Planning: Characters

Desires	Needs
Normality/Reality ·         To defy his mum and complete the mission. Alternative reality ·         To complete the mission and be promoted.	Normality/Reality ·         To get the game back and leave the house.   Alternative reality ·         To save the world.
Fears	Will
Normality/Reality ·         Not being able to play the game. Alternative reality ·         Doing a bad job and not being noticed.	Normality/Reality ·         To leave the house and become independent Alternative reality ·         Strong will and determined.

This is an exercise which Val Taylor a lecturer in scriptwriting at UEA, she says in her book 'Stagewriting: a practical guide' that the use of this will allow the creation of the main characters and the story which around them is easier to work out the what they are doing in the situation and why they are there. Also it is very useful  for constructing characters with a number of layers and dimensions because of the factors.  

The character is the main part of the short film which I have created using a type of character which can be easily seen as a character which  is a corporate and professional man but the character is far from that. The character seen from the start is the alter ego of the reality. With the audience finding out that the character is actually a recluse who is scared to go out and the only thing which he cares about is playing games.

Normality	Alternative Reality
This is the character in the normal world, having him in casual clothes shows him a comfortable but reclusive position.	This is the character in the fanatsy world and having him in a suit allows to show a clear difference in the way the character is confident.

Planning: Creating an original story.

In my story I have set the story as if the character is a recluse and has a simple life but is a fantasist and that he is a character who is always dreaming. the way i have structured the story i have planned to create the story around two different worlds and to show that he is a fantasist i will be using a set of paralells between the two storylines.

The Parallels whioch i will be using in the two film will be:
 

	Reality	Alternative
1	The Character	The Character
2	Banana	Gun
3	Mum	The Villain
4	Teddy Bear being punched	The Henchman being Punched
5	The game (his Mission)	The Product (his Mission)
6	The dialogue used by the mum	The dialogue used by the villain
7	The dialogue used by the character	The dialogue used by the character

The Parallels in the film play a big part of the way the short film works.

Premise
A young man goes on a mission to save the world but not everything is as it seems.

Planning: Production company.

I will be using the same production company as I did last year using the idea of having a compnay which is independent is a convention of short films as the short film itself can be seen as a calling card for the director/ film maker and the best way is to use a independent production company.

These are the titles for the production company which have made. It is called Finch Films.

I will also be using the production company on the Poster to promote the film and its production company.

Planning: Three act Structure

Here i have based the short around the Three act structure  with the set-up, confrontation, resolution. This is a theory which Syd Field the author of Screenplay and The Screen Writer's Workbook this is a concept which can be seen and used in all films and screenplays.

Setup

First Scene

The main character is told to go on a mission to save the world.
The Boss tells him to go on the mission and he is this is his big break as he is bottom of the pecking order.

Confrontaion

Second Scene

He starts this mission by going into the alternative world, he goes into the alternative by touching an object.
The main character goes into the alternative world to 'save the world'  and the audiecne dont know that he is saving something really small.

Third Scene

The Main character goes into a 'building and finds the Chip/object to save the world and fight the villan
He comes out of the alternative world by touching the same object.

Resolution

Forth Scene

He saves the world- The world is a chip/ object, he is then congratulated by his boss.

Last Scene

There is a twist in the story where the character has actually been fantasing the story and has been Acting the story in his house at home.

Research: Film Reviews

Film reviews

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Conventions of a Film Review.

• The feature films all have the highlighted part of the review.

•The reviews also involve some sort of tagline which sell the film.

• They all have some sort of screenshot for the film giving an incite to the film.

•They all have verdict with either a star rating or 10/10 and an explanation of the review and a summary of the film and there opinion.

•  They also have used a number of references to other films and there visual style which have been placed in the film.

•The use of a question can be good to engage the reader to the review itself.

•The short film review could also involve the number of views on the website it was originally uploaded to. 

•The use of information about the film and the style which has been used in the film. 

Research: Posters

Short film posters

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Conventions of a short film poster.


•Short film posters use many of the same features of a feature length film poster but them seem to have less information on them e.g. the date of release and  format of the film such as IMAX or 3D. There is an acceptance to the rule with the Beyond Black Mesa  poster where they have given a festival date.

•They also are very simple compared to feature length posters using one or two characters which are the main focus of the poster it is clear they are the main character/s

•They also have the general information which would be expected on a poster the name of the film, a production company, the director/s names and the actors name . This is generic information which is needed for the poster.   

•The posters also give small clues of the film with the props or the way the character is standing, the genre of the film can also be seen with the fonts used. 

Short Film: Memories

Memories is a very simple concept of how with old age we loose our memories and this comes in the form of the character walking around with all of the memories as a reel of photographic film. as he walks around the reel becomes bigger and the memories are then lost as he walks into his house, as he shuts his door the memories are left behind. The idea is based on the the loss of memories and how they can go within a flash. There are flashbacks to the past, these are based on the memories which the man has as he finds the reel of the film.  

Mise-en-scene: The film is based around the roads and it has a bleak look to it giving the audience that the film does have a bleak and sensitive subject. The man is wearing clothes which would be associated for the characters age. There are two large props in showing the story and they are the reel of film and the 

Camera: The camera shots are very simple there are some close ups of the main character and there are shots of him with the reels these give the idea to the audience that the story is based around that. 

Sound: The film doesn't include an sort of dialogue, but there is a slow piece of music in the background. also the sounds of the road are enhanced adding to the piece.

Editing: The biggest part of the editing is the filter which has been added to give the film a dark/bleak/eerie feel as this is based on the subject matter which the director of the film is conveying with the film and the way they have edited the film in post production. There are also flashback which have been given a filter of an old film with lines where the film has worn. 

Research: Target Audience

Short films are usually for niche audiences and they are hard to cater for so the best way is to make a short film  which can be aimed at alot of people. one way of doing this is creating a story which can be interpreted easily by anyone.

Having surveyed some potential audience members I have found that short films are not really seen as much but feature films are usually consumed by this audience.

Research: Questionnaire on short films.

I conducted a questionnaire on short films over a large demographic to see what people thought about short films and there conventions.

This is what found from the questionnaire

What age are you?
	15-19 15 83% 20-29 0 0% 30-39 0 0% 40-49 2 11% 50+ 1 6%

What gender are you?
	Male 13 72% Female 5 28%

Do you as a media consumer watch short films?

SometimesNoSometimesnoNonosometimesNonoYesYesnoNosometimesYesSometimesNoyes

If not, why is that?

I don't find the narrative often grips me enough to be entertained by it. When it does I get irritated that its not a full length movie.I find them badly produced and most are just simply not very good, due to confusing narrativeI don't really know of any. They are boring and I have better things to do.I prefer to watch full length films.they are not that common and they are hardly mentioned in mainstream media.just don't seem to know when they are on or heard about anyI don't watch much TV - very selective. If I go to the cinema or hire a DVD it is for feature films I know about or have se...

If you were to watch a short film what would you expect from it?

Humor, as I like watching comedies, but also because a short film can just be one scene from a comedy sketch. For some really really short films, visit 5secondfilms.com and watch some of the ones on there. It's amazing they can even have an element of storyline in just 5 seconds..I would like it to be a short of a full length movie coming out later on. (left on a clif hanger? Good Story, meaning and an endingvery good narrative, a good plot which isn't too confusing and perhaps an open endingFor it to be interesting and engaging. It would be too short to have a plot.a good plot and strong c...

How long do expect a short to be?

5 - 10 minutes5-10 mins5 - 10 minutes5 to 15 minutes10 minutes to half an hour2 minutesNo more than 30 mins30 an hour5mins5 -10 mins5-20 minutesat least 20 minutes5/10/2012half an hour?approx. 5 min...

What sort of storyline would you expect in a short film?
	Character Led 5 28% With lots of twists 1 6% Simple story easy to follow 7 39% All of the above 5 28% Other 0 0%