Where would i find short films?

I found out during our questionnaire most people thought they would find short films online, which is also what i thought. A few thought they would see them on television however i have never seen any myself. During my own research i found short films on bbc film network and virgin media shorts. I also became aware of film festivals where short films are shown. I think this would be a good place to show our film as we hope to capture the audiences attention leaving them wanting more.

What I found from our questionaire

''How can a film possibly be successful to an audience if it only lasts 15 minutes at the most?''

I have found that most people know what sort films are but not very much about what they involve. People's estimates of how long a short film typically lasts were more often incorrect than correct.
Quite a lot of people failed to see how a film could possibly be successful with such a short running time, at that point I made it my personal challenge to prove to them that it can be done!

''Short films don't really appeal to me''

A lot of people said that short films don't seem very entertaining and even at the end of their interview they said we hadn't made them any more interested in watching one than they were before.
However, they did say that they would happily watch our group's short film when it is finished and give feedback on it if we wanted them to, so hopefully they will be impressed with what they see!

Questionnaire

Research Into Title Sequence

In order to get an idea of what title sequences in romantic drama films include, I have decided to look at the title sequences for the film Letters To Juliet.

As the film is loosely based around Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which involves a male and female character falling in love with each other, the title sequence to Letters To Juliet involves a montage of images of couples in love either kissing on the lips or on the hand. The images begin from an Ancient Roman painting of a couple in love and go through what seems to be different decades showing how the way in which couples experience love and romance has changed over time. The image after the first one seems to be of a couple from Victorian times and this image and the first one both show the male kissing the female on the cheek or on the hand. As the next image appears, again it seems like it is from Victorian times and the couple this time are kissing on the lips, possibly starting to stress how in love the couples in the next few images actually are. There are several other images, now all showing the couples kissing on the lips, including a cartoon image of a male and female character kissing and what seems to be a photograph from the sixties of three young couples, one hugging and smiling for the camera and the other two kissing on the lips. The images used in these extremely effective title sequences all express the feeling of love and romance between a couple in a relationship which therefore reflects the romance genre which we have partly chosen as one of our themes within our production.

Research Into Title Sequences

For our film, we like the idea of our title sequences being bright and full of colours associated with love, this is to highlight the theme of our film and to express subtly what our film is about. From researching title sequences from the films similar to the genre and theme of our production we have been inspired to use similar aspects used in these films when creating our own title sequence for Tea, Coffee and Cancer.

This is the title sequence for the film Down With Love, which revolves around the two main characters, who live in the city falling in love.

This particular title sequence uses a range of bright colours to express the genre of romance, the titles comically portray events and situations that happen in a relationship and also uses this to express the fun side of falling in love.
Title sequence: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/down-with-love/

This is the title sequence for the film P.S I love you, which similar to our film, is a dramatic love story, due to the death of one of the main characters.

We like these title sequences as they are very basic, but at the same time effective and express that the theme of the film is love, for example the pink logo of Warner Bros. Pictures immediately sets the tone for the film, the colours used throughout this title sequence are all soft, bright colours that relate to love and the simply written P.S I love you, gives indication that its been written from the heart which again relates to the theme and genre.
Title Sequence: http://vimeo.com/10814574

This is the title sequence for the film The Notebook, this is a romantic drama about two young lovers and how they deal with events and situations that may prevent them from being together.

These particular title sequences, use soft colours of orange and red to represent the theme of love, the main focus of this title sequence is the beautiful backdrop of the lake, everything looks peaceful and content. The title of this film, is also simply placed on the shot of the sun rising, the shots used are simple but effective as they portray a sense of deep emotion, which in the case of this film is love.
Title Sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=558rexgg3ew

Journey - Elliptical Editing

Elliptical Editing is a technique used in film making to make the screen time shorter by cutting out unnecessary actions, for example here is a video of a journey we produced to show and give an example of elliptical editing, this journey that would usually take about 5 to 10 minutes  is shown as a 30 second  journey due to types of edit such as the use of cuts and fades. 

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule is used to ensure continuity within a production isn't broken, continuity is a key feature when making a production as it is important to set the scene and establish the characters without confusing the viewers. The 180 degree rule states that the two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other, when obeying the 180 degree rule we must imagine an invisible line that we must not cross when filming, as if we don't follow this rule or break it intentionally it will disrupt the scene and disorientate the audience.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a method that uses pre-existing social networks and other technologies to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales). It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the internet and mobile networks. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, text messages, email messages or web pages.

An example of viral marketing is the spots v stripes campaign formed by Cadbury. A website was set up (spotsvstripes.com) and a game was created to coincide with the London 2012 Olympics and fans of Cadbury were able to register online, with the website being able to host over 207,000 users with over 898,000 points being claimed by consumers. A Facebook and Twitter account was also made in aid of the campaign with over 275,000 spots and stripes Facebook fans and over 9,330 Twitter followers.

Cadbury also made a video starring Gavin Henson and David Seaman attempting to break the world record for 'highest catch'. 

Our Chosen Film Distributor

We have decided to have Futureshorts as our chosen film distributor as we feel that it will most suit our genre of film, which is romantic drama. It is described as being a distributor which represents an 'extensive and eclectic catalogue of original, award-winning films from all over the world'. It is also described as having years of experience in acquiring premium content and programming cutting edge film packages. We feel with this distribution company, it will represent our film well as many award winning short films have been distributed by Futureshorts and it has years of experience in distributing short films.

Distributors Of Short Films

In terms of short films, a distributor is an individual or organisation who will represent a short film at festivals and markets around the world and who will attempt to sell it to television, airlines and other companies that show short films. The major short films distributors in the UK are Dazzle, Futureshorts and Shorts International LTD.


Dazzle - Dazzle has been described as 'one of the UK's hottest independent short film labels' which handles the exclusive distribution, exhibition and sales rights for a selective catalogue of award-winning critically acclaimed UK and international titles. From 90 second, digital micro-movies to super 35mm masterpieces, Dazzle's bijou short film collection is often provocative, original and inspiring.

Futureshorts - Future shorts is one of the world's leading short film distribution labels representing an 'extensive and eclectic catalogue of original, award-winning films from all over the world'. With years of experience in acquiring premium content and programming cutting-edge film packages, Futureshorts has been described as a 'one-stop shop for broadcasters' seeking the latest groundbreaking talent and content on the market.

Shorts International LTD - Shorts International is one of the world's leading short film entertainment companies with 'the largest catalogue dedicated to short movies'.

Possible Distributor

 As I have stated in a previous post, I would compare our film the most closest to the notebook. I did some more research on this film and found out that it is distributed by New Line cinema. I then did some research on New Line cinema and after doing this I have come to the conclusion that this would be a great distributor for our film.

It is also the distributor of many other romantic films such as  A time traveller's wife, Valentine's day, My sister's keeper, 17 again, Lily in love, Hairspray, Book of love, Sex in the city and many more.

Possible Distributor

Momentum Pictures, also known as Alliance Films UK, formerly Alliance Communications UK and Alliance Atlantis UK, is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland. Owned by Paramount Pictures UK and Alliance Films UK, this distributor releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year, which involve real life events and situations, this makes this distributor relate to our production, Tea Coffee and Cancer.

One of Momentum Pictures most successful films includes P.S I love you, this particular romantic drama, revolves around the death of the main character Gerry played by Gerard Butler and how his wife Holly played be Hillary Swank, deals with the loss of the one she loves. 

Similar to our production this film focuses on how loosing the one you love can turn your whole world upside down. The main character Holly, relies on the letters Gerry has left for her to help her through the grief, finally accept his death and come to terms with moving on.
In contrast to this, in our production, Tea coffee and Cancer, Alfie deals with Molly's death in the complete opposite way, he believes that instead of living his life to the full, which Molly would have wanted him to do, he ends it to, in his eyes, finally be with the one he loves. 

Possible Distributor

I researched distributors by finding films of the same genre and similar story to our own. I found the film Atonement nearest to ours.

The story is of two people from different classes who you would not expect to fall in love. They have an entangled love affair before being torn apart by the males choice to join the army after accusations of their relationship cause uproar.

The end of the film is similar to ours as both characters die apart to be together.
This film amongst multiple romance dramas were distributed by universal pictures international.

Many of their films have similar story lines and are targeted at the same audiences which is why i feel this could be a possible distributor.

Audience and Certificate

Characters
An audience may be attracted to our film because of the two characters shown on the poster. The female character is an attractive teenage girl and the male role a young teenage boy. This creates sex appeal to a teenage young adult audience. An audience may also be eager to find out how their relationship ends.

Location
The film is a low budget local film which may attract audiences as it is real to life. The mise en scene, location and props are believable which may attract people uninterested by extravagant special effects.

Story/Genre
The story of two young people falling in love is likely to appeal to a female audience whereas the hard gritty drama side of the alcoholism and drug abuse is more appealing generically to the male gender. Therefore our story attracts both sexes.

Certificate
We have certificated our film at a 15. We have done this to allow teenagers the viewing right to the romantic part whereas if certified as an 18 we limit our audience to those who may want to see it. It has to be a 15 however due to drug use, alcoholism, sexual references and upsetting scenes. This footage is inappropriate for those under the age of 15.

Film Certificate

We have decided as a group that the certificate for our film will be a 15. We think that our film would suit a 15 certificate mainly because of the frequent drug and alcohol abuse that is associated with the character of Alfie. However, Alfie is not shown snorting or injecting drugs but if he was, this would possibly make our film an 18. The 15 certificate clearly states 'Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable' which our film sticks to. However we felt that a 12 certificate for our film would not match what is in the 12 certificate bounds on the theme of drugs, which is 'Brief and occasional references to and sight of 'soft' drug taking such as cannabis', which Alfie does take but as well as Ecstasy which is a class A drug.

Research Into Potential Audiences

The most obvious audience for our film would be people that like Romantic films - as ofcourse our film is romantic. Because of this, we could probably go as far as saying that the audience of other romantic films such as The holiday, Titanic, The notebook and many more are more than likely guarenteed to also be a fan of  our film -  Tea, coffee and cancer.
Although it is fairly sexist to say, it is quite obvious that the majority of the people that appreciate this genre of this film are female.

Research Into Possible Film Certificates

The bounds within the 12 certificate are:

Theme: Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.

Language: The use of strong language should be rare and must be justified by context.

Nudity: Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context will be brief and discreet.

Sex: Sexual activity may be implied. Sexual references may reflect the familiarity of most adolescents today with sex education through school.

Violence: Violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly indicated and without physical detail.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous techniques (examples include: combat, hanging, suicides) should contain no imitable detail. Realistic and contemporary weapons should not be glamorised.

Horror: Sustained threat and menace is permitted. Occasional gory moments only.

Drugs: Brief and occasional references to, and sight of, 'soft' drug-taking (e.g. cannabis) are allowed, but must be justified by context and should indicate the dangers. No instructional elements are permitted.



The bounds within the 15 certificate are:

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.

Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

Within the 18 certificate, there are no constraints at this level on theme, language, nudity or horror. However, the following content may be cut or rejected: any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts which is likely to promote the activity. This includes also instructive detail of illegal drug use - the more explicit images of sexual activity - unless they can be exceptionally justified by context.

Films similar to ours - The Notebook.

A similar film to the one we are making is The notebook, and is personally one of my favourite films.
Here is a trailer:

Below is a review of The Notebook I took from www.film4.com.

Group photo