Workbook
In this workbook, I will be breaking down some of my recent projects from Screenology, explaining the planning process and analysing specific details within the actual film.
01/10/18 - A Story in 20 photos
01/10/18 - A Story in 20 photos
Our third film brief with screenology was a 20 photo challenge. Essentially, we had to create a short film only using 20 still photos with no dialogue or narration. Also, using established sound effects and music was also forbidden; we would have to create our own folly and compose our own soundtrack . The reason for this was to make us focus on visual storytelling through composition, mise-en-scene and sound.
With the brief set, we got placed into our groups and roles; I was tasked as the Cinematographer. My job was to work with the preparation and operation of the camera equipment with also determining the look and feel of the film. I would work closely with the Director on what the final image would look like.
Once together with my group, we started to talk about our own ideas and what type of film we wanted to make.
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For a few weeks before this brief, I had an idea of doing a stalker film. It would follow a photographer going around taking pictures of women and hanging them up in his house. Eventually, he would lead the women back to murder them in cold blood.
The twist would be that for the majority of the film, it wouldn't be obvious that the guy is a stalker. Instead, it would be suitably hinted at until the very end when it's revealed he's been taking pictures of his victims before he killed them. Also, the fact that the guy was a photographer and taking pictures fitted quite well with his brief's task. This was a good starting point for the group as it gave us a base to build from and flesh out the idea more.
Our original idea was that the stalker would have a girlfriend, however she would be unaware of his hobby. The film would start with the man hanging up a photo of himself and his partner. Just like the women, the audience wouldn't look too much into the picture. We show that the two are supposedly in love and cut to night where the couple are in bed. Waking up from her sleep, the women notices that the man's laptop has been left open by accident. Curious, she gets out of bed just to harmlessly see what's on there. Then to her horror, she finds photos of other girls that the guy has been stalking. She even finds the photo that the man was hanging up in the beginning. Zooming in, it's revealed that the guy is actually just using his girlfriend to take pictures of other girls discreetly. We then decided that the man would wake up and see that his girlfriend has found him out and in pure desperation, kill her. Also, instead of stalking random girls, the man would be stalking the sister of his girlfriend.
But as we discussed the idea more, it seemed that everyone wanted to move away from the stalker element. It quickly changed from the guy being a stalker, to him just cheating on his girlfriend. The beginning photo would be of the couple and the sister together, then the sister would just discover that the his boyfriend and her are holding hands secretly. Everything else about the story would be the same. We all agreed upon the idea, so me and the Director (Tatyana) started storyboarding.
With the storyboards and all the pre-production preparations completed, we began to produce the film. However, on the first day of taking the photos, we ran into some flaws into the story. Because we could only use 20 photos and no dialogue was allowed, it quickly became apparent to us that conveying the fact that the boyfriend and the sister (how would it even be clear that she is the sister?) were having an affair would be near impossible. As just holding hands isn't really a clear sign. Plus, would a man kill his girlfriend over something that could be easily explained? The more we thought about it, the more holes we poked into the story. So, after having an emergency meeting, we decided to go back to the original stalker idea because it was easier to convey the story while still being impactful. I storyboarded again, though most of the shots would be somewhat similar so me and Tatyana didn't draw every shot because we had a pretty good idea for what we wanted. This time though Tatyana wrote down a shot list for us to use on set; ticking off each shot as it's completed.
15/10/18 - Film Conventions
For this brief, we were given the freedom to create any type of short film that we wanted; with the catch that we break one of the twenty film conventions that was given to us on the sheet. This is a great way to understand the typical the conventions what make up a film, but also to realise how to break though said conventions in order to try to pioneer our future films.
I was tasked as both the sound recordist and editor with my team. This meant I has two very important roles in both the production and pre production of the film. On set, I was in charge of the sound recording equipment i.e the zoom, boom pole etc. It was my responsibility to make sure the sound that we capture was of the best quality. Also as editor, this mean't that I had to put all the clips together in post trying to create flow and pace.
Together with my group, we came up with this idea of an interrogation scene. We would someone get brutally tortured for seemingly no reason, so the audience builds sympathy towards this character. However, the twist would be that the character being tortured actually committed a horrible crime and the interrogator is just trying to get information out of them with good reason.
At first, we thought that a CIA type situation would be the best premise for this. With the interrogator being a special agent and who they're trying to get information out of a terrorist. This then changed the more we discussed due to us wanting the characters to be more "relatable".
The group finally agreed on a father, who has taken this women hostage called "Kelly", because she has taken his daughter from in. So, in a desperate attempt to save her, he tortures this women to get her to confess to her crimes. The convention we would be breaking from the list is the establishing shot, instead we would use audio to start the scene. This was because we wanted to try and keep the rest of the conventions "normal", as much as possible.
I was also tasked with writing the screenplay, so I began jotting down the story beats...
15/11/18 - TV Advert
Self titled, we were asked to create our very own TV advert promoting either an established, or wholly new product. This time however, we had to create a "crap-matic". The idea behind this was that for the first week, we would film an extremely rough version of our idea and have it screened on Friday. By doing this, it allowed us to gain vital feedback from our peers, but also for our own benefit within our group so what we have a better idea of what the final film would look like. It was even more helpful for my group, due to us using Cahootify to acquire an actor for our TV ad.
I was tasked as the Director, meaning that I controlled the creative outlet of the film, which also means working with the actor closely.
Due to Christmas fast approaching, we decided to advertise something festive, just like how actual adverts would be themed. We took inspiration from ourselves for the story of the advert. Being a student naturally means that money is off the low. Also, a lot of people share houses with people who go back to their parents house for the holidays. But not everyone does, and nothing is sadder than someone who has no money or people round Christmas. One of our first ideas for the advert was that we wanted to create an emotional reaction from the audience; more specifically, sadness.
So, our final idea was to be a student who was alone at Christmas and is out of luck. They keep breaking or losing things that they cannot afford to replace. However, on Christmas day, our product steps in, called "Wishlist". Essentially, throughout the ad the protagonist keeps add items that they wish they had. Friends and Family members can then see these items and can purchase them for the person. Which is exactly what happens during the ending. Our protagonist receives all the items they've lost over the Christmas in a lovely little package in-front their doorstep.
As Director I started storyboarding some shots straight away to get an idea of what the final version would look like visually...
Set etiquette notes
