Initial Research into Short Films - Just Say Hi - Ettie Greenwood

Just Say Hi -John McPhail

Synopsis:
This short story entitles two teenagers who meet at a bus stop but are too nervous to talk to each other. During the length of the film they keep looking at each other and catching each others eyes. But at last they both gather the confidence to speak to each other as the film ends. Hence its title: 'Just Say Hi'.

Audience:
As mentioned before in the other short films that I have studied, the ideal target audiences for a short film are the bigger companies. So the directors make short films to build a portfolio to attract those companies.

However, a leisure audience will also watch short films so these people would be:

• People aged 15-25 - This is the age group that are similar to the main characters denoted therefore I feel that a similar aged audience would be those most likely to watch the short film: this is because they can relate to the events in the 'Just Say Hi'. (demographic)
• People in education - Most of the audience here will be in education, or at least have experience of it. This is because the characters in this film seem to be around 16-18 and would most likely be in college - or possibly university -. This is because they are not wearing school uniform and seem to catching the same bus everyday to their place of education. (demographic)
• Social classes A-C1 - I think this as people of these classes (Middle class) have leisure time to watch short films and have the technology to access them. Also as the characters are in further education, these social groups are the most likely to continue onto further education as well. (demographic)
• People who use social media - This is because short films are constantly being shared on different social media sites. So this is the way that most people will access the short films, so they would have to have used social media in order to see this. (psychographic)

Examples of social media

Uses and Gratification theory - Blumer and Katz:

This theory denotes what the film 'does' to the audience. A slide show defining the theory can be found here (click link).

• To Entertain - This is an obvious goal for the directors to achieve, as most short films are used for entertainment purposes. The film therefore entertains an audience by emerging them in a story line.
• To Identify - I think this would be achieved as the target audience would be of similar age to the main characters: The film has realistic values meaning that members of the target audience could have experienced similar events and therefore would be able to relate and identify with the short film. 
• Social Interaction - This could be applied as if the audience like the film, they would hopefully talk about it to other (guerilla marketing) or share it on social media (viral marketing). Therefore this is an example of social interaction as consumers can share the film to other potential audiences.

Genre:
I think the genre of this film is a 'Rom-com' (Romantic Comedy). This is because the short film features semantic codes (Altman) of Love and Comedy, therefore making it a sub-genre. It is not a hybrid genre, due to the fact that this genre is denoted a lot in film, so it becomes the product of what started off as a hybrid.

The semantic codes that I have spotted in this short film are denoted in this Prezi that I have created:

(Click photo to open my Prezi presentation)

 Media Language: 

Example of the deep depth of field

One of the main features of this film that stands out to my whilst comparing to others, is the deep depth of field used throughout. I think this gives a greater sense of realism to the audience as it is looks like it was filmed on a not so professional camera, giving the effect that this could have been filmed by anyone who watched the two teenagers waiting for a bus; Therefore implying to the audience that this could happen to them too. The setting: a bus stop is also realistic, as it is is a common activity to be waiting at a bus stop. This also implies to the audience that you can find love anywhere potential giving them aspirations for the future.

The characters facial expressions - CU

Long shots and group shots are also used throughout to denote the characters relation of space to each other and to get an overall view on what is happening. However close ups are used as well to denote the characters facial expressions for the audience to interpret. Here the facial expressions of the male character imply that he is overly happy due to the fact that he is smiling extensively - here a shallow depth of field is used to focus the attention on the subject and not the background.

The non-diegetic soundtrack

The non-diegetic soundtrack in this short film is: Celeste by Erza Vine. This is a suitable choice for the short film and the lyrics are parallel to the events in the film:

"...The way you looked is still vivid to me,

You're something out of a dream,

Messing with my head,

And I've been looking for you-u-u... "

These lyrics match the events in the short film as they describe a man who sees a girl and is fantasied by her, which is therefore denoted in 'Just Say Hi' as well.

Throughout the film, the costumes have been changed frequently to connote that the characters are meeting on different days. This is a simple way to film different days and the give the impression of time passing. Some wipe transitions are also used between shots to add greater significance of time passing and to show how the teenagers grow closer overtime. 

 Some of the different costumes to connote time passing.

Match on action makes this film seem professional and the cuts flow without being noticed. This is essential when making a film as it allows the audience to fully understand what is happening in the film, but it is used to give the viewer a more omniscient view on what is happening . One successful example of match on action in this film is where the girl is sneezing:

Shot 1

Shot 2

My Thoughts:
I chose to look at this film, as I thought the technique of using costume change to connote time passing was successful and it is something we could do if we need a way to show this. Also, the story line in this short film was simple - a girl and boy meeting at a bus stop- but this worked out to create a successful short film. By only changing the costumes, this would be easier to film than 'Touch' which used setting change as well. That film would have taken even longer to film  to film which would be near impossible for us as we have limited time to film our short film.

Also, as the characters in this short film were similar ages to us, this is the short film which is most like ours will probably be like, as it wouldn't be too hard to film and the characters would be around the same age as the characters we can access. But we try to include more advanced techniques to make our work more sophisticated.