Documents such as the Shot List, Treatment, Story Board, Location Recce's, Risk Assesment, Technical Recce's, Props & Costume Lists and Shooting Schedual must be produced prior to filming in order for the shoot to be conducted accuratley and successfully. Discussion and decisions were made between all memebers of the group on each piece of documentation; so despite their being contribution from all on each piece, we split the tasks equally between us to type or create on Microsoft.
This is the shot list which we all worked on together.
The treatment was constructed by Chloe Taylor so that we are able to remind ourselves when filming which visual is paired with what audio.
Lauren Phillips produced a page of costume which each character will wear so that we know in advance to filming for the actors to be in the correct clothes for their character.
This will be main character Billy's costume of school uniform.
This is the selected style of clothing that we plan for the teacher of Billy to wear as it is conventional to her role.
This is the style of clothing that mother of Billy will wear; smart and professional.
I produced the Location Recce's which show an accurate view of the areas which we will be filming in. I have also included when each location can be accessed, the changes which will have to be made, the sources of lighting and the power points that are available for us to use. The location recces' are very useful when we begin filming as we can remind ourselves where each scene is located. They will also help when it comes to knowing what equipment will be needed in regards to lighting and battery powered equipment when power points are unavailable.
This Location will be used in Scenes 1, 8 and 16.
This location is used in scene 3 and 4.
This classroom location is used in scene 6.
The location situated outside of the school canteen is featured in scenes 7, 12 and 13.
This location of the top of a three storey building is used in scenes 9 and 12.
Below is the Script documentation, which is a vitual piece of pre production documentation as it allows us to decide what audio is going to be in each scene and allows actors to prepare prior to filming which speeds along the process.
The Techncical Recces' were produced so that we could plan where the camera will be positioned in each shot. We drew each location from an aerial view in preparation to acknowledge the objects within the room. This allowed ease when it came to the day of filming as decisions were already made prior to this. Within the group, we all equally divided the Technical Recce's between us:
Below are the storyboards which allowed us to decide on the shot sizes and enabled us to visualise what they will look like by drawing them.
This is the equipment list which will remind us what is needed when it comes to production.
This is the Risk Assesment which outlines the potential risks that could occur in each scence and location. Actions which will minimise the risks are also included. I produced the risk assesment.
Our teacher arranged for a script developer, Becky Knapp to come into our class and look through our scripts in order to help us. After reading through, she decided that was too short as a page of script tends to equal a minute of film. At this time, our script was just two pages long and our film must be six minutes long maximum. Becky gave us some possible areas of developement in order to create a longer film, such as:
Development into the lifestyle of main character (Billy's) mother. Why she is absent from his life.
More narration between Billy and teacher- make the teacher more caring over him.
Introduce initial idea of food being his comfort
Show a bulimic issue within the character of Billy
Unpick the idea of self harming further
Becky made us realise that we do need to include more to the narrative of 'Dumped' however we decided to instead introduce a running scene of Billy running out of school and away from trouble which was mentioned in post 11. We also decided to develop the role of the teacher slightly and include a scene of Billy's mother in her car on the phone to the school. We decided to develop the role of the mother in order to show how careless she really is over her son. We decided to create her as a working woman who places the importance of her job above the interaction with her son Billy. We will construct this through the use of mise-en-scene of costume, props such as an expensive mobile phone, car and hand bag. We decided to not directly show Billy's mothers face as we wanted to reinforce the absense she has with Billy through the absense of her face in our film. We also decided that at this point, she will tell Billy's teacher who rang with conserns, that she has decided that it is time that Billy went to live with relatives for the time being as she has no time due to work commitments.
Since adding these following scenes, we have recieved much more positive feedback and are now sure that it will be long enough.
This is an annotated script of what changed we decided to make.
What has influenced our short film Over the course of pre production, I have looked at many different types of films, included those of the BBC, the UK Film Council and New French Wave. Through this analysis, it has become apparent that there are a vast majority of films that differ from the conventional narrative whereby Todorov introduced Equilibruim, to disequilibrium, ending in restored equilibrium. Films that the UK Film Council have produced represent this through films such as Jade and Tender.
Following the insight into different structures of films whereby the pattern of equilibruim does not exist, we decided in our group to follow this and have a social realist film rather than one that a producer for Hollywood 'Rom Coms' may produce.
Lighting also differs between production companies.
UK Film Council's 'Whore' uses more natural lighting to create social realism.
Editing is often conventional in films produced by large budget companies, using 'shot reverse shot' techniques when communication is shown between characters. They also usually follow a strategic order in order for the narrative to be clear. Through my research, it has become clear that a large selection of short films differ from conventional editing and are more 'edgy' through their editing, using jump and hard cuts. This may be due to the fact that they know their target audience and know that they want something different from the mainstream.
Particular films distributed by the UK Film Council has influences my group largley in deciding the type of lighting we want to recreate through our own short film. We are aiming to use primarily natural lighting throughout in order to create a sense of realism and the prefered reading of sympathising with our male protagonist. The film 'Tender' used breaks in sound of natural noise in between scenes, often used whilst following their main character whilst walking along on his own. I found this very effective as emphasis was upon him and it presented how alone the character felt as no others around him was heared, just the sound of air. We have choosen to create something similar in order to reemphasis how isolated our main character will be.
French New Wave's Francois Traffaut's film '400 Blows' is a film following a young boy who is in a insitution. We was particuarly influenced by the final scenes, whereby the young boy breaks out from the institution and the camera follows him on a long and slow paced shot of him running until he reaches a empty beach, where he continues to run until he hits the sea water and realises theres no where else to run. Here, the boy begins to slow down and then walk back round into the cameras vision, the boy then stops and the camera zooms into the boys face who looks straight back. The film then ends on a freeze frame of the boys face. We found this particuarly effective as it follows a boy who cannot cope anymore and breaks out away from them. The element of realisation whereby the boy cannot run away from his problems any further is portrayed through the barrier of the sea where the boy has to begin to turn back. The zoom into the boys face reemphasises the realisation and the freeze frame juxaposes with this to finalise the importance of the boy coming to terms with being trapped from running any further. At the end of our short film, we are planning to recreate something similar to this by running away from a teacher telling our character some bad news, and track him running through corridors and breaking out onto his school field, whereby he continues to run until he reaches the bushes closing off the field. Here, the boy too will realise that he has no further place to run and will turn and end on a similar zoom and freeze frame. We would like to create this as we felt it constructed the same effect upon the audience as we would like.
long tracking shot of main boy running.
The boy continues to run, onto the beach.
The final shot ending on a zoomed freeze frame of the boys face, which creates a final connection with the audience.
As a class we discussed how scripts must entail accessible themes that the audience would be able to identify with or be based upon important social issues to engage the audience. Argentine Tangos by Guy Thys (2006) is a short Belguim film originally known as Tanghi Argentini which is a comedy drama and was nominated for the Best Short Oscar aswell as winning Best Foreign Short at the LA Shorts Fest in 2006 which is a festival i have previously researched into in post 9. The narrative follows a middle-aged office-worker trying to fulfil his Christmas passion as well as keeping a lie secret. This is an example of how success a short film can be which is based upon accessible themes that the audience can identify with.
In my group of four we discussed potential ideas of our story line and decided it should be based around a social issue of public intrest. We then seperated and I produced a spider diagram of possible story lines:
Following a discussion on the ideas above, we initially decided that the abuse of food storyline, however issues arose when thoughts cast to finding an young boy happy to act due to the circumstances. We then decided that an abusive relationship could be quite difficault to present without performing violent scenes. It was then decided by all that a short film centred around the effect home life has had upon a young boy's school life would be the best idea to take.
Original Film Synopsis
The short film will follow a young boy who has a difficault home life with his mother which is reflected through his school years. The boy named Billy finds himself isolated from others and spends alot of time at the bottom of a set of stairs alone. One day it becomes aparrent that Billy's life is about to change forever.
We showed two different target audiences our film synopsis in order to gain some feedback
Following the constructive feedback we gained, this is a rewritten synopsis I wrote in order to act on the negatives that our focus group brought up.
Final Synopsis
A slow paced six minute long film following the repetitive life of a twelve year old boy named Billy. Billy is a troubled student who experiences a non- existant relationship with his buisiness-driven mother who has no time for her son. Billy stuggles in his everyday life; seeming isolated and alone from his fellow school peers, Billy finds comfort in sitting alone at the bottom of a particular flight of stairs. One day when Billy's teacher becomes concerned of his welfare, she contacts Billy's mother who shares some information that could change Billy's life forever. Will the stairs of comfort be enough for Billy to cope this time?
BLACK SCREEN- TITLES
Loud background noise, children talking.
HARD CUT: EXT. OUTSIDE BILLY’S HOUSE IN THE ALLEY WAY
Billy steps out of his house, walks round the corner into the alley.
LONG SHOT: EXT. TOP OF THE ALLEY WAY
Billy is walking to school on the phone to his mum.
BILLY
Why, where you going to be?
BILLY
Ok, so what time will you be home?
Billy
Oh ok then, maybe see you tomorrow then.
MUM hangs up the phone.
MEDIUM LONG SHOT: EXT ALLEY WAY
Billy is continuing to walk to school.
HARD CUT: INT. CLASSROOM
Billy runs in late and the teacher tells him off.
TEACHER
Late again Billy?
Billy puts his head down and walks to his seat.
HARD CUT: EXT: OUTSIDE CANTEEN
Billy is trying to push through the crowds.
HARD CUT: INT: UNDER THE STAIRS
Billy is looking at people walking by, he rings his mum.
