Short film Techniques

Camera: Movement 

Movement of camera, is the direction of what the camera is moving to, this contains pan, tilt , dolly , zoom and track. It is overall  a camera that is not in a static positions.

Where we can see techniques of movement is at 2:00 , where the actors is on the ground crawling to an object, we see the camera movement of tracking upwards with the character, to reveal what is he is chasing an small object.

Why this may have been used by the director Christopher Nolan is that, he may wanted to follow the character movement , and to revel to us what he was running after , by revealing it with the same motion movement of character. This may also be used to show the felling and the paces of the short film, and the tempo that it is at, in this case the movement is slow and gradual as the Nolan wants to gradually show the sense. The effects that this has on the viewer is that it allows them to follow the character , it give a sense to them that there are moving with the character , then for the character.

Where I have used movement in my own work is in my short film about, "Drug, relationship and abuse", where i had uses a tracking short of the drug dealer, walking to open the door, I had used the same pace of movement of what the character did. This was to follow the character in same time to reveal of who was at the door, it allowed me to give the scenes of the audience is following the characters.

Lighting: Creating Shadows 1:56

Creating shadows is a techniques that is used to block light to create a dark shape that represents the object or person, this could also be used to show time of day

Where the creating of shadows is shown is at 1:56 where the character is running after an object and a shadow is created to the wall. due to the filming being in black and white it is hard to determine if this is natural or artificial lighting creating the shown, as from the angle of the shows i see that it is from the sun.

The reasoning of what Nolan had created shadows in doodlebug was to give a representation of that there are two character. The shadow had help with creating depth into the character, to show that he is real. This also help with showing that the shadows is copying the same action of the character, where it is later shown of where he repeat the same attack. The effect that this has on the viewer is that its giving hits to them, it also allows them to see that the light which acts like the sun give the character a second life.

I have not used the technique of shadows in my work, I intend to do in future project, to create a depth on the character and to emphasise the light that is creating this. For example if touch was used for a horror film and could be used to show shows of object and to create a more intense scene.

 Sound: Sound Mixing  1:04

Sound mixing is a techniques that is used at the sound stage of a film, what this initially is , the overlapping of sound and pitching and adjusting the level , to create single flow of one time line.

Where sound mixing is clearly show is at 1:04 where there are multiple layer of sound place over each other with different levels of sound. As there is the sound of the phone ear speaker of someone speaking and the ticking of the clock, which is placed at different level of how close the camera is to the object.

Why Nolan had used sound mixing in doodlebug, was to emphasise on the sound that was disturbing the character and making him feel uncomfortable. The mixing allowed Nolan to create detail of digetic sound and to represent the character hear and what he is initially hearing.The effects that this had on the viewer is that it create a scene of making a blank shot have life into , to add sound that represent the life to the storyline.

Where I have used sound mixing is in my ultra short film, were there is a sense of the main character receiving a notification on his phone. What I had did here is that I had placed the first level of sound at the back which was the wild cat, then added the digetic sound with the notification sound on top, this was to emphasise the sound.

 Editing:Visual effects 2:27

Visual effects is a demonstrations of using effects that is not possible to do, this could be using CGI or green screen to preform an shot that cant be down for help from editorial effects.

Where you see visual effects in doodlebug is at 2:27, where this is a effects of the character being in a shrunken down form. What this initial is a tiny person that has been added in with effect that enable this this could be done from green screen or CGI.

Christopher Nolan has used visual effects to portray the level of status that that character has each time, as we see a small version on him compared normal human to show that he is weak , then we see a larger version of him shown the normal one of him is weak. This overall helps Nolan with is showing a vision of weakness that is not possible to create. The effect that this has on the viewer is to show something that is abnormal and not real as this also help with keeping the audience interest.

I have not done a lot with visual effects, but I have used the green screen effect in the Live day BTS video of where I had replaced the back ground Doreen screen with pictures this was to keep the frame looking full and not boring to the viewer.

 Scripting: Body Language 1:32

Body language is used to representation of the statues and mood of the emotions and physicality of there character, it is the body of where it defines the effects of the story.

The body language from the script is show at 1:32 from the character. What is initially shown is that he is sitting on the ground with his legs against his chest, with his arms curled up to his chest and his head lowered down.Where he has experience something uncomfortable and shown by him curling up.

Why Nolan had use this technique of body language  for scripting was to create a emotion for the audience to feel of the character, you can see from this language that he is feeling paranoid and weak. This also brings across the effects on the situation and how it has impact the character life. The effects that this has on the viewers is to notice that the character has human features and feel like a human, it has a connection between each other.

I have used this technique in my short film  , of where the victim that was being abused, had his body language on the ground that he had been beaten up and that he was vunrable. Why I had include this was to show that he wasn't on the same level as the victim and had to shown his body language as looking uncomfortable and the antagonist of having there head high to show strength.

 Building a scene: Climatic Battle 2:39

Climatic battle battle is a scene where there is fight happening between two people, that has been help to the peek at its movements and had been ended at a final point that help finishes the scene.

The climate battle is shown at 2:39 where the character is having a chase and a fight with its miniature and future self. We see at the end that he had killed him self with a shoe moments before and experience when he had realised that was him, as the scene was ended at this moment.

Nolan had used the technique of climatic battle , to keep the audience engaged, this was to make the storyline become for tense this was also able to show of what they feel about each other. As this idea of killing yourself, has a scene of the character loosing there mind and not realising that he is killing him self. The effects that it has on the audience was they get to see action in the story which tend to add more energy to the scene, it create a feel of who is going to win this battle.

Where I have used a climatic battle is in my short film of what would you do, which is about friendship.What we see is that one of the friend is getting beaten up and his other come in and help and help my scaring of the antagonist, it gave the audience a sense of relief.

 Building a story: Plot-Twist 2:36

A plot twist is a drastic change to the film , towards the story line. It is were you  maintain the interest of the audience to find out it was someone or something else during the whole film.

We see the plot twist segment in doodlebug at 2:36 where the main character revels to himself that the small human was him, in the fire of time, and had a twist of what the small creature had felt so did he fell, in this case it was the boot.

Why Nolan had used plot twist to build a story, was that he wanted to maintain the audience engagement and keep.them on there seat ,as what he had did is that he had placed a section that was no expected which gave a drastic change to the story line of the character being the tiny human. The effects that it give to the audience's is that it makes them feel like they were  fool and never knew the truth, this keep the idea of "of he has predicted his future.

Where I have used plot twist in my own personal work is in my ultra short film, where the main character on drug had to ,choose his girlfriend or drug dealer, and was viewed as him going to his girlfriend but later discovered that it was a different guy and he was cheating on him and he had went to the drug dealer. We had trick the audience and made them believe that he was going to his girlfriend.