Rocket - Holly Stone

ROCKET

Audience, Genre , Media Language

and Misc en Scene

The film rocket begins with a close up on a dog laying on the floor. The title sequence suggests this pups name is Bowie. His body language suggests that he is resting and is relaxed. Non-diegetic sound begins to play in the background, a light-beated tune, of which the pitch suggests an adventurous genre. As the scene progresses, a three-noted chord matches with the time Bowie  jumps onto his feet. 

Above is the beginning close-up on Bowie

 
The camera cuts to a POV (point of view) shot from Bowies perspective, we are shown a mid-long shot of a rocket. The genre on the film suggests action/adventure, and with it, the light-hearted music and the use of a household pet suggests that the audience is for young children between the ages of 5-11. 

The POV  shot of the rocket.

Bowie looks towards a bag on the floor, another POV shot is used to show the audience exactly what Bowie is seeing. The non-diegetic sound edited suggests a sudden thought in Bowies mind as the bag could potentially be full of 'supplies' for him to use in order to build a rocket. cleverly, the body language of Bowie as he tilts his head to the side, suggests that he is planning something. A OSS from the bag shows as Bowie runs towards it in order to investigate. Close-ups of Bowie show his progress as he takes one supply after another from the bag, once again the music is in time with his movements, as an Extreme Low Shot of his legs as he runs has a light keyboard sound alongside it. The sounds once again suggest that this film targets a  younger audience. 

Above is the Extreme low shot of Bowie as he runs in the scene.

The high angle shot over Bowie clearly shows his body  language as being curious and adventurous.

 
Multiple shot-types shows the progression of what Bowie is building, varying from Low-shots , Extreme-Low shots and BOV (Birds-eye view) angles over the scene. This may purposely have been used in order to possibly excite the audience. Younger children would get a thrill from the adventurous dog and may in some way find it humorous for what he gets up to.  
 

 

Progression Shot 1 (High Angle / Birds eye view)

Progression Shot 2 (Low Angle/ Medium Close Up)

Progression Shot 3 (High Angle)

Progression Shot 4 (High Angle/ Close Up)

 

Progression Shot 5 (Medium Close Up)

A possible use of the distancing effect, a theory used for theaters and cinemas, whereby a specific scene may intentionally try to include the audience, without losing them to the narrative is used towards the end of this short film. Bowie tugs on a rope to pull the rocket up, a high-angle shot and Bowies body language shows his struggle and his intention to build the rocket. 

High Angle shot showing Bowies  struggle and intention to pull the rocket to a stand

A non-diegetic "boom" is edited into the scene as the rocket is pulled up to stand. A low-shot and a close-up shows its completion. To which his may excite the young audience. A low-shot of Bowie provides comedy once again as he is wearing a pair of goggles, which are most-likely intended to be 'space goggles'. 

Low-shot / Close up of the rocket as it stands.

 
Non-diegetic sound once again builds a semantic-code, to which is adventure. The loud trumpet gives the audience an impression that it is 'time' to finish Bowies mission. This use of music will attract and keep the audience engaged to the film. High angle shots provide us with a over-view on Bowie as he analyses his work, tracking his head movement towards the rocket. 
 
A close-up of him in the rocket, ready to take off will most likely appear comical to the younger audience, the music being amplified in order to build more excitement, adding to the genre being adventurous. 

This  OSS shot shows the scene in the background and the rocket. 

The close-up on Bowie provides humor to the younger audience.

The countdown from 5 to lift-off provides us with multiple shots inside and outside the rocket. This is intentionally used to keep the audience engaged with the action.  

As the rocket takes off, the last few shots of the film are computer generated graphics. It shows the rocket blasting off into space and gives the audience a happy ending as now Bowie is going into space. The extreme-long shot provides a great view as it ends the short film.

Overall there is no vocal narration throughout the film, which leaves the audience to just watch what happens. The target audience clearly is for the younger generations which would most likely make this film a "U" rated film.

The general ideas of this film would be perfect for our short-film, however to gain an audience the way the producer (Jennifer Sheridan) did using a dog could provide difficulty. Alongside that, the animation at the end may not be available for us to do as the software we will be using would most likely not suit animation purposes. However the variety of shot-types could give us some ideas for our film.