PLANNING: CHARACTERS

CHARACTERS

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

Story boarding is a very useful way to plan and set out your initial ideas of your project before setting out and begin filming. It becomes a vital part of the process, as you plan and set out the shot types in each scene. This gives you a full picture of lighting, camera shots and sounds when splitting up, as it provides detail throughout each scene. This allows you to go into filming knowing what you want to achieve rather then just making random decisions, which could worsen and make your piece unclear and too confusing.

My group and I worked on our story board which holds the plot and the different camera angles and shots that we are going to use when filming our production. From using this storyboard it helped us structure, form and pre-visualise our motion picture. The storyboard also helped us identify errors at an early stage, these can include incorrect shot types for certain scenes. This helps to reduce disruption during the production phase. Our aim is to engage and hold the audience throughout the whole opening involving visual variety as well as textural. Editing and camera movements can also benefit the narrative to make the structure more clear.

PLANNING: TREATMENT

TREATMENT

Title - Silent Voices 

Logline = This short film is a bout a teenage girl who experiences supernatural events whilst suffering from the losses of her family members. Every day the girl, called Alice wakes up and finds a family member missing form her family photo in which she keeps on her wall. 

Synopsis

The first scene shows the family getting together to take their annual family photo and this presented through a wide shot which introduces the happy, well rounded family. This then fades out and cuts to Alice putting the photo up on her wall, this is an over the shoulder shot. She is portrayed as happy and innocent. After this she carries out her daily life, heaving whispers behind her creating an ominous atmosphere, and due to this she becomes paranoid and anxious. An extreme close up shows her taking a deep breath in and out, this is then followed by a hard cut and a black screen. 

Suddenly Alice wakes up and immediately looks at her alarm clock to the right of her. Showing a new day, the family photo catches her eye and Alice is confused about what is wrong with the photo. This is then followed by a reaction shot of her realising her mum is missing from the photograph. Startled, she runs down with a panicked look on her face. She sees her dad in his study and confronts him about where mum is in the photograph. He snaps back and shouts "You know not to bring her up, we don't talk about her in this household". The Dad then shouts at her to get out, slamming the door behind her. A close up is then shown of the dad with a troubled look on his face. Alice then runs up the stairs, past mums room and suddenly stops, she slowly walks back and hears something whispering, slowing she opens the door of her mums room and sees a body shape on the sheet cover, presenting that someone was then recently. She also notices that there is a freshly cup of tea steaming. Next shot is Alice running out of the room, whilst slamming the door shut and leaning back on the door panting heavily. 

A hard cut is then used, followed by a close up shot of her again when she wakes up and looks at the alarm clock showing the next day. She also immediately looks at the photo on the wall, seeing that her sister is missing. She's clearly confused and frantically looks at all her other photos where her sisters meant to be, missing from all of them. She looking at it and her dad comes behind her shoulder and says "its a nice photo isn't it". She panics and shouts "wheres my sister, wheres Emily!". He then replies "You've never had a sister, who's Emily?", Alice screams "Shut up dad! I'm not loosing my mind". She then slams her door, turns her light of, jumping into bed crying, frustrated and confused. She then isolates herself by hiding under her covers. Suddenly she can hear shuffling under her bed. We then use a birds eye shot presenting the next scene showing a creepy silhouette of her sister coming from underneath her bed and then gets dragged back in as soon as Alice jolts up. Alice then looks under the bed, and sees nothings there. Finished by a hard cut. Middle of the night, the camera pans downstairs and you see a mug smashing on the floor with the TV and him screaming, showing the dad disappearing.

The alarm goes off and then pans to her face showing a distressed look on her face. She peaks out from under her covers to take one last look at her photo. Showing how its just her left in the photograph. She goes to pick up the photo and sits on her bed looking at it, crying. Talking to herself repeating saying "no,no,no,no". She screams one last time, followed by a floating image of just the background with no one in it. This is then faded out, with the title "Silent Voices" with the sound of someone saying "Shhhhh" in the background. Fading to black.

Characters
Alice - Protagonist
Emily - Sister
Mum
Dad 

PLANNING: TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

Planning: Top Line and Big Question

Frank Ash is a creative consultant at the BBC Academy. He has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC and other media companies. In the video I have learnt how you might think about appealing to your audience in practical terms. I can do this by telling the audience what the story is, what kind of story it is and who the story is for. He has told us that we need to tell the audience as quickly as possible what the story is and what it is about. The top line needs to emotionally involve the audiences. Frank ash tells us that a good storyteller should be able to gain the audiences attention with just one line, this is what Frank Ash calls the Top Line. This helps us as we have tried to sum up our narrative in one sentence. Then Frank Ash added in order to hook the audience the writer needs to develop the big question. Frank Ash also added that we need to let the audience know what the big picture is.

Top Line - A short film delving into the world around a teenagers life as her family members start to disappears from. One by one people disappear until shes the only one who's left. 

Big Question - Why am I now alone...

RESEARCH: DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHORT FILMS

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHORT FILMS

There are many different types of short films. Short films can have a variety of different genres, which are the same as feature length films. These can range from comedy, historical, animated and more. Short films are usually films that have been made on a smaller budget and usually with a less experienced crew. 

Short films can be made by independent and university students as it requires less money whilst also allowing people to show off their acting, directing, editing and storytelling talents. Short films are usually niche topics, such as films with subtitles or are mute films. Directors of these short films do not have to focus on what will make money, as the money usually spent on short films are a very small amount, allowing them to focus on passion projects. 

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

From my audience questionnaire it is clear to see that 71% of people who took my survey were under 20, with the other 29% being over 35. Also 71% of the people who took my survey were male. 

Then from the next two questions we can see that over half of the people who responded watched the trailer before the film. At 57% watching the trailer and the remaining 43% not.

In the next question we can see that the majority of people are influenced mainly by the cast at 57% and reviews also at 57%. We can also see that the least impactful was trailers, only at 14%.

I then asked their favourite genre of film, with the majority of 85% of people saying that comedy is their favourite. With the second being Adventure at 42%. With the least popular being horror at 0%.

Out last question was about how people would watch a short film. most people said Netflix at 71%. With the the second being YouTube 57%. With the least popular being a Film Festivals. 

RESEARCH - SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2019

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that gathers original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices and 'fresh perspectives' in the shape of films. It takes place every winter in Utah and includes programs that involve dramatic and documentary features and short films, series and episodic content. It showcases emerging media in the form of multimedia installations, performances and films. 

Boy Interrupted is a film that deals with the impact a mental illness such as bipolar has on life. The impact on those who loved him the most as well. She chronicles a harrowing and difficult journey that people with mental illnesses have to go through. The film functions as therapy for both its viewers and its subjects at a most fundamental level. It shows a parents worst nightmare. Boy Interrupted shows the realistic take on mental illnesses, and how through a documentary style of film making it has been captured. This is very useful, as it shows the real life affects people with mental illnesses have on those around them.

I chose this short film as it shows how hard it is to deal with mental illnesses. Our film 'Happy life' touches the element of mental illness and how it can impact those around you. I can use this film as it shows the reality of mental illnesses. We can use this to help portray mental illnesses correctly in our film. 

RESEARCH: MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

I watched a video by the Film Distributors association. This involved looking at how a film distributor has to decide how it will present a film to an audience. Showing how they need to decide on the unique selling point of the movie and how to run with that. Showing how it is different and unique from the other films releasing around the similar release date. Distributors look at the films 'selling points' or 'hooks'. Looking at how one action film would be different to another action film. Finding what is unique and then focusing on that throughout the marketing campaign.

Film distributors would look at how the film is different from others. If the story line is better and more engaging, or the action is so unique or how the film has an all star cast. These would be seen as the selling points of the film. 

After taking all of the factors into consideration, the film distributors will then look at which elements they should stress in the marketing campaign. Such as focusing on the all star cast, the storytelling or the stand out action.

RESEARCH: FILMS USP

A Films USP

A USP means Unique Selling Point. A unique selling point is a marketing concept which states that movies and products need to have a unique aspect involved. Therefore, by having a unique aspect to their product it would allow them to gain consumers attention as they stand out amongst other competitors. For Films this is especially vital as films need to have a unique selling point in order to attract people to come and watch it.

Marketing campaigns for films use their films genre to gain consumers interest, by playing on elements that are familiar to an audience. Such as focusing a movie on comedy or action and then using that as the unique selling point by having a big name such Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to be in the movie. The unique selling point would be the action and the star cast. The USP for movies is what separates one film from another, allowing it to stand out even if it is within the same genre.

RESEARCH: TARGET AUDIENCE

TARGET AUDIENCE

A films target audience is who the film is aimed at. Such as how the film is aimed towards children, then the target audience would be children. A target audience helps the marketing team plan strategies and plan how to market towards this specific group. Such as how marketing for teenagers would focus on social media marketing whereas a historical movie aimed at older generations would be marketed through TV adverts, posters or radio adverts. 

It is extremely beneficial that a production company knows who their target audience is, as it decides how the customers hear about the new movie. It is essential that the target audience hears about the movie, as hopefully for the production company the audience will become interested and then spend money to go and watch the film.

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

Audience Questionnaire Response

This shows the audience Questionnaire responses. Telling us that the majority of people watch trailers and look at other reviews such as critics and the cast involved. 

For short films to stand out among other films, they have to include well known names, as without that they are unable to gain traction. 

The Audience Questionnaire also tells me that the majority of people who watch short films are going to watch them on a easy place to access. Which would include places like Netflix and YouTube. It is easy to upload short films to YouTube, as it is free.

PLANNING: ADVANCED PRODUCTION INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

PLANNING: ADVANCED PRODUCTION INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

First Ideas

I was thinking about how we could start our production, our opening sequence and the plot of our film. I have thought about setting our film in an interview situation. Meaning that we would borrow ideas from our how we shot our continuity editing. As we used a fancy room, where we were able to test different camera angles and test out a much shortened version of our film. 

My production team was also thinking of basing our plot around a simple plot thread. We do not want our film to become to complicated. We want to be able to show good camera angles, established plot lines whilst also keeping realistic. We have two ideas that we wanted to implement into our film, we want to establish a gangsta feel to the movie, without straying into having action that we would be unable to film. We were thinking of having a gangsta meeting followed by an underground society that we would be able to tackle with different camera angles and non diegetic sound.

We would like to implement our ideas we had while filming our continuity editing. We really enjoyed finding different angles we could film with, such as the mirror shot you can see above. From this we would like to make a similar film, or similar filming style. We also have access to a large, old fashioned building with many rooms which have older and antique looking furniture, allowing for a perfect gangsta vibe to come across.


Newer ideas

We have talked as a group and have decided to focus on having a movie about a girl being stalked by her 'best friend'. This girl is being stalked by her best friend who is obsessed with her. We have thought of a name for our movie, called "Happy Life". We chose this name as it is ironic, as how messed up the 'best friend' character is, he is not happy. He wants this Happy Life he thinks he would have if he was with the girl.

Updated Version

We have completely changed our final Short Film idea. We have now chosen to do a supernatural based film. Our current plot, follows a young teenage girl who wakes up seeing her family portrait in the background everyday. She then notices people are disappearing one by one from the image. However, we have included a supernatural element into this, we have used inspiration from many films such as 'Back To The Future'. 

We are planning to include many enigmas codes. Engimas Codes to entice the audience in and help move the the narrative on. For examples; a black silhouette of a man who is watching her sleep, this man could be her father. Another element, is when a the teenage girl is reading a book then a man comes up close behind her and whispers "Hello, Alice" making her jump up not looking behind and locking her door, shots of her panting and scared for her life, this will create suspense and ambiguity.   

SHORT FILM ANALYSIS: HIGH MAINTENANCE

SHORT FILM ANALYSIS: HIGH MAINTENANCE 

Made with Visme Presentation Maker

SHORT FILM ANALYSIS: RUSSIAN ROULETTE SHORT FILM ANALYSIS

RUSSIAN ROULETTE SHORT FILM ANALYSIS

Russian Roulette analysis from CharlieClements3

SHORT FILM ANALYSIS: THE MASS OF MEN

ANALYSING OF THE MASS OF MEN

The Mass Of Men 
Film Analysis

Made with Visme Presentation Maker

RESEARCH: MARKETING - ROCKETMAN

RESEARCH: MARKETING - ROCKETMAN

Posters

Taron Egerton, who plays Elton John, is shown in one of his trademark flamboyant performance outfits and clearly having a great time singing and playing in front of a massive stadium crowd. This poster is also purple tinting, hinting at the fantastical tone of the film.

The second poster shows John in an extreme close up, his eyes being obscured by big dramatic glasses. This poster was released for Dolby Cinemas in early May.

The Trailers

The teaser trailer labels the film as being 'based' on a true fantasy. This was done as it is meant to create a kind of out of this world, and insight into Elton Johns life. This was helped along by the good looks that the audiences sees from many of Elton's classic and iconic styles. There are scenes of him as a young child, indicating that we are going to be following him throughout his entire life. Some indications the film also does not shy away from the sexuality that John kept a secret for decades, even marrying a women, even though he was a gay man.

The official trailer which came out in late February offered a more complete look at what would be depicted in the movie. Showing scenes from the beginning of his life, working as a pub musician named Reggie. Whilst also showing him at the heights of his stardom. Therefore, it presents his story as one of trying to change his reality though wearing costumes and other theatrical excesses. It is also shown though hints at his sexuality he kept under wraps in his early years and how this can be heard and how he expressed it through his music. 

Online and Social

Rocketman does not have lots on the movies official website. The website involves a photo upload feature which allows visitors of the website to add some Elton John style to a photo from a selection of colourful frames. The final photo can then be downloaded or shared on social networks.

There was also a "Whats Your Song" section, which has a personality quiz, asking a series of questions to determine what Elton John song is the perfect one for them. You can also find the official movie playlist on spotify along with the soundtrack.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

The first TV spot came out around the same time as the second trailer, cutting down the story of Elton John living out a fantasy life into a shorter pitch for the audience, whilst also including many of the key moments. 

Fandango, a ticket movie pre-order website, announced in early May that it could give its VIP members access to screenings two weeks prior to release in an effort to jump-start audience buzz for the movie.
Most of the online ads, have used key art of John in his sparkly Dodgers uniform. Pre-roll ads on YouTube included spot for both the movie in general and for the soundtrack specifically.

There weren't many promotional partnerships, but one involved Lucky Brand, which created a collection of t-shirts inspired by the film and featuring classic photos of John. Another exclusive collection was offered by fashion retailer Mr. Porter, but most of those pieces were more formal.

Media and Publicity

In mid-March Paramount held a preview event giving select attendees a first look at expanded footage from the movie, resulting in a wave of very positive buzz and word of mouth as those who saw it came away impressed by Egerton and the production as a whole. Reports circulated the movie would have its official premiere out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was later added as the opening night feature at the Toronto LGBT Festival, as Elton is a very openly gay man.

"The Tonight Show" hosted an appearance by Maddon. Closer to release Egerton was interviewed about his friendship with John on "jimmy Kimmel Live". A number of interviews featured John and Egerton together. Included an appearance on "Good Morning America", where the due sang along to Johns music. They also did this on an episode on "Carpool Karaoke".

The movies appearance at Cannes was a major event with the enter cast as well as John. Everyone engaged in multiple interviews, talking about the story and how true it was. Paramount also hosted a special performance of both John and Egerton at the festival, which gathered massive press attention. The singer was also interviewed about his substance abuse from years ago, which played into the movies story.

RESEARCH: SCOOP.IT COLLATION

Scoop.It - Short Film

Link

This Scoop.It shows how popular short films are right now. How easy they are to get out and into the public eye. This is done though YouTube, as it is free and it is very popular on their. There has also been massively popular short films that have been Oscar nominated. 

Scoop.it is a useful platform, that I have used to show my research on how short films fit are marketed and what short films need to do in order to be entered for film festivals. Also showing what I have researched and how it has taught me on short films.

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM FESTIVALS

Short film festivals from CharlieClements3

RESEARCH: THE SMALLS FILM FESTIVAL

RESEARCH: THE SMALLS FILM FESTIVAL 

The short film format lends itself to other topics such as Television adverts and Music videos. both of these involve short videos that tell a story. Television adverts such as Comic Relief's Wise Words was very similar to other famous short film directors such as Ridley Scott. It stars off similar to his "Life in the day off" short film as it begins with the wife leaving the house, and the grandparent looking after the child. It is accompanied by voice over and shows the beginning of the day and moves throughout the day until the grandfather and baby have both fallen asleep.

The Smalls Film Festival was founded in 2006, and has been the championing independent filming and creative people for over a decade. It has Bite Size videos that involves a Smalls Film Festival 2019 shortlist. These are able to win an award for the best short film videos.

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM ADVICE

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM ADVICE

Short Film festivals have given me a huge amount of eye opening inspiration. It also helped me as it showed me practice tips and understanding about the short film festival environment and how to present an award winning treatment.
It was very useful to use this treatment to help us make our short film, as it was very useful to use and it helped us as it was clear and insightful. It allowed us to know what we needed to do in order for our short film to be successful.
Link for the Edinburgh Short Film Festival

An article written by Lee of Shore scripts showed a range of different practical tips, which allow the film to be submitted easier into the short film environment. However, we are at the stage of deciding our treatment, and the advice that  shocked us most was the third point in their which said "Make sure that the film has something to say and the film will take the viewer on a journey". This means that in order for the film to be entered into a film festival, it would have to have a meaningful story line.
Here's Less of Shore Scripts treatment:

The Edinburgh Short Film Festival website also included a model of a treatment from a Emmy winning short film;s Ben Tricklebank. He won his Emmy for his short film Young Man's Game. The presentation of the treatment inspired me with its clarity and organisation.

RESEARCH: CODES OF CONVENTIONS OF SHORT FILMS

RESEARCH: CODES OF CONVENTIONS OF SHORT FILMS

Codes and conventions of short films from CharlieClements3

WHAT IS A SHORT FILM?

What is a Short Film?

A short film is any motion picture not long enough to be considered a full feature length film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".

How long should a Short Film be?

 A short film can be anything from fifteen seconds to forty five minutes in length. If you make your short film script as short as possible because the shorter it is the more engaging the film will be. When having a long short film, it will bore the audience as well as it will eat up a longer slot and festivals love to play as many shorts as possible. However, if too short the film might end up looking amateurish. You need a good medium to get the perfect outcome of a short film. 


What makes a Short Film effective?

There are no definite rules to create an effective Short Film as audiences love a variety of different types of short films. When making a short film stand out, it is very difficult to create a unique piece. However, there is a correlation in all successful films and these are:

- An original Idea
- High production skills and values
- Keeping to the traditional timing
- A strong beginning to entice the audience
- Avoid repetition 
- Including new techniques ans styles


Where are Short Films watched?

Short Films can be watched over different types of platforms, for example, BFI Film Festivals. This is a huge event where film lovers come and watched the best picked short films. The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1953 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with cooperation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shorts from approximately 50 countries.