For this weeks tasks, we began to look at Early Cinema, particularly focussing on late 1800s - early 1900s Film. To gain a better understanding of how films were made during this era, and what elements they focussed on, we completed an Early Cinema Analysis on some examples. After this we were challenged to create our own 30 second film that captured the characteristics of Early Cinema. I have included our final video below.
When forming an idea for our 30 second film, we knew from the knowledge we had just learnt that our main focus had to be on portraying the narrative of the story through the use of body language. It is important to over exaggerate the characters body language in an Early Cinema film as there is no sound attached to the footage to enhance the storytelling. Therefore, we were aware that we had to create a story idea that could be told solely through the use of actions and gestures. Our initial idea was to create a short story based around two characters playing a game of Noughts and Crosses. This seemed a simplistic idea that had the potential to be portrayed using only actions. However, we knew we would need additional props to help tell the story - these being a black marker pen and a large piece of paper. After trialling this idea several times, we found that it would not successful when the Noughts and Crosses 'grid' was not visible on screen. This led us to rethink our ideas.
After some thought, we decided that portraying two characters having a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors would appear better on screen, and allow the characters to experiment further actions. Once we had the basis of the story, we then had to form an underlying message to the film to go with it. We discovered that, through the use of gestures, we could create a piece that focussed on the phrase, 'Don't Give Up'. This is a clear message that is constantly renewed to many people and so this seemed an appropriate meaning to use as we felt it would be a clear message for the viewer when watching the short film. At the beginning of the film, we see two characters playing the gesturing game, with one character winning each time, and the other losing. In the middle of the film, we see a moment between the two characters where the losing character 'gives up' and begins to walk off screen. However, the other character continues to encourage the losing character to return and keep trying. When doing this, the losing character now begins to win some of the games. This is a simple, yet meaningful message of not giving up.
One of the main strengths of this short film is that we were able to tell a short narrative in the timescale given. Also, as the film was filmed using one single shot, we felt that our chosen scenario felt natural by using one long shot. This gave the film an Early Cinema feel. As mentioned earlier, one of the main problems that we encountered was how our initial story played out on screen. In order to overcome this, we discussed different options as to how we could successfully tell our narrative and convey our meaning, whilst still using elements of action and Early Cinema. An area which we could have improved on was slightly extending the sequence of events so that it fitted to the exact timescale. This could have allowed us to enhance the story telling further and perhaps provide more details for the viewer.
Overall, we are pleased with our 30 Second Short film and we were able to capture some classic Early Cinema elements.
Our First Attempt:
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