Review of the 6th of September

In media today we watch 2 examples of short films. To see what we could learn from threm and to see if we could use some of the techniques used; in our own work. We were specifically looking at the features of the short films, how they Informan, Entertain and Educate.
The first of the two short films was; 'The Urban Savannah' directed by; Mathew Cook and Vincent Lund. It was made in the UK in 2004. The basic idea of this short film was; the observation and study of animals in packs but humans were used istead. A group of 'skaters' and 'townies' were used. The features were; an explanatory commentry. There was always someone doing a voiceover in the camera; explaining what was actually going on infront of the camera. Experts were also used. In studys like this to do with animals they always used expertise, so they decided to use them in the study of humans to get some true facts and information. The whole thing was observational; they were only observing the characters, the character didn't actually interact with them. So it was basically a 'Fly on the wall.' To catch the characters behaving like themselves normally. As they would call it; 'Them in they're own habitat' The use of dramatic events made the whole thing a bit more interesting and a bit more comedic. The way the short film informed the audience was; through the formal language. This is because they want to grab people's attention by speaking formally to them but then making the video a bit of a joke because it works well together. Also the terms used help identify the scientific yet comedic nature of the film; words like; 'Dominant male.' This short film entertains the audience by using humour; like taking events that actually happen and making them funny; like arguments and fighting. Like using the teenagers as animals. This short film educates the audience by having experts giving them information to educate them; using they're expertise. I learnt that I could use to things at put them together; like using teenagers as animals. So this was kind of like a documentary but a humourus film aswell.
The second short film we looked at was 'I love my nails.' This was directed by Katherine Freeman and made in the Uk in 2000. For this short film they're was a much closer view of things actually in the camera. It was an observational look at the nails and the people in the salon but also they interacted with camera. They chatted to the camera about the nail salon. The camera followed choronologically because the camera followed the women getting they're nails done hand by hand. The language used in this short film was informal because it's just normal people talking to the camera, there wasn't any commentry to it because it wasn't really a documentry. It's just a look at a nail salon and chatting to people in it. Also the camera does special artistic clips using the nails, some are also comedic. I have learnt from this that; in any clips that I do I can mix it up a bit and put a bit of artistic ideas into them. Also the shots and angles really matter when you are shooting.