Codes and Conventions (Short Films)

Short Film 1: Sebastians Voodoo
Directed by Joaquin Baldwin (2008)

• Starts with footsteps, and a shot of a dark room, quite creepy. 
• Close up of a voodoo doll waking up, can tell by the expression on his face and the music which builds suspence that something is wrong. 
• Then a change in music, to a scary drum beat as the camera pans out to reveals there are lots of voodoo dolls all waiting to be killed. 
• You can see the person's hands as he kills the first voodoo doll, high angle shot of the doll showing it is going to die. 
• The person leaves the room, and one voodoo doll helps another to escape. 
• Depth of Field type Shot used where you can see the first voodoo doll trying to think of a way to save the voodoo doll that helped it in the foreground and the human about to kill the second doll in the background.
• As the voodoo doll stabs himself the music quikens and the camera cuts between the two voodoo dolls with one stabbing its self and the other other about to be stabbed. 
• Match on Action? as the first doll stabs its self the human reacts to the injury? 
• Quick cuts between one shot of the person bringing the needle closer to the voodoo's heart and another of the first voodoo building up the courage to stab himself in the heart to save his friend. 
• Finally a panning shot showing all the voodoo dolls free and finishing on the voodoo doll which died to save them. The music and lighting make the atomasphere scary and tense.
  

Short Film 2:  Reach
Directed by Luke Randall (2009)

• Establishing shot of city/town then pans down to a window and there is a second establishing shot of a room in which everything takes place. 
• Happy tune at first bt then fades away to the sound of heavy foot steps. 
• Pair of hands put together a little robot which appears not to work. 
• Then match on action? as a horn beeps the hands show aknoledgement and the person leaves. 
• The robot does actually work and the camera zooms in on it as it takes in its surroundings, song played gradually builds happyness. 
• Point of view shot ( through the robots eye). Very happy and then POV shot out of the window and the tune stop and the robot zoomz in - connotes it wanting to go outside to the real world. 
• Tries to get outside but cannot , camera zooms out to show that the length of his wire prevents him. 
• Happy tune builds up as he makes a final attempt to break away from the cable and reach the window, pauses momenterally as the cable momenterally stops him but then builds to a climax as he gets closer to the window and it cuts between POV shots and panning shots of him running, his arms are reached forward in anticipation then its sight fades out as do the music as it runs out of power.
  

Short Film 3: Strangers
Directed by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv (2004)

• Starts with the sounds of a train approaching and long shot of an entrance/exit on to the station platform, quite dark except for the entrance. 
• Train comes into the shot from one tunnel and then leaves out the otherside without the camera moving once. Signifying that the film will be set on the train. 
• Shot of man stepping onto the train, walking towards the camera then it follows him, signifying that he is the main protagonist.
• Sits near an asian man, seems to be tension between them, they keep looking at each other. 
• Heavy music comes in and a shot down the train showing a group of rough looking males coming down the train. 
• They crowd around the two men and spray a swazsticker onto the asians paper. glimpses of a swazsticker tatoo on one of their heads, connotes that they are probably nazi supporters. 
• Close up shots of the nazi's their expressions show disgust and anger, close up of the asian show he is worried. 
• The tension is now way bigger than it was, cuts to shot of the train pulling into a platform, the camera pans the train to show the group of men through the window. 
• People start to get off the train, the protagonists phone rings making the situation awkward as he tries to find his phone. Shots of all the nazis looking at him in anger. 
• Sudden beat is played as the two men jump up and run down the train away from the nazi's and jump off the train train just before the doors close, shot of the nazis looking angry through the train windows. The two men cheer at the nazis and then nod to each other and walk away.
  

Short Film 4: The Black Hole
Directed by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams

• Camera zooms in to a close up shot of a tied looking man, can tell he is an office work by his shirt and tie and surroundings. 
• Digetic noises coming from printer (beeping sounds). Strange humming noise coming from black hole, cup disappears into it and then he can put his hand through it as well. 
• Look of confusion on his face. His eyes light up when he looks up and sees the vending machine, and he walks away from the camera to the vending machine. 
• When he looks at a door (probably the bosses) a look of determination is shown on his face and he uses the black hold to unlock the door. digetic sound of door handle being used, light flickers on, signifying danger?.
• Uses the sheet to rob money from the safe. quick cuts between he money he is taking, his expression and him taking more money, the constant hum can be heard, cuts get faster signifying he is getting greedy. 
• Then he goes all the way through the black hole to get the money at the back and he can't get out.
• Camera jumps further away from the safe and you can hear him tapping from the inside trying to get out.
  

Short Film 5: Forna: Watched from Leeds met short film compilation DVD

• Starts with a shot of the main protagonists
• various shot types used; two shots, mid shots, and close ups showing facial expressions and converse between the characters.
• Film aimed at an older audience, very strange narrative about penis's springing out the ground. difficult to see the preferred reading.
• Dis equilibrium, an attempt is made to resolve it but it fails and the film ends with the character in an even worse situation than at the start.

Short Film 6: Cherries: Watched from Leeds met short film compilation DVD

• Main shot of the protagonist at the start.
• Urban setting with a shabby looking school in a rough looking area.
• Mixed race school, various ethnicity's, tension between some boys, seems to be high level of tension between the protagonist and the antagonist who are different skin colours.
• lots of mid shots and long shots of groups of boys and also lots of close ups showing expressions especially as the storyline is revealed to the actors.
• Seems to be quite a high budget film, with military involved in some scenes and a large amount of actors used.
• Strange twist, in that the kids are forced into military training programmes which scares a lot of them, one boy runs away.
• Genre seems to be social realism

Short Film 7: Mr. Eryams: Watched from Fangoria Blood Drive short film DVD

• Low budget production - set in a small shabby house, poor acting, only 2 characters.
• Woman looks like a bit of a scream queen - (blonde hair, lots of skin on display and seems to be a bit of a slapper.)
• Genre appears to be thriller but the twist makes it seem more horror orientated, lots of long takes which is quite unusual for a horror film.
• poor lighting and not many bright colours reinforces the feeling its a horror film.
• Quite gory scenes and quite scary sound effects/music used also suggesting it is typically a horror film, this, the strong language and the shots of the woman lying naked and dead on the bed suggets the target audience for the film is adults.

Short Film 8: Lovefield

• Starts with an establishing shot of a large wheat field
• The camera pans down the screen and creepy, tension building muic is played.
• Camera pans to a shot of a swinging sign making an eerie creaking noise
• Shot of a crow on top of the sign and then cuts to a close up of the crow as it caws
• Conventions of a typical horror genre film
• Camera returns to a panning shot of the wheat field, and the music rises again building a higherlevel of tension
• A beeping sound gradually gets louder as the camera moves through the wheat field and then comes to rest on an open mobile phone which is the source of the beeping
• The camera then gradually zooms out bringing a bag of money into the shot and then a woman making a screeching crying noise can be heard.
• Camera rest of a shot of the woman foot which is squeming about and connotes she is in pain
• The sound of the woman screeching and her foot shaking stop simultaneosly which connotes that she has died, then a knife is rammed into the ground
• Quick cut to a shot of the crow squaking and then cuts back to a shot of a mans feet and then pans up is body. The music which had faded away comes back very suddenly as soon as the knife is slamme dinto the ground.
• The pace of the music quickens as the man runs out of the wheat field and onto the road to a parked car. The man appears worried and the camera cuts between shots of him and of the crow squaking.
• The man opens the boot which is filmed from inside the boot
• Music tension builds as the man looks through the boot in a hurry
• The crow stops squaking casing the man to look up, it has flown to his car and landed on the roof
• shot of the womans uncovered legs in the foreground with the man running to her with a pink blanket
• The balnket is for the new born baby, the woman had been giving birth, gentle music played and camera pan out to reveal the area wasnt quite as scary as it seemed
• Very clever twist at the end and good switch from seeming to be a horror film into a happy storyline

Short Film 9: Offside

• Starts with a shot of a danger sign
• Digetic soundheard froma radio help by two soldiers
• Camera pans along the fence to reveal the two soldiers walking down a track
• Radio is a commentry off a world cup final involving brazil and Italy, then two rebel soldiers appear on the other side of the fence, they all seem to be interested in the match so they don't shoot each other
• Lots of quick cuts between the two pairs of men, they look really upset when the italians just miss
• the radio loses signal and crackles out, then one of the italians nudges it with his foot, can tell there is tension between the four men, they all want italy to win
• Then the brazilans score and one of the men fires a shot in anger, which then cause them to shoot each other until tey are all dead
• After there all dead the radio anounces that the goal was offside, so they all died for nothing.
• Quite a good short film, good props and clever twist

Short Film 10: Catch

• Starts with a establishing shot of of a field near a housing estate, and three guys are playing catch with a baseball
• soft gentle music played, digetic noise of the ball being caught in a baseball glove, cuts to close up of the baseball glove catching the ball
• Music fades away a bit as the three guys start talking to each other, carrying on catching the ball as they do
• One is distracted from catching the ball while they talk and it hits him in the chest
• He shouts at the guy who threw it
• shot of the guy who was hit throwing it back and then there is a quick cut between the guy who hit him with the ball catching it and the guy who got hit, and it is obvious he is going to get hit again
• This time it hits him in the face and he gets angry
• Lots of quick cuts between the 3 guys, raised tones and angry facial expression connote they are getting angry with one another
• One guy ran over by his father at the end, not a very good film, quite low budget and poor acting