I have created a mood board to represent what our short film will be about with just using a collection of images I got from the internet. By using images to show what our film is about this is a visual way for the audience to understand the rough plot and they get an insight into what happens in the film.
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We created a Twitter page to promote our film as social media is a great way to advertise and market our short film for free and is great if production companies are on a low budget. As our short film is targeted at teenagers we feel that using social media can help us connect with our target audience successfully. After our audience sees the short film they may choose to share their thoughts on social media which will lead to their friends being influenced to watch the film.
We asked some people that we know, who have acting backgrounds, if they could send us a video of themselves performing a small part of the script. This allowed us to see how well they came across on camera, and how they interpreted the characters. This is Ashley. We liked her audition, but felt that she was more suited to the character of Amy, who is the main character. Amy does't speak much, because her character is mostly on her own, but there is a lot of acting to portray the emotion to the audience, and we feel that Ashley would be well suited to this. This is Chloe. We liked the audition, feeling that she portrayed this particular character very well. We think we will have her as Harriet. This is Josie. This is also a very good audition, and we feel that she plays the victim part of Anna very well. We therefore want to cast Josie as the part of Anna.
This is our shooting schedule for our short film as we need to have a clear schedule in order to be organised. This will help us remember when we are filming and what actors we will need to contact for each day. We have also listed the props that we will be bringing so we don't forget to bring anything with us when filming. I have also written down the locations that we will be using.
While planning for our short film, I watched someone else's short film, which is roughly the same length as ours, to see how they put their credits in the film. This piece of research will help us when putting our credits in our film, as we are not sure how we will put them in, without it being too much of a distraction from whats going on in the scene. This film has the title at the beginning, and the rest of the credits at the end. I like the idea of the title at the beginning, and as we plan to start our film all in darkness, in will look good to have the title overlaying the darkness. However we want our ending to be quite sharp, as it is a cliffhanger, so we may not want credits at the end, because we feel that this may interfere with the atmosphere we want to create. This film, has the credits overlaying the video. The film name appears at 7 seconds, with the actors names at 14 seconds and 18 seconds. The editor's name comes at about 20 seconds, and the name of the person who edited the music at 24 seconds. The names of those who shot the film come at about 27 seconds, with the writer and director at 31 seconds. All this occurs over the opening sequence. We are thinking of using something similar for the actors names, the editor, director, sound and camera person, while putting the title of the film over the beginning, like in the first film (above)
In our lesson, we presented a pitch to the class and our teacher which showed our ideas and plot for our short film. We then received feedback and ideas from our class which gave us opinions from people outside of our group. This was very useful for us and developed our initial ideas more. Our class asked questions such as how would we avoid the members of the public when filming and asked how we would represent our film as the 1940s. These questions helped us think about how we would solve these problems so they will not be an issue for us when filming. They also said how we would need to stick to the codes and conventions of adventure films and not to drift off too much to another sub genre. Presenting our pitch to the class gave us some valuable market research and helped us improve our ideas for our short film.
For our flashbacks within our short film our location will be Alexandra Gardens in Windsor. This is because if we film these scenes outside then it will be easier for us to make it look like the 1940s era. We also planned to film in a loft in a house as we thought this would be a good location for the scene that included a lot of mystery. However I went to assess whether it was safe to film and if we had enough space and unfortunately it will be very unpractical and would put the actors at risk if we filmed there. We have also considered filming in a garage but it would be too dark and cold so we have decided that we will use a shed at the bottom of the garden. We feel that this will give the connotations of mystery. To ensure the lighting isn't too dark we will use professional lighting. We will also be filming in Amy's bedroom as there is a scene where she goes to bed and starts having flashbacks. We will be using a stereotypical teenage girls room to represent Amy. This location will be suitable and will not cause any risks. The only thing we need to consider and make sure is up to standard is the lighting in the bedroom as for some of it Amy will be sleeping. ![]() Our final location is a shed at the bottom of the garden and we will use this location when Amy finds the box. We will clear everything out of the shed to make room for the camera/tripod, lighting and the actors. We think that this is a suitable location because it fits well with our genre of adventure and mystery as the floor is quite dusty and the location has connotations of curiosity as the shed is based at the bottom of the garden and is quite isolated and alone. We have came to a decision for the name of our short film. We think the name 'The Hunt' will be a good name for an adventure short film. We decided on this name because the film is an adventure with elements of mystery and the girl Amy is hunting for the answer of why she is getting the dreams with flashbacks. This is therefore causing a constant suspense and we think the name suits this.
We created a logo for our production company which is called 'Dusk to Dawn productions'. We wanted our logo to be simple but at the same time effective. We think that the logo we created looks very professional and we are happy with the outcome. As our name is Dusk to Dawn this means from the morning to the evening so we decided to have the logo with the sun and moon. I think the black and white makes the logo look of high quality and the burst of colour with the yellow sun. We used the programme Illistrator to create this logo.
In the film One Day, The two main character met on the date 15th July and throughout the film it shows them meeting on the same date. At the end of the film the women dies on that same date which links in with the dates shown throughout the film. We thought that we could do a similar thing to this and include the same date on the letter the grandma had and the date she died which is shown on the funeral programme.
As a group we discussed names for our adventure short film. I have created a mind map to display all the possible names that we thought of.
For our props that we featured in our adventure film we wanted the teenage girl to find a box full of old stuff which belonged to her grandma. We stained newspapers and cards to make them look old and had a notebook which belonged to her grandma. We also included the necklace in the box which is the object which the film is based around. Here are some photos of what our props looked like.
1940s Music-
Original Music-
Mise en scene means "whats in the scene." It can cover many things, including costumes, props and scenery.
Depending on the type of adventure film, the costumes will vary. If it is a typical quest, the characters may be depicted wearing something like armour. But if it is a more everyday quest, like the one in our film, the characters may be wearing very standard clothing. This is the case in our film, with the characters in standard clothing, however we have to make the costumes typical of the two times the piece is set in. This is particularly important for the flashback scenes, which are set during World War Two , as we need to make sure that the costumes are realistic of that time. Props also vary from film to film. We have watched some films that use an object, which has significance. In our film, this will be the necklace. This is the object that Amy finds, which sends her on her journey to find out how her Grandmother got the necklace. Necklaces have connotations of romance, as they are usually a gift given to someone by their lover. Scenery will also vary from film to film, with some Adventure films being set in fictional lands, and others in the real world. We will be filming a scene set in Amy's bedroom and we will have to look at Amy's character and reflect this in the decoration of the bedroom. It is important that the scenery in the flashback scenes looks like it is World War Two. We are filming these scenes outside, in Alexandra Gardens which means this will be easier than if we were filming in a house, where we would have to make the decor look like the 1940s. This is the initial script for our piece. There are quite a few scenes without any dialogue, but this is the script for those scenes that do have dialogue.
In the beginning: Mother: Amy, can you bring down the box of your Grandmas stuff? Amy: Sure, i just want to look through it first. Letter (to be read in a voiceover) Anna: how could you do this to me? You knew that necklace was from Fred, and now he's gone and I have nothing. If i can't have him back I will get the necklace, and I don't care how long it takes me. In the first flashback Harriet: did you hear that Agnes is working at the munitions factory. I think i'll join her next week. Anna: I might do the same, but I can't bear those ghastly uniforms. I don't want to damage this (shows necklace) Harriet: How did you get the money to pay for that with your ration cards? Anna: Fred bought it for me before he was called up. Harriet: He left already? Anna: A couple of weeks ago. Harriet: Oh right... In the second flashback Anna: Give it back Harriet: No. It was supposed to be mine. You don't deserve it. Anna: How could you say that. I loved him. Harriet: I loved him long before you were here. Anna: I can't believe you would do this. Clearly our friendship means nothing to you. I will be doing the majority of the editing in our piece. It is important to look at editing in other Adventure films, so that I can make sure that the editing in our piece fits in well with the Adventure genre.
A lot of Adveture films use quick, fast paced editing as a way of creating action. This includes techniques such as short shot durations and sudden cuts and transitions. We plan on using this technique, especially during the flashback sequences to create action. Although there is a lot of fast paced editing in Adventure films, some scenes also do the opposite, using long drawn out shots to create suspense. In scenes where the audience is waiting to know what will happen, the use of long waits, and dragging the scene out will help create a feeling of tension. We are considering using this technique within our piece as well, maybe at the beginning, when Amy is discovering the box of clues about the necklace. I will be mainly focusing on the music and sound effects for our piece. After looking at conventional adventure themed music, I found that the majority of it focuses on more of a fantasy storyline. Knowing this, I intend to use various elements of this music such as dramatic parts when its needed but I'll mostly be using the music more suited to the sub-genre of mystery. As our piece also takes place in the 1940s, I'll be investigating the music of the era which can strongly tell the audience this is where the narrative is taking place.
Music and sound effects are essential to create the right amount of tension as it accompanies the visuals on screen. This will have to be timed perfectly to match what we have filmed to be fully effective. ![]() As a group we divided ourselves into what we would like to focus on during production. I wanted to mainly focus on camerawork and the filming as personally that is the aspect that I'm most interested in during the production process. I like making creative camera shots and angles. When we are filming I have the responsibility of setting up the camera and tripod as I am the person who is filming. By being the person in charge of the camerawork, I will need to maintain the compositions and make sure that all the footage we take is in focus. This is a big responsibility as without the camera operator there would be no footage. I will also working with the directors in my group as they will help me make creative decisions. For most of the short film I will have the camera on a tripod however some scenes will be better shot without the tripod and using the camera handheld. A trunk shot is a shot which captures the scene from within the trunk of a car, a technique often used by Quentin Tarantino. This is an example of a trunk shot in the film "Pulp Fiction" We will be taking inspiration from this type of shot at the beginning of our piece. Instead of using the truck of a car, we will be using the inside of the box.
These photos show the potential risks from our two locations that we will be using which are the loft in a house and Alexandra Gardens in Windsor. This shows how the risks can be prevented or dealt with if it does happen.
This is our storyboard with our preliminary piece of music. This piece of music has not been finalized as we want to wait until our final piece is edited to merge all the different tracks together. We may also change a couple of bits of music, which may be too dramatic for the final piece. |
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