Practitioners

Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is a notable director as he is known for his films such as extra terrestrial
(E.T) which to this day is one of the highest grossing films of all time, Spielberg has also
produced classic films such as Jurassic Park which grossed over $1,000,000,000 in the box
office.
Spielberg has produced short films, in 1968 he produced a short film called Amblin’ this
caught the eye of Universal Pictures and they immediately signed Spielberg to a 7 year
contract.
I can look at Steven Spielberg's work and how they have inspired me with the way they have
been shot, the development of the characters and the unique style of his directing.

I watched Steven Spielberg’s short film Amblin’ and it was interesting the way it was shot,
sure it was 25 minutes which is way over what I am thinking of doing which is 5-7 minutes so
I kept that in mind, I then focused on how it was shot.
I has a lot of interesting angles/shots,

The short films starts of with a shot of some wildlands which gradually begins a sunrise and
gets bright, I can take this so I can show the area I am shooting at giving the short film a bit
of scenery and time to breathe, unlike this short film I will not have it linger too long on the
scenery as it can become dull and boring, which I don’t want as it’s 5-7 minutes and I want to
keep my audience engaged in what I am presenting so I will use it a little if I decide to
incorporate in my short film.
There are several close ups throughout, showing the characters facial expressions, (Mise en
scene) I can use this to introduce the characters properly and just like Amblin’ I can get facial
expressions.

The lighting is quite bright during this scene very natural to note.
Here is another example of close ups being used to show facial expressions and emotion.

Other of Steven Spielberg’s work is ET

This is a looking room shot, I can use this if I want to have a shot of a subjects face looking at
something in the distance without having to use an over the shoulder shot, this would be
good for me as I haven’t used this shot before (to my knowledge) and it would be interesting
for me to include it, I could use it in a confrontation.
I can just like the previous film use a variety of close ups that I can show facial expressions
and emotions.

Camera blurs slightly when focusing on the main subject.

Jurassic Park

This was a scene where a dinosaur is attacking a car that our characters are inside of, the
camera cuts to a close up showing the character in fear, capturing the emotion quite well and
telling the story with the facial expressions.
The lighting is quite dark as it takes place in a rainy night.
The edits of both films are great, they have a continuous back and forth on the camera
angles this gives me the illusion that a lot is going on.

Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie is a filmmaker known for his crime genre of films such as Sherlock Holmes,
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels also, Snatch.

I am doing a short film and I looked at his 1995 short film titled “Star” This was his
breakthrough film, its 20 minutes which is longer than what I am doing but I can look at the
elements of the short film and take what they have done such as camera shots, edits etc and
perhaps include similar techniques in my short film.

To go into more detail I will put screenshots of scenes from some films by Guy Ritchie and
will talk about my thoughts on them and how they inspire me and a bunch of my general
thoughts overall.

Star has a lot of camera angles changing quite frequently, when the car chance happens
they have lots camera switches showing the celebrity being pushed around on the back seat
giving an intense feel.

Lots of close ups to the drivers face

Facial expressions and body language, again editing has played a factor in this as it is fast
switching back and forth, the lighting is bright so you can see the drivers face.

The sound, is of the song “Song 2” by Blur.

Sherlock Holmes

This scene is a fight scene from the Sherlock Holmes series, It is quite dark in the lighting,
the sound is quite loud as the fight is surrounded by a group of drunks (it seems) The camera
switches quite frequently, with lots of close ups of the spectators.

To note the fights are somewhat realistic looking, It's not just a bunch of wheel kicks or fancy
spins.
Guy Ritchie has a very camera switching style when it comes to the action/dramatic scenes
as it gives the illusion that lots is going on, and it gives me personally an impression in this
particular scene that the character in the fight is seeing what we’re seeing as an audience for
this film, as the spectators are looking right at the camera and not passed it.

The camera switching style is very interesting to me it gives a nonstop action feel which I
personally would like to include in my FMP if possible.

In this scene Guy Ritchie uses the camera switching technique a lot during the dialogue
between the two people the colouring is quite goldy like throughout this scene when it is on
Vinnie Jones and the kid, when it is switched to the other character it is bright because he is
on a tanning bed.
It’s still goldy like but the background is very bright.

Book Research.
This is the book I researched on.
So I read these pages and took the information in, I did this because I wanted to learn
different techniques of how I will shoot my short film.

I also liked looking at the images on each page as it gives me an idea of what each shot
looks like so I can include them in my project.

It will give my project a more professional look.

Problem solving 

The below are just examples – you will need to add more! 

Theoretical  How to fix  Faced  Didn’t face 

Eg. Narrative  Would theories will you look at     
structure / meeting  What law and guidance will you 
genre conventions  look into  
Platform issues  How will you know the platform 
(YouTube)  regulations?  
Age restrictions;  
Does your work 
meet EDI 
standards   
 YouTube age  Follow the rules of YouTube.     
restrictions.  If I follow the rules of YouTube I will 
be able to keep my video 
up/available.  
Narrative  Just make sure it follows the plan or     
if anything make sure its logical. 
Genre conventions  I will look at other action films to     
help me  
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
Practical  How to fix  Faced  Didn’t face 
Lighting / sound /       
locations etc.  
Website layout / 
time management  
Bad lighting  adjust lights to make the scene     
perfect. 
Lots of  Get to a quiet location or chose a     
background noise   better time to record.  
I might encounter  Learn how to edit the sounds out     
issues with the  to have more clear audio. 
microphone such 
as buzzing in the 
background. 
Costumes that fit  If possible I can slightly change the     
the narrative of  narrative to make sense.  
the film. 
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
 
The first question was what gender. I asked this question as it establishes the demographic
of what I am making a short film for, I believe it is relevant and will help me.
I then expanded on my demographic by having more detail such as the age range.
The results were that under 18 and 18-24 were quite popular but there was one 25-34 to
conclude this section of results, I will be making a short film for a younger audience.
This was a question so I know my audience is interested in action films.
This was a unanimous yes so I know everyone who voted likes action films.
I then asked what the audiences favourite movie was, I got some interesting answers. Such
as Deadpool and other marvel films, also some other films such as olympus has fallen. I
asked this question as it can help with research.
10 of my responders want lots of action while only one wants little action in the film.
So I will have lots of action.
I asked my audience if they would prefer me to record during the night or day.
The results were that 9 people would prefer me to record during the night time instead of the
day time where only 7 people voted for day.
I will try my best to record at night or at least a darker setting.

The results were mostly that I should use lots of camera angles, some on the other hand
were more details explaining that I should be careful not to under/overexpose the lighting.
Other responses were that I should include close ups. I agree with this response as I was
going to use close ups anyway to show emotion of the characters, the fact that my audience
wants to see this as a feature is good.
Visual Production research.
I will be look at:
Camera angles

Lighting

Narrative

Mise-en-scene

The first film I will be looking at is Olympus has fallen.

This is an action film released in 2013

I chose this film to research on because when I released a survey this came up in the
question for what action film is your favourite? So it only makes sense to research
features/techniques of that film that I can attempt to replicate in my film.

The shot of the character Mike Banning is a close up. I like that they have took the shoot
through the metal fence. The emotion of the character is great, the shocked facial expression
and the addition of the hand on the head shows that there is a concern.
The lighting is natural where it looks realistic which in my view gives it a raw look.

Mike Banning is wearing a shirt and tie because he is a protective agent and the costume
Mike wears fits the narrative of the film as you would dress formally in that line of work.

The colouring is very bright with the background having lots of light greens and sky being a
light blue.
  

This is later in the scene as it has a low angle shot of one of the agents with a prop

(handgun) in his hand, again just like the previous shot, this shot consists of a colourful
background and a concerned expression on his face.

Also the agent is dressed in a suit, this is because he’s an agent and has a formal wear that
would make sense.
This is Transporter 2 and this scene is where Frank Martin is being kicked out of a car and he
fights the bad people. Frank gets out the car by himself and the camera cuts to this close up.

The lighting is dark as it takes place in a car park however it isn’t pitch black so you can see
the characters.

The clothing is formal, Frank is wearing a shirt and the other characters are in more casual
clothing, I can take this type clothing and using it in my project as I had previously used it in a
earlier short film and it in my opinion fit the narrative well.

This is an example of the other characters wearing informal clothing compared to Frank.

My Target Audience
My target audience is teenagers-young adults in the age range of 16-34 year olds, I decided on this
because it was the age of the audience that filled out my survey on Surveymonkey and it in my
opinion it is a good age for this type of genre 16 being the minimum is a good age as they aren’t too
young in my opinion and 34 being the ideal maximum because they are in my opinion is the
maximum of what you could consider a young adult. So I think the target audience I have chosen is
ideal of the production of my short film.

The chosen genre of action can be an 18 in some films but my film will not (most likely) be extremely
violent or have highly inappropriate language so I should be ok.
 

Books / Magazines  

Book name  Reference 

Film: A Critical Introduction.  Wallis, T & Pramaggiore (2005). ​Film:
A Critical Introduction..​ London:
Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
p110-114. 
   
   
 

YouTube Clips  

Clip   Reference 
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - The Best Film One Liners. (2016). ​Lock,
#3 - "Fuckin'ell John".  Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - #3 -
"Fuckin'ell John".​ Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtDW
tfC_DMo. Last accessed 8th April 2019. 
Top 10 Facts - Steven Spielberg  Top Facts. (2016). ​Top 10 Facts - Steven
Spielberg // Top Facts.A
​ vailable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKxP
nwcafRI. Last accessed 8th April 2019. 
Amblin’ 1968  Canal Freak. (2011). ​Amblin' 1968.
Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6490
M2uzzeg&t=1363s. Last accessed 8th April
2019.
 
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (2/10) Movie Movieclips. (2011). ​E.T.: The
CLIP - Getting Drunk (1982)  Extra-Terrestrial (2/10) Movie CLIP -
Getting Drunk (1982) HD.​ Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xW
MqsZOYWg. Last accessed 8th April 2019.
Star (Short Movie) Directed by Guy bradlez77. (2007). ​Star (Short Movie)
Ritchie. Directed by Guy Ritchie..​Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Mv
iNuWYVg. Last accessed 8th April 2019.
Sherlock Holmes Fight Scene wbroz. (2010). ​Sherlock Holmes Fight
Scene.​ Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGCM
fprPJoA. Last accessed 8th April 2019.
Olympus Has Fallen - First Attack Clip LionsgateFilmsUK. (2013). ​Olympus Has
Fallen - First Attack Clip.​Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vACV
KgjWMTc. Last accessed 30th April 2019.
 ​Transporter 2 (1/5) Movie CLIP - Jacking Movieclips. (2015 ). ​Transporter 2 (1/5)
the Carjackers Movie CLIP - Jacking the Carjackers
(2005) HD.​ Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HPjE
z0u-9Q. Last accessed 30th April 2019.
 

Websites 

Website  Reference 
Imdb  Imdb. Inc. (2019). ​Michael Bay.​ Available:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881
/. Last accessed 9th April 2019. 
Imdb  Imdb. Inc. (2019). ​Guy Ritchie.​ Available:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005363
/. Last accessed 8th April 2019. 
olympus-has-fallen.fandom.com  Ryker11. (2019). ​Mike Banning.
Available:
https://olympus-has-fallen.fandom.c
om/wiki/Mike_Banning. Last
accessed 30th April 2019.