Character Interviews

This exercise helped us to get into the mind of the character a very important technique when you want audiences to really understand the characteristics of the character you are portraying. 

Frank Costello 

Me: What made you start looking after colin?

Frank: He seemed like a moitvated you boy you know, and plus his mentality looked like it could of been used for a good cause, he was alert and had a smart mind, i like him straight away

Me: When you say "good cause" what exactly do you mean?

Frank: What do you think i mean, i sell drugs so i knew he could help me , and im right he did

Me: So when you took him in, didnt you do it for love?

Frank: Yea i love the kid, well now i do, i have to say back then i just done it for myself but time went and i gotta love him

Me:Are you proud hes part of the police force?

Frank:Yeah im proud of him for getting into the police force, but thats cause hes helping me not get caught you see, as for the police force i hate every single one of them, all they want to do is take me down.

Me:Why did you start taking drugs?

Frank:Got brought up into it i spose , and just thought what the hell , why not! , i saw the money it brang, the alcohol it brought it and most of all the women, look im in my 60's and i still got it.

Me: Do you find it hard to trust people?
Frank: Yeah of course, a person like me doesnt trust anyone so easy especially the life that i live, they all just want to mess with what youve achieved, the only two people i trust is my main main and Colin
Frank: Why you so heartless ?
Me: Why do you say i'm heartless?

Me: You kill with no remorse.
Frank: I only kill those who interfere in buisness that they shouldnt be messing around in, if they do , its BYE BYE. No-one messes with Frank Costello. 

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Analysis Of Short Film - Offside

Analysis Of Short Film - Strangers

Lighting 

• Dark lighting, to create a fearful atmosphere.
• Shows conflict between characters ( Can be used to show conflict the two brothers)

Sound 

• Non diagetic sound , ambient sounds
• No dialogue , creates tension
• Heavy beat music to introduce the feared characters

Camera 

• Two shot - to show the two different characters 
• Panning shots -
• Shot revers shots, to show reaction and also tension between two characters as there is no dialogue
• Close ups to show anger and facial expression

Short Film On Mothers Sickness

This theme of this film was quite similar to our as it had the same sort of Rites of passage.

The relationship between two sisters and their sick mother was very important as it gave us an idea of how to portray this in our film with two brothers and their sick mother. It begins with the narrator showing us her daily routine with her mother, we thought this would be a good idea to use for our film to show the audience what a normal day is like in their house hold. Another strong element of the film was the two sisters different reaction towards their sick mother, and their different personalities which we also used in our film. We can see that more calm, sensitive daughter is the one who's more quiet and clearly cares more for the mothers happiness and health whereas the other daughter is portrayed more harshly as she wants to put her mother in a care home. This opposing personalities is clearly seen at the dinner table, the harsh sister seems to be more distant from the family compared to the other sister who seems more close with the mother, i got this idea when the mother asks the calm sister "why does ___ have her coat on" this shows a relationship between the two as she asks the other daughter instead of the one with her coat on instead ,  it also shows that she is not staying long and may also imply she's uncomfortable. We thought of using the idea of favoritism in our film but we still need to decide on how we were going to portray it. A lot of the scenes here are repeated for example going out the front door, it gives it some sort of significance as if its a new beginning or something different is always going to happen, another idea that we wanted to use, was giving something in our film significance that we could use as a symbol. As Alzheimer is more of an mental disease her sickness is not very much portrayed through settings and props we therefore felt we needed to use a different clip to give us an idea of how to portray this specific theme. We could see a clear Rite of Passage in the ending of the film which was quite sad as the mother did in fact die and it was how the sister had to move on,we wanted the main character in our film to experience the same sort of Rite of passage however in a much more positive way. 

Analysis of Short Films

ICE CREAM DREAM

The story focuses on the Rite of passage of the girl overcoming her fear and making new friends whilst her dad also faces a rite of passage but letting his daughter free to play out with friends of her own.

The shot begins seeing the ice cream van that her father owns , the automatically relates to children and a more family oriented audience, which give us the impression the short film is going to be based in the community. Other shots of shot revers shots between the daughter and father show that they have a close relationship and when he ask why dont you play with your friends it shows the audience how he wants his daughter to play with her friends and enjoy her childhood. However we begin to see the girls fear when an alter ego of herself appears and makes her feel a loss of confidence. By doing this we are able to see the reasons of why she doesnt want to let go because she is scared the other children , especially a small boy called mark wont like her enough to play with her. Filmmakers used a clip of her having a dream as a way of her gaining confidence.
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THE FIRST TIME IT HITS

Automatically we see a point of view shot from the skateboard so we assume the main charcater may be a skateboader which automatically relates to a younger audience, the fact it is in Black and White gives a a dull effect and dull atmosphere, the non diagetic music is of an Rock genre and it quite upbeat which is normally associated with skateboaders and "rock chicks". There are alot of quickshots which may represent the fast life of the skateboader and how quickly he falls in love. The shot then focus on the 'bad girl' so we know that the skateboader may have some direct relation with her or she is associated with him as the shots go back and forth from him to her. The makeup and costume of both character are quite similar with the style of rock and goths , for example she has black lipstick on. There is close up shot of her blowing a bubble with bubble gum which he may see as attractive as the shot then reverses to a close up of him guliping , this is portrayed as a rite of passage as the gulping signifies he is having to face quite a significant moment, another shot of both their eyes also is seen as a symbol for the chemistry between them. Throughout the clip the only colours present are black and white which suit the two character who seem to be of a gothic genre as they are noramlly seen as dull people however when they fall in love the colours pink and red are shown which shows it brings some sort or sparkle to the life.

JUNO

How does this film deal with this particular 'rite of passage'? Does anything surprise you about the way the film deals with teenage pregnanacy? Why?

camera.

• Establishing shot, sets the area for the film and also the character as the next shot is of the main character JUNO.
• After the dialogue "This is one doodle that cant be undid home skillet" she comes to the realization that she is pregnant , there is a close up of her face and eyes looking up which shows she is experiencing a rites os passage, that she is actually going to be a mother.
• Two shot of her parents, when she tells them she is pregnant we see a close up of her father and also a shot reverse shot to show his reaction.
• When she says who the father is , we see a cutaway show to establish who Paul bleaker is.

lighting.


mise en scene.

• The cinematography created with the first shot of a surburban home and bright colours indicate that it is quiet calm innocent neighborhood. This creates quite a innocent look for the main character JUNO  however meaning is then changed when we realize she is in fact pregnant.

sound.

• Very upbeat cheerful music, implies its a family film, the music also compliments the setting as it creates a happy environment. However ironically used when dealing with the theme of pregnancy.
• Dialogue,"This is one doodle that cant be undid home skillet" this is the point of her rites of passage when she realizes she is actually pregnant and there is nothing she can do about for now"
• Dialogue " who's the father" from JUNO's dad when she tell him she's pregnant, the reaction dialogue is used almost to quickly to show that he is quite angry.
• Dialogue " they have ads for parents!" shows she is still very young and not aware of the seriousness behind it , it may imply she is too young and not ready to be a mother.
• Dialogue " if i could just have the thing" shows again she is quite immature, not really taking her pregnancy seriously and gives the impression she doesn't really care about it. Giving quite a strong impression of teenage pregnancy.

Cinema Paridiso

The scene ends with Bueller at home playing the flute, while the 'Dean of students' contacts his mother about his seemingly poor attendance. I feel that the following scenes will be of how Bueller spend his day off from school, he seems to be a mischevious character for example hacking into the school system in order to change his attendance mark, so aswell as enjoying his day off he may also spend it finding ways to decieve his parents into thinking that he really is sick. Aswell as mischevious he seems very naive and doesnt accept the fact that school is colmpulsary this is shown when hes in the shower talking about 'European Sociolists' and because he is not Europea it is not relevant to him. For this reason i say he wil probably contine to fake illness a few more times, rather than realise the importance of this.

Other characters such as the Dean of Students seems to be quite alert and onto Bueller keeping records of is punctuality as attendance because he witnessed the days of absent decrease i feel that as a concerned character he will try his best to prove to Buellers parents that he really is well enough to come to school but simply is cutting classes. Lastly Buellers mother is unaware of the truth and is strong apon the fact that her son is unwell because of her defence when talking to the Dean of Students so untill she is told the truth Bueller is innocent untill proven guilty.

Ferris Bueller breaks the 4th wall by communicating with the audience this allows the audeince to feel involved and build up a liking for Ferris, its like the audeince become a part of him and build up an understanding of Ferri's character by doing this we are very bias towards ferris which portrays him as the protagonist and gives us an idea of what he may do next.
Other technical aspects such as mise en scene also give us an idea of what may happen next, the locations used ( Ferris's house and school) also give us the reason to favour Bueller's decisions as wee see the school enviroment as very boring and dull through the characters body language and face expressions whereas Buellers house is the opposite to this as he seems laid back and having fun.

Rite Of Passage - Music

Here we thought of different music which could be seen as a Rites of passage for someone.

The first one i chose was Adele - Someone like you, i thought this could be seen as a Rites of passage for someone who has just experienced a break up and this is their response to that certain person. 

Rite Of Passage - Monologue

In response to the music that i found which i felt was a Rites of passage , i decided to write a monologue piece for the person who had experienced this. It allowed me to become the person and give others an insight into how the person may of felt and reacted. This was going to be useful when creating our own characters and using dialogue in order for audiences to understand the Rites of passage they had just experienced. 

It took some time for me to realise that maybe it was for the best, even though it was the worst pain i have felt in ages,everything happens for a reason. So here i am using that to justify everything youve ever done.It was you that showed me the loving person i was and had the potential to be.I look back and think where did it all go? The memories,its as if it disappeared into thin air. And now i sit here and reminisce. It's like everything reminds me of you and i cannot escape the fact that your not here anymore,but then i look to the future and realise that life does go on. Break ups to make ups ups and downs it took a while for me to come to my senses but im progressing now. You taught me a lot of lessons that i will surely learn from, you made me want to become a better person its a shame i cant share that experience with you but lifes to short for tears so i hold my head high,smile and move on.