10. Minor Task (Twitter Social Media #2)

 

https://x.com/kaijunewsoutlet?s=21&t=t5cHLtCxSAENfHWZl0f5Aw

For this Twitter account, they don't have their own film they promote, however, they promote other trailers or aid film festivals to gain popularity/ viewership. 

This user also doesn't use hashtags, but does use key words that can be searched, like "Godzilla Fest" or "short film" that people will be interested in. 

They involve the dates for the festivals or the dates that it will premiere. 

The trailer is embedded into the Tweet again. The trailer itself starts immediately and uses fast paced clips, plus explosions to keep the viewer interested in what is happening in the trailer. 

The profile picture involves a bright yellow that most people might click on.

If I were to make a Twitter for my social media site, I wouldn't have it like this company has it, but only involving my film. The Twitter account was made for the promotion of other films, not their own.

9. Minor Task (Twitter Social Media)

 

https://x.com/realjonwilliams/status/1719776034613006779?s=46&t=t5cHLtCxSAENfHWZl0f5Aw

This Twitter user also documents other films and their daily life into their Twitter; they aren't like the other social media sites where it's purely just their own film. This can allow the viewers to gain a closer relationship with the director.

The post itself doesn't use hashtags, however, there are key words that people may search to find it, like "official trailer" or "short film". He also involves the names of the actors, which could be famous people and will encourage more people to watch the film because these actors are in it. 

A summary of the film is added to give readers an understanding of what the film will be about and if they will want to watch it when it comes out. 

In the Tweet itself, the trailer is embedded, rather than a link to go to some other site. Most readers would be more inclined to watch the trailer through Twitter, instead of opening a whole different site to view it.

8. Minor Task Research (TikTok Social Media)

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@itsmadmoose?_t=8iCBbpWR2AZ&_r=1

This user created a TikTok account to document their entire process, from start to finish, of their film they are creating. Over time, the audience and expectations for this film will grow with it, since the viewers are seeing the whole thing being created. The audience may start growing impatient with the film, meaning the creator may start losing viewers due to time. 

On their profile page, they connected their YouTube and Instagram social media, to grow their film viewership even more. 

On videos, they use hashtags that will give the creator more viewers, for when people search specifically for those tags, like "short film". This also helps with the algorithm pushing the video onto more people's For You pages. 

Using TikTok to promote your film is a high risk. Typically, however the first video you post on the site does (high or low views) will determine how the rest of the content you post will go. Meaning if you get high views on your first post, your content will be be pushed onto more pages. This isn't always the case, you can take yourself out of that rut and into the mainstream by posting at specific times, a lot of times during the day or using a ton of hashtags. 

7. Minor Task (Cairo Postcard)

This post uses a gold text over a dark background that is black and silver, making the text pop out. The gold is eye-catching that brings the reader's attention to all the information in the middle. 

This postcard is simple because it only involves the title of the festival. 

The background is of real people, in black and white, with one element being gold too. 

Then on the back side of the card the contact information is also in gold, contrasting with the completely black. 

The overall design is simple with nothing distracting the viewers from the information. However that leaves a lot of empty space throughout the entire card. 

6. Minor Task (Summer Postcard)

This postcard only shows the front side, however, the information can be taken from it still. 

The title is the largest text, with white against the orange background. All the texts have a contrasting background to make the text pop. The only one that slightly blends into the background is that the festival is held every Saturday in Central Park. 

The contact information is a phone number and email, in the bottom right corner. 

The date for when the festival will take place is the second largest box of text. 

For the background, it uses a real life picture of a beach, which people may think of when they hear "summer". The bright eye-catching colors will draw viewers attention towards the center, where the title is. 

The text colors are also pulled from the picture, which allows for more coherency for the entire postcard.

There isn't a logo. There are lines and shapes that add more business to the entire postcard and makes it seems less boring.  

5. Minor Task Research (Empty Box Postcard)

Empty Box of Wine

This company isn't using a logo, unless the man is it.

On both sides of the postcard, the same image is on it. However, the one on the back is faded out to allow the text overtop to stand out. 

Contact information is on the back, with a a white background and black text. There is a location for where the screening will be. The director's phone number, email and social media sites are all linked. 

This film had a previous screening, the QR code, and viewers can watch it there instead of a live version. 

The director's name is printed on both sides.

An overview of the company is underneath the company name. 

The colors of the artwork are incorporated throughout the entire postcard. The text colors are from the blues and purple in the artwork. It adds a level of coherency. 

In the middle of the front side, there is an eye-catching yellow that brings the attention of viewers there. Then in the top right side, that same yellow is used, where the company name is, bringing the reader's attention there. The man on the guitar is pure white, another eye-catching color, compared the dark background, where the director's name is. Leading readers to learn the director and turn the card around. 

4. Short Film Research

When researching other 5-minute short films, I realized how quick it actually is. There isn't enough time to go as in depth in the story as I wanted to.

There are many scenes that I had to remove in order to fit the actual story into the film's limit. I attempted removing scenes that were created for pure character building, rather than losing out on the story (Hanahaki concept). The film may lose out on some romantic relationship building of the characters itself, which leads the audience to be confused about how the love interest will be in love with the victim. However, I intend to use acting (gazing or hesitation towards each other), along with long takes to show or hint at the interest the love interest has towards the victim.

The short films I researched involved conventions that I want to add to my film. 

For being 5 minutes, the films didn't feel rushed. The stories went from beginning to a clear end, slow narratives that can be understood easily. 

For the editing, it included mostly straight cuts, although no extreme transitions (a few fades from the title/ ending) or jump cuts. 

Most shots were reaction shots, where they flipped between the two characters, rather than showing the environment (master or establishing shots) or something besides the characters. 

The links to the videos used for research.

1. https://youtu.be/PfNBaD4f3WI?si=qnnwEe7yAp4D0Lmq 

This film had light music that didn't overpower, it was like background noise. 

Overall, the film was brightly saturated, this could be to show the light love that's forming, contrasted to the harsh narrative that was happening (a man running away from the cops). 

Used a voiceover for the audience to learn what was in the book and a bit of what the plot for the story is, this is something I may try to replicate in my own film to have the audience gain some knowledge of the Disease and foreshadowing. 

2. https://youtu.be/aN1R6fvTEJo?si=IXdEOM164TA5xcwR

The entire film was created only using an overhead shot, it allowed to be a neutral view that shows the relationship progress. The viewers see how the relationship went without knowing everything a character is thinking. 

The narrative is showing the ups and downs of a relationship.

There is a mix of short and long clips to show the slow tension the relationship, and the fast paced feeling people may feel when they first start dating. 

The music is slow and can be tuned out, however the background noise was overbearing compared to the music. There were car horns and alarms were louder than the rest the environment. 

3. https://youtu.be/KuuEs0oVVS8?si=FFxO5d20ONk1X7jK

This film used multimedia, animation and real life filming, to bring to life the drawings the character was making. 

This film used music that was quiet, then grew louder as their relationship progressed and it used a voice rather than instrumental. 

3. Subgenre: Tragic-Romance

The definition for a Tragic-Romance is that there are two characters who fall in love with each other, then will never end up together. They go from the absolute high of emotions in/before a relationship to the doom of that relationship. 

Some elements that are needed for this genre is the foreshadowing of their demise. To incorporate foreshadowing the audience will learn about the Hanahaki Disease slowly, specifically about how the victim will "cure" their disease (confessing or surgery). 

I will try to have it mentioned in the beginning, just to give the audience a slight understanding of the concept, then reduce the details to the bare minimum (like having the love interest say their favorite flower), then at the end the entire Hanahaki Disease trope will be revealed. 

Having a moment of closure for the love interest may not happen, due to time or due to the abrupt ending I may give to the story, so it will be similar to the abrupt ending the victim had. The lack of closure will add to the tragedy and sadness the audience should feel.

The audience will gain knowledge about the Hanahaki Disease and how the victim will have to make the choice to confess or not, leading to questions about how the story will end. It's meant to give some hope for either side, like will the character live or not? Then at the end, it all crumbles when the victim dies. That may deliver or deny some audience member's expectations. 

One of the most popular Tragic-Romances is Romeo and Juliet. It will not end up with the love interest killing herself to be together, however, there will always be something in between the characters that doesn't allow the two to be together in the end. 

2. Genre: Fantasy (Hanahaki Disease)

The typical elements that are in a fantasy genre is having magic or something that cannot be explained using science. 

In the film, there is a disease called the Hanahaki Disease. Hana meaning "flower" and hakimasu meaning "to throw up".

It was popularized through Japanese Manga, along with fan writing sites.

This is a fictional disease where there are two characters, one is the victim, the other is the love interest. 

The disease is contracted through strong love (one that they believe is one-sided). Inside the victim, a "flower" begins to develop within their lungs, leading them to cough up blood, flower buds, petals, and the entire flower (after some time, typically months after gaining the disease), until they cannot cough the flowers up anymore. When they reach that point, they will choke and suffocate on the flowers, leading to their death. 

The flowers are the favorite flower of the love interest. 

There are two ways to get rid of the disease: 

1. Confess your feelings to the person they are in love with

2. Have the flower in their lungs be surgically removed, however, if they decide this then they will never feel or have any type of romantic feelings ever again. 

This disease takes over months to develop, I don't have the time to do that in 5 minutes. I may add short, flashback clips within the film to show the start and slow progression of the disease. That would be coughing up the aging flowers and to show how consistent this disease is. 

This is a short film that uses the same trope, however, its's a music video and the concept of Hanahaki isn't strong, other than the coughing up of flowers. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10931712/ 

Another film that uses the same Hanahaki genre, however, this one is more of a documentary rather than a story. 

https://archive.org/details/the-human-cost-of-hanahaki-pt-1

(Both of the links are not linking, however they can be copied and pasted and it will work)

1. Introduction

Hello! My name is Vanessa and I am a senior in High School. I had recently discovered my interest towards Filmmaking and decided to take the A-Level Media Studies course this year and to, hopefully, pursue it through college.

The film I have decided to create this year has actually been an idea of mine since April of this year and I knew that I had to create it somehow. It involves one of my favorite tropes, the Hanahaki Disease. I have never seen any type of visual film on it and my imagination can only go so far, plus it's a niche topic that I would love to see more of. 

This year, like last year, I am working on my own, mainly due to my inability to work with others; however, I know that I will be forced to collaborate with others meaning I will get some type of collaboration with others. This being said, my role will be the director. I work better with overall knowledge and working on each part of the film equally, rather than focusing solely on one part. Even last year, I worked better, and focused more, on the film as a whole, while looking into the little details of everything.

I can't wait to start my film!