Cinema 16

Here is the empire magazines review of cinema 16, I will then be choosing and anylazing my favorite films from this collection

Plot
A selection of short films from some of Europe's best directors.

Review
Compilations always have low points, and neither Javier Fesser nor Jan Kounen's contributions will win new fans. However, there are shorts here that intrigue and impress with their visual ingenuity (including early efforts by Lars Von Trier and Tom Tykwer).

But it's the old guard who provide the highlights - Krzyzstof Kieslowski's biting Concert Of Requests, Roy Andersson's bleakly satirical World Of Glory and Jean-Luc Godard's charming Charlotte Et Véronique.

Verdict
The chance to see early work from some European greats more than makes up for a few weaker entries.


Reviewer: David Parkinson

Oscar winning Shorts

Shorts Which has won OSCAR'S since 2000 

2000- Quiero ser (I want to be ...)

Directed by Florian Gallenberger

2001- The Accountant

Directed by Ray McKinnon & Lisa Blount



2002- This Charming Man

Directed by Martin Strange-Hansen

2003- Two Soldiers

Directed by Aaron Schneider& Andrew J. Sacks

2004- Wasp

Directed by Andrea Arnold

2005- Six Shooter

Directed by Martin McDonagh

2006- West Bank Story

Directed by Ari Sandel

2007- Le Mozart des Pickpockets

Directed by Philippe Pollet-Villard

2008- Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank

2009- The New Tenants

Directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank

Yousaf Ali Khan

Yousaf Ali Khan was born in a estate in salford and in his early life he bought up by his mother who suffered from schizophrenia, He is mixed race is mother was English and his father was Pakistani. He and his family came under unwanted attention from the national front, which inspired him to write and direct the film "Skin deep" about a mixed race boy growing up in 1970's Britain dealing with racism.

As a child he was in and out of care and believes that keeping the family unit together is of paramount importance, even in cases where the parents struggle to look after their offspring. This could be way the family in his Oscar nominated film "Talking to angels"  is always in fear of visits from the social services and are terrified that the kids will going to care and the mother into a nursing home. These are issues he and his brothers and sisters had to go through.

Khan left school at the age of 14 with no gcses. His next project is a feature film about Jewish children who miraculously escaped the horrors of belsen in the holocaust. With him being Muslim, his partner producer being hindu and the film being mainly funded by Palestinian business man is shows his intent to unite people through his movies and this  didn’t go unnoticed this is a  factor why he was featured in the screens international "stars of tomorrow" short list

Khan rarely talks about his personal life but from what we know, we see his childhood plays a big factor in his movies. His films haves are realistic yet they have a sense of surrealism with camera shots and techniques. The surrealism normally represents what is in the character mind , some film critivs believe he focuses on the mind so much because his mother was in a constant battle with her  

bibliography

bibliography:

• youtube.com
•  yousef khan-http://film.guardian.co.uk/afterdark/story/0,,1449133,00.html
• oscar-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Live_Action_Short_Film
• cfilm review-http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=10070
• yousef khan-http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/directors/?id=D5D44D5202b6219733NtYqFA0A71
• film festival-http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/

The Stairwell- directed by shane meadow

• The film was filmed on a mobilephone which shows you dont need expensive equipment to makes a short film 
• mise-ene-scene is in the typical style of shane meadow its is gritty, run down and urban 
• the lighting naturalistic and very dark which adds a sense of mystery to the films ad makes it tense 
• The music is dramatic and bulids up tension, whilst giving us the feeling something bad is about to happen 
• challenges our expections of the film with the anti climax ending 
• Diffrents shots,angles and cuts makes the film more intresting and also adds the tension 
• we have a sense of mystrey from the start because we cant really see the mans face to his identity is hidden

Shane meadows

Shne meadows is one the uk's best short film, He was born in the midlands in england, he was born in the early 70s. He dropped out of school before getting is o-levels and he thought he would bulid himself as a career in crime, which quickly he found out he wasn't cut out for it.

In 1994 shane meadows got his hands on a video camera and editingequipment by voluntering his services a nottingham based intermedia film and video ltd, in return they allowed him to borrow what he need. Meadow started to experinement with making films and asking friends and family to be in them, who were at firsy wary. but as Shane started to make more movies, his family and friends were impressed and become more enthusatic to be in them. He began doing as many as 1 short film a month and him and hisfriends started of there own film festival which later became an international and is now called "Flip side".

His first film to catch the attension of the film industrey was "where's the money, Ronni?". The film got him recongnation amoong the film world and channel four give him the opportunity to makeshort documentary "King of the gypsies" about shanes friends bartley gorman for the channel four "battered briton" series

Since then shane meadow has become well known for his grown breaking feature film " This is england" in which the film portrays a England in the times of high racial tensions, he then filmed a set of hour long tv drama called " this is england 86". Shane still does short films and also tries to help new film makers, he even did a a video master class on filmmaking called " Shaynes World"

He still does short film and sticks too his kitchen sink realism that he he in reknown for. This shown in his settings and his style of filming he deals with various issues buts mixes a humour into it. He focuses on real issues big and small , from the national front to bumping into someone. He doesn't really focus on the surreal but one thing he does focus on his england and more specific the  working class.

Mainstream cinema and short films

Quotes on Short film

"Spare economic narratives, interesting storytelling, well structured work which draw in the audience quickly" -Catherine Des Forges

"Short films are long films that end earlier. A good idea, succintly told, less is more" -Gareth Evans

Irish short film: Teeth

Teeth is a comical films about two old men who are on a fishing trap and both end up losing the dentures Directed by John Kennedy & Ruairí O'Brien

•  I thought the opening establishing was amazing because its captured the feeling of peacefulness and them both being out there on own 
  
•  By making it all in black and white is good because it gives the film a vintage feel along with both protagonist being old. The title also makes the film feel vintage because the font looks old fashioned 
  
• (maybe wrong)The white balance/saturation in the film is amazing I think because despite it being black and white the different shades stand out and plus it gives it a very clean and crisp look  
  
• The non-digetic music adds the  atmosphere of the film, which is a peaceful and light-hearted one 
  
• The shots where you could just see your silhouette of both of them back to back in the boat with the fishing rod is beautifully visually and well composed 
  
• I think the story line is very funny and light hearted, plus unlike mainstream cinema you would rarely get to protagonist so old
  
• I think by just having a laughing but by having no talking makes the film more humorous. But by having no talking means facial expressions have to be exaggerated and they are that is what adds to the humour
  
• The ages of both protagonist and the story line gives the film a bit of an “aw” factor
  
• The way the film ends is very funny when the man throws the teeth back in water, which makes the light hearted short very charming and a favourite of mine 
• The film seems very do able because it doesn't seem like it was a high production value but seems simple and all realise on good camera work, plus the ablity to get the right settings on the camera to give it that clean-crisp look
  

Oscar winning short animation; Ryan

;

I just put this film up because i really liked it its diffrent to any other animation ive seen, the wahy the characters are is intrguing,  It diffrent to normal animation because it deals with very dark and deep issues. O think the style of the film being in a interview is good because its diffrent, it suits the style of the animation well.

It was good to for the film to be in animation because he was cartonist and the animation is almost like whats in his mind

The Black Hole

This is a sci-fi short film, in which the character finds that a piece of paper he photocopies has a black whole init which allows him to put his hand though objects

• The font of the title is in a comic book style which gives us the feeling something supernatural is going to happen
• The way the film start is very good because all we see is a office worker looking bored and tired of his work. The low key lighting also adds to the feeling of it be a boring place.
• I think a great shoot is when there is a low angle shot looking through the black hole, its good because it simple but shows us (may sound stupid) that the hole paper isn’t just a misprint
• along with the alien sound which plays when its looking through the hole adds the suspense
• the concept is very good and gets the audience intrigued, like when he puts his hand through the vending machine and takes sweets , it has us think what would we use the paper
• the ending is very good because we don’t really expect it because we are so surprised by the fact he actually able to put his hand though and take as much money as he wants but we see him get more and more greedy. so that when he goes in and gets trapped we end up having no sympathy for him
• I think the style of the film was good because it was very basic and simple concept; they used a lot of editing techniques.
• The mise-en-scene also makes it believable because its such an ordinary setting which makes it more shocking when some thing out the ordinary 

sign language

The films is about a man called Ben who is a "board man", he is doing his last day of work before his promotion

Good things about the film:

•  The film is done in a documentary style which is different and very effective because it seems like its trying to be seriousness which is commercial because no one would really take that job seriously 
• the non-digetic music also add to the light heartedness of the film because it really calming and simple 
• The way he describes all his friends, at the start we think that he has just made up these characters of those people in his head which in the end we see he doesn’t
• The character also loveable because we see how excited he is about the promotion and the what he loves his job, also what he is wearing makes him seem a bit quirky as well
• the is a very good focus pull when he is look at the girl , is very good and a simple technique I could use for my short film
• The end of the is excellent because its not overly dramatic but its still kind of touching to see that people do actually care about him rather than just thinking he is a bit crazy
• its is light hearted and quirky, you would never see anything like this in a normal movie because we would start to get bored but it works as a short film 
• When establishing the scene it is set in and when he is putting up his sign I think really good they way the cut it to the bit of the song, this is good because it allows them to get a lot of shots into the start.
• by doing it in the style of documentary also makes us feel a personal connection to him because its like he is talking to us 

Bouncer

The Bouncer which stars Ray Winstone, the film is a about a bouncer talking about his work and telling us about the time his friends was killed and he killed the person that did it

I thought the films lots of good point some being:

• The film discussed a topic that not a lot of people would really care about because people don't really like bouncers, they fear them but don't have respect. so this main the film different to most mainstream films 
• The character ray winstones plays talks about the job of bouncer in way we don't expect he talks about people not noticing they are fathers, husbands and sons
• The characters dialogue is also very believable because he does it in a cottony accent which makes it more believable 
• through the narrative the director is able to get the point across and makes us feel that something is going to happen soon by the way he talks about the dangers of the job 
• When john is telling the story to the other bouncers it makes us start to like him and we start to see a brotherhood among them. the director makes us like the character in such a short time that when he gets killed its like we have an emotional attachment to him 
• The camera techniques are very simple it and they aren’t much any real effects, but there are a lot of cuts and shots that are stopped 
• there isn't really any non-digetic music in the film I think its done that way because it makes the film more serious 
• The digetic noises which are kind of loud, makes the setting realistic and also adds to sense that the bouncers are controlling chaos 
• The fast cuts and quick and short style of talking builds the tension up a lot and when he slows downs and start to talk longer (when he in strangling the man) there is no cuts which kind of relieves the tension despite what we are seeing 
• when he is training in the gym we think he is just trying to get stronger for the job but then in the end we realized he is actually prison for killing a man. I think that by the director doing this it ends a sharp twist in the story and some thing unexpected

Camera set up and Camera techniques

Format we film on: 1080ip hd

How to switch from auto to fully manuel:
- Take of auto lock and switch to manuel then you will have full control of the cameras setting meaning you can adjust things to get the desired shots

Gain:
- gain is linked with exposure , when there is no light it tries ti add light but gets grainy
- it measures in db and goes from 0-18

Shutter speed:
- shutter speed allows you to get more frames per second or less. in cinema it is usaually 24 whilst in pal regions it is 25

- our cameas shot 50 frames per second the higher the frame rate the better and smoother it looks and also it will make slow motion look better when editing


White balance:
- indoor is called tunstun / orange colour/ symbol is a light bulb

- out door light/ bluey/ symbol is sun

- manuel light bvalance is required if you have both type of lighting in one shot so you can adjust it to get the right look

manuel focus:

-zoom in on same ones hair because there is alot of detail and adjust until it is in focus

About a Girl 

The opening titles of about girl, is done in the font of text and the sound of key tones are played which makes us feel the films is going to about a teenage girl and for teenagers. The play on the title of about a boy makes it feel like its going to feel good film but an interesting point the name of the films " About a girl " keeps it impersonal.

The start of the film you can here a girl singing in a field in her own, you can just see her silhouette. Which makes us feel like there is no one looking out for her and also the fact that we can’t see her face makes her seems more impersonal. Because she’s singing Britney spears it also makes us think shes innocent and soft.

When we first see her she’s not what we expect, she has a deep mancunion accent which gives her a hard exterior because it so strong. We also kind of shocked because shes starts talking to the camera straight away as if we were mid way through a conversation with her. The sky and setting is really grey, colourless and feels like a massive prison. The way she is dressed and what she talks, along with the setting about shows us that she comes from a working class family. She starts by talking to us about how her brother shallows floss and her mum thought it was worms but the way she says it to us shows neither she nor her mother is educated.

As she task the camera makes several cuts chopping out bits that she is saying its almost like she’s talks so much they cant get it in or also that they just aren’t bothered like everyone else. The way she talks makes it also seem like there is a camera crew with her. She tells us her mother and father have divorced and her mother is left 3 children and looks down on her dad but the girl disagrees to what her mother thinks of her dad.

We start to realize she really loves her dad and wants him to look after but he seems less then interested in her. For example when there at the cafe and she talking about running away he seems like he doesn't care. Another example of this is on the day he is meant to take her out he brings her to his football games then after he goes o the pub and leaves her outside with a packet of crisps an a coke which she seems to think its normal. Her dad is also unemployed and doesn't seem to be looking for a job, which adds to the atmosphere of the area being somewhere with no prospects.

Her feeling towards her mother is different to how she feels to her dad, she seems to blame her mother for all the troubles they have. She even calls her mother a bitch, which is kind ironic because her and her mother seems to be similar, they both want to escape from there current environment , the girl through singing and the mother through scratch cards. The audience start to dislike the ,other as well when the girl tells us about the story about the mother throwing the puppy in the river when the girls bought it home without asking. Which also makes what happens in the end more ironic.

The girl starts to grow on us and we start to like her because if we look past the harsh accent and the appearance we start to realize she's just a young naive girl who has plenty of personality and is really lively. We also see the singing as escape for her because it almost makes her appear innocent to us again because it’s something a young teenage girl would do

The end of the film is disturbing and some what unexpected. When she throws the dead baby in the water like its nothing and then carries on talking about ice cream, and then we see the baby slowly floating out of the plastic bag, which some could day represents her because the way the baby floats out the bag its almost like its giving birth to it. Then when the bag gets trapped in the fence as it floats down the river almost like in a way saying the girl is trapped here for ever. I think the way the ending is composed is straight forward and not particularly dramatic, it is done in a straight forward manner like the rest of the films.

 I think instead of the director getting to deep into  everything like most main stream films would do and makes it dramatic, all he does is shows us snippets of her life and conversations which gives us a clear picture of her. The simplistic style makes it a good film.

skin deep part 2 / and my view on the film

 I thought the film  was amazing because even though it was an obvious type of story its not patronizing and its also emotive. Yousaf Ali Khan tells the story in away that rather than feeling resentment towards Romo we actually feel sympathy for him because at the end we see he is actually traumatized and we realise its more than him trying to fitting in. I personally thought the shots of him looking in the mirror and patting down his hair shows him to self conscious and also it shows the inner fight with his heritage because his hair is the only thing that could possible give him off.

Khan also kept us intrigued because he sometimes made us feel that romo was about to get found out and he add to this not just with dialogue but also with the camera shots for example in the pub with his uneasy work mate ask him if he has Asian in him khan makes fast cuts of people laughing and it is played louder which makes us a bit nervous for him. The pov shots with the 3 three men saying racist things also makes us feel apart of the film and very easy as if they were calling us it and makes us feel for romo and see his situation isn't just black and white.

The last shot was also very effective because when he smashes the mirror you see his sister with the cake in her hand, whilst he is lighter shes is darker and could never get away with what romo is doing, so we feel sympathy because we can imagine who it would feel to see your own brother being shamed of what him and you. The shots with the bullies in the bathroom with him makes the ending very intense and the quick cuts also add to it. The lighting in the film also makes it very hard heating because its  dark and gritty.



The films has a very strong script and manages to go in depth into his problem without having unnecessary scenes

skin deep by Yousaf Ali Khan part 1 / crew/ my fav bits

Romo, a mixed race boy, half English, half Pakistani, who lives in a run-down, all white neighbourhood. Passing as white, he has to confront his identity when his skinhead gang target a young Asian boy.

Crew

• 
  
  
  Director
  Yousaf Ali Khan
• 
  
  
  Producer
  Andy Porter
• 
  
  
  Editor
  Nick Fenton
• 
  
  
  Director Of Photography
  David Katznelson

Music

Andy Cowton






Bits I really Like:

• When he takes his sister through the back route rather than going the quicker way, we first see that he is embarrassed of being with his sister rather than us think though he doesn't like her, because of the dialogue between them we see that he actually does love her.
• The girl holding the cake of the hand in the end of the film is very touching detail the director adds, because  she promises him a surprised. This is  touching because you see the girl loves and looks up to her brother only to see him in such a traumatized state   
• The shots of his face when every he is almost caught out or asked to do something questionable, it shows he is battling with his inner demons 
• I thought it was good in the film the way they never verbally mention the national front verbally but instead showed it thought the dress, attire and poster and stuff. this made it seem more normal like it is everyday life, which needs no explanation 
• When he uses the NF lighter he pauses for a second and its almost like he is contemplating using it but when he does its like accepting the lifestyle of a racist for himself