unit 13 fmp and script
Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself
TASK-1 PROJECT PROPOSAL
Treatment- treatment
Task 2-research
INCITING INCIDENT RESEARCH
The inciting incident in a film is the moment in which where the characters actions are influenced from a specific moment in the film, its the part in the film which has a tonal shift and we now know the course we will be set on from that moment forward.
Examples
Midsommar- we open with an inciting incident which is built upon.
Dune- Space guild come to Caladan to tell house atriedes they can take over Arrakis.
This was such a great and heartfelt short film about the effects of cancer on people struggling with loneliness and dwindling careers, it's a film about saving face in the struggle of mortality, coming to grips with the fact that your life could be over a hard thing. This was a good watch but not enough formative for me.
This was a truly appalling film to study, the writing is lazy and robotic, the acting was over the top and under the water for all of it, the editing was so off and the sound design was frankly terrible, this was a student film so I have to be lenient and give credit where credit is due, the shots at least looked okay, but the inconsistent lighting really irked me. not inspiration and honestly offensive to anyone who's ever struggled in the face of self-harm.
this short had a good concept and string visuals, however, the sound design was choppy, it is a clear-cut comedic piece from the start but the humour just didn't sit well with me, very obviously for American audiences around the time it was made. Great effort.
This was a great concept with great execution, this is a short film, not too high a concept which is great for a short film, a lot of films tend to aim way too high, the twist was so great and unexpected, and the visuals were tasteful and it provided me with a great sense of joy. loved this.
This was a great short, it was set on a farm during the Foot and mouth disease crisis and it explored the relationship between a brother and a sister who run the farm while their parents are away. This was eerily similar to mine and Jack Harrison's script named 'Fields of Fire' I got a huge kick out of it. it was absolutely hilarious, putting that aside though it was a great short film, with the only downside being the performance of the brother which felt both too hammy and undercooked.
G Flat (2022) Dir. Peter Darney
This project had a great idea and a great premise featuring an actor that I know of and love, Richard Wilson, He gives a stellar performance, however, the film does not have much more merit beyond that, the visuals were incoherent and the lighting was so inconsistent, the other performers were quite under baked, it could have become altogether so great but sadly it didn't.
Short film research-The cook
Cinematography suited the narrative very well, variety of insert shots to help the pace, I didn't really like the music used throughout the scene it didn't build to anything and didn't feel earned. It subverted expectations very well.
short film research-1 minute time machine
Camera work was good it supported the narrative, sound wasn't that great towards the start it was a good short film concept.
Upon writing this script we first developed concepts we would like to see in the film we did this by a lot of script trail and error and picking our favourite bits from our draft to place we did not start and settle on this initial idea we started by thinking of multiple stories we could blend into a feature film script.
Our very first idea was a murder mystery style film where we would, place ourselves in the position of the protagonist and retrace their steps of every taxi journey they took which eventually leads to a murder the twist is that the full taxi rank our connected to this murder based on the individual trips they took that day, think 12 angry men meets memento with a taxi rank at the centre of the problems.
Our second idea was a love story that takes place on a farm we started thinking of what locations we have available to us this was one that popped up to me as I have access to a farm which we could use whenever and would be great to shoot on,
We also had an idea of a music genius which would happen to be a monkey and it would be his journey and how he influenced the music industry, we also had a MOMENT we would of liked to include in a script which we tried to build around this idea would be that a gruesome murder would take place through the sounds of a baby monitor we tried to build a world around it and try include this idea within a script. There was another idea a very short film style idea about a suicide hotline one massive shot that slowly moves in over time until the climax.
Our visual style we knew straight away heavily influenced by things such as first reformed the lighting in this film is depressing and visually the film looks stunning we figured this would be the best visual style for us to represent as its a naturalistic piece of work these dull pallets and strong harsh lighting would help us represent character emotions throughout the film and also represent the dull environment they are placed in.
After researching and looking through plenty of different short films we realized that our script would not be fit for this style as it is not as linear as typical short films we decided to take under the task of writing a feature film script, I would also be helping Kenz Day with his film as well as I will be the D.O.P for this project.
After settling on our final idea still keeping the farm prominent taking that from our other idea we settled on writing a feature film length script the story would take place during the foot and mouth disease era 2001 and how a family manages to stick together even if they wouldn't like to just to fight through this epidemic the main protagonist Fran who isn't really as invested in the family business unlike Jordan (brother) she would be torn when she has to pick between her baby lamb she has took under her wing and her families farm, Jordan would make this decision easier for her as his incestual behaviour couldn't be tolerated by Fran much longer.
We actually started multiple first script drafts of these ideas to see if they would progress anywhere and eventually one did.
UNDERNEATH I HAVE LINKED ALL MY VARIOUS STARTS I HAVE MADE TO THE SCRIPTS.
Task 3-planning
Task 4-script production
Although I was very busy in production with Kenz Days film Mia me and jack both made sure we save time to write our script we had made notes and looked over documentaries from the time period of the event of foot and mouth disease to draw inspiration to write and finalize the direction of the story we would want to take overall we were very pleased with what we have done so far, me and jack would take inspiration from real events over the period and draw them into our script, working together with jack on the script has been great we have developed a lot of different directions in which to take our story and came up and finalized and ending in which we intend to reach the finished product will be linked underneath.
FINAL SCRIPT: Fields of fire script
Task 4-Production
Since I have decided to take two projects under my wing I have decided to write a production diary based on my process working alongside Kenz Day as the D.O.P for the 15 minute short MIA.
the following project MIA will be linked underneath.
22nd April
Me and Kenz going into this new exactly how we would want the film to be shot drawing inspiration from things such as American Honey we decided we would use a documentary style of shooting throughout the project to give it a naturalistic feel and it would better suite the narrative, the first day went very well we gathered all the footage and overall the process was smooth I had captured all the footage I needed to for coverage and was overall a successful first day we returned to Kenz days house shortly after filming to crack on with the editing straight away giving us a great head start on the production.
23rd April
This was a big day of filming for us shooting culminating of up to three different scenes we needed the full cast for these days so we began our day heading of the Blackhall to shoot at Noah's house, first up was the house party scene this went very well secondly we swiftly moved on to the scene outside Sonny's birthday scene, once again I had captured everything I needed to I do feel as though we could have been more efficient during this process and moving on quicker throughout the takes instead of dillydallying but I had made sure I had gathered everything so there was no problem for me. The second scene was quite a heavy scene packed full of emotion that would fall down later I had to be careful with thee way I shot this scene I had to make it seem as though everything was maybe to good to be true that's why I implemented a isolation style of framing in this scene although the characters are close together they are left with a lot of head room leaving them space for their thoughts this went very well and overall wrapped up another successful day of filming.
3rd may
We wouldn't be needing to travel to any locations today as all of our filming would take place in college as this is all that would be required for these scenes, we had a bit of a nightmare with the makes today but I stayed calm and worked under the pressure and immediately got to thinking of what I could capture without requiring me to use the microphones this was successful and led to no time being wasted, overall the scenes we shot I feel as though my performance could of been better I feel as though our choice of location was poor and there wasn't much space for me to create much out of it but overall I had gotten all the coverage I needed and most of all Kenz was happy.
6th may
We had one scene to shoot this day the scene of Mia and sonny going on their first date the location we had picked was perfectly luckily Kenz has connections with the owner of a bar which we would be lucky enough to use this location was perfect for filming the environment totally supported the narrative this day I had captured everything I needed to do I had to be careful with my shots as the bar was empty as we were filming I would have to hide this from the audience I think I did a successful job of this I made sure I incorporated some of the bar in our shots as well to establish to the audience where we are.
May 10th
Today we had over 4 scenes to shoot all with different emotional impact me and Kenz where careful and made sure we gave the actors space to perform the scenes however they felt necessary which is why the emotional argument scene is filmed within almost one shot as this helped the performance and also the narrative we are trying to portray to the audience as this was a more impactful way of shooting the chaotic emotions that fly across the room between them suited this hand held style of filming and also helps show the power dynamic between them when the camera is more focused on one then the other, we also had to film the breakup scene the final letter from Mia this was heavily emotional we gave the actors a free range to do whatever they felt necessary I made sure I filmed it where the frame had enough space for more then him but it was just him this portrayed the loneliness even more we also spoke about the grade, we would end up using a very dull pallet a harsh contrast from the scenes such as the montage, the first scene I filmed on this day was the morning after the party this contrast between the emotional scenes and the first one had to be noticed, luckily we filmed the argument scenes later on so the room was even more dull making sure the natural light crept in just between the curtains giving the room a harsh backlight in a dull room, I was very pleased with my technical ability during this scene 2 as I felt as though it fit the tone and the narrative perfectly and was overall pleased with my ability on this day and during these scenes.
Post production
So far me and Mr. Day have been happy with what we have done with post production we have worked alongside on the grade and have came up with the perfect one that suites the narratives and the different scenes, we decided to take a big chance in post production we have ultimately decided that a lot of the scenes would workout better together in a different order this way making the ending ultimately more tragic and impactful, it was important that I sat alongside Kenz Day during this process as I could pick the shots which I have solely picked for the narrative based on the characters emotion and their lines of dialogue this process has went excellently well and we are very happy with the final product.
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Task 5 EVALUATION
Looking back on both processes I have took part I feel as though overall this experience has been great and challenging for me I have tried and tested my skillsets in different ways, writing was never something I was particularly good at but after this process I have gained an immense amount of knowledge of the structure of a script and how to use it correctly and which type of words to use were to convey the emotion to the reader I've looked in depth and various amounts of writing techniques to help give the script a little bit more character then the others.
I've looked at how to properly convey emotion through describing a characters actions and overall learnt how to properly format a script in a way of such a production company could read quickly and efficiently, on the other hand writing this with Jack has been a good experience as well I've improved a lot in my communication skills when it comes to sharing ideas that we both find interesting and discovering ideas of how to implement them without corrupting our final goal of the script with this being said I know where my improvement lies it lies in my ability to properly create dialogue.
I really need to start to wonder what is a characters end goal and would they say this? I feel as though it is easy to get carried away writing exactly what you want to hear in order for the story to be pushed in the direction you would want it to be but I have to be careful and be more in mind of a characters emotions what has happened prior and what is yet to to come in order not to sabotage the narrative we have set up.
I know I need to improve in my ability to write dialogue I plan on doing this by at the start before I write something establishing what is my characters end goal and how do I reach it effectively through there dialogue.
Short film production was great I enjoyed tackling a story I haven't had much option to do before I know the camera work for a love story would be hard being able to capture honest and venerable scenes but also chaotic and argumentative ones this is why I would switch my style of filming throughout using different angles and lighting types to convey the characters emotions and their goals within a scene overall I thought this production process went very well I do wish the set where more professional at times and we were more efficient with things there where times where I was ready and organized and there wasn't much movement just a lot of standing around waiting for calls, with this aside I feel as all together a good production was made I do feel like I could of been more prepared I feel as this is my major downside my professionality on set is great and I think my camera work overall was good, I feel as though I will take it upon myself next time to go on location recces to fully take my time with the environment and workout lighting and where it will be coming from and also so I know what the challenges will be on the day I feel as though if I took my time scouting out a location my shots would be 100 times better and overall I would know what obstacles I would have to overcome on the day, I plan on doing this in my future productions at university, In this production I am very happy with my timing of things when I would take things out of focus and bring them in on certain lines I feel as though I am great with camera movement when it is needed I do feel like I need to work on my establishing shots and master shots more as they are some of the most important within a scene and if I took my time scouting a location and the establishing shot the production could of looked much more professional, overall I'm very happy with my performance but I know I can be better and not do things on the fly and if I real take my time in the pre production side of things it could lead to a much more efficient and professional looking film, I'm proud of my subtle camera movements throughout the film and my ability to know when they are needed I feel as though I have locked this down now and focus should move over to coverage and the professional side of the job rather then the visual side as if I up my professional ability it will also enhance my visual ability which needs only a little bit more work due to the lack of skills I have on the organization side of things.
Film festival
We all had to individual prepare our films for the festival and support each other so it was a successful night we started by creating individual posters for our films so that we could use them in the arc, we also took to social media posting different images and shots of our films creating some excitement behind it overall this went really well and made the film festival a success we made sure we had promoted our tickets everywhere to generate the most excitement behind it.
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