Photoshop Practise

Imogen's poster practise on photoshop

Photoshop Practise

Photoshop poster practice

Selfie Poster - Poster research - Alex

• The protagonist is the main focus of the poster which makes it so that we can't see anything in the background.
• The genre isn't really given away by the poster and there is only one colour used - green. 
• The actors' names aren't anywhere to be seen on the poster which is different from full length films and it shows that the people who make the film are more advertising themselves rather than the actors.
• The actors in this film are all Asian and this is first shown on the poster. The director is also Asian and this indicates that the film may be aimed at a specific ethnic group or may be trying to send a message which is related to a specific ethnic group.
• There are a lot of outside references on the bottom of the poster which is where the film is going to be shown.
• There is no way of telling who the film is aimed at either from the poster because there is no indication as to what the film is about unless you know other films from the producers.
• The title is the biggest part of the film poster so it is obvious that it's the most important piece of information.
• The producing company logo is in the top left hand corner of the poster and this is for it to be recognised.
• The company logo isn't usually featured in a full length film poster.
• The yellow text works well with the green background and the names of the people involved in the making of the film is written in a larger and bolder text.
• All of the text is central and on the bottom half of the poster so the main character can be the main focus of the poster - composition also does this.
• Because it is a short film there is no certification. 

Apartment 41 poster - Poster research - Alex

• Apartment 41 is a short horror film and we can tell this because of the different layout to full length films however it is also weird for a short film because of the placement and size of the text.
• The layout is different in the way that the actors names are almost the same size as everyone else's name involved in the making of the film and you are given a little bit of information about what the film is about.
• This is because in a short film the people who make the film are just as if not more important than the actors so they should be as well known as the actors are.
• This information is written underneath the title where it says 'what if she never leaves you' and this intrigues the audience because it is asking them a direct question. However this is a weird thing to have on a short film poster as they don't usually feature tag lines like this. Tag lines are usually only used for feature length films.
• There is very little colour in this film poster which is iconic of the horror genre.
• The Facebook and twitter logos are featured on this poster which is again different from a full length film. This highlights that you can watch the short films on them and it is advertised using them. This is a good way of advertising themselves as well as the film.
• There isn't a variety of fonts used which is different to a full length film. 
• We can only see one character on the poster and because she is silhouetted we can make an educated guess that she is the antagonist.
• This guess is based on the fact that she is mysterious and haunting which is iconic of a demon or other antagonist in a horror film.
• The colours of black and white are basic but effective as they contrast well and makes the text stand out. The actors names are written on either side of the poster and although there is nothing indicating that they are the actors names we know they are because they are always the biggest on every poster.
• We can tell from the poster that the film will most probably follow Todorov's theory of narrative because most horror films do and because the demon invading on their lives is classed as the disruption part of the theory and that this picture is most probably to show this disruption.
• The title is in a white font until the end of it which is in red and this is effective because it means the people who see the poster will find it easier to remember the name than if it was in a white font like the rest of the text.
• Because it is a short film there is no set certification but it looks as though it would be aimed at a higher age group rather than a lower one due to the haunting poster.

The draft of our poster - Poster research - Alex

Silence of the Lambs poster - Poster research - Alex

• You can tell that this poster is of the horror genre due to the main very disturbing image.
• The image is disturbing because it is not natural, the character's eyes are bright red like the colour of blood which symbolises potential gore and is the connotation of evil.
• The colours featured in the poster are all really dark which represents the nature of the film because dark and cold colours are iconic of a horror film.
• The composition of the character makes her the main object of focus because we can't see any background action or information.
• The only other bit of information we are given is the insect which replaces the character's mouth and this also suggests horror genre due to it being disturbing and mist people are scared of insects.
• This particular insect has a skull on it which makes it even more frightening.
• We can't help but notice that the character on this poster is female which supports gender stereotypes that females are always the victims. We can tell that she is a victim because of her facial expression, she looks trapped. You would think that she was a victim from this poster however she actually plays a really strong protagonist role.
• Her eyes are red and the colour red can often symbolise blood and danger and this is more obvious because of her white skin, her white skin makes her look dead.
• The film poster will attract an audience that can handle and enjoy horror films.
• The title is orange so that it stands out as the rest of the poster is dark. 
• The actors names are written in a much larger font than anyone else name on the poster such as the directors. 
• The layout of the poster is very standard and doesn't really give us a clue what the film is about or what kind of narrative it has. 
• This film is based on a book as referenced below the title where it says "from the terrifying best seller" 
• Silence of the Lambs is certified an 18 which gives an idea on how the story is going to be and will shows who their target audience is. However making the film an 18 will also attract people younger than this because of what they know an 18 rated film contains.

Avengers Assemble poster - Poster reseach - Alex

• 
  You can tell from this poster that it is an action genre because there is a lot of action going on.
• You can mainly see this action in the background of the poster but also by the way the characters are running and the fast paced movement of buildings catching fire and spaceships crashing.
• You can also tell that it is an action film through costume as they are dressed up as well recognised Marvel superheroes and the long shot of the camera makes it so we can see all of them clearly.
• The Marvel name is well known for its action films and so they knew that putting the Marvel name on there would attract their regular audience.
• The dark blue and red colours are iconic of an action film so this would indicate an action genre as well.
• Their composition within the frame does this too as it enables us to observe the amount of movement going on.
• The costumes attract a specific audience of those who enjoy the superhero/action genre. The actors’ names at the top of the poster will also attract this audience because these actors are famous for their roles as superheroes.
• They are represented as superheroes but not necessarily positive or negatively, they do however look powerful which is helped by the slightly lowered camera angle.
• Most of the superheroes are men which supports gender stereotypes and represents women negatively.
• You can make an educated guess from this poster that the main focus of it are the protagonists as they are working together as a team and again we recognise them as superheroes.
• The layout of the poster doesn’t hide anything and shows everything that is going on which is quite a lot and this is again iconic of an action film, particularly a marvel action film.
• The title is the biggest and most obvious part of what is on the poster.
•  The font used for the title and actors names implies action.
• Marvel is the wider cultural reference because the superheroes were all in Marvel comics before they were made into films.
• The actors’ names are more obvious than the director’s name because consumers are more likely to recognise the actors’ names rather than the director’s name and therefore the actors would encourage someone to watch the film more. You can only really find the director’s name if you look for it.
• The date that the film is released is 4^th May and the ‘a’ featured is the actual Avengers logo which starts to get people to recognise the logo as belonging to that film.
• The certification isn’t shown on the poster but the film is certified as a 12 which is suiting considering Marvel’s target audience.

Researching Short Film Promotion

Find out about the role of film festivals in introducting short films and their makers to critics and audiences.

A short film festival is a festival for short film makers to submit their work and reach a wider range of audience. It also helps emerging film makers get noticed for their work. 



The top 5 most submitted film festival are:

1. Sundance Film Festival (USA)
2. Cannes Film Festival (France)
3. Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (USA)
4. Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France)
5. Aspen Shortfest (USA)

But short film makers don't go straight to short film festivals they go through a website called Vimeo who get sent in short films and have critics who view each short film and then publish them onto their website. The short films can then be put forward to short films afterwards. Whatever happens the short films get viewed and the film makers gets recognition.


 

Filming permissions 20th of October

Filming Permissions

 

We needed filming permissions to film in two locations, Churchill Square and the Dark Room.

Unfortunatley we have faced problems securing permission to film in Churchill Square.

Here is what happened:

                           Facebook messages exchanged for them to email me

                                     The email telling me what they require

                                                          The reply

Options

                                                       The problem



Due to us being unable to get Public Liabilty insurance of a minimum of 5 million we cannot film in Churchill Square. Instead we will film outside so that it does not need insurance, we can still use the same ideas but it has been made difficult due to not being able to film there.





But we have been able to secure permission of filming in the Dark Room.

Here is what happened:

 

Props

For our short film we will need a number of props to fulfill maximum effect of intensity and enigma.

Prop List

• Magazine
• Shopping bags
• Fake gun
• Sleeping bag

Magazine

• We will be using a magazine to give to the protagonist asking for an autograph (she will be on the front).
• It'll be used when the kidnappers take her to their lair, the amount of magazines will emphasise their obsession for her. 
• In our last scene it'll be used when she wakes up from the dream and realises that the focus is on the magazine and that she dreamt the whole thing.

The magazine cover will also be our film poster.

To create the poster we will take some photos of our actor Louise and Photoshop it onto a magazine photo cover.

Shopping bags

• Shopping bags will be used when our main character walks out of the shop which reveals her identity as a transformed person. As she walks into more shops her collection will build up, this emphasises her being famous.

We will use shopping bags we already have mainly focusing on high end bags to show that she is famous.

Fake gun

• A fake gun will be used to hostage the protagonist and to create enigma and panic.

We will borrow a fake gun for the drama department.

Sleeping bag

• We will be using the sleeping bag to show that she is homeless.

We have a sleep bag we will use.

Health & Safety

Health & Safety

The Dark Room

When filming in the dark room we must be careful of the surroundings because there are various tables sticking out, this could become a safety issue as we will be filming in the dark and may trip over it.

To avoid tripping over the tables we will clear them out of the way so nobody is harmed.

When we film in the dark room our protagonist will be tied up in a corner.

To avoid any health problems we will make sure that our actor is comfortable and will not be in pain when tied up.

Brighton

When filming in Brighton we have to be careful of the safety of other people by making sure we don't bump into anyone whilst filming.

We will make sure someone checks the surrounding before we start filming.

Lighting

We have a number of different lighting techniques for all of our unique locations in the short film. We are filming both inside and out, so we need to vary our use of light in order to create the right atmosphere.

The first location is in Churchill Square, Brighton. This location could vary lighting, because it is a shopping centre. There will be both natural (from the glass roof) and artificial lighting (from the inside lighting) inside. Depending on the weather, one of these may be more prominent than the other. Our best option would probably be to film sometime in the morning, before the day is too bright, and whilst there may still be lights on within the shopping centre. Hopefully, the artificial lighting will suffice, and be appropriate for our film. The other problem would be setting up our own lighting in the centre, as this may be a problem, particularly with lots of people walking by and lots of shop windows surrounding us. That is why we will need to set the white balance, and chose a day where the lighting will be appropriate for us. For the first scene, we want to have natural appearing lighting, as this scene is meant to appear normal at first.

Our second location is outside Pryzm, by the seafront. If the weather is nice, there will be lots of natural lighting here which we can use. However, the building is slightly over the footpath, meaning that we can move closer if we need more shade in which to film. This also means we could use our own lighting if we so wish, and there will be far fewer people walking by than in the centre. This choice will be great, as we can chose whichever lighting will be more appropriate with the conditions of the day. We will want a similar style of lighting to the first, as it needs the same natural feel to the scene.

The next location will be the alley where the protagonist is kidnapped. We may use less lighting during this scene in order to add a darker tone to the visuals of the film as this is where the narrative also takes a sharp turn for the worst. We can use our own lighting to bring out the protagonist, and make her stand out in the dark street. This will add a sense of innocence ot the protagonist and unnatural theme to the scene, which is appropriate to this point in the narrative, as it is the transition from a very surreal earlier few scenes to a dark scene of kidnapping.

Our last scene will be shot in the darkroom at college. In this room, we will use a combination of the rooms artificial lighting, and our own lighting. We want to have the scene shot with red lighting, much like a traditional darkroom. If the college's room has this, then we will use this feature to film. If not, then we will use standard lighting, and alter the scene during editing. We want the light to spotlight both the protagonist and the antagonist. This will add to the shot/ reverse shot sequence with both the characters. We will use lighting above the protagonist, to show that she has very little power in this scene, as the light is shining down on her, and she will be composed lower within the frame. As well as normal shots, we will also have a POV shot of the protagonist waking up, where we will use the rooms lighting to add distortion to the scene by having it very bright and central in the frame.

Costume

Costume.

Antagonist

For the antagonist who Alex plays she will wear a black coat and black heels, but will be distinguished by her red lipstick. This will help her blend into the background and look sophisticated, this will confuse the audience on who this is

Protagonist

The protagonist will have various costumes as she is transformed from a normal girl into a celebrity and then into a homeless girl.


Normal girl- She will wear casual clothes so Louise (the actor) can wear what she wants as it does not matter as she is set to blend in with the people of Brighton.


Celebrity- When she walks out the shop she will be wearing a fur coat and various other extravagant clothes such as sparkly jewellery to emphasise the transition of her lifestyle by becoming famous.


Homeless- The costume will be dull for when she becomes homeless so khaki coloured clothes or just plain black, we can even rip some of them to give it the full effect of living rough.

Little Girl

The little girl who asks for an autograph will have a basic costume of what she is wearing in the present day as we don't want her to stand out, just blend in with everyone else.

The Kidnappers

The Kidnappers will be dressed in head to top in black, you will only see Alex's costume as she is the one who kidnaps the protagonist but the driver will be seen when driving the car so black will add mystery and tension to the plot.

Sound Design

We will need to plan for our sounds during the filming and editing of our short film. This will include foleys, dialogue, ambient sound, and diegetic and non-diegetic sound. It is important to plan for sound because we need to know what equipment we will need for each type of sound, and we will need to know what we will be recording/making and when.

Location

Our location could be a problem, as we will be filming in Brighton, which is nearly always very busy. There will be lots of sounds going on at once, particularly within Churchill square shopping centre, such as the sound of people talking, cars, music, etc. We can chose when we film to try and cut down on the amount of noises. This would mean choosing to film on a day that would be less busy, such as a weekday as opposed to the weekend, where it will be busiest. If we film in the half term, it might be a bit more busy than usual, due to schools having a week off. I think mid-week would be the best time to film this, as it should be the least busy during this time.To avoid picking too much of this extra sound up we will use an external mic, so that we only record the sounds that we want from filming in that location. The only other problem would be filming near the seafront, as the wind might be strong, which could affect our sound recording. I think the best way to avoid this would be to check the weather forecast in advance, and pay attention to wind.

Dialogue 

Our film will not be very dialogue-heavy. In fact, there is only two scenes of dialogue in the whole five minute stretch. We will be filming one of these scenes in the dark room at college. This will be a fairly easy process, as we will be the only ones in the room at the time, which means we can control our filming and the sounds that can be heard. We will use an external mic to pick up the dialogue when we are filming. We have done this before, twice in our first year at college, so we know that this will work in that location. The second bit of dialogue will be in the shopping centre, and is only a very brief back and forth exchange between two people. We will, again, use an external mic in order to pick up the dialogue. The problem here would be the background noise of all the other people in the centre. To avoid this, we will get the mic as unnoticably close to the people in the scene as possible. This should cancel out most of the background noise, but if not, at least make the dialogue the most prominent sound heard.

Foleys 

We will need to use foleys for our short film. The most obvious would be a gunshot sound, which we will have to find during editing, as we cannot record a real gunshot for obvious reasons. This will be the most noticeable foley, however, in the same scene we will need the sound of a door opening, lights turning on, and the sound of a gun cocking. These will all need to be added during the editing process. We can find the necessary sound effects either on Garageband, or we can find it non-copyright online. We will have to chose the most realistic and most fitting sounds In order for our film to be believable. We will also need the sound of a busy shopping centre, which we can either record during filming on the day, or we can find during editing. This will be added to add a sense of depth to the scenes in the shopping centre. The last foleys we need will be the sounds of a car slowly driving, then stopping, and the doors opening. These, we can all find during the editing stage, as we will be filming near the seafront, so any sounds that we do record during the day may be affected by the wind. Choosing the sounds during editing makes eliminates this problem, as they will be clearly recorded sounds.

Audience feedback - Planning - Alex

After showing people our storyboard we asked them what they thought:

One person said that they thought it was a good idea and could work but they would be skeptical of filming in the mall because there are a lot of people there that could get in the way and also that the car scene will be hard to film because we need to find a road where there aren't too many cars so that we are free to film.

Another person said that our idea sounded a little complicated but could work if we put the work in and find the right supplies and enough actors. They also said that if it works that it will be amazing.

Location

We have decided that the two locations that we will film our short film in are Brighton and our College. We have chosen brighton because it works well with the contrast of locations in our narrative. It has busy high streets and an often packed shopping centre, which will be good to use for our scenes where the protagonist is surrounded by people. Brighton also has lots of often very quiet alleys, where we can easily film the kidnapping scene. The scene we will shoot in the college will take place in the dark room that the college has. This will be the scene where the protagonist wakes up and is surrounded by photos of herself.

I have been to brighton to see where we could film our scenes. Churchill Square shopping centre is probably the best place to film the first few scenes, as it always has people walking through. This will work well with our narrative and animatics, as the protagonist receives looks from lots of people as she walks through somewhere busy. The shopping centre is usually busy, however it will definitely be less busy during the weekdays than the weekends. I went to visit on thursday around midday, and it was not too busy. I think the best time to film this will be mid-week, probably in the morning around 9 or 10, as there will be some people there, but not too many to get in the way of our filming. Lighting could vary in this location, as there are glass panels on the roof, but also artificial lighting inside. The weather will definitely determine which lighting is most prominent, so we can check the weather in order to get the lighting we want.


For the scene where the protagonist finds the poster of herself on a wall, we have chosen to film outside of Pryzm. This is right by the seafront and the cinema. We have chosen this location because it has lots of posters on the outside of the building, and the addition of our poster will not seem unusual. As well as this, it is usually quite quiet along the path beside it, which helps for easier filming. The only problems with filming here would be that it is right next to the seafront, and we may have to get permission to film outside or to film the poster. The fact that it is right next to the seafront means that wind could be a problem, as it could affect our audio quality. We will try and avoid this by using an external mic, and picking a day to film where it is less windy.


The next location would be the alley in which the kidnapping takes place. This alley will need to have a road going down it, as we have planned for a car to be used during the kidnapping. There are several narrow streets in Brighton by the seafront, before the Laines. They are fairly secluded, and not too many people walk down them. During my visit, not one car drove down, so it is fair to say the roads in the narrow streets are seldom used. This will be a good opportunity to film, as the lack of people will suit the secluded nature of the scene, and the lack of cars will make it much easier to film.

The last location we need is the dark room at college. Imogen has been inside and photographed the room, and it looks perfect for our film. We will need permission from visual arts in order to use the room. We will get permission once we have decided when to film this, and permission shouldn't be difficult to get because one of my other subjects is a visual art. The room is dark, and has the exact lighting that we need. We will use artificial lighting, probably in the form of the rooms lights and direct spotlights, for this scene because we can emphasize the characters distortion, and show that this is a kidnapping. As well as this, there will be no one else here when we are filming, so our filming here can be very conrolled.

Hair and Make-up - Planning - Alex

Scene 1: Brighton street

Louise (the protagonist) will have straightened hair in this scene because we are trying to represent her as being famous so her hair needs to be neat and tidy. It has to be an ideology of what girls would want their hair to look like.

Her make up will be light at this point but evident and this is so we can show the change in her make up later on in the film.

The little girl won't be wearing any make up but her hair will be as like Louise's as we can get it to show that she is a fan of hers and wants to be like her.

Scene 2: The mall

Louise's hair and make up will stay the same as in the first scene because there would be no reason for this to change yet.

For when Alex is in the background her hair will also be straightened but a little bit backcombed for the purpose of the flashbacks later in in the film and to again show that she is a fan of Louise's. The backcomb will give the impression that she is a little bit crazy.

Alex's make up will be bold, particularly in the way that she will be wearing bright red lipstick because this becomes the thing that the audience will identify her with. We also want her to be noticed which is why the rest of her make up is bold.

Scene 3: Nothing changes

Scene 4: Outside Pryzm

Louise's hair hasn't changed but her make up is a lot bolder now to show her development due to fame. 

Alex's make up doesn't change for the rest of the film.

Scene 5: Brighton alley way

Louise's hair will have become a little messier because she will have been running.

Alex's outfit will have changed but her hair and make up won't have done. The audience will see the red lipstick and associate it with what they have seen before. We will keep applying Alex's make up to keep it bold.

Scene 6: Dark Room

Louise's hair will now be completely messed up to make the transition of finding out that she is homeless a little better and also it shows that the dream is coming to an end as her true identity is starting to come through.

Louise's make up will be smudged and we will use more make up to create cuts and bruises on her face and arms. This will make the kidnapping part of the plot more realistic.

Scene 7: Brighton Streets

Louise is homeless now so her hair is to look as though it hasn't been brushed for weeks and she won't be wearing any evident make up. We may use make up to help with making Louise look as though she has taken drugs and/or is very tired.

Alex will walk past with her same red lipstick which will make the audience realise it's her. 

Script - Planning - Alex

We don't have much dialogue in our short film because our story is well told without it. We only have the dialogue in places that we are unable to explain what is happening in any other way.

Animatic 2

This is our second animatic!

Update: Aims for october 13th

During this double lesson we aim to get both our animatics done. We have roughly 2 hours to get this done, as well as continuing with our individual roles for the blog posts (listed on previous blog post) in order to meet the deadline.

Individual roles
Imogen- Complete the first animatic, make the second animatic
Joe- Complete sound design, make the second animatic
Alex-Absent during lesson, continuing individual posts at home

Update:
The double has finished, and we have finished the first animatic, and have posted about the changes we made from the storyboard. We have also recorded the audio for the second animatic, and have started to edit this on final cut. Finally, we have planned what we each need to do during the next two days in order to finish the planning before the deadline.

Animatics 1

This is our Animatic 1 video.  We had some problems with our timings on being too short, click here to see Joe's blog post about what happpened.

Changes from storyboard to animatic

Whilst making our first animatic, we ran into a unforeseen problem with our short film. We had written the timing on our storyboard, and once they were all in sequence, the film was far too short, lasting only a couple of minutes.We had not anticipated this whilst designing the storyboard, and we had to change the animatic in order to get as close to five minutes in length as possible. We decided between us what shots we would make longer, why this would be so, and for how long each shot would then last. We decided, in particular, to extend the shot lengths during the kidnapping scene. The shots in this sequence were able to be longer because holding the shots builds the pace slower, and as this is a scene where the protagonist if followed then kidnapped, the slower pace will make for a greater build up to the final scene. We also focused on the scenes within the shopping centre, deciding that slightly longer lasting shots would add more context. After we made the changes to the duration of the shots, our sequence lasted about 4:48 without title or credits, which was long enough to meet the criteria.

Update from 10th of October

Update from today's lesson (10th of October)




We have now finished our story board with all the timings. Here is a picture of Alex finishing the timings.

 This is one of our storyboards.

We also aim to have finished animatic 1 and 2 by next lesson. I am halfway through animatic 1.

Genre, representation and audience - Planning - Alex

Genre:

The genre we have chosen is a hybrid of comedy and fantasy and we will use the established film style of social realism as it is about poverty. Our genre is similar to the short film "About a girl" because that is also a comedy which is about real life issues. However "About a girl" hasn't got a fantasy aspect like ours does. A film that has a similar fantasy feel like ours is a film called "Inception" which is where we got the inspiration for the dream idea.

Representation:

Our film both positively and negatively represents the life of a famous person. For example at the beginning our protagonist starts off being really happy and is enjoying the attention. Then we show the negative sides to being famous as our film progresses and we show this through the character getting more and more unhappy. 

The negative representation is also shown when we see her look at herself in the window reflection behind the poster. We will use a shallow depth of field to do this and to imply to the audience that she doesn't like the person she becomes. 

Our film gives a negative representation of homeless people because it supports the stereotype that homeless people are involved with drugs.

Audience:

Our target audience are 17-18 year olds because that is the age that we are so we know what they relate to. Females are who we are mainly aiming our film at because they are the ones that dream about being famous but we hope to interest the male audience as well. We feel as though females would relate to it more. We aren't aiming our film at a particular social class because it shows both extreme sides of life (poverty and being famous). We would use social media to show our film to raise awareness to everyone about the issues shown in the film but we would also try to get our film shown in an independent cinema.

Rejected ideas - Planning - Alex

In our spider diagram it shows the ideas that we rejected from being in our short film. The first one that we ruled out was the idea of animals being in it because we thought that it would be quite difficult to film because it would be hard to get the animals to act accordingly to our instructions.










Another idea that we rejected was that our film would be set in the future and we rejected this because we didn't have the right equipment to give a futuristic real. Also it would be above our budget.

We were thinking of shooting inside a coffee shop but we decided against it as there were easier ways to shoot the specific scene. It would have meant that we would need to get permission and also get more people to act.

Because we were basing our short film around a dream we had a thought that the person who is dreaming would have been in a wheelchair and they would have been having a dream about walking. However we felt as though the idea of poverty would be more striking for people to watch. It may have also been too depressing and we feel that people wouldn't enjoy it.

We also realised that a magazine would work better than a book because it supports the idea of our short film with the idea of fame. A book may have been harder to relate to than a magazine is.

Allocation of Roles- Imogen Evans

Allocation of roles- Imogen Evans

Pre-production roles



Alex Wilkins

• Location Scout
• Sound designer
• Hair and Makeup Designer

Imogen Evans

• Animatics Designer
• Lighting Designer
• Costume Designer

Joe Major

• Prop buyer
• Camera Operator
• Storyboard Artist

All

• Screenwriter
  

Pre-production tasks

All

• Write a script for dialogue
• Experiment with camera techniques
• One audience feedback each
• Sound design plans
• Write a shoot schedule

Alex Wilkins

• Location research
• Organisation of Actors
• Research into hair designs for characters
• Research into make up designs for characters
• Apply the concept of narrative into plans

Imogen Evans

• Record commentary for Animatics
• Location permissions
• Write up health and safety considerations for your plan
• Apply the concept of genre into plans
• Apply the concept of audience into plans

Joe Major

• Lighting decisions
• Draw animatic
• Research into props for characters
• Write a synopsis for the film
• Apply the concept of media language into plans





Brief Story Outline

Our story for our short film will be about a girl who is unknowingly famous, only to wake up and realize that it was all a dream. Our narrative will loosely follow most of Todorov's stages, however due to the fact that the ending reveals that all the events weren't real, there will be no 'new' equilibrium.

The film will open with a fade from white, with the girl walking down the street.The atmosphere will appear normal until she realizes that a lot of people are looking at her. There are people whispering and pointing at the girl, and she is confused as to why this is happening. She then gets approached by a child asking for an autograph, and the girl signs a poster, still confused as to what is going on. She then goes into a shop, and walks back out again with bags of clothes, implied that they have been given to her by the shop free of charge. Walking back out, there will be a time-lapse of the girl walking, ending at the cinema (Odeon in Brighton). There, she sees a poster with her on it, with something sinister written over, it. Upon seeing this, the girl runs into an ally, only to be followed by a black car. Shortly after, the girl is kidnapped, and wakes up in a dark room. The rooms walls are lined with photos of the girl, revealed in blurred POV shots. The kidnappers enter the room and walk menacingly towards the girl. At this point, she wakes up only to be sleeping in the streets, and all the previous events in the film were just part of a dream.

The film loosely follows Todorov's narrative theory, however, the twist at the end changes the narrative completely. The dream follows Todorov's theory, only it starts at the disruption, this makes it confusing and non-nonsensical like dreams usually are. It also means that both the protagonist and the audience have the same lack of knowledge, allowing for more empathy to be built for the protagonist. The twist at the end changes the narrative because it reveals that everything prior to it was just a dream. This means that there is no new equilibrium, however the equilibrium prior to the dreams narrative will now appear to be the 'new' equilibrium.

Magazine aspect

In our short film we have a couple scenes where a magazine /poster is used to show the character that she is famous by showing her, herself on the cover of a magazine.


We will take a picture of the actor playing the main character (Louise, Alex's friend) and Joe will Photoshop her face onto the magazine and poster so that when the transition comes to her waking up and discovering it was a dream, she can look at the magazine and the audience will establish the difference of the character and the magazine girl revealing the dream.


We plan to use the magazine/poster in a shot where a little girl approaches the main character with a magazine asking her for her autograph, this is part of the emphasising that she is famous but doesn't realise that she is. The second scene where the poster is used will be when she walks past PRZYM where posters are located on the side of the wall, this will be shown with a variety of LS, MD and Close Up's.

Here are some ideas for the autograph picture:

These magazine covers would be easy to Photoshop a different face on and it also fits the age of the girl asking for an autograph.