Short Film Research: Party to Murder

The mystery short film I watched was Party to Murder by Strobie Studios. The actors gathered together at this old style mansion to play a game of murder mystery while at a masked party. Will they play a harmless game or is the reality of death knocking on their front door? The director included a plot twist which is what ultimately made the short film a good watch. At the beginning of the film the director used upbeat music and close up angles of a couple dressed in fancy attire. The upbeat music explained the mood of the couple, as they were laughing and excited for their upcoming party. However as the car approached the home the music took a turn for the dark. The music began to speed up and the musical notes selection became very ominous. A big tactic used in mysteries especially murder mysteries in plot twists. Plot twists leave the audience highly surprised making it the best way to recapture a viewer's attention. Nobody wants to sit through a movie where every scene is easily predictable. The author used multiple different angles in the film which helped establish nervous feelings in the audience. One example of an angle used multiple times throughout the short film was the close up. The close up allowed the director to present a clear shot of the actors current emotions, whether its fear, anger or agony. One of my favorite aspects of a murder mystery is the feeling of being completely confused. When so many perplexed thoughts appear that your brain is clouded it gives a sensationally yet odd feeling. I feel that if the director leaves the audience confused or jaw droppingly shocked they have made an excellent movie. One thing I hate about mystery films is when the plot twist is used in so many different movies. For example when the actor is suffering from some sort of mental illness and they didn’t actually witness a murder. There are many aspects of mystery that we like as a group. For example, plot twists. Don’t be suppressed if you see one or two plot twists just be surprised by them!

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My Critical Reflection

Critical Reflection Link Critical Reflection A level Media Studies How do your products represent social groups or issues? My short film, Shattered Bonds, represents the major issue of mental health struggles that follow being left out in relationships and friendships, that so many people suffer from in the real world. The film highlights the idea that when you feel a sense of hurt in a relationship/friendship it can cause a mental trigger for coping mechanisms such as violence or self harm. Shattered bonds brings awareness to this through the plot. Throughout the film, there are scenes showing one of the teenage girls being left out of the group and feeling a sense of hurt in the fact that nobody is including her in their conversation or activities. These feelings of hurt then revolve into resentment in the film as they do in the real world. These feelings can lead to violence against others as well as self harm. In the film, the girl being left out resorts to killing the girl t...

Short Film Research: The Last Note

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A Comparison of 12 Monkeys & La Jetée

Heyyy blog welcome back. Prior to researching these two films I didn't realize how similar the two storylines were. I was distracted by the use of still images compared to video sequences to notice the plot. After watching “La Jetee vs 12 Monkeys… which is better?” I see that both films explore the idea of time travel and the consequences for your actions. La Jetee does this through the use of images to tell this provoking story. When creating our own short film we are able to take these to films and use them as inspiration. We want to incorporate more complex ideas that leave the audience thinking. I think our goal of our short film is to really throw the audience off track almost like a plot twist. We could maybe even incorporate the idea of a natural disaster just like La Jetee and 12 Monkeys. After watching the two films we also took the video style into consideration for our film. The La Jetee images are black and white so the film has an older, more dark feeling to it. For th...

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