The Long Distance Relationship - short film analysis

In preparation of creating my own short film for my A2 Media work, I decided to analyse some short films that are the same genre of which I want to make my own short film into. 

The first short film that I decided to analyse is called 'The Long Distance Relationship' and was created by TheGRIMFILM.

Week 1

Chase scene sequence.

In preparation for making my short film for media, I created a short chase scene with a few other people to practise using the camera and practicing techniques.

 

My roles were filming and finding and adding music.

 



Analysing short films: part two.

In preparation of creating a short film for my media product, I decided to watch products that the previous year 13's had created for their coursework last year.

 

I viewed a short film called 'IN UNISON'. This is similar to the previous film that I viewed in a what that they both show the passage of time through someone's lives. The first thing that I noticed is that in the top corner of several shots there are dates to show the audience when the clip they are watching is set. Again, this shows the audience how time has passed. This short film made me feel very emotional as it showed how dancing partners strived to success and eventually found love and then after all of those years at old age they are still together dancing. It is definitely touching to watch, as it shows how they strived towards their goal and it finally paid off as they eventually won their competition a few years later from when they first started, and then as an added reward they got together. We are then made aware that the character 'Thomas' when in his older self is dancing with 'Emily' in their sitting room, he is just imagining it and his wife is in fact not able to dance with him like they used to as she is dying. It is an extremely emotional short film to watch and it definitely brought a tear to my eye. I think the relationship between the two characters is captured excellently as it shows the hardships that they went through when they first started dancing together and then how that escalated into a long-lasting relationship for them. I would definitely put this short film into the level four band on the mark scheme, with a score of 36/40.



Life Aquatic storyboards

In preparation for my year 13 coursework next year, I pieced together two storyboard sheets of stills of the film Life Aquatic to how I thought it could fit.

 

The order that I arranged the stills in isn't 100% accurate to how the scene actually plays out. However, I wasn't far off . There were a couple of shots that happened in the film that I didn't have a still of, so I just pieced the stills together till they fit together.



Analysing short films: part one.

In preparation of creating a short film for my media project, I decided to watch products that the previous year 13's had created for their coursework.

The first short film that I viewed captured a man reflecting on his past experiences through his lifetime, from being a small child to being in the army. At the beginning of the film we see the man sleeping, which is when he is reminicing on his childhood experiences. For this, there were several shots of a young boy running through what appears to be a forest with a filter over the top of the shots, which makes the audience aware that this is a flashback of a memory. I think these shots perfectly captured the essence of childhood and how simple life is when you are that age, as the young boy in the shot is seen carelessly running through the trees and having fun.
The man in present day is then captured sitting on his bed looking through old photographs, which then triggers memories to come to him of being in the army. We then get the impression that these are fond memories to the man, as he picks up his old badge and kisses it after looking at the old photographs. It is then apparent that the man's strength has deteriorated with age as we can see the comparison of when he was in the army, to when he is older and he knocks over the glass of water.
I think that the passage of time between the mans childhood, his army experiences and his present day self have been shown perfectly by using different filters over the shots to represent the passage of time, and the fading between shots shows that they are memories. I would put this short film into the level four band on the mark scheme, and give it 33/40.