Brief Research - Short Film

The main brief I am interested in is - 

• A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options

          - A poster for the film
          - A radio trailer for the film
          - A film magazine review page featuring the film

To get an idea of different short films I looked at some popular ones and some from the A2 Media Studies course done previously by students. I did this so I could gain ideas from the industry standards how professional film making equipment and funding can give them the edge on others, and look at small student short films to see what can be done with basic equipment and no funding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_cdkpazjI

The First short film I looked at is called "Sight" its a futuristic short film based on the idea that people have the ability to upgrade their vision to a computerized eyesight system that you can control with your mind. The film uses some incredible techniques to make this idea believable. Motion graphics are used to create the on screen look of this mind controlled program as you can see in the first scene the main character is playing a skydiving game by simply just lying on the floor, but he is seeing everything. It uses the purpose of a short film very well which is creating an idea/scenario and telling a story in a short amount of time. I have picked up a few ideas form this film but the techniques used in the film is simply out of my reach and I do not have the equipment or skills to be able to do something of this scale. However it has made me want to aim high and not try something out just because it seems too hard to achieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PS1ET43kF0

The second short film I looked at was called "The Waters Edge". After seeing this film it has really inspired me to go and make m own short film and subsequently I have decided that this is the brief that I want to use. The film uses some excellent filming techniques, however I think what really sets this apart from other short films is that the story line is really well thought out and kept me glued to the screen. One of the filming techniques they used that I really liked is the real time/time lapse technique. This is done by filming two shots, in both, the camera stays in the exact same place. The first shot is filmed for a long amount of time for example a busy motorway, sometimes a few hours or a whole day, then the second shot will be for the actual amount of time you want the shot to be for example characters having a conversation in the foreground  The the first shot is sped up to the length that the second shot is then they are cut to fit together on the screen, giving this illusion of time passing very fast but the characters staying the same. I would like to include this technique in my short film.