Short Film Evaluation

Short Film Evaluation 

• Must be between 1600 and 1800 words
• Make reference to short films - Make reference to cinematic influences (professional produced not short film based)
• Narrative structure of the short film, Cinematic influence, Creating meaning and effect
• How the short films informed your production

Writing the Evaluative Analysis

A sample structure for the Evaluative Analysis is outlined below. This can be reproduced and given to

students. A copy in handout form is available on the Digital Resources section of the Edugas website,

Short Introduction:

Include a brief synopsis/outline of your film idea

What did you want to create in terms of style, genre and narrative?

PART 1: Narrative Structure of the short film

This section should feature an analysis of all the short films you have studied from the list of

set texts outlined within the Specification and how these informed your own production.

Please note you do not have to talk about all the films researched equally but you must talk

about 80 minutes worth of set short films from the WJEC specification (Appendix A).

You may want to consider some of the following questions in your analysis:

What film (from the ones you have researched) had the biggest impact on you?

What elements of film form that had the biggest impact in terms of meaning and

response?

How was the narrative structured? Did this influence your response?

What differences exist between the story (sequence of events/plot) and the narrative

(the techniques used to tell the story)?

What character types (i.e. hero/villain/protagonist/antagonist) are created?

Does the narrative create any binary oppositions of interest?

Who are the audience encouraged to identify with/dislike etc and how is this

achieved

Does the text follow the equilibrium/disruption or re-equilibrium plot points?

Is the narrative open/closed? What is the impact of this?

Does the film follow a formula common for the genre or does it attempt to subvert

narrative formulas? What does this do to the audiences expectations

Is the narrative linear or non-linear/multi-strand? How many different strands to the

narrative are there and what is the impact of this?

Does the narrative set up any enigma codes within the narrative structure? What is

the impact of this on the viewer?

PART 2: Cinematic Influences

This section should consider how the key elements of other films (from within or outside of the Specification) have influences production. You may use stills from the films to illustrate tour points

PART 3: Creating meaning and effect

This section is an evaluative analysis and should consider how your production creates

meaning and response for the spectator in relation to other professional products, including

one of the short films studied.

How does your product CREATE MEANING for AUDIENCES? (Pick out key creative

moments i.e.

EXAMPLE: "I chose to use contrapuntal sound, a diegetic low sinister buzzing juxtaposed

against the image of a sun saturated landscape using high key natural lighting. This

suggests a façade of happiness exists but intrigues the viewer into thinking that something

much darker may be about to happen. This technique has been used in films that have

influenced me such as American Beauty and Kill Bill, where all is not what it seems, through

the depiction of white picket fence America' as a contrapuntal setting to disturbing actions.

What devices used, have worked well and why (Think in terms of the key elements

of film form you have used for the sequence i.e. Close Up/Dissolve Technique/A

certain costume choice).

EXAMPLE: "I feel the Wash Out' editing technique used during the chase sequence worked

well to give the audience a sense of relief after the initial fast jump cuts which were used to

put them on edge, conforming to audience expectations of narrative for the genre"

What devices did not work well? Suggest improvements.

EXAMPLE: "The long shot which I decided to use for the opening sequence did not have as

much visual impact as I intended. An extreme close up may have been a better choice as I

would have been able to create a greater sense of tension and claustrophobia"

The same formula of drawing upon influences to analysis creative decisions should

be applied to screenwriting:

EXAMPLE: "It was my intention that the way I introduced Jill to the narrative would create a

sympathetic connection with the audience as I used the codes of a typical 'everywoman' by

describing her as a "hen-pecked single mother of two who, in her spare time, lived on a diet

of boxsets and loosely based Bridget Jones fantasies'. This takes influence from the

screenplay of La La Land in which Damien Chazelle's introduction to Mia garners instant

audience empathy in his description: 'Mia, 27. Six years of 'no' in L.A. have toughened her,

but she's still a dreamer. Fast, fiery, full of energy.

Film	Techniques and narrative style	Themes and Ideas
The Gunfighter	Western tropes, Humour, Violence, Finale, Lighthearted	Undermining the tropes and conventions of the Western
Swimmer	Montage aspects - Sound creating meaning - Muffled and eerie, No dialogue, Aspects of Film Noir (colour/ambiguity) high enigma	Abstract (meaning?) sound and visuals combined to create meaning
High Maintenance		Humans to the way they should be Artificial intelligence and emotions - (lack of presence) Visibility on the screen and individual’s presence
The grandmother	Inhuman sound - Use of sound, SFX, Non-musical, everyday items have Animal sounds instead of literal sounds

Narrative structure of the short film - Swimmer has a non-linear narrative. The one constant is the man swimming, so the non-linear narrative allows for the audience to have freedom to interpretation. My film, whilst mostly following a linear structure, has elements of non-liner structural build. In the film I have moments of montage which are not linear as they cut to different scenes and scenarios, meaning there’s no real time structure to them.

Cinematic influences - The swimmer short film contains no dialogue and uses only sound, and the distortion of sound in order to create meaning and emotion within the film. My film does the same. There is limited to no dialogue in my film, and instead, I use discomforting sounds, as well as distorting existing sound in order to convey the emotions of the main subject over the the spectator.

Creating meaning and effect -

1st Draft

My short film centralises around a main character and how they dont seem to be able to regulate their emotions on their own and so they take pills to help fixate on the specific emotion they need for the day. However, a turning point of my film is that suddenly these emotions manufactured by the pills start to loose control. The next day, the central character takes more pills than they did the previous day in hopes to resolve the issue; in which it doesn’t. Amidst a break down, they start running through the neighbourhood to which they stumble across someone else who seems to be suffering from the same issues as them. The film ends there on a plot twist. Todorov's narrative structure is followed to an extent within my short film. Whilst it may not seem it, my film starts of with essentially the characters equilibrium, then once the characters emotions start messing up, we have the disruption. Instantly the character recognises this disruption, however they don’t know how the resolve it. This disruption never gets fully resolved, but the plot twist ending, may suggest a new equilibrium within the characters life as they recognise they are not alone. My short film plays into a linear narrative similar to that of the short film The Swimmer. Both my film and The swimmer follow the course of a set character through a journey. Another short film which has inspired the narrative structure of my film is High Maintenance. The short film High Maintenance, as well as my own, both finish on an abrupt and quite unpredictable plot twist. In High Maintenance we see that the central woman is in fact a robot herself too, likewise in my short film, we see that the centralised character isn’t in fact alone with their struggles. Furthermore, my short films story narrative was also influenced by the short film Wasp. Wasp followed the journey of a single Mother who was struggling financially, as well as emotionally which ultimately damages her physical life in which she had no control over. This turmoil can also be seen in my own film as we see the main character struggling with their emotions to an extent in which they can’t control, which is reflected in her physical life.

Key element from numerous short films have ultimately influenced the way in which my short film has been filmed and edited. The main influence for my short film would be The Swimmer. Throughout the entirety of my short film as well as the swimmer, I include no dialogue or spoken words. By doing this, I keep the attention on the emotional turbulence that the main character is going through, it also emphasises how alone and isolated from anyone else around them they feel. Furthermore, another aspect of my short film that The swimmer inspired were the montages. Throughout The Swimmer we get series of quite eerie montages of the space around the centralised character, as well as montages of scenes containing the character himself. With the montages in my film, I decided to have a mix of clips containing the main character, the landscape around them, and even the pill bottle to remind the watcher of what caused the problem.Furthermore, as well as The Swimmer, the short film The Grandmother also heavily influenced the use of sound in my film. As my short film is silent, the way in which the limited sound is edited is really important in terms of setting moods for the scene, so taking inspiration from both The Grandmother as well as The swimmer, I chose to distort and enhance certain sounds within my scenes. Much like The Swimmer, I muffled any existing sound within my film to enhance the idea that the main character feels trapped within themselves and so the sounds around them feel shut off. Moreover, I decided to add sounds such as heartbeats and high pitched ringing sounds to further put the watcher at unease, which helps relay the feelings and the emotions of the main character over to the spectators; this decision for the sound was influenced by the use of un-comforting sounds in The Grandmother.

Many aspects of my short film were chosen in order to create a specific effect and create meaning with the spectator. For example, I chose to include the medium of animation within my short film. I felt that by editing over the face of the main character it further shut them off from the audience and show how their struggles more or less encompass them entirely. Furthermore, I feel using a hand held camera for the majority of the film worked well as it reflected the unstable emotions that the central character felt throughout onto the spectator effectively. However something that didn’t work as effectively was the lighting used in the scene in which the main character is in bed. I feel the lighting is too dark and the subject of the frame is difficult to see. Using a cool coloured lamp to slightly illuminate the space may of improved this scene as spectators will be able to see what’s in the cinematic shot.