Studying short films.

In the last few weeks we have been looking at short films and trailers. We have been asked to do our own studies towards this and begin to plan for our own short film/trailer. We have studied the codes and conventions, Todorov, analysed short films/trailers and Vladmir Propp.

Todorov has a theory about how films work. He said there was 3 parts to a film. He claims that all is normal, which he called the equilibrium. Then there is a disruption in the equilibrium and there should be a resolve to the problem, which leads to restore in equilibrium. This theory is flawed though. If you look at subverted films like, "Sin City", where the film actually starts at the end. We can see in films like this that the story is not always resolved and that there doesn't have to be a set order to the structure of a film.

In Miss Murphy's lessons we looked at different short films and analysed them. We analysed 3 films, "Dipper," "Gravity," and "Sold." It was good that we did this because it gave us a better impression of the way that short films are made and the ways they work up. Because they are a lot shorter than full length films, they have to get to the main part of the film a lot faster. This is important in short films because if you don't get there fast, the film will end up being a lot longer than it is meant to be.

Vladmir Propp is a theorist for short films. His theory was that there is 8 different types of character, they are:

1. The villain. (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor. (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper. (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess. (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father.
6. The dispatcher. (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero that tries to marry the girl, but fails.