Kiwi!

Directed by : Dony Permedi (2006)

The video begins with the title character dragging a rope that is obviously attached to something heavy. He ties the rope to a tree, and we see that the trailing end leads over a cliff. He runs to the edge of the cliff and slides down the rope to a brown platform below. The platform is perpendicular to the cliff and supported using only the aforementioned rope. Using a hammer and nails, he proceeds to nail the end of the platform to the cliff face, holding the hammer in his foot. The view zooms out to show us the platform is a tree, now nailed to the cliff by its roots. The kiwi climbs back over the cliff edge and looks over, to see many trees similarly attached to the cliff. He claps his feet together in a form of applause at the completion of his task, and proceeds to remove the rope. He runs out of frame, and returns wearing an aviators hat and goggles. He takes one final look over the edge, before moving back, and then taking a running dive over the cliff edge. We see him diving straight downwards, falling past numerous trees nailed to the cliff. The frame slowly rotates 90 degrees to the left, and suddenly the scene seems to show the kiwi soaring above a flat landscape and trees. The shot zooms in close to the kiwi, and we see him extend his small and flightless wings and proceed to flap them rapidly as though flying. He closes his eyes and a single tear escapes. The camera slows and watches as the kiwi soars on into the mist. As the scene fades to black, we hear a heartbreaking thud.

I like the end of the film and how it draws emotion from the audience as they see that single tear, it shows joy that for instance he is flying but also shows that he also knows what is going to happen. The scene fades before we see anything, we only hear the thud. I think this is effective, rather than showing what could have been a horrific scene. I think if i were to include a death or something similar in my Short, I would not show it in the film and perhaps only use the sound as 'Kiwi!' has done.

Plan of possible genre of the film

I looked at the possible genres that I could use for my Short film and possible narratives based around them. Some would simply not work in the 5 minutes I am entitled to create my piece, these are simply crossed out in the list below.



Action
Adveture
Animation --> This could make it into a short cartoon clip, or perhaps a cutout collage like South Park animation, or it could be a stop-and-go animation though this may take a while.
Biography
Comedy --> This genre can be quite hard to do, as it may try to hard to be funny, but can be merged in without other genres.
Crime --> This would be a quick 'solve the murder' film, perhaps begining with the scene of the crimer taking place, keeping the person who did it a mystery.
Documentary --> This would be the easiest option for the short amount of time I have for this short. It could be a documentary about school, a workplace of perhaps someone interesting.
Drama --> This is a broad genre, which would allow me to incorporate other genres and I would then have more to play with. This could be a romantic drama or family drama, revolving around the main protagonist; perhaps a teenager as we are looking at the representation of youth.
Family --> This coicides with the 'drama' genre, whereby there could be family problems between the parents e.g. an abusive dad or the child could be a rebel which would be tearing the family apart.
Fantasy
Film-Noir --> This could incorporate the 'crime' genre, and could made quite 'old school' whereby it would be a black and white film, with actors in costumes from the time.
Game-Show --> This could perhaps be a shortened version of 'Slumdog Millionaire', whereby it would be based on a game show, where there could be flashbacks helping the contender to answer the questions or play whatever the game is.
History
Horror
Music --> This could show a teenager wanting to become something in the music industry, and maybe having their family not approve.
Musical
Mystery
News
Reality-TV
Romance --> A short love story, showing a first encounter, first love or teenage love, perhaps highlighting aspects such as (first time)
Sci-Fi
Short
Sport
Talk-Show
Thriller
War --> This could show the homecoming of a soldier, maybe showing how hard it is to readjust to normal society and back to the normal responsibilities of life, and perhaps the soldier may have problems sleeping as he keeps thinking about the war and everything he went through.
Western


Due to the limited time of 5 minutes for the entire film, it is important to chose an appropriate genre for the film, for instance, I don't think the action genre would be good as I don't feel that is enough time to build on the climax and make it effective in 5 mins.

Boy and Bicycle (1965)

16mm, black and white, 25 mins

Director Ridley Scott
Production Company
BFI Experimental Film Fund
Producer
Ridley Scott
Written by
Ridley Scott
Theme Music
John Barry

The film follows the boy as he decides instead to play truant and visits various locations around the seaside town on his bicycle. All the while we listen to his thoughts in a stream of consciousness voice-over that Scott (director) has said was partly inspired by reading James Joyce's Ulysses (1922).
The voice-over reveals the frustrations of a growing teenager and mocks the authority figures in his life such as his teachers and parents. Scott storyboarded in detail before shooting, and he includes many visual elements that add texture to the film: a dead dog, the sun darkened by ominous storm clouds, and the eerie barrenness of the beach, which Scott has said was an homage to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet, Sweden, 1956).

http://media.creative.bfi.org.uk/files/boyandbicycle1965-154241-cabfi0.mov
The above link shows a clip of the film.

Elements in this film that I particularly liked, and think that I could potentially use in my own film is the simplicity of the shots in the construction of narrative. I like the voice over, however I would not include through the majority of the film, I would perhaps have a narrator introduce the film like 'Mean Girls' for instance where Cady talks about her past and what has brought her over to this new school.

History of Shorts and Examples

Short subject is a technical description originally coined in the Indian Film Industry and even in the North American film industry in the early period of cinema. The description is now used almost interchangeably with short film. Either term is often abbreviated to short .
Although the North American definition generally refers to films between 20 and 40 minutes, the definition refers to much shorter films in Europe, Latin America and Australasia. In New Zealand, for instance, the description can be used to describe any film that has a duration longer than one minute and shorter than 15 minutes. The North American definition also tends to focus much more on character whereas the European and Australasian forms tend to depend much more on visual drama and plot twists. In this way, the North American form can be understood to be a derivation of the feature film form, usually acting as a platform for aspirant Hollywood directors. Elsewhere, short films tend to work as showcases for cinematographers and commercial directors.

Short subjects in the modern era
Since the 1980s, the term "short subject" has come to be used interchangeably with "short film," an international, academic term used to mean a contemporary non-commercial motion picture that is substantially shorter than the average commercial feature film. There is no clear definition of the maximum length of a short film, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences classify it as 40 minutes, while IMDB refer to any film lasting less than 45 minutes as a short subject. The short-film form is to the full-length film what the short story is to a full-fledged novel.
Short films often focus on difficult topics which longer, more commercial films usually avoid. Filmmakers benefit from larger freedoms and can take higher risks, but they must rely on festival and art house exhibition to achieve public display. Most short films are better known outside the United States than within, due to less rigidity of audience expectation as to program content, arrangement and length outside the U.S. However, film shorts are often a popular extra feature on a film's DVD. For instance, Pixar's DVD releases of its feature films typically includes not only a short that was distributed with the feature film in its initial theatrical release but also an original creation featuring the characters from the feature itself. Likewise, Warner Brothers often includes selected animated shorts from its considerable archives on DVD releases of its family-oriented films that have a thematic relationship.

Internet
Such films can also be easily distributed via the Internet; Across the Hall, for example, was solely distributed on the Internet. Certain websites which encourage the submission of user-created short films, such as YouTube, BritFilms and Newgrounds have attracted large communities of artists and viewers, whereas sites such as BBC Film Network focus on showcasing curated British shorts.

Television
Shorts are occasionally broadcast as filler when a scheduled film's length cannot be conventionally fit in the standard broadcast schedule and the short is intended to fill in the remaining time of the timeslot. By contrast, Movieola is a Canadian cable channel devoted exclusively to shorts up to 40 minutes long.

Film Four Top Ten Short Films:

A Sense Of History
A tour de force performance from Jim Broadbent in this outstanding film by Mike Leigh. The 23rd Earl of Leete, a British aristocrat, tells his far-from-dull life story.

The Last Post
A young British soldier fighting in Buenos Aires in the early 80s finds himself separated from his unit. Stumbling across a young Argentinian fighter, the two young men reach a grudging understanding.

The Italian Machine
A trio of bikers liberate an Italian motorcycle from an art collector who wants it for display only. A trashy, camp, drug-fuelled delight from director David Cronenberg.

Call Register
Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) and James Lance star in this witty tale of love lost and found, via mobile phones.

Mercy
Superb, subtly affecting film about a young boy who is neglected at home and bullied at school, finally exacting revenge on his tormentors.

My Parents
A young girl tries to impress her boyfriend by making her parents behave like they still madly in love with each other.

Le Fabuleux Destin De Perrine Martin
Perrine leaves the cinema after seeing Amélie - fascinated by the heroine's do-good deeds, Perrine decides to follow Amélie's example.

Talking With Angels
A beautiful, touching film about a young boy struggling to maintain a degree of normality for his family in the face of his mother's mental instability.

Simone's Labyrinth
An eerie, atmospheric film which explores the obscure inner world of the introverted and mysterious Simone.

The Sheep Thief
This atmospheric short by Asif Kapadia (The Warrior) charts the treatment of a young boy caught stealing a sheep.