For our short film, we wanted to attract a variety of different people, especially people between the age of 16-25. There have been previous adverts from TFL, based on unliscenced cabs. This advert is from Cabwise and both the text and the image, influenced both our idea and visual style of our short film.
We also went on youtube.com to view different short films. One of the short films were from cabwise. We also found another short film which is based on being in a Black cab. We were influenced by some of the camera shots and angles, especially when the camera cuts the the cab driver but in his rear view mirror.
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We also watched a short film called 'About a Girl.' This short film also influenced our visual style, as the girls character misleads the audience to thinking that she is a happy person, which is the complete opposite to the storyline and the event that happens in the short film. We felt that this worked effectively and felt that this would be a good way of enticing the audience to want to watch more.
Characters Samantha: 18 Year old girl. A student who lives at home with her Mum and Dad. Her relationship with her mum is very good. They are seen as best friends and sisters rather then mother and daughter as they get along so well. Samantha tells her mother everything, but fails to find it easy to tell her mother about this situation as she is too scared of what she might think. Samantha’s mother Karen, see’s Samanth as her sister. She tells her most things including what what bad things Samantha’s dad has done to her in the past. Her dad is the silent part of the family. He has done hurtful things in the past to both Samantha and her mother, which Samantha doesn’t agree of, hence the reason why they don’t get along very well. Both Samantha and her mother, don’t take much notice of him. Cab Driver: The Cab Driver in this Short Film is seen as silent and mysterious. David is not a liscened cab driver, and has a criminal record of acting as a liscence cab driver and being reported by women as either attacked, raped or being in an unliscened cab. He put’s on a different personality so that women that get into the cab, think he is a helpful gentleman that just wants to make sure they get home safely.
Samantha, an 18 year old girl, enjoys an eventful night out with her girl friends in a club, but has a bit too much to drink. As she stumbles out of the club and leaves her friends, a suspicous man pulls over and asks if she wants a cab. As she thinks about the cab mans proposition, she decides to get in but doesn’t realise that she has just made the wrong move, until she wakes up in a ditch. Samantha talks about her horrific experience, but tries to move on and look past it.
For our logo, I went on the internet and searched for a licensed taxi plate, then traced it and changed it in Adobe Illustrator. This is the image off the internet:
This is the image that was made in Adobe Illustrator:
In this short film, the black and white film, creates a mysterious effect on the sequences, as she is very loud, where as black and white are simple questions. The black and white colours are contrasting, signifying the differences between both characters. White signifies purity and cleanliness, relating to the male. Black is more dark and mysterious, signifying the woman's character.
The woman's pale white face, with dark black eyes and hair, makes her look quite possessive and like a witch. This also relates to her personality as she can seem quite 'crazy' as she sings and screams Darling do you love me to the male that doesn't take much notice. The square surroundings, creates an intense feeling that they are trapped together and that he cannot move.
The males character differs o the woman, as he sits still for quite a while, whereas she is seen running and jumping about. The close up shots of her face, impose a sense 'invading privacy' as she is quite 'in your face,' relating to the fact that she is very loud.
When the two are out in the garden, the big tree's surrounding the pair, creates a feeling like they are stuck in a maze, again, making the guy seem trapped. She runs around him as he tries walking away from her, but her fast pace movement, intensifies the fact that he can't really go anywhere.
The still camera angel of the two walking towards the camera, looks like the same walk, when your walking down the aisle to get married. This resembles the fact that she's saying darling do you love me, as she would want to marry him.
Towards the end, when her hands are around his face, her hand movements make it look like she is forcing him to open his mouth and retaliate.
The sound in this short film, is mainly the voice of the woman singing. She sins in different paces, sometimes low, high, fast and slow. The given effect of the singing, reinforces the fact that this is all about love. Her laughter, sounds similar to a witches cackle, again, reinforcing the evilness in her.
When the couple are walking, there are sound effects of the mans feet hitting the floor. This makes the audience feel that they are coming closer to the screen, and also reinforces the fact that he is trying to get away from her.
About a Girl,was released in 2001 by Brian percival. About A Girl was also released around the same time as the film About A Boy 2002, wich shows that About a Boy,may have had ideas form the 2001 version to make this film.
At the beginning of the film, the wording comes in text form. This signifies youth culture, as in 2001, mobile phones started to become more popular with the youth. In the first shot, the girl is seen singing and dancing to Britney Spears. This shows escapism as she seems like she's living in a different world. The camera angle from the bottom, makes her seem superior, connotating that she wants to be ontop of 'the world'. The clouds in the background are quite dark, profretic phalacy, signifying something bad will happen that day. In the shot, she is dark, connotating her background life could be quite dark and dull.
Britney Spears, at the time was seen to be 'innocen' which, she wasn't. This shows that maybe, she relates to Britney and possibly looks up to her as her idol. When she is singing and dancing , the audience may find this amusing and laugh. this is because we can relate to her character as of a younger age, as we probably were doing similar things.
The next shot, her working class background is shown as she is seen quite 'chaved' up. The surroundings are quite dark, with walls connotating she feels trapped in her surroundings e.g.family. She is seen as not close to her family as she talks to herself. She has very much to say, but there is no-one she can confide in and talk to, so the only other person is herself. In the backgrond of the flashback, noises include dogs, playground and birds.
There is a feeling of a broken family. The mum and dad have broken up. The shot with her dad, she says 'I'm not a kid,' showing she's growing up. Dad doesn't respond to her, showing he doesn't care much. He carries on reading his newspaper. The dad is on the doll, always to busy to see her and cannot provide for her neeeds. He plays football, a working class sport, signifying his social state. Most weekends she spends with her dad, he takes her to watch the football which he would do with or without her. When she is seen sitting by herself on the benh, the camera pan makes her look young, feable and alone. When she and her friends are on the bus, the singing and dancing makes them look younger, but shows them elebrating youth.
In the shot where she is in the chemist, the sales assistant asks if she would like any help. She starts to talk and says 'looking after image.' From this and also what we already know of her, you can see she doesn't lead a good life. She wants a piano but mum cannot afford to buy one for her and thinks she's always difficult. The mother usually only thinks of herself instead of herself and her children.
From the way she talks, we see that she has a mind of someone older. She starts to talk about her parents' relationship and how she fits in. We as an audience, establish that she wants to move out. This element of her personality, again, shows her being more mature, as she feels she can fend for herself. We also see that she mentions many celebrity names such as Nirvana, Britney, Bono, Madonna and Stereophonics. This connotates to the audience that she realises that she's currently not living the best of lives, hence the reason for aiming to be with the celebrities.
We feel that she has learnt a way of life from her mum, as she throws a dog in the canal. We see a colour change before she throws the baby into the canal. the dark, grey and dull surroundings, signifies to the audience that something is going to happen. The pace of things are finally slowed down, including her dialogue. She then drops the baby and says 'still gunna have a 99.' This shows that this is her unique way of dealing with personal issues like this and no matter how big it is, she can just start over again and forget about everything. The carrier bag is significant to her, she is disposable and the baby came out of the bag and floats to gate, then she will traapped again.
At the end, one side of the river is very bright contrasting he other as its very dark. This relates to the saying, 'the grass is greener on the other side.' Now she has disposed of the baby, she can be happy now.
Pixar is a production company based in California and started in 1979 as part of Lucasfilms, as the Graphics Group. In 1986, Pixar was bought by Apple, then in 2006, Walt Disney then bought it over. Pixar is well known for its computer aimated feature length and short films. Pixar has created around 10 feature films to date, with many short films. The studio itself has won many awards, including six Golden Globes.
We also went on youtube.com to view different short films. One of the short films were from cabwise. We also found another short film which is based on being in a Black cab. We were influenced by some of the camera shots and angles, especially when the camera cuts the the cab driver but in his rear view mirror. 
