Call Sheets

Production Schedule

Location Reccies

Ancillary Product Flatplan: Digipak

idea =  black & white with select colours shown:
red for hearts & lipstick

gold / yellow for the streetlights / lights of the city.

Ancillary Product Flatplan: Magazine Ad

Shooting Script

Reflection: Week 8

Reflection: Week Seven

The Final Treatment

Reflection: Week Six

Analysis of Music Videos

Music Video 1





Music Video 2




Music Video 3

Audience Research & Analysis

For our audience research Brandon & I did 3 methods of research. We did Vox Pops, a Questionnaire on SurveyMonkey & Analysed 4 Pop music video's view statistics.

1. Youtube Video Statistics



With this piece of research, we aimed to find out how many views and shares popular songs got on YouTube, which is where most people watch music videos. We chose the actual song itself, Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You, Wilkinson's Afterglow & Rihanna's We Found Love. These are common pop videos, which somewhat relate to our chosen song.

The data we collected is secondary data, as we used YouTube to get this information, as it allows people to view the view count, shares on social media and subscribers to the artist derived directly from watching the video. We though this would help us see how many people actually watch music videos for pop music, which is what our song is. 

We found out that Rihanna's video for We Found Love had over half a billion views after 4 years of being on Youtube. The video is about the exploration of a relationship in which drugs are involved. We have the same themes in our music video idea, which means that if we can pull of a professional video the same as Ri's, we could potentially have the same viewing numbers. On the day we analysed the videos the official music video for Never Forget You had over 2.7 millions 
views, right now (18th October) has almost 5 million hits. This proves a basic music video with the artists performing can be successful in a short amount of time. 

We were surprised to see Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You didn't have as many views as Rihanna's music video. As Kelly's had been up for 2 more years, and the themes are very similar, with a relationship breaking up and the journey the couple take through life. I think the fact that there is more of a contrast between the videos so Rihanna is shown with her being happy in a relationship when things get bad, but with Kelly, the video is full blown bad relationship from the start not allowing the audience to see before the relationship and how happy they were before.

By analysing these music video stats, this allows us to see what viewers want, and what they will re-watch, and not just watch it once. This will shape our product but making sure our music video is really what people want. Along with the Survey we carried out, this research can be tied together with survey results to make the best video for our target audience that we can.

2. SurveyMonkey Questionnaire

We made a questionnaire on SurveyMonkey and pestered people on Social Media to answer it, and sent WhatsApp broadcasts to all of our friends to get people to answer it. We managed to get 22 responses!

Music Video Survey




In this piece of research our aim was to find out what our audience's music interests are, so what music genres they listen to, where they watch their music videos ect. We wanted to get to know our audience better, and gave them options to voice their own opinions through open ended questions. This was a good task for us to do, as we posted it on our own social media sites, so this got a wide range of people to answer the questionnaire, age wise. 

A questionnaire is primary data, so we conducted the questionnaire ourselves, wrote the questions ourselves, which were tailored to our music video idea. By using open ended questions such as 'What's your favourite music video and why?' which allowed the responder to elaborate on their favourite things about their music video. By asking the audience's genres they listen to most, we found that Rock was the most popular, and Pop & Indie came a close second. This showed us we asked the right people, as pop is very mainstream, and the majority of our responders said they listened to pop. By giving people the option to name issues they thought needed to be addressed in music videos, it gave us ideas for not just this music video, but for other projects we will do in the future. One of the most common themes said by the audience who filled out the survey, said they wanted us to explore themes such as mental illness, which we could incorporate by having our main character/artist suffering from an illness and that is why they rely on drugs, to cope. By giving the people a 'voice' as so to speak, the audience should be more content with what we make as our final video, knowing that we listened to them and took on board information they said.

We were glad to find out that none of the people we asked never watched music videos, this was good, because it shows us we can make our music video appealing to the mainstream audience. We also found it positive that all of our responders use YouTube to watch music videos, as then we can look further into researching pop music videos on there. One flaw we found in our research though, was the fact that 6 people answered the questionnaire saying they only watched music videos rarely. We did not follow up on these 6, and maybe if we did, we could get a better understanding of the audience that we gave our questionnaire to do. One thing that surprised us was that nobody really thought of the song Never Forget You meaning they couple could be in the relationship whilst using drugs. By being under the influence, of drugs, people generally forget about the world and live and let live. Whereas with alcohol, it is a depressant, so the person will 'never forget' the person they lost. 

3. Vox Pops

Analysis Of Digipaks

Analysis of Magazine Adverts

Meet My Audience

Reflection: Week Five

Reflection: Week Five

Reflection: Week Four

Advanced Production Rationale

Short Film: Narrative Devices Theory

Narrative Devices

1. Flashback/Flashforward

Stew

Two guys are hanging out, and one of them offers to go into a cafe they walk by and buy the two coffees. When they lady asks what he wants, he asks for 'two cappuccinos' after stuttering, and when she asks him for his name, he stumbles and makes a bad joke. He then pauses to ask for something else, and when the camera gives a pan down as if the camera is his eyes, he spots 'Stew' (1:32). The music becomes haunting as Bill says Stew, as if it is an evil and disgusting word. Bill is zoned out at this stage, and his heart rate is increased and the audience can hear his heartbeat. There is then a very very quick jump cut between Bill and Young Bill. The flashback has a blue colour palette, which shows the audience that Bill is in his younger form. This narrative technique creates a back story which the audience can find out more about Bill from, they can either empathise with him or find his fear stupid and irrational. It allows the audience to find more about the characters back story, which means they can be more involved in the story and see the reasoning for situations that may have developed in the present day.

2. Breaking The Fourth Wall

Charades

Charades is a film which breaks the fourth wall as it is a somewhat documentary, which follows 3 characters who are training for a Charades tournament. By looking directly into the camera. This happens constantly through this short film, the first moment being at (0:36). This allows the character to connect with the audience and explain what is happening in the scene, as he tells the audience the back story and what the characters are training for and why. This is the best way to engage the audience in this type of storyline, as they are involved and it catches them off guard, incase they're not paying attention. It gives them a sense of involvement of the story. This type of narrative reminds me of Jonah From Tonga, as Chris Lilley's series follows Jonah in school and his teacher Mr Joseph always talks to the camera about Jonah himself.




3. In Media Res/Omnipotent Narrarive

Inverse

In this short film, a gets up from being knocked to the ground. She has blood stains on her neck and her shirt, and she walks into the cafe/restaurant she has clearly just come out of. She walks over to the tables which are surrounded by people standing still, and not moving or interacting with her at all (0:36). This type of narrative means that the audience are 'God-Like' as we can see the characters moving and making noise and the lady cant. And example of this is at (2:17), when she runs up to John, she then sees a version of herself, coming to meet John. Lisa is a trapped character and can see herself, and she then advises herself (4:17). This is a grasping narrative, as Lisa can not do anything to save herself from the crash, and everything stops and stands still. This gets the audience asking questions as they can see Lisa from the outside and she can see herself and her story from the outside, a bit like Deja Vu, as it is happening again in her head.

Structure Driven

Todorov's Narrative Theory in Boundin'

Equilibrium: A lamb lives in the desert with a perfectly white coat, and he took pride in himself, and he enjoyed dancing (0:30) for his mole friends who lived in the rock next to him, and they all danced together and things were good. This fits the equilibrium stage as everything is normal in the sheep's life.







Disruption: A farmer turns up in his wagon, and shears the lamb of his snowy white coat and the lamb becomes very sad. The sheep's life is turned upside down, and his life is not normal anymore.

Recognition: A jackalope (the protagonist) comes bouncing down the mountain and gives the little lamb confidence, 'pink, pink, well whats wrong with pink? ... 'doesn't matter what colour...' and he tells the little lamb to open his eyes and see the bigger picture. 




Restore Equilibrium: The jackalope teaches the lamb to 'Bound & Rebound', by putting his leg up and slapping it down, and he gives the lamb confidence to be up when he feels sad. The protagonist rectifies the situation in order to make the sheep's life better again and he can feel the same as he did before, if not better.



New Equilibrium: The lamb 'bounds' all through the winter and is still confident in the summer when the farmer comes and shears his wool off again, and the lamb's old friends become friends with him again and everything is calm. 





Character Driven

Vladimir Propp's character driven narrative in New Boy

This short film is about a boy called Joseph who moves from Africa to Ireland. It's his first day at a new school, and his first class is maths. The Villain in this film is Christian Kelly who calls Joseph names such as 'Live Aid' and uses a snarly evil voice when he talks to him and asks for the answer to the maths question. This shows the struggle between the two characters. Christian puts snot on his finger and waves it in-front of Joseph's face, knowing that he will provoke a reaction. The Donor in this film is Hazel O'Hara, who stick up for Joseph at the beginning and end of the film, she smiles at him with a full grin, and she defends him to the teacher against Christian. This is common for a Donor, as she provided Joseph (The Hero) with an aide to get him out of trouble. And The Helper in this film is the Teacher. She assists and rescues the situation by telling Christian off in-front of Joseph, so he knows he's not alone. Propp's theory contains 7 main characters, but not every film contains them all, especially short films, as there would be too many characters to count and follow along with. Also in this theory, Propp says the characters always appear in the same order, which in this film they do. 

Cause & Effect

Levi-Strauss' Narrative Theory in Break Free by Ruby Rose

Binary vs Non Binary (in Gender Roles) & Feminine vs Masculine 
In this film Ruby Rose explores her gender-fluidity in this film. It shows how she goes from binary - being a 'stereotypical' female, with long hair, lipstick, high heels, a tight dress to being a 'stereotypical' male, with tattoos, a short layered haircut, minimal clothes. This shows Ruby Rose's fluidity that she goes through regarding her gender, as it is not defined in one 'look' as so to speak. When she takes her fingernail polish off and she shaves the back of her hair with a razor, this shows her masculine side taking shape. By binding up her breasts and fixing her crotch, this shows the daily life of a trans man, (FTM) and the process they go through to raise awareness.

Vox Pops Questions

Research Plan

Reflection: Week Three

short film pitch

Reflection: Week Two

This week we had to come up with two basic ideas, we had one minute to stand up and briefly outline our idea to the class, there was then a vote. My idea for a music video based on a song by Joshua Woodward called 'Dear Rebecca'. My idea was about a relationship but the focus is on the man in the relationship, and the film focuses on his story and journey through life, without his girlfriend, Rebecca, as she is dead. My idea for a short film was about a young LGBT teen becoming homeless, and the journey that she goes through, and eventually finds a girlfriend.

We learnt about different styles and genres of short films, and that no two short films are the same. Short films have to condense a story down so the story has to be simple and the production team need to plan their story to fit into a short space of time, so scenes needs to be quick and down to the point. There are a range of genres, sub-genres and hybrid genres to be explored in short films, as they are unique and a lot less common than feature length films, so they appeal to a niche audience. Some common genres in short films include: Animation, Comedy, LGBT & Fantasy.

We explored short films styles and conventions too. There are a lot of different conventions in short films such as: Plot Twists, Abstract & Niche. Twists in short films can happen at the end of the film, in films such as Granny Smith where a guy lies to his work that his grandma dies and the whole workplace turns up at the funeral, then the next day his real grandma is dead. These are comedic and unique, meaning short films do not have any structure and they can be completely crazy and unique.  

In my short film I will aim to base my film around a relationship so Romance will be the film's genre. I will have a Plot Twist as Josh's girlfriend is dead, and the audience will realise that at the climax of film. This is kind of like the film the Ghost, in the fact that Molly still thinks Sam is alive. 

Short Film Genres

3 types of Short Film genres:

Single Genre: A dominant, important category.

Romance:



Me & You by Jack Tew

This short film is based on a relationship, and it explores it day by day from when the couple first hang out from a birds eye view from on top of their bedroom ceiling. The film shows the highs and lows of the relationship in a montage of linear scenes, and of them doing different activities, watching movies together, playing video games and taking stupid polaroids and sticking them on their wall. By doing couple things in one single location, this explores how just one room can be important in a relationship, through the film, the room gets more cluttered, things get thrown on the floor, clothes get chucked around and the whole room gets messy to a point they fight over it. You see a Todorovian narrative, with an Equilibrium- Getting together, Climax - them arguing over an untidy room and Resolution - a break up, and the guy cleans his room all over again. 

Sub-Genre: More specific with recognisable characteristics.

Film Noir:



The Pavement by Taylor Engel

In this film it starts at the end, where the man is on the pavement, he then says 'the night' and a brief shot of a couple, 'those eyes' a woman's eyes, 'the glass' a shimmer of broken glass, 'the red' blood, 'the smoke' a man breathing out smoke, 'those lips', the woman's lips, 'a touch' her hands on his chest, 'the breeze' his hair blowing in the wind and 'the pavement' a POV shot as if he was falling down on to the street below. The voice over in this film has a very husky and mysterious voice, with an odd and eerie piece of instrumental music, this creates a darkness. The music increases in pace as the film increases in pace, and the man recollects more of the memory of what happened in the night. More dialogue and sound comes in, as the film progresses and the man keeps going back, remembering more and more each time. The whole film is set in black and white, which has a mystery about it, as the film doesn't establish who the characters are, they are in a room, the man who comes through the door is the voiceover's brother, who catches his wife having an affair, but who are they? What do they do? Where do they live? This film had me asking many questions whilst watching it, so referring to Rick Altman's theory, The Pavement gives off a Visceral pleasure, due to it being like a rollercoaster ride whilst watching it. Like the ride in the pitch black at Thorpe Park, which goes backwards when you lease expect it.

Hybrid Genre: A combination of a major genres to create a niche genre.

Dramadey:

 

Dotty by Mick Andrews & Brett O'Gorman

This short film is about about an elderly lady who is in a care home, who wants to write a wee text to her daughter but doesn't know how to use her mobile phone. The film is a mix of Drama and Comedy, as the drama is built up when Dotty asks her carer if she can help her compose a text message (1:57), and it is also emotionally heart wrenching because Dotty sounds choked when she asks, as if she's going to cry. The film has comedic elements, like the man walking around the garden on his frame, at the beginning and throughout, showing the time passing as Dotty and her carer are composing the text message. The audience take an emotional pleasure from the film, in the words of Rick Altman's theory, and the reviews of this film on Short Of The Week fit to the emotional pleasure theory.

Generic Themes & Conventions:

This short film is called Teeth by John Kennedy & Ruairí O'Brien and its genre is Comedy. The two men are on a lake, having a fishing trip, and one man loses his false teeth into the lake. His friend then catches a giant fish, takes his own false teeth out, and puts them in the fishes mouth, then his buddy in the boat along with him tries his teeth in and chucked them in to his friends disgust.

Mise En Scene/Visual Style: 
In the short film there are a few props used, they include Flat caps to create the look of the two old Irish lads, going on a fishing trip together. False teeth, which two sets are needed in the film, as the first man coughs and they fall out, and are accidentally knocked into the lake along with the second man's later in the film. The big fish and all the fishing equipment are a big part of the film, including the boat as thats where the whole film is set. The lighting in natural in the film, as it is set outdoors on a lake. It is also high key, as you can see the sun shining brightly during the film. By having a high key lighting in a black and white film, the sun makes the characters facial features brighter and more of their face is seen, so in this film, the old lads' features are defined, such as a rugged face and wrinkles. The costume is typical elderly Irish gentlemen, the flat cap and smart shirts with knitted jumpers. 

There are a variety of shot type in this film. It opens on an establishing shot of the lake and the surrounding mountains, where you can see the boat in the centre of the shot but very zoomed out. There are lots of two shots of the men, and the juxtaposition of the two show they are old friends. A shot with a silhouette of the two, is the first real shot the camera establishes the men, this is a nice introduction to the story. Over the shoulder shots help show reaction of the men, as there is no dialogue in the film, facial expressions and responses are key. Also the black and white colouring of the film helps express emotion in such a brilliant way. When the man smiles at his friends expense, it connotes he has such a jolly sense of humour and it a warmhearted and not-so-serious character. The tilt up when the man is holding the fish, helps show his reaction to his brilliant idea to help try and amuse his friend, this deadpan comedy is show through moments in the film like this. The film is very continuity focused, as the two men do not switch sides as the shots are taking place, they are always on the left or right of the camera.

Typical types of Narrative:

There is a typical Todorovian narrative in this film, the man loses his teeth, his friend puts them in the fishes mouth, the man who lost them takes his friends and puts them in his mouth, realises they aren't his and chucks them in the water. The film is simple and easily executed to the audience, it is very simple and deadpan. If there was any more depth to the story, it would be too much backstory for the audience to comprehend, and there isn't any backstory needed.

Typical Representation:

The guy who loses his teeth's friend is such a charming character, who is a troublemaker but in a ridiculously funny way. He is in some way a an antagonist who gets in the way of helping the man to get his teeth back, but he is a good friend to the man, and even gives him a lend of his own teeth. The original man who lost his teeth is very withdrawn and not really up for a laugh, so his grouchy persona doesn't laugh, or try to make any type of joke out of the situation.

Typical Editing Style/Reoccuring Camera Techniques:

The cutting in this short film is when things happen and the reaction of the other person is shown. This allows the audience to see the friendship between the two men, because of the reactions to one another's misfortune. The montage of a variety of shots when his friend tries to pull the fish into the boat, show how hard it is to catch a fish, with lots of jump cuts to the man himself, the net, the outside of the boat, to show the whole situation and what is happening in that simple moment.


Themes:

One clear theme in this film is friendship, the two men are aged, and have obviously grown up together, as lots of old Irish men have, been friends since young ages and remained friends for years and years. They are on a fishing trip so obviously enjoy each others company. Comedies often use friendships as a theme, because they are the be all and end all of taking each others funny experience to their own expense and making a joke out of it. Another key theme in this film is Revenge, when the man throws his friend's teeth into the water, this is ridiculously funny and gives his friend a taste of his own medicine.

Reflection: Week One

This week we got the brief for our piece of coursework, to either make a Short Film or a Music Video. The class was dead set on making Short Films until Mr P. threw a spanner in the works and made us re-think our decision. Even though short films have no structure and we basically have free reign to do what we want, we know more about the conventions of a music video, and all of us have seen more music videos through the last 17/18 years of our lives. 

We watched some examples of short films on Tropfest - a competition in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and Arabia, which allows film makers to produce a short film, which includes a certain term, e.g. Balloon or Change. The director can interpret this any way they like, making sure its in their short film one way or another. We have a lot more experience with music videos though, due to making the Thrift Shop remake. 

Initial Ideas:

short film: LGBT related documentary/based on real life, of a young teenager exploring their body- trans/agender/somewhere beyond the spectrum. or young teenagers exploring relationships of people of the same/different sex. potentially a day in the life of a teenager who gets bullied for who they are: not just being lgbt but other factors such as appearance/family life/mental health. i feel like these issues are rarely bought up in films, and having a storyline compressed into one can really get the audience's minds working and hopefully can ignite a change in the way people think and act towards gay people.

music video: someone/people exploring London as a city. going to all the cute bookshops and dandering the markets and buying something amazing, if the song had a wee object the video could be focused around. we have the whole city in our hands, which allows amazing places to be captured and a storyline could easily emerge from a simple idea.

hopes: to make a really good short film that could potentially be entered into a competition, but get me a good grade.

fears: that time is going to run out and my ideas may not be do-able

Conventions of a Short Film

Duration: usually between 5-10 minutes, but can be any length up to 35 minutes. normally one off films, and not usually a sequel. 

We've All Been There

The duration of this short film is just just over 6:45, by being this length, it allows short and brief yet introduction to the characters, and allows parallel storylines to be shown, so Jess looking for some extra shifts for more money, and the lady's car breaking down, and Matt fixing it for free. Then things slowly piece together and the audience sees that Matt and Jess are in a relationship, and they know each other. The duration is enough to keep the audience interested, as the narrative is so gripping in such a short amount of time. In my short film it needs to be 5 minutes with 10% either way. I want to aim to keep as close to 5 minutes as I can.

Budget: Very low budget and basic, but creative using what the film directors already have, usually unknown actors, camera and equipment used is not high end, no CGI or green screens and such necessities feature films have.

Hire-A-Mum

This short film is made on a budget, as it has one prime location they used, which is their house. Every time the 'Hire-A-Mum' brings out props like cups, coats and items of clothing it is clear to see the director has just used items from their own house. There are only two actors in the film who are unknown, and were the director herself and her own mum. This is very cost effective, and the film would have been under $100NZ?, if that, to make. The whole tone of the film is relatable due to the fact the audience could produce something very similar themselves in their own house. By having a low budget when producing a short film, this means you can use what you have, making the most of the things you have around you, helping your film be creative YET the audience can tell like you've put deep thought into it, and it is personal to you.

Storylines: basic and not in depth, but they are very creative and the lengths you can go to with a short film are endless and their is no set structure. Todorov's theory almost always used to keep the film as short and sweet as possible. 

Granny Smith

This story is simple, it starts with a situation and a lie, that develops into a massive problem, going to a funeral of someone they don't even known, and pretending to be her grandson, and then gets worse at the end, by being caught out. The storyline hooked me from the first few scenes, Jason waking up with a hangover covered in weird body paint. This was intriguing, and easy to follow, and had my classmates and my own brain working to figure out what was going to happen next, and the funeral scenes left us on the edge of our seats trying to work out when the whole thing was going to be found out. I need an interesting gripping storyline in my short film, that is simple enough to compress into 5 minutes

Characters: Between 1-3 characters: established in present day, here and now.

Bamboozled

There are two main characters, Pete and Harry. By having only two this allows the film to focus on the relationship between them in such a short amount of time. If other characters were involved it would be too many people to get to know and uncover their back stories, in a short film, time is of the essence, and a whole story has to be created. There are no flashbacks in this film, even though there is a whole 'I used to be a woman' storyline, but this is a practical joke on Pete by his ex girlfriend. In my own film I want to make sure my characters are perfectly created to have enough back story to help them fit into the situations they uncover in the film, and hopefully are strong enough to have a good and clear relationship with a bond, be it a best friend / spouse / family member or teacher. I do not want to over complicate my characters, as the audience have somewhat empathise with them.

Twist: unexpected turn of events in the film, normality turned upside down.

The Alternate Life

The twist in this story is a straight couple living in a society where being homosexual is the NORM and being heterosexual is considered 'abnormal' and 'weird'. This is giving the straight homophobic man a taste of his own medicine, and opens up the audience's eyes to how homophobic comments are passed around in every day situations, such as eating dinner out in a restaurant and being gay in the eyes of the church. The audience can potentially gratify with this short film, especially if they are gay themselves, and have experienced a similar experience to the homophobic man. This is a twist on every day life, and it explores a change from homophobia to acceptance. By showing change in society, this can ignite change towards a big social change, hopefully the audience can listen to these messages and create change. I think a twist is a good way to grab the audiences attention and get them involved in a narrative, and the twist allows a subject that wouldn't usually be explored to finally be addressed. 

Abstract: ideas and themes thought up by a very creative film director who's mind is bursting with ideas, short films have no mould so the director can be as inventive as their mind lets them be.

Utter Catastrophe

In this short film, in the opening scene, the camera follows the glass as he takes it around his house and into the kitchen. He then fills a glass with milk and drinks it, only to put it down and be refilled magically with more milk. The fantasy idea of endless milk and being attacked by cats could only really be thought up by an absolutely crazy film director, in which his mind has been run riot and thought up an idea with endless milk. He even drinks shots of milk, squirts milk out of his nose. These weird and wonderful abstract films are definitely a talking point to discuss amongst friends and share online via social media sites. The audience can take a little bit of an escape from reality whilst watching this, it's a little bit comedic and has no boundaries. It is enigmatic, and the audience would ask questions where the idea stemmed from, which is what film makers want. 

Niche: explore issues that not really any other films touch upon, they are made by a niche director for a niche target audience.

She

This film is based on a niche story for a niche audience, so in this film it's aimed at the LGBT community, but especially for the lesbian audience. The film is very relatable, as it follows the story of two friends, they are both falling for each other, but one of the girls is probably questioning, and they kiss. The storyline is relatable, as it has happened to a lot of girls who date girls. I'd say this film would be showed at an LGBT film festival or Gay Pride or something. Only Lesbians could really understand what it's like for that sense of rejection, due to another girl experimenting. A niche film can only be created if you know what the audience want, or what goes on in their lives so you can create something amazing to appeal to them.

Emotional: usually these films show one type of emotion portrayed to the audience.

She's Lost Control (TRIGGER WARNING)

This short film is based on a real life mental illness, a form of OCD called Dermatillomania, and a girl who struggles with the condition everyday. This film was made to raise awareness of the condition. By having almost no sound, and minimal dialogue spoken, this deals with the harsh reality of having the condition. By seeing the young girl pick and scratch at her skin and looking at herself in the mirror, being unhappy with herself, really hit home. It's like I'm involved now and her story is now helping to educate people, including myself who have never heard of the condition. It allows the audience to see how the young girl copes, and also the reaction of her family, and how the condition also affects them. Like her mother being frustrated taking all the time to get ready in the bathroom, and her sister seeing her bloodstained shirt. It allows the audience to feel the harsh reality of someone else's pain and their families pain. I could use this convention in my film to pull at the audience's heartstrings and open up their eyes to things they don't usually hear about on TV or in the media. 

Sound: minimal dialogue used, voice overs are very common.

Hotel 22

In this short film there is barely any dialogue, the documentary follows real life homeless people on buses and the number 22 bus which goes to Palo Alto in California. The use of minimal sound helps the audience to really see the harsh reality of what it's like to be one of the homeless people. The sharp squeaking of the bus as it comes to a stop is a sound which rings in these people's ears as a bus pulls up, the rocky, jolty sounds of the bus really allows the audience to engage in the lives of these less fortunate people. I also think this allows people to think twice, and creates a clear message to the audience, just through the sound, how tough living on the streets is and maybe consider donating more to help homeless people, all over the world this message can be spread. The dialogue from the driver of the bus over the speaker system startled me, and I wasn't even on the bus. By having minimal dialogue, a harsh hitting reality is created to the audience, and a wild cat soundtrack allows every little sound the bus makes to be heard. I could potentially use this to allow the audience to see the reality of my idea, to hear words through pictures, to take some sort of gratification from it, such as they want to be a better person, and make their own and other people's lives better.

Skills Development

In Year 12, in pairs, we created an opening sequence to a British Social Realist film, and got to explore deep into the world of how Britain actually is in real society and how films focus on different themes common in this country.

Research & Planning  & Conventions

During the course of  Year 12, i undertook many different research techniques, researching existing BSR films and their themes and the target audience for my specific BSR idea: Faith. During the research stage, one of the first tasks we did was critique past students BSR opening sequences, which allowed us to find out what the brief was really asking us to do, and see real pieces of work from A grade - D grade pieces. This also gave us a few ideas whilst planning our own idea, as we had never really seen a BSR film, or even heard of the genre. This benefited us hugely and kick started our creative minds. 

To find out if our audience liked our ideas, we devised a few questions to ask people of our target audience, every day normal 16/17 year olds, and recorded their answers using Vox Pops. These allow the audience to give a long answer regarding why they like/dislike our ideas, and they gave us constructive criticisms. Also during our researching period we designed a 'person' who we think would watch our film as a target audience. We then improved on this a few months later when we created two other people for our exam preparation, and ideal audience for both Disney & Film 4 films. 

During planning we created Call Sheets, Location Recces and a Production Schedule to make sure the whole filming of the production went as smooth as it could have done. I feel with down to the minute planning, this was a positive thing and the filming was fine, but sometimes there are things that you miss out of your plans that you can not account for, e.g. knowing when everyone is available. 

Links:
Production Schedule
Location Reccies
Shooting Script
Cast List
Location List
Call Sheets



When we made our BSR film we made sure we stuck to the themes of the genre, such as Lighting, Mise-En-Scene and the camera work of a typical BSR. we made sure we used lot of close ups, straight on angles, and natural lighting. I improved on this from earlier in year 12, from making my Continuity Editing Exercise. This allowed me to experiment with weird camera angles, the pace of editing, and various camera shots such as Match On Action. Through researching of BSR films, i found out that all of the colour pallets are blue, which allowed me to make my film look even more realistic, and an actual BSR. The locations we used for our Continuity Editing Exercise were in school, so in our film we explored other locations, such as railway bridges, graffiti covered alleyways. We stuck to the conventions of a BSR in using 'rough' looking actors to play characters, used costume to make the characters look believable. We got to film our opening sequence in the cold, so they grey skies showed some pathetic fallacy.

Creativity

During year 12, we read newspaper articles, secrets on postsecret.com and time out London's 'things overheard on the tube' article on their website, as well as watching a range of  BSR films. These creative tasks allowed us to kick start our treatment ideas, and the sense of having a real storyline behind our BSR opening, was appealing to us. By using real stories, it helped create the best opening we could, and allowed us to focus on topics which are going on in the media at the moment. I feel like we have come a long way from the continuity editing stage, as myself and Danni made the idea up on our own love for music and it wasn't as creative as it could have been.

Post-Production & Digital Technologies

So this year in Post-Production we focused on making a BSR film with amazing continuity. We used Livetype to create professional looking graphics for our opening sequence, which means that i proved to myself this year that i can use other software on the Macs, enhancing my ability to learn other skills and allowing me to produce better assignments in the future, for my educational benefit and outside of school. We used iMovie for 90% of the production process and then on the final day we added music and our graphics to our opening sequence. This meant that we got to use Final Cut and learnt how to render the clips and render the film as we went a long. I feel accomplished for using these programs, as they have benefited me in year 13, by having basic knowledge of them. Allowing me to be somewhat confident starting work this year. 

Thrift Shop Remake & Evalutation

In this preliminary task the class was each given a 45 second section of the song Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (video below). Each group were asked to recreate the 45 second period each in a different style of music video. The style our group chose was a shot by shot recreation of the first 45 seconds of the music video, which meant the shots had to be exactly / or as close to, as the original. The use of props such as Mackelmore's thrift shop bargain coat was a crucial prop in making the video, as it plays an important part. Also the girls drinking slushies and Macklemore's bike were important props too. 

original video

The purpose of this task was to help the class get to grips with editing with the Final Cut software, and this was our first time getting to use it first hand. 

• Firstly we took our SD card out of the camera and put it into the SD card reader which allowed us to import all of our footage into the clip bank. Through the filming process we did various takes of each shot, to make sure we had enough / and good enough footage to edit and play around with. We had a bit of a crisis due to missing footage, which was easily re-scheduled to be shot.
• Then we had to choose the clips we wanted and we placed them on the timeline. Using the razor and select tool, we chose how long we wanted to clip to be, and we chose where the clip started and ended, to then place it on the timeline in the frame and sequence we wanted.
• After inserting each clip we watched the progress so far, to make sure the cutting to the beat was on point, and made sense. We also used this time to perfect the lengths of the clips and changed things around if we needed to, to make the video flow.

our remake of thrift shop.
my groups section is from 00:00 - 00:59

Research & Planning

Our research and planning was rather simple, we had to watch down the video, and take apart each shot, noting down the camera angles, duration, what was happening in the scene, what props were needed, to make sure we could get the shot by shot remake absolutely perfect. To plan the making of out 1 minute section we created a Shooting Script, containing location e.g. Tesco Car park, Actors we needed: Simran & Paman, and the props we needed, such as the infamous fur coat, and of course a camera to film it all. I think that Shooting Scripts are wonderful now as they help you plan exactly what you're doing and you can't forget to do a shot because it's all there in-front of you. In year 12 I though they were long and boring to make, but they are useful and help you to not make silly mistakes, allowing production to go more smoothly, with barely any faults or problems. I feel like using shooting script, and watching the original video a few times has allowed me to perfect my work, so when i was shooting the footage for the video, i could easily see it coming together in my head, as i pictured the original and what it looked like. Also having a phone present and allowing the camera crew and actors to see the original video, helped us re-create the opening as best as we could.

original video

our remake

Conventions

We created a post on the conventions and styles of music videos, which helped me created the Thrift Shop remake to the best of my ability. By researching the different styles of different videos, it allowed us to see every music video was different, but every video still cut to the beat, they all have some kind of a narrative; be it small and unnoticeable or play a large part into what the artist is singing about in the song. With the BSR we did the same, by watching different films and finding different conventions, but in the BSR genre its a lot more free reign, due to there are lots of themes to explore and pick apart until you end up with an idea you like and is actually feasible, whereas with Music Video, the video has to appeal to the audience and stick to cutting on the beat and being easy to follow as you only have a 3/4 minutes to establish a storyline.  We tried to keep the Mise En Scene the same in our video by trying to use the same lighting: high key and natural. 

Creativity

We were chosen to make a shot by shot remake of the video, which we were prepared to do. Then we heard the ''Hey Macklemore.... Can we go thrift shopping...?'' and decided to play on the idea of that, creating a cold opening, and then the instrumental beat of the song finally kicks in. The cold opening was set in a living room where Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are playing a game of cards. Ryan Lewis proceeds to ask if the pair can go thrift shopping, and Macklemore nods. This created a nice introduction to the two characters, and then establishes where Macklemore's obsession with his big furry coat comes from. I feel like in BSR we were not allowed to be as creative, due to BSR films being much more serious and hard-hitting. We were allowed to create our own twist on the original video and I think we pulled it off.

Post-Production & Digital Technologies

During the making of this music video, I finally got to edit using the Final Cut Pro editing software. This allowed me to gain experience using it for year 13, so importing footage, using the razor tool to crop footage, and just basically getting to grips with the software and knowing where everything goes like the timeline and finding the tips and tricks to using it. In year 12 we edited with iMovie, which was good for making a rough and ready BSR film, but Final Cut is a more professional program which people use, for more clean editing, and non-amateurs. I feel the constant use of using a camera during year 12 allowed me to just kind of know what i was doing this year more than last year, and I definitely feel that I've practised a lot with the camera so my directing and camera work is up to scratch.