Deadlines

Here are the deadlines for my blog, they will be updated as i go.


-Friday 16th Have looked at 30 or so Short Films
-Wednesday 20th have blogged casting/prop/music requirements.
-Friday 23rd to have completed Teaser Poster
-Friday 6th November Pod-cast and Genre Research
-Friday 13th (No pun intended) November finish story board, screenplay, casting and Soundtrack preferences

Hardware

The Camera i will be using to record the video footage is called Cannon Wide screen MV920

It is 115mm in length, 92mm in height, 49,mm in width and 375 grams in weight. The LCD screen is 2.7 inches. Te video type is PAL, it also has features to change the white balance;

• Auto White Balance
• Manual Brightness/Contrast Settings
• Multiple features to change lighting and focus such as Daylight, Nighttime, and Sport etc.

It has a built in microphone and its audio output is Stereo. It has a 800x Digital zoom and a 25x optical zoom.

I will be using a tripod for some shots to keep the camera steady. The tripod we used was very useful as it had expandable legs and also you can change the angle of the camera-rest for shots such as a Dutch angle. It is also very stable with adjustable feet as well.
The main good thing about this tripod is that it is adjustable in about anyway which makes it easier to get a steady shot of whatever angle you want.

For some special shots e.g. slow motion we will be using the Lg KC910. 

Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, auto/manual focus, xenon flash
Features	Geo-tagging, face, smile and blink detection, touch focus, image stabilization
Video	Yes, VGA@30fps, QVGA@120fps
Secondary	VGA videocall camera

Casting and Costume

All casting, composers and props have been sorted out/are organized to be done by ourselves. Sam White in the group is a composer, and I have props and costumes we are planning to use.
There will be two protagonists in our film. The rest of the cast will be filled up with extras which have been sorted out as friends and other actors have agreed to help out where-ever they can.

One of the protagonists will be the 'Blue Man' he is never named but this is what people have come to call him. He will be acted by me(Sam thomas) and will be dressed in a work uniform (white shirt, black ties, working trousers, black shoes blazer and a hat). He is too look like a busy business man, with not much time on his hands.

For our main protagonist in the film we will be using Ben Gibson. He has had acting experience when he was younger and he is also available whenever we are as he has similar frees to us and also is a friend of ours and will happily give up free time to work on the film. He is of a normal stature and is what we see as the average teenage boy. He is 17 years old and is part of the middle class.
The costume for this character will be basic clothing. He will, most of the time, be wearing a leather coat, jeans and a t-shirt. For props that link to the story, we will have him wear a medal from RAF. This links to his childhood in the story. Also it will act as the magical object  from propps narrative theory.

For  our flash back seen will be using a small child who will be the image of our main protagonist as of when he was younger. This role will be played by Sam Whites Little brother William White. He is aged 7, which is the same age as the character and also will be of similar attitude (Lively, active).

UPDATE(14/02/2010): Due to unfortunate circumstances, our lead actor, Ben, became very ill and then went away on holiday, making re-filming very difficult. Therefore, we have changed the main protagonist to Sam White. HE still fits with our character as he is of average build, and looks like the average guy. HE also is the brother of our younger Gordon therefore will actually fit better as he looks more alike.

Teaser Poster

This is our teaser poster, We created it on Photoshop using an image taken of me in my outfit for the production and then edited around it. We decided the tag line suited the poster as it is all about time being backwards and also he clock suited this because it is mirrored.

Useful Resources

I useful resource found in my school library was 'Making short Films' Written by Clifford Thurlow.  It teaches how to write scripts, what good shots to sue and also how to create an impact, in a simple to do way. ISBN: 978 1 84520 804 2

www.filmradar.com/community/viewforum/6/  a community site where posters talk about films, this forum in particular talks about short films and people help each other out.

Target Audience

The age range we would be aiming for our target Audience would be 12 (12a technically). This because we will not be using adult language, and if we do, there will be little and it will not be of much harm. the theme of the film isnt too disturbing but it wouldnt be understood as easily to a child audience. There is no sex witnessed in our film, nor violence or drug use, but some scenes may be horrific to some e.g. backwards people and the blue man. Our cast and location will reflect this age as well as it will be in a recognisable environment, and also the age of characters will be older teenagers, which at this age, they aspire to be like.


Our film is aimed at all ethnic minority's. There is no discrimination against either ethnicity however there are only Caucasian characters being used. However this is down to primarily being a mainly Caucasian school. In the media industry this generally doesnt effect the audience of the film anyway as it doesnt really matter. However, if a Black character was to be used as a main protagonist, this could change our audience a little bit as it is seen to attract more of a Black audience, which can be seen as odd as a Caucasian character does not effect as much.

The gender of our film would be aimed at the male audience. This is because we havnt invested in using any female characters, and the main-protagnoists are male as well. However, we will incorporate the Female Gaze in our film by having either a topless man, or a short love scene, but these are not major plot points. With our film also being a Comedy genre, this will cross out the female audience as Comedy has been branded a more male film genre, the Rom-Com being totally different, but this hybrid genre has evolved into being completely on its own.

Our film will be aimed at C1C2(Middle Class) audience. this is because our characters will be of Upper.Middle class but the upper class will be victims of a mockery and from the view of a middle class character. Also the story may be too complex for a DE class or too boring (no explosions and 'hot babes'). However there will be hints of the lower class which can draw them in as the character will be walking around town, through different areas.

Software

In the production of our movie we will use a few pieces of software. The main software we will be using is Final Cut Express 4. We have chosen to edit our film in this programs over others (iMovie used last year etc.) because it is a very complex movie editing program but with a wider arrange of tools to others we can produce much higher quality films. It is also at the film industry standard where films such as District 9. Me and my partner recently under-went a Editing Master-class at the co-op young filmmakers festival where we used another version of Final Cut, but is practically the same.



To compose music for our film we will be using Garageband. This is because it has a wide range of audio sounds which we can use and also it is simple to hook up an instrument and record live to compose our own music. Other software similar to this may be Logic Express 8, this is more complex, but can create better pieces.

To create graphical images we will be using Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6. This is because it is a highly complex program with a wide array of tools which can produce very high quality images. We will be using it mainly for teaser poster but also may create some slides which may feature in the film



Update 10/12/09
We will now be doing all the editing on Sony Vegas Pro. This is because I have used it more at home before, and also since it is at home I can work on it more freely. It is very similar to Final Cut with the precision of the editing and tools available.

Locations

For our locations we decided we would need somewhere gothic to give the movie a more creepy atmosphere. We also needed it to be old fashioned as it would fit in with one of our characters in the film thereforewe came up with this location:
This location will be used when we are having the character walk around his school. We believe that the pattern on the floor sets the scene of his mind rather well as it is a bit weird, but organized.

This image will be for when the character is walking into the school. It will be used with a wide angle shot, being an establishing shot to show and set the scene, also giving off a gothic/weird atmosphere to our movie.















Update: For Newer Version

We needed a place where our character would feel tranquil, and happy, but however in this story it will be more gloomy. Therefore we chose the local band stand as a scene for him to walk pass. This will show that even though usually it would be a bustling happy place, in Gordons depressed world, it is grey and empty, like now he feels now his dad is gone.

Assessment Criteria

Research and Planning must be presented in electronic format. Where candidates have worked as a group, the research may be presented collectively, but teachers are asked to differentiate the contributions of individuals within the group in arriving at a mark and justifying individual marks on the assessment sheet. As part of the moderation sample, the moderator will request some research/planning material. 

Level 1 0–7 marks 

There is minimal research into similar products and a potential target audience. 

There is minimal organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. 

There is minimal work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. 

Time management may be very poor. 

There is minimal care in the presentation of the research and planning. 

There is minimal skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. 

There are minimal communication skills. 

Level 2 8–11 marks 

There is basic research into similar products and a potential target audience. 

There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. 

There is basic work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. 

Time management may not be good. 

There is a basic level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. 

There is basic skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. 

There are basic communication skills. 

Level 3 12–15 marks 

There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience. 

There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. 

There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. 

Time management is good. 

There is a good level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. 

There is proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. 

There are proficient communication skills. 

Level 4 16–20 marks 

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience. 

There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. 

There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. 

Time management is excellent. 

There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. 

There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. 

There are excellent communication skills. 

Candidates will evaluate their work electronically. The format of the evaluation has some flexibility and its form can be negotiated between teacher and student: it may take place with individual candidates or with the production group as a whole, or each individual candidate or production group may make a formal or informal presentation to the whole class. 

The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are: 

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

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? 

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

Ideas for the format for the presentation of the evaluation can be found in the Guidance Notes. 

Level 1 0–7 marks 

There is minimal understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions. 

There is minimal understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production. 

 

There is minimal understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts. 

 

There is minimal understanding of the significance of audience feedback. 

 

There is minimal skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation. 

 

There is minimal ability to communicate. 

 

There is minimal use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation. 

Level 2 8–11 marks 

There is basic understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions. 

There is basic understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production. 

There is basic understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts. 

There is basic understanding of the significance of audience feedback. 

There is basic skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation. 

There is basic ability to communicate. 

There is basic use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation. 

Level 3 12–15 marks 

There is proficient understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions. 

There is proficient understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production. 

There is proficient understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts. 

There is proficient understanding of the significance of audience feedback. 

There is proficient skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation. 

There is proficient ability to communicate. 

There is proficient use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation. 

Level 4 16–20 marks 

There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions. 

There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production. 

There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts. 

There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback. 

There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation. 

There is excellent ability to communicate. 

There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation. 

Coursework Options

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options: 
a website homepage for the film; [disregard this option]
a film magazine front cover, featuring the film; 
a poster for the film. 

10. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options: 
a poster for the film; 
a radio trailer for the film; 
a film magazine review page featuring the film.

Out of these two options available my group has gone for the Short FIlm option. This is because we feel we can put more time and effort into a sequence that roles in order and also put in more deeply thought emotion than a trailer which would be made of a montage of clips and is also much shorter. After looking at examples of both, we believe it will be easier and more fun to do a short film as well. Looking at trailers they generally have big impact shots such as explosions, car chases and other action scenes that would be very hard to mimic at our current level.

Short Film Research

The Black Hole

 Title in white, slanted. Similar to olden sci fi movies, signify this is sci fi.

 Transition relates to name, like going through a black hole.

 Everything is dull, filtered light.

 Mans tie is grey, open collar, sigh, shows that he’s bored.

 Messy hair shows Man is a bit crazy

 Grey tie signifies he has a bad side to him

 Dutch, low angle, wierd noise, shows all is not right

 Close up of face to show emotion, also change of thoughts through the face with reverse shots

 Flickering lights connote his mind changing, warning of next events.

 Short cut shots to show time change

 Twist, man gets stuck in safe

 Camera moves back in time with photocopier

This is Me

 Titles in white, low budget

 First shot of oxygen tanks, indicates hospital, and bug health problems

 Emphasis on the breathing tank.

 Shots of different parts of patients body in hospital bed, establishing the scene

 Titles disappear in dust, like decomposing

 Voice over, male, cockney, expect to be tough, gangster

 Timer signifies woman doesn’t really care

 Camera puts mag in frame to prove the point ‘not here for chit chat’

 Orange filter on to show memory, also to highten mood.

 Voiceover mixes with actual diegetic monologue

 Comedic effect with sound effects and cartoonistic and book like explanation

Spider

 Establishing shot of area, sets scene

 Shot from back seat, like part of the scene

 Emphasis on outside noise emphasizes on the tension inside.

 Title appears to an imploding sound, goes all quiet, no capitals, whit/grey, gives a sharp look, a nasty feeling to it.

 Exposition given with, foreshadow future..

 High pitch ring indicates something bad is being plotted, but unaware

 Shifty/stalker style camera work to look at woman by car.

 Camera focuses on talk behind character as if its important.

 Twist, man live sup to his story ‘takes it to far’, woman gets run over

 Camera work acts as a real person, gets out of car in one movement

 Sudden ending, song coems in with plain black and white credits

Lucky Short

 Text in a fun font, like Newspaper clippings writing.

 Camera with a slight blur, fading in and out. Signifying character regaining consciousness.

 Denote from boots character is male and tough

 Hands bonded, grimy. Show that character is a captive.

 Sound is all distorted, signify he is not in right state of mind, knocked on head?

 Not sure if sound is Diegetic or not

 Blood on mouth shows violence. Genre is action/horror

 Male looks stereotypical, Dirty, tough, worn out, muscular, short hair

 Opens up to be in car chase, camera is all shaky, as if part of the scene.

 No usual use of diegetic sound to heighten the action, more suspenseful.

 Camera moves round the car, showing hes all alone.

 Classic American muscle car used, Intertextual references to other movies such as Dukes of Hazard

 Passing camera shot (tracking) makes it as if someone is watching.

 Reverse shot of what’s ahead indicates to character and audience, that it is at high speed.

 Close up of keys signify its an important part, for what wouldn’t usually seem that important.

 Final Establishing shot shows the setting with the wreckage down below.

Pin Point

Animation style is old and burnt looking.

No voices are ever used.

Pass this On - Johan Renck - 2003

-A music video done with live music

-Dull setting, people in a cafe, one woman singing, all dressed up

-Ends with everyone dancing awkwardly, one woman is shocked and doesnt understand

Bicycle Messengers - Joshua Frankel - 2008

-Documentry style short

-Bicycle men are aniamted in, real world reacts to them tho as if real

-Relatively high budget for a usual short film.

Whats Virgin Mean? - Michael Davies - 2006

-Shot in a kitchin, feels like a advert

-Wrong idea of the word Virgin

-Non-Diegetic family/fun music is played, relates to happenigns

-Builds up to climax of Sex talk

Shame - Tom Geens - 2007

-Long black title card

-Diegetic voiceover,whispering girl and shots of house

-Creep feel to everything, dark atmosphere

-Girl with big hands

Bats for Lash's Music Video - Bats for Lashs

-Dark woody area, like horror fantasy

-Clever camera work, rabbit appears from behind woman

- All one take

Blinded by the Lights Music Video - The Streets - 2005

-A mans view of a wedding party

-Lots of drugs/bad doings

-GF cheats on him

-Ends with fight

-Lots of Body cam shots to show drug effect

-Old woman locks her in cage

Trapped in the Closet - R Kelly - 2006

-Hiphopera (Music video style drama)

-Satire of stereotypes (ghetto gangster)

-Social realist camera work, like soap operas

I love Death - Hannes Häyhä - 2004

-animation

-Grim stickman drawn view of life

Viva Calaca - Ritxi Ostáriz / Spain / 2008

-Animation of Day of Dead

-Music in sync with action

Pound - Evan Bernard - 2007

-Short about secret handshakes between friends, very long ones

-Comedy/documentry

-Mocking ghetto style dj mix over the top

Paintballing - Grant Orchard / UK / 2007

-Animation on war done with paintballing

-Done from birds eye view angle

-Comic view of real war

Fallen Art - Tomek Baginski / Poland / 2005

-Animation with old war characters who are insane

-Speach only said with 'Blah'

-Turns into a musical/dance film

Whos Gonna Save my Soul - Chris Milk / USA/ 2008

-Music video featuring Lonely island Comedian

-Starts with normal chat, no music

-Man rips out his heart, heart starts singing, people react to it oddly.

Not long Now - Joe Berger/2008

-Very short short about train journey

-Shot from one angle

-Positions of boy change as tree moves passed (active transition)

District 9 - Neill Blomkamp/2005

-Sci Fi short documentary style

-Lots of social realistic shots(as if actually in action)

-Very good cgi for a short.

Skeletons in the Closet

-Man and woman wake up with memory loss

-Camera tracks woman, but attached to her shoulder

-Grim looking, social realistic camera work

Safety Procedure

-Shows what to do on a plane in danger

-Safety card rotates a lot, crashing sounds in background

-Pictures animate to show crashing

Goodbye to the Normals Jim Field Smith/ UK/ 2006

-A boy decides he want to move to america

-Lots of close ups with reverse shots.

-Unexpected adult language from boy

The Trampolinist - Chris Robert Mellors/UK/2008

-A man is on his trampoline all day

-Shots change per bounce

-Lots of angles from weird places.

Felixes Machines - Tom Mansfield/UK/2009

-Documentry showing how Mansfield made his robotic orchestra

-Lots of angles of shots

Press *

-A man is given a chance to re-record a voice message

-Lots of fade shots showing time passing

Final Idea

We decided to mix a few ideas together to make our main idea. This is how it goes:
'A Bad Time(Working Title)'A boy aged around 17/18 with messy hair, not stereotypically good looking wakes up rough looking. He goes through his usual morning routine (brush teeth etc) and gets ready for college. Walking down the road to college he notices everything is going backwards. He is highly confused. At college people are walking backwards making weird noises and faces at him. He then comes across a faceless colourful man in a top hat and a walking stick. This man speaks to the boy. They have a relatively long chat with a few flashbacks of some weird times in the woods and other things. He then gets tapped on the head with a walking stick and things change. The boy then walks away from the man, but he is now backwards and people are confused by him as he fails to speak right.

The location for this film will need to be a college, but the college will need to be of a gothic/olden style to give the film a creepier atmosphere. We would also like to use a Forest with a dark feel to it. This will give a range of locations for our film, also give it a bit of a more random feel.

Codes and Conventions of Short FIlms

odes and Conventions: Short Films

After looking at a set of short films watch on the Youtube channel set up by ‘Future Shorts’ i have devised a few comments to what i believe are the codes and conventions of short films. These codes and conventions aren’t strictly followed to the dot, but will generally be seen across the board.

The Titles will generally be the first thing you see, either that or a short clip will start playing which will have the production logo, which will usually be home made on flash or another similar program sicne they are by a non-commercialised company.

The Credits will just be like any other feature length film. These will be at the end of the film, and rather lengthy. They have all the people who took part in the movie in them, repeating the names that were shown before, if any. Depending on the atmosphere by the film it will either be quiet or have music over the top. Films with a strong impact tend to be quiet to keep the tension there.l be on just before it. In the short film ‘The Black Hole’ the title is shown, and then transitions to the first

shot via a hole transition, which strongly relates to the title, and the narrative of the film. Credits may also be shown at this point, but since it is a short film, it will be shown over the top of the clip, but these will only be the main titles, such as director and important actors.

In the Narrative of the film, there will always be a

twist. This is a part in the story which is very unexpected and of which is used to create a shock effect in the audience, keeping them gripped. A good one of these which I watch was in Spider where a soft conversation turns to the worst, and turns the whole mood of the film upside down. Also within short films directors will try portray another view of the world as they see fit, making very odd occurrences the norm, such as wearing masks. Short films will also start very slow. They try to make the movie seem as if this is reality that we are looking at, and only bring in the weirdness a bit later on, to confuse the audience, and fit in as much emotion s they can in the short amount of time they have. To make a deeper impact on the audience usually they will tend to have a creepier atmosphere e.g. have a blue filter over the top, or use a dark setting. This makes the audience uneasy, and creates more of a emotional impact.

Camera Shots tend to vary more so than in a feature length film as well. The common case of camera shot type in a short film will be variance of

the Dutch Angle as it is trying to show that everything is not quite as it seems. This will also mix in with a shaky hand held effect as they try to put a sense of realism in a world that is quite out of the ordinary, making it even stranger for the audience to watch and some-what disturbing at times, depending on the mise en scene.

Mise en Scene is very important in a short film. Since there is a smaller amount of time to set up character exposition and emotion generally they will have to sue the area around the character to fill in the gaps. Such as in 'Shame' there are shots scanning a round the house the character is in, showing pictures of family and other events, explaining what the character is talking about.

Music in short films will tend to be atmospheric. It will build up tension and release it at a climax. In  some films the same song will last throughout the film. In recent years music videos have also began to be short films in themselves, having more action based videos or investing in actors to take up roles and tell a story through the song and video.

Group First Ideas

Idea one

A boy wakes up and is having a normal day getting ready. On his way to school he notices people are walking and driving backwards, he his highly confused. This continues at school and he doesn't understand what anyone is saying as they speak backwards and eventually sets the original man backwards. And everyone is asking him what is wrong.

Idea Two

A boy is walking down a corridor, blood on his face, with a petrified look. He 

is being chased by three girls, screaming as if he's a famous good looking guy. He starts running away and gets into a long black car. He starts driving, and the girls keep chasing him, more are adding to the group of girls. Eventually they surround his car, and hes breathing heavily. The view then changes to show that he is in a run down car, in a town at night, they are actualy zombies.