Post 13: Creating A Sense Of Style

To begin our thirteenth post we had a discussion about we can improve and make our projects to the best quality by using lighting elements. The key idea is to make our short films have a “sense of style”, to begin our research, which furthermore we will be able to apply to your own work, we looked at how lighting affects sources and colours.

The first two images we looked at were images from the film Forest Gump. Noticeably the first image had a lot of natural lighting as well as an element of soft lights to emphasise this style. In this image there are limited attached shadows on the characters clothes. The soft lighting demonstrates the ability it has to reduce the differences between the light and dark areas. 

As you can obviously see from the second image, the styling used is completely different from the previous shot. The hard lighting affect used made the shot look to some extent artificial and made the clothing looked bleached; this furthermore made it hard for us to see any attached shadows.

The photograph to the right shows a scanned on image of the notes I made throughout our lesson on developing a sense of style. The main focus in the image is the notes I made whilst analysing the two photographs from the film Forest Gump. The additional information includes notes regarding the elements of mise-en-scene and the photograph taken backstage at Harry Potter. The notes also include a brief description on 3 Point Lighting. The 3 aspects of lighting involved during 3 Point Lighting include Fill Light, Key Light and Back Light. When using any of the elements of lighting it is important that continuity is maintained.

Whilst looking at the power point presentations the quote “Lighting can be characterised by its source. In making a documentary, the filmmaker may be obliged to shoot with the light available in the actual surroundings. Most fictional films, however, use extra light sources to obtain greater control of the images look. In most fictional films, the table lamp and street lamp you see in the mise-en-scene are not the principle source of illumination for the filming.” From this quote the most obvious thing that stands out is that the light for filmmakers may be limited, including what sources of light they can use and which sources are available. The photograph shows an example of this; you can see that the directions intention was to use the lamppost for the main source of light. Obviously, due to this not being bright enough, they have had to use additional lighting to emphasise the affect. If the filmmakers used just the street lamp, this would cause a lot of shadows and would not illuminate the characters enough. Ultimately, by using the additional lighting it still has the same affect as if it was coming from the street lamp, it just emphasises upon the source itself.

Soon after we looked at another two images and established how lighting can be used to create different atmospheres. The first image we were shown was a bear corridor. If it was to be used in a film, it is obvious that the filmmaker would have limited control over the light sources. The lights already positioned are at the highest points available and illuminate the whole of the corridor. The hard lighting creates reflections on both the floor and the walls opposite. An element of the lighting used in this image appears to also be natural; with this in mind it would be hard to adapt to different films settings.

The light sources they have used create shadows below the lights themselves pointing the light upwards. There is also ceiling lights hidden by the piece of wood pointing down so we can see the middle of the corridor, there is also an additional light source coming from in front of the character to illuminate the mans face. Additionally there is also a light source at the end of the corridor; this is shown through the ending being very distinctive and visible.  

When deciding the different light sources it is also important to consider the elements used in the mise-en-scene before making any final decisions. All essentials including, location and set design, character movement, costume, hair and make up and props affect the lightings abilities. It would seem radical to have dark dramatic lighting if the character movement didn’t match. In order to avoid this problem I practiced making up a variety of scenarios and wrote what lighting would be appropriate.

With this knowledge in mind we learnt about the gells in which you place in front of the camera in order for the shot to change different colours. The colours could reinforce the appropriate mood, temperature or tone of the film. Before using any gells, or planning to use any gells in our production, I planned a variety of shots and scenarios again in which different gells would be appropriate.

Normally when looking at lighting throughout films we associate it with two different lights. These include key lights and fill lights. Fill lighting is used to provide the less intense illumination with “fills in” and softens the shadows created. Kay lights provide dominant illumination and normally cast a lot stronger shadows than the fill lights. During our class lessons we were looked even further into the effect of lighting and how it can be used to create an atmosphere. After the use of the photos in the corridor previously in the lesson, the task we participated in took place in one of our own school corridors. Within this small project we had to shoot two different scenes. The first was where we had to use the original lighting available, such as the ceiling lights or the natural lights. During the second scene we had to find a way of manipulating the light to change the atmosphere of our shoot. Both of the scenes are included in the video below.  

Post 12: Workshop 2

An example of a "Hard" shadow.

For preparation for our short film we were asked to think about the quality of video production through technical elements such as lighting. We divided the sections into two main elements; direction and quality. Quality involved focusing on the intensity of the illumination for example hard lighting. Hard lighting is a direct light source creating bold shadows with crisp textures and edges.



"Soft" lighting shadows.

The second element to the quality of lighting includes soft lighting, this is indirect light which blurs contours and textures and there are softer contrasts and shadows between the light and shade.

The direction of light focuses on the specific light source and where it has been positioned in order to make the shot. For example how it bounces off the different surfaces after being positioned at either the front, back, side or above. Ultimately every light source has a point where it is at its brightest.

After defining the two varieties of the elements of light we watched Madonna’s Vogue music video. Whilst watching this we were able to identify the variety of light sources and how effective they were for the film video. Not only does the video use the Film Noir effect it also includes distinctive soft light sources where in which images have blurred contours and textures. This is most noticeably seen on the faces of characters, they appear to not have defined shapes or curves and a lot of the women’s clothing is unclear due to the softer light source illuminating the clothing.

Madonna's Vogue Video 

Whilst watching the video I noticed a clear example of hard lighting. From looking at the image above you can see the direct intensity of the light illuminating off of the diamonds on her back, furthermore creating a hard sense of lighting. Crisp textures and edges have been created due to the direct light source and bold dark shadows can be noticed underneath Madonna’s arm.

After analysing the different parts to lighting we were assigned the class to create images using both direction and quality of lighting. Due to having such a small class we worked as a class in creating the different images. Whilst doing so we had to allocate different job roles for everyone, this allowed everyone to have an equal part and ultimately we all worked towards us having an equal understanding of the variety of light elements by the end of the project. Before the filming took place we were given a range of equipment to use throughout our experiment and then were left to come up with our ideas on how we would create the variety of shots and how we would arrange our equipment.

The equipment we were given was:
• Mini DV camera
• Tripod
• Batteries
• Base plate
• Tape
• Laminated whiteboards and marker pens
• 1x lowel pro 250W lamp
• 1x stand
• Extension lead
• Barn doors
• Torch
• Black wrap and crock clips
• White materials and tin foil
• Safety gloves

Kelly & Charlotte Post 12 by MrsShipp100

The first video shows the range of light sources we experimented with and the affects it had upon the back ground and the characters faces etc. The second clip is a commentary of detailed descriptions regarding the different light sources used in the original video. Throughout our script we have analysed every shot individually and commented on the affect it has.

After analysing the different elements of lighting and defining the quality and direct aspects to lighting by understanding has improved dramatically. I now have a better understanding of the different effects of lighting and how it can change the films affect and tone easily. When it comes to creating our own short films it is important for us to consider the different light sources available and how they will in due course help convey different moods for the characters. The workshop has made me realise that during the planning for our short film we need to consider the lighting and how effective it will be. It is also important for us to remember and use the different types of equipment to manipulate the light. This includes using barn doors and light diffusers. 

Post 11: Workshop 1

When making a short film, the aspect of style is incredibly important.
Lighting is an example of style, which can be demonstrated to have an important affect upon the films production.

FILM NOIR

Within the research of lighting “Film Noir” was often highlighted as an important aspect of the films style. “Film Noir” is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, one that particularly emphasise cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood’s classic film noir period generally stretched between the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with low key, black and white, visual style with both bright lights and effective shadowing.

Film noir films generally contained a cynical, hard hearted male character who encounters a beautiful promiscuous amoral, double dealing and seductive female. This theme is an obvious link to the era film noirs were first established. The 1940’s highlighted the years where there was a considerate amount of power for women, but their roles on screen did in fact suffer. The photos situated to the left and the right of my text are examples of film noir ways of lighting. The short clip below of “Double Indemnity” (1944) highlights a specific section involving film noirs wit and seduction.

After watching the short clip of a Film noir, as a class we looked at the different types of lighting that were used and how the lights were positioned in a variety of ways. Lighting is commonly used to highlight and create shadows that can be used to manipulate the space of the different scenes. There are two different types of shadows and these are:

• Attached shadows: Attached shadows occur when lighting doesn’t illuminate parts of the object due to its shape and size.
• Cast shadows: A cast shadow is when objects block the light source and “cast” a shadow.

Lighting can help distinguish the importance a character has in the films plotline. Attention is drawn to characters that have the brighter source of light on them, similarly the characters with the less effective lighting are known to be less popular within the film.

The image to the left is an example of a cast shadow. The blinds appear to be blocking the light source from the outside sunlight and are forming a cast shadow onto the man standing directly opposite. Then man has noticeable lines across his body from the pattern of the blind, this can reinforce the theme of being imprisoned. The noticeable pattern draws attention to him rather than the man positioned on the chair.  

The following picture shows two, what can be assumed, protagonist character then a small amount of less important characters in the background. This photograph is an example of an attached shadow. The man positioned on the left of the camera’s eye has a shadowed right check due to his hate shape and size., this shadow is an attached shadow.




THE LEMON
Soon after distinguishing the two specific shadows, we were encouraged to look at how the light can have an affect on the shape and texture of different objects. This was demonstrated by watching a short video of a lemon being manipulated by a light source from a variety of angles; this noticeably had a dramatic effect on what was being filmed as it became difficult to distinguish what was being filmed due to the shadows and bright light.

OUR VERSION OF THE LEMON: THE SKULL
Following the video of the lemon in small groups we created our own versions of the film, but using different objects.  My group came to the decision to use the skull for this project as we guessed it would create illuminative shadows from the lighting and would ultimately look really effective. Prior to the filming we changed the settings on the camera, so it would specifically focus on the skull. Having done this, it was much easier to see how the movement of the light source changed the shapes and position of the attached shadows and cast shadows. We filmed the skull in a room with no outside light invasions, and only a single light bulb which we switched off when recording the film. This allowed the light to be a lot more dramatic and the shadows to be more effective and noticeable due to no interruptions from unwanted light sources.

 

Post 10

When producing a short film it is import to assign job roles to specific people so she film is produced in the best way possible.

DIRECTORS
The first department which is key to follow with regards to making any media production is the role of the director. Usually it is best known that the Director is in fact the person who is ultimately responsible for the creative vision and overall style of feature film. Within this department, the director is also supported by a number of Assistant Directors, who assure that the Director’s artistic ambitions are in fact achieved throughout the production and editing. This is done by successful time management and proving an organised work forces with a dedicated cast and crew.

• The first assistant director is simply the director’s right hand person, taking a vast amount of responsibility for numerous practicalities so that the director is free to concentrate on the creative process of the film making.
• The second assistant director is just the first assistant director’s right hand man, ensuring the production runs as smoothly as possible.
•  The film director is the driving creative force in a films production, and acts as the crucial link between the production, technical and creative terms.
• Lastly will be Runners or more commonly known as Floor Runners. The role of the runner is the accepted and conventional entry-level position within the film production industry – the first rung on the ladder.

CAMERA

Having good cinematography when making any media production involves the creation of beautiful/and or arresting images on screen. The images produced should also tell us more about a character or a location. It is important to understand that shot composition, camera movement and the way a Director of Photography chooses to manipulate light and shade, all combine to create each films unique photographic signature. A lot of heard work and preparation is involved with a projects camera work, it involves moving and operating cameras in ways that create the best shot possible. Camera crews are known to work with extremely delicate and expensive equipment, even though our production will take place with the schools equipment.. This is still the case!

• A script supervisor’s work involves ensuring that, despite the fact that films are shot entirely out of script sequence, they eventually make continuous verbal and visual sense. Simply, just making sure that the film makes sense and links up according to the script.
• The first assistant camera is responsible for focusing and refocusing the camera lens as the actors move within the frame of each shot and the focal length changes.
• The “grip”’s responsibility is to build, maintain and operate all the equipment that supports the camera, such as tripods, dollies, tracks, jibs or cranes.
• As mentioned before the director of photography does have a important and specific role with regards to a films making. The job of the director of photography is to give a film its unique and visual identity or look.
• The final key role that is designated to the crew in production work is a camera operator. They would have to set up, position and operate the cameras accordingly.

The other roles include the aerial camera assistant, crane operator and steadicam operator. Specific job roles such as those can be done by students with less demanding roles where they have the time and capability to help out as much as possible. This is only the case due to having such a small group of people to work with throughout our production.



LIGHTING

As do the other departments, lighting equally plays a vital role in the majority of film crews. Although some productions may make use of daylight, for most the lightings role is necessary. The different members of the lighting crew are responsible together with others such as the camera crew and art department for the look and feel of the images captured on the screen.

• The “gaffers” are in charge of all the electrical work on production. This involves leading the team of technicians who install the lighting equipment and arranging the power supply in order to create the designed lighting effects.
• A lighting technician helps to provide the relevant lighting and power supply for a film, either on a studio set or on a location. This role would involve imagination and creative skills as within our production work, we appear to not have a studio so all locations are established prior to the filming. This would involve the lighting technician to explore different ways in which the filming could proceed.
• The film productions “best boy” has to co-ordinate the team of lighting technicians and has to deal with the variety of logistics and paperwork relating to the specific role.

• Finally the moving light operator controls all the “intelligent”, or automated, lights chosen by the director of photography.

Similarly to all departments it is important that all job roles work entwine with each other to produce the best possible image on screen. Prior to the amount of people working on or in a department all of the vital job roles are capable of being followed directly.


SOUND
Although film is considered a primarily visual production, much of the storytelling and emotional resonance of a script is conveyed through dialogue. With this in mind when recording all sound on set/or location the work is done by the production sound crew. This includes production sound mixers, boom operators and sound assistants. What their specific job titles involve is to be explained below.

• A production sound mixer is responsible for the difficult and demanding job of recording sound and dialogue and ensuring that the dialogue that is recorded during filming is clear enough for the production.
• A boom operator is responsible for placing the huge microphone in the best position, without impending on camera operation. The role of the boom operator is rarely taken on boards with projects that take place within A2 media studies at our school, due to it being unnecessary as a lot of the sound is recorded in appropriate locations where it is pointless.




A boom operator statue.


• Sound assistants provide general feedback and support to the production of sound mixer and the boom operator. Their jobs involve ensuring everyone that the sound is to the best of its capability and making decisions weather any sound needs to be re-recorded.

ART/PRODUCTION DESIGN
Creating the visual world or setting for a film is the role of the Art Department as a film can be located anywhere. The look of sets or locations involves the audience more directly with the films production. The settings are rarely left to chance by film makers; a great deal of work goes into constructing appropriate back drops to any storyline. This involvement is key to the art and production department of a films making.

• Art directors act as project managers for one of the most vital departments of any film. They facilitate the productions designers’ creative vision for all the locations and sets that eventually give the film its main unique visual identity.
 
• A smaller, but still important job role within the production design department of a film includes the set decorator. Set decorators provide anything that furnishes a film set; they will arrange them all to look best suited for the films genre and theme.
• Story board artists translate screenplays or sequences from screenplays into a series of illustrations in comic book format. This takes time and dedication and a “visual eye” – similarly to the majority of the roles in this department.

• Production designers are major heads of department on film crews, and are responsible for the entire art department. They play a crucial role in helping directors to achieve the films visual requirements.

This is an area I pay particular interest in and would ideally like to focus on the visual side of the films production. I personally think my strengths lie within the imagery and more visual departments rather than the initial filming.

Applying the job roles to our own project.
After research into the variety of job roles and responsibilities that come with the production I came to the conclusion that the follows jobs should be assigned for the following people, as follows. Having noticeably small classes in our A2 lessons, our group work is within small number. With this in mind, some roles needed to be doubled meaning some of my peers will have more than one category to cover when filming our short film.


Person A (Writer of the script): Director. It is important that the person whom created the script to be the director due to them having the best insight into what they hope their film will be produced like. The director can over see everything that happens and has involvement in all of the departments ensuring the ideas are made visual are work according to how they were thought up originally.


Person B will take the role of being in charge and fulfilling all of the roles with regards to the camera department when filming the short film. They will have to cover all aspects include the preparation, constant conversation and group work with the director as well as filming the project to its full potential.


Person C will focus on the two departments which are lighting and sound, due to these two departments working so closely together anyway it seemed like the perfect opportunity to allow them to directly link due to us having such a significantly small crew.


Finally Person D, which I hope will ideally be myself.. I/ or who ever works within this department will focus on the production design work for the film. By doing this they will have to work closely with the director enabling that they can find the correct locations for the development and filming of the short film.


As assigning specific roles it became clear that all departments will noticeably entwine with each other. Even though each person will have their own specific work to be doing, it is important that the entire group are available to help one another.

The image to the right shows my initial plan for organising roles within the group work. The image elaborates on what the roles are for each person involved and how we can all work together as a group to achieve the best possible project.

Post 9

The images below show my first draft of my script idea; the script has a range of notes all over it, to help produce my second draft. Taking into consideration all the information it is clear that I, ideally, need to be more visual in my short film. Becky Knapp came back to our school to give us help on the basic ideas of writing a script, with this in mind Becky read all of our class scripts and gave us a lot of feedback on how we can improve or alter our ideas.

After getting the class to read my script I was intrigued to know their opinions, with this in mind I jotted down any thought provoking ideas that will ultimately benefit me. Clearly the main problem with my script is its initial format and structure, those points can easily be mended and I assure I will do so in my forthcoming draft. I seem to have a problem that I have too much dialogue with no specific moral dilemma. After listening to everyone’s comments, including Becky’s I came to the conclusion that I need to twist my story ever so slightly for it to have more of an affect. By doing so, I plan on making my short film more realistic by having both characters been “friends via the computer” before hand. This will then develop their relationship and as the plot develops it doesn’t become so predictable. This will hopefully have a better reaction from audiences. With my first draft script I found myself convincing not only myself that my ideas would work, but also the people around me. With this being a problem, it was clear that amending my script and plot ever so slightly can only but benefit me.

The image below is a new diagram showing the tracking of the events that are going to take place in my short film. As you can see I have altered the structure of my short film, hoping that it will eventually make the ending less conventional for audiences. My main aim is that the girls confine in each other and a friendship is formed between them both, by this being the case it hopefully will become more of a shock when RACHEL realises that the girl next door is in fact the person she has been confining in all of the time.

Plot Outline, 2

After the slight changes to my plot, it is clear that my plot summery needs to be altered ever so slightly. Both girl characters are seen to have an initial friendship prior to the short film, with this in mind it gives the chance for the girl’s relationship to develop and for the events that take place not to be so sudden and suspicious as well as predictable. As the short film develops, similarly does the friendship. The girls are seen talking to each other via the computer numerous times, different times in the day and different days in the year. It becomes clear from the beginning that the character Jayney is planning to move house, coincidently a “stranger” moves next door to Rachel on Christmas Day.

Completely oblivious that the girls are in fact in very close proximities to each other, they continue to talk over the computer. After a prior discussion with regards to the girl that has moved next door to Rachel, Rachel continues to slate her as a person in a negative manor. It then doesn’t take much initiative to realise that Rachel is in fact referring to the girl she has become extremely close to. With this in mind, audiences are then left with the question as to weather Rachel does in fact own up to Jayney Ray for what she has done. By having a cliff hanger ending, I am hoping this will be affective in the terms that audiences can create a justifiable opinion on both characters and conclude the ending in the ways they so desire. By doing this, it will leave room for debates and different possible outcomes.

Post 8

Developing a script was initially a lot harder than I anticipated; to allow me to get the best possible outcome I created a lot of planning and additional notes prior to my lessons. The first image shown below is a time line of the events that I intend to take place throughout my short film. Developing this benefited my understanding a lot more and enabled my ideas to get from my head to paper so I could therefore be more organised and have a better understanding of what I wanted to happen.

The penultimate piece of work I completed before actually writing my script was to create a series of character profiles for both my main characters. Having already completed detailed character profiles in the previous post, i focused mainly on the characters emotion and how they act within the short film. This helped me to become visual and jot down, prior to my time line of events, any additional ideas I wanted to develop for my short film. As shown below my character profiles have words and short sentences to briefly describe their personality and the events that happen to them. By doing this my ideas became a lot clearer in my head and I felt near enough ready to then write my first draft of my script.

To conclude in my background study for creating my script, as a class we completed an “8way thinking guide” to bring all of our ideas together. The guide consisted of 8 points, where in which we had to develop questions that could be raised for our initial ideas. Our aim was then to answer the questions in our short film and research. For example, in the point “Feelings” my main question was “What emotions do both characters feel when they find out they are talking to each other?” This was highlighted to me as a key idea that I needed to answer and within writing my script I ensured I answered the question. Furthermore the other points were: Words, people, nature, sights, number, sounds and actions. By completing this guide it enabled me to focus on all aspects that should be included when creating a short film.

Prior to all the research for my script I thought it would be in my best interest to research into Anorexia. By doing this I will have additional information which will help with dealing with the problem in the latter part of my script. I am focussing the idea of an eating disorder on character Jayney Ray; I intend to explore the ideas dealing with her parents and how she has kept it hidden for a long period of time. I found a lot of information out whilst studying in depth into these ideas, and the websites I came across linked me to a range of people’s views and past experiences. With this in mind it was helpful due to know I am more aware of the sorts of anxieties and confidence the characters have. The link below shows a website which I used a lot when planning ideas based around anorexia. The website is mainly for family and friends coping with someone’s eating disorder, this enabled me to work with these ideas for the pros and cons of my character. FamilyAndFriendsCopingWithEatingDisorders.html

I decided to take a photo of my progress when writing my script, as you can see I am using all my independent study rescources to help me develop my script in the best way possible.

Post 7

In post 6 I produced a visual image reinforcing how to make a “good” short film. Within this image I elaborated upon the “Step Outline” which is said to be a good way in which you can check that you have no slack in your film. The step outline includes developing one sentence that summarises what happens throughout the whole of your short, an explanation of what is revealed that is significant to the plot, an account of what is revealed and that is significant to the audiences understanding of the character, finally there needs to be the question raised as to whether there are any indications of a specific theme or genre.

Post 7 mainly consisted of preparation for the making of my script for my short film. This involved making a character profile and discussing briefly my intentional plot outline. Furthermore within post 8 you will receive an insight as to whether i have stuck to my original ideas and how i have developed them.

Planning for my script was one of the hardest aspects to the pre-production work. As a class we generally had a tendency to watch heavy social realist films, with this in mind our teacher recommended we watched “Signs”. The film draws attention to a simpler, yet effective message. As a short film “Signs” did very well at the Schweppes short film festival, and drew in a larger more mature audience. “Signs” encouraged me to focus on a subject that will have an effect with the audience and won’t necessarily be predictable. With this in mind, i aim to leave audiences in confusion – and encourage them to wonder what really is going to happen next! When we were watching the short film our class teacher occasionally paused the viewing and asked us to guess what we think we happen throughout the remainder of the film, with this in mind it left our imaginations to conclude the story. As the film ended, the majority of us had different ideas as to who we presumed it would conclude. This had a great affect on the audience, and i hope to achieve this in my short film.

"SIGNS"

When planning for my script I made a rough outline of notes and indicated 6 vital points that helped to shape my basic plot line. I was encouraged by my class teacher to focus primarily on the world in which my character will live in, my main character themselves and the problem that will occur during my short film. Once all that information was processed I needed then to work out a want, need and obligation for my character. This planning then led me to develop my script.

Character Profile's

JAYNEY RAY: 

Character Jayney Ray has recently moved from Liverpool to where she is now. Audiences become aware of this when she tells opposing character via MSN. Jayney Ray suffered from an ongoing eating disorder; her parents took it within themselves to moe the whole family to Watford, where they are now. Jayney Ray left her boyfriend in Liverpool, and was hoping for a brand new start. The past still very much is Jayney Ray’s present and haunts her. Her family are seen to be overprotective, but out of the kindness in their hearts. The impact the eating disorder had on the character will appear to be very much overwhelming and will ultimately affect the whole of the short films narrative. As an audience you never once hear Jayney Ray admit to having the eating disorder, nor do you hear her talk about it. The only references made are when her dad implies they left the past behind them for a specific reason, as well as Jayney Ray looking at magazines paying particular attention to skinny celebrities. As the tension rises in the film, this becomes a lot clearer. As the film begins the character will appear to be a threat to next door neighbour Rachel, but as the filming concludes you are left suspicious of the both girls stability. I chose Jayney Ray to be 17 years of age, in my opinion that is the year where girls are vulnerable and emotional.

RACHEL:

My Second character profile is of the other protagonist Rachel. Rachel differs significantly from Jayney Ray, and this is noticeable from the beginning of the short film. Rachel is seen to be always unhappy, implications come from the fact that she has broken up with her long term boyfriend. Rachel has a poor attitude and is disrespectful to her Mother the majority of the time. Not only is Rachel arrogant, she is noticeably quite confident in the way she speaks about Jayney Ray, before she even knows her direcently. The ending of the film is focused on Rachel’s choice of actions and as an audience I intend for them to generally make assumptions on her decisions and whether she does in fact own up and tell Jayney Ray. Jayney ray lives with her brother, mother and father and is also similarly to Rachel 16 years of age. The character of Jayney Ray is very distant from the audience, she doesn’t have much to say or do and as the director of the short film I intend on making her extremely suspicious and intriguing. With this distance in mind, it is very obvious that as soon as she is presented to the audience they will almost straight away justify an opinion upon her. The only time as an audience we see the two characters meeting is when Jayney Ray knocks on Rachel’s front door, the majority of the shaping of characters is through individual actions and the conversation they have over the computers.

Plot Outline
The film begins with a focus on the character of Rachel and her constantly negative attitude towards near enough all attributes in life. Rachel is seen at home wither her Mother present in the house; prior to the filming there are implications of a previous family row. Being in such a negative mood, Rachel is seen sitting on her bedroom on her own, her parents are downstairs and with the music blaring there are constantly raised voices. Rachel makes no attempt to move to make an effort to talk to her Mum who is calling her. After Rachel leaving her bedroom she is then seen downstairs in her kitchen, after mooching around in the kitchen and observing a note her Mother has left her, Rachel looks outside and observes the family moving into the house next door. After implications of a “happy” life for Jayney Ray, Rachel takes it out on the note her Mother has left her and slams it on the kitchen side and storms out of the kitchen. At this point in the narrative, audiences are aware that Rachel feels nothing more than jealousy for former protagonist Jayney Ray.

After all the actions being directly from Rachel’s perspective, the camera focus moves to Jayney Ray who is in the process of moving into her house next door. Jayney Ray has a brother and lives with both her Mother and Father, they all are seen to be laughing and joking around whilst moving boxes from the car into the house. Soon after helping out, Rachel moves to her bedroom where she sits at her bedroom desk with her laptop open… After logging onto MSN and talking to a “stranger” about moving to the area, we begin to become aware that this plot line could develop! After a change in houses, audiences are then aware that the girls are in fact talking to each other, with this in mind it will set the audience’s mind racing includes the questions of what will happen next between both girls.

As the plot concludes, Rachel becomes aware that they are in fact talking to each other, and makes an attempt to apologise to her neighbour. As an audience we are not aware of weather she does in fact own up to her bitching, or leaves it. Rachel is last seen at Jayney Ray’s front door. Through muttered words and a nervous temperament Rachel shows a sense that she has personally done something wrong. But, with this in mind we are questioned that, due to her previously shown personality, will she have the guts to own up for what she has done? The last image audiences see is Jayney Ray sitting on her bed tearing up magazines with her music exceptionally loud. Due to this, there are indications that Rachel has in fact told Jayney Ray what has happened and it has affected her in the sense that she is now looking at the images of celebraties again.

Different Theories:
Further research led us to develop an understanding on a variety of theories. Todorv focuses on films that have specifically three main parts to them. An equilibrium, a disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. His ideas were shown through the example of Goldilocks and the three bears. At the start of the story everything is going well and all characters appear to be happy, as the film develops into the second part, a problem is at hand. In this case, the problem of course was Goldilocks herself. As the film concludes the tone appears to be happy again, but with a noticeable change. Characters have changed or developed and they are coping with a new sort of happiness - not identical to the happiness they all felt at the foundation of the story.

Post 6 - What makes a good short film?

To begin our knowledge on short films our school organised a speaker to attend a triple lesson with us. Rebecca Knapp, who is involved with the film making industry, showed us a variety of short films that she worked with. Becky is a film produer and works with various script writters and came with tips and advice for us..

Becky defined the different varieties of short films with their separate timings. With the length of a short film being under 5 minutes, producers could only really focus on a jokey plot with your average stereotypical characters. With this in mind films that lasted between 5 and 12 minutes would have more of a plot, more unique yet still simple characters but a journey of events. Short films enable producers to present their ability to the media industry in hope their carer will proceed from there. With films lasting between 12 and 30 minutes they would have a secondary story line with more developed characters with multiple character traits.

During Becky’s visit she left us with bundles of information and most importantly a variety of scripts we can look at. The script I mainly focused on was “Does God play football?” I enjoyed reading through this script and found it benefited my learning due to already having watched the short film. With this in mind it helped me to develop my idea as well as get a good insight on how scripts should be set out.  

Within making short films, it is clear that the target audience is very narrow. It is important that I keep this in mind when producing my short film, by doing so I will ensure that the films genre isn’t too specific and instead is rather general so it will appear to a variety of audiences. When making a short film, it is important for producers to impress people such as Becky Knapp as ultimately they could fund the productions distribution. It is clear that people make shorts to get into the film industry and with this in mind competition of talent occurring in them is dramatically increasing.

When producing a short film it is clear that the writing and idea development part of any film is likely to be one of the more challenging areas for film makers. With this in mind when writing a script it is important to have previously approached the idea generation and writing stage of your short film. Many critics have analysed a variety of scripts and pre-production work and have said that the most frequent problem is that all producers want to include too much information for their short films.

The image to the left is a brain storm of information of elements that are important when not only writing a script for our short films, but also the remainder of the production work. The information indicated is from the sheets given to us from director/producer Becky Knapp, information on Becky is previously located on post 5, as well as independant study.

The attachment below links directly to the screen writing conventions website, looking at this website will be important as well a helpful when writing scripts for our production in the later part of the year.

scriptfactory.

For my independent study work, we were asked to complete 5 tasks of our own choice. My first piece of work was based upon the short film, previously analysed, “Plastic Bag” by Ramin Bahrani. The film follows the journey of the plastic bag, which encounters every obstacle along the way. The narrative is that of the plastic bag and in the end the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean. I enjoyed this short film, but it did leave me very confused. Personally I prefer a human narrative, because as an audience it is easier to relate to the story line.

My second bit of research was based around the short film “Mister Green”, this is a parable about change; both personal and political. The story line of this film makes you think a lot, and can have a huge impact on the audiences emotions. This is very common for short films; they do have a tendency to touch each viewer individually.

Thirdly I watched “The other side” by Amyn Kaderall. After researching what inspired Amyn Kaderall to produce the short film I came across the factors that she was inspired by the current immigration debate in the US. The film seeks to provoke American audiences into considering a different perspective. The film itself was produced by MMX Independent Television Service (ITV’s) and had a noticeably small cast, due to research it is also apart that it did appear to have a significantly small crew also.

For my penultimate piece of independent study I explored in depth more about shorts themselves. Throughout my research I was directly linked towards study on the UK Film Council. Within this study I came across an interesting quote, which summarised the purpose of short films: “Short films can help new film makers to develop their talent”. The UK film council was abolished due to a change of government, but before hand they funded script development, short films, film production, film export and distribution as well as cinemas. Before the abolishing took place there were a variety of arguments against the film council which complained about “miss using public money”. The council itself was set up in 2000 by the labour government as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. When producing media texts, it appeared that the film council was beneficial and extremely helpful and personally I can not see the reasoning behind it being abolished.

My final study was based upon film director Stephen Mead. Mead is a director of short films and started his career designing at the theatre Royal Stratford East. It is notable that his real passion was however for film and photography. After working as a film editor and being so successful he was soon promoted to a director.  His works include “Little Birds”, “Wick” and “Waterfall”. Stephen is also seen to work intimately with business partner Holly Hartley in the production of his shorts.