First Rough Cut

First Rough Cut

Coursework Final Film Idea

Coursework Final Idea Rewritten


Due to personal circumstances I had to change the entire idea for my film. For my new idea I have decided to focus my narrative on a six year old boy, whom has decided to leave home and run away to the woods. I am going to show several shots of him looking seemingly bored, lonely and neglected at home with his parents not paying much attention to him. I am going to depict the boy as acting a lot older than he actually is, this is inspired by Wes Anderson films, specifically Moonrise Kingdom and I am also inspired by the child's storybook Where the Wild things are. Every night, before the boy falls asleep, he stays up late and draws a map, planning his adventure. One night, he falls asleep just as  he finishes the map, then I will make it look like the next day he wakes up and starts his adventure, (when he is actually in a dream the whole time). Next I will add a sequence of him leaving home and moving across the map he drew.

Coursework Film Idea

Final Idea Concept
For my final idea I have decided I want to create a psychological horror, depicting the tragedy of a death of a child and the guilt that consumes the main character whom is at fault. I did not want the concept of my horror to be too cliche, I wanted it to be more abstract and metaphorical. I have visualised my character to be a teenage boy, and the scene opens with him playing a video game and being distracted whilst he is meant to be babysitting a small child. The little boy wanders off and climbs up a chair to reach a toy and gets the string of a blind caught around his neck, he falls off the chair and tragically accidentally hangs himself, this moment coincides with the older boy losing the video game. I have chosen this freak accident because it can happen with small children and is quite shocking and distressing to audiences. As the older boy walks around the house to find the little boy he witnesses what has happened and it is then that the character faces two choices - he either calls 999 and gets help or runs away in fear he will be blamed. I will initially show the character getting help by calling 999 and create a montage showing the little boy being rushed to hospital and being saved, the little boy will live and the main character will be seen as a hero, as audiences we are satisfied with this happy end, at the moment the scene climaxes I will cut back to the choices. The audience will then realise that the scenes that have just been shown never happened, it was a false end, and the true end will be that the character is consumed with guilt and will run away. The character then goes on a path of destruction, making mistakes over and over, I will create a chaotic series of scenes to demonstrate this, this will end in the character dying, we realise that the small child died all along and this leads the main character to his death, it is ironic, bleak and tragic and leaves the audience feeling uncomfortable and perhaps a little distressed.

Actors chosen for Characters
I have decided that I will have one of my younger brothers play the role of the young child. I have two brothers aged 5 and 4, but have decided I will use the four year old because he is more natural in front of the camera because he isn't always aware he is being filmed and he will seem more vulnerable because he is much smaller. I will have to spend a lot of time directing him and making sure he doesn't try and show off in front of the camera which will be difficult. I won't need any specific costume for him as I want it to seem naturalistic and realistic so he will wear his own clothes, I have considered doing a single take/shot of his lips and making them blue with makeup to suggest the idea to audiences that he is losing oxygen and is very much dying. I think he looks innocent enough that audiences will form an emotional connection to his character.

Story Board

Responses to my Presentation

Responses to my presentation - I somewhat disagree with most of my comments because they all contradict each other, an example being that I have 'no original ideas' and yet 'too many ideas'. I think they misunderstood my pitch, which could have been because I was too unclear with my ideas but I disagree with the visuals not being as important as the story line, it is a five minute piece and so I will struggle to build character development in five minutes to a point where an audience feels a connection to the character or for me to create a detailed, elaborate plot. I also think in most short films you don't see this, it has to be short and straight to the point, and the exam board recommends little narrative so I don't think writing an elaborate script is worth doing, although I will write a rough script. I have a clear vision in my head which I struggle to describe to others which is something I need to work on.

A remake of a short film called 'Script'

Evaluation

After watching a collection of short films, I decided to remake the one minute short film 'Script' created by Ben Ledsham. I thought I could make certain improvements to this film, and I think in some ways I have whilst in others the original is better. I think the lighting and colours in the original were better because the original had dim, mood lighting that added to the atmosphere. Our remake had bright lights and colours which didn't add a lot to the atmosphere or make the scene seem more menacing and tense. However, I think the music used in the remake built a lot more tension a lot quicker, whereas, in the original the music gives the scene a lot more of a sombre feel.

Special Effects Editing - An Independent Study

Special Effects Editing - Attempt Four

For this edit, I wanted to experiment with the green screen and see how effective it was in special effects. I made Caitlin stand in front of a green screen whilst I filmed her, I then put the footage in premiere pro and used the key colour tool to replace the green with any photo of my choice. I also had to crop parts so the rest of the wall behind the green screen was not visible. The only thing I would do differently is to make sure the green screen is completely flat and there aren't too many shadows on it, as this affects how the edit looks as you can see the texture of the green screen material. 

Special Effects Editing - An Independent Study

Special Effects Editing - Attempt Three

For this editing technique I wanted to experiment with fast forwarding footage of Caitlin walking back and fourth in the classroom, to do this I used the razor tool to cut a section of the footage and then used the Rate Stretch tool to speed up a section of footage, whilst keeping the rest of the footage the same speed.