character profile

Main character

16 year old girl.
Come's from a lone parent family and is an only child living with her alcoholic mother, who regularly get taken advantage of by many men, building this unerlying charactyeristc and relationship we see with our main character and boys throughout the short film, this could also be down to the lack of btyhe father figure throughtout the film. we yhave tried to incorporate the traits of her mother represented in the main charcter as this is typical sterortype that children replicate their parents action.
The main character is physically presented as being scruffy and 'chavvy', this is done as she wears scruffy sport jogging bottoms and a oversized large green coat. Both of which look rather scruffy and dirty making the character look neglted.
we wanted to portay this

Kirstys Costume Power Point

Shot List.

STREET OUTSIDE SCHOOL
Drinking shot by the wall
walking down the street
drug exchange between Carly and group of boys.

BARGIN BOOZE
Walking out the shop with the beer

TOILET'S
Drug taking scene
lying on the floor scene
Going crazy Scene.

FIELD
walking down the field in drug induced haze
standing in the middle of the field
Letting go of the balloon.

HOUSE
knocking on the door
kissing boy in the hallway
Walking up the stairs.

Carly

Carly is the main character in our film. She is a teenager who lives with her mother. Her mother has recently broken up with Carly's father and has started drinking heavily.


Carly's appearance consists of quite scruffy clothes and messy hair. She isn't very traditional in the sense that she doesn't take much in pride in her appearance. She has several problems including problems at school, problems with her peers and with her mother. She has also started to take drugs to 'escape' her everyday life. She's very quiet and keeps herself very much to herself. The fact that she tries to attend school and carry on normally, when she is having such big problems at home, we thought made her seem like she was still trying to progress with her life. This makes the character more relateable and it makes the audience want her to get away from her problems.

Time Plan

We have 18 lessons before our internal deadline.

Friday 13 nov-Photoshoot for film Poster
tues 17 nov-filming
fri 20 nov-filming
tues 24 nov-filming
Fri 27 nov-Last day for filming
tues 1 dec-Edit
fri 4 dec-Edit
tues 8 dec-Edit
fri 11 dec-Final group dealine for film,poster and film review
tues 15 dec-Any changes can be done here.
Fri 18 dec -FINAL DEADLINE (Any minor changes)

Idea for the film

A common theme throughout all of the post secret books is the theme of drugs and how they get involved with taking the drugs and the after effects of once everything and everyone is gone the desperation and lengths people go to in order to keep up their habits.
however the books also show a different side to drugs and drugs users and show and express the feelings that these people have such as regret, embarrassment,sadness, anger, loneliness, loss and the main subject that these people are ashamed of what they've done to themselves.
however we also get a more sinister point of view that some of these people are in denial about what they've done and the dangers they've put themselves at.

therefore we decided that this would be a good subject to base our short film on as we can portray many side of drug taking and the emotions and feelings that go along with it easily, therefore making the film as realistic as possible.

post secret have recently made some postvids. however due to the anonymity of the secrets the video simply consist of the post card with a voice over reading the secret and then one of the editor of the book telling the audience 'how the secret affected them and why they decided to publish the secret in the book.

One of the aspects that we have decided to focus on in the short film is in denial therefore we have decided to go against the main codes and conventions of the post secret books that the secrets are kept anonymous, we've done this as we believe by keeping the characters anonymity clashes with the theme of in denial as , if the character was in denial about her drug habit then there would be no need for her to keep her identity anonymous. we also believe that by reveling her identity to the audience is a parallel to her being in denial about her drug habit as it is something that us the audience can see, but the character herself can not.

Some secrets taken from the archives and books that we've gathered that have inspired us.
I hate your brother for getting you into this mess,
because when you walk with the monster, you just can’t,love me.

I started to use drugs to be closer to some of my friends. Now I use to drugs because no one is close anymore.

My ex boyfriend said I would always be a drug addict.I loved him more then everything in this world I want him back but…. the drugs have taken me over…

My mother beat me, Her boyfriends raped me,I did drugs, slept around, cut myself and had an abortion.I am your average happy person living a normal life.
No One Knows.

I do it because im lonely, I HATE that i do it, but it still doesnt make me miss you.

Other music videos and short films that relate to our product.

Arctic monkeys- when the sun comes.
I have embedded this video into my blog as the narrative for this video is similar to the storyline for our short film, it features a homeless girl who would necessarily do the things she does ( in this video a form of prostitution) if she wasn't in the situation that she was in.
I also like the costume used for the girl as she looks shabby and dirty like she hasn't got the time or personal drive to make herself look her best. I think a costume like this would work well for the character as it gives the impression that she doesn't care about herself, which is the look we want the main character to have as this then portrays that her need for drugs and her next fix over rides everything that a typical representation of a girl should be. A typical representing for a teenage girl being that she is very self conscience of her appearance and fashion.
Our representation in the short film also goes against normal representation's of girls and women in general that they are innocent and follows the rules. However it does relate slightly to a representation of a woman being that she does what ever a man tells her to do, as our main characters reason for taking drugs was that she did it because she was trying to impress a boy.





Example - Watch the sun come up.
I have embedded this video into my blog as i like the effect in the video of the sketch theme, i think this would work well in my short film as it gives the sense that not everything is what it seems.
This effect is used in Examples case that he wishes the girl was there when she not, its also used to portray a flash back. by using this effect differentiates the video from the usual conventions of a flash back being in black and white where as he has broken these codes and conventions by portraying the flash backs in the sketch effect.
I think this will work well in our short film as this effect can be used to portray to the audience flashback and visions that the main character has throughout the film, such as when she turns to prostituting herself when she meets a man instead of seeing him, she See's a flash of her "boyfriend" before it cuts back to the shot of the man again.

Mis-en-scene.

Clothing:

-Tracksuit bottoms,

-Scruffy shoes,

-Hooded top/Jacket

-Scruffy coat?

Drugs:

-Something to re-create a drug? Cocaine or Heroin?

-Cocaine - white powder - salt/ sugar?

- razor / credit card

Heroin - brown powder - brown sugar,

- hot chocolate powder

-brown liquid - tea,

-iced tea

-herbal tea

-spoon

-syringe

out of all of the drug recreations, we will try them out and decide which one looks the most realistic

props

-cigarettes

-bottle of wine

-tea bags

-lighter

-syringe

-Essay paper.

Equipment

-Tripod

-Camera

-Adobe premier pro software

-Cannon 400 DSLR

-Photoshop

Reccy Photos.

I recently went out on a location reccy in order to find places around the college that we can access easily that would fit the genre of the film.

We have tried to find places that have a shabby / neglected effect in order to make the film seem more realistic to the general storyline of the film which is the main character Carly has been brought up in a rough area on a council estate. I wanted to find an area stereotypical to this image, it had to look run down and neglected in order to give the impression that little money is put into the area. This effect is key to the story, the neglected area is denotation to Carly being neglected by her mother and the lack of the fatherly figure which is also a representation through Carly's bad relationships with boy's throughout the film.

We also needed to find an area which would look like a drug dealers hang out which is why we took a picture of the lane, as it's off a main road which means it is out of sight from all passers by this gives the effect that all the dealings are secretive which is parallel to the life of Carly as a drug addict.

In contrast I have taken a picture of this small apple orchard i have done this in order to contrast with the rough/ shabbiness of the previous settings. This is to contrast as this is what Carly see's when she is in her drug induced haze. we have used this setting as the setting is very deserted there is no human imput into this area, this contrast to her life representing the feedom she feels when she has taken drugs.

We have decided that our locations we are going to film in is:

Kingswood high-street

Kingswood high-street public toilets

john cabot academy toilets

John cabot academy sixth form block

John cabot academy school

School Road

analysis of short films.

Web 2.0 is becoming an invaluable tool for all upcoming and existing film producers and productions.
It allows a broader target audience to be reached as the film can be accessed on a mass scale, as with file sharing websites such as youtube and myspace videos and tracks can be uploading allowing everyone who wishes to access it. These file can then be uploaded to the general public personal file sharing websites such as bebo,facebook,skype and twitter. This then acts as a catalyst which then lets many other people access the video or track who wouldn't necessarily access the file but because they've seen that its on a friends site they then watch it as well.
This is good for the film companies and producers as it increases popularity of the film which then in turn increases awareness of the producer and companies giving them more recognition, which leads to more funding leading to more opportunities to film and produce more mainstream projects.




Shelf life - 2000

Director : Charles Hendley

Writer : Charles Hendley based on the idea's of Neils Alzen.

Editor : Nike Lofting

Producer : Steve Akhurst

Sound : Graham Pickford and Mollusk Music

Cast

DIY man : Paul Kennedy
Neighbor : Michael Winner

Running time : 3.51

Synopsis
Can we live a life of total safety?, free from all high risk ? Or is a death wish lurking within even a cautious mind.






Shot types and composition






Mis- en - scene






Editing






http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/filmnetwork/media/shorts/A42532058?bgc=C0C0C0&nbram=1&lang=en&nbwm=1&clipname=A42532058&bbram=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=16x9&warning=Please%20note,%20this%20film%20contains%20some%20violent%20scenes.&bbwm=1

Roles and responsiblility's.

Our group is made up of me, Chantelle Douglas and Ruby Walker we have decided to separated the roles within the group into what we feel is our strongest skills, and the ones we think we will enjoy the most,although we have split the roles we have decided that we are going to keep reviewing each other's work to keep a consistent input from "another source" in order to give each other fresh ideas and to make our work seem as professional as possible.

Film

Filming - Ruby Walker/ Chantelle Douglas
Acting - Kirsty Edwards
Editing - Kirsty Edwards

Film Poster

Photography- Ruby Walker/chantelle Douglas
Editing - Ruby Walker.

Film Review

Photography- Ruby Walker/ Chantelle Douglas
Journalist - Chantelle Douglas.

Codes And Conventions

What are the codes and conventions of our genre.

How are we going to meet the codes and conventions of the genre?

How are we going to differ our film from the codes and conventions of the genre?

The general codes and conventions of a short film is that it has 1 to 3 characters and a very fast narrative this is done because due to limited time space in a film introduction to more characters will be difficult, this convention is shown in Joyride where we are only introduced to the two main characters which are The electrician and and the villain, the introduction to both of these character are done within the first minute of the film.

Another code and convention is that not much diagetic dialogue is used but instead non diagetic music is used to build suspense and lure the viewer into a false sense of security, setting atmosphere throughout the film,; this is relied on heavily in the short film Hotel Infinity where instrumental music is used to portray emotions throughout out the film, such as when the room placement stop working when the main character is trying to figure out why the room placement system isn't working the tempo of the music get faster to indicate his frustration.
The opening and ending of the film is the same with the little boy counting in Chinese, i believe this is done as it represents the monotimy and repetition of the beat of the counting to the main characters life.

Genre Theory.

Hypodermic Syringe: The media is somewhat like a syringe, that injects ideas, values and beliefs into the audience. The audience are a powerless mass and have no choice but to be influenced. Examples of this can be seen in the case of James Bulger and his killers. James Bulger's killers were said to of watched a certificate 18 film (Child's Play 3) which inspired the murder of James. The hypothermic syringe theory is quite plausible in the sense that it supplies the ideas for the audience but some people are more easily influenced to certain types of behaviour. Background, upbringing, among other things would play a huge role in whether a person is influenced to do certain things.






Culmination: The word culmination is from the word acculminate. This is from the sense of gradually acculminating something. After years and years of constantly seeing or being exposed to a certain thing (violence, drugs, nudity, etc) you become desensitised to it. Although in a sense this is quite true, as after seeing something several different times the 'shock' factor is no longer there, it depends on your background and other influences you have. Also constantly watching something is different from actually carrying out an action as you are always disconnected in a sense from the actual action.






Two-Step Flow: The masses will experience the media individually but will then go on to discuss it as a group. Even if the person has their own views they may be influenced during discussion with their social groups or other friends. The fact that they may feel a certain way may change after discussing certain points and bits of it have been explained more for example. This one is slightly more understandable because you are not being just influenced by the media but other people aswell but it would depend on how weak your character was.






Uses & Gratifications:
"We make choices about what we watch and we also have certain expectations, we expect to be gratified by what we watch."
Here are five of the main reasons we watch different things.






For:


Information - this is for pure knowledge and information. This includes things such as the news and documentaries.


Entertainment - this is just for enjoyment and entertainment. This can be a rnage of several different things. Loads of different genres fit into this group. Eastenders, CSI, Skins could all be included in this group. Dramas, comedies, soaps all fit into this category aswell.


Personal Identity - personal identity allows us to see examples of behaviour for us to model ourselves on. Reality shows such as Big Brother, Flavor Of Love and are a really good example of this because those show real-life people for us to see. Dramas based on real-life events or dramas that are very realistic may also fit into this category. America's Next Top Model, The Wire is a very good drama that is also realistic. The versatility of the characters as they are not all simply 2-dimensional means it is fits quite well as a personal identity show. Films such as KiDULTHOOD may also fit this.


Social Sympathy/Empathy & Personal Interaction - this is when people watch shows to actually empathise with or sympathise the characters. This is shown in shows such as Big Brother when there is a favourite to win. The sympathy/empathy is very obvious in shows such as X Factor and Britain's Got Talent as there is usually someone that has come from a very hard upbringing or has been through alot and the public always feel very affectionate for these people.


Escapism - this is used to allow the audience to escape reality completely. Video games and iPods are a easy way to do this as are online games such RuneScape. A very good example of escapism video games are RPG or simulation games such as Sims3 or Zoo Tycoon for example. RPG or simulation games allow the player to create their own reality or life (Sims, SecondLife) and make different decisions without actually changing their life in reality.


In terms of genre theory and our project, we have come to the conclusion that a person may watch our short film in order to escape, or to empthasise. This is because our films storyline could in actual fact be happening to a real person. For example, you always hear in the news about young teenagers getting involved with the wrong people, and getting into drugs.


Criticism of Mass Theory's: An individuals point of view will be swayed by culture, race, age, personality, gender, class, etc. The audience will may all read the same text but males may take it differently to females as different classes and races may also do.





Encoding/Decoding: This theory is one of the only media theorys that don't see audiences as a mass. This theory believes that everyone brings dfferent views to the media.


--Encoding : This theory puts forward the fact the media is theoretically encoded.


--Decoding : This theory believes that the audiences decode the media using whatever views they already have. This theory shows why different people have different views on different shows. For example shows such as Family Guy are decoded differently by different people because of the different circumstances they live in.

Definition of Genre : A set of types/groups which any medium may be classified.

- In each case the acknowledgement of genre depends on the acceptance of generic conventions.

Is Genre timeless?

Genre is not timeless, it is open to historical change.

John Fiske states that " any one programme will bear the main characteristics of its genre, but is likely to include some from others ascribing it to one genre or another, this involves deciding which set of characteristics are most important "

Richard Maltby believes that the success of Hollywood is reliant on the combination of predictable elements with variation.

Auteurs

A group of film makers that were considered to be particularly influential and artistic.

An example of these directors are Tarantino (Kill Bill 1&2) And Bazleumen (Romeo and Juliet)

Edward Buscombe felt that the iconography (typical conventions) was the best way to achieve generic definitions.

An example of this the gangster genre. The iconography is guns, money, mafia and suits.

Rick Altman

-Genre theory presumes that viewer pre read the text.

-Viewers become passive voyeurs

Research - Enough

Enough

Tor Kristofferson.

http://www.depict.org/shortlists/232/

Research -Causality-Joyride.

Causality.

Causality is when one thing leads to another, in a certain pattern of events,and without one thing happening it wont lead to another.

I have researched and analyzed the theory of causality throughout the short film Joyride. 

Joyride is a typical film relying heavily on causality for the plot to work.

Joyride

 YouTube - JOYRIDE Jim Gillespie (clip) www.cinema16.org

Director : Jim Gillespie

Writer : Jim Gillespie / Ramsey Campbell

Running time : 10 minutes

list 

Man goes to fix electric pylon 

he on the phone 

doesnt fix it 

drives away

body in road

stops and gets out to help

boy in road not dead

man 1 gets kidnapped 

man 1 gets put in boot of own  car 

kicks brake light out 

gets police attention 

police pull over man 2 and 3 

man 1 screams for help 

man 2 and 3 kill police officers 

man 2 and 3 threaten to kill man 1 

man tries to untie hands

kicks out fuse light to get lights to go out

second set of police spot the car with only 1 set of lights working 

guys drive more faster and erratically

petrol from petrol can spills everywhere

guys crash

police drive forward

man one and two get out car

man 2 hold knife to man 1 throat tells police to stay back

man 1 head-butts man two

police help man 1 

police notice stench of petrol 

man 1 laughs as he realizes  he is back at the same location he started at

electric pylons starts to spark again 

sparks fly at man 1 

he catches on fire 

he dies. 

This short film is very ironic in the sense  that if man one had not of been on the phone the first time he was at the first location by the electric pylon and done his job and fixed the pylon rather than wanting to rush home he wouldn't have died as the box would still not be sparking.

Joyride follows Syd Field's theory of the three act structure 

The film introduces the character and the settings. 

From the first....... minutes we establish that man 1 occupation is a electrition and that he is on the phone as he has a date, and wants to get home early so he can get ready and be on time for the date. 

By the ................ minutes we also learn that man one is curious as he gets out of the car to look at the body on the floor, we could interpret this as that the man is caring. the fact the man stops in the car and wait before getting out we can see that he is debating with himself whether he should get out and help or just ignore the man. 

journey 

resolution 

Uses and Gratifications theorys.

Every person has the choice of what expose theselves to in the media.

There are five reasons why media is made :

• Information


• Entertainment


• Personal identity


• Social identity


• Escapism.

The film we are making is quite contraversial as the subject of drug abuse, prostitution and alcoholism is raised throughout the film.

The film we are making touches on all five of these subjects.

Information

The film touches on the the contarversial subjects of drug abuse prostitution and alcoholism, are film is informative as it gives viewers an insite into thye life of someone who takes drugs as it shows the desperation and the lengths people on drugs will go to get their next fix.

People who dont know someone or have been around somone who is addicted to drugs may not know about

Genre and initial ideas.

Short film research and evaluation.

http://vimeo.com/2203770 - Then we kissed

Opening shot is a close up of wheat grass, and the title of the short film "And then we kissed"Title fades out and the shot cuts to a close up of a male walking through the grass holding a bag. He is wearing quite casual clothes, in typical manly colours of green and brown. Then cuts to a mid shot of the man, looking worried yet determined. Gentle acoustic guitar is playing, creating a calm atmosphere.A voice over, which seems to be the male character fades in, and as he mentions a woman, the male character walks out of the shot and the woman is walking beside him. It then cuts to a long shot of the two walking side by side. She is wearing a skirt and denim jacket, she has long hair, and therefore seems to dress as a traditionaly represented feminine female. It then again cuts to an establishing shot of a huge feild and barn house in the distance. The camera pans across, but then quick cuts to a shot of two women in what seems to be a cafe. The music continues to create a calm atmosphere, along with the voice over continueing to talk about the woman. The scene cuts between mid shots of the male and female. As the voice over says " she was the most beautiful, intelligent and funny girl i'd met" The shots of the girl are close ups of her smiling, talking and laughing, she then looks straight into the camera as if it were the male. This shows the extreme intimacy between the two people. Another quick cut and the settings have changed, the couple are running down an alley, laughing. A hand held camera is used, which makes us feel as if we're there with them, enjoying their love.

Enough : Short Film, by Tor Kristoffersen.

Enough « Depict!

The Mis - en- scene in this film is really exquisite . The lighting is dark which sets the atmosphere, and reveals the characters for who they really are in a great way. The whole film is shot slightly desaturated, which emphasises the sadness of the short film.

The use of the photos of the younger boy, the alcohol, the dark street, and the boys in trackies who are stereotyped as violent, scruffy, angry and rude all fit together together to tell the story in a clever way. its great that Kristoffersen fits it all into 90 seconds.

The short film starts with the cutting to and from close ups of an old mans face, to a long shot of a group of boys. the contrast between the two different shots creates a sense of mystery, what's the relationship between the people in these shots? In the shots that include the old man, its dead silent, this creates extra tension and emphasisupon the shock that the audience is given when he suddenly becomes quite angry and violent.

Plot Outline.

The short film follows a day in the life of our main character, she is a girl who has lost her way in life because of the strong influence of her boyfriend.

We see the effects of how easily she has been influenced, and the in denial of how she has lost her way through the representation of the post cards being her inner thoughts.

We see through the film how her standards and self respect is lost due to her addictions, and the in denial which is a common trait within those who have addictions.

Character : Main Girl= Carly
Boy one = Tom
Boy two= Ryan

Carly gets up she walks through her house,we see her mother slumped in a chair she looks as though she has been sleeping there all night, next to her is lots of empty beer cans and a half smoked cigarette in the ashtray next to her, the woman in the chair is all bruised and looks as though she has been beaten up.
We see Carly look at a picture from when she was younger , in the picture Carly and her mother look happy their is not a man in the picture, this represents the common family structure of one parent families, in which it is usually the mother figure who brings up the children which is typical to the film. The lack of the father figure is significant to Carly's relationship with men during the film. The lack of the father figure could be an underlying reason in which the men /boys Carly has got involved with has treated her in this way and Which in turn leads to her addiction which is due to the vunerabilty of Carly.
We follow Carly walking to the shops this is speed up, we see her walk into the shop and come back out of the shop with a plastic bag with cans of alcohol in it.
It cuts to a shot of a brick wall we see the camera pan slowly to the left until Carly comes into the shot. We see lots of empty cans littered around her , Carly gets up and staggers about in the place where she has just sat we see two post cards the first just says the word "DRUNK" the next post card says the phrase "I CAN GIVE UP IF I WANT TO".
The shot fades to black and we see Carly standing at the gate of a house we see her walk down the garden path and knock on the door we see boy 1 answer the door and Carly goes into the house with him. behind the boy stood in the corridor we see a clock that says three o clock. the door shuts in the camera and then reopens we see her come out of the house, the boy is kissing her neck sleazily, her expression on her face looks upset and uncomfortable. Boy 1 only has only has a pair of trackies on, his hair is all messy and he lights up a cigarette in his mouth before getting out a wad of cash before we see a close up of the exchange of cash in their hands. this whole scene has a dark tint to it to give the impression of danger within the scene that is happening. The boy slams the door in Carly's face before we see her walk back up the garden path as she walks up the garden we see her get her phone out of her bag it cuts to a close up of the phone screen which says seven missed calls from Ryan. Behind where she is walking the second secret drops with the word "CHEAT".

we see Carly walking along the street, this is all speed up the speed then slows down into slow motion , here we see Carly walk past a boy he looks very shady and is smoking we then cut to an extreme close up of their hands here we see the exchange of a packet of drugs, the speed of the scene then speeds up again before cutting to the next scene.

we see Carly burst into a toilet cubicle we see her take the drugs, the shot then fades to black before we see a Ariel view of Carly lead on the , in the mirror we can see a reflection of boy two on the mirror written in lipstick is the penultimate secret "YOU MADE ME LIKE THIS".

The scene then cuts to the scene which is representative of Carly's drug induced haze this scene is all distorted to give a feeling that the viewer a feeling that we are in the drug induced dream.

We see Carly running through a field we are going to put a ghosting effect on this to emphasis the haziness of is the scene were seeing real life or a dream.  Carly is holding a red balloon attached to the balloon is a white piece of paper which is the final secret with the words "but i still love you " wrote on. Carly gets to the middle of the field and lets go of the balloon the camera then tilts with the balloon until it finally goes out of view.

In this last scene the song I have chosen as the sound track is the song The dogs days by Florence and the machine as the words are very fitting to the scene it also create tension to whether Carly has actually died or not. However it may not be possible to use this track therefore I am going to have to apply for permission in order to use the track.

In this last scene the red balloon the can represent one of two things it can represent the love for the boy who made her like this has gone away, or the red balloon could represent her life and the letting go of the balloon could in fact represent that her death. This is why the distorted effects of this scene is important as it ids done in order to leave the audience going away not knowing if she has in fact died or not. 

 

links to short films

http://www.britfilms.tv/index.php?id=8148 hold on
http://www.britfilms.tv/index.php?id=8106 written off
http://www.britfilms.tv/index.php?id=8191 frites
http://www.britfilms.tv/index.php?id=7935 the darker days of him and me

My targets for my A2 practical work is to:

· Manage my time better during the filming and editing section of producing my short film.
· Be more experimental and creative within the editing section of the short film.
· Be more experimental in the reccy and setting's for my short film.
· Make sure the mis-en-scene is Representative of the genre of the film in order to make my film as realistic as possible.
· To manage my time more effectively when doing my research and evaluation
· To refresh and improve my skills on the photo shop programme in order to produce good print work to accompany the film.
· To keep continuity throughout the film and print sections in order to make my work as professional as possible.