Critical Reflection

 

One of the most challenging parts of the short film convention was the length. In my first pitch the story was so complex that it would about 15 minutes while my main task has to last no more than 5 minutes. In addition, the short films which inspired me like Eric Kissack’s ‘’The Gunfighter’’ (2014) and Charles Williams’ ‘’All These Creatures’’ (2018) lasted around 10 minutes. But what was on my side is that another key convention of short films is that their story can be simple. So I made my pitch less complex so it could last around 5 minutes. Talking about sound, the only non-diegetic sound in the film is the music which sets the mood for the film. A big influence on my music choice for the film was The Beach Boys studio album ‘’Pet Sounds’’ (1966) which is a concept album with songs linked to each other. This album largely focuses on such themes as love and relationship and it was one of the main reasons why I decided to dedicate my short film to relationship between two young people. The rest sound of the film is diegetic and it includes both characters having conversation and side noises which can be heard to protagonists like falling bottle of water or wind sound. At the same time the film is impacted by the Levi-Strauss’ Binary Opposites Theories and it’s not just gender (male and female) but also their characteristics which define both protagonists differently.

My target audience is considered to be someone between teenagers and young adults (around 15-25) because the protagonists of my short film are from this category and the plot is focused on the relationship between two young people which again is very close to those who’d like to watch it. In addition, my target audience is the one which likes watching niche and independent films which are mostly shown on the festivals. My film is called ‘’First Date’’ and includes 4 scenes. The first one has two young strangers who fall into each other and organize a date, in the second they meet in a café as a date and everyone feels worried, in the third scene the pair exchanges their positive emotions from the date and also phone numbers. And in the last scene, male protagonist comes back to his room and says in his mind that this was one of the best days in his lifetime. All these four scenes described above can be very relatable to those who I consider my target audience. In addition, the film is inspired by the studio album ‘’Pet Sounds’’ (1966) by an American band ‘’The Beach Boys’’ and the record raises many topics including love and relationship between young people. In addition, my postcard for film perfectly represents the mood of my project and also can be relatable to my target audience. Because that type of audience often uses social media, I created my own Instagram page with additional film information.

My short film is about the relationship between two strangers of young age who have never met before. There is a stereotypical moment when it’s a man who invites a girl for the date. But I did this because in my opinion that’s what could have happened in real life. In addition, the male character is portrayed as a creative, interested but at some moments shy and worried person while female character is felt to be much more confident and easy-going. So the film represents the Levi-Strauss theory of binary opposites which applies towards two protagonists’ characteristics. In many ways my film conforms to the hegemonic stereotypes of gender in its representation of male and female in a romantic relationship, for example the boy asks out the girl and takes the initiative in the relationship. Another key representation is of young people who are constructed as relaxed, funny and mature, because the key target audience are young people and this would offer them the use and gratification of personal identity. I tried not to portray the characters in the stereotypical way but I suspect that it wasn’t fully successful considering that my short film follows the similar conventions as the other melodrama films. But I did this because in my opinion this is what could have happened if it was in real life.

My short film has the title appeared in the opening sequence of the film which is linked to my Instagram page in which I promoted my final task film. Both my postcard and film have the title with the same type of font which links them together and makes them as one big promotion. I chose this traditional type of font in order to connote the traditional values common in melodrama or romantic movies, but the further down you look into the postcard the more unusual the fonts become which shows that the author combines both the traditional romance topics with the artistic vision. In addition, my postcard includes the animated photograph of the pair sitting which is a screenshot from the short film’s café scene. I did this also in order to promote the sense of branding. My Instagram page has two posts about the two different actors, Emma Bittmann and Arsen Harumov who play two protagonists from my short film promoting it. Another my social media post is about the BFI which distributes my short film. So in the beginning the first thing which the audience sees is the credits to British Film Institute. For my postcard, the line about who directed the film, is written in a signature font so in shows that my short film ‘’First Date’’ uses the film d’auteur formula so it’s the independent film for a niche audience and that type of movies is often shown on festivals.