48 Hour film challenge essay
Effy Mitchell
In this essay I will discuss if the short film Masokissed was a success as well as the overall the quality of the film taking into consideration the criteria they were set which was working within the horror and comedy genre’s and working within the time constraints of the 48 hour film challenge itself. I will do this by analyzing the film’s technical, narrative and visual elements based on wider research into the short film form and the horror genre.
‘The key to a good short film script is only writing what explicitly needs to be known. Everything else, tell it visually ‘- Dunagan interviewed by O’falt at SXSW ( 2016 ). In terms of the films appropriateness in form and content I think they did really well. The film uses predominantly visuals to tell the story with nothing unnecessary that takes away from the main plot demonstrating an understanding for the form of short film and how to tell a story in a short amount of time. They as well manage to make the audience ask a lot of questions and create intrigue very quickly by putting us straight into the story following Sam wondering if something bad is about to happen to him. Hamassian, a prominent short film maker, when interviewed by O’falt (2016) gives the advice of ‘Make it feel like we are thrown in the middle of a much larger story’ which is exactly what this group did with their plot and one of the reasons why it was successful in my opinion. This demonstrates that they understood they had to get the audience’s attention right away and had a good idea of this when writing the script, illustrating good time management and organization. This method of storytelling technique is as well demonstrated in the short film Kidnapped where we begin in the middle of the conflict of someone waking up having being kidnapped by their Uber driver. It’s a good way to drop the audience right into the center of a story. The story itself is something unique and feels quite personal. So it avoids falling into any cliché’s or stories we’ve heard before which a common mistake short film makers will often make (Munroe, 2009).
Embracing time constraints and limited resources is a key part of succeeding in short DIY film making ( Miller-DeSart for O’falt 2016). The group embraced limited resources by working with locations already they had access to in a creative way. This is evident in the scenes at night which were just filmed at someone’s house, but you could not tell due to their use of expressive dark low key lighting and close up shots. They also filmed outdoors at night which added to the films atmosphere being tense at this point. The quality of the footage was not affected by how dark it was again meaning they worked well to play to the locations strengths and with the low level of light. Using nearby locations probably helped them to work within the time constraints which demonstrates that they were realistic, had good planning and visual ideas in the pre-production stages of the 48 hour film challenge.
‘There are so many films that strive for technical perfection but mean nothing because they lack a heartbeat.’ – Miller Desart for O’falt (2016). Technically this film was creative and innovative but the technical aspects served to emotionally engage the audience and visualize an already good story. The intensity of the visuals really helped to put the audience on edge and have empathy with Sam’s character. The high contrast red colour grading and dark shadows helped to hide the location and to make the shots look very dramatic and horror like whilst implying that there is an impending threat. These shots also contrasted nicely with the cool tones of the exterior shots in the streetlight.
The group used pragmatic aesthetics (Sipos, 2010) throughout their visual choices in the film which were made due to budget and time constraints but simultaneously served the story creatively. They obviously thought about how they could use what they already access to, to their advantage. For example the yellow light from the streetlights and telephone box was used to create this sickly green / yellow light that emphasized Sam’s uneasiness and sickliness of being drunk. The camera work continued this feeling with lots of tracking shots and unusual sways of the camera with Sam as he stumbles around. It reminds me a little of handheld horror style footage but without the shakiness which helped to perpetuate the feeling of tension. The conventions of the horror genre itself have bene defined by low budget aesthetic choices such as the hand held camera in Night Of The Living dead which was praised highly for evoking realism but was really a technical compromise (Sipos, 2010). The genre really lends itself to low budget films and this films technical choices definitely are evocative of the genre.
This low key lighting ends in the morning when a natural low contrast wash of light is used which helps to illustrate that everything is over now. Giving relief to the audience and adding to the comedic tone / anticlimax they were going for with the ending of the film. The film’s overall look was very strong due to their use location, creative lighting and colour grading.
‘Many amateur film makers treat sound as an after thought ‘ – Sipos ( 2010, p216). However, the group used sound to their strength with overall good sound quality demonstrating their skills and knowledge of how record sound. Sound was used strategically to create a dark and tense atmosphere during the scenes at night and in the house with the emphasized noise of the tape being wrapped to create a sense of threat. They built the sound up until Sam arrives at the house which helped to create good building of tension towards the ending. The music and sounds they used were evoking of horror / thriller genre and helped build the atmosphere they were going for. Tension building using sound is has been described as one of the key elements of making a horror film frightening by Senn (2007) and is used infamously by Hitchcock to put the audience on edge. When this music stops towards the end of the film when its revealed Sam was in no real danger it then helps to relieve all the tension in exchange for the now comedic tone. This means the group worked well during throughout the process from planning to recording and editing sound as the visuals and sound paired very well together.
‘The most important thing isn’t coming in under the clock, but to accept conditions and mistakes and to learn how to use them as tools as opposed to excuses.’ – Miller-Desart for O’falt (2016). They did use members of the group as actors within the film this may have been due to the time constraints and actors not being available last minute to film that night. Less cast would also mean less organization for the group who could then put their time into the rest of the process. It could have let them have more freedom as to how long they filmed for and not adding already difficult time constraints. On the other hand it may have been stressful for the members of the group acting as they would have had multiple roles within the film i.e. directing and acting could mean one of the roles is done less well. However, the quality of acting was good within the film and I do not think it negatively affected the film overall.
The only criticism as I was not part of this group I can think of from a viewer’s perspective would be the ending of the film as it ends with a cheap laugh of the two boys ending up in bed together and the whole horror film atmosphere being completely broken. Munroe (2009) talks about how it’s hard to be objective sometimes when working with your friends who are often working for free and something that could be funny to people to know you could be read as homophobic by a stranger. Arguably this is the lowest quality part of the film and the group could of come up with a better or more developed ending. In comparison the rest of the film seemed much more purposeful and creative so it did stand out to me. But I understand this was due to the two genre’s the group were given to combine and was not purposefully offensive. The film went from low key lighting, tense, dark locations with low vision to natural lighting, easy to see locations and a completely relaxed atmosphere. Considering this the juxtaposition of the two atmospheres and the two genre’s they had to implement I don’t think this took away from the films success. I could not pick out any other areas for improvement from just watching the film other than perhaps finding actors who were not in the group.
In summary due to the overall good quality of the film I think the group was very successful. They completed the task in full and on time despite the time and budget constraints that making a student film consists of which illustrates their good teamwork and distribution of work. They implemented the given criteria of the genre’s they were set for the film by using explicit horror and comedy conventions within the film. Creating a high-quality film which main strengths were its dark atmosphere that was fabricated using creative and well executed technical elements such as lighting and camerawork. These completed their storytelling very well resulting in a good short film.
Bibliography
Kidnapped. (1999). Directed by Cameron Miller-Desart. Santa Monica, Photon Harvest Productions.
Masokissed. (2017). Directed by Sam Gladstone. York, Socks and Sandals productions.
Munroe, Roberta. (2009). How to not make a short film. New York, Hyperion.
Night of the living dead. (1968). Directed by George A. Romero. Pennsylvania, Image Ten Productions.
O’falt Chris. (2016). SXSW 2016: What Is the Key to Writing a Good Short Film Script?. Available at: http://www.indiewire.com/2016/03/sxsw-2016-what-is-the-key-to-writing-a-good-short-film-script-58016/. [ Accessed on 25.03.2018].
Miller-Desart for O’Falt Chris. (2016). How To Shoot a Short in One-Hour and Become a Better Filmmaker While Doing It. [ Website article]. Available at: http://www.indiewire.com/2016/06/how-to-shoot-short-film-one-hour-become-better-filmmaker-cameron-miller-desart-1201686775/. [ Accessed on 12.04.2018].
Sipos M. Thomas. (2010). Horror Film Aesthetics: Creating the visual language of fear. North Carolina, Mcfarland and company.
Senn, Bryan. (2007). A Year of Fear: A Day-by-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films. North Carolina, Mcfarland and Company.