Post 5: Researching Short Film Content (3)

This post will show some additional research I've carried out, I have looked at films that can relate to the short film my group and I are going to be creating. After looking and watching the films I can then analyse them in how the research I've done is going to inform our film and help us in creating a great one.

The Lovely Bones
The first film I looked at was The lovely Bones that was released in 2009 and directed by Peter Jackson.

This is a film about a young girl, called Susie, who gets taken into an 'underground den' by her neighbour, George Harvey, she ends up feeling uncomfortable and wanting to leave which leads to her murder. She finds herself stuck between heaven and earth looking over her loved ones as they try to figure out where Susie disappeared to and how she died.
The main reason for watching this film was because of the neighbour of Susie, George Harvey. He tries to seduce her in his 'underground den', which we later as the audience find out isn't the first time he's tried to seduce a young girl. This will help my group and I with our short film as it gives another insight as to how the sexual groomer would target and get their victim. Not only this but it also helps us in understanding possibly how a sexual groomer would live there day to day life before and even after they targeted a victim.



Trust
The second film I looked at and watched was Trust, this film was directed by David Schwimmer and released in 2010.

This is a film about a teenage girl who gets targeted by an online sexual groomer, Annie then develops an on-line relationship with Charlie who, to start with, poses as a 16 year old boy. As their relationship develops and their increasing communication occurs through instant messaging and phone messages, Charlie changes his age from 20 to 25. To start with Annie is taken back but soon ignores the age difference and continues to speak to him, eventually agreeing to meet him in a mall. Here Annie finds out that Charlie isn't who he has made out to be, he is in fact an older man around the age of late thirties- early fourties. Again Annie dismisses the age difference and ends up going back to a motel with him, at the motel Charlie makes her model lingerie and ends up raping her. 
From watching Trust, it has given me an insight that once the sexual groomer has gained the trust from the victim they can actually get them to do pretty much anything, even grow feelings towards the sexual groomer, which is what happened to Annie. This can reflect in our film as Sophie may feel a special connection towards Alan and develop some kind of feelings towards him.

Post 4: Researching Short Film Content (2)

Watching previous films or reading previous books that are based on the topic of sexual grooming is another form of research that we can carry out in order to again get a better understanding of the topic and how the sexual groomer and victim are portrayed. One media product that touches upon this subject is the novel (and film) Lolita.

Lolita (1962 Film)

Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, this novel is about sexual grooming but tells the story from the sexual groomers point of view. We watched the film that was based on the novel, from 1962 by Stanley Kubrick, in order to see how a sexual groomer would operate and get the trust of their victim.

The film Lolita is about a middle aged man, Humbert, who is seeking somewhere to stay the summer before he begins his career at Beardsley College. He finds the house of Charlotte Haze, at first he is in decline until he finds out she lives with her daughter. He daughter, Dolores, is an over flirtatious teenage girl affectionately called Lolita, who Humbert falls in love with.

The film develops when Charlotte takes Lolita to an all girls camp for the summer, Charlotte leaves Humbert a note saying that when she returns if he wants to stay at the house he must marry Charlotte. Humbert does so, but after their return from the honeymoon Charlotte discovers Humbert's diary that holds all of his secrets and the truth about his feelings towards Lolita. Charlotte is distraught by the discovery and threatens to take Lolita far away from Humbert forever, but unfortunately as she runs out the house she gets hit by a speeding car and ends up dead. Humbert sees this as his opportunity to pick up Lolita from camp and take her into his care with the 'special relationship' they have. They proceed with their lives as Humbert enrolls Lolita into the school he is beginning work at, but this arises problems as many people there are creating questions about Humbert and his 'over-protected daughter'.

The plot ends up with Lolita running away from Humbert, then to three years later Lolita getting into contact with Humbert asking for some money to provide for the baby she's going to be giving birth to. Humbert finds Lolita and demands to know who took her away from him three years earlier, she confesses and says it was Clare Quilty. This leads back to the beginning of the film where Humbert is about to kill Clare Quilty for 'abusing' Lolita.  




After watching the film Lolita, I think this will influence our own short film in many ways.
The first being that the story is in fact seen through the point of view of Humbert, the male sexual groomer. This is similar to our storyline as we want our film to be telling the story through the sexual groomer's point of view.
The second way Lolita will help in influencing our film will be that at the beginning of the film both Humbert and Lolita are subtle with their feelings towards each other. They tend to not give much away, except for the fact that Lolita is her overly flirtatious self. Simple things such as whispering in his ear and giving subtle hints to Humbert throughout the film could even show the audience that Lolita wants Humbert just as much as he wants her.
My group and I can refer to Lolita when making our own short film as it works well in telling the story from Humberts point of view and also how subtle the characters are being with each other.

Post 3: Researching Short Film Content (1)

In order for our short film to be good, we will need to carry out a lot of research so that we are able to portray our characters realistically. The topic we've decided to base our film on is sexual grooming. This is a very difficult one to get right seeing as it's a very serious topic in everyday life and can occur in any family.

As it is a very serious topic, we decided to meet a School Child Protection Officer and interview them. We've done this to get a better understanding of the topic itself and not just believe stereotypical beliefs towards the topic.

Below is the interview that was carried out with the School Child Protection Officer.
Unfortunately, I tried to embed the code for the interview but this didn't work, therefore I have inserted the link that will lead straight to the interview.

Child Protection Officer Interview

The School Child Protection Officer speaks about what grooming is and how when a sexual groomer chooses their victim, not only do they groom the victim but they also groom the family. This means they'll be someone that parents feel they can trust, characteristics of their personality that they can show in order to get that trust is that they are loving, caring, credible and obviously very convincing. This potentially relates to our film as Alan is shown to be caring and loving towards Sophie.
The School Child Protection Officer also speaks about how a child may not know they are being groomed, they may just think it's a 'caring adult' looking out for them and paying them some attention. Again this can relate to our film as Sophie probably doesn't realise she's being groomed, she may just think the way Alan is behaving is normal. In real life, if a groomer shows that what they are doing to the victim as normal, the victim could then portray this when they get back into a school environment. This could possibly by being rude and inappropriate towards other people that are the same age, showing that they have different boundaries.
Everything my group and I learned from speaking and listening to the School Child Protection Officer will help and contribute in making our film as realistic as possible. 

Post 2: How To Write A Good Short Film Script

Our short film idea for our A2 coursework is a development from the one we made in our AS opening sequence. The main plot to our short film is based on sexual grooming and telling the story from the sexual groomer’s point of view. It explores how the sexual groomer interacts with and gains the trust of the victim. This will be portrayed through a father, the sexual groomer, and his 14 year old daughter and her best friend, the victim.

The following information is a summary of what I’ve learnt from reading part of the book  called Making Short Films: The Complete Guide From Script To Screen by Clifford Thrurlow. By doing this my group and I can work on producing a better short film, aiming to consider the key points mentioned below.

The article suggests that the following 8 points will help in making a short film:

1.    Introduce main character(s), set the scene.

2.    Give the character a problem, obstacle, obsession or addiction.

3.    Let the character work out a plan to overcome the problem.

4.    Before setting out to solve the problem, there may be a moment of doubt that will require the hero to seek advice from a mentor, teacher or friend.

5.    The hero sets out to solve the problem, obstacle, obsession or addiction.

6.    Overcoming the problem or challenge will be met by extreme opposition from the rival.

7.    The hero will appear to fail in their quest, glimpse defeat.

8.    The hero wins the final battle; the journey has made them a different person.

It also suggests that by adding the following 10 points it’ll help tackling to write a script:

1.    Don’t trust in inspiration, the first idea you get is often borrowed from every movie you’ve seen and book you’ve read.

2.    If you do work on that inspired project: rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

3.    See your writing from the other side of the screen, from the audience point of view.

4.    Do not adjust your writing to the market by attempting to stay abreast, or even ahead of challenging trends.

5.    Be true to your own vision.

6.    Four steps to writing a short film scenario: find the ending; then the beginning; then the first turning point; then the second turning point.

7.    Enter your story a short time before the crisis that ignites the drama.

8.    Scenes are like parties: arrive late and leave early

9.    Persevere.

10. Listen to criticism. But don’t always take it.

By reading this I feel that I now have a better understanding when it comes to aspects that need to be considered when making a short film. For example, before I read this I wouldn’t have really thought that the first idea that pops into my head when discussing what to base the film on would possibly be from a book I’d previously read or a film I’d seen.
I can now consider these points with my group when we begin our short film pre-production.

Post 1: Research Existing Short Films

This post is an introduction to short films, it will show a textual analysis of one of the short films I've watched from Divine, On A Life's Edge or That Old One. The reason for this post is so that I can get a better understanding of the media language elements within a short film. I've also done this post so that I can get a better understanding of the types of short films that are actually made and their story lines.

I decided to write a textual analysis highlighting the Media Language elements of the short film That Old One.
The link below leads to a website that shows a short clip from the film:
http://www.jameshenry.org.uk/oldone.html

The use of camera shots and camera angles in That Old One are interesting, as there are a lot of close up and extreme close up shots. These shots highlight the main character's facial expression and reactions throughout, hinting to the audience how he's feeling. One main shot that shows this is when the man is in the club, a close up shot shows his face as if he was very drunk and not really knowing what he's doing. These shots are followed by point of view shots from the main character himself, these support the close ups in telling the audience that the main character is in fact drunk, in a dark night club not really knowing what is going on around him. I can tell this because the shots of him and what he is seeing are blurred around the edges hinting that his vision is distorted, and that he has his 'beer goggles' on. The two photo's below show the shots that have distorted edges.

The editing in That Old One is non-linear, this means that the storyline is going back and forth from two different situations. These two situations are the night before and the morning after a very drunk night out. By this happening it almost shows the audience as the main character having flash blacks of clips from what happened the night before, that he in fact is having trouble remembering. This helps in causing the confusion about what actually happened on this man's night out and whether he was or was not unfaithful to his wife. There are also a lot of hard cuts used, this means there are no transitions used between two shots. This is beneficial as it keeps the pace of the short film up and enables the audience to keep up with the storyline that could be seen as hard to engage with.

The mise-en-scene, especially the costume helps in adding to the storyline of the man going out and not remembering anything that happened. This is because in the scenes from the night before he is wearing the same clothes as he has on the morning after. This signifies to the audience that he hasn't been home since his night out. Along with this he has a cup of coffee or tea at the beginning of the film, this could suggest he is trying to cure a hangover he has received from drinking too much alcohol the night before.

Another significant prop in That Old One is the man's wedding ring, after his night out it seems he has lost it, this leads the audience to think did the lady he was with last night actually take it or was he too drunk that he was just imagining she did.

The set design of the dark night club helps in wondering about what actually occurred on this man's night out. Along with this the main characters movement throughout suggests just how drunk he was because of the fact he seemed to be uncontrollable of his actions.

The sound throughout That Old One is both diegetic and non-diegetic. One obvious diegetic sound that is being used is the characters dialogue. This is a diegetic sound as we can see the source of the actual sound on the screen. Some non-diegetic sounds that were used in the film were the background music both in the club and when the man found himself in a sticky situation. A sticky situation such as outside all of the houses trying to find the one with the woman in that he supposedly spent the night with. These non-diegetic sounds are sounds that we cannot see the source off as an audience and help in creating a mood and atmosphere throughout the drama happening on the screen.