Unit 13 FMP Proposal

Centre Name & Number The Sheffield College  36510
Candidate Name Henry Rees
Candidate Number 82930
Pathway Film, TV and commercial production.
Project Title Portrait
Section 1: Rationale (Approx 150 words)
Through the past 12 units I have been increasingly interested in exploring lighting and cinematography in more depth so for unit 13 I would like to produce a very visually demanding film. I will try to achieve a more stylized look with the lighting, utilizing the 3-point lighting technique I learnt this year. Coming-of-age films are my favorite genre, probably because I’m a teenager so I can relate to the main character’s problems, so I would really like to produce my own because I will be more interested and passionate about the film. For these reasons I want to make a very visual coming-of-age film about two young creative people. The fact that the characters are creative people will allow me to experiment allot more with the cinematography and do different things with the camera and lighting I normally wouldn’t in a genre with more fixed conventions such as sci-fi or film noir thrillers. I want to make the film for people who enjoy coming-of-age films, those who watched and enjoyed other films such as Perks Of Being A Wallflower and Submarine which are my main influences for this film and me as a filmmaker. I want to do this because there arent enough shorts in this genre.
Section 2: Project Concept (Approx 200 words)
The film that I want to make is a coming-of-age film that follows three stages of a young couple’s relationship. The film will start with showing the relationship in trouble with the two main characters arguing about him working too much. It will then progress to show the relationship 3 months before when they were happy and have a montage of them together. The film will end with them reminiscing of the day they met and then show where they met and it ends with them both saying hi to each other for the first time. I want to make the film with this non-linear storyline as it will allow me to compress and otherwise really long story into a 5 minute short whilst keeping it interesting as it will reveal the story in segments to the audience, keeping them on there feet. 

One of the key point of the story in the film is the inevitable end to all relationships, especially young ones. This isn’t usually the the story told in classic Hollywood romances because the filmmakers want the audience to be happy so they get more money but as a student film my film can explore these darker more realistic storeys without having to worry about a return on investments. The film also explores the point that people change over time and get bored and this is the main causation of characters breakup. This film is very relatable to myself and the audience as we have all been in at least one of the three situations that will be told in the story.

The locations I will probably use in the film might include, a dark room for the first scene, a bench overlooking the city at night, Leopold square in Sheffield City Centre and a living room for the second scene and Stanage Edge for the final scene of them meeting. The equipment I will use will be a Sony a7ii with canon 17-40 f4L and an FD 50mm f1.4. I will use this camera and lens combination because I own them and so have free access to them meaning I wont have to use any of the budget on camera/lens rental. For the audio I will use a Marantz external audio recorder and sync the audio in post production because it will give better quality sound than the internal microphone on the camera, therefore raising the quality of the film. For lighting I will use a Kino Flo panel light in the dark room to make a bright single source key light and 2 Deado 350w spot lights as fill. When shooting any of the scenes outside I will use reflectors to bounce natural light of its daytime and two 1×1 LED panels for if it’s night time. I will use these for the outside shots because I Won’t have access to power as the budget won’t stretch to as far as getting a generator. 

I hope that people will think of the film as an entertaining, endearing piece of art. I plan for the film to be approximately 4-5 minutes and I will show it in festivals, the Facebook page and online streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. I plan to try and get actors through a talent site called Star Now, If I can’t find anyone suitable I will use the two friends I used for the proof of concept. The actors expenses will be funded using the money raised from the crowdfunding page on Indiegogo.
Section 3: Evaluation (Approx 150 words)
Throughout the entire production process I’m going to keep a reflective journal, logging the decision making process, any problems that I have solved and how. This will also give me the opportunity to then learn from what I have achieved over the past few days and decide on what I need to do next as this may change as my ideas and production progresses.  Once I’ve finished the initial edit for the film I will show the film to people who study film to get a more in depth response. I will then ask them to give honest feedback and then may make amendments to the edit based on their opinions. Throughout completing the reflective journal, I will analyse the past week’s progress, looking at what I’ve done well what I could do better with and what I will do the following week. This will ensure that I know what to improve on in the following week. I will also analyse every week to make sure that I am sticking to my original brief and concept.

Action Plan:

action plan