Generating Ideas and Log Lines

One we we can come up with film idea's is to take a film that has already been made and change the genre to fit another one.
The film i picked is clover-field, i changed it into a Rom-Com where a women falls in love with a monster who is trying to destroy New York.

We also learnt about Log Lines, This is a brief description you see for a movie in things like a Tv guide. We had to write one for our film, this is mine for clover field

When a mysterious creature attacks New York, it's everyones fight for survival, Through one mans video camera we see his fight for survival through the night

Then we used whats called a turbo charged log line which is a template for a log line but you make it fit your movie, this is mine

On the verge of death, 1 man and his video camera have to save himself and the ones he loves before New York is destroyed. But when the fight for survival takes a deadly turn he must learn to survive before he is gone for good.

The proposal for my short film

The Proposal 

When someone wants to make a film they have to send whats called a proposal to the producers which tells some brief information about the idea and making of the film. They do this to try and get funding for the film. The whole point on a proposal is to sell the film to the producers in a very brief description. 

What is included in a Proposal ? 

• Name, Contacts, Company name 
• Working title for the project
• The intended auidence
• Brief explanation of the content 
• Brief description of the main sequences 
• Name of any other major creative participants in the project 
• Any major technical or stylistic considerations  

My Proposal 

Name = Matthew Flower

Contact = South Essex college

Company Name = mdf productions 

Working Title = Game Boy 

The intended audience = 15 - 20 year olds -

Content = About a boy who plays what he thinks is just a normal video but what he doesn't know is he is controlling a real person someone in the world

Main Characters = Mason, A boy who is addicted to video games, He is very unsociable with little friends, He spends most of his days in front of the TV
Shane, A guy who has a nice personality, but seems to do bad stuff without meaning to, He is being controlled by Mason

Description of main sequences = Mason plays hid video game along side we see Shane doing the stuff that mason is making the character do. In the game he kills someone so shane kills someone in real life and gets arrested. In the game mason makes the character brake out of jail and go on the run.

Three Act Structure 

Equilibrium = Where the setting and the characters are introduced
Disruption = This is where there is conflict and disruption in the story
Resolution = This is where the disruption is solved

My Three Act Structure 

Equilibrium = The Equilibrium for my short film starts off with seeing Shane going on a rampage, attacking people and vandalising the city, it then cuts to mason playing the game and doing the same thing on the game, showing to the audience he is controlling shane.

Disruption = Shane gets sent to prison

Resolution = On the game Mason makes the character escape from prison ad go on the run.

Gladiator Open Sequence Analysis

We watched the open sequence to the film Gladiator and we had to analysis 2 of the main aspects, i picked the Cinematography and Sound

Cinematography 
 The film opens with a close up of someones hand running through a corn field, we see he has a wedding ring on which starts the audience to have emotion for him, we do not see his face so we dont know who it is so this is a enigma that have created. They used a tracking shot for this scene as it tracks his hand through the corn field. We later find out this shot is for shading the man and what his background is as a farmer.

The next shot is close up of a man which we now presume is a main character in the film, His head is looking at the ground to show he is thinking/day dreaming, this shows the audience that the mans hand could be his from the first scene. He then looks up and comes back to reality and where he is which is in a battle field, There is a shot reverse shot where he looks at a robyn, The robyn could be a sign of freedom for whoever wins the battle.

There is then a long shot (establishing shot) which shows the audience the setting which the battle will be taken place in, it is a wood that has been knocked down and tree stumps are left and it is all muddy and is a gloomy shot which links into the bloodiness of the battle.

There is a tracking medium shot of Russel Crows character walking passed all of his men while they bow down to him and they all turn their heads to look at him which shows he is high up is class and to show he is the leader of the army. His status is also shown through low angle shots looking up at him which shows he is superior.

When the battle starts there is a medium close up of a guy getting hit with a arrow while behind him there is a tree set on fire, this shot is used to show the craziness of the battle.

At the end of the Scene there is a close up of a guy who we do not know yet but by the low angle shot and the way he is dressed we can tell he is important and it shows his facial expression which shows he is disappointed which is another enigma code as we don't who is or why he is feeling like this.

The fight is between The Roman army and The Barbarian army. The romans are Invading the Barbarians Territory but the way it is filmed and as most of the shots are with the Roman army we are on their side even they are the ones invading.

Sound  
The film starts of with a man running his hands running through the cornfield, in this scene non digetic music is played which sets the time period of the film as it is medieval music.

It then cuts to to where we see the close up of the Russell Crows character, The non digetic music from the pervious is scene is still playing but now there is abeyant sound of the wind blowing which may tell the audience that he is not day dreaming anymore and we are actually in reality at the battle.                  

Then when the establishing shot it shown to show the audience where we are ( a battle field ) we hear the digetic sound of the horses again, along with the shot, setting the scene for the audience.

Then when they are preparing to fight each other we hear the non digetic music pick up tempo and we have the digectic sounds of people marching and sharping their weapons and getting ready.

Then their is digetic sound of the army cheering us the leader throws a head onto the ground. This shows the army is ruthless and has no fear.

Then it all goes silent as they are just about to charge at each other and there is non digetic music played to add the tension to the scene.

Then as soon as they charge at each other the non digetic music is loud and fast to get across the action of the scene



  

Rom Com

We have to come up with a basic film idea about 2 people who fall in love but there is something coming between them, for example Romeo and Juliet who fall in love but their family history comes between them.

Our idea was about a rich man called Michael, he comes from a rich background and is very up him self and looks down upon working class. He then meets a girl called grace who comes from a much different background than he does as she comes from a poverty background and upbringing and is still struggling for money. At first Michael looks down upon grace but they adventullay fall in love. The title for our film is Rich love linking in with the money theme of the movie.

Fish out of water

We have to come up with our own ideas for films with the idea of a fish out of water which is basically someone who is out of their comfort zone.
Our idea is about a boxer who meets a ballerina who both say they wont date each other if the other wont do their love of sport, e.g. the boxer has got to do ballet.
The title we come up with is One step at a time and the tagline is - she is a instant hit
The film we could think would come close to this is Billy Elliot as he wants to be dancer but his family want him to be a boxer. Billy Elliot the film poster inspired us as he is in boxing gear in a ballet lesson.
As you can see from the picture below this is our film poster, We have put our the boxers body onto the ballerinas legs.

Overall i am happy with my film poster as it is comical and says a lot about what the film is about and it has some key conventions as in big bold tittle and the main image stands out, the one bad thing about it is it is a bit bear and looks a bit boring.

Conflict in film is a great idea for a starting point for a film as it causes drama and tension but can also be a great starting point for a good comedy
Another good start for generating a idea for a film is by using 'fish out of water' which is where a character goes someone or does something which is outside their comfort zone.

Marnie

We watched the open scene to marine and discussed the different techniques used.
The scene starts with a close up of her bag, this may show that the bag is special or comes into the story at some point (which we learn it does in the next scene ), The first scene does not not cut at all and it just one continues shot, the camera zooms out and shows us the women is at a train station, but there is no one else here and we establish that this must be early in the morning. We never see the face of the women but we can tell by her cloths and the way she has her hair that she looks upper-class.
At the end of the scene the women at the station steps over the line at the station, this may be forsshading that in the story she has crossed the line. It then suddenly cuts to the next scene and a close up of a man shouting robbed, this could link to the women  in the previous scene.

My Script

INT - House - Morning

Justin wakes up from his bed unaware he is in a zombie apocalypse, he gets out of bed, He pulls back his curtains to reveal carnage. Cars on fire, houses smoking, rubbish tipped on the street,

Justin

What the hell.

He runs downstairs.

Justin
(shouting)
Sarah 

Silence

Justin
(shouting)
Chloe

No answer as he calls out for his wife and daughter, He has a panic look on his face

 Justin runs outside, he sees a stranger on the floor next to a dead body crying, he runs up to him

Justing
(in a panic tone)
What the hell is this, what has happen

Stranger
We have to get out of here now

Justin
Tell me whats happened

Stranger
There is no time, i will explain later we have to get out of here now

As he says this a group of hungry flesh eating zombies come running round the corner 

Stranger
Oh shit, Run

Justin follows the stranger as he climbs in a car

Stranger
Quick get in now

Justin gets in the car and they drive away

Justin
Tell me right now what is going on

Stranger
The world is gone

Justin
What the hell do you mean the world is gone

Stranger 
Everyone they just (pause) They have just gone crazy, turned into these.... these beasts, 

Justin 
(shocked)
Beasts? 

Stranger
Yes, Everyone, I thought i was the only one the was normal until i saw you

Justin
(in a whisper)
Sarah ... Chloe

Stranger
What?

Justin
Sorry nothing

A tear comes down Justin's face

Justin
What's your name 

Stranger 
Chris

Justin
So Chris, what do we do now

Chis
We survive 

Script Writing

We are looking at how Scripts are wrote and laid out, We watched the open sequence to Scream and then looked at the original script for it. 

Capitalisation - When characters are first introduced their names must be capitalised. 

Cut to - Some writers never use CUT TO, arguing that transmission is implied by moving from once scene to another. 

Scene Heading - Scene headings indicate whether the location is interior (INT.) 
or exterior (EXT), the location and if it is day or night.

Scene description - Always double spaced down from the scene heading, the scene description indicates in the most economical terms what the setting is, who the character are, and what action is taking place.

Character cues - This is the name given to the character who speaks the line of dialogue that follows.

Each script page is generally considered to be one minute of film time. 

You don't use camera directions on scripts as is makes the script more readable, since camera descriptions are often clumsy and break up the flow.

Dialogue in scripts are short and economical as possible, many writers see dialogue as another from of action.

Screenplay must be submitted in the correct format, or the industry personnel you are pursing will ignore them, if you do not follow the simple formatting rules you will make your script look scrappy.

Screenplays and teleplays are writing in twelve point Courier typeface which has evolved from the old manual typewriter's typeface.

First week at college

The first thing we learnt was the types of shots used in Tv and Film.
Establishing shot - This shot is used to establish the location of the scene
Long Shot
Mid Shot
Medium shot
Medium close up
Close up
Extreme close up

We then had to get into groups and choose between us our favourite film and explain why we think it is a good film, We then had to watch the opening scene from one of the Batman films and discuss shot types in the scene

We then watched the opening scene from the film Blade and talked about the use of Cinematography.

Production Cost

Things You Have To Pay For During Production
There are a number of things you have to pay during production, Things like

• Costumes
• Props
• Music Composer
• Camera/sound/lighting equipment (£300 pound for a camera hire for a week)
• Casting
• Travel costs 
• Catering (Food for the cast and crew
• Location ( If it is private property you have to pay to film there )
• Marketing costs
• Editor / Crew

When making a film the company is given a budget and all this has to fit into that budget 

Pre Production

The stages of making a film
You start with the pre production, this is planning for the film before you start filming.
This is involves making a story board, Casting, Getting the props, Buying and sorting out the costumes, Sorting out stage directions, Location relaise ( Getting permison to film in your chosen location), Travel ( how to get the cast and crew to the location of filming and the cost of the travel). Other things have to be done such as proposals, Treatment and the script

Then the actual production starts, It starts with the filming of the actual film then you go onto making sure all the sound recording and lighting is correct. 

Then you go onto the post production, This is were you editing you film, E.g getting rid of the bad takes, putting it all together and this is were you add in any visual effects you want to put into your film. 

Then we watched the short film called Sign Language http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TN3VtWwks4 . We had to write down the things they had to do for the pre production before making this film. We come up with things like 

• Script
• Music
• Location
• Risk Assement
• Casting
• Props
• Costumes
• Stage directions
• Camera shots
• Story board
• Travel
• Move time frame

Job Roles in Pre Production

• Director
• Producer/Executive producer
• Script Writer
• Casting director
• Location Manger
• Location Scout
• Costume Designer
• Props Designer
• Set Designer
• Storyboard Artist
• Pre Vis Editor
• Composer
• Concept Artist
• Stage Director
• Fiance Team
• Health and Safety Manger