Script

Scene 1, Waking up:

Lewis: *Starts to wake up*

Parent: LEWIS! Wake up!

Lewis: Okay, Okay, OKAY! *progressively louder*

Parent: LEWIS

Lewis: Urgh *mumbles*

Narration: This is how i wake up every morning. *Gets interrupted*

Parent: You're going to be late!

Narration: ...Every morning.

Scene 1, Getting ready:

Narration: Im in my last year at school now. *Puts on school blazer*
I've always hated that blazer, in fact, school in general... *Trousers on & Shoes*
Every day(Monday to Friday) i will wake up like this, get ready and go to school.

Scene 2, Montage 1(Journey to School):
               
Narration: [Sound Bridge] The walk to school is quite nice actually. *Headphones go in*
Only one more day till the weekend which is nice! *Music starts*

Scene 2, Montage 1(At School): 

Narration: School can be decent sometimes. *Paper gets thrown at him* But most of the times its   Shi....[Cut]


Scene 3, Home by desk:


Parent: Lewis, Dinner is ready.

Lewis: *Goes down stairs and brings it up to the desk* Thanks (parent)!

Parent: *Stands by door* Lewis we have just got a letter through the door. You better be getting good grades in your exams next month. Its important!

Lewis: Yes, yes, yes i know. *Continues on with his games, etc*

Scene 3, Blog: 

Narration: One day i stumbled across a post on this website. So i thought 'Oh why not'.
After reading that post i decided to create my own bucket list. It took me ages to make a list of things i wanted to do. It took my mind off of the pressures of school actually.

Parent: Lewis!

Narration: Well for a bit.

Scene 4, The Bucket List: 

Instructor: Right Lewis, Raise the clutch and pull away.

Lewis: *Proceeds to stall* Right one more try.

Instructor: Raise it slowly, lets begin.

Lewis: *Pulls away perfectly*

Scene 4, GYM: 

Narration: Now i'm not the strongest kid in the world. I mostly just go on runs.

*Small montage of weights increasing*

Narration: But i've definitely gotten stronger. (But not that strong) *Camera points at biggest weights in the gym*.

Scene 4, Blog Post: 

Narration: I decided to make a post on how i've made my self more happy. I have completed my bucket list now. I still go out and try things i've never done before but now i just do them for fun.

Scene 5, Fishing/ Home: *One month later*

Narration: I love fishing now. I go every friday afternoon. Very peaceful. I have just finished my exams and are dreading the results.

Narration: Once i got back home i saw on the table a brown envelope addressed to me. They were my results....

Target audience

Location Research

Location Research

Location research is  arguably the most important stage in the pre production period of making a film. The importances of having a good location is that some narratives need certain locations in order to provide a realistic experience for the audience. When choosing locations the location scouts take into account several factors including: Budget of the film, Availability of amenities(Hotels, Electrical outputs), availability of light and the feasibility of getting to the location.

At each location you have to get permission to use the land from the owner. Sometimes they might just let you on their land, but most times you will have to pay to use it.

Local weather reports HAVE to be taken into account. If you're going to a notoriously rainy country to film then this can cause issues if you are filming picturesque scenes.

Film Poster Analysis - The Purge

The Purge Film Poster

The poster I will be analysing is a poster from the 2013 film “The Purge”. The film is a horror film and is about how in a fictional place in America, all crime is legal for one night every year.

When you first see the poster you will be drawn immediately to the mask and the writing “The Purge”. They are the main parts of the poster because they provide anchor which draws people’s eyes to the poster. The white text stands out from the dark background and allows the audience to immediately tell what film the poster is showing. Having an easy to standout text allows the audience to get key information from the poster, even if they have just scanned the poster quickly. This allows posters to be put on the sides of buses and other mediums where viewers have a small time to view the poster. The typography of the title is: Bold, non-italics, san serif and is spaced out. All of these features of the text make it easier to read at short and especially at longer distances. Also the meaning of “Purge” is often defined as “To rid of sin, guilt or defilement”. So by having a carefully selected name and including it in the poster in such an easy to read way – the poster can inject information into the viewer’s mind without them really knowing.

The denotation of dark scenes in films (even more so in horror films) is that there is a sense of not knowing what could be in the places where you cannot see. This then leads to more tension being built into scenes. This poster follows the generic convention of a dark background image. This immediately denotes that the film is a horror film.

The picture in the background of a man in mask is displayed. The mask features facial features which are un-natural and this gives the mask the scariness which is shown on the poster. There is also an intertextual link with a popular game “Payday 2” which was released around the same time as “The Purge”. The game features crimes being committed but with a main focus of people using masks. Much like the antagonists in “The Purge”. 

The film poster also includes names of the institutions that have helped produced the film. This acts as advertising towards these institutions. There is also an age rating on the poster which refers to the film. Because this is an american poster it says 17+ viewers. Because of this age rating viewers know the film will contain scenes of: Swearing, Violence and probably gore.

Bruce Lee Played Badminton Too - Textual Analysis

Short Film textual Analysis: Bruce Lee played badminton too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUk6H3SMyqQ

I found this short film from a website that specialises in hosting short films. The film was partially funded by a small grant provided by the Australian Government. The budget was small because most of the relatively small time it took to film the shots and that most of the crew working on the film offered to volunteer their time. The genre of the short is a Drama/comedy which focuses on the struggles of a teenage boy trying to play badminton when the odds are obviously against him.

The audience are introduced immediately to the premise of the short. The main protagonist in the story is shown walking out into a badminton court. This is shown by the use of a wide shot. The character is highlighted by their white clothes which makes a contrast to the dark lighting of the scene. The combination of: Dirty shoes, old equipment and non-stereotypical body makes him look amateurish. This amateurish style links the character to the short film itself (being low budget) and the sporting abilities of the average person. So from the first scene the audience starts to make connections with the protagonist.

The next scene is him waking up in the morning and getting ready for the day. The short film uses a montage of quickly cut clips to shorten the time (Temporal Ellipsis) taken for him to get ready. This convention is common in shorter films and some TV programmes because they don’t have the time to show all of the clips individually. During this montage there is one shot that is longer than the others and this shot is an over the shoulder shot of a calendar building up to an event. This shot then thickens the narrative and foreshadows that the next scenes will be of him training for this event. It also tells us that the narrative will be linear. A linear narrative is conventional in short films because they cannot afford to waste time in developing more complex narratives like in feature films. So by having a linear narrative they can have a narrative which keeps the audience entertained for the full 15-20 minutes. The scene then finishes off with him training in his back garden which continues with the amateur theme of the film.  During this his training an upbeat song plays which creates a sense of euphoria among the audience. This can be imitating the feelings that the protagonist is going through and helps the audience to understand the passion he has for badminton.  

In the next scene the protagonist is having breakfast with his family. During this scene the family is conversing normally until they get onto the subject of the boys Badminton training. At this point the film breaks into disequilibrium. The father says to the boy ‘Stop wearing my old tennis gear… that uniform should be for a champion’. These strong words are exacerbated by the lack of any background noise and an extended period of time where nothing visually happens on screen.  This scene is one of the shortest scenes, but is one of the most pivotal scenes in the short.

 

The next clip is off the boy practicing badminton in his garden. The scene is different from other scenes because this time a subtle background music track is added. This changes the usual mood of a scene from a euphoric mood to a relaxed/calm mood. This connotes subconsciously to the audience that the narrative is thicker than just having a boy playing badminton. By introducing a romance side into this short the narrative become multi-layered. This allows the audience to reconcile with the boy and become more attached to him (Draws the audience’s attention). A Point Of View shot then confirms this as the boy is peaking over his fence and is looking at a girl next door to him. This shot allows the audience to be put into the boy’s perspective. The importance of this scene is that the boy has stopped doing something he is passionate about, to look at a girl. It can also mean that the boy is possibly insecure about playing badminton and that maybe he should prioritise other things like getting a girlfriend higher than Badminton.

The film finishes with the Badminton tournament. This is the only part of the film where binary opposites is apparent (The various opponents and the protagonist). Because of the connection the audience has with the protagonist (from the multi-layered narrative). The close ups on the protagonists show his anxiousness towards the first match. This creates tension in a scene and keeps the audience on their seat. A montage then begins showing the protagonist beating his opponents till he gets to the final, it also shows the boy’s father looking proud by cheering on him on. His last opponent is the girl that he saw while looking over his fence earlier. The same background music starts to play and the boy then loses the final match. But even though the boy loses the disequilibrium is settled as the audience subconsciously knows that the boy didn’t mean to lose he was just in a trance – because the same thing happened in an earlier scene.

The short film follows various conventions of short films such as Todorovs theory. It also contains theories from Dramas and Romance films such as: something bad happening in the narrative then the problem being resolved by the end. From this short film I have learned that for my short film we need to have a strong script and good actors to pull off a strong narrative. Also during the editing stage adding parallel sound to certain scenes can add emphasis. Sound can also be used to bridge two scenes from different parts of a film in order to connect them – for example when the boy was peaking over the fence and in the last scene when he was playing against the same girl.

Equipment

We have chosen to use our own equipment because of the schools lack of cameras. For our main camera we will be using a Nikon D3100. The benefits of this is that we can change the lens on the camera depending on the shot we want. The camera allows us to manually focus during shots in order to get the perfect focus on each shot.











For audio we are going with a standalone setup. We will be using a Sony PX440 audio recorder along with a shotgun Mic. We have chosen to go with a standalone audio setup because the automatic audio gain on the Nikon ruins the audio on shots. So during the editing stage we can sync the audio to the clips to have high quality audio.





We are using a shotgun mic along with a "Dead cat" cover. This will allow us to use the mic in windy conditions. We are using one shotgun mic because it is omnidirectional so we can have two people talking at the same time and still pick both voices up. It just allows us to be more versatile with our shots.







The last piece of equipment we will be using is a GoPro camera. This camera will allow us to get shots where the other camera may be damaged. With a GoPro we can securely mount it to a plethora of different surfaces.

Email of Consent to TWBS

I have sent an email to the headmaster of the school asking whether we can film on the school grounds after school on the 28/11/14.

It is imperative that when creating a film you get permission to film where you are going to film otherwise you can face fines and/or imprisonment for trespassing on land.

Storyboards

Storyboards

The reason why we decided to create a storyboard is because having a storyboard allows us to write down exactly what we have came up with so far in reference to our own film. This helps us plan exactly what we want to film on the day and to see what aspects of the film may be difficult or not work out of our film. We also decided to draw images on our storyboard not only to make it look better but to also give us a bit more of an understanding of what we plan to film.





The opening scene starts off with the boy waking up in his bed. The sound being heard is off one of his parents shouting at him. He quickly gets dressed while still being shouted at.
When he leaves for school he puts his headphones in and the shouting stops and some uplifting music begins.
During the opening scene




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We have created two story boards for our montage that will feature after the opening scene. We will combine the best features of the two together. This will make the montage slightly longer because of the extra content we will include in it.











When the boy puts in his headphones the narration from the opening scene stops. The camera then tracks the boy from a head on position. We will use techniques like temporal extension on the boy to make the surroundings go faster around him. We will use a fish eye style lens in order to get the wider view angles needed to pull off such an effect. During the song we will change the angles of the camera in order to match the tempo and genre of the song.

 The montage will take the audience on a quick view of the boys life. Mostly through bad things such as: The weather raining on him, getting shouted at and not getting picked for teams ect.
The montage then ends with the boy at home by his desk.













The boy then searches the internet to find ways to entertain himself and then he comes across a blog post saying how a person changed his life. The boy then decides to read it and then tries to change his life. He decides to create a bucket list (Temporal ellipsis). This then all ends abruptly by the boys parents shouting at how he needs to get good grades for his exams.

The boy then goes and completes his bucket list. The audience can finally see the boy happy and enjoying himself. He gains more confidence as well. Some of the bucket list ideas happen quite quickly but some take place over a minute or two.

Towards the end of the film you see the boy make a blog post to the website he originally went on. He says how he has changed his life and how other people can do it too. The film then ends on him getting his results for his exams and having a surprised expression on his face. Then the film ends.

Poster analysis

 I am Legend is a film that came out in cinemas in 2007. It is post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. Smith plays virologist Robert Neville, who is immune to a man-made virus originally created to cure cancer. He works to create a remedy while defending himself against mutants created by the virus.

In the poster there is a clear indication that Will Smith is the main character as he is the only character in the poster. It is also quite obvious that the city that the character is in has been abandoned as you can see plants growing in the road while you can also see that the bridges leading into the city have been destroyed. From the bridges you can judge that the city is New York as the main bridge on the image looks like the remnants of the famous Brooklyn Bridge.

The largest text on this poster is over the actor Will Smith. This is obviously done to attract more people to watch the film as Will Smith is a popular actor and plenty of people have heard of him so for the film to have a Hollywood “A - lister” will be a big boost for the films chances of being successful.

You may also be able to tell that Will Smiths character is holding a gun. This connotes that the character may know that he is in danger. Which leaves the audience wondering, what is he in danger of and why?

The colour scheme of this poster is yellow, black, brown and white. These colours all have connotations of burning. This links with the destruction that has ensued with the bridges on the poster. The colours in the poster are not exactly bright either which resembles the bleak time that the main character is in. The text on the poster is in white but is always against a darker area of the poster this makes the text standout a bit so that any onlooker will catch the text a bit easier. Surprisingly the text of the film is actually smaller than that of the star actor which signifies how much the film is looking to Will Smith to attract an audience.

The tagline on this poster is “the last man on earth is not alone” this confirms to the onlooker that the main character on the poster is the last person on earth however there is also an enigma as it says “is not alone” this suggests that something else is out there. This is in contrast to the image in the poster where Will Smiths character is supposedly the only person left on earth. 

Calendar

Shooting schedule

Film Poster analysis - The Bucket List

The Bucket List

I have chosen to look at the film: The Bucket List because of the narrative similarities with our film. The purpose of a film poster is to draw in as big of an audience as possible so a film can make as much profit as possible. Posters have to have eye catching: Typography, people and/or exciting backgrounds.

The text on the poster is: Non italic, Non bold and serif writing. This all makes the text easy to read but it doesn't make the writing stand out or particularly eye catching. The purpose of serif text is so that it makes each letter more individual so that it stands out and makes it easier to read. It also makes blocks of text easier to read. So the serif title can be relating to a bucket list(which contains blocks of text).





The poster uses the two main characters in the film as a USP. Both stars are smiling and are scene as happy. This gives off a happy feeling towards the narrative of the film. The characters are seen laughing which makes the film seem less serious and more of a comedy.







The pictures along the bottom of the film show scenes in the film. It shows the exotic places the film is set in. It also shows some of the things the two characters get up to in the film. The colours used in the poster are bright and vibrant. This also sets the mood of the film to be happy and also eliminates the possible genres the film could be mainly Horror and Gore.

Research

The research on other films that are similar to ours has led me to one film that has a very similar idea that we had but a slightly different storyline. Its called 'The Bucket List', the same as our film, although it has big stars like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, it wasn't considered to be very good, wasn't well heard of and the reviews weren't very good.  The film is about a billionaire, Edward Cole, who is diagnosed with cancer, he then is moved to a hospital ward where he then has to share a room with a working class engineer, Carter Chambers. At first he wants to move, as he thinks he is better than Carter and deserves his own room. He finally starts to talk to Carter and Carter brings up a bucket list he created. They decide to do it together and the rest of the film is about them becoming good friends. The film ends with Carter Chambers dying and Edward Cole saying how he has changed his life.

Our film will have a slightly different storyline as its not about a person who is dying, but about a boy who wants to do something with his life. They have similar purpose, they are both a feel good film, this is another reason why I have chosen this film to do our research on. They both start out grim and depressing and the rest of the film is how their lives change for the better.

Costume

As our film is about a school boy then we will have most of the costumes. It will mostly involve school uniform and we already have this. Also for the other scenes we will just use our own casual clothes. These costumes will add realism to our film as they our own everyday clothes, so this makes it more realistic and more believable. All our costumes are easy to get a hold off and they will not cost us any money.

One of the drama conventions is realistic characters and using our own school uniform will create a realistic character and therefor fill out the specs for what we are being marked for. Other well known dramas that are linked with schools are Waterloo Road Road and Bad Education. Our film is very different to both of these but our costumes will be very similar.



These shows are very different as Waterloo Road is a drama and one is a comedy but both have very similar costumes. Both shows costumes add realism and if we use our school uniform and wear it like we would any other day then we should be able to                       make our film more believable.

Costume

As we are planning to use normal clothes that people our age wear. We won't need to buy any new clothes which greatly helps as it means that we wont have to buy any new costumes or order anything from any clothes outlets. In this way we can relate to another short film, such as "Networked". In this film the producer has used normal teenage clothes, probably for the same reasons as us. These normal clothes connote that the people in our film and the other short film that i have analysed are of middle class background and are just the average for their age.

Costume

Costume

Our film will feature clothes of which modern typical teenagers would wear. This is because our film is set in the modern day, and doesn't represent any particular classes(But it might lean towards middle class).

These jeans look rather trendy and will appeal to younger audiences. The stone wash is a common feature of jeans, and people can then relate to the character wearing them.









Most young people are familiar with Hollister. Everyone in our group has clothes from this shop. It adds a little bit of class to our film but it also creates a link between our film and the younger generation.

Risk assessment summary

As you can see from Jack's post in regards to the risk assessment we have identified many of the risks that come with the certain locations that we are thinking of filming in. We have also worked out the levels of risk that are involved in our ideas. This is important as it gives us a base idea of how much concentration that we need for when we are filming and also reminds us of the dangers and risks that are involved in our filming ideas. We will now be wary of these different hazards when filming and be throughly observant of the risk assessment that Jack has created when filming.

Dealing with the weather shouldn't be an issue as we can easily look at the weather forecast. Though its not always entirely correct, from it we will be able to decide to film outside on the days where the weather is supposed to be good. As you can see from the sheet the area that we believe will be the highest risk is when using one of the group members cars. This is due to driving a car needing a lot of concentration and any mistake could lead to either damage of the equipment or something more serious.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Final Idea

Acting research

We need one actor to play the role as the main protagonist. This is because our group does not consist of anybody who deems themselves to be good enough at acting to play the main character. We will want someone who will be around our age, the same gender and who we know we can trust and rely upon to turn up and act to a good enough standard. As we are looking for someone who can act to a good standard we preferably want someone who has done drama at either GCSE or a-level. It will also be better if we knew the person who we need to act as this way it will be easier to trust and rely upon that person.
We also may need a few extras in some scenes, such as when the main character is at school and getting paper thrown at him by fellow students.

We may use Nicholas Baldwin as an actor for our film (above). Nicholas was in my group last year and did a reasonably good job at acting for my group, even though he could't attend the main filming for unknown reasons. 

We may also use: Myself

Conor Ellis

Adrian von Enckevort

Ghazi Cader

Jake Fitzgerald

Location Research

Our first location is Ruddlesway, this is where we will be doing most of our outdoor shots. It is the ideal as traffic is low, however it is below a flight path so this can interrupt our filming as the camera will pick up these noises. This is also a good location for one of our scenes as it will have less cars on the road and as we are having a driving scene, so the less cars the less risk.

This is the house we will be using, the reason we are using it is that it will have most of the props we need will be here but there is a problem as it is on busy street ,so to avoid this we will have to try to film during.

The last location is our school, this is a great location as it is easy access and also add realism to our film, the only problem is we can't use it on weekend and obviously in week days it will be filled with students who will most likely ruin the shots.

Location research

Windsor is a town located in the county Berkshire and is a largely historic town which has the largest Castle in the world, that is still used today by the Royal family.

We have made sure that all our locations are in Windsor as that is where all the members of our group live so it will make it a lot easier for all of us to be able to film when needed. We also believe that there are enough things to do in Windsor that will contribute to our bucket list ideas. We have noticed that most people who are in our sort of position in doing short films for A2 seem to choose in doing their film locally as it does make it a lot easier to know how and where you will film.

Location Research

For outside shots we will be filming down Ruddlesway, Windsor. This road is perfect because it isn't busy and it isn't under the flight path. It is also a location we can all get to easily. The only risk here is the traffic even though it is low.

The other location is Jack's house. The shots taken here will be all of the inside shots. The area is low risk and is again easy for all of the crew to get to.

A third location which we may use depending on if we chose to follow that narrative is our School. It is easy to get to and we can easily get to school.