Time Management Update

After spending a few weeks intensely editing my film, along with recording the audio for the film and gathering stills for my ancillary tasks, I have nearly finished my final draft of the film. Sometime soon I will be uploading this final draft to the YouTube channel as I have previously stated.

I have gathered an ample amount of stills to use in my ancillary tasks, and I will also be using screen caps from the film to add to this. I am going to be beginning these tasks this week if everything goes as I have planned.

Original Song

As part of my film, and to avoid copyright infringements, we wrote an original song which we called 'Lungs'. I decided to upload this song to the YouTube channel as a promotional video for the film.

This video can be found here

After filming this promo video, we realised that ripping the audio from this recording would suit the needs of the film, as the recording was not high enough quality. We got in touch with a local recording studio called The Garage, whose website can be found here, and booked in to record. We managed to get a great version of the song recorded in just over 2 hours, and then I uploaded the song to YouTube, along with a free download link if people felt like they wanted to have this song on their iPod etc.

The final version of the song, with the audio I have actually put in the film, can be found here.

Production Company

I decided to name my production company 'Dawson Woods Films'.

I chose this name as it is a combination of my surname and my Director of Photography, Peter Dawson, who contributed greatly to the film, and I feel he has had a great deal of influence on the film, bringing in ideas for shooting etc.

I have also created a YouTube channel for my film company as I will be uploading my film to this channel. I also created a logo in Photoshop which I used as a basis for a display picture and channel art for the YouTube channel.

The channel can be found here

Here is the logo I have made, and what I am going to use for a title card in the film.

Post Filming

I recently spent a day filming my actual piece. We managed to get everything filmed with two hours left over to do pick ups and various other little experimental things that I may include in the film.

I was extremely happy with the performance of my actors and the crew and got some feedback on how my actors felt I handled things.

One of my actors, Jon Burton, commented that I ran a very productive and creative set, and he enjoyed working with me greatly, but thought I should have spent more time filming scenes from different angles so I had more to work with when editing, which I felt was a good piece of criticism.

Unfortunately, we were working on a clock as some of the actors had to go early on, so we needed to film their scenes as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Production Company Research

In the process of making my own production company for my short film, I felt it appropriate to look into a few smaller production companies for short films.

One company I looked into earlier for my pitch, was BFI (British Film Institution) which is a company dedicated to helping people in the UK appreciate the art of the moving picture, as well as helping people produce films, both small and larger in scale. Their logo is quite simple and reflects film as an art form, combining elements of depth of field, lens flare, as well as focus.

This is the logo for Coffee Films, a company that makes many independent shorts as well as wildlife movies. I notice there is a through line in the colour scheme. This is a very professional, black and white colour scheme that I feel gives a great impression. The artistic style of this logo in particular gives off the right messages from Coffee Films, making them seem artistic and creative. 

I think the black and white, simplistic styles of these companies will have a very large influence onthe final brand identity of my production company.

Pre-Filming

Resources Needed:

- Camera
- Tripod
- Sound Equipment
- Camera Slide Mount
(Peter Dawson, cinematographer, is providing all above)
- Bottles of Water for Cast/Crew
- Notepads
- Copies of Scripts

All above, except recording equipment, is being provided by myself. All of the resources are needed on Saturday the 9th of November. We have called all of the actors at 9AM to begin recording, and have told them we should be done by about 3PM.

Potential Problems on set:

Absences are a potential problem. We intend on shooting everything in one day, but we are willing to go over into he next day if this problem should arise. Lighting is also an issue we will have to take into account as we will only have so many hours of daylight to work with, since the artificial light in the room isn't brilliant and we cannot find any other lights to bring down and use.
No permission slips are needed for set as none of the Cast or Crew are minors and have all verbally expressed their intent to be there.

Magazine Spread Deconstructions

This is an example of a magazine spread. Most of the spread consists of stills in the film, as well as behind the scenes images. In the pictures we see primary characters, as well as primary props from the film. The whole thing is dominated by promotional images, and I will reflect this by including many stills from shooting and from the final product itself. There is some boxes including highlighted quotes from the text which I quite like the look of, and might include something similar in my final piece to bring the reader's attention to specific pieces of information. There is also something to the left related to another film, which appears to be a frequent piece in the magazine which is something I will think about incorporating into my final product.

In this spread, it seems again that it is primarily dominated by movie stills. This is likely to make the large spread more digestible for the reader. The piece seems primarily concerned with providing teasers to the audience, in an attempt to draw them into seeing the film. It provides small pieces of information, and large stills from the films showing various characters and shot types, providing a range of different thoughts as to what this film may be like. 

This spread, from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is the same. Most of the spread is image and a smaller portion is text. Again, I believe this is to generate hype for the film in a way that is considered quite digestible. This is not supposed to be an informative piece, but more of an advertisement.

Throughout this deconstructions, I have found that they are all dominated by images to make the article more digestible to the audiences. I believe this to be quite patronising to the audience, and I am going to try and avoid this by having equal parts images and interesting information about the film in my magazine spread. 

Audience (Survey)

As part of my audience research, I created a survey which I handed out to students to fill in. Here are the results from all 10 surveys:

Age Survey

Finding out if people watch short films

Finding out where people watch Short Films, if they do at all

Finding out what people's favourite genre are

Through these findings, I know now that there is a market for my short comedy film. Most people seem to prefer YouTube for accessing said films, and that is where I will upload my film when it is finished.

I also found out that these are particularly present in an age group of 15-20 due to the fact that they were the majority and these were my findings. I believe this age group to be my target audience as this film is about people who struggle with themselves and their identity as well as relationship issues. Because of this, late teens/early twenty's are my primary target audience - both male and female. I believe this is an age group that would identify most with the characters and their story.

'The Simpsons Movie' Trailer

As part of my practice using Adobe Premiere and working to specific formats, I created a trailer for The Simpsons Movie using a few provided clips and some royalty free music and sound effects. The trailer can be viewed below:

Filming Practice

As further practice for using the cameras, me and some friends made a very short film following a scenario set to us by my lecturer. This can be viewed, on my friends YouTube account due to formatting issues, here.

Shot Types

Along with some fellow students, I made a short film demonstrating various shot types. This can be seen below:

Overall, I do not feel this will be useful to my final product considering the style I'm going for, but it has been useful to experiment a bit with them, and help refine what I want to go for with my piece.

Time Management

Coming to the end of my first half term, I am evaluating how I feel I am progressing.

I feel I am progressing steadily, with over half of my work done for the blog. I have all of my actors ready to go for filming in the next two weeks, and everything is prepped for the filming. I feel ready to begin as soon as I am able to, and when I have finished filming, I feel like I have adequate time to edit my film together and complete my blog.

Film Storyboards

These are the completed storyboards for my film. I will take these with me on set and constantly refer to them. Any deviation from them will be noted in my final evaluation.

Finished Script

Here is my finished script for my piece:

‘Lecture’

A Short Film.

Written by Connor Woods.

1.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with MICHEAL. The teacher. He looks happy.]

MICHEAL

Look at you or the camer… you? Right. My name’s Micheal. I teach Media Production here at the community centre to 18 plus students. They’re good people… mostly anyways. What? Oh. I live on my own, got a gorgeous girlfriend, ya know… Life’s pretty damn good right now.

FADE TO BLACK.

CUT TO:

2.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[The next day. Interview with MICHEAL. He’s been crying. A lot.]

MICHEAL

So some stuff has happened. My girlfriend has left me. My old dog’s been put down. My dad has cancer. I’m gonna… gonna go to class.

CUT TO:

3.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[All of MICHEAL’S class are here, WILL, LUCY, JIM, and ANDY, along with his student teacher, RACHAEL. ANDY is smiling at the camera, trying to get some face time, but being ignored. Jim is egging him on. The camera is focused in on Will and Lucy who are having an inaudible conversation. There’s clearly some chemistry there. Micheal walks in, clearly still not fit to teach. He sits down, takes his coat off, looks around, then walks out.]

MICHEAL

You take them Rach. I can’t.

4.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with RACHAEL.]

RACHAEL

I’m Rachael. The student teacher. I like running, Pitch Perfect… and Greggs. Hm? What? Andy? Well… I think he proper fancies me… who wouldn’t? But I have a bit of a thing for Micheal. Don’t tell him!

[During that speech, we cut to a shot of ANDY hitting on Rachael, and her looking rather disgusted. The camera then pans over to WILL, who looks straight at the camera, emotionless.]

CUT TO:

5.

[Interview with WILL.]

WILL

Andy. What a great guy. Love him.

INTERVIEWER

What do you think of Lucy?

WILL [Embarrassed]

Oh? Erm…

CUT TO:

[LUCY is working, taking a few notes.]

WILL [V.O]

She’s a very lovely lady?

CUT TO:

6.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY

[Interview with Lucy.]

LUCY

So… I’m friends with Micheal’s, now ex, girlfriend. I know she left him, that has to be why he’s like this. I’ve got a plan though.

[Lucy smiles cheekily, obviously planning something.]

CUT TO:

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Lucy is gathering the class up, into a huddled group to discuss this plan.]

CUT TO:

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with Lucy.]

LUCY

So… we’re gonna get Mike and Rach alone. Maybe… ya know… get him a rebound? I know she likes him, so why not?

CUT TO:

7.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[RACHAEL is sat in a room, alone. She looks a bit anxious. MICHEAL walks in, still looking down.]

MICHEAL

Hey, Rach. Lucy said you wanted to see me?

[Rachael ushers the ‘cameras’ out of the room and closes the door. They film through the window in the door.]

RACHAEL

Yeah, erm… I know why you left me to teach this morning. Your girlfriend left you… I’m sorry to hear that.

[She moves closer to him as he starts to break down a bit.]

MICHEAL

Oh god… I’m sorry Rach. I shouldn’t have put that on you. You had no prep time or anything. I’m just a wreck…

RACHAEL

Shhh… It’s okay Micheal. I’m here.

[Rachael puts her arms around him, he isn’t oblivious now.]

MICHEAL

Woah… what’s going on?

RACHAEL

Exactly what you need.

[She moves in to kiss him and he backs right off, totally shocked.]

MICHEAL

What’re you doing?!

RACHAEL

But… Lucy told me that-

MICHEAL

Lucy!? Oh god… they’re trying to… oh wow. I have to go.

[Micheal leaves the room, looking a bit happier. Rachael, however, looks a bit peeved.]

CUT TO:

8.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with MICHEAL. He looks much better.]

MICHEAL

The students… they put us together to try and make me feel better. It could’ve been done better, but the gesture’s there, ya know? I feel good. I’m gonna go talk to them. They didn’t have to do all this. Wow…

CUT TO:

9.

INT. CORRIDOR. DAY.

[The camera pans right to left, with music playing, across a door frame. We see WILL stood looking out of a window.]

FADE TO:

[Same shot as before, music still playing. We see LUCY stood in a different place in the room. Will is gone.]

FADE TO:

[Same as before. Instead of Lucy or Will, we see ANDY and JOE.]

FADE TO:

[As before. RACHAEL in place of the others.]

FADE TO:

[As before, instead, we see all of the characters in the places they stood. The camera settles centrally on the door frame again. MICHEAL walks in to frame, knocks on the door and enters.

CUT TO:

10.

[Return to usual mockumentary style of camera work. MICHEAL enters the room.]

MICHEAL

Erm… hi guys. I wanted to talk to you about something. This morning, my girlfriend left me, and I found out my father has cancer. And… my old dog was put down. It wasn’t a good morning, and that’s why I couldn’t teach you, I didn’t feel like I was capable.

ANDY

Oh, hellaw, wasn’t capable, eh?

[Everyone looks at ANDY disapprovingly except JOE, who chuckles to himself.]

MICHEAL

Yeah. Thanks Andy. I shouldn’t have put Rachael in charge because she is still a student teacher, and I’m sorry for that. But, you guys knew something was wrong, didn’t you? You tried to set me and Rach up together, right?

LUCY

Yeah… we’re sorry.

MICHEAL

Don’t be. It might not have worked out the way you wanted, but it had the right effect. I feel better. I know that I have you all as my friends, and you’ll be there for me, and I do still have my dad. As for my girlfriend… ex-girlfriend, well she can get lost. She never treated me like she should have anyways. I’m over her, don’t you guys worry. Now, why don’t you take your seats, and we’ll get started?

[Knock at the door. EMILY comes in, Micheal’s ex-girlfriend.]

EMILY

Hi, Micheal. Sorry to interrupt, but we need to talk. It’s important.

MICHEAL

Oh, erm, I’m sorry, but I’m teaching. Drop me a text, you like talking to me about important stuff through text, right? See ya!

[Emily is taken aback by Micheal’s attitude.]

EMILY

Erm… Micheal. Come on.

WILL

Emily, look. We don’t know each other too well, but you’re a bitch. He has a job to do, we have a topic to learn about. How about you get lost? Make our day better? You’ve fucked with him enough today as it is.

[Everyone looks at WILL, surprised to see him like this. Emily storms out. Micheal looks at Will, nods, turns to Rachael, smiles, and carries on with his life.]

Audience (Video)

As part of my research into audience, I interviewed a number of my class to gather some qualitative data. I have included the video below.

In my research, I have found one recurring piece of data. Most people watch short films on YouTube, and as such, I will upload my short film to a YouTube channel when it is finished. I have also included a link below to a short film already on YouTube called 'Love Field'.

Love Field

Practice Shot Piece

This is a piece I made with some fellow students, demonstrating multiple shot types, showing that I am competent with editing software, as well as the cameras. 

In this piece, we took turns to operate, act and also direct, making sure we all got the necessary experience to film our coursework.

Poster Deconstructions

For my poster deconstructions, I will use posters from my two inspirational texts, 'The Office' and 'This is Spinal Tap'.

This poster has a very simple design, and one that I am most likely going to follow closely. Given the subject matter of 'The Office', the visual style fits well. It looks simple and professional, whilst still providing everything necessary of a poster. It shows some of the characters, the title, and through the way it is coded, it provides some information on the piece. This is done through the outfits of the characters. They have business wear on, indicating the environment they might be working in, along with their overall manner and looks, and their casual poses. One thing that is also worth mentioning, is that the character towards the front looks like the superior one amongst them, but in the piece itself, this is not the case.

This movie poster is very typical. The main characters are central, the title is very large, and there is some kind of endorsement present too. The coding of the poster is very typical of metal music, which is a central theme of the film, and the way the characters look kind of 'drawn' adds to that feel. It also gives a slight comedic feel to them as they're displaced from reality. The font of the title is very 'metal' as well.

This poster is similar to the first one, but with the characters coded differently. In this poster, the only character is that of David Brent, arguably the lead character in the series. This codes him as the main character, and sets up our expectations of him in a ifferent manner to that of the first one. Again it has a simple layout with plenty of white space and a simple title that is a through line to all the posters, and is therefore much more recognisable as a brand.

Genre of my piece

The Genre of my piece is Comedy/Drama. I am aiming for a feel of warmth and heartwarming situations, but at the same time bringing some laughter to everything. This will help keep everything less serious, as well as these two genres matching quite well. The type of comedy will be quite character driven, and awkward at times, much like the clip included in my presentation of 'This is Spinal Tap' (which is one of my inspirational pieces).

Comedy is a wide genre. It has many sub-genres, and all of these have different conventions. The main conventions of comedy are different comedic conventions which include:

- Satire
- Gross-out humour
- Bawdy jokes
- Puns and wordplay
- Situational humour (awkward humour etc)

These are just a few examples of comedic conventions. I am aiming mainly for Situational Humour in my piece, to be achieved through behaviour of characters.

Drama is different. The genre of drama is more focused on dramatic stories, and generally deals with more serious matter. Both of my genres are quite wide. Drama is more about real characters, that are easily relatable with relatable problems.

Form of my piece

The form of my project is a short film. I have a limit of 5 minutes, which gives me many opportunities, as well as limitations. It requires me to look back at my past experience of making a short movie and apply everything I learned to show everything I have to and keep it at a reasonable length. I need to make sure my project is very much 'show and don't tell' sort of movie, whilst still getting in as much narrative and character development as possible, which means I must keep the film tight and concise.

Here is a link to an example of what my film would look like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1PHpkdvNOs&safe=active

Narrative Developments

While thinking through my ideas, and developing the characters, I began to think about the practicality of the film, in relation to the characters I had in mind and the locations etc, and decided to make some changes to my initial narrative. These include:

- The setting.
I decided to change the setting from a college to a community centre teaching classes to 18+ students. This way I get a greater range of ages from the students, and it allows for more manoeuvrability within the characters. I have also found a great place to shoot my film, a local office complex where my dad works.
- The ages of characters.
The characters now range from the ages of 18 to about 27. This allows for a more diverse scope of characters.


I have also now fully cast my film. I have a full list of characters, and brief notes on each of them. I messaged all of my actors (all of which have previous experience in amateur, and some in professional, acting) on Facebook in a group message, confirming their characters and their collaboration with the project. I have included this message below.

Hey guys. I'm making this group message for my student film. I have the whole thing laid out, I just need to get writing really. I have a full cast list so you can all start having a think. Here it is:

Film Details

Micheal - Jon Teacher. Passionate. Motivated. He isn't massively bothered about money, but knows that he should be. Claims to feel fulfilled in life, but he isn't quite sure.

Andy - Andrew He thinks he's the best thing to happen to women since suffrage. "Not being racist is the new racist" is a good way to describe him, in terms of race, class, looks, and gender views. Very David Brent.

Joe - Dan Proper brown noser. Loved Andy, they went to school together. Very logical, but stupid. Lacks common sense, but thinks he is efficient etc.

Will - Jim The 'straight' guy. Thinks Joe and Andy are tossers, finds joy in screwing with them. Likes Lucy

Lucy - Kylie All round good person, likes everybody, even Andy who is always making advances on her (but she can handle him easily). Likes Will.

Rachael - Rachael (duh) Student teacher. Infatuated with Micheal. Very obsessive. Means well, but can be quite loopy.

Emily - Kate Micheal's (now ex) girlfriend. Self absorbed. Vain.

If you can't do the film, that's fine, but just let me know as soon as possible. There will be a script but I'm also playing about with a few other ideas, most of which include improv. Also, the class they are all a part of is Media Production, just so ya know. Also, while I'm at it all, here's a plot synopsis:

Micheal has it all, a job he loves (teaching Media Production to 18+ students in a community centre), a nice flat, and a gorgeous girlfriend. Until she leaves him, his dad is diagnosed with cancer, and his childhood pet is put down on the same morning. And he has to get to work. He can't teach in this condition so he storms out, leaving his student teacher to take the class on her own. The students know his girlfriend left him (Lucy is friends with her), and they set him up in a room on his own with Rachael, who quickly comes on to him instead of them finding a natural chemistry like the students thought. He realises what this gesture is and cheers up, realising he has a lot more than he thought he did. Then his girlfriend shows up to see him, and is outraged to find him smiling without her, so she asks for him back. He says no, and all is well.

The whole thing is a mockumentary, and is very like the office, so there's gonna be a lot of comedy, and warm fuzzy feels. I'm looking forward to sending you all the script. Thanks!

I also sent a copy of this message, via text, to the person doing operating the camera for my movie, as he is not active on Facebook.
 

Pitch Feedback

 This is the feedback I obtained from my fellow students on my powerpoint pitch.

Generally speaking, I am very pleased with my feedback. People seem to have got the overall idea of my piece and understood it easily. One piece of criticism I think to be very valid is to be careful that I don't make my piece too long. I am aiming on showing rather than telling with this film, and I am very conscious of the time restraints. I aim to overcome any time issues through careful planning and precise editing.

Media Coursework Pitch

Because of technical issues with the uploading of this powerpoint, I have included a link to the video used here.

Flat Plans

For the magazine review, the same colour scheme will be followed, for the same reasons as before, but this also creates a strong throughline between them both, which isgood considering they are about the same creative project. The layout I have chosen is quite typical of a magazine spread, it includes stills of the film, plenty of text about the film, even an interview with the lead actor in the movie. The writing style will be quite formal, in line with the format. There is also a small segment giving info about the writer of the piece.

I have followed a simple, tried and tested composition formula for my poster. The protagonist takes up a large amount of space on the page, making them easily recognisable as what they are. The protagonist is facing to the left, implying they are refusing progression or maybe do not know how to move forward, narratively speaking. To the right of the compsition there will be an image of a few of the students who are more significant in the narrative, looking towards the protagonist, implying he needs to face them to progress. The colour scheme of the poster wil be quite white, giving a feeling of professionalism which is to be expected of the documentary style, this is also reflected in the title, which will be in industry standard script font. Both subjects in the poster will be framed at a close up, which is a strongly used shot in documentaries, particularly when there is an interview going on, which will happen a lot during the film.

Summer Work

My idea was to produce a short film called ‘Lecture’. The protagonist of this piece is to be a lecturer at a college whose life suddenly falls apart, he loses his girlfriend, his father is diagnosed with cancer, and on top of this, his childhood dog is put down. But, he still has to pay the bills, so he carries on working. The students notice almost instantly that he is different because he isn’t the same as he was before. He isn’t fun, he isn’t compassionate, and he isn’t warm like he used to be. They begin to ask questions and quicky find out about his girlfriend, assuming that to be the only issue. They try to set him up with another member of staff who likes him, and has for a long time, but to a great disaster, because he doesn’t like her. At least not that way. He finds out the students did this for him, and in realising how much they care for him, he finds solace in teaching them and his faith in life is restored, making him a better person for it. At the end, his ex girlfriend shows up at the college to see him, and seeing that he is apprently not bothered about the break up, decides she wants him back. He, being stronger now, says no.

For my flat plans, I produced a plan of a film poster, and a plan for a magazine review of a short film, in line with brief number 7.

My two main inspirational texts are ‘The Office’ (the UK version) and ‘This is Spinal Tap’, both of which are mockumentaries. The white, professional colour scheme comes from ‘The Office’ itself, and I find that this is a scheme which shows exactly what needs to be shown about the piece. ‘This is Spinal Tap’ is more of an influence in the writing and production of the piece rather than the poster and review. Looking at the picture below, you can see where I took the simple colour scheme and text ideas from.

‘The Office’ is a great example of the mockumentary format. It brings great heart, laughter, and drama to the screen, which is exactly what I am aiming for. It has in depth characters, great performances, and hilarious sequences. ‘This is Spinal Tap’ is more of a comedic influence. Many people argue that on a minute to laugh ratio, ‘Spinal Tap’ is one of the funniest films made, and I might be inclined to agree with them. It’s an extremely tight, extremely funny movie, filled with different gags and one liners and running jokes. This is where most of the comedic element in the film will come from.

'This is Spinal Tap' is a mockumentary - or as they say in the film, a 'Rockumentary' about a fake british band and their train wreck American tour. The film is filled with iconic moments, and many of these are improvised. This is where my big comedic inspiration comes from, the style of this movie. Situational jokes that come from the characters personalities and how they would behave in various situations.