CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

Filming- LOVE 
SCENE

Today, we filmed the love scene with Daisy and her "love interest". Prior to filming, my partner and I were sceptical of how this was going to look, as it was vital it was realistic and heart warming.
The scene was by no means easy to film, as creating a romantic ora was extremely difficult to do.

We focused on close ups of the hands, as previously we have looked into how hands and actions are a good way of displaying emotions, feelings and a good idea of the overall situation. I have expanded on this idea in this BLOG POST.

When I edit this scene, I want to make it fast, cutting each scene in quickly. I want to do this because teenage love is a whirlwind, and I can represent this via the editing.

We did have to go back and film more of these scenes as at first it wasn't enough to work with and didn't underpin the "flirtatious banter" clearly enough. I have created a GIF, in order to show some photos of the process of editing.

PLANNING: IN DESIGN

In Design

Recently, I have been introduced to a software called "In Design", in order to create my movie poster. In the lesson, I was taught the basics, and hope to learn more and more as I create different innovative designs.

 In the small amount of time I had in the lesson to experiment with the software, I started to try varying effects using the actual photo I want to use on the movie poster itself. Through previous research which can be found elsewhere on the blog, I have planned how I want the final poster too look. I experimented with different cartoon effects on the picture, and also cut around the image itself, deleting the unwanted background.






I also experimented with different ways to display the fonts, and found that "In Design" allows you many more options than Photoshop regarding displaying of fonts. I discovered the "type on a path", which was really effective in the way in which it was displayed, I hope to use this in my final poster, as it displays the varying skills I've learnt using a completely new software.

PLANNING: PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop

After researching all of the film posters and taking the still shots of the photo I desired, I went straight to work familiarising myself with a software I haven't used much before, Photoshop. I tried my best to make sure the bright and young feel of the poster was executed well, and experimented using different colours and backgrounds, and images which I felt related to the age and personality of not only the character but also the desired audience. I found pros and cons of photoshop, and though I do hope to use it in my final film poster, I will also research and experiment using a different software.

PROS: Easy to import images, easy to change background, easy to move the image, easy to revert back mistakes.

CONS: Hard to erase the background successfully, hard to write with different fonts.

CONSTRUCTION: FILM POSTER BASICS

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

RESEARCH: FILM POSTER ANALYSIS 4

Project Makeover (SORT FILM) poster analysis

Here is my work and analysis of the poster:

RESEARCH: FILM POSTER ANALYSIS 3

Angus, thongs and perfect snogging analysis of poster

Here is my work and analysis of the poster:

From researching this film poster, I have taken many key factors that I would like to use when I do my final edit. The varying colours and enlarging of important fonts is what I found most successful and feel that overall this is engaging for the young teen audience.

RESEARCH: FILM POSTER ANALYSIS 2

LOL analysis of poster

Here is my work and analysis of the poster:

RESEARCH: FILM POSTER ANALYSIS 1

Mean Girls analysis of poster

Here is my work and analysis of the poster:

CONSTRUCTION: THE HONOURABLE WOMAN

The Honourable Woman

To create intensity of emotion, to convey moments and to draw audience attention to key narrative devices, film makers often use close-up of hands. Hands are very expressive. Below is a collage of hands taken from The Honourable Women, a 2015 TV drama.
Next to this is a collage taken from my own film Dreaming Daisy in which I have used similar techniques.

The Honourable Women

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

Shot List

My partner and I, have created a shot list in order to help with organising and planning each scene so its as productive as possible. I believe this is a key stage of planning and is vital is making sure you produce the best and clearest piece of film.

RESEARCH: OCR EXAMINER REPORT

Examiner report

As I am planning and starting the construction of my own short film, I have researched previous examiner reports in order to produce the best possible piece of work and also see where previous work has strengthened and weakened, in order to learn from this.

After finding this, I am now a little more confident I will be able to produce a clear short film in which the examiner will be able to see that I have tried to use a number of camera angles and perfected my editing.

PLANNING: DAISY

Character profiling: Daisy 

In our short film, we have made sure that Daisy's face is only revealed at the end, in order to encode to the audience that something isn't quite right and to help build climax. Because of this, it is even more important for the clothing of the character as it  helps the audience to decode more about her personality. We dressed Daisy, in a short denim skirt with black tights, and a collared white top, as at the beginning she is seen as young, happy and in many ways a stereo typical teenager who wears the latest fashion. 

However ;she is an example of strength and courage which is beyond her years, because she has decided to channel her illness in a positive and as possible normal life while maintaining her scrapbook.The audience do not find out that Daisy is ill until the end, and by doing this we inject a huge pathos into the film.

An audience seeing our central character Daisy, wearing a hospital gown and seated on a wheel chair with drips attached to her body would mean the audience would encode this as though she is a very ill girl with a serious illness. The preferred reading of our representation is that the audience feel sympathy for her as the have decoded the messages in the way in which we have intended. For Stuart Hall, Reception Theory, involves audiences coming to there own conclusions about meaning in text, however I believe this text is likely to underpin melancholic emotions.

PLANNING: TREATMENT

Treatment Dreaming Daisy

 Daisy is a typical 17-year-old girl, happy, bouncy, determined and full of life. Like every other teenager, she has ambitions, plans and hopes. One day, she knows that she will fall in love, have her first proper kiss, have a make-over, own her own pet puppy, dare to skinny dip, have a wild slumber party with her friends...all of the dreams of a girl who lives life to the full and whose imagination, warmth of spirit and gutsiness will make her dreams come true.

Daisy carries out each of these activities, such as falling in love and and going to the beach. This always shows her strength and growth of relationship with her best friend Elli, who becomes Daisy's companion. 

However, the audience does not know one key fact: that Daisy has recently been diagnosed with cancer and informed that she only has limited time to live. Daisy challenges the cancer and starts her own personal scrapbook, filled with little things she hopes to achieve before she enters hospital for good. 

As Daisy fulfils each of her dreams, turning the pages of her bucket list scrapbook, so the pages turn and the days in her life draw towards a close, making the finishing of the scrapbook a metaphor symbolising the drawing of her life towards its end.

It is only in the final moments of the film that earlier hints and intimations of the seriousness of her fatal condition make sense to the audience who realises suddenly that for Daisy, time is running out.

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

Filming- BEACH SCENE

My partner and I, took a whole day aside in order to go to the beach to film a very important scene. We bought the tripod and camera with us, and took the equipment to my beach hut, which was perfect for not only insuring all the equipment was safe, but also gave a personal touch to some of the shots filmed.

In this scene we wanted to make sure that we saw a daring side of Daisy yet also contrast this with calming. The agenda of the day was to shot the "skinny dipping" scene, which was a key aspect of the scrapbook. Within this short action we managed to shoot different shot types such as a close up. We were extremely happy with how it came out, and through editing it gives the connotation of Daisy being free.

We also made sure we filmed different aspects of a trip to the beach, such as the birds, boats and beach huts; all creating a calming vibe. We also featured Eli in the filming process, Daisy's best friend who comes with her on a majority of her scrapbook, which again helped to add the atmosphere.

The only problem we had when filming, was the wind. We managed to overcome this as the footage is now on mute with the audio music in the background.

I have made a GIF to display some of the photos I took on set.

PLANNING: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS ON NARRATIVE

LEVI STRAUSS:

Drama is about conflict. opposites can be equally powerfull-creates the tension the interest of the powerful forces that clash all naratives could be reduced down to binary opposites hero vs villainconflict propels all narrative conflict can only end with resolution.

This applies to us in our film as there is the conflict between who is the nice guy and who deserves the beautiful girl. Although we do not directly have the 'nice guy' and the 'player', have direct conflict with one another, but the clash is highlighted upon with the 'player' taking credit for the 'nice guys' notes, as well as him changing his personality on the date with the 'princess' and becoming rude.  

As we have to come to a conclusion of this conflict, the reveal of the true and worthy 'nice guy' is revealed, to both the audience and the girl herself.

VLADIMIR PROPPS 

 Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic plotcomponents of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

Propp suggested that every narrative has eight different character types, such as:

The Villain - Fights the hero

The dispatcher –one who sends the hero out, and makes the villain’s evil known

The (magical) helper –the sidekick who accompanies and helps out the hero

The Princess or the prize – the reward for the hero, what he is trying to save or acquire, usually to the villains dismay.  

Her father – gives the task to the hero and identifies the false hero.

The donor – prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object

The hero or victim/seeker hero – reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

False hero – takes credit for the hero’s actions, or try’s to marry the princess. 

 Where short films differ from full-length feature films, obviously in the length but also they have a twist so characters are not always who you think they are there roles may shift in the course or the narrative a hero might turn out to be a villain or vice versa. This is true in our film as the characters are not what they seem at first. 

There are likely to be a short range of characters in a short film like mine and so it’s unlikely to find the range of characters, as in Propps complex plots. My short film for example has four: the hero, the Villain, the princess/prize and the false hero. 

Propps theory  is useful to us, as we have clearly have distinguished character profiles. Although in our film we reverse the roles in the audiences eyes making the original hero into the Villain. At first the audience see "the player", appearing to leave love notes scattered around a library for 'the princess', attempting to lure her in, but this is soon exposed as false when the reveal of the real hero. This play on roles is effective in a short film as the audience do not have long enough to form a connection to a character. 

The main advantage of having very clear cut roles in a short film is that audiences need to grasp the character very quickly within the first minute but they characterscannot afford to be over simplistic because that might mean sacrificing the chance for enigma or the twist.

ROLAND BARTHES

Has created five different code, but I have looked into two that have links and parallels that would work with my short film and short films in genural. 

 Hermeneutic code- CSI solving idea getting clues hasn't been explain fully needs solving resolving all links all loose ends need tying up mystery unraveled to makesatisfied audience. What drives narrative our desire to see the mystery explained. 

Proairetic code- domino effect this leads on to this which causes this. Explains plots which are a series of linked events where an action leads to another action.  The audience is curious about the result of each event what is going to happen as a result of what just happened. 

 Our film has a proairetic code, as each scene effects what happens in the next. It does this in terms of character relationship, setting and how the audience feelabout a certain idea or character.

TODOROV

Equilibrium status quo things as they are stable 

then something happens- dis equilibrium unbalance someone corrupts something else state of confusion.

have to deal with the problem- acknowledgment

resolve the problem -Resolution

 New equilibrium 

PLANN: ELLI

Character profiling: ELLI

When character profiling Elli, it was important to show her as Daisy's companion, and her main qualities needed to be shown through action and visual.

As Daisy's face is not seen throughout the short film, its important that we feel emotions through Elli. One key scene featuring 

PLANNING: AUDIENCE RESEARCH

Audience Research

My partner and I have researched our target audience using pinterest. We believe our audience will be teenage girls, and using pinterest we have been able to use different qualities to build up our audience profile.

CONSTRUCTION: SOUNDTRACK

Soundtrack

All our music is original and written specifically as soundtrack for our short film. Two songs with fitting lyrics anchors the films meaning moving from joy to pathos. 

Jess sings into the recorder and we laid the track in iMovie.
Jessica is in the sixth form of our school and we commissioned her to do our singing. She has also posted this on her instagram below posted.

Lyrics:
She didn't want it all, 
Because she never had it,
Though her dreams stood tall,
She'd never have it,
And she knew too well,
That it was just a dream. 

Chords:

C, G, A, F

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

Filming- FINAL SCENE

Today we filmed the final scene in the short film. It was important to make the footage as realistic as possible, and as it is a sensitive subject approach it respectively.  


There were a few problems we approached when filming, such as making our surrounding look hospital like, as we were unable to obviously film in a real one. We used our schools gym, which had a plain wooden floor. We also had a problem with the cameras focus for close ups which were vital pieces of filming.

After uploading the footage we discovered we were unhappy with the footage, and are now  hoping too refilm. We have now decided we are going to have to insert footage of the outside of a hospital to help with the narration, but also use a different camera which specialises in close ups. We have treated todays filming as a learning curve, and are defiantly going to learn from mistakes in the future.

PLANNING: CALL LIST

Call List

A very important part of planning is creating call lists. This helps to organise with your partner places you are filming to make sure you are both defiantly on the same page and there in no miscommunication. 

PLANNING: MY TREATMENT

Guide on how to write a treatment

After visiting the Future Learn website, I watched a video featuring Frank Ash in it, he is a creative consultant who has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC. 

In the video Frank explains his main points (advise):

• Think about your favourite book or film or any ‘good story’ you recently watched online, could you sum up its narrative into ‘one elegant sentence’ to provide its ‘topline’?
• What was its big story question, and how important was it to your appreciation of the text?" 

From this is have learnt and aim to define in our personal treatment what the top line is and what the big questionis. 

We will aim to define in our treatment and I have tried to base this practical advice: 

Topline: A girl who wants to complete her scrap book full of things she wants to accomplish before she dies, which is revealed to the audience at the end.

Big Question: Does she have enough time to complete it? 

PLANNING: TRELLO

October Trello List

RESEARCH: CODES AND CONVENTIONS

PLANNING: SHORT FILM IDEAS

Short film ideas-

Today, I started to think of ideas and plots for my short film. I came up with a few ideas, but expanded on  one. Below is a screenshot of my summary of the idea we came up with. I made these notes using a software "Stickies". Though this will defiantly not be my final idea and is just a brief idea, using a new software has been beneficial in order to have an organised layout for the future.

PLANNING: WHATSAPP

Whatsapp

Recently, my partner and I have been using a free app called Whatsapp to stay in contact, plan and discuss media related topics. Its been a great use so far and helped to solve minor problems we have already come across.

PLANNING: TRELLO

Planning: Trello

Throughout this year, I will be planning each months targets via Trello. This will help me to stay on track and allow me to clearly layout my short film planning, to make it the best I can.

BRAINSTORM: INITIAL IDEAS

Brainstorm: Initial Ideas

Our initial treatment shows are ideas that we hope to be able to portray in our chick flick/ drama short film. We have brainstormed all our ideas in mind map form, which underpins an easily read plan. In our short film the protagonist is seen as a young girl who carries around her scrap book filled with a list she has completed within a year and a half. As the story unfolds we discover that not everything is as it seems.

BRIEF

Brief 10

We have decided to pick brief 10. A short film in it entirety, lasting approx 5 minutes, together with:

• a poster for the film
• a radio trailer

RESEARCH: HIGH MAINTENANCE

RESEARCH: HIGH MAINTENANCE

High Maintenance 

As we start our new course, and start exploring short films, as a class we watched "High Maintenance": Phillip Van- director, Simon Biggs- Writer.

This film managed to create an interesting and original storyline, which generates enigma and a plot twist in the space of just 9 minutes, a main quality of a short film which is important to deliver successfully. 

The film is set in the near-future, a woman whose robotic husband fails to meet her standards is returned and upgradedfor a better version with standards that she now fails to meet and so he ends up switching her off. I found that the film used clever techniques in this film, such as in the beginning the sound of the couple chewing was amplified making it the most noticeable sound. This exaggerated the awkwardness and uncomfortableness of the scene. As well as building up enigma, suggesting something will happen soon. 

This film was good as when we initially see her turn off her robotic husband we assume that all the males are robots and that women are in charge but then the plot twist shows her new husband turn her off, showing thatthey are all robots. This allows the film to not lose it audience's interest and to be able to finish the story properly in such a short space of time. 

It also was not to complex for a film set in the future and did not seem over the top or especially unrealistic. This meant it was appealing for the audience as well as having an interesting storyline. 

I feel this was an important beginning stage of the year, as has given me important features to recognise when I start planning my short film.

Extreme close-up shot.

Close up.