SHOT DIVISIONING

SCENE 1

Time: Morning (INT)

Characters: Ali and Jabar

Location: Class room

Film starts with an Establishing shot of the government school.

Wide shot of the class room from the door in which students and teacher both are in frame

Mid shot- Camera moves row by row showing students busy doing the paper until camera reaches the row where Ali is sitting in middle of the class.

Close up shot of the clock with time 10:30

Close up shot of Bell ringing

Mid shot of Ali, startles with bell and takes out the paper from his pocket.

Mid shot of teacher removing the newspaper and announcing the time and calling ali.

Mid shot of ali.

Long shot of Jabar going to Ali’s seat.

POV of Ali- Jabar snatching the paper and asks Ali to show his hands.

Close up shot of hands when Jabar beats Ali with scale.

Close up shot of Ali While Jabar is beating him.

POV of Ali- Jabar is going back to his place.

Close up shot of the clock

Close up shot of Ali

Close up shot of the clock

Close up shot of Ali

Close up shot of the clock

Close up shot of bell ringing

Continues close up shot of Jabar’s table on which one by on one all the students keep their paper, this shot continues until Ali keeps his empty paper.

Long shot of Ali walking towards the door.

Long shot of Jabar picking up the paper.

POV of Jabar- opening the paper.

SCENE 2                                                                                                                           FADE IN

EXT. EARLY MORNING, JUNKYARD

CAMERA TRACKING TOWARDS THE SCENE (SPEED)

WIDE SHOT – MOTHER EMBRACING HER SON AND KEEPING THE LETTER IN HIS UPPER-POCKET, DIRECTS HIM TOWARDS THE SCHOOL.

OTS OF MOTHER (SURAIYA) – ALI LEAVES FOR SCHOOL.

OTS OF SON (ALI) – MOTHER WIPES HER TEARS.

POV OF MOTHER (SURAIYA) – ALI BENDS HIS HEAD DOWN IN DISAPPOINTMENT AND WALKS AWAY.

Flash back ends                                                                                                            FADE OUT

SCENE 3

Continues Close up shot of the line written on the paper word by word along with the voice over of Suraya.

Long shot of Jabar turning and asking Ali to stop near the door

POV of jabar- Ali stopping near the door.

Close up shot of Ali turning in slow motion with a straight face.

OTS of Ali- Jabbar coming towards Ali in slow motion.

Continues Wide Shot of Jabbar sitting on knees in front of Ali, puts the paper back in his shirt pocket, Jabar rubs his hand on Ali’s hairs with affection and both of them leave the room in slow motion.

SCENE 4

EXT. AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING: JUNKYARD

POV OF MOTHER – ALI WALKING TOWARDS HER MOTHER.

WIDE SHOT (TWO SHOT) – ALI IS SEEN APPROACHING HER MOTHER.

OTS OF ALI – MOTHER SEEN WAITING FOR ALI TO REACH HER.

OTS OF MOTHER – ALI REACHED NEAR HER

WIDE SHOT (MID SHOT) – ALI AND SURAYA HUGGING.

Location Pictures

SCENE DIVISIONING

SCENE 1

Time: Morning
Character:  Jabar-bin-abdullah(invigilator)
                 Ali(student)
Location: Examination Hall (School)

In an examination hall of a school, Jabar-bin-abdullah is the invigilator for the examination sitting on the chair and reading the news paper. Ali, a student is sitting in the middle of the class thinking of something and smiling while other students are busy doing their paper. When first bell rings, Ali takes out the paper from his pocket to read something while Jabar announces the time and sees Ali doing that. Jabar comes to Ali’s seat, punishes him, takes the paper and goes back to his place. Ali keeps standing in the rest of the time in the hope that his teacher will return the paper until the final bell rings and all the students leave the class one by one keeping the paper on jabar’s table. When Ali is going to the door of examination room, Jabar opens the scribbled page and then a flashback starts.

DIALOUGES:

Jabar:
(announcing the time) aadha ghanta reh gya hei.. jaldi haath chalao.. ek minute upar nae milegy!

Jabar:
 (to Ali) aye larke! (ali looks at him) Haan tu! Khara ho zara! (takes his paper) itne araam se nakal kar rha hei! (shouts at him) Haath aage kar apne (beats him with scale, takes his sheet and go to his place)

TRANSLATION:

Jabar:
(announcing the time) half an hour is left.. increase your speed.. wont spare even a single minute!

Jabar:
(to Ali) hey larke!(boy) (Ali looks at him) Yes you! Stand up! (takes his paper) cheating it so easily! (shouts at him) Put your hand forward! (beats him with scale, takes his sheet and go to his place)

SCENE 2:

Time: Morning
Character: Ali (student)
                 Suraya (Ali’s mother)
Location: Near Junkyard

Ali is standing near a junkyard with his mother Suraya who hugs him and keeps a folded paper in his pocket. Ali gets onto his school bus. When he sits on his seat he takes out that paper reads it, smiles, and keeps the paper back into his pocket and flashback ends.

SCENE 3:

Time: Morning
Character:  Ali
                  Jabar
Location: Examination Hall

In the same classroom Jabar sees the quotation written on that paper (voice over of the mother saying that quote) and turns to Ali who is leaving the room. He calls him on which Ali stops and turns. Jabar walks towards Ali, kneels down, puts the paper back in his shirt pocket, Jabar rubs his hand on Ali’s hairs with affection and both of them leave the room.

DIALOUGES:

Quotation on paper (voice over of Suraya):
“Darro mat beta… Mei har waqt tumhare saath hun, abhi bhi tumhare pass hy hun… Tum sirf muskurao aur aage barho - Tumhari ami jaan”

Jabar:
(stopping Ali) O larke! Ruk!

Ali:
(turns and looks back)

Jabar:
( Kneels down, puts the paper back in his shirt pocket) jaa.. khush reh!

TRANSLATIONS:

Quotation on paper (voice over of Suraya):
“Don’t be scared son… I am always with you; I am by your side even right now… you just smile and move forward… - your ami jaan”

Jabar:
(stopping Ali) Hey boy! Stop!

Ali:
(turns and looks back)

Jabar:
( Kneels down, puts the paper back in his shirt pocket) go… live happily!

SCENE 4:

Time: Day
Character: Ali
Location: School

Scene is shown where Ali is very happy and is dancing around the school enjoying his happiness of regaining the lost confidence and motivation of life. He comes out the school were his lovely mother is waiting. He runs towards his mother and they both hug each other. Film ends

CAST

CHARACTER PROFILES

NAME: Suraya
ROLE: Mother

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:

-          Age: 30 years

-          Height: 5.4 – 5.5 ft.

-          Fair complexion

-          Skinny/thin

-          Looking elder than age

-          Unorganized personality (hairstyle, dressing, make up, etc)

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:

She is a 30 years old poor lady with skinny stature, fair complexion and a height of 4.5-5.5ft. She earns her living by working as a house maid. Being the only earning member of the family adds pressure on her shoulders and puts her in a tight corner. Tied up with multiple problems and responsibilities, she looks elder than her age having wrinkles and drooping posture. She has an unorganized personality with untied hairs, smudged make up and weird dressing. However, she has a strong willpower to fight against the odds and face life as it comes. She inculcates the same into her son and motivates him to be steadfast and face challenges in life with courage. A calm and composed reaction is shown by her to her son as she does not want the shadow of her pain and misery to fall on him. She is caring, loving, nurturing and understanding towards her son.

NAME: Jabbar

ROLE: Teacher

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:

-          Age: 30 years

-          Height: 5.6 – 5.7 ft.

-          Over-weight

-          Well dressed (formal dressing)

-          Oiled hair

-          Straight face

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:

Jabbar is a 40 years old, overweight man with a height of 5.7-5.8ft. He is very stern with flat expressions. He is very rigid in terms of rules and a very strict and arrogant invigilator. His character is somewhat dynamic as a shift in his reactions is seen after he realizes the impact of his reaction on the student (Ali).

NAME: Ali

ROLE: Student/Son

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:

-          Age: 12 – 13 years

-          Height: 4.2 – 4.3 ft.

-          Skinny/thin

-          Side hair partitioned

-          Unorganized dressing (creased shirt, unpolished shoes, etc.)

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:

Ali is a 10 years old boy, studying in a government school. He plays as a centre element of the story. He has a slim body with a height of 4.2-4.3ft. A low morale is depicted from his personality as he seems hesitant and not so confident, lost in deep thoughts. He is deeply connected with his mother and cannot see her being sad. Financial conditions and the attitude of his father towards his mother lay a great amount of stress which affects his mind and ability to concentrate on things. Few words from his mother instill in him a sense of confidence and a power to conquer everything

STORY

It is the morning of 14^th September 2012 at 09:00 AM in an examination hall of a government school. Jabar-bin-abdullah is the invigilator for the examination sitting on the chair and reading the news paper. Ali, a student is sitting in the middle of the class thinking of something and smiling while other students are busy doing their paper. When the first bell goes at 09:30, Ali takes out the paper to read something but while Jabar announces the time, he sees him doing that. Jabar comes to Ali’s seat, asks him to show his hand and beats him with a scale, takes the paper and goes back to his place. Ali keeps standing in the rest of the time in the hope that his teacher will return the paper until the final bell goes at 10:00 AM and all the students leave the class one by one keeping the paper on jabar’s table. While Ali is going to the door of examination room, Jabar opens the scribbled page and then a flashback starts.

Ali is standing near a junkyard with his mother Suraya who hugs him and keeps a folded paper in his pocket. Ali gets onto his school bus. When he sits on his seat he takes out that paper reads it, smiles, and keeps the paper back into his pocket and flashback ends.

In the same classroom Jabar reads a quotation written on the paper given by Suraya and turns to Ali who is leaving the room. He calls him on which Ali stops and turns with a straight face. Jabar walks towards Ali, sits on his knees, puts the paper back in his shirt pocket, Jabar rubs his hand on Ali’s hairs with affection and both of them leave the room.

Scene is shown where Ali is very happy and is dancing around the school enjoying his happiness of regaining the lost confidence and motivation of life. He comes out the school were his lovely mother is waiting. He runs towards his mother and they both hugs each other. End credits start with the last shot of both hugging each other on the right side. 

PLOT

Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory states that in a plot first there is an equilibrium which sets the scene and is normal everyday life event. After which comes the disruption which is a complication leading to the alteration of the equilibrium. Conflict or climax is the third part of the plot which is normally the most interesting for the audience as it seeks the solution to the problem.  Forth part is the resolution where the problem is sorted and now the plot leads to the last part which is the new equilibrium where again everything is back to normal which a lay man often refers to happy ending but this is always different from the equilibrium in the start of the film. Todorov’s theory is the most close to the plot of my film and I have written my plot under the heading given by Todorov’s theory.

Equilibrium

It is the morning of 14^th September 2012 at 09:00 AM in an examination hall of a government school. Jabar-bin-abdullah is the invigilator for the examination sitting on the chair and reading the news paper.

Disruption               

Ali, a student is sitting in the middle of the class thinking of something while other students are busy doing their paper. When the first bell goes at 09:30, Ali takes out the paper to read something but while Jabar announces the time, he sees him doing that. Jabar comes to Ali’s seat and beats him with a scale, takes the paper and goes back to his place. Ali keeps standing in the rest of the time in the hope that his teacher will return the paper. But jabar goes to his place and sits.

Conflict

When the final bell goes at 10:00 AM all the students leave the class. While Ali has reached the door of examination room, Jabar opens the scribbled page to see that what is written in it. A flash back turns where his mom gives a tight hug and puts a note in his pocket. Ali leaves for the school.

Resolution

Flashback ends, Jabar realizes that he was wrong, he stops Ali at the door of the class. He goes to Ali, gives him the paper back and they both leave the room.

New equilibrium

Ali comes out of the class jumping and dancing and he runs to the gate of the school to hug her mother who is waiting for her son. They both hug at the gate of the school and film ends.

FILM SYNOPSIS

A boy is sitting in an examination in his class with his other class mates and his teacher who is a monster for the students according to the stereotype of a government school teacher. The boy is sitting in the middle of the class and thinking something while his other class mates are busy doing their paper. First bell goes and the boy startles, takes out a paper from his pocket and while he was reading that paper the teacher sees him. The teacher comes to that boy with a big scale in hand, takes the paper from him and beats him with the scale. The boy is standing on his place and teacher goes back to his table. The second bell goes and all the students leave the class including that boy. While leaving the class the teacher opens that paper and reads it so it was not a cheating paper but a quotation for the motivation of the boy written by his mother, he gives that paper back to the boy and film ends.

Film Concept

The basic concept of my film is about the government education system in which underprivileged children study and the stereotype of the government school teachers. My film is a short story which revolves around a boy who belongs to a poor family with many problems in his family because of the poverty. The boy is extremely demotivated and disturbed due to these problems and when he is in school so rather than investigating his problems cruel teachers also give him a hard time. But when a teacher gets a hint about his problem he slightly changes his behavior and the stereotype of a typical cruel government school teacher is corrected.  

Six Sigma Films

Six Sigma Films is a film production house which is located in Mumbai, India. Basically it is owned by a corporate group so they have many business minds with them and they support independent filmmakers if they are impressed by the story. They have highly equiped production team and contacts in the mainstream industry for creative assistance throughout the process of a project. Apart from that they have contacts all around their country for location arrangments and special teams working to fulfill the needs of each and every project they take as they do understand the specific needs of every project they undertake. They have a youtube channel as well where they distribute their films online. They have produced all together 23 projects displayed on thier youtube channel which includes short films, documentary shorts, musical shorts and animated shorts as well of different genres. The owner Mr Anurag Khanna is a seaosonal banker and so he has contacts in the corporate world and with his long expereince in entertainment industry makes him a great combination of money, contacts and creativity.

Six Sigma Films And My Short Film
One important element which I observed about Six Sigma Films and is also there in my film is that they select those independent filmakers or storylines which are some how related to soceity issues like poverty, illeteracy, gay rights, increasing crime. One more reason beacause of which I think Six Sigma Films can support my film is that they have been dealing with child emotions and child psycology also that what things are important for children so they might be attracted tomy film which will be based on a little poor boy in an underprivillaged education system. "Rose" and "The choosen one" are two short films in which they have beautifully presented the nature of children and thier way of thinking along with some very strong messages and representations of the society we live in. "Therefore I win" is a documentary short on the education system and litteracy problem in which all the underdeveloped countries are alike including India and Pakistan. The issue of education is never highlighted in a short film by Six Sigma Films and that is also a reason why I think my film will get support from them as my film will be dealing some issues of education system and a story of a little poor boy.

Representation Of Government Education System

When we studied about representation in our media theory so I thought that the representation which my reference films are dealing and I will also deal in my film should be examined by both the private education system and the government education system itself. In order to do that I interviewed one private school teacher and one government school teacher with very generalized questions so that they are not bound to answer according to my questions and can give their opinions freely. I asked the following 3 simple questions from them:

1. What is your name and how long have you been teaching?

2. What do you think are the problems of the government education system?

3. What do you think can be the solutions to these problems and who should take the initiative to solve these problems?

Private school teacher
Government school teacher

Above are the links of the videos I made of the interviews and below is the translation of the views of the government school teacher as she didn't know how to speak in English.

“My name is Nadia Ali Mohammed, I have been teaching in different government schools since 1975, thus having 37 years of experience. “

“Parents usually do not prefer sending their children to government schools due to the education standard; there is an absence of teachers in most of the schools and even if there are good schools? There would be either one or two that actually fulfills the purpose of proper education.”

“One of the major factors is that there are no regular visits/reviews by officials of the education sector as well as the headmaster/headmistress, thus it makes the teacher lose their talent which should be highlighted most in such a situation.”

“The second problem is that we know that at city district level teachers do not really get paid on the right time either its 15^th or 20^th of the month or even at times a whole month passes by and you do not get paid, also the students that come here to study, comes from different background, they come from places where usually gun fires are heard every now and then, their family environment does not support education parents themselves do not want their children to study …Reason is simply poverty, If there is a boy parents would simply ask him to earn 200/- per month “you want food or you want to study” they would say, so you see that’s the reason that due to poverty there are lesser number of male students. If few girls get education parents would simply say that “do your 10^th and get married”

“I think that the government should encourage parents to let their children come to school and get education, of course when parents will have good jobs they would defiantly want their children to get education. So ultimately poverty and uneducated parents are the cause here that discourages higher education, hardly 3-8 females do colleges here so lack of awareness and harsh environment does not let them study. “

  

Focus group (Audience research )

Focus group (Audience research )

 Above is the link of the focus group I did for my audience research. Basically the reference films I choose and the type of theme which there in the films is related to every educated person. So the basic diversion in my target audience is educated and uneducated. So I choose a educated family which have multiple age groups and people from different fields but one thing which is common in them is that they all are educated and have past the stages of education system which is the theme of my film so they will be able to relate to the theme easily. As the focus group video is bi-lingual so I have translated some important points and reviews given by my target audience.

“This movie delivers a message that everyone has a hidden talent since their childhood and to identify this hidden talent, which is ignored in this movie by the parents. So when parents do not identify these hidden talents in their children so obviously it is difficult for a teacher as well and this is the reason that the child who had this hidden talent could not tell anyone because it was hidden and thus had to be polished. So only one of the teachers observed his talent and therefore it was his talent that gave him his satisfaction/success.” - Employee of a bank

“This movie tells you that the teachers should not harm their students and should treat them properly if they harm their students like this they will lose their interest and in future they would be unable to give more input towards studies.” - Student of 9^th grade

“Ok so I am a teacher too and this is one of my favorite movies and you will find many concepts in this movie that we should really look in to first of all they showed corporal punishment which is to me is a crime. If a child has a problem you should not harm him alright! , there is solution to every problem and secondly they showed learning disability and I think teachers can help students let go this problem. My psychology teacher taught us that a dyslexic child just needs to know right left and he will know his way  he just needs to justify the answers whether he makes b to d it doesn’t matter the teacher needs to  help him to overcome his disability.” - Teacher

Reference film analysis 2

In Bollywood I didn’t found short films on my theme which is education system so I choose a film which is made up of six short films. Although the genre of this entire film is horror but there is a short film in this feature length which can be my reference film as in that there is a story of a teacher who used to harm his students and use to give cruel punishments.

Basically, I choose this short story in this feature length as this short film will help me with type of camera angles/shots I can take in my film as the character of teacher in this film is similar to the representation of the government school teachers in underprivileged societies.

The picture above is a screen shot of a short film in "darna mana hai" which have a low angled shot giving a feel of a dominated/cruel teacher.

The character of the student is also somewhat similar except the gender difference that is of an innocent student who is harmed by the teacher as the homework is not complete. So the type of shots used to deliver the feeling of that little girl can also help me in designing my shots at the stage of pre-production.

The diegetic and non diegetic sound of this short film are great which will also help me at the time when I will select or make sound for my film. Although the type of music used over here is not much related as the genre is horror, but the editing would be helpful to me as this is also a short film and I will be making a short film too so cut to cut editing will be required in which this short film would be of great help.

Reference film analysis 1

The theme discussed in this film is basically somehow similar to my theme which I thought for my portfolio which is about the problems in education system. Although in this film the main character of a boy Ishan has a dyslexia problem but despite of that, the type of teachers shown in the film is very much similar to the teachers in the government education system in many underprivileged areas of underdeveloped countries. The makers of this film have played very cleverly and have proved that they have done a responsible production as first they created a general perception of teachers and then showed one teacher who was different from others and helped that boy with a learning disability. Therefore, they proved that neither all the teachers are same nor all the students are of same capabilities. This correcting of a representation was an inspiration for me and that’s why I kept this film as my reference film although it is not a short film but a wonderful and great art/drama film.    

This film gives a representation of these types of teachers who are cruel and who harm the students through strict punishments without discovering the problems of the students. This representation is aided by the camera angles and shots as well for example in the entire film where ever there are some shots of the cruel teachers so they all are low angled shots thus reflecting the over dominating personalities they usually have and almost all the shots of Ishan are high angled shots in order to give a feeling of depression and low moral which that boy have in this film. There are many close up shots as well in this film where ever the audience needs to know the feelings of that boy which are happy/fun filled in the beginning, sad and low at the boarding school and then again happy/artistic towards the end when his talent is discovered by a new teacher. Mid-shots are used similar to other films but all the establishing shorts have great meaning and signs/symbols given for the intelligent audience to judge the feeling of that boy.

The editing and music/sound of this film is simply awesome in some places as some animations and special effects are also used to represent the feelings of all the characters. The song “bhejha kum” is a great example where the sound, music, editing and animations were a great aid for the director to deliver the frustrated feelings of that young little boy after the torture of government school to the audience.

The mise-on-scene of this film is very much related and interlinked to the film in every scene of the film. For example all the scenes of boarding school had a spirit of strictness all over before the entrance of the new teacher and to develop this spirit mise-on-scene played a very vital role. In the first half of the song when the boy is in his dreaming and when once he bunks the schools and enjoys/observes all the things and people on the road are some of the scenes which had great mise-on-scene in order to represent the character of a creative young little boy who is full of imaginations.

So these were all the elements due to which it is my reference film and one of the best “complete package” inspirational movies I have seen so far. I have to make a short film in this year’s portfolio so it won’t be possible for me to inculcate all the elements in my film because of certain limitations of resources but I will try my best to inspire people and correct a miss representation of our society as this film did.

Magazine front cover Analysis 2

In this magazine cover also many of the conventions are same but there are some differences as well. Firstly this cover of the magazine has more business on it as compared to EMPIRE. The biggest font size is of the title of the magazine along with the issue number on the magazine and date on which it is issued with the price also given in pounds. It has the list movie reviews on the left side and some title of articles on the right side with the picture of the main characters of King Kong which is their head preview for this issue. In this magazine front the bar code is also given but with a brand name “Future” which is maybe the distributor of this magazine.

Magazine front cover Analysis 1

First convention of the magazine front cover which I observed in this empire magazine is that as it is a film magazine so it has reviews of many films which form a sort of index on the left hand side telling about the articles inside the magazine. The name and online address of the magazine in this case is always on the top of the cover page with a tag line that it is “THE WORLD’S BIGGEST MOVIE MAGAZINE”. There is an attractive line which reflects the articles inside the magazine and attracts the audience to buy the magazine. In this case the line is “MASSIVE PREVIEW SPECIAL”. Another big attraction in this case is the picture of the main character of Harry in a different role in Harry Potter 6 as compared to previous Harry Potter movies that in this one he will be involved in a fight which is also reflected by the picture in the front cover of the magazine. On the extreme right downside of the magazine there is a bar code also. Last but not the least some other important movie names are given on the bottom line of the magazine front cover with small picture on the left downside of the cover.

Poster analysis 2

Poster analysis 1

Genre Analysis (Drama)

Genre introduction and Audiences

Drama genre is my favorite genre amongst all the genre reason being that it is the most realistic and easy to relate genre that’s why I usually call it an audience genre. The target audience of this genre is extremely vast, reason could be that the audience can easily identify this genre and relate to it or maybe the reason could be that in today’s world amalgamations of genres take place so often, where drama always exists in almost all the films sometimes as a major genre and sometimes as a sub genre. When we talk about genre so there are many elements/conventions which come under the umbrella of genre after which a film is made and sold.

Narrative and Characters

Drama is a genre where firstly the characters, story and narrative structures are very much related to life. They are realistic, with small problems/conflicts and conflicts are always resolved in the end or in other words we say that majority of the drama films have happy endings with dialogue like “and they lived happily ever after”. In a drama film the audiences get emotionally attached to the characters who are the protagonist or ‘hero’ of the film. In order to maintain the interest of the audiences the drama films are written, shot and edited very cleverly. Drama films have some peaks and troths and sometimes climaxes and anti climaxes are also there in the film to seek complete attention of the audience.

Iconography and Setting

Drama is the most vast and diversified genre that’s why the iconography and setting is not specific but role of both these elements is extremely important in drama genre. As when icons, symbols, different props and setting are used properly in conventional manner so it creates a real life feeling for audience and audience gets involve in it for example sets of romance drama and action drama are made with high budgets and lots of meaning to do justice with the audience.  

MAGAZINES FRONT COVER CONVENTIONS

This is also a promotional way and through this the audience is attracted to the film. The magazine cover should also be eye-catching and attractive like a film poster. This front cover has a big title of the magazine name which informs the audience. To make the front cover noticeable the pictures of the famous actors are used and all the colors and graphics are there to make the magazine theme evident. The main character of the film is on the cover and the title of the film is also with big fonts and attractive colors. Magazine front covers also have the list on the side of all the articles inside the magazine. Price of the magazine and barcodes are also given on the side of the cover.

FILM POSTER CONVENTIONS

Film poster is a way of promoting a film and it attracts the audience towards the film. In order to do so the poster should be firstly eye-catching.  To make it an eye-catching one trick which is useful in the cases of big films is to put up the picture of the well known main actor in the film on the poster. Apart from that a poster has a big film title with a tag line in some cases which delivers the hints of the theme of the film. In these posters the names of the characters are also displayed sometimes and some information regarding the release dates are given as well to make sure the audience is well-informed about the film. On these posters the name of the director is given along with the production house and all other credits. There are some films that have age restrictions and so the age restrictions are also listed in these sort of films. Mainly the motive of a poster is to attract and inform the target audience about the product. The type of font, color and designing is used depends on the theme of the film and a poster gives many hints to the audience about the film and characters in it so that they are well informed and come with a prepared mind set to watch that film and enjoys it. Posters have all these conventions which makes it eye-catching and attractive for the audience but as every film is different piece of art and appeals to different audiences so all of the conventions are not fixed and can be adjusted along with add-ons to the attractiveness of the poster with innovative and creative ideas.

SHORT FILM CONVENTIONS

Short film is called a ‘short’ because firstly its duration is normally 5-10 minutes and maximum 35 minutes. If it exceeds this duration so it’s no more considered to be short film but a feature length film. Apart from that these short films are low budgeted reason being that the people making these films are not the big-shots of the industry. We can also say that short films are experimental form of art where fresh film makers polish their skills and display their work at different film festivals. In these short films as the time and budget is limited so the story lines or the concepts are really simple. Furthermore, when the story line is simple so it must have a spark in it to attract the audience and that spark is called the twist. The twist is a problem which enters in a simple situation and that problem can be between characters, problem with the characters in sight or problem with the surrounding. But eventually that problem resolves and comes to a new solution or ‘new equilibrium’ as termed by the media theorist Todorov. These short films sometimes have an ending without a conclusion or solution to the issue, this is because the motive of some short films is just to make people think about little issues of the society. Short films are a beautiful world of art in which an artist can play with all the signs and elements of sound, editing, mise-en-scene and camera without even making his characters speak a word. These were some conventions of short films which I observed and I believe that any form of art have infinite conventions and same goes for the art of short films as Elbert Hubbard said “Art is not a thing; it’s a way.” 

Industry Reasearch

Whenever I think of selecting a film industry for my film project, I don’t know why but Bollywood is the only industry comes in my mind. Maybe this is because the culture of my country Pakistan and India is similar to an extent. But what I believe is that an artist has a creative thinking process by which he/she makes decisions and as an artist my thinking allows me to do my project with all the belongings of Bollywood in it and no other industry. Apart from that in my AS level I selected Bollywood for my portfolio project although at that time my way of thinking was not the same but all the research I did will definitely help me in this year. So here goes all the research I did in my previous year related to the rapidly growing film industry Bollywood.

BOLLYWOOD

The name Bollywood is made from two word Bombay and Hollywood. The golden age for this Hindi film industry started in 2000s. Throughout this age the industry improved in almost all the fields such as cinematography, story lines and also in technological advancement like animation and after effects. There are two secrets of the success of this industry that is the diversification of its target audience geographically and also in terms of demographics. If we talk about present time so the films which are made in this industry are divided in two main audience group which includes rural areas people and urban areas people and this group also have abroad audiences.

Bollywood is influenced by number of things around it. Firstly some stories are influenced by their ancient stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Secondly the influence of Sanskrit dramas including the rasa culture is also common. Ramlila in Uttar Pradesh which is a folk theater is a strong influence. Humor, music and stagecraft of Parsi theater were a great influence also which we can see in Bollywood films. Last but not the least the Bollywood films in 2000s and after that were with great influence from western music television MTV which was visibly evident in the music, dance and camera work of these films. It is not only Bollywood which is influenced but at some points Hollywood is also being influenced by Bollywood especially the music and some concepts such as reincarnation.

GENRE CONVENTIONS

In Bollywood the films with most promising success are called as Masala films and this is a film that has a mixture of all genres like action, comedy, Romance and so on and so forth. The films in Bollywood should have a mandatory song which is an item number or dance number which is appreciated by the local audience and to satisfy them and attract the locals it is essential to put these. Although today on the path Bollywood is walking on is towards a change which includes art films also who normally targets the international market which Bollywood have and the Urban areas public and are also becoming successful but in these films also the concepts and conventions of typical Bollywood exists and will always exist in the coming years too no matter how much modernization and globalization influences it.

FINANCE

From 1990s Bollywood started to flourish at a great pace and if we see in the present time so it has great institutions with massive improvements in their budget and money making has increased a lot with time. Previously and still nowadays Bollywood films get a tough competition with Hollywood films coming in the audience and this competition demands great improvement in action and animation from the industry to cope up with this tough competition. The industry has improved a lot throughout the years in science fiction and other genres as well with films made all around the world in different diversified abroad locations which have given a lot more attraction in the films. The markets have also gone abroad and now Bollywood has been recognized around the globe and migration of Indians around the world could be a reason for this overseas markets but the improvement in professional skills, techniques and quality of recent productions cannot be ignored.      

  

DISTRIBUTION HOUSES

Eros is big huge distributing house although it does not belong to the history from its background. But nowadays Eros is making and distributing films of almost all the genres which include art films, romantic films, science-fiction, comedy and many more. It also recently launched the Pakistani film BOL in India and internationally which gives a hint of the diversification of Eros.

Yash raj films is always been known as the biggest and the oldest production and distribution house made by Yash Chopra who had great name and fame in Bollywood because of his contributions. The genre which is normally linked to the productions of this house is romance and love stories which gives us the hint of its audience demographics that mainly they target the youths and uses many different techniques to do so. As it is a big house so it is not at all restricted to Romance genre and have made films of other genres as well but the fact is that the proportion of romance genre and love stories is more than any other in the history of this house.

This house is of Karan Johar the son of Yash johar. He was also tagged as a film maker of films with romance genre but after hits like Dostana, Wake-up Sid and Kurbaan this tag has been removed. Now Dharma is also considered as one of the diversified production and distribution house in Bollywood making huge amounts of money on box office.

This one is also a wide, huge and diversified institute making films like THANKYOU which belongs to comedy genre and films like Dhobi ghat which is an art film. This house makes small budget films also giving chance to new artists but is also involve in large productions with experience they also make hit films and carry out the thought of Indian audience of money’s worth films.

BOLLYWOOD AND SHORT FILMS

Bollywood is now moving towards short films and some of the biggies of the industry are also supporting this form of art here’s what Anurag had to say: “Short films are more interesting than a feature film according to me because, now- a- days it gets connected to you very easily. You can even watch them on your phone, youtube, laptop in your daily chores”. However shorts also has a little history in Bollywood and 73 known shorts are made which includes documentary shorts, musical shorts, animation shorts and short films as well. These shorts are of different genres, started from 1990s to date.

Sources: http://www.mspocr.blogspot.com/2011/10/institution-20th-century-fox.html
              http://bollywood.raftaar.in/Movies/Genres/Short/1