Research/Case studies 3

This short film is about two men both providing for their children, however one is doing it the right way. He has got a legal job as a police officer, the other male is a drug dealer. The film shows how they spend their day and it flicks from both males. One is celebrating his daughters birthday and the other is planning to raid the house of the drug dealer. The police officer and his squad end up raiding the house, arrest the drug dealer and accidentally shoots the daughter of the drug dealer because she wakes up and creeps out the dark. There is a flash back of the day the drug dealer spent with his daughter.

It is introduced with police sirens and J.Cole in the back of a car so as the audience we are able to make the assumption that he has been arrested. There is dark lighting so we can link this with something bad is

about to happen or already has. It then goes to a closed up J.Cole washing his

face and therefore we can assume that his is a flash back and it is leading up

to the reason why he is in the police car. During this close up shot we can see

his reflection in the mirror and this can be a symbol of him living two lives

or being two people. It goes onto a mid shot of another male standing and

looking at his reflection in the mirror, the viewers can assume that these

characters a similar in way but as it is only the beginning we do not know how

yet. J.Cole is wearing a black tank top, which is a dark colour so it can be associated

with bad things and the other man is wearing a white tank top and we can

associate this with good things. They’re doing the same things but differently,

both are brushing their teeth but one with an electric toothbrush and one with

a normal. This can indicate that financially they’re not in the same places and

live different lifestyles. The music begins to play and it has a happy ora but

J.Cole does not look happy. He is carrying out household tasks and we can see

this through the use of mid shots. He is putting the candles on a cake and has

put on five candles. He lights a barbeque and this shows that it is someone’s

birthday that he knows and he is making into an event. We are able to assume

that he is a father, brother or an uncle. J.Cole sits doing nothing, this makes

the audience think that he is waiting for something. The lighting is dark and

we can see a silouete of him, waiting can be a long and dull process.  It moves to a different scene of the man that

we had seen before sitting at the table with a little girl looking happy, we

can assume that he is her father. It switches back to J.Cole holding his

trainers, this highlights the contract between both characters as he is earing

shorts and another tank top and the other male is wearing shirt. There is a

close up of J.Cole looking at drugs and then it goes to a close up shot of the

man wearing police uniform. This again highlights the differences they have. He

then puts the small pouches of drugs into his shoes as a hiding place for them.

It goes to a wide shot of J.Coles house and a car pulling into the drive, just

as the car pulls up the door opens and a little girl runs out into his arms.

This can give the audience mixed feelings on J.Cole as he is doing something

bad, storing drugs. But we also feel happy for him as the close up shots

express the happiness in his and the little girls face. We are able to make the

assumption that the little girls has come to celebrate her birthday. Two older

people enter the scene and as there is not dialogue the audience have to make decisions

on who the people are and how theyre related, in this case I believe that

they’re his parents.  There is a shot of

the family enjoying their time together and the shots are in a slower motion,

this gives the audience a chance to take what is going on, in. The other male

is dressed in black with a torch with many other people, this shows that he is

with his police for planning a raid. It goes back to J.Cole and his family are

sitting around the table and the girl is about to blow out her candles. As the

scenes flick between the two it increases the tension. The music volume drops

and y9u can hear the family sing, again it switches to the other male but with

the voice over singing happy birthday, this represents the police interrupting

an important moment. As we see what a family man J.Cole is we have forgotten

that on top he is not a good person as he is storing drugs which is committing a

crime. It goes to a mid shot of J.Coles house and a black van drives passed and

the police running towards to house. We can see the police barge into the house

and it switches to the little girl named Leslie, we was able to discover this

when they sung happy birthday to her. She wakes up and through a close up we

can see he hugging a teddy for comfort and fear in her eyes. The camera goes to

a point of view shot of Leslie looking out the gap in her bedroom door. She can

see J.Cole being arrested as he’s pressed up against the wall, we can see him

struggle but there is more than one person holding him. We see a gun in the

hands of an officer appear as he walks around the corner, still in the same

shot. This has an effect on the audience as she is only a little girl and it

causes tension. We feel sorry for her because no child should have to see this

happen. We see a silhouette of the little girl still in her point of view shot

which means its dark and the door widens and the officer shoots. The bullet

makes a sound and the screen goes back. It goes to a flash back of their day

and the music in the background is faint. This can show that to J.Cole this is

seen as not real or even to the officer.

It goes back to the point of view shot of the little girl except you

can’t see her outline. All of the officers and J.Cole freeze for a moment. This

shows that its an unbelievable moment, just moments later J.Cole fights to see

her but the officers move him. The expression the officer’s face is filled with

shock and regret. More flashbacks go by but theres not as many as before, this

could represent her life at that moment, and she’s dying. It goes to a close up

of the main male officer from the beginning and hes just standing there leaning

on the car with the police lights flashing rapidly and this can represent the

heart rates off all the characters. The shot go between him and J.Cole. There

is the mid shot of Leslie drawing in a room that is coloured with light colours

and this can show her place in heaven. After than we discover that she is in

actual fact in a class with the daughter of the main police officer. The camera

shot goes to a close up of the officer with regret and sadness in his face. The

scene ends with a black fade out.

The cutting rate in this clip is not too fast nor too slow, however when it does speed up it is used to show the similarities between the two. When it slows down it shows the differences between the two, the slower cutting rate allows you to take in what is going on.
I chose to analyse this short video because it has many shots that I would like to use in my short film. I think that they capture moments well and there are also effects that I would like to use in my short film. I like the way the video is introduced, it is simple, the black background with the title and directors name. I also like the way the music fades in and out of the clip.

Research/Case studies 2

This short film is comedy based on a cab driver that has rubbish time driving around others on Monday until the woman he fancies gets a lift to the supermarket. He goes out of his way to make his cab nice and pick her up flowers. He then realises that she has got a boyfriend and then he goes back to talking about how rubbish Monday's are.
This video introduces Ben through a close up of his face, he
looks middle aged as he has facial hair and he is bald. A wide shot of him
standing in front of a cab cabin and a silver cab is then used and this sets
the scene. Also we are able to identify him as Ben as the editor has put his
name above him. There is a voice over during this part and it speak about
Monday’s being a waste of time, we are able to assume it is Monday as we can
see it is day time but it looks gloomy and this is what we would link together.
We get what looks to be a flash back it is a mid shot of many characters
causing chaos in a cab. Ben is telling the people to stop and at the bottom of
the shot it has been labelled as Monday. It pauses for a second and the moves
to another shot. This is a close up of Bens cab. He is driving, the camera shot
then moves to a close up of him inside the car with a passenger that is dressed
differently to Ben. Through the use of the same shot we can see the two
arguing, the passenger accuses Ben of stereotyping him. However, we see this a
comedy because of the voice over and not a serious allegation. Neither of the
characters are taking each other serious and therefore neither is the audience.
The shot then pauses and goes to a long shot of Ben at the petrol station, this
shows us that Ben is somewhat a normal character as he is performing tasks of
what a cab driver would do, we could therefore assume that it is the passengers
that are causing Ben aggravation. It then goes to another close up shot of Ben
in the car with another passenger. We are able to tell through the
mise-en-scene that there is a student in the back. We are able to make the
assumption through the stereotypes of a male student and from all the previous
passengers that this one is rowdy, noisy and a problem for Ben, although there
is only a short clip of him being in the car and we cannot actually hear him
talking as there is a subtle track playing in the background. The voice of
track explains that there is ‘Jackie’ and she is different. We can assume that
she is different as she is introduced on the road rather than in the cab, she
has been introduced differently than the other characters. We are given a close
up of Bens face and we can see that he is happy, this has been the only shot captured
of him where he is smiling. This is another reason to why Jackie is different.
In the long sot of Jackie it is quiet light and therefore this suggests that
she could light up his world in a sense. There is a still close up of Jackie in
Ben’s cab smiling and Ben talks about her going shopping on Mondays and that’s
what makes his day good. We then realise that Jackie is not a girlfriend of
Ben’s but is a customer. There is then a close up of the side of Bens face and
he is not looking happy, we see Jackie walking off towards the supermarket and
this shows that he becomes unhappy when he’s not with Jackie. From the things that
Ben says in his voice over such as ‘Women need time to decide if they like
you’, we assume that Ben has been taking Jackie shopping every Monday for a
while and she has not shown signs that she is interested. This can make the
audience feel sorry for him in a way but also find him a bit weird as he is
crushing over a woman like a school boy and she has no idea. Their conversations
are about supermarkets, this shows us that they’re friends in some way as they
are having a conversation in general, I don’t think there are many people that
have conversations with their cab drivers but they’re not that good of friends
as they’re only talking about supermarkets and nothing else. Ben picks up
another passenger and he is drunk and vomits in his car, this is shown through
a mid shot. This shows the audience the contrast between Jackie and all the
other passengers. Jackie is no trouble for Ben whereas all the others have been
a headache for him. We get a close up of Ben’s face and we are able to see he
is in disgust at the passenger being sick, there is a change in his voice and
we can hear he is upset as the pitch increases. We see a close up of flowers
that Ben has gotten for Jackie and we think of this as something romantic
however we hear in the voice over that the best thing that could come from
Jackie is a ‘shag’ which refers to sex. This makes Ben seem less cheesy and
more of a stereotypical male.  But he does then go back to saying cheesy things and stuttering while he speaks about
Jackie. After a close up of the flowers we see Jackie get into the car with
another person who she then says is her boyfriend. This can make the audience
feel sorry for him after he’s gotten her flowers and cleaned up his car for her.
It was clear from the beginning that he really liked her and nothing good has
come from it. This goes back to Ben saying that no good comes from Mondays. Ben
says in his voice over that he doesn’t like Mondays again and it is a close up
of the back of his cab driving away to end the scene. This brings the scene to
an end and even a symbol of ‘him and Jackie’.
With this clip there are shots without being cut, looking at shots that haven't been cut can make it look like it is going on for ages. This represents the long journeys in the car with the annoying passengers.

Research/Case studies

This short clip is about making judgements on people due to their race. A woman makes a snap judgement on a male asian muslim and assumes he is a terrorist, as the ignorant woman fears the police show up and run straight pass him to a white male and arrest him for drugs. The asian muslim man meets his family and pulls out a scooter for his daughter. This films to show the audience how wrong they can be if they follow stereotypes.
There is an extreme wide shot used to set the scene while also tracking a character. This allows us to know who is in the short film. Meanwhile there is a high pitched track playing in the background that increases the tension. A medium long shot is also used to introduce two new characters. We are able to distinguish their relationship through the use of their body language; in this case they’re holding hands. Another wide shot is used to introduce a fourth character to the scene; we are able to notice this characters costume, which are male Muslim clothing and a bag.  Just as the Muslim man turns onto the road still during this mid shot the white female walks passed the camera. This implies that they’re possibly in somewhat the same. We close up shot of the Muslim male with the white female in the background, she looks at him and this goes to a close up of her face. This allows the audience to see the expression within her face, this shows fear but along with this, ignorance is shown. The camera shot goes back to a close up of the man and the woman in the background and you can see her slowing down. It goes to an extreme close up of his bag, this camera shot is taken from the side the woman is walking on and this shows that this is not just to remind the audience that he has a bag but it is to show what she is now fearing and focused on. It flips back to a close up of her face still showing the feared yet ignorant facial expression. It the goes to a close up of the male, he turn his head to look at the woman then looks back to the direction he is moving in. This shows the audience that he is not bothered by this woman as he is able to only look once and pursue his journey. At this point we see the female lady turn around through the use of a close up and this flows to a mid shot that introduces us to the next three characters of the screen, we are able to identify who they are as their car has sirens and although they’re not wearing uniform they have some traces of police accessories on them. Immediately, they run out of the car and into the same direction as all the previous characters. There is a mid shot that shows the female with her child, the Muslim male and the threw police officers. The male is still walking but the mother and her child has stopped. We get a close up of the Muslim male that has a plain expression, as he does not care that the police are running. We are able to know that it he does not care rather than not know the police are running behind him because the woman and her daughter are able to hear the car pull up and they turn around, whereas he didn’t. We get a long shot grab hold of her daughter a lot tight than she had been holding onto her and this suggests that she is bracing herself for a situation unbeknown to her was not about to take place. We get a side view of the Muslim male and the police officer and we establish the police are not stopping him but they run passed him. We get a close up of the Muslim man still with a plain expression on his face that hasn’t changed throughout the short film. It moves to a close up shot of the back of a character that was filmed at the beginning and the audience have likely to forgotten about him. We are able to look at hid costume and he is dressed as a business man with a brief case in his hand. He turns around with a worried and shocked look on his face and begins to run out of the close up shot turning it into a mid shot. This then makes the audience think that it is him that is running from the police and at this moment you realise the woman was discriminating against the Muslim male. Through a use of close ups and mid shots we see the white male being caught and struggle to break free. We see a close up of the woman and we see the shock in her facial expression. We get a close up of the while male that was caught and we see the police officers taking a drug out and this confirms to the audience that he did commit a crime and that the right person was caught. There is a mid shot of the police surrounding the white male they just caught and in the background we see the Muslim male walking still with a plain expression which shows that he has never felt like he was a victim of the discrimination from the mother. We get close ups of the white males brief case and more drugs being pulled out, this shows that he has done something wrong. Throughout this we are able to see that the police don’t look twice at the Muslim man and his bag and therefore the woman is seen as ignorant and close-minded. There is a long shot of the mother and her daughter both looking different directions and the little girl points to the Muslim male and his family. There is a close up of him giving his daughter a scooter and we get a mid shot of his family and we are able to see that him, his wife and his family are Muslims. We are able to see the happy expressions on his children’s faces as he set up the scooter. We then ignore the stereotype that the mother had set and just see him as a family man. During this clip the cutting rate is slow until the tension increases and the pace picks up, shot reverse shot is also used to show the difference between all the characters at that particular moment. The asian muslim man is perceived to be a terrorist and the woman is seen as a caring mother trying to look after her daughter.