A Change of Heart

The more I tried to write the script of my initial idea the less I liked it. I decided to change it to something that was more simple but just as relatable. So I wrote my script about a student who has a week to do an essay but procrastinates until they only have a day to do it. The climax would be the uphill struggle to get it finished only to be set another that’s twice as long the day of the hand in.

After some thought I realised that the narrative was a little flat and although the situation wad identifiable to many I didn’t feel that it was particularly moving or entertaining. I decided to make it a parody or perhaps more of a pastiche to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ (1980) because as I was writing it I felt reminded of it. The references to the film are supposed to be subtle as I still wanted it to have originality and because ‘The Shining’ is quite a well-known film I think an audience could pick up on the references without much difficulty.

I wanted to encapsulate the isolation and hysteria that one sometimes feels when working to a deadline. I hope I have achieved this and am now waiting for feedback from other students. I personally think Kubrick is a great director in particular due to his cinematography visit this site to see what films he's done.

After the feedback from fellow students and Mike I realised that I needed to make the story more exciting. Where as before I had been trying not to be too obvious with the parody I now knew that I needed to make the references more prominent, otherwise viewers weren’t going to get them. I had problems deciding on a definite ending, it was difficult because I was trying to create an ending that left the viewer with something to remember as well as fully concluding.

Getting Creative

I came up with my initial idea for a short film script quite quickly. I was thinking about ruined relationships and how people sometimes wish they had known what they were getting into before a relationship started. I thought this would make an interesting story because it’s relatable and not something that actually happens in real life.

To help myself with the writing process I looked to books for advice. There were two that I found to be particularly helpful- ‘Gotham Writers Workshop Writing Movies’ edited by Alexander Steele and Robert McKee’s ‘Story’. McKee’s was a book I’ve had for a while, recommended to me by a teacher last year, It really helped me to understand what we had discussed in class about only including what’s needed to tell the story in a script. Steele helped to develop my idea and structure the narrative. It’s a good read all the way through but there are stepping stones at the end of each chapter that are just as helpful on their own.

I found the feedback sessions helpful as it made me see problems with the idea that I wouldn’t have picked up on, I think it’s always helpful have others opinions on your work especially for something such as a script as it is made to be seen by others.

Soleless

I’m really proud of the team and our final product that we named ‘Soleless’. I feel that we have made a good film and that we really pulled it together, overcoming obstacles and missing editors. I think it a shame that Chris didn’t come back to see the end result of all our hard work.



I do think that there are ways that the film could have been improved, for instance we had to cut a vital section of the narrative out due to some shots that we didn’t film, I think it would have helped to tell the story if the section had in the film. I don’t think that audiences will find the film particularly moving or meaningful but I personally find it hard to be negative about something which we all worked so hard on. I’m really proud of Soleless.

If I had t do it all again I would probably change the script, watching others teams films was really interesting and I saw how creative people were with the script, branching out from the original to create something different that still had the same message.

A Disappearing Act

Well, our chief editor Chris disappeared! This was quite problematic as he was the only one who had done the editing demo. However we all pitched in to get the film finished. Abi and Josh became the chief editors and Patrick and I assisted. This was due to Abi learning how to use the software really quickly and Josh having previous experience with it. It was a real group effort. I looked for music and found a few tracks that I thought we could use, however Josh had some music that was more accessible that he wanted to use.



If done again I would have liked to have had a more active role in the editing process, I would have done the demo but there simply wasn’t time enough for me to learn. I did however find this video that was helpful in understanding the basic workings of Final Cut Pro software. I plan to take the demo’s next time regardless of my role in production because you never know what could happen.

Filming Take Two!

With the weather looking brighter we set off with a suitcase of props and costume to film the shots we needed in town. However we ran into a few problems. Our actress that we had scheduled to come and film in the morning in a supporting role didn’t show up so we had to change the schedule around which also changed the shot list.
Later on the other actress we had scheduled to play another role also didn’t show up. So we had to improvise using ourselves as actors. This made my job quite hard because the shot list kept changing and I had to act at points as well as trying to get the shots ready.

We made it through the day though and were all very happy to call it a wrap. I am slightly worried about the editing process though due to the shot list changes, but I tried to keep a note of the changes. I also think that we may have missed a few shots that could be important, we maybe able to rectify this in editing.

Filming over, if we did it again I think we’d have to have better communication with the actors from the university as Abi only had their email addresses. Perhaps it would have been better to meet up with them first, before the filming weekend.

Despite the problems of the day I think we all coped really well, Josh the director really kept us motivated and I feel that everyone worked really hard.

How short is a short film?

I found this funny short on youtube, it was entered into a 5 second short film festival. It made me think about how we discussed how long a film should be in class. I think that this is a really good short film and that it shows that you can tell a story in a short a time as 5 seconds.

Making a Film Take One!

Action!

With the schedule and shot list in hand we all met bright and early at our first location on Saturday morning. This was a scene in the post office and it was actually quite difficult to film due to the lack of space and customers coming into the shop. We were limited for time so we kept the shots down to a minimal amount.

The rest of the day went smoothly apart from the onslaught of rain we had to put up with all day which made filming a little difficult at times, trying to keep the equipment and camera lens. This did slow us down somewhat but we managed to keep on schedule.

I think we were all very tired at the end of the day, after 12 hours of filming, and we all departed looking forward to some rest and hoping for a drier tomorrow.

After this first day I have realised how much filming is about teamwork, how we rely on each other to work hard and co-ordinate with each other. I also feel that successful filming has a lot to do with successful communication. Being able to give your opinion in a way that is constructive rather than just critical.

In terms of understanding my role as stage manager I realise how important the shot list is for organisation, and how important it is that the shot list be followed as it made my job so much harder than it needed to be when it wasn't.