Research Project- 3 Possible ideas

Idea 1) Short film - Cautious as Serpents, Innocent as Doves

My first and most prominent idea for my college FMP (final major project) has to be a short film which I hope to use to sell a larger concept in the future. The idea is that the film would serve as part of a pitch for a TV show that I have created. It would give an idea of the style and tone of the show, as well as reveal some of the characters.

The film its self follows two characters as misfortune brings them together on a cold winters night in the middle of no where. The first character, referred to as the old man in the film, is driving illegal goods across country after being blackmailed by a self proclaimed criminal king-pin. The second character finds himself in the trunk of the old mans pick-up, after escaping from a different group of pycos, looking to kill him.

The film would have a very Coan brother esk feel to it, giving it more of a cinematic look rather than a TV one. Stylistically, it would also lean towards the Coan brothers, gleaning from films like True Grit and No country for old men. (look at images for visual ideas from Coan Brother films)

The film would last around the 10 minute mark. The biggest problem with the project comes from getting the production look we want, that being professional and not amateur. Another issue will be getting the right casting. No matter how pretty we can make it look, if the characters aren't played right then the whole project will fall down.

Idea 2) Documentary - Little voice (Loulé)

The second Idea is for a documentary based around the disability known now as Kleefstray syndrome. Extremely rare, it effects certain chromizones in the brain causing a variety of different health and learning difficulties. The are only a couple of hundred reported cases in the world making it extremely rare. The reason I have an interested in this is because my little sister, Loulé was born with it.

My goal for the film would be to open peoples eyes to disability and to change the way they look at people with disabilities. Lets face, when we are out shopping or going to a movie and we see someone who is acting in a very old way we naturally shy away. Even when we know that they can't help it. Having a disabled sister changes that. You don't care that we're making loud noises or making unnaturally because you have sympathy. You that they are human too, not animals. They feel the same way we do. I hope to make people not so scared of those with mental or physical disabilities but huminiazing them.

The film would focus around my sister and her day to day life. Showing her doing the things she loves, singing dancing, chatting and playing. But I also what the audience to feel what she feels. The world is a scary place at the best of times, imagine not being able to understand any of it. Loulé gets scared easily and by the most simple of things. By showing people what it's like to live in a world where you don't understand whats happening, hopefully I can change how they look at those with disability.

Idea 3) Short film- model family

My third Idea is much simpler than the others. A model family is a short film based around a dolls house and the family of dolls that live inside. It is also the only idea I have completed a reasonably substantial treatment for.

Overview: The film looks at your typical nuclear family, Mum dad sister and brother. The family goes about its normal business. This pre existing concept of a perfect family is soon destroyed as their demons creep from the wood work. The mother's alcohol and drug addiction, the brothers self-hatred, the father's outbursts and his wandering hands, the broken glass, the bloody water, the empty bottles and hollow eyes.

The point: The point of the short is an experience in not simply believing what you first see and that there simply doesn’t exist a “model family”. Even through on the outside things seem happy and each member is content, the reality behind closed doors is much different. When the door shuts and the sun goes down, that’s when the dragons come out to play.

Mood and feel: I want the beginning of the short to feel quite bright and vibrant. Similar to sitcoms or children's TV shows. This puts across the idea of happiness and safety. However, as things start to reveal themselves, the colour pallet changes to murky, grey and bleak colours as the reality of the situation is shown.

Viewpoint- The audience is taken through the story with the two children. If the children don’t see it happening then the audience doesn’t. Acts off screen will be played out by sound effects and foley. The view point jumps between the two siblings as the film progresses.

Style- The style of the short can best be described as stop motion without the motion. each scene is locked in time and the camera relieves what happened. This works for two reasons. The first is practical. Stop-motion takes a long time to shoot and an even longer time to get right. Plus, bad stop motion looks terrible. The second refers back to the view point. We are seeing things through the eyes of two children. How they see things is almost like it’s frozen in time. A singular moment seems to last forever in the mind of a child as they try to comprehend what they are seeing or feeling.    

Cinematography- As there is little to no dialogue, explain through movement will be key. For example, a scene where the little boy has slit his wrists in the bathtub could start innocently, hiding the grim details at first before revealing what has happened.

Close-ups of a scene will be key in a project like this. Focusing on objects that have fallen onto the floor during a struggle builds suspense as the audience wonders how they got there. This will be used throughout the short, as a scene is slowly revealed, until the full picture is given to the audience.  

A huge part of getting across the emotional tone that we want to hit will be having lighting perfect for each scene. The biggest problem we will face is getting wooden dolls with one facial expression to have a sea of different emotions. We can do what we can with placement and position but even with those two elements we are limited. Having atmospheric lighting will be key. A character that is struggling with inner-turmoil, half his face in shadow half in light. A character who feels ashamed of what has just happened has the shadow of the window Muntins obstruction parts of her face.

Soundtrack- I want the soundtrack to be simply, reflecting on the progression of the story, getting more and more dark and manic as the household descends. Maybe just a piano of just a guitar.

Shot/situation Ideas

• Typical family meal
• Mum cooking with daughter
• Family watching TV
• Mum and dad in bed reading
• Kids playing
• Kids brushing their teeth
• Parents cuddling on sofa

Takes turn

• Little girl knocks over plant - dad beats with belt

• Mum and dad sleeping together- then facing opposite ways
• Mum drinking
• Parents arguing - kids in bed
• Mum drinking again
• Dad looking at inappropriate stuff
• Beats little girl with belt again - no reason
• Parents arguing - dad beats mum - Little girl watching
• Dad touches little girl - Brother on top bunk doesn’t know what to do
• Brother hates himself
• Dad continues to do it
• Brother looks at self in mirror - starts self harming
• Mum now taking more and more pills
• Dad continues - brother slits wrists in bath
• Girl sees mum kill dad in kitchen
• Door closes - little girl playing with dolls house - man standing over her with belt

IMP Director Chronicles- Scribes MK1

So here it is. All the hard work, sleepless night, blood sweat and tears has boiled down to this. The first full edit of the film. Is it 100% complete? No and there are many things which I want to change about the edit but for now, it's pretty good.

First things first what I like about it. I love the cinematography and camera placement. I feel like each shot has a purpose in furthering the story. Plus, the use of different angles gives a nice diversity to the film. There is never a point where I was thinking "man I am fed up of these shot types" or "damn change angle already!".

Another thing I like about it is the acting. As I have mentioned many times, bad acting can ruin a good movie. Both actors played there parts really well bring the characters I had written to life. The two collaborated and fed of each others performances leading to a more organic performance.

From a style point of view I am also very happy. Here are some of my favourite shots:

Now for the bits I either dislike or want to change. The first thing that needs to be edited is the opening. That slide effect doesn't fit in with the rest of the film at all. I feel starting the film off with a simple black screen as the staring credits roll then cutting to picture when she kicks the sofa would be more effective. A lot of the VFX work also have to be altered or completely changed. This includes the alleyway flash scene and all the images shown on the TV. Another thing I would like tweaked is the colour grade. At the moment it is very bland and I think injecting a little more colour would help the images not look so dead.

I would also like to insert some extra shots to fill out some of the gaps in the film. These insert will help tie the overall story together, hopefully creating an overall rounded out film. All things considered, I think it's a good start. However, there are some serious changes that need to be made before it can be released to the public.

Interview lighting set-up analysis

Lighting is a key part to any production. Whether your shooting a short film, documentary or promotional, bad lighting can seriously impact on the final product. Unlike some things in the creative media industry, bad lighting can be picked up by anyone.

One example of the importance of good lighting is when filming interviews. To prove this point, we took an interview set up and did a few before and after shots, the first without lighting or just the lighting from the room. This is what we started with:

As you can see, the subject is completely dark, excluding the limited light to her left-side. This might be a good set-up for a mysterious character in a film but for an factual interview it's no good. We are also getting that orange look due to the lighting type, as well as what's in shot (Her jumper, the desk and walls). This would be useless if we were to shoot like this. To bring up the light enough in post would drop the image quality dramatically. The first thing we wanted to do was get some light on her face so we bounced a light of the white wall that is just off camera on the left. Bouncing it off the wall defused the harshness of the light. This was the result:

As you can see, we can now see the subjects face better and she is more separate from the environment. However, we want the subject to be more evenly lit. The final thing to add, to bring up her features and to make her more evenly lit, was a light over to her right. This completes the interview look we were going for. The final result looking like this:

Contrasting the first and last image, you can see the huge difference that lighting makes to the set-up. From an image that was dark and dingy we get something that looks clean and professional. Same camera, same position different lighting. Personally, I would have liked to have added a light to the back left, putting the light high up angled directly at the subject. This would have given a crown like glow around the top of her head which would separate it from the background.

You get the best lighting results when you can control everything about them. A good example of when this is used is in studios. A studio space can have a huge, almost endless amount of variation on lighting set-ups. From hot-lights to soft-boxes to using a huge sheet as a means of defusion the lighting world really is your ouster. An example of the type of shot you can get in a studio space is this screenshot:

As you can see, the subject is very well lit. The light behind her is giving a nice glow effect to her hair while a light to her right hand side is giving some detail to her features. You can clearly tell where you are meant to be looking with your focus being drawn towards the subject. That is down to the use of composition and, you guested it, lighting. 

Research Project - Structure, Method, Purpose

Research question: What does it take to successfully pitch a show do a network

I will structure my research in the most visual way possible. I can better perceive things visual than I can in written form so having large amounts of graphs, infographics and pictures will be key in putting across my findings.

I intend on getting as much primary information as possible. By conducting interviews with those who have successfully pitched TV shows (as well as those who weren't successful), looking though statistics, studying literature on the subject and web based research, I hope to gather a large scope of area allowing me to come to a comprehensive answer to my question.

The purpose of doing this research is all to do with selling a bigger idea. Yes, we want to release the short film to festivals and competitions on completion, but it is also part of a much bigger project. I would like to use this short film to aid pitching a larger concept to a TV or streaming network.

However, with many wanting to do the same thing, I will have to be 3 steps ahead of the curve. This research question is both innovative and different as it asks the question which everyone at some point has asked. "How did this garbage make it onto tv?". A terrible idea, if pitched well, could be made into a finished project. By looking into what makes a successful and not successful pitch, I should be able to discover the mystery.

My research will hugely impact my FMP as It has to change and develop in order to make my findings for a successful pitch. With any luck, It will have more positive effects than negative on the project being a stand alone short.

Research Project - Reflect and explore

For my final project last year I was tasked with making a film trailer. I decided to make an alternative James Bond film, where the main character doesn't yet have a licence to kill, but instead is a young activist hacker who can take down a cooperation from the comfort of his bedroom.

3 things that I felt I did well with regarding the project was the editing, the locations we got permission to film at and putting across the overall idea of what we were trying to do. The editing made it look pretty close to a proper hollywood style trailer and that was only complemented by the locations we used. These two elements, along with a ton of others, contributed to having a product which put across the ideas that I wanted it to.

However, there as defiantly some things that I won't be doing next time. The first and most important being not working with someone who is totally incompetent when it comes to media. They may be a lovely person, but that doesn't mean they have a clue what their doing. There were also things which fell on my head, such as leaving things to the last minute and not focusing enough on the audio side of the production.

Overall though I'm happy with how it turned out. It is a decent piece of work that could have been better, but also could have been much worse.

Two examples of past work

Dirty Paws- Music video

My first example of past work is a music video I produced as part of my college course back in Bristol. I decided to go with the song "Dirty Paws" by of monsters and men. I looked through the lyrics and came up with a concept of what I wanted to make.

I liked the overall tone of the video. It really put across the idea that I was going for. That being of a man who had lost his child like sense of adventure due to the strains of growing up. You know you have done a good job at conveying your idea when people watch it and come away with the ideas that you wanted to put across.

 Another thing I liked was the use of both visual and practical effects. A big part of the video focuses around visual effects but I knew it would take more than just some post work to make it realistic. To better sell the effect of an orange flying ball, we cut a orange medicine bottle in half and taped it on to a torch we created a orange glow. This was then used to give the Fake ball a practical light source, really helping to sell the effect.

The finally thing I like about the video is the acting. The two actors are far from professional. In fact they had never acted before in their life. Yet they both delivered great performances which really help sell the concept. One of the biggest things for me when watching peoples work is being sucked out by bad acting, this wasn't the case with Dirty paws.

However, as always there are things I dislike about the project. For example, some shots are far more shaky than I wanted. Also, some of the VFX work could have done with a little more work, making the ball more of the 3D object I feel would have helped sell it better.

The only things I would change about the project would be the shaking, a couple of VFX shots and I would get more coverage of the wood scene.

Strengths- Cinematography, story telling/narrative, character development, conveyance

Weaknesses- VFX, shakiness from handheld filming style, gitters in some scenes from compression issues

Opportunities- The only opportunity I was presented with was in the forest. The swing we found gave from some really great shots which were not planned at all.

Threats-  The only threat we had came from filming out of the back of a moving car. Luckily, we own a landcover discovery which always you to open the boot while still keeping up a tailgate. This also happens to be a vehicle preferred by shows such as Top gear when filming.

Metris leadership - Client promo 

My next example is a client project I did for Metris leadership, a company specialising in cooperate team building. They came to me asking for a promotional video which would go online highlighting what the course focuses on. So that is what I did.

The thing I liked most about the video is the soundtrack. I worked closely with the website musicbed to create a soundtrack that fitted the visuals and tone that I wanted. What we came up with was amazing and really tied the whole thing together. I also like the overall cinematography and coverage of the piece. We shot a good amount off footage which came in very handy when it came to editing.

Other thing I like about the video is the colour grade. It was the first project I used my BMPCC on so I was a little apprehensive when it came to grading. However, with a little blood sweat and tears I feel it really came out well.

Things I dislike really boils down to one thing. I hate the text that comes up on screen explaining about the company. I understand why there are important but it feels like there are better ways to do it or at least ways to have them bend better into the video.

The only thing I would change would be the text and also perhaps filming more activities they do on the course just to had some more diversity.

Strength- Cinematography, colour grading, soundtrack, editing.

Weaknesses- On screen text.

Opportunities- Basically every shot in the video is us taking advantage of an opportunity that's just how filming stuff like this works.

Threat- The biggest threat came from filming off the side of a cliff face. Luckily we were filming with some highly trained mountaineers who did all the roping for us

"It's great to have a goal!" exercise

I have several goals for my FMP. The first and largest is for the project to act as a keystone for pitching a much larger project to investors/studios in the future. This could be key to selling the idea, being able to show not just the style, feel and tone of the show, but also to highlight my ability.
The second goal is to produce a high quality product that can be used in show-reels and also has the penitential to be put into film festivals and competitions.

My goal for the coming calendar year is to finish my course with the highest grades possible, producing several shorts and skits as I do so. I am also keen to produce a large TV style show which will go down as the biggest production the course and college have ever seen. As well as this, I want to continue to grow my own Production company, doing more client work and building the brand. I would love to hire more people and continue to collaborate with talent individuals.

The only other goals I have for this year would be re-kindling relationships which I have left fall apart and improving my own physical and mental strength.

My reaction to the likelihood of continuing to working by myself excites me like nothing else. I love every part of working from myself. From finances to negotiating business, hiring and firing, creating and everything else in between. When people say "oh you can't do that" or "most likely you won't/can't do" it just motivates me to do it no matter what.