This post will conclude the Blog for
Team 1
Group 3
Nathalie Kranich - NK312
The Project will be concluded today, one day before the submission deadline.
Throughout the journey for this module, we had to come to terms with a few difficulties that made our work harder or possibly less rewarding, but I believe we came out of this with many new and nice experiences.
Our most fatal mistake throughout the entire project was time management. We had drastically underestimated how short 2-3 minutes would be, and had prepared an idea and script for a project that would require a much larger time frame. We therefore had to reduce our script to the minimal shippable product, and often struggled with how our vision had to change due to time restriction.
We also came to realize that finding actors interested in a project can be difficult, and that advertising the project and properly arranging for contacts is essential to keep a movie alive. Thankfully we found a very capable actress in the end, after a total of three audition.
Filming was a wonderful experience for most of us I think. I thoroughly enjoyed directing, and being with a friendly group that got along well made the filming days fun and rewarding.
I feel as though throughout filming and post production we were little prepared for the things we had to mind. We often took unfocused shots, or disregarded the lighting so that shots became over exposed. We had only very little camera training, and Cian, our camera man, was the only one who really picked up the camera throughout these times, as he had claimed that responsibility from the beginning. Our whole camera knowledge was therefore mainly focused on him.
We had also received only one editing lab session with the bare necessities of editing, resulting in a minimal shippable product but by no means something I would consider professional work. We had to accept that we would probably never be able to fix all the audio problems we had. Audio management was not taught to us at all, and other than balancing out the audio and working with the microphone we had, we felt like we knew how to do very little.
As all the post production had to be done within two to three days this week, our days became pretty stressful. I am the first to admit that I started to become quite irritable with my group due to the stress that was building up before the deadline.
Teamwork can often be a difficult thing, and although rewarding, I am little used to letting other people do a large part of a group work on their own, resulting in me wanting to link myself into every aspect of work on the project. I believe that as a group we communicated well and regularly, met up often, and made big decisions together.
Overall I am very happy with our teamworking skills throughout the module. Apart from some stressful moments we got along well and got work done reliably.
Was my vision of the shortfilm fulfilled?
I don't fully believe so, although I have not yet seen the final colour corrected version. It was our absolute first attempt, and for that I am content with what we have produced. I think we can do better another time when we have less time restrictions and possibly more knowledge and experience. I would certainly do a few things differently next time.
Ofcourse the vision was obstructed by the simple fact that we had to butcher our idea into a shorter script, therefore we are happy with an outcome that matches the criteria and leaves us with something to show for our work.
Me and my group have already spoken about maybe picking up a filming project next term. We enjoyed the moving image module and might want to do more on our own terms, with a chance to experiment and take our time.
Although this is the conclusion post, I might upload the final short film here later on. That however depends on whether our actor is fine with that.
Thursday, 9 April 2015
Wednesday, 8 April 2015
Post-Production: Editing
Tuesday, the seventh of April, Sach and Alistair started editing in the computer suits. They got the first third of the movie done during the morning and afternoon, and later called me to come and assist with the editing. Cian, who was with me at the time, and me, therefore went back, and we had a look at the work already done, finding that quite a lot of footage was unfortunately shot rather bad. Some of it was out of focus, and we had big issues with the light shining onto Sophie's face during the break up scene, causing it to appear over exposed at times.
I edited the second third of the movie, which was intended to be a montage scene, and got started somewhat on the break up. Overall we probably realized that we were still way over time.
Today we had our last seminar group. Sach and Alistair had finished the rough cut last night after me and Cian left, and we showed our work to Helen, who picked out many inconsistencies and pieces in which we failed to relay the message and plot of the movie. Some serious reediting had to be done, shifting scenes and cleaning up the montages.
The middle montage I had worked on as we had intended in the script was too jumpy and unclear for an objective viewer to understand. We had to rearrange them so that the scenes fit the mood that was shown prior and after the montage.
At 12 Sophie came to see us because we had promised to take her for lunch as a thank you. We went to mine first with a camera and got a still of the picture frame, as well as some more audio tracks done for which we quickly wrote down a short script, that later didn't end up being used. Then we went for lunch. Oscar and Sach stayed at Jennison to continue with the edit, and by the time we returned they had changed and improved it drastically. Indeed the film now made more sense, and there was not much time left that we needed to cut down.
Together with Oscar I worked on the music audio tracks, for which we used two songs I recently came to like and chose for the project.
Angus and Julia Stone's "For you" was one of them, the other was "King" by Lauren Aquilina. I think I shall post links to the song, as they quite nicely reflect the nature of the story, and have long inspired me for the shortfilm.
I left a little earlier than the others, when Sach, Oscar and Alistair remained to start colour correcting. it felt like a job I could not necessarily assist with much. Tomorrow we shall meet up to have a final run through the project, and hopefully we will be able to submit tomorrow.
I shall then also write an overall conclusion for this blog.
I edited the second third of the movie, which was intended to be a montage scene, and got started somewhat on the break up. Overall we probably realized that we were still way over time.
Today we had our last seminar group. Sach and Alistair had finished the rough cut last night after me and Cian left, and we showed our work to Helen, who picked out many inconsistencies and pieces in which we failed to relay the message and plot of the movie. Some serious reediting had to be done, shifting scenes and cleaning up the montages.
The middle montage I had worked on as we had intended in the script was too jumpy and unclear for an objective viewer to understand. We had to rearrange them so that the scenes fit the mood that was shown prior and after the montage.
At 12 Sophie came to see us because we had promised to take her for lunch as a thank you. We went to mine first with a camera and got a still of the picture frame, as well as some more audio tracks done for which we quickly wrote down a short script, that later didn't end up being used. Then we went for lunch. Oscar and Sach stayed at Jennison to continue with the edit, and by the time we returned they had changed and improved it drastically. Indeed the film now made more sense, and there was not much time left that we needed to cut down.
Together with Oscar I worked on the music audio tracks, for which we used two songs I recently came to like and chose for the project.
Angus and Julia Stone's "For you" was one of them, the other was "King" by Lauren Aquilina. I think I shall post links to the song, as they quite nicely reflect the nature of the story, and have long inspired me for the shortfilm.
I left a little earlier than the others, when Sach, Oscar and Alistair remained to start colour correcting. it felt like a job I could not necessarily assist with much. Tomorrow we shall meet up to have a final run through the project, and hopefully we will be able to submit tomorrow.
I shall then also write an overall conclusion for this blog.
Production: Last day of filming (almost)
Monday (6th of April) we met up again with Sophie for 1pm, and shot the last few scenes in my room, as well as the last few outdoor scenes. We took some pretty dramatic, angry shots of her with smeared lipstick (to which she later turned out to have an allergic reaction. Nothing too fatal, thankfully.)
The day of filming went well. It was only me and Cian, as well as our actors Alistair and Sophie. We had good enough weather, although it was a little cloudy. We finished quite on time, long before we ran out of daylight.
Scheduled that day were mainly montage scenes, with no dialogue. We did however take some audio tracks to overlay later.
The day of filming went well. It was only me and Cian, as well as our actors Alistair and Sophie. We had good enough weather, although it was a little cloudy. We finished quite on time, long before we ran out of daylight.
Scheduled that day were mainly montage scenes, with no dialogue. We did however take some audio tracks to overlay later.
Sunday, 5 April 2015
This was a nice thing to go over, although I had long ago done it wrong with scriptwriting for our shortfilm. In collaboration with Sach I noticed that his formatting completely differed from mine, and that I had forgotten quite a few things that I should have paid attention to - in general all things mentioned in the above video.
Mind when to capitalize names and actions, what degree of description to use, etc.
Production: Second day of shooting
Last wednesday during the seminar group we decided to get the camera for the weekend and do most of our filming then. This being the easter weekend, we actually managed to book the camera out for quite a long duration.
We agreed with our actress to meet on saturday at half ten infront of the production studio, and at first the weather looked rather bleak. It had been raining a little, the ground was wet, and then our actress did not show up at first for a good two hours. Turned out she had overslept, but we waited tirelessly and long enough to manage to arrange a meeting afterall. Everyone was still in the Jennison Building, so we met back up and went back to mine for filmig.
Scheduled were the griefing scenes in my room and the opening call. We filmed that all pretty easily as they were short, simple scenes with easy pans.
The group harmonized well once more and the scenes worked pretty well. Unfortunately Alistair and Sach had only little to do that day, as most scenes simply included Sophie, and we could not have all of us in my room at one time, out of fear of crowding the place and getting in the way of the filming.
They stayed on standby anyway and helped out with anything that was needed nontheless, so we had plenty assistance on set.
The funeral-scene, in which Caitlyn returns from Adrian's funeral and begins her grieving process, was a hard thing for us to film. We gave Sophie sometime, and she used it to put herself into a sad mood. She did a wonderful job with it, and actually cried naturally during the scene, making for a quite upsetting and emotional shot. It was perfect for the shortfilm, and a little difficult to watch, but she worked very proffesionally with nicely smeared make up.
After the funeral shots, the weather turned sunny, and we decided it was best to use the sunny time we got to film the outdoors scenes. So we wrapped up in my room and went out towards elliot foothpath, where we filmed one more happy scene of the two actors climbing a tree, and went on to locationscout out a tree for the breakupscene.
Last week we had used a tree that was positioned in a very soft, swampy area, and we had issues with our shoes sinking in and the wetness getting to us. So we moved somewhere a little more stable, and repeated the scene there. It was difficult to position the actors correctly for the light to work with us, and in general framing and positioning was difficult because the actors moved a fair bit during their scene, leaving frame when panning was unintended.
Alistair and Sophie nontheless managed towards the end to really make the scene look natural. They reached for each others hands and embraced well, and the forehead-kiss looked affectionate as it should be. We are very pleased with the work our actors have done, and after a round of close ups on both characters, and a general run through from the distance, as well as special medium close ups for the hug and the kiss, we wrapped up for the day.
Our next shoot is planned for monday afternoon at 1pm, where we will finish off some argument scenes, create some audio for voice overlays, and finish the griefing scenes in Caitlyn's room. That will complete all our shots, and we can start editing afterwards, giving our post-production people around three days to finish the editing.
Overall, we spent six hours yesterday on the project.
We agreed with our actress to meet on saturday at half ten infront of the production studio, and at first the weather looked rather bleak. It had been raining a little, the ground was wet, and then our actress did not show up at first for a good two hours. Turned out she had overslept, but we waited tirelessly and long enough to manage to arrange a meeting afterall. Everyone was still in the Jennison Building, so we met back up and went back to mine for filmig.
Scheduled were the griefing scenes in my room and the opening call. We filmed that all pretty easily as they were short, simple scenes with easy pans.
The group harmonized well once more and the scenes worked pretty well. Unfortunately Alistair and Sach had only little to do that day, as most scenes simply included Sophie, and we could not have all of us in my room at one time, out of fear of crowding the place and getting in the way of the filming.
They stayed on standby anyway and helped out with anything that was needed nontheless, so we had plenty assistance on set.
The funeral-scene, in which Caitlyn returns from Adrian's funeral and begins her grieving process, was a hard thing for us to film. We gave Sophie sometime, and she used it to put herself into a sad mood. She did a wonderful job with it, and actually cried naturally during the scene, making for a quite upsetting and emotional shot. It was perfect for the shortfilm, and a little difficult to watch, but she worked very proffesionally with nicely smeared make up.
After the funeral shots, the weather turned sunny, and we decided it was best to use the sunny time we got to film the outdoors scenes. So we wrapped up in my room and went out towards elliot foothpath, where we filmed one more happy scene of the two actors climbing a tree, and went on to locationscout out a tree for the breakupscene.
Last week we had used a tree that was positioned in a very soft, swampy area, and we had issues with our shoes sinking in and the wetness getting to us. So we moved somewhere a little more stable, and repeated the scene there. It was difficult to position the actors correctly for the light to work with us, and in general framing and positioning was difficult because the actors moved a fair bit during their scene, leaving frame when panning was unintended.
Alistair and Sophie nontheless managed towards the end to really make the scene look natural. They reached for each others hands and embraced well, and the forehead-kiss looked affectionate as it should be. We are very pleased with the work our actors have done, and after a round of close ups on both characters, and a general run through from the distance, as well as special medium close ups for the hug and the kiss, we wrapped up for the day.
Our next shoot is planned for monday afternoon at 1pm, where we will finish off some argument scenes, create some audio for voice overlays, and finish the griefing scenes in Caitlyn's room. That will complete all our shots, and we can start editing afterwards, giving our post-production people around three days to finish the editing.
Overall, we spent six hours yesterday on the project.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Production: Photos from Set
Here are some of the photos I took on our great filming day yesterday!
a
On set for the Breakup, Sun was setting and we were losing light quickly. It got pretty chilly and the ground was wet and muddy.
Getting started on the Breakup scene
Photoshooting for the couple pictures. We got many nice pictures and Alistair will be printing them off so we can use them next week and prepare my room as a film set.
Teabreak for the group, at my house in parkwood.
At the Parkwood path for the second running scene. We had quite a few curious people walk through the set and wonder what we were doing.
a
At Dolce Vitta to feed some ducks. Sach got a healthy wholemeal bread for the birdies.
We also saw a seagull eat a goldfish. Yum.
Getting started on the Breakup scene
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Production: First Day of Shooting
Today turned out to be our first day of shooting. The weather in the afternoon was a lot better than we had anticipated, so Cian and Sach checked if a camera would be available, and we were lucky enough that a camera did indeed turn back up at half two. By then we had taken a nice set of couply pictures of Sophie and Alistair.
We had previously decided to let Alistair do the acting instead of Oscar. Alistair is a lot more comfortable speaking the lines, and is fine with doing it as long as it is not spread across the Internet.
Sophie turned out to be very photogenic, so we got some beautiful pictures. She and Alistair got along well, so they infact look very natural together. We did a few scenes of them running from my house, where we had a quick tea break, and along the Parkwood path. Then we shot a scene at the duckpond at Keynes, feeding ducks there, a scene of them fighting along the footpath and we got started on the break up scene.
Lighting will be a difficulty if it turns out that our next shooting day (Next wednesday, hopefully), will be rainy.
We were all very motivated. Everyone did their part, the actors had fun (so did we), and we were all very thrilled to finally start shooting. Overall we were on our feet for a good four hours until the sun set and it got too cold and uncomfortable for us all to continue. We believe we got quite a few good shots down!
Today left everyone much more positive about the project and the upcoming deadline. The day was exhausting but very fun, with our crew being friendly and cheerful together.
(We even got Sophie to slap Alistair, after Sach insisted for so long)
In my next post I will upload a few of the pictures I took during the shot!
We had previously decided to let Alistair do the acting instead of Oscar. Alistair is a lot more comfortable speaking the lines, and is fine with doing it as long as it is not spread across the Internet.
Sophie turned out to be very photogenic, so we got some beautiful pictures. She and Alistair got along well, so they infact look very natural together. We did a few scenes of them running from my house, where we had a quick tea break, and along the Parkwood path. Then we shot a scene at the duckpond at Keynes, feeding ducks there, a scene of them fighting along the footpath and we got started on the break up scene.
Lighting will be a difficulty if it turns out that our next shooting day (Next wednesday, hopefully), will be rainy.
We were all very motivated. Everyone did their part, the actors had fun (so did we), and we were all very thrilled to finally start shooting. Overall we were on our feet for a good four hours until the sun set and it got too cold and uncomfortable for us all to continue. We believe we got quite a few good shots down!
Today left everyone much more positive about the project and the upcoming deadline. The day was exhausting but very fun, with our crew being friendly and cheerful together.
(We even got Sophie to slap Alistair, after Sach insisted for so long)
In my next post I will upload a few of the pictures I took during the shot!
Pre-Production: Auditions and Scheduling
Last Thursday we held one last audition in the Production studio.
My mail to the school of Drama had gotten through, and I had received about five mails with inquiries about our short film. In the end, only one person turned up for the audition at three. The girl did a good job, and we quite liked her performance. Sach and Alistair were there with me, but we had nothing to do after the girl left.
Our previous actor for Adrian had cancelled the role, and in the end it turned out that another girl that might have played the role, was also unavailable. I had hoped for that girl to bring her boyfriend into the shortfilm, but neither of them were up for it in the end.
So I mailed the girl that had auditioned last week, and she agreed happily to be Caitlyn.
We arranged to meet up today to take a few pictures of her and Oscar, who will have to play Adrian now, as a couple. This is prop preparation more than anything, and will set us up for a day of filming in my room here at Uni. Oscar works during the weekends, and our Caitlyn is free mostly on mondays and wednesdays, when we can only really work in the afternoon. Arranging a filming schedule might become difficult, but we must really get started on the filming.
I requested of our actors to bring separate sets of clothes to the shoot today, so we can make it look as though they took many photos together.
My mail to the school of Drama had gotten through, and I had received about five mails with inquiries about our short film. In the end, only one person turned up for the audition at three. The girl did a good job, and we quite liked her performance. Sach and Alistair were there with me, but we had nothing to do after the girl left.
Our previous actor for Adrian had cancelled the role, and in the end it turned out that another girl that might have played the role, was also unavailable. I had hoped for that girl to bring her boyfriend into the shortfilm, but neither of them were up for it in the end.
So I mailed the girl that had auditioned last week, and she agreed happily to be Caitlyn.
We arranged to meet up today to take a few pictures of her and Oscar, who will have to play Adrian now, as a couple. This is prop preparation more than anything, and will set us up for a day of filming in my room here at Uni. Oscar works during the weekends, and our Caitlyn is free mostly on mondays and wednesdays, when we can only really work in the afternoon. Arranging a filming schedule might become difficult, but we must really get started on the filming.
I requested of our actors to bring separate sets of clothes to the shoot today, so we can make it look as though they took many photos together.
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Pre-Production: Auditions (2)
We had set another audition date for monday, but no one expressed any interest in participating. One person only mailed me, and suggested he could audition on monday (yesterday), and so me and Sach met him in the media center and quickly let him read through some of the lines. He is a drama student and would do a good job, but without a female actress that means very little.
Caitlyn is definitly the heavier role, and the story's focus lies on her. It is so important to find a female actress, but we are running out of time. After the short audition, Sach and I took a trip to the school of Arts and spoke to the receptionist about reaching more drama students. She said if we mailed her the details of the production, they could pass it on to their students. I did that an hour or so later when I came home, but she is yet to reply and we have yet to receive any email from any possible actor.
We set our deadline to friday, and if we then still don't have an actress, I will fill in for the role of Caitlyn and my partner may play Adrian. This is no ideal situation at all and puts the production in a bad position. As the director I should not spend my time in front of the camera.
Sach and I also edited some of the script today. We added dialogue over the montage scenes and improved and shortened the break up scene a little.
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Pre-Production: Practising Sequencing and Continuity
(Forgot to upload: This was a draft from last week, the 4th of March.)
Today is wednesday - workshop day, and we just returned from a two hour session of practising filming. We prepared a short sequence that could, as it is, be fit for the break up scene in the actual production, and filmed it outside by the pond in front of the Jennison building.
For this, we prepared a storyboard of five-six pannels, in order to practise sequencing and continuity as explained to us in the lecture today.
We soon had taken several takes of one shot, and learnt that framing a scene, and getting the actors into the right position, can take a lot of time and several attempts until an acceptable shot is taken. The soft, uneven ground also made it difficult to properly position the camera, and Cian, as our camera man, had troubles sometime in keeping the shot straight.
I myself had the opportunity to practise a little camera work - although I gladly leave that job for the camera man.
Today is wednesday - workshop day, and we just returned from a two hour session of practising filming. We prepared a short sequence that could, as it is, be fit for the break up scene in the actual production, and filmed it outside by the pond in front of the Jennison building.
For this, we prepared a storyboard of five-six pannels, in order to practise sequencing and continuity as explained to us in the lecture today.
We soon had taken several takes of one shot, and learnt that framing a scene, and getting the actors into the right position, can take a lot of time and several attempts until an acceptable shot is taken. The soft, uneven ground also made it difficult to properly position the camera, and Cian, as our camera man, had troubles sometime in keeping the shot straight.
I myself had the opportunity to practise a little camera work - although I gladly leave that job for the camera man.
Pre-Production: Auditions
In today's seminar group, we edited the clips from last week's seminar group, and had a look for some royalty free music.
In the afternoon, we also held our first auditions in the student media center. It was rather disastrous, as absolutely no one showed up. The room Sach had booked (the only one still available) was very small, and already would have made the audition space feel very confined.
None of the six possible auditionees that had expressed interest showed up in the three hour period that we spent their waiting. So we just sat in that small room and played games and chatted.
We may repeat auditons on monday and fix some planning issues, as today clearly didn't go as planned.
In the afternoon, we also held our first auditions in the student media center. It was rather disastrous, as absolutely no one showed up. The room Sach had booked (the only one still available) was very small, and already would have made the audition space feel very confined.
None of the six possible auditionees that had expressed interest showed up in the three hour period that we spent their waiting. So we just sat in that small room and played games and chatted.
We may repeat auditons on monday and fix some planning issues, as today clearly didn't go as planned.
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Pre-Production: Storyboard
Once the new, shorter script has been finalized, we decided to divide the script up between us to do the storyboard. Me and Cian worked on the break up scene together. We made some sketches and he as the camera man decided with me on the shots we wanted to do for the scene, and today I have redone the storyboard digitally to make it easier to work with for us.
Here are some example.
These are pages 1 and 3 of the breakup scene. I might upload the rest of the storyboard once we have put it all together.
Tomorrow we will be holding auditions! The facebook event so far has attracte about six people that will hopefully show up between 1 and 4 tomorrow. We are hoping for the best, anyway.
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Post-Production: Scriptwriting
Today we met up to edit and combine the two scripts that me and Sachin had prepared. We tried to do so because we anticipated them to be too different, or incompatible in style, but we soon easily combined a few scenes and wrote what we considered good dialogue and a good script.
We followed our previously made pattern, and shortened it as good as possible. Then Alistair, who was helping us edit, and I, timed one of maybe five heavier dialogue scenes - and found that this scene itself was already running a minute long.
As a result, we called Cian and Oscar in also, and worked through our first proper crisis. It turned out that the script idea, as it stood, was far too long for the two-three minute restriction we had been given. We had to drastically shorten our script - cutting out most of the important dialogue and interaction between the characters, and making most of the film deliver its information through montages.
In the end we managed to finish a script that we can use, with only one actually dialogue heavy scene, but we all felt frustrated and saddened in the end that most of our work had to be cut. We are left with something nothing like what we anticipated for this project, and will have to come to terms with the fact that the restrictions will not allow us to fulfil the expectations we had previously set ourselves.
Despite this demotivating event, we have at least now finished a script and can start working on the story board - as bad as we feel for the way we were forced to butcher our previous ideas.
Tomorrow, story boarding will start. We have divided the script into parts so that each of us can do some of the story board. I will be working with Cian, our camera man, to storyboard the break up scene between Caitlyn and Adrian - the only scene actually left somewhat like what we had previously planned.
We followed our previously made pattern, and shortened it as good as possible. Then Alistair, who was helping us edit, and I, timed one of maybe five heavier dialogue scenes - and found that this scene itself was already running a minute long.
As a result, we called Cian and Oscar in also, and worked through our first proper crisis. It turned out that the script idea, as it stood, was far too long for the two-three minute restriction we had been given. We had to drastically shorten our script - cutting out most of the important dialogue and interaction between the characters, and making most of the film deliver its information through montages.
In the end we managed to finish a script that we can use, with only one actually dialogue heavy scene, but we all felt frustrated and saddened in the end that most of our work had to be cut. We are left with something nothing like what we anticipated for this project, and will have to come to terms with the fact that the restrictions will not allow us to fulfil the expectations we had previously set ourselves.
Despite this demotivating event, we have at least now finished a script and can start working on the story board - as bad as we feel for the way we were forced to butcher our previous ideas.
Tomorrow, story boarding will start. We have divided the script into parts so that each of us can do some of the story board. I will be working with Cian, our camera man, to storyboard the break up scene between Caitlyn and Adrian - the only scene actually left somewhat like what we had previously planned.
Pre-Production: Casting
Yesterday Sachin confirmed to us that we have an auditon date and location set. He was able to get us an auditon location with the student media center on the 11th of March, from 1 to 4 pm.
He has promoted the event with KTV, and I have mailed the leader of the drama society once more, asking that they allow us to promote it also. We might still want to print out a few of the posters, updated now with location and date, and hang them up around Uni.
Depending on how busy it will be, we anticipate 5-10 minutes auditions per person - however we might end up not getting much interest at all. It is hard to tell at this point.
Hopefully we will soon have two actors and will be able to start the production process.
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Pre-Production: Treatment
Yesterday we finished the treatment for "Transient", and were able to hand it in today.
Since we met up a week ago and decided on a better narrative structure, script writing has been a lot easier. I have now finished four to five scenes, and believe that we can soon start storyboarding once Sach and I have put our work together and we have met with the group to edit everything. There are still no audition location, unfortunately, since the respective people have not yet gotten back to us.
Since we met up a week ago and decided on a better narrative structure, script writing has been a lot easier. I have now finished four to five scenes, and believe that we can soon start storyboarding once Sach and I have put our work together and we have met with the group to edit everything. There are still no audition location, unfortunately, since the respective people have not yet gotten back to us.
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Pre-Production: Scripting and Treatment
Today we met up as a group to discuss our responsibilities for the Treatment and create a better frame for the script. After yesterday's location scouting we realized that with Sach and me trying to write collaboratively, a few problems could arise that we have not properly controlled.
We had very little knowledge of the outline of scenes, meaning that once me and Sach put our scenes together, we would probably have found that they do not match up at all.
So when we met up today we decided on a frame for the scenes we were going to write. We now have a considerably more detailed timeline, including links to locations and times of days and a vague summary of what happens within the scenes. Now we can go off and write the script, that can later be edited by the whole group.
We have also decided a little more about how we intend to film the shortfilm, and in what order we will present the descending into fights and arguments for the couple.
We also decided on our roles for the treatment. I will be writing about the characters, Cian is writing about locations, we decided together on a logline and are set to start working on this. We hope to finish at least a first draft of the treatment over the weekend.
Sach handed in a filled out form to the TV Society so that hopefully we will soon have a location to Audition in, and we asked the receptionists at Jennison for an audition location in case we need a backup.
Pre-Production: Location Scouting
Yesterday Alistair, Sach and I went Location scouting around the University grounds.
We rented out a camera and shot some pictures around the lakes and green areas, because we feel that the majority of the shortfilm should take place outdoors.
The natural lighting will underline the progression of the day and will make the passing of time obvious, therefore implying the transience of the daylight, the ongoing of time, and the approaching ending.
The natural setting should also make the light and the environment more peaceful and tranquil, as well as secluded, so that the focus of the story remains on the two characters.
in the breakup scene, they may stand by a tree such as this, the place where they first kissed.
Still missing is the exact room we will be using to shoot the first and last scenes. At the moment it looks like we might use my own room here on Campus.
We rented out a camera and shot some pictures around the lakes and green areas, because we feel that the majority of the shortfilm should take place outdoors.
The natural lighting will underline the progression of the day and will make the passing of time obvious, therefore implying the transience of the daylight, the ongoing of time, and the approaching ending.
The natural setting should also make the light and the environment more peaceful and tranquil, as well as secluded, so that the focus of the story remains on the two characters.
Either by this lake, or the lake by DolceVitta, the characters can feed Ducks together.
The characters may have a race down these two roads.
in the breakup scene, they may stand by a tree such as this, the place where they first kissed.
Still missing is the exact room we will be using to shoot the first and last scenes. At the moment it looks like we might use my own room here on Campus.
Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Pre-Production: Planning and Development/ Scripting
We were long due to meet up as a group and decide on some important questions yet to be answered for the progress of our script.
Points of order were:
Points of order were:
- Auditions
- Script
- Treatment
- Exact storyline
- Character development
We used the two hours we had been given to discuss what issue would be the cause of conflict in the relationship of our two characters. We had decided on an important progression throughout the story - the focus is no longer on getting them to fully appreciate each other, but in fact to admit defeat and voluntarily end their relationship.
The theme of Transience remains important throughout the entire story, the lesson shall be only that sometimes the end of things should be appreciated and welcomed, or even set to an end voluntarily.
Our female main character will decide to continue on her own, rather than be torn away from her partner by death. It is a positive, independent and selfdriven ending to a lovestory that has never worked in the first place.
We hope that this ending puts mutual breakups into a better light and underlines that a happy ending does not always need to be a romantic get together. We shy away from the typical romantic happy endings and decided instead to make our happy ending all about independence and letting go.
Still, we needed to discuss how the story would get there. To assist us with that, we got up a character sheet from deviant art and skipped through it to answer a few more questions about our characters. By now we have a fairly good idea of what they are like, and named them.
The male lead will be called Adrian, and the female lead is called Caitlin, shortened by him to Cat.
Here are a few things about the characters that we have decided on.
Adrian:
- Is a confident, independent person. He does not require the approval of others.
- He is practical and decisive, get things done when they need doing, and often cuts down to the necessities.
- he is blunt, making him appear rude sometimes.
- He is emotionally a little reserved, and although he cares for the people he loves, he can appear as cold or lacking of affection.
- In arguments, he is patient for a long time and does not get easily angered. There is a breaking point however at which he will no longer calmly stand by.
- He does not know how to deal well with other peoples emotions, especially grief and tears.
- He is not religious.
Cait
- She likes to please people. Her priorities are other people and herself, and she looks a lot for emotional happiness in herself and others.
- She is insecure and requires a lot of affection to reassure her.
- she is not very decisive, but does not necessarily mind wandering aimlessly sometimes.
- she is more emotionally tuned than her parnter.
- she is honest and can be blunt, but tries harder to be sensitive about the subject.
- she is easily angered and gets into arguments quickly. When she perceives something as an insult, she is quick to jump onto that topic and point it out.
- She is a worrier.
Sach has mailed the film society and is looking to arrange a location for auditions with them. Once we have a location, we plan to hold auditions in maybe three weeks time, by which time the script and maybe storyboard should be mainly done.
Sach and I will collaboratively write the script. For now we decided to each prepare a few scenes for the different times in the film, and compare and patch them together later.
The storyline so far is still fairly vague and needs to be filled with locations and exact details.
- Cait receives the call from Adrian's mother, telling her that he has died.
- Time passes, and we see Cait go through the various stages of grief within her room.
- Adrian returns - Cait reacts emotionally confused, both happy and sad.
- They have a reunion, and enjoy the abilitiy to spend time together again.
- After some happy hours together, tension arises. Small things ruin the good mood a little.
- The start fighting. Little things are blown out of proportion.
- The couple is upset and questioning their relationship.
- Cait decides to break up.
- They spend some time mending each other, saying goodbye. Their break up was mutual, understanding and forgiving. They leave on good, almost loving terms, but decide that this must be their final goodbye.
- He disappears in the morning.
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Pre-Production: Planning and Development (Advertising the Project)
The leader of the Drama Society got back to me very quickly and informed me that if we prepared a facebook event, some information and a poster perhaps, they would gladly pass it on to their members.
That means of course that we need to start working on our plans for the audition as soon as possible. We need a poster to promote the project (something I never even previously thought of), an audition date, and some clear information on what kind of actors we are actually looking for. We need to find a location where the auditions can be held, and we need to invite as many people as possible to it and maybe seek through more professional casting sides online.
That meant honing in on a title.
My suggeston for the title "Transient" remains, considering it is fairly unused yet. So far that title was only used for a small production for a film festival it seemed, and not many people would assosciate it with that. There is "The Transients", but that is technically another title. We could ofcourse add something to the word, like
"Forever Transient" or "Transience" but because I got impatient I went with Transient for the Poster and went ahead and did a first design.
That means of course that we need to start working on our plans for the audition as soon as possible. We need a poster to promote the project (something I never even previously thought of), an audition date, and some clear information on what kind of actors we are actually looking for. We need to find a location where the auditions can be held, and we need to invite as many people as possible to it and maybe seek through more professional casting sides online.
That meant honing in on a title.
My suggeston for the title "Transient" remains, considering it is fairly unused yet. So far that title was only used for a small production for a film festival it seemed, and not many people would assosciate it with that. There is "The Transients", but that is technically another title. We could ofcourse add something to the word, like
"Forever Transient" or "Transience" but because I got impatient I went with Transient for the Poster and went ahead and did a first design.
by Nathalie Kranich.
For a first Poster I think it does the job. Atleast I tried to make it representative of the Plot we have so far. The two lovers try to connect, but can never truely touch or be together, the falling snow might call for associations with fragility, melting, magic, cold, and ofcourse a snow flakes very existence is doomed to a very short lifespan usually. Only it's not like rain. They hold on to their life, I guess, before they eventually melt or get trampled down.
Transient never the less. The white hand belongs to the boyfriend, fading into red. Which probably best connotates love and blood here.
The "T" is a Clock. That one is probably obvious.
Well, overall happy with my work, and if we decide to use this as it is we only need to add some information, an audition date, and all the other thousands of little things we haven't figured out yet.
On a side note, I thought about the plot today and thought that even without a script, we will need a few scenes that we can give to auditioning actors to practise. I thought of quite a few scenes that I could write down and suggest to the rest of the team.
Back to the drawing board.
Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Pre-Production: Planning and Development
The last post summarized what we had decided on last thursday, so I also want to catch up on our progress from today's seminar group.
I had already mentioned that we decided to work on the idea of the couple reunited after Death. This decision was made early on in the seminar, so that we had a lot of time to think about the details of the project.
Actors
The story gains its dramatic value solely from the two characters interacting. Only the girl can see her dead boyfriend, so no other characters can interact with them. They are intimate and trusting with each other, and their story is one filled with raw emotion.
It will therefore be very difficult to find actors that are able to portay the intimacy and the grief that they experience. If the actors give a bad performance, the film would be ruined, but it could on the other hand be very uplifted if the performance is good.
We are looking for the following:
A female protagonist - able to display grief, crying, anger, very intense emotion. Someone who can come across as natural.
A male protagonist - able to display maybe more subtle emotions, but intimate moments, care, confidence, and again, a natural portrayal of the character.
Those two protagonists must be able to interact comfortable with each other. They will be expected at the very least to embrace each other, and that intimacy should not looked staged. We will require actors who are comfortable touching and hugging each other, and make this look natural.
We will also possible require a few extras, although that will depend on the script. Waitresses, witnesses, maybe.
Because we are looking for two very able performers, we were adviced to go to casting websites and organise auditions. For the latter, I have emailed the head of the campuses Drama Society today and received confirmation that if we were to establish an event on facebook, with the necessary data and some images to advertise ourselves, they would be quite willing to send our plea to their members.
Sach will probably be able to speak to some of the members himself as he has a few connections, and will also know a few people in the Campus TV society.
Locations
A very important location will be "the girl's bedroom". We intend to set up the room to give a lot of exposition, including pictures of the couple together, diaries, mementos, books. As the female character might have a history of depression, we considered making the books range from selfhelp and psychology books, to regular, positive fiction, to finally end with scrap books and photographs of her and her partner.
The young woman can be a University student, allowing us to naturally use the campus for what it is, and not set any location up as particulaly different to its real purpose.
For nature shots, there are a lot of forest areas around, but the exact locations will have to wait maybe until we have a better idea of the exact plot and script.
The Plot
A risk we see with the story is that once the boyfriend returns, the couple will simply share happy memories together and then part ways again. This would lack an arch, it would lack resolution. We are working therefore on a relationship issue that the two characters might have had when they were together, something that kept causing them fights and arguments.
This issue should be resolved in the progress of the movie, so that by the end of the shortfilm, the characters have forgiven each other, and said their goodbyes with their hearts at rest.
The Characters
The characters still need a lot of work and consideration, something that has to be decided on before we start writing the script. We have put some ideas in and discussed, and found that creating an issue for the characters to overcome would make it easier for us to then decide on the personalities that led to the issue in the first place.
We imagine the female protagonist to be introverted, calm, a people pleaser. Her greatest weakness is her insecurity. She rarely just accepts the good that is happening to her and is instead easily caught up in her worries and the little things that she tends to blow out of proportion. She projects her insecurities onto other people, making her defensive and constantly on her guard, hard to approach for others and sometimes hard to understand, perhaps.
The arguments in the relationship often source from her inability to accept his affection for her, and not always realising his feelings for her entirely. She needs constant reminder of his interest, and needs a lot of time spent with her. She cares little for grand gestures and instead appreciates the small things in life, for which her partner rarely takes the time.
The male protagonist is the more protective and strong of the two, perhaps a lot more confident. So far we only know that he takes little time to express his affection in small gestures, but instead just occasionally arranges a grandeur gesture. He offers her material gifts, certain events, and their different display of affection causes conflict between them.
The male protagonist possibly intended to move their relationship further and propose to her, but the female was scared and incapable of committing under her fear of being abandoned or judged.
These are our ideas, but we still struggle to find a clear, resolvable problem between them, and to see which quality fits the characters better.
About the filming - our Intentions.
The shortfilm is all about emotions, grief, forgiveness and acceptance. It is a heavy, sometimes very touchy subject that could be portayed completely wrong if we are not careful. Actors will be important, but so will the dialogue, the script, and the way in which we film.
We all agree that we want the characters to show a normal, mundane, very real relationship. We are not aiming for hollywood romance, but the true intimacy that exists between two people who love each other, and often includes very special, silly, trivial behaviours that differ from their behaviour towards others.
We will have to be careful to avoid Clichés, and capture the story as something new and fresh that won't let the viewer feel bored. The story might be very predictable, and it will be hard to work against that.
Cian suggested that we portay the psychological state of the female protagonist through colour. We could turn down the saturation ever so slightly when the girl is portayed on her own, seen as she is by others, and turn it up whenever she is interacting with her partner.
The world can appear more grey when in depression, and the film could mimic that.
Another important part of our discussions was also the establishing shot. We decided so far to begin the shortfilm with the girl picking up the phone and receiving the bad news, and then moving the camera in a circle through the room as time passes, showing the differences int he surroundings, different times of different days, and the girl in different stages of griefing.
What is on the Agenda first?
We need to set up an audition, get people to audition, and choose two good actors.
We need to get started on the script and decide how many actors we actually need.
To get started on the script, we will need to meet up once more and decide what kind of characters we want our protagonists to be, and where the story is actually going to go.
Once these details have been filled out, we can do all from location scouting, to preparing the script and story board, to practising with the actors. Around that time, we will also need to write up a Treatment for the project filled with all the details we don't yet know.
------------
That summarizes all progress up to date. Anything to come in the future will document our further progress and how succesful we are in handling the different aspects of the project.
I had already mentioned that we decided to work on the idea of the couple reunited after Death. This decision was made early on in the seminar, so that we had a lot of time to think about the details of the project.
Actors
The story gains its dramatic value solely from the two characters interacting. Only the girl can see her dead boyfriend, so no other characters can interact with them. They are intimate and trusting with each other, and their story is one filled with raw emotion.
It will therefore be very difficult to find actors that are able to portay the intimacy and the grief that they experience. If the actors give a bad performance, the film would be ruined, but it could on the other hand be very uplifted if the performance is good.
We are looking for the following:
A female protagonist - able to display grief, crying, anger, very intense emotion. Someone who can come across as natural.
A male protagonist - able to display maybe more subtle emotions, but intimate moments, care, confidence, and again, a natural portrayal of the character.
Those two protagonists must be able to interact comfortable with each other. They will be expected at the very least to embrace each other, and that intimacy should not looked staged. We will require actors who are comfortable touching and hugging each other, and make this look natural.
We will also possible require a few extras, although that will depend on the script. Waitresses, witnesses, maybe.
Because we are looking for two very able performers, we were adviced to go to casting websites and organise auditions. For the latter, I have emailed the head of the campuses Drama Society today and received confirmation that if we were to establish an event on facebook, with the necessary data and some images to advertise ourselves, they would be quite willing to send our plea to their members.
Sach will probably be able to speak to some of the members himself as he has a few connections, and will also know a few people in the Campus TV society.
Locations
A very important location will be "the girl's bedroom". We intend to set up the room to give a lot of exposition, including pictures of the couple together, diaries, mementos, books. As the female character might have a history of depression, we considered making the books range from selfhelp and psychology books, to regular, positive fiction, to finally end with scrap books and photographs of her and her partner.
The young woman can be a University student, allowing us to naturally use the campus for what it is, and not set any location up as particulaly different to its real purpose.
For nature shots, there are a lot of forest areas around, but the exact locations will have to wait maybe until we have a better idea of the exact plot and script.
The Plot
A risk we see with the story is that once the boyfriend returns, the couple will simply share happy memories together and then part ways again. This would lack an arch, it would lack resolution. We are working therefore on a relationship issue that the two characters might have had when they were together, something that kept causing them fights and arguments.
This issue should be resolved in the progress of the movie, so that by the end of the shortfilm, the characters have forgiven each other, and said their goodbyes with their hearts at rest.
The Characters
The characters still need a lot of work and consideration, something that has to be decided on before we start writing the script. We have put some ideas in and discussed, and found that creating an issue for the characters to overcome would make it easier for us to then decide on the personalities that led to the issue in the first place.
We imagine the female protagonist to be introverted, calm, a people pleaser. Her greatest weakness is her insecurity. She rarely just accepts the good that is happening to her and is instead easily caught up in her worries and the little things that she tends to blow out of proportion. She projects her insecurities onto other people, making her defensive and constantly on her guard, hard to approach for others and sometimes hard to understand, perhaps.
The arguments in the relationship often source from her inability to accept his affection for her, and not always realising his feelings for her entirely. She needs constant reminder of his interest, and needs a lot of time spent with her. She cares little for grand gestures and instead appreciates the small things in life, for which her partner rarely takes the time.
The male protagonist is the more protective and strong of the two, perhaps a lot more confident. So far we only know that he takes little time to express his affection in small gestures, but instead just occasionally arranges a grandeur gesture. He offers her material gifts, certain events, and their different display of affection causes conflict between them.
The male protagonist possibly intended to move their relationship further and propose to her, but the female was scared and incapable of committing under her fear of being abandoned or judged.
These are our ideas, but we still struggle to find a clear, resolvable problem between them, and to see which quality fits the characters better.
About the filming - our Intentions.
The shortfilm is all about emotions, grief, forgiveness and acceptance. It is a heavy, sometimes very touchy subject that could be portayed completely wrong if we are not careful. Actors will be important, but so will the dialogue, the script, and the way in which we film.
We all agree that we want the characters to show a normal, mundane, very real relationship. We are not aiming for hollywood romance, but the true intimacy that exists between two people who love each other, and often includes very special, silly, trivial behaviours that differ from their behaviour towards others.
We will have to be careful to avoid Clichés, and capture the story as something new and fresh that won't let the viewer feel bored. The story might be very predictable, and it will be hard to work against that.
Cian suggested that we portay the psychological state of the female protagonist through colour. We could turn down the saturation ever so slightly when the girl is portayed on her own, seen as she is by others, and turn it up whenever she is interacting with her partner.
The world can appear more grey when in depression, and the film could mimic that.
Another important part of our discussions was also the establishing shot. We decided so far to begin the shortfilm with the girl picking up the phone and receiving the bad news, and then moving the camera in a circle through the room as time passes, showing the differences int he surroundings, different times of different days, and the girl in different stages of griefing.
What is on the Agenda first?
We need to set up an audition, get people to audition, and choose two good actors.
We need to get started on the script and decide how many actors we actually need.
To get started on the script, we will need to meet up once more and decide what kind of characters we want our protagonists to be, and where the story is actually going to go.
Once these details have been filled out, we can do all from location scouting, to preparing the script and story board, to practising with the actors. Around that time, we will also need to write up a Treatment for the project filled with all the details we don't yet know.
------------
That summarizes all progress up to date. Anything to come in the future will document our further progress and how succesful we are in handling the different aspects of the project.
Nathalie Kranich(NK312) : Pre-Production: Brainstorming "The Greatest Day"
Moving Image, 2015
University of Kent
Team 1
Group 3:
Nathalie Kranich NK312
Cian Hamer CH564
Sachin Ladva SL497
Alistair Hunter-Craig AH675
Oscar Ramsden OR47
Today marks the first day of my documentation of mine and my group's work on the Moving Image Module. Now that our idea is set and we can start thinking about the important decisions in the project, I am feeling quite optimistic about the shortfilm's future.
Because we started working on this before today, I'm going to use this chance to recap a little.
Here's a little bit about the group of people working on this project:
My group consists of five people, of course. I will be working with Alistair Hunter-Craig, Cian Hamer, Oscar and Sachin Ladva. At the moment we have no assigned roles, but no which one of us would prefer working in which area of the project.
I personally hope to work a lot with the script and the story board, supervising the narrative and help to tell it in a succesful way. That may include producing or directing.
Sach has already expressed an interest in editing, as has Alistair, and Cian wishes to work mainly as the camera man.
The roles will most likely be changed around as we see fit, mainly of course because we all need to acquire some skill with the software and the equipment.
The Project:
"The Greatest Day" is the Theme of 2015's Moving Image Short film, to be filmed in its entirety on Campus. The shortfilm may be no longer than 3 minutes, but should exceed 2 minutes.
The criteria appeared a little limiting as first, and the time limit may still become a large issue once the script is written and we find that scenes may take longer than originally intended.
With the idea we have settled for, it will be possible to shoot on Campus only, and the film will not be impacted at all by that restriction. As for the theme, we met up as a group on thursday the 22nd of January and put forward a few ideas.
Our Favourites:
1. Transient - or the Ghost story.
A shortfilm about a girl that recently lost her boyfriend in a car accident. Their relationship had been troublesome as of lately, but upon his sudden departure from life she is hit hard by grief in all its five stages. Just when she is starting to accept the fact that he is gone, however, he suddenly appears back in her life. It seems like no one else can see him - a ghost come back to haunt her. At first, she is angry. All the suffering she had endured at his loss was bound to be repeated if he was to leave her again. But as the day progresses, they get a chance to finally set aside their difference and make the most out of their last day together. They are able to say goodbye, something that had previously been denied to them. In the end of the shortfilm, he disappears again, leaving the viewer and protagonist unsure of whether he had really returned for her, or whether he had just been an image projected by her hurt mind in order to heal itself.
2. Drowning in Advertisement.
A man wins a great day, some sort of special experience, and returns from it ecstatic about it. When he receives a phone call politely asking whether he was alright receiving some advertisements and newsletters, he absentmindedly consents.
In the following day to come, however, advertisements keep bothering him, but not in the conventional way. He finds people in his home, explaining and offering products to him. Strangers suddenly dress him in the newest fashion, even what he eats is decided by strange voices coming from the ceiling, and weirdly dressed women smiling. The focus of his life starts to be about the product, and not about himself, and as the short film progresses he becomes more and more dehumanized and captured in this world of advertisement, where individualism doesn't matter.
3. Long wanted fame - Be careful what you wish for.
Also originally an idea Alistair had. A young man or woman go to bed after posting on a social network, wishing to themselves that they would get more recognition for their work and achieve fame. When he/she wakes up in the morning, he has several hundred thousand likes on his work. People on the street start noticing him, and he is at first feeling this would be his best day yet. But as the day progresses he is deprived more and more of all privacy and worth as a human being, and becomes followed by more and more fans that wish for his attention, and yet don't care for his individual being at all. They become a disturbance, and at the end of the day he gains nothing but diststress from his newfound fanbase. His fans are sure enjoying their day though.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had of course some further ideas, but decided on the three above as our favourites. The project we will be working on is number 1, and I am quite proud that the group decided to vote for my idea. We had discussed every single idea thoroughly, weighing the pros and cons and developing it further, so that in the end everyone of them seemed like a work of our own. I believe we would have been enthusiastic for every one of these ideas, but decided that the story about the ghost returned was the most sensitive and dramatic topic, and most likely to engage the viewer emotionally.
University of Kent
Team 1
Group 3:
Nathalie Kranich NK312
Cian Hamer CH564
Sachin Ladva SL497
Alistair Hunter-Craig AH675
Oscar Ramsden OR47
Today marks the first day of my documentation of mine and my group's work on the Moving Image Module. Now that our idea is set and we can start thinking about the important decisions in the project, I am feeling quite optimistic about the shortfilm's future.
Because we started working on this before today, I'm going to use this chance to recap a little.
Here's a little bit about the group of people working on this project:
My group consists of five people, of course. I will be working with Alistair Hunter-Craig, Cian Hamer, Oscar and Sachin Ladva. At the moment we have no assigned roles, but no which one of us would prefer working in which area of the project.
I personally hope to work a lot with the script and the story board, supervising the narrative and help to tell it in a succesful way. That may include producing or directing.
Sach has already expressed an interest in editing, as has Alistair, and Cian wishes to work mainly as the camera man.
The roles will most likely be changed around as we see fit, mainly of course because we all need to acquire some skill with the software and the equipment.
The Project:
"The Greatest Day" is the Theme of 2015's Moving Image Short film, to be filmed in its entirety on Campus. The shortfilm may be no longer than 3 minutes, but should exceed 2 minutes.
The criteria appeared a little limiting as first, and the time limit may still become a large issue once the script is written and we find that scenes may take longer than originally intended.
With the idea we have settled for, it will be possible to shoot on Campus only, and the film will not be impacted at all by that restriction. As for the theme, we met up as a group on thursday the 22nd of January and put forward a few ideas.
Our Favourites:
1. Transient - or the Ghost story.
A shortfilm about a girl that recently lost her boyfriend in a car accident. Their relationship had been troublesome as of lately, but upon his sudden departure from life she is hit hard by grief in all its five stages. Just when she is starting to accept the fact that he is gone, however, he suddenly appears back in her life. It seems like no one else can see him - a ghost come back to haunt her. At first, she is angry. All the suffering she had endured at his loss was bound to be repeated if he was to leave her again. But as the day progresses, they get a chance to finally set aside their difference and make the most out of their last day together. They are able to say goodbye, something that had previously been denied to them. In the end of the shortfilm, he disappears again, leaving the viewer and protagonist unsure of whether he had really returned for her, or whether he had just been an image projected by her hurt mind in order to heal itself.
2. Drowning in Advertisement.
A man wins a great day, some sort of special experience, and returns from it ecstatic about it. When he receives a phone call politely asking whether he was alright receiving some advertisements and newsletters, he absentmindedly consents.
In the following day to come, however, advertisements keep bothering him, but not in the conventional way. He finds people in his home, explaining and offering products to him. Strangers suddenly dress him in the newest fashion, even what he eats is decided by strange voices coming from the ceiling, and weirdly dressed women smiling. The focus of his life starts to be about the product, and not about himself, and as the short film progresses he becomes more and more dehumanized and captured in this world of advertisement, where individualism doesn't matter.
3. Long wanted fame - Be careful what you wish for.
Also originally an idea Alistair had. A young man or woman go to bed after posting on a social network, wishing to themselves that they would get more recognition for their work and achieve fame. When he/she wakes up in the morning, he has several hundred thousand likes on his work. People on the street start noticing him, and he is at first feeling this would be his best day yet. But as the day progresses he is deprived more and more of all privacy and worth as a human being, and becomes followed by more and more fans that wish for his attention, and yet don't care for his individual being at all. They become a disturbance, and at the end of the day he gains nothing but diststress from his newfound fanbase. His fans are sure enjoying their day though.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had of course some further ideas, but decided on the three above as our favourites. The project we will be working on is number 1, and I am quite proud that the group decided to vote for my idea. We had discussed every single idea thoroughly, weighing the pros and cons and developing it further, so that in the end everyone of them seemed like a work of our own. I believe we would have been enthusiastic for every one of these ideas, but decided that the story about the ghost returned was the most sensitive and dramatic topic, and most likely to engage the viewer emotionally.
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