Survey

Practice Film

Although out brief is to produce a Short Film lasting approximately 5 minutes. We decided that it would be a good idea to have some practice shooting a film. We didn't want to create one lasting five minutes because this would take up a considerable amount of time, so we decided to do something similar to what we did last year in AS. We reproduced the start of the film 'Love Actually.' Its been several months since any of us have done some shooting so it really helped refresh our memories. 'Love Actually' is such an iconic film and although this is just the beginning, it really grabs the audience into wanting to watch more. When shooting this we got permission from both Norwich Airport and Chappelfield Shopping Centre. We forgot to bring a tripod on the day, hense why shots are not very steady, but as we were just practicing we didn't see this as a huge problem.

Original;

Our version;

Outcome: Doing this helped me to remember what is required when shooting a film, in terms of equipment, what makes a good opening to a fim as this will still be crucial when shooting our short films and that is important to be prepared and sort out locations/characters prior to shooting.

Short Film Introduction

Definition:
Any film that has a duration longer than 1 minute and shorter than 15 minutes.

Background:
When films just started being produced short films were very common and it wasn't until the 1920s that longer films started becoming more popular. Comedy's, animated cartoons and newsreels were often shown in the cinema's lasting between 5-10 minutes. By the mid 1950s with the rise of television short films were virtually non-existant. Today they are still relatively unknown however have been making a come back with several websites posting them online, as well as DVD's being placed on the market which contain a variety of short films for viewers to watch.

The man above is American actor William Garwood, he starred in many short films lasting only 20 minutes in length.

Audience:
The type of people that tend to watch short films nowadays are those which are film enthusiasts, meaning people which have a keen interest in films. In general speaking terms they tend to be of a higher status and seek thrilling or alternative plot lines compared to main stream films. Short films commonly have an increasingly more complex storyline than longer films and writers/directors often play around with the narrative in order to give the target audience something new and different compared to the average film viewed at the cinema.

Examples:

I particularly liked this short film. I thought it was a good example of how you can take quite a simple idea of a man in a ordinary office attempting to photocopy something end end up creating a really effective idea. This being that this black hole enables him to get to things he otherwise wouldn't be able to reach. It starts off as something minor like a chocolate bar and then progresses on to something far bigger which is lots of money in the save. As well as taking a simple idea and progressing it into something good, the creator also added a comedy moment at the end when the man wasn't able to get out of the save and was subsequently trapped inside. I liked how only one character was needed, a simple location and no dialogue was used to create what in my opinion is a really strong short film.

This is a similar idea to the first example and is also staged in an office. In this one I like how they have used a split screen so you can see the male and the females actions which are in sinc with one another. As an audience you can see by their actions and facial expressions that they really like each other and I especially like the fact this message in conveyed through the use of post-it notes and not through dialogue, as though as the post-its act as a sign to them they should be with one another.

My last example uses a technique which is quite different and one which I have never personally used before. I like how the voiceover tell the story and the fact that drawings are used to animate the storyline rather than real life characters. The drawings are very simply and not particularly fancy but it is still effective because the voice over comes across as very straight to the point and goes through the stages rather quickly so the audience are kept occupied and intrigued. 

Prop Exercise

Today in Media the class was split into groups and each group was given a prop by our class teacher. These included; a broken guitar, a poem, a telephone and a soft cuddly toy.

My group was given the cuddly toy, which was a penguin.

We had to come up with a storyline involving the penguin and then were allowed a double lesson (2 hours) to go out and film our plot that we had come up with. We had to be careful however, to make sure that our plot was suitable to be filmed around Sixth Form as this was the are we were allowed to shoot in.

In short, out plot consisted of the following:
A young girl had gone to the shop to buy a cuddly penguin. From then on she doted on the toy and took it everywhere with her. A time after she's brought him, whilst getting something out of her bag she drops him, without realising. The penguin then goes on an adventure by himself and eventually manages to get himself back to her via catching a lift on one of the science technician's trolleys which we managed to borrow. Our script definitely had a comedy element to it we hoped our peers would enjoy.

Here is our video below;

Outcome:

Today's lesson was enjoyable but also had a serious element to it. By doing this we were able to learn how props can be affective within our short films and that no matter what prop you are given you can make a good storyline out of it. It has made me consider what props I may use in my own film production, in terms of how I can use them to convey a particular message.

Character Development

Aim: 

To be able to create/develop more fully rounded characters for G234 production piece; to show a sense of progression from AS to A2 (G325) in terms of character development.

Task 1: We were each given a picture of an individual and were set a task to create a character profile for them, here is the picture of my character below;

Name: Simon Calver

Age: 62

Occupation: Doctor

Ethnicity: White/British

Family: A wife called Sally of whom he has 3 daughters with (two in their thirty's and one in her twenties finishing her final year at uni). He also has 2 grandchildren

Class: High status

Lifestyle: Lives in a large 5 bedroom family home in the countryside which has a immaculate garden and drives an estate

Pets: 1 labrador

Hobbies/Interests: Enjoys being outdoors, going for long walks and birdwatching. As well as this he prides himself in keeping healthy and regularly goes running before work

Personality: Deals with situations very calmly, tends to be a perfectionist, well mannered male who gets on well with everyone he meets

Task 2: We were then instructed to think of what our characters more precious possession would be and how they would react if they had misplaced it.

Most precious possession:

A small chest his elderly mother left to him when she died aged 92. Inside it contains belongings such as family photo's.

Scenario where he can't find the object:

Simon wonders downstairs off to get his usual breakfast of museli. As he walks past his dining room on the way to the kitchen he has a seconds glance to where his most prized possession - his mothers chest, is usually situated. Usually Simon would smile to himself warmly whilst thinking of the memories of his mother, however today the chest was not there. Curious but not one to panic, Simon calmly wonders into the room to investigate further. He is surprised it is not there as he prides himself in taking good care of it and regularly polishes it to keep it look presentable. He esures himself that it could not have possibly been mislocated so continues searching attentively knowing it will only be a short while before he relocates it as he is always organised and has probably just moved it to a saver place.

Task 3: Finally we had to create a script pretending our character had a secret that only they knew about, but they have to reveal the secret to one other character and this other character acts as a block to their desire.

It is  a mid-April spring morning at approximately 10 am. Simon has just parked up his estate in The London Hospital car park where he works. He has his name badge around his neck with a brief case in his left hand. A he's walking to the hospital entrance he sees a fellow collegue, Norman. He smiles and waves as they both exchange friendly gestures.

Simon: ''Morning!''

Norman: ''Morning Simon''

As they walk off in opposite directions, Simon arrives at the hospital doors and politely comes to a standstill in order to let a patient past. The patient smiles pleasingly and says

Patient 1: ''Thank you''

As Simon walks to his office he picks up some patients notes and places a stethoscope around his neck. He quickly scans the notes for information on one of his current patients named Jenny as he enters her hospital room.

Simon: ''Hello Jenny its Dr Caler here i've come to check up on your this morning''

Barely managing a reply Jenny only just plucks up the courage and engery to make a response.

Jenny: ''Morning Doctor''

Dr Calver can see Jenny is deteriorating rapidly and a concerned glare begins to cover his face. Jenny has been a long term patient of Dr Calver's and the two had become very close. Simon quickly dashes out of the room and finds a fellow collegue in a nearby office.

Simon: ''Dr Bennett you've got to help me''

Dr Bennett swivels round on his chair alarmingly so that he's now facing Simon

Dr Bennett: ''Certainly, what ever is the matter?'' 

Simon: ''its a patient'' Simon replied

Dr Bennett: ''Who? and what's wrong with them?''

Simon: ''It's Jenny. I was reading through my notes and realised i've administered her the wrong drug, she's now so weak, i'm worried she might die''

Dr Bennett: ''Which drug did you give her? How much?''

Simon: ''20mg of Morphine''

Dr Bennett: ''With that much it would be kinder to let her pass away, she has a terminal illness and recorrecting your mistake is only going to cause her more pain and suffering''

Outcome:

From today's lesson I learnt how to develop a character from simply seeing an image. By this I mean not only there appearance but their personality and how they would act in certain situations. This has helped me to think of ways that I could develop a character for my own film production and how to start off the process. As well as this I have done some script writing which we are also marked on at A2.

A2 Course

Marks:
Film - 40
Poster - 10
Review - 10
Evaluation - 20