Unit 9

Characteristic Presentation

presentation1-pdf

• Presentation notes

Hi, my name is Henry. My film is a short coming of age film about the relationship between two photographers. It will be set in modern day Britain and feature two main characters, a girl galled Leah and a boy called Harry. They will both be photographers. The film is a continuation of another short film called Viewfinder but the story is told from the male character (Harry’s) perspective.

I want to tell the story in a slightly different way to normal with a non-linear narrative. I’m going to start with showing the audience the ending of there relationship and then them having a good time in the middle of there relationship and then go on to tell the story of the events leading up to there first meeting. I’m going to tell the story this way because I think that this way will keep the audience interested for longer. and make it a bit more original compared to the other short coming of age films. Some feature length films like 500 Days Of Summer have also decided to tell the story in a non-linear manor to stand out and be original. Story lines in coming of age films and other types of dramas usually use linear story lines but allot use non-linear as they are the only genres that can get away with using this interesting method.

Some of the conventions of a coming of age film is that its main characters feature a boy and a girl, they are usually between 15 and 19 but the most common age is around 17. The film will tell the story of one of the characters struggles to get over something in there life. The classic story line is boy-meets-girl but recently more and more coming of age films like Its Kind Of A Funny Story have been highlighting the extremely common mental health problems amount teenagers and have been telling the story of there mental health problems along side the relationship problems and these films have become really popular. Some plot devices that have a massive affect on the film can be school which was common in older coming of age films like The Breakfast Club and there is parents break ups like in Boyhood or a terminal illness like in Me Earl And The Dying Girl or The Fault In Our Stars.

The cinematic conventions within coming of age films are fairly easy to pick out. They always use medium wide shots showing the characters whilst there having a conversation as seen theses three images, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The Art Of Getting By and The Spectacular Now. Other camera angles will usually include a medeum close up taken from between the two characters conversing as this is in personal space and brings the audience into the scene and conveys more emotion than if it was shot from further away. Colour is also notable. A warmer image will be used when the characters are happy or feeling safe and warm with people they love, like in the top left image where hes just received a gift from the girl he likes. On the other hand though a colder harsh image will be used if the characters are upset or arguing like in the top right image where the male character is angry with the female character. Coming of age films are also know to include some experimental features such as implementing some French New Wave style into the films. Wes Anderson is the most popular person to have done this with his film Moonrise Kingdom, he used centre framing like in the bottom left image and non-natural tracking motion to show the quirkiness of his characters as he does in all his films.

French New Wave is a cinematic style about breaking the rules and coming up with new and exciting ways of storytelling. I’m going to adopt some of the features of this style and use them in my film to emphasis Harry’s quirky character. a bit like Wes Anderson does in Moonrise Kingdom.

The conventions of sound in coming of age films are that they use music to enhance emotion and they tend to use popular indie rock music for other times that music is played. They often have the music as non-diegetic. Coming of age films quite often have non-diegetic voice over of the main character explaining the scenes occasionally through-ought the film.

I think that the most popular place that my film could be screened would be through online video streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. This is because I wont have the budget or the length for a large scale cinema release but I could get the film out to a larger amount of people via the streaming sites.

• bibliography

500 Days Of Summer – Marc Webb – 2009

Boyhood – Ritchard Linklater – 2014

Its Kind Of A Funny Story – Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden – 2010

Me Earl And The Dying Girl – Alfonso Gomez-Rejon – 2015

Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson 2012

Pierrot le Fou – Jean Luc Godard – 1966

The Art Of Getting By – Gavin Wiesen – 2011

The Breakfast Club – John Hughes – 1985

The Perks Of Being A Walflower – Stephen Chbosky 2012

The Spectacular Now – James Ponsoldt – 2013

 

 

Planning

• Planing and ideas

The idea for my film came from researching short films and coming of age films as I knew I wanted to do a coming of age film. I watched back a short I had worked on a year ago and decided it would be nice to know the story from the unnamed male characters perspective. I started by giving him a name (Harry, the name of the original actor playing him) I then deiced that her personality would be nice at the beginning of the relationship but go on to resent him because of his job later on in the relationship. The audience knew that photography was his job or a hobby from the first film so that set a plot device up for me. I realised the first scene should show the audience that the job does distract him and she hates is so I decided to have him developing film in the fist scene as its a process long enough to span an argument.

• script 1&2

I started by doing some research into scriptwrighting first. I found this website that helped me develop the story http://www.raindance.org/7-rules-for-writing-short-films/. I developed the script in Adobe Story as it allowed me to set the script out easily in a profetional way. I completely rewrote the script and did several alterations, script 2 is the final one.

portrait-film-ii-script-2

portrait-film-script-1

• location recce

Next I had to decide on a location. I was originally thinking a kitchen and he could be developing the film in the kitchen sink but I couldn’t think of any kitchens accessible to me that I wanted to be the set for the film. I wanted a flat or apartment because that’s what I pictured the couple having, the kitchen would also need to be open plan and light so it could be suitable for filming. I though Why not use a dark room as he is developing, with the red light I could try some experimental lighting and some interesting cinematography. I asked around and found college had a dark room so I went to have a look to check if it was suitable to film in.

After looking at the location I decided that its the look that I wasn’t for the scene, it has the space for the lights and the angles I want and it has plenty of power sockets so the location was suitable.

• storyboard, shot list and running order

shot-list-and-running-order

• Casting and crew

As this is a proof of concept I have no budget for actors or crew so I asked around my friends. I found two friends Leah Bradbury and Alastair Littlewood who were perfect for the roles and said that they would do it. For the crew I asked my friend Jake Bennit-Young to assist with camera who would bring his easy rig and camera cage and Sony XLR to hotshoe adaptor to assist with the shoot. I also recruited two class mates, Tiarnnin Meely-Clarke as audio and Dylan Hickman as Lighting and grip.

• Call sheet

call-sheet

• risk assessment

dark-room-risk-assesment

Video & Evaluation

Here is the feedback I received from my focus group.

Camera work

• Liked the shot of the picture in the fix bath
• Good strong shot at the beginning and other strong visual imagery
• Liked the main shot of him hanging up the photo, keeps both characters in focus and doesn’t distract the viewer.
• Liked the red but it needs to be not blanket red but needs to have a key fill and back lights.

Edit

• Cuts to too many angles too quickly, have less shots
• Its not the amount of shots but the coverage, the cuts aren’t in the best places, they cur before action not on it.
• They understand the relationship

Sound

• Allot of echoing
• The volume changes from shot to shot because of the distance the boom operator is from the subject changes.

Concept

• They understood the relationship between the characters
• Didn’t understand the story line or where it would go from then.

unit-9-feedback

Reflective Journal

1. Reflective Journal 1

I started the week with planing the idea for my film. I know that I wanted to do a coming of age film as I like the genre so it will interest me whilst I make the film. I began by looking at some existing films, both feature length and shorts on YouTube and Vimeo. I watched three films on YouTube and Vimeo that really stood out.

I decided that I liked the second film (Viewfinder) allot and thought telling the story of there meeting from the male characters perspective would be interesting. I began to map out a story line of events leading up to there meeting and then remembered a film I watched (500 days of summer) which has a non-linear story line and thought that would be a cool feature I could use in my film to engage the audience. I decided that starting with a breakup scene and then going on to tell the events leading up to there first meeting would be best.

I looked into writing story’s and found this website which helped me a little, it taught me to keep it short so I will keep my scenes short and too the point. http://www.raindance.org/7-rules-for-writing-short-films/. I then Googled best screenplay writing programs and eventually found Adobe story which was good, cloud based and free so I decided to use this as the program for writing the script. I started by learning how to use the program to properly write a script. I looked at google images of scripts from films. After I had an Idea of how too set out the page I started writing the initial action for the first scene and giving the characters names (Harry and Leah).

2. Reflective Journal 2

• Complete the 1st draft of the script
• get feedback on the script
• start the second draft
• Actors
• Location Recce

I started this week by completing the first draft of the 1st scene f my film which would be the scene I will film for my proof of concept. Here is the script. Its not very long, only about 1 minute of screen time but I don’t think that I need that long for the first introduction scene. I showed the script to some people and they all thought that it could do with some work, I also thought that it could be better. They all said that people don’t speak how I had wrote so it needed to all be re-worded. I then decided to start from scratch and properly think about the scene and how the dialogue will work with the action in the scene.

As the location was key to the scene I started to have a think about where I was going to shoot the scene, I had always pictured it in a kitchen but I couldn’t think of any kitchens that I could use that would be suitable to the scene. I then thought that as he was developing film why doesn’t it be set in a darkroom? I asked my lecturer and he said that there was a darkroom in college that I may be able to use. I went to go and check if it was suitable to film in. I think that the red light could allow mew to do some interesting experimental cinematography. After looking at the location I decided that its the look that I wasn’t for the scene, it has the space for the lights and the angles I want and it has plenty of power sockets so the location was suitable.

We would be shooting at the end of next week so I needed to sort actors this week. As this is a proof of concept I have no budget for actors or crew so I asked around my friends. I found two friends Leah Bradbury and Alastair Littlewood who were perfect for the roles and said that they would do it. For the crew I asked my friend Jake Bennit-Young to assist with camera who would bring his easy rig and camera cage and Sony XLR to hotshoe adaptor to help with audio on the shoot. I also recruited two class mates, Tiarnnin Meely-Clarke as audio and Dylan Hickman as Lighting and grip.

 

3. Reflective Journal 3

• Story board
• shot list
• running order
• risk assessment sheets
• call sheets
• Shoot day

4. Reflective Journal 4

• File organisation
• edit organisation
• Foley
• 1st cut
• 2nd cut
• colour
• sound
• export

5. reflective journal 5

• post
• feedback
• starting edit for french new wave