Conventions Of Short Films

• Limited number of characters 
• Majority contain no dialogue 
• Usually just one location featured 
• The location is usually familiar to the viewer (e.g. an office, at home etc)
• Open ended 
• Usually focuses on one main character 
• Duration tends to be between 5 to 15 minutes long 
• There is usually a twist to the story at the end 
• Music fitting the genre and mood of the film is used - it is particularly important for the films with no dialogue 

Short Film: Signs

Genre:
The is genre of this short film is romance. This can be seen as there are two people, who appear to like each other, flirting through messages on pieces of paper. I think the elements of this film are typical of the genre as it is sweet and romantic (and a bit corny).

Narrative:
The story develops quite slowly in a linear and cyclical way, as the story progresses in chronological order however certain events are repeated - but they occur on different days (for example the scene were the man was waking up and getting out of bed in the morning is repeated many times). Ellipsis is also used to show time moving forward quicker (which would be key for a short film). The film is open ended as they do finally meet in the flesh at the end, but there is no real indication as to what happens next - it is left to the audiences imagination.

Characters:
There are two main characters, a man and a woman. I would describe the man as lonely, nervous and not very confident and the woman as happy, smiley and confident. I would say the man, in particular, was stereotypical of the genre as he is a lonely man looking for love - which is common in romance films.

Technical:
The mise en scene of the office and home of the male character would convey meaning to the viewer as these are locations that would feature in their everyday lives, and so would be familiar to them. The sound, such as the dialogue and background noise, would convey meaning as the only dialogue heard is other peoples conversations in the background, a man giving a talk at a meeting and an answer phone message - all commonly heard sounds in the viewers everyday lives. The score played over the film is typical of the genre. It is mainly piano based and changes depending on the males characters state of mind, when he is sad the music is, when happy the music is much more uplifting.

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

Dr Maslow invented the hierarchy of needs based on his research into humans. This research was taken by Young and Rubicam who then designed a research tool in order to find out where people would be placed within the hierarchy.

Young and Rubicam did this by asking what brands people bought and how they felt about them, this system created a way of understanding the underlying appeal of those brands. This system accepted that people from different counties would be influenced by their cultural backgrounds, and so the effect of those backgrounds was removed. 

I was then named the 'Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation' - the 4C's for short. 

The 4C's divide people into 7 different types depending on their aims. 

These 7 types and their aims are:

• The Explorer - discovery 
• The Aspirer - status  
• The Succeeder - control 
• The Reformer - enlightenment  
• The Mainstream - security 
• The Struggler - escape  
• The Resigned - survive

Similarities

The Exciters - 'Tell him' (1962) and One Direction - 'What makes you beautiful' (2011)

Similarities between the two videos:

• They are both shot in a public place (tell him was shot in a zoo, the other was shot n a beach)
• The videos bot have no real connection to the video at all
• They both feature a band singing and dancing
• In both videos the bands can be seen to be miming the word of the song at the camera

What Is The Purpose Of A Music Video?

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe (Pop)

- Relatively 'normal' scenarios featured
- Draws the females in with an attractive male
- The male takes his shirt off and is frequently seen in slow motion at the beginning to highlight his attractiveness for the females
- Draws the males in with an attractive female
- Comedy element (car washing scene)
- Cliche (car washing scene)
- Clip representing a fake romance movie where the two main characters get together - like how the majority of the video is, girl in love with the Gardener wants him to notice her etc - except there is a subversion, the male is not interested in the girl at all
- The video has immersion as there is a story line running through it - making you want to continue watching to find out the outcome
- There are both performance and narrative elements to the video

I think that the video is secondary to the music as the song is catchy and easy to remember - even though the video has a story line I don't think that was necessary in order to make the song stand out and be remembered

Rihanna - Where Have You Been (R&B) 

- Sole focus of the video is on Rihanna
- Men would be attracted to her
- Women would want to be like her
- Dance - appealing for men to watch
- Rihanna wears barely any clothes during the video - again for the male audience
- Concept  - the video has no link to the song at all
- A lot of focus on her body - for the male audience
- I feel that the video was designed more to show off the singer than the song

I think the video would be secondary to the song for women - they would care more about the song, but I think as men would be more interested in the video than the song (for the reasons above) the video would be primary for them

Tropes Of Three Music Genres

Pop:

• Dance routines
• Singing directly into the camera with a close up
• Females featured tend to wear a lot of make up
• Focus of a lot of the videos of this genre is a relationship
• Almost everybody featured are 'attractive' people

Indie:

• Artists playing instruments
• Most contain a performance
• People look moody
• Video tends to focus on the artists

Rock:

• Almost all contain a performance
• Main focus on the artists, although commonly some of the focus is on other people featured/the audience watching the performance
• People featured tend to look moody or sad
• People featured tend to wear dark clothing
• Close ups of the instruments being played
• Close ups of the people singing into the camera

Types Of Music Video

Narrative: Video tells a story

Performance: Features the artist singing live (usually in front of fans)

Concept: Music has no correlation to the video

3 Music Videos I like...

1. Coldplay - The scientist (2005)

This video stands out to me as I think it is quite clever and effective due to the video being in reverse the whole way through, making the video unique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU

2. Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)

This video is more like a short film and that is what I like about it most. It has a story line running throughout and is an iconic video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA 

3. Kasabian - Re-wired (2011)

I like that this video is also more like a film, with the car chase throughout, giving the video more of a story and making the audience want to find out why they are being chased etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjsrH_cnK7g