Short Film Analysis
L-CAGES. = Lifestyle, Class, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Spending Power.
MIRA= Media Language, Institution, Representation, Audience.
Lifestyle= What things are they interested in? e.g. sports
Class= Working, Middle, Upper, e.g. Level of Education, Job?
Age= Children, Young Adults, Mature
Gender= Male, Female, All Genders
Ethnicity= A group of people who share common culture, traditions for e.g. spoken language, religion, culture.
Spending Power = Disposable Income (Money to spend) or tight budgets.
A* Challenge= Different films would have different target audiences. For example Black Hawk Down would attract much more of a mature audience while Cars 2 would attract more of a younger (kids) audience.
Portal No Escape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk
Portal No Escape:
Target Audience= Both male and female.
Ethnicity=Maybe geared towards white males/females.
Genre= Action, Adventure, Fiction
Grading/Color Scheme= Orange,Blue, Black, White.
Music= Hard hitting, sorrow, sad, adventurous, hopeful.
Class= Lower,Middle,High.
Age= Teens-Adults
Lifestyle=Fast Paced, Action.
Spending Power= Low-High.
Media Language=A live action short film to promote a video game.
Institution= Independent Film Maker (Dan Trachtenberg)
Representation= An original idea thought up by valve.
Audience= Teenagers-Adults, all genders.
Spellbound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAilaHrmPpg
Spellbound:
Target Audience= Females.
Ethnicity= Geared towards white females.
Genre=Animation, Fiction, Family.
Grading/Color Scheme= Blue, Black, Pink, Yellow, White.
Music= Cheerful, Scary.
Class= Middle.
Age= Kids
Lifestyle=Animation Films.
Spending Power= Low-High.
Media Language= A short film for kids.
Institution= 2 independent animation/film makers. (Ying Wu and Lizzia Xu)
Representation= Some stereotypes. (Normal middle class white family)(One sister is always better than the other)
Audience=Young Females (Children)
Compare the target audiences for both films:
Portal: No Escape is clearly geared towards a more adult/mature audience. The short film starts off pretty dark with a woman suddenly waking up to a mysterious cell with her medical gown covered in blood. The violent and dark nature of it isn't suitable for younger audiences. Children watching this might be horrified while more mature audiences such as teenagers/adults would enjoy the dark aspects of it, along with the plot twist at the end of the short film. The ending of this short film is quite depressing because the female protagonist finds herself still trapped in the facility she was put in. This short film is most likely targeted for teenagers to adults as it is fast-paced, violent and mysterious.
On the other hand, Spellbound is clearly targeted for children. Most animation films are aimed for children such as CARs or Toy Story. The start of Spellbound is very different from Portal. It starts off bright and calm with cheerful music going off in the background. The appearance of the monster acting as the "villain" is also common in child films where they encounter a dangerous villain but defeats it at the end. Spellbound ends on a cheerful note where the sister hugs the other sister and cheerful music is playing in the background.
The audiences for both films are very different, Portal's short film is definitely geared towards teens and adults who are looking for a short film with fast paced actions in a mysterious yet dangerous setting. While spellbound's short film is aimed towards children where there is a happy ending and everyone is safe.
2 MORE SHORT FILMS:
Killzone Extraction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ4FGm9Fwvg
Killzone Extraction:
Target Audience= Males
Ethnicity= All ethnicity.
Genre= Action, War, Fiction,
Grading/Color Scheme= Black, Red, Tan, OD Green.
Music=Action, Fast Paced,
Class= Lower,Middle,High.
Age= Teens-Adults
Lifestyle=Fast Paced, Action.
Spending Power= Low-High.
Media Language=A short film aimed to promote a video game.
Institution= A group of film makers called "Pwnisher" (The main director is Clinton Jones)
Representation= Original Idea with some stereotypes. The "ISA" being labeled as the good guys as they are our main focus, and the enemy forces being labeled as the bad guys. (The helghast)
Audience=Teenagers-Adults (Males)
28 Seconds Later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt30RC4uvAs
28 Seconds Later:
Target Audience= Males
Ethnicity=All ethnicity.
Genre= Post-apocalypse, War, Action.
Grading/Color Scheme= OD Green, Black, Red and White.
Music= No music.
Class= Lower,Middle,High.
Age= Teens-Adults
Lifestyle=Fast Paced, Action.
Spending Power= Low-High.
Media Language=A short film to promote a movie. (28 weeks later)
Institution= Fox Atomic, UK Film Council, DNA Films. (Produced by Lawrence Glover, Directed by Damien Wasylkiw and Phil Stoole.)
Representation= An idea thought up by Damien Wasylkiw and Phil Stoole. There is one stereotype however, where the military is always overran by inflected and killed. ( Alot of zombie movies/series portrays the military as incompetent to fight zombies as is always overruned/killed)(Examples include Fear The Walking Dead and The Crazies)
Audience= Teenagers-Adults, males.
Film techniques that can be acquired from the short films to be used in my short film:
1. POV Shots. (To make the audience feel like they are the character)
2. Shaky Camera (Makes the film feel more chaotic)
3. No music during action sequences. (Makes it more realistic and immersing)
4. Two shot+Blur. (Have a scene where there is a two characters, one is sitting near the camera which focuses on him. The other character is behind, blurred by the camera but can be seen)
5. High Angled,+Over The Shoulder+Three shot.
6. Extreme Close Up (To show details of the character)
7. A long two shot (Zoomed in on the characters to show both the person's features and surrounding environment)
8. Shaky Cam+Tracking Shot (Follows the character while showing the chaotic environment)
9. First Person Shot of a Scope. (Shows what the character is looking at from his perspective)
Examples:
