Paris Media Trip

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This is a video of the paris film festival we attended from the 30th march to the 1st april, found on the website of the festival itself. the festival was a fantastic exhibition of short films with many of them giving me a greater insight into how far you can take the boundaries of your ideas. with many touching on controversial subjects, such as the second world war and child abuse. These films were in the most part very interesting however there were some that were not to my personal taste. The best short films screened in my opinion, were "the dark side of the lense" and "through the door". These films have inspired me to pursue my ideas in great depth and try to disregard how controversial it my be, in order to get the audience thinking about my work.

Research into short films

Research into short films

People make short films for a number of different reasons. These might be to portray a message, like the short film ‘smashed’ which I studied at the very beginning of the project. Somerset and Avon council to try and show the dangers of drinking funded this. Other times short films might be produced in order to show what a director can do, in order to prove his/herself to large film companies to try and land a larger directing job. In my case as is the case with many others I created a short film as part of my studies at school. Another main reason people may make short films is simply for fun and personal pleasure, not aiming to achieve much else than personal enjoyment. People may work on short films to find out if they can work with certain people in future partnerships. People may also want to test an idea out in short film form, before moving their ideas to the big screen.

Short films may receive funding from a variety of different sources, including the UK film council/British film institute. National and regional screen agencies. Local councils (as was the case with ‘smashed’). Charities may also fund short films in the form of dramas or documentaries to raise awareness for their cause as I did in AS level for my website project. And one more major source of funding is from production schemes and competitions where broadcasters might give someone the opportunity to have their work created that might not have had the chance.

Distributors for short films are either individuals or an organization that will spread the film around, attempting to generate as much exposure as they can at film festivals, television or anywhere else that may be a marketable place for a short film. Distributors will need to be negotiated with as to what they will benefit from the deal however and this will affect profits in the project in question or future ones. After the deal has been reached (agreeing the territory the film can be shown in and the term they will control distribution for.) the distributor will need to make sure the film does not break certain laws in its actual distribution I.e. copyright.

Whilst on the class trip to the Paris independent Film festival at the ‘seven cinema’ I saw many short films that had been distributed in a number of ways. For example the short film ‘My friend the thief’ was produced for a students work. This was distributed by the festival itself after the student approached the organizers and became involved. 

(At the bottom of section 2, 'my friend the thief')

Reflection of project

overall i am very happy with the project and i have enjoyed it the entire way through. after completing the project i can safely say i ahve improved skills in many areas, including research and planning as i have learned to really look at the significance of everything in a film and i have a much greater understanding of media concepts such as conventions. also my computer skills have improved and whereas before i only really knew how to use photoshop and windows movie maker creatively, i know have a sound understanding in final cut express and garage band also. Finally i am happy with how our final products turned out, creatively me and Damien both contributed well and our work resembles real media products I.e. our film trailer, poster and final film.

Working in garage band

this is a print-screen of my work in garage band, attempting to find suitable soundtracks to our film, i have greatly enjoyed working in garage band as it gives me the chance to construct my own soundtrack to my film, instead of having to use someone elses work.