Bobsboxes- Matt Watt

Bobsboxes is a short film about two lovers who live in T.Vs opposite sides of a T.V. shop and attempt to meet finally in the flesh. The opening begins with a soft and mellow acoustic guitar which is non-diegetic. The font in which the title appears is plain and white against the black background, perhaps to reinforce the idea of television. The establishing shot shows a small narrow street of shops and traffic, the focal point of which is 'Bobsboxes' the television shop. We see a man open the shutters and enter the shop. The next shot takes place within the shop and the camera pans horizontally to the right and as it pans onto a television with a male walking across the television screen. He stops and stares out of the television to a high shelf. The camera jumps to a shot of the high shelf the male was looking at. We can see a young woman inside it. The camera jump cuts back to the males screen, and he continues to walk across the television screen and it has been edited so that it seems the male is walking from one television set straight through another. This had to be edited carefully to make sure there was no problems with the continuity of the clip. There is the mise-en-scene of sale prices to make it seem more realistic. The camera then jumps to a shot of the whole shop, allowing us to work out the location. The camera is in the aisle between the two television sets and is showing a long shot of the shop owner, unaware of the inhabitants in his televisions. The camera jump-cuts back and forth between the two, framing the woman in a low angle shot, perhaps meant to be from the males point of view. This could be an expression of his feelings, she is superior and he longs to be with her but she is out of reach. The camera now moves to close up shots so we are aware of the couples' emotions. The male is still looking up at the woman in a lustful way, and she is looking down at him and waving. The male runs inbetween two screens and throws his clothes into one, then he re-appears in a tuxedo which appears to please the lady. He then holds a key towards the woman and she joins in and jumps several television sets to the one on the same height as him. The jump-cuts become more rapid as they get closer together. The male then jumps from his television set to hers, and as he falls backwards, as does the television. There is a close up of her hand, trying to clasp his, but before she can reach the televison falls and the diegetic sound of a thud is heard. The camera zooms out slowly as the shop keeper picks up the television. Earlier shots of the couple are shown again but this time in slow motion, to provoke an emotional response from the audience, as if the two inhabitants have died. The last shot is a freeze frame of the shop from the long narrow and busy road. The quiet music continues as if in memory of the couple. BBC- Film Network

Short film- Contraction - Christopher Hewitt & James Cambourne

The opening titles of this short film is accompanied with the ambient sound of gusts of wind. There is a greyish background and the title slowly formulates onto the screen in a technological font. The esablishing shot portrays a close up of a man staring into the camera as it zooms in on his face. There is a non-diegetic sound, a high pitched technological ringing which intensifies as the man closes his eyes. The screen cuts back to the greyish background, and the next shot shows a medium shot of a female on a rooftop, the camera moves from a over the shoulder shot and pans around her and we see the male lying on the floor, then the camera jump cuts to an aerial shot of the two. The camera slowly circles them. The next shot is aerial to begin and the woman begins to give the man CPR and the floor has been edited and lifts up everytime she pumps his chest. This gives the audience the effect of how the man is feeling, that he is jerking alive steadily. The brief of this film was to portray the conception of rebirth. The next shot is a medium shot of the girls hands on his chest and the camera tilts up to show her holding her head in panic. The camera switches to an extreme long shot, revealing the location of a group of roofs in a red-brick estate, perhaps homing factories as well as the mise-en-scene suggests. The camera switches back to the protagonists, in a long shot. The camera movement is jerky, which may be a attempt to get the camera to portray the atmosphere. We now here the diegetic sound of the womans breathing as she pumps the mans chest. The camera constantly moves from long shot to close up and back again. The man begins to move and the non-diegetic technological sound intensifies again. He sits up and the camera stays in an over the shoulder shot as the one and only piece of dialogue is delivered "where did you go?" The next shot is over the shoulder of the woman, allowing us to read the males face. She is gesticulating alot, but we hear nothing. This along with the ambient sound of wind and that high pitched ringing suggests that what we can hear is what the male can as well as he has just been "reborn". The way the sun shines over the camera may be pathetic fallacy as he is now alive and the metaphorical storm has passed. BBC Film Network

Brief history of Documentaries

Film maker John Grierson used the term 'Documentary' in 1926 to refer to any type of non-fictional film. The first "moving images" in this case were documetaries, showing a train pulling into a station etc. Early films like these were called 'actuality' films, with little narration or storylines which is now a key convention of documentary. This was due to lack of technological advancement, and so most of the first films were less than a minute long.
Eugène-Louis Doyen a French surgeon made a series of surgical films in the late 1890's, though used as just a means of improving his work.
Romanian professor Gheorge Marinescu made his own set of science films in his neurology clinic sometime between July 1898 and 1901. He called them "studies with the help of the cinematograph" and published the films.
Documentary progressed through to the 1920's producing some of the most influential documentary films of all time, including h Robert J. Flaherty's 'Nanook of the North' in 1922. This brought about a more complex artistic view in documentary, and embraced 'Romanticism' which places emphasis on strong emotions such as terror, awe, horror and trepidation.
Through to the 1940's, documentary was being used as political propoganda. The most popular example of this is Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will (1935)which concerned the nazi political party congress in Nuremberg.
In Britain,the Documentary Film Movement was formed under John Grierson. Including film makers such as Harry Watt, Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Wright, and Humphrey Jennings. Their productions were an amalgamation of poetry, education and propoganda. Examples of their work include 'Drifters' by John Grierson and 'Song of Ceylon' by Basil Wright.
Although there are problems with documentary, such as bias reporting which can lead to social problems, it is still very popular today and has produced revolutonary films such as Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and D.A Penny Bakers with Don't Look Back.
Now Documentaries are popular when merged with television, creating shows like 'supersize me' and reality TV which in its contemporary sense, documents celebrity or luxury life, or is infused with gameshows to create programmes like 'Big brother' or 'Americas next top model'.

Brief history of music videos

The arrival of sound films in 1926 made way for musical short films which could have been interpreted as music videos, but not as we know them today.
In the early 1930's, cartoons often featured a live performance from a artist. Walt Disneys' early animated films were based heavily around music. Disney programmes still known today such as 'Looney tunes' often included music from upcoming Disney productions.
When the Panoram (visual dukebox) was invented in the 1940's, 'promortional clips' were common which was also a early form of music video. These were short musical films, promoting mostly Jazz artists, comedians and dancers.
The first official music video was released in 1894, when sheet music publishers were still in charge of the music busisness. Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern were the first to use images to help promote sales of their song 'The Little Lost Child'. They used still images mereged with a live performance, which became known as a form of entertainment called the illustrated song.
Hollywood musical films, have served as a format, regularly imitated in music videos even today. For example Madonna's 1985 video for 'Material' girl was reminicent of 'Diamonds are a girls best friend' took from the film 'Gentlemen prefer blondes'. Many of Michael Jackson's videos were heavily influenced by choreography from musicals; including 'Thriller' directed by John Landis, and 'Bad' directed by Martin Scorcese which was influenced by the fight scenes in 'West Side Story'.

MTV was launched in America, in 1981, this revoloutionised music, and visual accompaniment to music in the form of a video became a neccessity to all Artists to promote their songs.

Brief history of Short films

Short films began in the 1910's in the USA. It was then common for a film to consist of one long feature film and a few short subjects afterwards. These were usually comedy. These short films were very popular until the 1930's when interest and demand declined. In the early 1950's television was introduced and brought about the fall of short films due to it broadcasting old short films, and a variety of new media. Thus, by the end of the 60's short films were dissapearing.
In the 1980's the term 'short film' was used interchangeably with 'short subject' which was this type of films original name.
Now, short films are popular again, diverse in themes. Some deal with the same themes as feature length films, but most tend to be more abstract, dealing with surreal film and with artistic value.