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.