Comparing Previous A2 Short Films to the Mark Scheme - Screening 3

Paradise Found - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pdZVYXX21A

Against the mark scheme, I graded this as a Level 4 piece gaining 38 marks. The films itself went against convention, which we only realised once the film had finished, so this meant during there was some confusion as to what was going on and what would happen next.
The camera angles used were great, they showed good attention to framing and there was close attention to mise-en-scene, which was heavily important in the first few scenes because it enabled the audience to get a clear picture of the characters personalty, which was key because the film was a silent film. This being said, there was the odd camera angle that could have been improved, such as when we are shown an over-the-shoulder of the 'artist' holding a letter up, a closer view would have been better and documented the film more. The editing was smooth and clear, and there was not problems with the continuity of the storyline.
I liked how they had focused on aspects of scenes; for example at 3:53, the focus from the Impossible Bottle to the 'artist'.

Comparing Previous A2 Short Films to the Mark Scheme - Screening 2

Hide and Seek

Against the mark scheme I graded this as a Level 3 gaining 30 marks. I thought it had a great use of camera angles, a wide variety were used and this enabled them to pick up several key emotions that the little girl subtly had, especially when she was confused, for example the little girl turned up her nose at the new era she had opened up into. Some camera angles however were too wide not giving clear reasoning for their involvement; for example at 1:41 a long shot pan is used to show the little boy reading a newspaper and the little girl walking towards him. Too much of the garden is shown in this shot, it demonstrated that the little girl had seen the little boy already, but the acting would prove she had not, giving no clear reason for her to wander from the table of adults.
There was continuity problems with the editing. A lot of the time you can skip certain movements in clips e.g walking towards a door - you don't have to show the full walk as the audience usually get the idea. However, in this the risk did not pull off. There was moments where the characters had gotten closer and it was not explained when she got that close, confusing the audience - shown at 1:57 where the little girl had gone from behind the tree to in front of the little boy who is standing rather than sitting down, which is what were saw him last doing.
This all being said, the use of children in acting is usually difficult. As they joke in Hollywood - never work with animals and children. In this short film though, the children acting well considering they are very young, there was a few moments where you could tell they struggled, however, editing can be as much to blame in these scenes.
Another criticism, is that the dialogue was often muffled by the wind - Grandfather talking.

Comparing Previous A2 Short Films to the Mark Scheme - Screening 1

Love Hurts -

Using the mark scheme as a guide, I graded this piece as a Level 3 gaining around 27 marks. This is because they had good control of the camera. Very rarely did we see the camera faulter, it was still, however when there was a POV from the girl's view the camera was very shaky and when the camera cut into an extreme close up this increased more. These shots were risk to take and unfortunately did not give the right effect; though it demonstrated how close the couple were, they were unnecessary.

With the film being in black and white it allowed for colour to emit emotion. The simple colour change of the balloon from silver to fushia pink showed the audience the girl's real connection and feelings for this boy and how depressed she was proir. This is reiterated when she becomes heart-broken and the balloon changes back to silver. By there being no sound, these factors are just as important as facial expression and body language (mise-en-scene) as they tell the story without the need for dialogue.

Another problem I found was that the editing was not 100%. There was often cut errors where is was not smooth enough and certain cuts made it look amateurish.