Editing my Storyboard

After doing my script for my short film, my partner and I had to make a storyboard, which involved us in sketching out the camera shots and angles of each scene. We had to make sure that the storyboard fits in to our script, which means that each camera angle, shot or dialogue that we put into our script had to be exactly the same as the storyboard. My partner and I had difficulties of creating the script because we did not know hw to end our short film. Not only that but we changed the story several times because we did not think that the our story would stand out. Because the the script was not to perfection we could not really do the storyboard because we did not know how the film was going to go down. My partner and I could only come up with a solid first scene which enabled us to do the sketch out the first scene on the story board. For the second scene my parter and I did a draft of what the second scene would be like on our storyboard and then we made the second scene of the script. We were not happy with or second scene because it was not flowing with the first scene, so we stayed after school together to come up with a proper solidified second scene. We spent a long time working out the dialogue of what our characters where going to say and the type of camera angls and movement we were going to have however we worked it out and we were happy with our second scene. Having changed our second scene on the script substantially, we had to make surethat we changed our storyboards because when we actually cometo shoot our short film we will need our storyboards to let us know exactly what is going to happen in the next scenes.
So far my partner and I are struggling on how to finish our scene we have typed up what is going to happen in our final scene but we are not sure if it will make a good ending. What my partner and I are thinking of is that we do not want to make our film too original, which means that we do not want something that has already been done. What we are trying to do is come up with somethin unique and facinating which will want the audience to find out more.

Settings, scenes and Location

I have been researching about Locations. One of the locations that my partner and I have picked for our short film is a park. From my understanding there are some parks that we would have to pay for to shoot our film and some parks are strictly prohibited from filming. I have been looking at certain parks where I think it's appropriate for shooting. The first park that I thought about was Gladstone park. I looked on their website to see if it will cost my partner and I to shoot our film there. Gladstone is a good park to shoot our film because it is very big and they have the props that we need such as a playground area for kids such as swings. For further information I called them to find out if it would be fine to film there. The response that I got back from them was that it is ok as long as their is no violence or drugs involved. They also wanted reference from our teacher that we will be filming there. In our film their is no violence in it which is very good for my partner and I. The next park that we considered was Hampstead Heath. I also looked at their website to see whether it would cost to go their and film. They have pictures of the park and in my opinion it looks like a very beautiful place to shoot our film. However if we were to shoot our film their then we will have to pay which we cannot afford to do.
I will be taking pictures of both parks to see which one of them is more appropriate for my partner and I to film at. There are times where the parks could be very busy which means we will not get the kind of atmosphere that we would want. So I will have to research into it and know what times the park will be less crowded or busy in order to shoot our film. By taking pictures of these parks, it will give me a feeling of how it would be like on the day that we will start filming. I will also need a person to come with me and so I can take a picture of him/her in the park. I will also have to think about the costumes that he/she will be wearing. I wanted to have a wider varioty of parks because of I only had two parks to film in and I was not allowed to film in either it will spoil my whole plan of trying to shoot in a park so I looked at other parks. Queens park is very good place to film because it haws all the facilities that I need to film. I will need a foot path and queens park has one unlike hampstead heath.

For my short film to work I will need a house, a park and also a school. I have decided the order of which I am going to be shooting my film. I want to start shooting my park scene and the house scene together and then the school later on. This is because the park that I want to shoot my film in is ver close to the house that I would like to film in. I need the house to be fairly middle class to portray how the family was before all their problems start. The props that I will be using will be very significant because although the family is fairly middle classed, due to the problems that they will be having, the family will seem fairly low classed. The props that I will be needing will be vodka bottles surrounding the sofa of which the mum is lying on to represent the mum’s state. This will show the development of how the family was without there problems and where they are now. I have asked my media teacher whether it would be fine if I can do my house scene in her house and it was ok for me to do that although she told me that her house is very victorian. I decided that in order to take the victorian look away from the scene I will have to rearrange some of the things that she has in her house and buy a few props to make it seem more Urban like.

Casts

Casts are very important for a film. If there is no cast in the film then ther is no film. The cast has to suit the genre of the film. e.g in an action adventure film you will normally see a masculine man with a beard to represent the male masculine features. My film production Im looking at Urban Realist, so I looked at Kidulthood and Bulletboy to see who the main casts of the film were. Kidulthood and Bulletboy casts are mainly teenagers from around the age of 17 and 18. For Kidulthood the cast are appropriate to there storyboard because at the start it takes place in a secondary school. Having the right casts means that they should look like the character, they should have the same characteristics and they should be dressed up as how the charcter is meant to be dressed. My partner and I have been thinking of who to pick for our characters. We have to make sure that the people that we will be picking has to be suitable and able for the part.

Location and Camera Views

For todays lesson I did research on Location and Camera views. I learnt that camera views are extremely important because different camera angles will show different parts of the landscape. My partner and I looked at the two Urban Realist films that has really inspired us, BulletBoy and Kidulthood. First of all we looked at bullet boy we observed the locations and camera shots they used. There was a particular camera shot that I found very interesting. Not only did the camera shot show the main character but you can see the landscape at the background. This camera shot is very affective. They have used a close up shot to allow the audience to see his facial expressions and what is going on in his mind. The camera shot also hs the landscape at the background. I thought that the landscape at the background signifies him being lonely because there is nobody around. The landscape is full of block of flats and trees and this gives the audience the feeling that the film is an Urban Realist film.

Secondly my partner and I looked at the camera shots and the location choices of Kidulthood. I took a screen shot of a camera shot of the main character in Kidulthood. I thought that the seting and the choice of lighting was very good. The location of which this scene was filmed was outside and as you can see this camera shot has been film at night time, however we can still see light on his right side of his face. This is th work of the camera crew to get a bit of light upon the main characters face. This is a close up of the character. A close up shot shot allows the audience to see the facial expressions of the charcters and also allows them to almost know what they are thinking at that point of time. In this screen shot the character looks very angry as we can see his face is screwed up. The darkness on his left side of his face and the light on the right side of his face also reflects on the mood that he is in.

My partner and I then discussed how we are going to position our camera at different scenes and how we are going to get the lighting affects to be affective. We also discussed about the suitable locations that we can use to set each scene foe e.g. we cannot have a middle working class family in a high class kitchen because th audience will not recognize that the family is a middle class family.

Research on Script Writing

In todays lesson I saw a very useful clip in order to get my partner and I ready to make our short film production. The clip was called 'How to format scenes in a film script'. I have learnt from this clip tht script writing is very important and there is a unique way of writing a proffesional film script. When I was writing up my script I had to quickly adapt to the way a proper film script is writing.

1. Scene Headings
I learnt that the rule of a film script is that a scene or a scene heading is needed evertime the time or the location of the film changes. The scene heading can be known as a slug-line and the purpose for it is that it allows the reader to know the place and also the time of each scene. As I was told from my Media teachers and I also did some reasearch on it, slug-lines should always be written in capital letters. When I wrote my script this was somethng tha I had to do. Also there is an order of information that I will have to follow to get it right they are; Whether the establishing shot is going to be taken inside or outside. There are specific names for it. Interior which means inside and Exterior which means outside. In my script I had to describe the general location of where I was going to shoot my estblishing shot. After focusing on the WHERE part part i then have to focus of the WHEN part. When I go to produce my film Ihave to think of whether I want to film in the day time or at night. When I was writing my script I looked on google for slug lines. I found that the time of day has to be put at the end of the slug-lines.

2. Scene Direction
The scene direction is the bit that will hold the non dialogue and all the narators descriptions and characters actions within the story line. When I am writing the scene direction there is a specific way of writing it. It should be 1.5 inches from the left hand of the page and each line should be no more than 6 inches wide. I learnt and took into concideration that a narrative text should be written in the lower case and also it should be written in the present tense. Moreover narrative text should be single spaced and very clear. A writters job is to focus just on the storyline and the characters in the storyline.

3. Entrances and Exits
Fade in and Fade out are one of the most common terms used to indicate the beginning and the ending a film. Fade in is always used at the very start of the film and Fade out is always used at the very end of the film or script. There are other terms to indicate a beginning and end of a film e.g. Fade to black, dissolve etc. If I am going to use a fade out in my film then I will have to keep in mind that I have to fade in, into the the next scene. This has to happen in order to make the film flow.
The link the the video clip is bellow.
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-format-scenes-in-a-film-script

Research on Locations,Settings and Props

Location
In todays lesson Ihave been researching on Locations. I thought that this was very important for me because it will help me to have an idea of where I should film my establishing shot. I have learnt that when you have a specific genre that you would like to film, you cannot film your establishing shot anywhere. You need to have a specific location in order for the audience to understand what kind of genre the film is going to be. My partner and I are doing a short Urban Realist film, so we did a little research on where it would be the best place to set our scene. First we took a look at an action adventure movie to see what it was that made the the setting very unique in terms of knowing what kind of genreit was without even knowing the film.

Props
I learnt that props has a huge part to play in terms of knowing what the genre is. In the action adventure movie setting I saw a man dressed in blak leather with a cowboy hat on looking at a snake. I learnt that the black leather signifies hardness and the type of hat that was used in it signifies a typical America Western man. His features where very physical and manly as I saw a lot of facial hair on him. The props of snake signifies danger and the man was looking straight at the snake. There was also a bit of flames in the background which also gave tension and give the sense of an action adventure film.

My partner and I looked at different types of urban realist films to see where they set the location. I have learnt that locations are planned and carefully thought out. The first urban realist film I saw was Kidulthood. Kidulthood is set in a school playground where you see medium shots of kids hanging about in the playground. This is a typical Urban Realist setting. The props are very essential. I noticed that the kids are wearing school uniform which already tells the audience that they are in a school. The second film I watched was bulletboy. Bullet boys establishing shot is in a jail where you see a man coming out of it. The camera uses a medium shot of the man walkin out of the cell. the clothes that he was wearing can also show the audience that the film is going to be an Urban Realist Film. The manwas wearing a grey hooded top with grey tracksuit bottoms. These clothes signifies street boys.

I went on google and looked at council estates because normally these are wear Urban Realist films are taking place or we get to see them during the film. For example Kidulthood. There were a lot of council estates that I saw during the film. Location is something that my partner and I have to be thinking about when we come to shoot our short film.