Screenplay

Animatic Feedback

This is some of the feedback I had received from my animatic I made before beginning the production of my short film. Within my feedback it all seems to be very positive as the audience state that the narrative is clear and makes sense. The audience also said that my animations were quite clear, which is good considering it was my first time using the programme. However, something I could improve if I were to make this animatic again is to reduce the amount of pauses throughout and allow it to flow much better until the end.

Copyright

Hybrid Genres

What is a Hybrid Genre?

A hybrid genre refers to when two or more categories have been combined within either a film, a book or other forms of creative arts. Hybrid genres can be used to attract a wider target audience, which can help a film gain popularity and even income in the end. The hybrid genres started as a form of boredom within the audience as they were tired of seeing films of the same genre, so the film industry decided to combine a number of genres to gain interest. This is because hybrid genres tend to explore new films and topics within the film. Hybrids within genres have developed hugely over time as directors have had to think of new ways of producing different movies or telling similar stories in various ways. They have achieved this is by including a genre hybrid throughout the film, which can catch the audience's attention. An example of a hybrid genre could be the film 'Shaun of the Dead', which includes the genres comedy, romantic and zombie all in one film.

Advantages of Hybrid Genres:

• It could help film institutions attract a broader audience.
• There are less restrictions of codes and conventions within a hybrid genre film.
• It may be hard to find the right actors for the film as it involves different genres.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Genres:

• Not all genres within one film could appeal towards the audience.
• The budget of a film could be much larger than one with only one genre within it.
• The plot could become much more complex throughout, resulting in the audience getting confused as they try to follow the plot.
• Script writing could be much harder due to the range of situations in the film.

My Short Film

We decided that we aren't going to incorporate more than two genres in our short film as there are quite a lot of disadvantages to the hybrid genre style film. We do not want our becoming confused whilst watching our film as our storyline is already quite complicated throughout. This could also cause problems with the mise-en-scene, sounds, editing and camerawork within the film as it has such a short length to fit more than two genres into it.

Uses and Gratification Theory

The Most Beautiful Thing - Textual Analysis

The first shot we see is of the young boy, who appears to be a stereotypical ‘geek’. This is due to the fact he is seen wearing glasses, a rucksack and does not seem to have many friends around him within the shots. There is a close up of the boy showing his facial expressions, which appear towards the audience to be sad and upset. Further into the film, there is also a close up shot of a poster on the boys locker quoting “Who are YOU taking to prom?” which conforms to the stereotype that the boy should always ask the girl to prom.


Whilst the film continues, there is the use of non-diegetic sound throughout, which is a piece of music that can reflect the character’s feelings and emotions. This use of a non-diegetic soundtrack can contribute to the representation of gender as stereotypically girls are the ones who are open to showing their emotions around people. However, the representation within the film is subverting from typical stereotypes as the young boy is quite open with his emotions, as the audience sees certain facial expressions throughout. There is minimal use of dialogue between characters within the film, which represents the idea of isolation for the young boy.


Furthermore, the use of a long shot could also suggest the feeling of loneliness throughout as he attempts to communicate with others around but doesn't achieve this successfully. The use of a POV shot showing the other boy attempting to talk to the young girl could suggest how in society there is a stereotype of your appearance and how you come across to people when first meeting them. However, we see later on in the film that this is subverted by the fact that they manage to communicate with each other in a positive way. Throughout this short film there are a frequent amount of close-up and eyeline shot to express the character's emotions and feelings.


As the film continues, the camera lens focuses on the poster saying "Who re YOU taking to prom?", which reveals towards the audience that this has a key significance within the boys life in some way. We then see a montage of shots which shows the boy practicing asking someone to prom, this can foreshadow the events that may happen later on within the film. There is a long of the boy walking towards the girl with a bunch of flowers, which suggests there is some kind of love interest between the two. But as the boy nearly reaches her, she is seen kissing another boy, which makes the audience sympathise with him throughout the film. The close-up shot of him dropping the bunch of flowers show he is feeling betrayed and heartbroken about what he has just seen infront of him.


The over-the-shoulder shot of the boy within the bathroom suggests he is not happy and then as things aren't going right for him he lets out a rage of anger by punching all what is surrounding him. We see a mid-shot of the boy walking out of the bathroom and then suddenly the girl appears in the corridor. Both of thse characters do not look happy to see one another and just as the camera follows the boy walking away, there is diegetic sound of the girl trying to communicate with him. This diegetic sound reveals that the girl has difficulty with communicating with people and as the boy comes to realise this he begins to ask her to prom with him. After this scene, the film finishes and it ends with a small quote and a long sequence of credits. The credits are seen with a black background and a white font, which is commonly seen within short films.

Equipment and Apparatus List

Here is a equipment and apparatus list I have created for the pre and post-production stages of our short film. The list shows the types of items we will be using, the cost  of this equipment, how many will be using and any other notes that need to be made. The list shows that all of the apparatus we will be using do not need to be funded by a company or person as most of it will be provided by our school media department. We only need 1 of each piece of equipment as our group only consists of three people and we are able to schedule filming days together. Within the notes column I made a note of the key things we should check before using and assembling all of the equipment. This equipment and apparatus list allows us an overview of everything we are using throughout the production stages and when we need it for.