Amy Carey's Blog

Echo is a 17 minute short directed by Lewis Arnold. It's a drama about a girl who uses quite an elaborate technique to con people for money in a busy city centre. For this short I want to focus on performance and narrative. I really liked the concept of the film, and how the title helped the audience to understand the story. The performance of the main character is very good, as in the opening scene we are lead to believe that what is going on is really happening - her dad has got into an accident and she needs money for a cab to go the hospital. Her acting and crying make this scene believable, and it cons both the audience and the people who give her money for a taxi into thinking this scene is real. We find out later that the Dad had actually died in an accident, but several years ago. When we see the main character repeat this con twice again we realise that this scene she play out must have actually happened when her dad got in an accident and died several years ago, and st

Operator directed by Caroline Bartleet is an intense short drama about a 999 phone call operator who is dealing with a woman trapped in a house on fire with her child. There is very simple cinematography used throughout the film. Each shot is very long, and either a very slow zoom in or out or a slow movement around the operating desk. This use of simple cinematography means that the audience isn't detracted from the tense, distressing action happening on screen, as the there isn't much action or movement onscreen.  If there is complex cinematography, it can distract an audience from what is going on screen if it's meant to be an intense or emotional moment, emotions which the operator conveys. The slow cinematography means that the audience isn't constantly being reminded they're watching a film (which can happen if there are lots of short shots in a scene that doesn't have much onscreen action or movement) and they become more involved and drawn into what i

The Arrival is a 5 minute film directed by Daniel Montarini about a woman waiting in a coffee shop for someone, with her internal monologue running through about her thoughts and worries about meeting up with this person. The cinematography in this short is very interesting, as the whole 5 minutes is one long shot. For the almost the whole film, the shot is just s stationary very slow zoom in on the woman sitting at the table in the coffee shop. This very simple cinematography means that we focus more on the action on screen - such as her facial expressions which convey her mood - and also the non diegetic internal monologue running throughout the film. This very slow zoom could also aid the idea that her problems are closing in on her the more time goes on and the closer it gets for the person she is waiting for to arrive, as this means it is getting closer to her confronting these problems. This slow zoom seems in a way quite daunting and ominous as well as slightly tense, which c

The Fly is a 5 minute dark comedy directed by Jack Doolan. It tells the story of a driver for a bank robbery waiting in a car for the robbers outside the bank, whilst getting extremely irritated by a fly. For this short, I want to explore the use of sound. The film uses almost only diegetic sound (much of which is off screen) through out - so there is not music to create a mood or feeling in the film. Instead, they use heightened diegetic sounds to create tension in some places (rather than tense music) such as the increased volume of the wind, a dog barking or the tapping of the drivers fingers on the steering wheel. This created tension helps to convey the feelings of anxiety and impatience the driver in the car is experiencing. The main way in which sound is used, however, is to show the presence of the fly. The buzzing sound of the fly is much louder and more irritating than usual. This is to show that the fly is still there after each time the man tries to kill it (as it is har

Tight Jeans, directed by Destiny Ekharaga, is a quirky short film about three young guys sitting on a wall waiting for their friend outside a block of flats. They go into a funny conversation about how a man who walks past is wearing such tight jeans, and the story continues with their conversation from there. For this short film I wanted to focus on the Mise-en-scene as the main focus on the plot originates from what a passing character is wearing. It's obvious clothes and how clothes relate to identity is the idea behind the film, and this is shown through many shots of clothes and what people are wearing. In the opening shots we see a market where we see many clothes hung up and being sold. We are even given an indication to what is going to happen with a shot of "MENS TROUSERS" being advertised in the marketplace, as later on the three main characters have a conversation about men's jeans. There is an interesting choice of clothes made that the three m

Slap, directed by Nick Rowland, is the short 25 minute film about a teenage boy boxer (Connor) who secretly likes to dress up in women's clothes and makeup. Throughout most of Slap, there is a grainy quality to the film, and the colours are dulled down. This dulling down of colours also help to reflect genre and emotion through the film, a drama with feelings of being trapped inside a dull town where he can't truly be himself. As well as this, the duller, greyer colours used make the makeup and clothes Connor wears when does dress up stand out more. Although the film is set in modern times, this grainy quality gives the film a more 90s or early 2000s ambience. I thought the film's narrative and quality was fairly similar to the film "Billy Elliot". I thought that perhaps, this quality was mirroring the quality of the Billy Elliot film (released in 2000) and to give a harder, more realistic and down to earth ambience to the film, which also reflects the setting

The film opens with a slow zoom out from a radio at the breakfast table, with main character Jess eating breakfast at the table and her Mum doing stuff in the background. The news is reporting the case for missing girl Luna Williams, who went missing a three or four days ago and how the police have found no further evidence on the case. The news report is about Jess's cousin. Mum then turns the radio off and starts to complain about how the police are not doing enough to find her, etc. Jess doesn't speak. There is a sequence of Jess's at school that day, which will be a series of shots of her seeming quite spaced out/low/lost in her own thoughts around school (in the hallways, by her locker, in class and at lunch). One of her friends at lunch tells her they've heard about her missing cousin Luna, and try to console her, telling her that if Jess ever wants to talk, she's here for her. There is another sequence of Jess's evening at home, doing her work and getti

Name of film: Luna Short film pitch: Missing girl Luna leads her cousin to her dead body in a dream. Opening shot: Slow zoom out from medium close up shot/ close up shot of radio at the far end of the breakfast table in the morning. Radio is on news station saying something along the lines of: "And the ongoing search for Luna Williams is proving no more successful. The 17 year old school girl went missing 4 days ago on the 6th of May, where her parents reported her missing when she didn't come home from school that day. Police have still found no evidence on her disappearance, and urge anyone who knows any information or saw her at all that day to report it to their nearest police station. Police tell us Luna is (quick description to be done when Luna is cast) and may be wearing school uniform of - " and the Mum turns radio off around this point and says off screen "I don't want to hear any more of this / that's enough" or something along those lin