What i didn't realize was that it was all the shorts nominated for a BAFTA not just animation. Regardless of this however, the live action films were still very relevant as most of them were documentaries which ties into our applied animation module. Also most elements of live action such as story, composition, lighting, character development are very relevant to animation anyway.
Live action films:
Party:
At first i thought this film was very cliche and not very inspired as it was just about some teenagers having a party at first but then when the plot unfolded i found it quite emotional due to the acting mostly and the way the shots were laid out. The atmosphere was set well using the lighting and colour.
In terms of the story i thought it was very saturated and simple which is good but the general plot and reasoning behind the main twist in the story is abit questionable.
Mouth of hell:
This film was a commentary on the life of people living in the coalfields of Jharia in India. This general theme was wrapped in a fairly generic story line of a boy who steals a purse but feels bad about it so he returns it. I found that this storyline was comparable to a formula for a disney film but the underlying theme and deviations from the more generic conventions of the storyline basis provided for a more mature film.
This film is a good example of how an emotional narrative can also be an informative documentary but informative through a more personal perspective and through how the issue documented directly effects the characters in the narrative.
Standby:
This film had a much lighter mood than the other films but was still binded together with an emotional core, based on the relationship between the two police officers. The structure of this film consisted of short clips of two partnered police officers in a car, bonding over time. The whole movie was essentially just one shot. I liked the way it uses this dynamic to suggest what has happened throughout their day. For example in one clip the male police officer was conforting the female partner this strongly implied that they had both witnessed something horrible previously.
This film tries to get the audience to see the side of police officers that is only seen by the officers themselves. The fact that police officers are still people that get effected by difficult situations and have human faults just as anyone else does.
The downside of having just one shot throughout the whole film make it feel like a less serious film in my opinion when really there is a decent narrative behind the film.
Consumed:
Consumed is a film about the Chinese production industry. The film chose to document this topic in a very monotonous way, having noticeably long panning shots of shipping containers and of machines at work making the film long and extremely tedious.
At first i thought the idea of the film was to be long and boring to link the experience of watching it to being a worker in that industry however at the end of the film the narrator said he was happy with his work and was proud that it was shipped all over the world or something along those lines. This gave a mixed message to me so i am unsure of the precise message behind this film.
However it was interesting to see exactly what happens in the factories and it felt like i was getting a real first hand experience of being a worker in a Chinese production factory.
Home:
This was probably the heaviest film out of the live action films. The story is about a middle class family being put through the challenges and hardships refugee families often are put through when trying to cross borders. This films was hard to watch at times and was good at evoking emotion from the audience. I thought the story was fairly well formed and i think the idea of the film in general is very good.
Animated Films:
A Love Story:
This was the winner of the best animated short. I liked the film but i don't think it should have won, to be honest i think the animated shorts selected were a poor choice this year. Regardless of this, i did like the film, the story was very simple and it was a very basic animation. It did what a good story should do and evoke emotion onto the viewer but it did this with minimal effect.
Tough:
I had seen this film already at Manchester animation festival. I liked this film but it didn't evoke anything stronger. I liked the basis of the story and how it was sequenced.
The Alan Dimention:
I liked the story of this animation. I thought it was done quite well and mixed humor with sadness and happiness. The medium was interesting, mixing stop motion with 2d animation in a quite unique way.
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