A2 GCE Film StudiesF634 Creative investigation in Film

For my creative artefact I created a 5 minute short film called The Package. Essentially my goals were to create the film based on some of the ideas gathered from my research. I wanted the film to consist of a slow build up, a chase, hero losing a battle to the antagonist and finally the villain getting caught and losing to the protagonist at the end. All of these were common conventions that I found in my research.

In terms of content I believe my short film can compare to the content found in my research of the Bond series. For instance I included some of the key conventions that were in all of the films I studied. This was essential to ensuring my creative realisation had a clear link to my final product. For example, I had to be able to achieve the audiences expectations of an action film. One of the ways I did this was through the use of my 2 soundtracks. Throughout the beginning, the sound track begins alongside the video but slowly builds up as the audience takes in more information about the film and characters. The audience begin to realise that something is going to happen as the musics pace increase and the, succession of shots seem to get shorter. Overall, this was my way of expressing a build-up that was impactful and clear to understand; also making it easier to identify the genre of the film, which is very important in a short film as there isnt much time to do so.

I decided to call the film the Package to signify some sort of drop-off/pickup scene of a package, which can be associated to danger. The title draws the audience in, as they begin to wonder what the package is and why it is important. It can be associated with the secret service and therefore justify there being an agent who was easy to identify through the use of costume; such as the high end black suit and smart polished shoes (shown in the extreme close up shot). This costume was the typical Bond uniform, which is why I included the same style of costume in my short film.

My short film came together as an action film simply by ensuring that the micro elements follows the codes and conventions of an action. For example, in terms of editing, I included a succession of fast paced shots, jump cuts and cutaways, which overall intensifies the film by making everything seem faster and instant. Additionally, I included a low-key dark color correction to signify the darkness and realism of the scene.

In terms of choosing the characters in my film, I chose to have a stereotypical young black criminal/antagonist and a non-stereotypical black action male protagonist. This was never found throughout my research as James Bond was always played by a white actor. However the reason I chose to do this was to input a unique aspect to the film, which shows that the action hero does not always have to be the stereotypical white but can also be played by another ethnicity and still carry the same good messages and values. Additionally, the key theme I had to stick to was simply Good v Evil as this was common in all of the films I have studied. Overall, this also adheres to Levi Strauss binary oppositions in terms of the narrative structure.

Throughout the process of filming my short film it was important that I included, shots which had an impact on the overall meaning. For example, in the beginning I used an extreme close up shot of the antagonist (Javon) hesitant to commit the crime Kwang-Jo wants him to. Javon can then be perceived as the antagonist, considering he knows picking up the package is the wrong thing to do judging by his reaction. Ultimately, the audience can then easily identify and establish who the protagonist and antagonist are. Further on, I tried to make it clear that Agent Matthews was the protagonist by including a close up shot of Matthews face as Javon was getting closer to show his intense concentration and ability to stay focus on the mission. Overall, he is represented as a highly skilled agent who is alert and caring towards the mission.

I also included a similar style to those found in my research, for instance from my analysis, I realised that a lot of the scenes contained panning shots at a different pace depending on the meaning that the director wanted to convey, for instance if it was a fight scene the camera would generally pan left to right vigorously, however if it was a buildup scene, there would be slower panning shots to keep the rhythm and flow of the scenes. I tried to include this style at the begging, middle and end of my film. From the opening sequence of Javon texting, to the chase/fight scenes and finally when Javon is panicking about not getting the package and not knowing what is going on. However this was difficult to accomplish, considering the fact that I used the Cannon DSLR to film my production. The cannon is a really good camera, however it is very tricky to operate. This made getting the shots I originally wanted a lot harder to get, which I believe had an overall negative effect on the visual aspect of my film.

In conclusion, the ideas gathered from my research has made the process of constructing a 5 minute action film really enjoyable and a much easier process to understand and complete. This is because I was able to identify many different conventions, and styles from my research that I was able to incorporate into my film. Ultimately my research has allowed me to reach the audience expectations of an action film as all the main ideas gathered from my research was also incorporated into my film. I was able to reach my goal of creating an action film based on my textual analysis and research. However, one of my key errors in the action film was the length of the fight scene. I believe that this scene had plenty of room for improvement as I originally wanted to include a succession of fast paced shots, cuts and angles to improve the overall production.