’s friends begins his downfall. Alex has spent two years in prison and is put forward for a ‘revolutionary’ new treatment which cures the ‘evil’ part of the man. Alex is tied to a chair with his eyes clamped open and forced to watch ultraviolent films until he feels sick at the thought of sex and violence. After the treatment Alex meets everyone he has done wrong in his life who take their anger out on him. This is one of the few times where you wish to see the ultraviolent side of the character. After a suicide attempt Alex is helped out of his hypnotised state and he creates a dream world for him to slip in and out of. When compared to most American blockbusters this is not a typical film due to the fact that the hero cannot be classed as an out and out hero, he is more of an anti-hero, meaning that even though he has committed violent crimes that is the side of the character that the audience falls in love with. The language that is used in this film is not the most conventional; a lot of fictional language is used. By doing this the audience has to really engage with the film rather than being a film for the masses.

My American film of choice is a short titled George Lucas in Love directed by Joe Nussbaum. The short is a parody playing with the idea of how George Lucas gained his ideas for his hugely successful Star Wars series. The film starts off by George Lucas sitting in his dorm at university struggling to write a sci-fi script, his main idea is about a space farmer. However when he continually struggles to write the script he moves around campus where various Star Wars references are around, this includes Darth Vader, Yoda and Jabba the Hutt. Lucas then meets a woman who resembles another Star Wars character, who he falls in love with and begins to write his script with great ease. Lucas then finds out that the woman he fell in love with is also his sister, another reference to the movie franchise. This film has gone out to be funny and is enjoyable to watch, but when compared to A Clockwork Orange the humour is far darker and meant for a British audience.