Plan update 29-11-18 & 6-12-18 & 11-12-18

29-11-18

After practicing with the camera and playing around with the settings I have decided to film as many of the scenes inside as I can as the weather has been inconsistent which would make it difficult to get consistency within the shoes, especially if I need to re-film any shots. I also found out that I may have to get some lights in order to make the shots clear as the test shots I did were quite dark and thats not how I want them to look. I also tested the shots that I planned out in my storyboard and a lot of them did't look as good as I planned so rather than shooting all of the shots from behind the character I will vary my shots more so only the ones that look right are shot from behind. I felt that using over the shoulder shots often obstructed the camera and blocked out too much of what was going on in front of the person. I found that the shots that looked best like this were the ones that had high key backlighting as it brought the attention to what was going on in the background and not to the person obstructing the camera. I also figured out how to change the focus when I was filming which means I can deepen the depth of field to make the audience focus on what is going on behind. 

Using the natural lighting in the house also made everything look very yellow so I  may have a play around with the effects in Premier Pro to see if I can balance the colour. If it still doesn't look right then I'll take out some lighting equipment and see if using white light looks better than just the lighting from the lights in the house. (update 11-12-18- I played around with premier pro and found that there were limited tools in order to balance the colour therefore I will take out some lighting equipment and test it and I will also try filming some shots earlier in the day so I can test natural lighting)

I played around with different camera angles in order to make the shots look more interesting. I can't tell if I like the way this looks but I will try it again when I'm actually filming as it's easy to do and won't take much extra time. I also changed where I filmed in order to create shadows as I like the way playing with shadows looks in films. I don't think the lighting was quite right in this shot so I will try changing the position and angle I'm filming from.

Weekly plan

I have spent this week planning
I plan to take out a camera next week and take some practice shots so I have plenty of time to think of something new if I don’t like the way they look or if the wind effects the audio
I will film the scenes set in the house first in one or two days
Then I’ll film the shots that are set outside of the house on a different day instead of filming the shots in the order that they will be edited in the film
Doing it like this will save me lots of time.
I think the filming will take a few days to a week and I’ll edit it as I go through
When I’ve put all the clips together I will start to look for music and sounds to use and edit those into my film
I will then start to analyse the films that inspired me and talk about how they inspired the choices I made in my film
The analysis of my film and the analysis of the other short films will take a while but it’s the last thing I’ll have to do.

Storyboard (1st page)

This is the storyboard for the opening few shots in my scene. These are my initial ideas so they may change after I’ve had a go with the camera and worked out how to shots will look. If they don’t look how I wanted to I will change them so this may not be how the final product turns out. I want the sound and lighting to be mostly natural lighting and artificial lighting from actual lights in the house I’m filming in however I may experiment with some lights with barn doors in order to get some back lighting and make the character close to the camera to look like a silhouette. The cuts between shots will be quite abrupt as I think it will fit with the style I am going with. The camera will be mostly handheld as the genre I chose to do is social realism and this is a typical feature of this genre.

Mood board- characters + setting

There is a park just around the corner from here which would probably be perfect for the first shot of my film as I wanted one of a boy watching children play on a park but not playing himself. The fact that it is right near my house which is my other filming location means that it is easily accessible and if a shot doesn’t look right then I don’t have to go too far out if my way to re-film it.

This is the birds eye view of the park where I plan to film. As you can see it has different play equipment so I can play around with what I want to be happening in the actual film if it doesn’t look right using the swings. 

This is the house that I’ll be using for a shot in the first scene. My storyboard has the actors in the top left window however I will probably change this to the window underneath as I have blinds in that room now and I’m not sure how it’ll look. I will try it as the blinds may give it a good effect but I’m not sure yet. 

This is my brother who will be the main protagonist in the film. He is the perfect age for the character I want and loves to be the center of attention so when I asked him to be in the film he jumped at the chance. 

This is my mum and will act as the mother in the film. She isn’t the most confident but the film is a social realism film and there is not a lot of dialogue from her character so she shouldn’t struggle to much 

This is my dad who will play the dad in the film. He will fit the role as he looks a little bit scary so will be able to portray an intimidating character. 

initial ideas

Short film planning

Film inspiration:
1. Wasp - themes & social realism style eg. Hand held camera & diegetic sound
2. Stutterer - voice over from a single person as if the audience are inside the main protagonists head
3.About a girl - story being told through a child & portrayal of social issues
4. La Jetee - use of still images with a voice over to tell the story (not throughout the whole of my film)

Setting
House
Garden
The story feels like it’s happening close to home

Characters
A family
Dad
Mum
Only child
(Can use family to save the trouble of finding people to be in the film)

Mise-en-scene + editing
Lighting lesson: red and blue gel to cover flashing light to make it look like police lights
Natural light & normal house lighting to increase verisimilitude.
Natural lighting and maybe a spotlight to draw the attention of the audience to where I want it to be.
Backlighting in order to make people closer to the camera appear as silhouettes
long shot duration
low angle shots - perspective of a child

The general narrative of my film follows a young boy living in an abusive household. The narrative will be simple however the action will be implied as I will cut the camera every time it’s obvious that something is about to happen. I wanted to keep the narrative simple as the film is only 5 minutes and I didn’t want to give myself too much to do and not be able to make it look as good as I want it to. It will mostly use diegetic sound however I will ass some music to build tension to help build up to the implied action. The film will be shot with mostly over the shoulder shots of the child watching the action occur so that the audience feel like they’ve been put into the story in the child’s position. I want to make the film sad as well as building a lot of tension to keep it interesting.