Slap (Nick Rowland, 2014)


Slap is a coming of age film about a teen who likes to wear makeup, it explores his relationship to others as they find out. out of all the short films we have watched as part of the course Slap had the most character development and did not rely on stereotypes to quickly give the audience an idea of who the characters are, this was reliant on the film being slightly longer than most of the other shorts.


The film as a whole felt very polished, compared to some of the shorts, due to its conventional and more complex narrative, but also thanks to the micro elements which were cohesive and made the film seem more professional. For example the pace of editing felt natural and often matched the tension of scenes. Sound was used both technically well (the audio levels all felt natural) but also reinforced the mood in given scenes. For example the opening scene which uses non- diegetic slow paced music to indicate that Connor is in his own world and relaxed putting the makeup on which is contrasted when this cuts out - creating tension.


Slap showed the importance of incorporating micro elements together to create meaning and showed how short films can follow more conventions of feature length films without adapting them, however it is substantially longer than most of the other films so a three act structure and complex characters may be harder given the maximum length for my coursework film.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Screen play or short film. I would like to make a short film because I would like to get my hands on the equipment including editing and audio, I want to write the screen play as well but would feel dissatisfied if I came up with an idea but did not follow through. I aim to make my film somewhat thought provoking while also entertaining to watch.
Read more
Echo (2011), Lewis Arnold Echo is a short film that focuses on a teenage girl who uses a phone call seemingly to con people, she pretends to be on the phone as the person on the other end tells her that her dad has had an accident and is in hospital. As the film develops it seems to suggest that this event really did occur and that she repeats it as a form of grief rather than for the money. The director uses an interesting narrative structure for the film, as the name Echo suggests their is a use of repetition - the 'backbone' of the structure is three of these phone calls. The use of repetition in the short film format is a good technique as, strangely it allows the filmmaker to demonstrate variety; the fact that each repeat feels so different and the director progresses the story and character while repeating the same action/event is impressive and interesting for viewers. the idea of repetition is also shown in the mise-en-scene, reinforcing it as a theme. The f...
Read more
scenario work. Scenario: wifi and gps (satellite technology goes down). We follow a character, and the country as a whole, from when it goes down - as they realise then begin to accustom themselves to the change.     Genre : psychological thriller? Dystopia?     Technical features: D ark lighting and dull colour to go with the semi-dystopian feel.                         Mostly slow pace of editing, little fast paced action etc                                         Lots of close/ medium cinematography to put the audience into the situation                 ...
Read more