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