My first day of filming

I have completed my first day of filming yesterday. I managed to get two extra people to cast. I am worried about continuity, as i ruined the book for this shot but in the first couple of shots the book has to be as if it was new. I am sure i can easily make it seem as if the book has not been touched by any other human being.

Plan of action 12/12/13

Finish storyboard.

I need to finish roughly 2 maybe 3 more A3 storyboards.

Find cast.

Sally Jolin
Sam Shepherd
Megan Osborne
Hannah Furze
Robbie Brittain

Finish locations.

Brothers home
Sallys Home
Outside locations undiscovered yet


Create/find book.

Im going to look in local second hand book stores for an old leather book.

Find rest of props.

Womens black underwear
Blood
Chair for hanging

Take photos of location.

Animatic.

Explaining my Plot, Story, Audience ect.(Draft Video-less)

Today in media studies i explained many parts of my short film to the rest of the class. We were asked to present to the class in that day and only had about 25 minutes to plan the presentation. I had previously thought alot about my short film so it made it easy. Here is the prezi i made very quickly to sum up just a couple of points. 




Being behind the camera i feel comfortable as a photography and media studies student but i am no where near as comfortable in front of the camera. I have not had much experience in front of the camera as i have not been involved in many videos or anything other than social photography - so i was very nervous being recorded but felt more comfortable than usual as i was very certain about many parts of my film.

Genre and the most applicable rating (draft)

For my genre i have wanted a horror/thriller, but there are conventions i will have to follow or challenge.

I have found this page on slide share showing some simple and advanced conventions of horror.

Horror conventions

Applying VLADIMIR PROPP (Draft)

Fairy tales like 'Red Riding Hood' follow this theory to the core having every character from the hero to the princesses father. His idea is all about the characters involved that are explained below

The Hero - (A character on a mission to go through events to fulfil his or her destiny)
                  The final character to meet their demise while destorying the book in the process.

The Villain - (Driven by evil to prevent the hero for completing their tasks)
                     An uncompleted book written by the philosopher that sends readers into an unhealthy                            state of depression.

The Doner - (Aids the hero by giving them help)
                    The character who ended their life by supplying the book to the hero.

The Dispatcher - (Sends the hero on their quest)
                           The investigator who originally stumbles across the book.

The false hero - (Appears to be good but tries to trick the hero)
                          The creator of the book - the philosopher.

The helper

Applying LEVI-STRAUSS

He has created an idea of opposites in films. Good vs Evil, Man vs Machines, Light vs Dark, Men vs Women. A great example for understanding Levi-Strauss would be Batman: The Dark Knight - you have the main hero 'Batman' working against the evil protagonist 'Joker'.

As i don't have any direct opposite evil forces i find it difficult to apply this theory to my narrative but the idea of good vs evil can work. The situation of a devil on one shoulder telling people to read the book and trying to egg them on - and an angel on the other shoulder advising them not to read the book incase of the horrible consequences.

        "Curiosity killed the cat."

Typically this idea of opposites works well with horror as there is a main good character trying to fend off for their lives against the main evil character (Scream).

Applying TZVETAN TODOROV

Todorov believed that most stories follow a sequence of events that are created to make everything back to how they were originally at the beginning of the film.

 "Equilibrium - a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced."

       The definition above is from google and it states that everything is as normal and nothing out of the ordinary is happening or dramatic problems exist. The narrative story applies well his theory as a small population are affected by a books influence into a state of dis-equilibrium.


Stable Equilibrium - Everyone is living their own happy natural lives while a philosopher is creating a new book ready to publish.

Disrupted Equilibrium - Philosopher has heart-attack mid creation of the book and multiple un-answered deaths occur soon after.

Quest to restore equilibrium - Friends of an investigator and friends of friends ect. are handed the book before questionable death on an answer to solve the deaths (Evil Dead is a great example).

Climax - The last reader of the unpublished book accidentally creates a house fire in which the book is destroyed and never found again.

Resolution - People never find the answer to the unexplainable deaths but link all deaths to the book. Once again people live their regular lives without the lives of the recently deceased.

Is there more to Narrative?

Narrative has many other parts to it. Here's an introduction to Story and Plot.

The narrative is the overall experience of a film. It includes all scenes screened and viewed directly by the audience and the scenes created in the heads of the audience, but not necessarily depicted within the footage, this allows the director to show the scale of time without having to depict every second.
    For example if you wanted to include burning a building down you might have a shot of: 

The preparation (Pouring oils and or alcohol on objects).

A match being struck and thrown on the floor.  

Ashes floating in the air.

 The audience would add up all the parts in between in their heads that the character has set alight to the building. But the plot is only the scenes the audience have seen directly - the scenes i mentioned without the scenes mentally added.

Narrative is defined as

 “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time"

-(Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980).

Diegesis - The internal world created by the story that the characters themselves experience and encounter.

Narrative Range

Unrestricted narration – A narrative which has no limits to the information that is

presented i.e. a news bulletin.

Restricted narration – only offers minimal information regarding the narrative i.e.

Thrillers

The news won't hide any information because they are not afraid of directly upsetting anyone (unless it is a national tragic event) so they will give everyone all of what is known without any missing links from many perspectives. Whereas the idea of restricted narration is hiding pieces of the puzzle and either allowing the audience to figure out what happened by themselves or keeping up the suspense to keep their audience engaged. It could also be because you follow a certain character through their life.   

Narrative Depth

Subjective character identification – The viewer is given unique access to what a range of characters see and do.

Objective character identification – The viewer is given unique access to a

character’s point of view such as seeing things from the character’s mind, dreams,

fantasies or memories. 

Then it can be more complex:

Modular Narratives “articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation”.

Cameron has identified four different types of modular narrative:

• Anachronic.
• Forking-Path.
• Episodic.
• Split Screen.

Anachronic  - Modular narratives involve the use of flashbacks and/or flashforwards, with no clear dominance between any of the narrative threads. These narratives also often repeat scenes directly or via a different perspective. Examples include: Pulp Fiction and Memento.

Forking-path -  Narratives juxtapose alternative versions of a story, showing the possible outcomes that might result from small changes in a single event or group of events. The forking-path narrative introduces a number of plotlines that usually contradict one another. Examples include Groundhog Day, How I Met Your Mother and Run Lola Run 

Episodic  - Narratives are organised as an abstract series or narrative anthology.Abstract series type of modular narrative is characterized by the operation of a nonnarrative formal system which appears to dictate (or at least overlay) the organization of narrative elements such as a sequence of numbers or the alphabet.Anthology consists of a series of shorter tales which are apparently disconnected but share a random similarity, such as all ‘episodes’ being survivors of a shipwreck. Various Simpsons episodes and How I Met Your Mother.

Split screen - Narratives are different from the other types of modular narrative discussed here, because their modularity is articulated along spatial rather than temporal lines. These films divide the screen into two or more frames, juxtaposing events within the same visual field, in a sustained fashion. Examples includeTimecode.

(Draft) Hey YouTube.

Im going to create a couple of videos asking people from the internet about their favourite horror films, characters and specifically villains. I will post them below this text to show you what i've asked people. I will post a few results if i can get any. Problem is im not sure how many people..

British Shortfilms

Doodlebug (1997) Christopher Nolan - The story consists of a somewhat ratty man, in a much rattier flat. There, he seems intent and possibly even driven to insanity with catching the doodlebug of the film's title. Although, after over two minutes of cat-and-mouse chasing, it is revealed that the bug resembles a miniature version of himself. He squashes the bug with his shoe. The audience comes to realise that every move that the doodlebug makes the man reciprocates a second later. Into this Kafkaesque situation enters a large face, that of the man; thereby making the man the doodlebug, and he proceeds to get squashed by this newer being.

If you'd like to view this Doodlebug the short movie here's a link : https://vimeo.com/24460574



Gasman (1998) Lynn Ramsy - It's the Christmas season. With her mom's help, Lynne, a girl of perhaps eight, dresses up; her younger brother Steven plays with a toy car. The children leave with their dad, who's affectionate with them. They walk down a railroad track where an unkempt woman waits with two children, about the same age as Lynne and Steven. The children go with them. They're all headed to a holiday party at a pub. Lynne notices that the girl acts all too familiar with her dad. You begin to realise all the children have the same father, although he doesn't seem to be in a relationship with either family.


Dear Phone (1976) Peter Greenaway -  It's a juxtaposition where you get multiple still shots of phone boxes but then a shots of paper with scribbles and notes crudely drawn. The notes are difficult to read but are narrated by Greenaway himself and tells different stories. 

Eight (1998) Stephen Daldry - It's a short movie narrated by the main character about his search for a new father. Through out the short film there football as a subject apart from the odd scenes. Gradulaey you begin to understand his father had passed away rather then just his parents splitting but at the end he confesses that his father had died as a football fan at a football stadium (most likely case is the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 which is a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest). 

Here begins the ideas. Book for Believers.

Here's a video explaining my ideas and thoughts currently of what i want to happen.



While creating this video i have had more ideas but i will publish them in another video in a weeks time. I've also added a Facebook status asking for peoples help on this project. After roughly 20 minutes i had 5 people volunteer but im hoping for more so i get a choice, although i don't want any more then 5 people to feature anyway.

Im Going To Create a Short Film.

I have not got much experience in creating films or short videos and i would like to learn more. Apart from my Noir film i created last year called HIDE and the swede of The Green Mile.

I am going to try to create a mini short horror film so then if i run into any troubles in the making it will be easier to resolve or avoid while creating my final short film for this year. Im going to create a facebook page and invite some friends who will hopefully cast. Although i am fully aware many of the people i will ask are currently in full time education and will struggle to find the time unless i make it interesting.

I have been looking at many short films featured on youtube. One of my favourite directors of short films is Dominic Fera (Channel named "DominicFear"). So here's a link to all his short films that he's featured on youtube http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA6EFFCFFC5F3779A.

One of my favourite short films his made is "Die Now or Live Forever". It is about a group of boys hanging together at a friends home on the night of halloween when they get an unexpected guess drop in from the super natural.

(Draft) American Short Film Analysis.

Today we will watch the following American short films


•FREIHEIT by George Lucas (1966)
•DAYBREAK EXPRESS by D.A. Pennebaker (1953)
•VINCENT Tim Burton(1982)
• GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE by Joe Nussbaum (1999)
•FEELINGS by Todd Solondz (1984)
AND MAYBE
•NECROLOGY (ROLL CALL OF THE DEAD) By Standish Lawder (1969)

you will need to add three posts and embed links to one of the three in each of of them - then in the post
1.add a synopsis of the film and the director
2.deconstruct the narrative / style and sound
3.make notes on the ideas it gives you
Use clear and suitable titles to your posts: begin with Research and planning : deconstruction - then film title/director



Be creative in presentation methods e.g. you could make one a powerpoint from slideshare, one a talking head and one a 'tradtitional' post    

I have chosen to analyze 3 different films, my first film is Vincent.

Vincent (1982) - By Tim Burton
Tim Burton is a well known director for gothic animation movies such as "The Nightmare Before Christmas". He was born in 1958 where his mother owned a cat themed gift shop but in his teens he created many crude animations.

Vincent is a short horror stop-motion animation film about a 7 year-old boy who pretends to be Vincent Price. The movie is also narrated by the famous actor and writer Vincent Price himself. The boy goes in and out of different imaginations of being a crazy scientist creating experiments, traps and monsters such as the dog.

Tim Burton's Vincent (1982)

I've compared to two images of Vincent Price and the little boy from "Vincent" and it is clear that Tim Burton created the puppet to the similar image. The eyebrows are a key feature on Prices' face and they have been carved into the little boys face. The hair styles features have also been copied and pasted, the far receding hair line and the parting. The mustache has not been placed on the boys face which is surprising as it is his main facial feature but the fact he's a little boy means it makes sense not to.


The fact that the little boys copying the rough roles of past Vincent Price roles means he's playing a homage to Price and all of his parts.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084868/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_(1982_film)

The second film i'm going to analyze is "George Lucas in Love" (1999) - It is a comedy using star wars references through out. It is clever how they integrate many different references but it is a cheap method to gain fans to your short film, because you're just grabbing attention from followers of "Star Wars". Although i did enjoy the short film myself as i am a fan of Star Wars but many hardcore followers will find this an insult to the Star Wars films.

The story follows the character of George Lucas in university and he finds a woman who has similar traits to "Princess Leia" and he has a crush on her. It's obvious that she's meant to be similar to Leia as the iconic hair style.

(Draft) My Definition of a Short Film.

The best way to define a "short film" i believe would be to compare it to a full length film.

Timing.

Usually with a "full" length film you'd expect it to last roughly 100 minutes, but with a short film you can get length of 5-30 minutes.

Budget.

Big studios such as Warner Bro's deal with major movies so you expect a large budget when it comes to the full length movies but that isn't always necessarily true. But with short films you don't ever expect a large budget but it doesn't mean that short movies with a large budget doesn't exist.

Streaming

Ideas for my short film.

We've been told to think about what sort of genre we are having in our short movies and I'm really interested in having a horror or thriller film.

I have negative ideas thoughts towards comedy films because it seems to be too easy and abit weak to create because it doesn't take very good editing or ideas to make an audience laugh but to make someone think about my film during day to day situations is something i would be proud of.

I'm going to have to look up all the conventions of horror and revise them, once i have all the conventions of the horror genre im then going to look up some theorists and post a powerpoint.

I keep having small input ideas during my daily life about what i would like to include in my short film. I have a few scenes i would like to include for example i know how i would like the final scene to happen.

My first poster idea

I have taken a screenshot of the sweded film and edited around it to add who stars and the title.  I just feel that it is too wide for a poster you would have on your wall for example and is more well fitted for a billboard you see on the street. So i needed to research the dimension to find the ideal size for a poster you would put up on a wall for example at a home.

Poster research.

Using the website http://impawards.com/ i have looked at multiple posters for some inspiration about how i want to create my poster for my sweded film. Here are two example posters i have found, including both computer graphic and photographic qualities.

 

These are both

Viewed sweded film.

Both of my Alevel teacjers have now viewed my recently edited sweded film. I have been told to add credits and a title screen which wont be too difficult.

Here's a still shot of my sweded film about 18 seconds into the film. So far it only lasts one minute. We took a picture of this moment so i can use that for the poster and i've looked at a usful website for film posters called http://impawards.com/.
You can search for short film posters and blockbuster films.

Here's the unfinished product.

It was not a great success but it has been finished and uploaded to Vimeo. It was created very poorly because i wanted to have a funny idea to it. Unfortunately it does not include police uniform as i quite wished, nor does it have a great set as i do not have a clue what to use for the prison cells. Originally i was going to use under desks but instead i ran with the idea of using the different lanes in a class room as different cells.


The Green Mile SWEDE from Matthew Evans on Vimeo.

Filming planned for today.

I've found available free time today and 3 people willing to be apart of my swede. So filming will take part today at about 1:30. It should take too long as i have the storyboard planned and organised. I will post the finished video tomorrow and the storyboard later on.

The Green Mile storyboard

Here is a quick prezi made by someone else as the fourth part of a story board. I'm not going to use this but it is a great help.

I've changed my mind.

21 Jump Street is movie i'd love to create a swede for but the amount of pages i've used for a storyboard makes it nearly impossible for me to finish the swede by the date required. So i am moving to another one of my all time favourites "The Green Mile". This requires me to re-watch the movie to create the storyboard. I believe the swede will be alot less time and fit in the rough 5 minute boundary.

 

Find the trailer for The Green Mile here.

Got some notes for this one.

Later today i'm going to go home and re watch the film "21 Jump Street" and make notes while viewing. I will make notes on a plain sheet of paper and post to this blog in a later date. Im struggling to find any notes i can make and any key clips becuse there seems to be no previsouly made swedes of this film. So im hoping to be the first to create this swede. Since youtube is currently blocked from the college im studying it has became even more difficult to find videos about this movie. The only source which seems to be of any use is "Vimeo".

WHAT A SWEDE!

I have been set a task of creating a swede film and im not totally sure of what film to swede but i have an idea of using "21 Jump Street". This task has to be finished by the 28th of June and shown to the whole class and easily recognised. The challenge i've set myself is to make the whole class laugh at least once due to the parody acting.

I think for actors im going to use myself and 2 or more friends. Not many actors will be required as most of the scenes happen between the two main leads.

Here is just one of many clips im going to recreate. This seems to be a film with many single clips of hilarity rather then scenes that bridge over.