This is one of the idea's i had for the end scene of our drama, i think the song works well here with this footage and max's laugh and smile are really genuine which wasn't actually intentional but i think it will work really well as the scene after he delivers the letter as it looks like he cant contain his happiness. Obviously some work needs to be done sharpening up the image quality and the colour correct but this is just a rough sample.

This is my idea for the soundtrack for the film, i heard this song a while back and thought it would sound really good as a film soundtrack for some reason, and i am glad i have finally been able to put it forward to good use. Everyone in the group seems to have taken a bit of a shine to it which must mean that we are all on the same wavelength. 

Some Photos of First Day Shooting.

After a relatively successful day shooting, we came away with some really interesting shots, we came up with the idea of using a tracking shot that could be captured from the boot of a car. Max our actor was an absolute star, his costume really came together and he looked exactly how we wanted the character to look. We managed to stay on schedule and filmed most of our outdoor scene on the day, so all the planning came off. As the editor i am now very excited as i can now start to think about piecing this together, and after looking at the footage i am really starting to feel like we are going to be able to achieve the aesthetic that we have been going for, the music we have chosen for our piece works really well with the tracking shot of max running and will work extremely well for our end shot. We were relatively lucky for weather on our shoot, so it makes colour correction much easier for me as the shots all look lovely anyway. 

Films for thought.

The Youth in Us - Joshua Leonard - 2013

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/04/16/the-youth-in-us/

This short film, was quite a nice example of how something very effective could be produced on a low budget using simple story telling techniques, with an emphasis on acting. The film opens using a vintage filter to show a couple having fun on a bicycle, music plays over and the audience know that this represents nostalgia, the opening seems quite dim and bleak, as if this is a fond memory that has been tinged with sadness. As you continue the couple are lying in bed together, close ups of the couple keep the film very tight with no establishing shots to give the audience an overview of the room all the shots are static,  you feel claustrophobic, trapped and the rest of the room becomes a mystery but you are kept intrigued by the dialogue used, the male character tells a dreamlike story about putting a female deer out of its misery, this is a twist already in the tale as the audience have been led to believe that the story was to be about losing virginity. The significance of this story becomes apparent when the camera allows a little room, and you see that the girl is actually lying in a hospital bed, seemingly very ill and the film is actually about  her actually saying goodbye to her boyfriend.  I thought this film was good, the content is not the style i am looking for but i liked the use of the close ups to keep the audience trapped until the director is ready to reveal the nature of the story. I like the pace of the film it was well edited and scripted and it had flow and rhythm that keeps the audience interested. I may reflect back on this film as the opening scene was interesting to me, as i had already picked up this was going to be a sad film before it had started just because of the use of colour and music, even though the content was quite cheerful, its quite interesting for an audience because your waiting in suspense.

About a girl - Brian Percival - 2001

http://write-shoot-cut.com/2012/07/21/short-film-29-about-a-girl-2001-brian-percival/

About a girl follows the story of a teenage girl from a council estate talking about her life to date, she walks with the camera, talking as she takes a walk along a run down area, she is carrying a plastic bag but there is no particular emphasis on the bag at first but as the story unfolds what is inside is of great significance. I really empathised for this character the script was brilliantly written, it was extremely realistic, as the girl narrates her life it becomes apparent that she is a sweet girl, who dreams of becoming a pop star, wants to see her father more and is trying to make sense of the world around her. She talks about her mother and father in a way that makes you feel that we as the audience are understanding more about her situation than she is, as she seems very naive. She looks like the stereotypical media portrayal of a council estate girl, this is juxtaposed by how nice she is. The tragedy comes when you find out what was in the plastic bag, after seemingly having an abortion or miscarriage she throws her dead baby into the river. The opposition between how cheery she is and how dramatic that scene is reinforces her as a character full of hope despite her circumstances. Techniques i liked were the 'invisible interviewer' technique, it works by making the audience feel like they have just peered through a momentary window into somebody's life. The film uses flashbacks, but in a unique way, for example the character talks about how she sits outside the pub when her dad goes for a drink, but while we are introduced to this dialogue the character is physically sat outside the pub telling the story, as if it is happening. This creates scope for different locations and for different levels of storytelling. As i am developing my own idea i feel that this is a good technique for the type of drama i am thinking of creating.

Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson - 2012

Moonrise Kingdom, is a feature length film, its a highly stylised and exaggerated piece about youth and love. I love the use of colours within the film, the dry humour in the scripting and in the way it is filmed reflects the storyline. The film really captures an era, 1960s america, even though a decade is never established, the 'Island of New Penzance' feels like it has been isolated and trapped in a decade. The film reminds me of a dolls house, the cinematography and the tracking camera in the opening shots give you an overview of the house as if it has no front and you are looking in on the characters. The costumes and props are so stylised that they all look like they have been purposely put their, giving the film a sense of fun and distorted realism and reminding you of the directors intentions and style. For Alice Wybrant's script which our group has chosen for the drama this film is an ideal model for researching and learning how to capture a childlike spirit through a large range of mediums. Script, costume, camera technique and character development. I think our actors style will be quite similar to that of Jared Gilman who plays Sam in the film. 

Submarine - Richard Ayoade - 2010

Submarine, is another coming of age film about an awkward quirky teenager who comes from a slightly odd parental background who is trying to find his place in school as he has an odd confidence that other kids don't understand, he falls in love with a girl from his school, and he is trying to understand these feelings and grow up and mature into adulthood . He is on a mission to have sex as many boys of his age are, the story follows him as he tries to manage the situations he is in, such as his mum cheating, his dads depression and his girlfriends mum having cancer. The character declares that he wishes a documentary film crew was following his every move, which is idiosyncratic because to the viewer it is almost like a documentary about his life, but the character who is unaware of the camera by nature states this unknowingly. But to the audience it makes the film seem more realistic like this is a real representation of a boy with a high intelligence level trying to find his place or his niche, This type of film making suggests it is something an audience of a similar age can relate to, but also for an older audience to watch and gain nostalgia from, something i am hoping to achieve with our drama. The film looks as though it has been shot through a filter, making it look a bit more gritty and airbrushed than natural, which i think enhances the story line as it reflects the characters outlook on the world. The editing in the film is composed of jump cuts and non conventional cuts to cu to show the characters emotions, the editing also works for comedic effect in a similar way to moonrise kingdom as the edit cuts into a relatively blunt shot, to show a characters reaction to an action but the bluntness of it gives it a very dry british humour. Again the humour of this piece is something we would like to bring across to our own drama, style wise it is pretty much spot on.

Everything is Illuminated - Liev Schreiber - 2005

Everything is illuminated is a story featuring Elijah Wood, he plays Jonathan who is a jewish boy from america, who collects odd objects that relate to his family, he is on a mission to find out more about his                                 grandmother, his mission takes him to russia where he embarks on an adventure with two equally odd individuals. The main character is extremely awkward, his dress sense and mannerisms convey this, before he even speaks. I really liked the way the camera was used in the scene in the bed and breakfast where Jonathan asks for a meal that does not contain meat, he receives a lone potato. The camera remains static only providing 4 different shots throughout the whole scene, it has a medium shot of each individual at the table and a long shot of all of them. But the comedic tension is built by intercutting between the characters, as they discuss the meal. The background is dark and the scene feels like they are lit by spotlight more like a theatre production. I like the way that this creates an isolated scene only focusing on the characters dialogue and relationships. The emphasis on the journey is key in this film, and for Alice's script i feel that there are some good story telling techniques to be looked at within the film, such as quick static flashbacks or objects while the character is talking, which  connotes that these are the images the character is thinking about when he is talking. 

Drama: The Brief

After receiving the brief for the drama, we all went away with the intent of developing our own ideas to pitch to each other during a group meeting. My idea was to do a portrait drama with a twist, meaning that you never actually meet the main character portrayed. The characters story is told through those that have met her, and many of those are ex boyfriends. Our group ultimately wanted to create something lighthearted and fun, we wanted to steer clear of dark plot lines that are difficult to do convincingly for students. We wanted to create something that was young and comedic in a distinctive  style. People we looked to for inspiration are Wes Anderson, Richard Ayoade's 'Submarine' or Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynamite.

The Scripts

Working Title: 

Jay Burgoyne

Length: 5 minutes Format: DSLR Digital film.

Hook line:

Short Synopsis.

Following the story of 3 individuals talking about a significant past relationship, and the break up that followed, as the dialogue moves on the audience are given clues and it becomes apparent that these 4 characters are speaking possibly about the same person this is shown through similarities in their stories. Its a bit of a different take on a portrait drama, as you learn about the subject only through others and never see her.

Mid Length synopsis:

Follows the story of 3 different individuals after a break up from their partners, they narrate key parts of the relationship that worked and that didn't work, the journey is coming through the other side of a break up as pretty much everyone can relate to this journey as it is a pretty universal subject matter. The film will use many different locations in order to visually build a picture of the relationship and in a sense journey through the past of the characters life, or memory, I will do this by having the main characters acting as if they are journalists doing a report on the relationship with focus on good composition and using a sort of documentary style drama. I will be giving all the characters individual personalities to contrast from each other, for example one being quite dumb but good hearted, one being a bit of a joker etc to gain a wider variation of viewing for the audience. The twist in the story is that through the dialogue it becomes apparent that they are all talking about the same person. The themes I would like to explore are firstly people having different opinions on the same thing, for example there may have been things that one character liked about the girl and things that another character hated. Secondly I wanted to explore something that nearly everyone can relate to which is relationships, but not in the conventional loved up way that they are normally portrayed.

Analysis:

I have taken inspiration for my idea from 'High Fidelity, In the film John Cusack visits flashbacks of his exes, in order and narrates things to the character in a flash back that went wrong with the relationship, the result is a comic opening to the film that is light hearted on what can be quite a difficult subject matter for people, I think this is a good technique to keep the film lighthearted and the film is very well scripted and will be a good starting point for research for my screenplay. I also took inspiration from 'About a girl' a film in which the camera follows a young female through a housing estate, while she narrates to the camera her life, and as she talks about her life, the camera transports her to the scene that she talks about then carries on from there, I want to use this technique or story telling as I think it will work effectively for the aesthetic I want to achieve, and will allow me to achieve a faster pace for my drama as it cuts out much of the having to explain using camera work how you got from a to b but rather the dialogue combined with a quick edit does this effectively. I want the tone of the piece to be quite stylised, good use of colour, possibly even having a colour scheme for each character. I want to experiment with techniques for switching from each character in the edit, for example when the audience are starting to realise that they are talking about the same character I could use one character sitting on a bench talking about how they had sat here and talked about etc, then cut to a POV shot from the bench and then have another characters voice coming in saying something different but in the same location and then have the camera switch back the the previous position on the bench but with a different character talking this time. This will help people to draw parallels in the dialogue and work out the intention of the film. Other techniques I want to use are walking and talking to the camera, I like it but I think it could be played with a little bit more, like a sort of waynes world style where they sneak under the table to talk to the camera, but less 80's. I also have another similar edit technique to the bench one in mind, but with a chat over coffee, where the camera flicks to POV and you see the coffee cup coming towards the camera and then black, then you see another coffee cup at a different table going back down, and it transitions again to the next character. Another transition I would like to use is taken from 'Slacker', where two characters pass each other on the street, and the camera switches character and follows the other person, I think this would work well in my film as it means the two characters would have walked past each other without knowing who the other one was, or in actual fact that they had both gone out with the same girl. By the end of the film the audience will feel like the know the character that they are talking about but wont of actually met her.

Key points :

• emphasis on transitions between characters, keeps the film interesting
• emphasis on dialogue and linking together certain similarities with the character they are talking about
• emphasis on composition, want to devise a colour scheme for each character where possible, to fit with their personalities.

Idea Two

Alice Wybrant

Crew: Chris Aitkenhead, Alice Wybrant, Jay Burgoyne, Reece Saunderson & Shelton Sitima.
Working title: The Letter

Length: 05.00

Short synopsis:

On the surface this short film is about a young boy delivering a very important letter. The story unfolds with his voice narrating his thoughts and actions. The key characters are the young boy and the young girl who is in the last 30 seconds of the film. The young boy's character is somewhat serious and 'deep' thinking but in a 'too old for your age' kind of way. This then makes his character slightly comedic to an audience. There is a journey present in this film, both physically and mentally. The action of delivering the letter is a journey the boy has to take but in the narration we hear how he feels about what's inside the letter (although the audience don't find out until the very end). We hear how much courage it took him to write the letter let alone deliver it. As the young boy acts 'old' for his age and is generally deluded by his own intelligence the themes of age crop up a lot. These can be seen in the mise en scene of the film. The boys costume, hair etc. It's also in his actions. For example turning his nose up at things people do his age.

This film is about a young boy delivering a very important letter. The young boy is 'old for his age' and feels he is somewhat 'trapped' in a younger persons body. If he were to write a profile for himself on a dating website he would probably sound like a dog. “Enjoys long walks in the park and sitting by the fire”. The content of the letter itself does not get revealed until the last 30 seconds or so of the film. He builds up the prestige and importance of the letter throughout the film saying how it's one of the most important letters he's ever written in his life so far. In the last few seconds of the film we see a young girl opening a letter. Revealing a really badly made valentines day card and a shot of her very unimpressed face. The set up of this is hinted at near the start of the film when he states what date it is (12^th february).

Analysis of approach:

This film will most likely be shot on DSLR. What will it look and sound like? The sound design for this film will be key as it's mainly told through voice over narration. The sound will be both diegetic and non diegetic and this is what will link the image to the voiceover. It's style is slightly quirky, mirroring the boys personality. Camera angles will be slightly obscure to show how he perceives the world/people. Other techniques that will be used are lens flares. (Due to the main inspiration) The main inspiration to this film is another film called 'Submarine' directed by Richard Ayoade. The character 'Oliver Tate' in that film is a lot like the young boy's character in this. The mood of the film is a mixture of mystery (due to the secrecy of the letter) but also ironic/sarcastic humour.