Virgin Short Films - Critical Review

In today's lesson we were set a research task in preparation for creating our own short films. We began by watching a selection of five short films from 'Virgin Media Shorts' (VMS). VMS are the biggest short film competition in the UK. Taking place each year, VMS give the opportunity for undiscovered talents to show their abilities in the very competitive movie industry. The competition allows 13 lucky competitors to showcase their talent on VMS website, their YouTube channel but also the VMS app. The fist 12 films to be showcased are decided by the VMS panel, however as of 2011, the 13th 'lucky place' - taking a spin on the original unlucky number - is decided by the viewers through social networking sites like Twitter, Myspace, Facebook etc. The winners of this niche competition are given the opportunity to have their works viewed by top movie industry judges, featuring the likes of Shane Meadows, Mat Whitecross etc.

As VMS are a legitimately established company, we decided to base some of our research on their films, through our own critical review. The five films we viewed were, 'A Favour', 'Just say hi', 'Wrongly accused', 'The Tenant' and finally 'The Stain'. We watched each of these films in turn, whilst taking notes on things we liked and didn't like (including editing techniques, sound, cinematography, mise en scene and just general opinions and preferences). After taking notes and forming our opinions on the various short films, we picked the two we had the most praise or critique for, and discussed the reasons why we liked or disliked these films. We did this as a group activity, and recorded our reviews, shown in the video below. Our group chose to critically review 'A favour' and 'The Tenant'

 As well as recording our responses, I also composed two short reviews of my own on paper:

 1) 'A Favour' (Film maker: a_favour): I believe 'A Favour' worked particularly well as a short film. The original concept was something that could not have been created as a feature length film, which is one of the many reasons short films are created. Starting with the 'shark bite' technique enticed me as a viewer, going from low to high key lighting enhanced this intrigue massively. The strongest feature of 'A Favour' was definitely the ambiguous ending. Leaving the film up to audience interpretation is a great thing to apply to a short as it puts the audience in a position of power, which many viewers like. Also, with feature length films, ambiguity can be frustrating, as after dedicating hours to a film, often we want solid answers. However with a film that only spans over 3 minutes, ambiguity and cliff hangers can be an excellent aspect of the film. The cross cutting between the scenes when the bombing is being announced on the radio coinciding with the frantic reaction shots of the protagonist is a point of true climax in the short which I thought worked excellently. This climactic moment of real tension is suddenly cut when the film ends, giving the ending a unique and memorable spark. My only real criticism, or somewhat confusion with this film were the opening scenes, I and others around felt huge confusion as to what the beginning of this scene was about and what the blonde man (the implied villain)'s intentions were. However, this air of confusion could have merely been adding to the ambiguity of the film, which is what effectively gave this short film the edge over the others I watched.

 2) 'The Tenant' (Film maker: lubbdupp): Although 'The Tenant' clearly complied to many of the aspects of a short film, it had a generally advert-like vibe due to the morale of the film. (Kids are besotted with technology). However, in saying this, the luminous green lighting that was very stereotypical of a horror film, conveyed the idea that it was a parody quite well. The overly corny acting and lighting and amateur sound effects hinted strongly at how the film could conclude. The twist in the conclusion was arguably funny, if the young girl was appealing to an audience, which for me she wasn't. Her general attitude and the acting of the girl that was cast the part was quite weak which majorly hindered what humour could have arose. However, for those that were not studying this short film with the depth that we were, the girl revolting against the monster in the end could have came as quite a shock for some viewers and would have been humorous. The use of the mobile phone ultimately failed this short film for me. It clearly conveyed the idea that children of the digital age are largely concentrated on technology from such a young age and are not concerned with childish fears like a 'monster under the bed' anymore. This mocking theme is what gave the film the advert-like feel and it was lacked my enticement.

The information about the mission statement of VMS and the videos we reviewed were found on: Virgin Short Films