Deconstruction and Reconstruction of a media text

Deconstruction and Reconstruction of a media text

Within temptation – Sinead short film

 

Our deconstruction and reconstruction task, we chose to do a short film which we tried to reconstruct thirty seconds of. The short film was called ‘Within Temptation – Sinead’. The main obstacles which prevented us for producing a master piece were lighting and location. The segment was from 1:17 till 1:47 of the short film.

Costumes were a key feature in our reconstruction and they were pretty easy to snap up, as they was average clothing from everyday use such as the white vest or a casual jumper. We did actually encounter a couple of problems with clothing which interrupt our shooting schedule. The reason this happened was because we need a specific jumper to have this realism and continuity editing, but our actor kept forgetting the jumper giving us a negative knock on effect and delaying us from shooting. The non-diegetic music we used wasn’t the exact duplicate from the original film but it was pretty close which I thought fitted in quite well; also we picked up diegetic sound from the camera which fitted in quite well and was very pleasing.

Back to the lighting issue, this punished our continuity editing, in our closing scenes the light is turned on but then in the next one it is off. This was due to different location shooting. This was a big mistake and when we went on to editing and realised this mistake, we didn’t have enough time to go back and reshoot it.

Problems kept on popping up for us, in our shooting of the short film such as the sequence of the women going through the cupboards, we made another mistake as we shoot using two different cupboards, this again showed lack of continuity. As a team we tried to resolve this problem, as we was editing we flipped the so it looked like a replica to the same cupboard and when we showed our final product to the class, nobody batted an eyelid to it.

From doing this task, it has opened my eyes and show me that you need to make a production plan, this involves been flexible for your team/group. You need to make sure when they are all available for weeks in advance so you know when best to film etc. You need all your gear ready as well, like props for instance. We couldn’t reconstruction without certain props. This all needs to be applied for continuity and so on. I believe when it comes to editing my own media text, I will need to practice and explore to get the hang of it and produce what I want. I noticed problems only occurred when you’re not fully prepared planned but once you get on track you’re sorted for weeks to come.

Reconstruction

Codes and convention of selected brief

My selected brief was a short film, which genre was a thriller. In a short film, characters are key factor. They tend to stick to 2 or 3 main characters, as it is a short film they tend to not go deep in to their backgrounds or story. This then allows the audience to relate to the characters in such short of time. They tend to get an everyday situation and just flip it on its head. Short films have a lot smaller and niche audience than mainstream due to the creative nature, length and simple storyline.

In a short film, there is normally always a ‘twist’, this is done to make the short film so much more interesting as it in such short of time. Without one of these it would be boring and uninteresting. For example in the short film ‘Tick Tock’ we think he is about to die when in fact we see how he is pranked and actually is going to survive.

Budget of a short film tends to be very low; this is due to the film directors been independent. They do this by sticking to 1 or 2 locations and using 1 or 2 actors, some actor mean even act for free. In the short film ‘within temptation’ we see only 3 actors which is pretty high for short but still very minimalistic.

Length of short film can be to the maximum of 15 minutes, but are normally around to 5-10 minutes in length, if they were any longer they would be classified as a feature length. An example is ‘within temptation – triplets’ that short film is 6 minutes and 24 seconds long.

Short films is that quite a lot use the steadi-cam technology to create a point of view shot, this is because short films are mainly a story in a particular characters life, and the best way to betray this story is to see it how the character would see it.

Voice overs are a very popular method of sound in short films, and it is often found in short films that a voice over would be used instead of dialogue, there could be many reasons for this, for one it is cheaper to record a voice over than use a high tech boom, but also if the story is about someone's life, the voice over would normally be that of the central protagonist.

Codes and convention of my selected film genre (thriller short film) ‘Within Temptation – Sinead short film’

Thrillers use a lot of quick cuts and camera angles changes to create this tension. Its normal a handheld camera would be used for movement for a more quicker and exciting scene. They tend to keep the main character centre of frame, to make them the main priority.

Mise en scene of a thriller is normal to with its lighting, especially the use of shadows. Mirrors and stairs are also very convention of a thriller genre movie.

Editing in my short film as you can see is very elliptical, which shows this fast pacing movement. It excites the audience.

The music is non-diegetic in a trailer for thrillers genre movie's and it isn't normally pop chart music as in the short film 'Within Temptation' we hear the non-diegetic voice over with a piano playing.

Videos for psychographic interviews

Storyboards for 30 second short film 1:17 - 1:47

Storyboards for within temptation 0:00 - 1:00

Conventions of existing examples of films in my genre (Editing)

Editing in my short film as you can see is very elliptical, which shows this fast pacing movement. It excites the audience.

Conventions of existing examples of films in my genre (Mise-en-scene)

Mise en scene of a thriller is normal to with it's lighting, especially the use of shadows. mirrors and stairs are also very convention of a thriller genre movie.

Conventions of existing examples of that genre(Cinematography)

Thrillers use a lot of quick cuts and camera angles changes to create this tension. Its normal a handheld camera would be used for movement for a more quicker and exciting scene.

Within Temptation shooting script

 Within Temptation - 1:17-1:47

Shot 1 – Medium/close up of breaking into cabinet with screwdriver/cabinet (props). Non-diegetic piano. Camera is slightly wavy. Shot duration is 0:05, 1:17 – 1:21. Shot transition cut.

Shot 2 –Medium/close shot of women going through cabinet, going through things like tins (props). Non-diegetic piano. Shot duration 0:01. 1:21 – 1:22. Shot transition cut.

Shot 3 –Medium/close up shot of closing cabinet. Sunglasses (props). Non diegetic piano. Shot duration 0:02. 1:22-1:24. Shot duration cut.

Shot 4 –Close up of opening tin. Diegetic sound of tin opening. Shot duration 0:01. 1:24-1:25. Shot transition cut. Non-diegetic piano.

Shot 5 –Master shot. 1:25 – 1:26. Shot duration 0:01. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 6 – Close up of in different part of cabinet. Diegetic sounds of moving things around. Shot duration 0:02. 1:26 – 1:28. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 7 – Medium close up of looking through magazines (props). Non diegetic piano. Shot duration 0:01. 1:28 – 1:29. Shot transition cut.

Shot 8 – Medium close up but can’t see in cabinet, slightly zoomed out. Shot duration 0:02. 1:29 – 1:31. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 9 – Close up next to cabinet, but close track down to picking picture up. Shot duration: 0:03. 1:31 – 1:39. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 10 – Close up of picture/picking up picture, then tracks to holding it hands. Shot duration 0:05. 1:34 – 1:39. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 11 – POV shot of looking at picture. Shot duration 0:03. 1:39 – 1:42. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 12 – Medium shot of face looking at picture, low angle shot. Shot duration 0:02. 1:42 – 1:45. Shot transition cut. Non diegetic piano.

Shot 13 – Long shot of man turning on light. Shot duration 0:01 Shot transition cut. 1:45.

Shot 14 – low angle of women jumping. Shot duration 0:01. Shot transition cut. 1:46.

Shot 15 – close up of man’s face. Diegetic sound of women scared breathing. Shot duration 0:01. Shot transition. 1:47.

Summary of Summer Work

I decided my type of genre and what I was going to do (short film) . I looked upon conventional factors of a thriller. I have also done a storyboard for my short film.

Song for short film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjcAL0Zmb3k