Toast Film

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

To establish the similarities and differences in the forms and conventions between my short film and others, I am going to compare the forms and conventions of my film with About a Girl.

About a Girl, by Brian Percival, is about a young girl walking and talking to the camera about her friends and dysfunctional family. The story appears to be relatively straight forward, her parents are divorced, she lives with her mum and they aren't secure financially so she dreams of being a successful pop artist like Britney Spears. However the tone of the film gets darker and darker when you find out that her dad won't let her live with him, he once punched her mother in the face and that when they tried to keep a puppy her mother drowned it in the cannel. Then at the climatic scene you see the girl throw a plastic bag containing a new born baby in the cannel.

The opening shot of About a Girl is the girl standing in a feel singing a Britney Spears song. This leaves a lot to the imagination as you do not even the the girl, just her silhouette, revealing nothing about her. The opening shot has the main focal point to the right of the frame, leaving the left clear. There is use of diegetic sound with the wind and the girl singing. The lack of noise and the way she is positioned with nothing around her give the impression of solitude.

The opening shot of our film Toast is Amelia lying in her bed asleep with make-up smeared done her face, then opening her eyes and staring at the camera. Like About a Girl this leaves a lot to the imagination as it is unclear why Amelia's make-up is smeared down her face. It is unclear to the audience whether she has been crying or went to a wild party the night before. Unlike About a girl however we used non-diegetic music to give the film a more cinematic effect. I think our opening shot uses an element of forms and conventions, because it doesn't reveal much about the story, however the miss en scene does reveal a lot about the character. The posters behind her and her pyjamas show her to be a teenager clearly has the same interests as many other teenagers, teen movies (Twilight), fashion and celebrities.

About a Girl shows the relationships of its characters in between the girl talking to the camera , for instance when the girl is sitting with her dad in the cafe. The girl is shown at the far right of the shot whilst her dad is at the far left showing the audience the distance in their relationship. Their relationship is also shown through the awkward silence of the scene which is in between two scenes of the girl talking non stop.

In Toast in one of our key relationships you never see half of the couple. In the first shot portraying Amelia's relationship with her boyfriend you don't see him. Unlike About a Girl we don't show anything about their relationship through the image, instead we tell the audience with a voice over. The image of two boys playing football on a field portrays Amelia's longing for freedom, away from the stress of school. Because the image has no real relevance to the voice over I feel this scene develops conventions of short films because there are two parts of Amelia's life being shown. Her boyfriends dialogue comments on her over worked stress filled life and how it is effecting their relationship, whilst the image shows her wanting to be free from responsibilities, to a care free life where she can play rather than work.

Film Review

We researched ways in which films are examined and reviewed by professional film critics. We researched what they look for and how they praise or condemn a film. I studied Empire magazine film reviews, made note of the techniques and writing style then produced my own version of a Empire review about our own short film Toast.

Who wants Toast?

“Toast” is a short film about the life of Amelia (Charlotte Baker), a middle class, intelligent, school girl, struggling with the pressure of academic life. Her ultimate goal of getting straight A’s and going to a prestigious university is always faced with new obstacles that she must deal with, whether its an overdose of school work, an attentive boy friend, or going out with friends. This overload of responsibilities concludes the film in a perhaps surprising but satisfying way.

Toast is a breath of fresh air in the otherwise suffocating fog of teen pregnancies, drug abuse and suicides that surrounds the dramatic teen genre. Toast is not some loud obnoxious teenager trying to prove that its some depressed, intellectual, emo that adult kind wont be able to understand or control. Toast instead is more like reading a teenagers diary, there is no front, no attitude, no armour, but instead the naked truth about a intelligent student and dealing with the stress that comes with it.

This is newcomer director Grace Davis' first project, and whilst at times this does show through (probably not helped by the fact that "Toast" has a little to no budget, it is more than made up for through its creative camera work, revealing lighting, and detailed miss en scene. This is also the first project for actress Charlotte Backer. Baker is definitely one to keep your eye on, after seeing her in online interviews it is clear she has the look and style to be the next big hollywood starlet, but unlike most who can fall into this category Backer has talent that could make her last in the business. Ultimately Toast is a must see for anyone who appreciates an intelligent, insightful, underfunded film.