Florence's Coursework Blog

(POST SEVEN) WHAT'S IN THE NEWS? A Texas inmate has taken a ride on the roof of a police car after clambering out of the window.  Martin Gregory Estrada, 31, was being transported between facilities when he slipped from his handcuffs, shattered the passenger window, and climbed onto the roof of the car.  The inmate managed to balance himself on the top of the vehicle, and the officer continued driving until the help he had summoned arrived.  A video taken by other motorists shows the man sitting on the moving car, then leaping from the roof as it slows and is approached by other vehicles.  He is then apprehended by the arriving officers.   Authorities said that Estrada was being transported 150 miles (241km) from a hospital facility where he had allegedly assaulted someone.  He is now being held on charges including escape and unauthorised use of a vehicle. Short film idea: The film starts with an arial shot of a police car...

(POST SIX) I'VE WATCHED A NEW FILM Detour (2016) Harper (has Tye Sheridan), a seemingly naive law student, obsesses over the idea that his shifty stepfather was involved on the devastating car crash that left his mother hospitalised and comatose. He drowns his suspicions in whiskey until he finds himself suddenly engrossed in conversation with volatile grifter Johnny (Memory Cohen) and his stripper companion, Cherry (Bel Powley). As daylight breaks and the haziness of promises made becomes clearer, how will Harper handle the repercussions - not to mention the violent duo on his doorstep)? Employing a split narrative structure to tell this tale of deception and murder, Christopher Smith takes his audience on a thrill ride full of hairpin turn, where it's never quite clear what or who can be trusted.  I had never heard or seen anything about this film, there was no promotional material and it wasn't played in cinema so after  I watched the trailer,...

(POST FIVE) WHY ARE THERE SHORT FILMS? The given definition of a short film is:  any motion picture not long enough to be considered a feature  film . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a  short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". Traditionally, the short film is considered a stepping stone to making a feature, as well as this, shorts cost far less than features and so it is safe to explore and even fail. For example, if a person is given a million pound budget and the film fails, they will never be given that opportunity again, but if it is a no budget short film, there is room to fail. Also, I think that some stories cannot be made into feature films  because they are more impactful when they are told in 10 minutes instead of 2 hours.  The Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival champion it as an art form, place for information comm...

(POST FOUR) 'GENERATING IDEAS' - PLANNING Mood board of ideas In class, we randomly picked scenes and the scenes I picked were: A knight in shining armour A medieval castle A war has just started A long ladder Just after midnight By randomly choosing a location, a situation, characters, an object and a time, it enables us to come up with stories and ideas that we wouldn't usually think of doing and thinking about how we could make it into a short film. Also, we are able to think of different ways we could take the ideas and what different genres could be applied to the stories.  Fortunately, the things picked for me do correlate in some ways. For example, the knight in the middle of a war, could be trying to get into the enemy's medieval castle by the ladder, to infiltrate the enemy and take them out from the inside. The knight might be doing it at midnight so he wouldn't be as easily seen by the enemies. This would mean he could eas...

(POST THREE B) VLADIMIR PROPP Vladimir Propp was a folklorist researcher interested in the relationship between characters and narrative.  Propp argued that stories are character driven and that plots develop from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story.  He claimed characters could be classified into certain roles that progress a story.  Propp's ideas are also relevant in non-fiction print texts like newspapers which often portray politicians as villains if their decisions or policies aren't popular with the public. When someone has done a good deed for charity or helped in a daring rescue, newspapers often portray them as heroes. These roles are: - the Villain - struggles to stop the hero in their quest - the Donor - prepares the hero for their quest - the Helper - offers to help the hero in their quest, this is usually their sidekick - the Princess - person the hero marries, and is often searched for during the ques...

(POST THREE C) GENRE ACTION   subgenres :  EPIC -  its protagonist (or multiple protagonists) going to great lengths and over a long period of time in order to achieve a vital objective.  ( Ben Hur, Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia ) SPY -  a spy or other undercover professional finds themselves on a secret mission, usually behind enemy lines, and armed with an array of special equipment and gadgets.   ( James Bond, Salt, Mission: Impossible ) DISASTER -   center their story around a disaster, usually natural but it can be artificial. The disaster itself can be on a global level or extremely localized, imposing peril on only the central characters.   ( Poseidon, Towering Inferno ) SUPERHERO -  feature one or more characters who have supernatural abilities and do battle with similarly-powered antagonists. The majority of superhero movies are derived from comic book source material.  ( The Dark Knight Trilogy, Hancock, Sup...