Evan Thomas-Mansfield Film Studies Course work

FLASHBACK-EXT. STREET. DAY. Two friends sit on a bench near a village Sign with people walking down the road near them, with the sound of passing cars and birds tweeting. CHRIS sits next to DAVID, both of them staring up at the sky. DAVID breathes in closing his eyes, smiles then turns to Chris. Chris smiles back at him, as a dog walker passes by, Crunching through Leaves. CHRIS then glances over his shoulder, his happiness soon warps into terror. CHRIS stands up promptly, DAVID follows shortly, adopting a similar expression of fear. CHRIS begins to run, DAVID follows closely behind, as they pass a car with hazard lights on and an open door. Everything becomes increasingly blurry, loud screams, crashes and car alarms go off in every direction. Everything goes black. EXT. ABANDONED STREET. DAY. DAVID opens his eyes. unwashed and dispirited, he drops his rusted bike to the curb. He slides his bag off of his shoulder carelessly on top of his bike.He sighs loudly, slouching in a ges...

My film follows the last man in the world, as he seeks any sign of life, in his last moments at the end of his journey. The film starts with a flashback of david (the main character) and his friend chris, sat on a bench, in a pre-apocalypse world. they stare at one another enjoying their surroundings. Chris then stands up and reacts to something alarming in the distance, david also expresses concern. They then both proceed to run away from the danger, the camera follows the panic, then cuts to black. The film then continues in present day following david walking around aimlessly. He then contemplates life, and proceeds to leave his stuff behind. he venture onto a stud trying to fins somewhere to end his life. He then sits next to a pond and pulls out a knife. As he goes to stab himself , he hears a distant noise at the last second, he puts the knife away and goes in search of the noise. He runs through fields and searches barns looking for where the sound came from. The film then c...

Arrival is about a pregnant woman who is debating having an abortion. to start of with it seems apparent that she is going to abort the child, through her statement of enjoying as much caffeine as she would like. Then by her eventual order she resides to having a decaf coffee which may quietly imply that she is against aborting the child.  This film manages to cram a huge moral dilemma into a very shirt space of time, which it does pretty successfully. The film has quite a bluish tone with lightning that feels relatively natural, this creates a piece that feels realistic. This makes the debate feel genuine, particularly paired with the actors subtle but effective performance. It shows quite an authentic insight into how the thought process of a mother to be might be like. This film was successful with dealing with a sensitive subject matter and puts a very human insight on it. Though the film poses an important answer it doesn't give any answers, but thats okay as its more of a per...

Tight jeans follows three friends as they sit on a wall waiting for someone to give them a lift. Whilst they wait a person walking by in tight jeans starts, an historically inaccurate debate between the friends as to why slavery existed. The films camera is almost constantly moving, it feels like an attempt to make it more interesting. It's quite a straight forward comedy, their is not really much of a story. The film also has a distractingly saturated colour palette. I found this to be a bit of an eye sore, it was annoying and not very effective. This film is quite humorous and has a nice tone, that isn't heavy on the audience. There isn't too much to pick up on thematically, certainly on the surface it does just seem to be  a comedy. Though it does play with racial stereotypes in a self aware fashion that maybe brings a conversation about race and racial history. If I had to take anything away from this film is, I don't want to make a comedy, as it seems really hard t...

Slap follows a young boxer as he explores his sexuality and masculinity. Throughout slap we are constantly present with both representations of masculinity and femininity. The main character is a boxer, a typically masculine sport. But he also wears makeup, which shows his feminine side. The duality represented through his performance, acts as good commentary on sexuality. It does show how damaging and oppressive toxic masculinity is, as in the film the idea of him wearing makeup and being a boxer is a paradox. In this society hes in, he cannot be both, and he will be condemned for being himself. There is a particular scene of him in dress and makeup, where it cuts between him dancing and boxing. This highlights his inner conflict of how he wants to express who he feels he really is. He then hears his gay friend banging on the door asking him to be let in. He cannot bring himself to do it, as he is wearing make up. I believe this shows that he feels so ashamed because of societal expec...

INT. INTERGALACTIC BROTHEL. DAY. BAD CGI PAUL WALKER ducks under police tape, the light catching his new deputy sheriffs badge. Before moving any further,BAD CGI PAUL WALKER lights a cigarette with his bionic flamethrower arm. BAD CGI PAUL WALKER carelessly charges forward, dragging his fat stump leg through pools of blood and guts, into a metallic, dimly lit room, full of recently deceased bodies.He meets eye to eye with his severely disfigured colleague, SEVERELY DISFIGURED VIN DIESEL. They greet each other with an arm wrestle, exposing matching tattoos of eagles and the American flag. BAD CGI PAUL WALKER It's a goddamn blood bath SEVERELY DISFIGURED VIN DIESEL I'm sorry we had to call you in, believe me i was the last one that wanted you to come back early from you honeymoon north wales BAD CGI PAUL WALKER You did me a favour, this is nothing compared to north wales SEVERELY VIN DIESEL squats close to the ground, with his knees turned out, he inspects one of...

Over is based on real life, about an illegal migrant who fell out of a plane. The film plays out in a reverse chronological order. This completely subverts audience expectations of the three act structure. I as an audience member didn't realize till part way through that it was happening in reverse. Though this is confusing, its the right type of confusing as it builds tension that is effectively delivered with the final revelation. All information in this film is left till the last possible moments, even the the revelation that it actually happened. i felt this to be particularly effective as the audience is left in the dark for essentially 90% of the film. This is a very innovative play on a narrative, that lets this film stand out. Its particularly impactful because the resolution is so unexpected, that when it does happen it really makes people comprehend the gravity of the situation. It opens up a conversation about immigration and the morality of legally denying someone entry...

The first act The first act normally consists of exposition that helps set up the rest of the film, introducing the main character and other elements of the film. At some point in this act there is an inciting incident, that confronts the main character. This leads to the first plot point, which signals the end of the first act and raises the dramatic question e.g will he get the girl? The second act This is often referred to as rising action. it features the protagonist attempting to resolve the situation, but results in the situation becoming worse. This is because they do not yet have the skills/power/ knowledge to defeat the antagonist. To achieve this edge against the antagonism, they often require assistance from helpers/co protagonists. The third act this is the resolution of the plot and subplots. it also features a climax, where tensions reach an all time high and the dramatic question is answered. The protagonist reaches a new state of understanding who they are.

In class we went through how to make screenplays, writer came into class and taught us how to write a screenplay. Action/description - The part that describes what occurs in a specific scene, this does not include dialogue, or the character's actions. (PAUL WALKER kicks down the meth lab entrance to reveal ERIC CANTONA wearing nothing but a mask) Slug line - The brief description that goes at the start of every scene, it contains the location, exterior or interior, and the time of day. (EXT. RAF BASE. NIGHT) Transition - At the end of the page you can choose to add in a transition to guide the director on how the scene should end. These are optional.                                                       ...

The fly is a short film that chronicles, a tedious battle between man and fly, in a claustrophobic and increasingly bizarre set of sequences. The film consists of a getaway driver being tormented by a fly, becoming increasingly enraged by its mere existence. This leads to increasingly extreme reactions, which results in the driver blasting the car with a shot gun and his getaway crew returning, visibly confused.This dark comedy has elements that are relatable, as almost  everyone has been in his position of being haunted by a tiny flying insect. Where this differs is the drivers reaction is very exaggerated, though real people may feel this way, its very unlikely anyone would act on such thoughts. The driver therefore personifies those repressed thoughts and impulses by acting on them, creating a comedic affect. I personally didn't find This slapstick performance to be all that entertaining, though the concept may be original the execution and performance were not. I felt there was...

Cinematic concepts and techniques I've considered to include in my film Shallow depth of field- This is basically where, your subject is the sole focus in the foreground, whilst everything else is out of focus. I really like the aesthetic of this, i think its one of the main techniques that separates professionals from amateurs. Not only do I like the way this looks but its an easy way of drawing a very specific focal point for the audience. For example if you have a bed of flowers, but want to show a bee collecting nectar from one of them. you would use shallow depth of field to focus on the bee. This may be potentially hard to achieve as I have little experience with digital film cameras. Zooms and Dollys- Zoom is the process of filming the camera as it transitions from a longshot to a close up or vice versa. A dolly is similar but you move the camera physically. Its very rare in mainstream cinema, that zooms are used. This is because they are potentially quite amateurish as...

The Ellington kid is a short film that takes place in a chicken shop where a teenage boy tells an urban myth to a friend whilst they eat a meal. Sully uses a familiar structure of flashbacks, to an effective degree that helps build tension by showing the reaction of the actors. This helps draw in the audience, as they are in the same position as the character of beefy, who is hearing the story for the first time. It also helps ground the short film, making it seem memory like and not too far fetched. visually the flashbacks are very polarising to the current day scenes. The latter being full of brighter colours and brighter general lighting, where as the flashbacks, largely are set during the night, full of dark colours and bluish tones. These two factors contribute to the overall tone of the film which is rather dark humour, we are braced for this suggestively with the title cards, "based on a true story... sort of". the contrast of light and dark both thematically and visua...

operator is about an emergency phone operator, that is trying to guide a mother and her son through a house fire. The short film accurately shows a realistic series of events. It is almost solely driven by the operators performance, as we don't see the other side of the phone. The film creates tension through keeping you half in the dark, which aligns you with the operator as she frantically tries to save the mother and child. You feel for her in an almost frustrating way, because although she can guide them, she cant physically help them which adds an element of the unknown, this creates the tension. There isn't much, in terms of other micro elements, to comment on. This because it is hugely focused on the actor's performance. Though the lightning comes from just the computer screen, which creates a dark-blue over tone that contributes to the tension and severity of the situation. It is also very dialogue heavy, with fast flowing very natural sounding dialogue which gives ...

Echo is about a young girl who cons random people out of money by, creating a seemingly false "accident" her father has been involved in. The thing that stands out above all else is the performance of the female lead. There is not anything else visually or other wise that is particularly outstanding, but her convincing performance mostly compensates, along with an intriguing premise for the twist that is very thought provoking. Her performance accurately brings to life what the audience would expect of someone in that situation, with no indication of the truth behind the con. The twist reveals that the accident did in fact happen but she plays off of the emotions of that event, recreating what happened perfectly. Arnold then very much leaves this up to the audience to decide what they think of her, its very morally ambiguous, there is no clean cut right and wrong. As an audience member you don't know whether to condemn or feel sorry for her. It is also not clear whether s...

A short film is a film that has a shorter run time than 40 minutes, anything over this time is considered to be a feature length film.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". From 1920s to 1970s a film only consisting of two 35mm film reels where called short subjects, 3 to 4 reels were  featurettes. 

My name is Evan, I am studying film studies, business and sociology  at Hills road. Some of my interests include; rugby, swimming and sport in general. I chose film studies because It's an interesting and diverse subject, that I am passionate about. Some of my favourite films include; John wick and the Cornetto trilogy. I am particularly fond of action and comedy films, because I have a short attention span, therefore I need to be either constantly laughing or in awe of action set pieces. However I often enjoy an intense thriller with a complex plot like Inception. As part of my course work, which is to write a screen play, I have to keep track of my journey with these blogs. I will be looking at pre-existing short films, and developing my own ideas. My previous experiences with short films is very minimal, I've only really seen short films on you tube by independent creators. I don't have much experience with professionally made short films, or at least none memorable en...