EXPLORE FILMAKING: NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL

I have signed up for a Future Learn course. What attracts me to the course is the opportunity to explore film making and learn from professionals how they take a script to the screen, how they use film language to deliver the plot and theme and, in particular, the special qualities of short films. I hope that it will improve both my film making and my quality of articulate reflection.

In week 2 I learned a good deal about short film making from Destiny Ekaragha in the unit called Having Vision, Telling Stories. Destiny Ekaragha's first short film, Tight Jeans (2008), was chosen for the London Film Festival in that year. She then went on to make her first feature film, Gone Too Far (2014) which was given cinema release is 2014.

What I learned from this introduction confirmed what I had already researched about short films

•  They differ from feature films not just in length. In a short there isn't enough time for such extensive exposition of themes or introduction to key characters.
• Shorts require real economy of action, dialogue, plot and locations to be effective
• Shorts require film makers to work within limitations, most obviously of budget.

What I learned about the difference between plot + theme

• Theme is main points of the story, an idea that runs throughout the entire movie
• Plot is what happens to the person

What I learned about visual language

Gone Too Far (Destiny Ekaragha, 2014)

Gotcha (Bryn Williams, 2015)

• In my two shot, the boys discuss the themes that run through the film (relationship issues, dealing with women, men's roles)
• I chose my camera angles very carefully: like Destiny's camerawork, I leave the camera "flat on them". I place my 2 characters opposite each other and I leave the camera on them for a long time. This signals to the audience the significance of this scene as the exposition.
• Considerations for my target audience lie at the heart of my film: it shows a scenario that concerns my target audience very closely - the pitfalls and challenges of the dating scene.
• I use over the shoulder shots and reaction shots to show the boys' emotions towards the subject.