Today was our deadline for the storytelling unit, I am pleased to say I was able to finish the project with a whole 15 minutes to spare! I feel happy with the overall piece as throughout all the stress, unorganised-ness (not a real word but oh well), and bailing actors I am happy with the outcome. Here is a list of do's and don'ts so i am prepared for the next project:
1. Get actors/actresses that won't bail out on you for example friends on the course or family.
2. make sure when filming:
- the camera is charged
- you have your storyboards
- you have your script
- you plan when to film and are prompt i.e don't decided to film at 5.30pm when its going to be dark by 7.00pm
- DON'T BE IN YOUR FILM unless another student on your course can work the camera as you may end up with bad quality lighting and focus.
3. make sure you can print all your work off without any difficulties/ buy a printer to save stressing
I think that is everything!
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
The Meeting Trailer
I've have finally finished my trailer for the meeting. I was assigned to produce a 1-2 minute trailer for my 10 page script. I feel I have done the best I can and through all the disasters along the way I am quite proud of what I have achieved. Here is a link to it on youtube if i can't get it on here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8M6gvdLLe8
Monday, 4 April 2011
Trailer disaster take two!
This weekend I took a camera out to get some close up shots and others ones to try explain the story more. All I can say is NEVER use yourself to act as it goes wrong! Some of the shots of myself are out of focus and the lighting isn't brilliant either but i will have to make do with what I've got now and hope for the best.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
The meeting trailer
So, today I have been working really hard on my trailer and trying to stick it all together and make it look wonderful. Although before I could do any text or effects I first had to come up with a song I could use. The first couple I thought were ok but now I have realised they were a little over the top and pretty rubbish! I was able to pick a song and place all the clips I want to use along the timeline in a rough order. I was then able to start cutting the clips to fit in with the beats of the music and add the text roughly where I wanted them to go but something was missing as my trailer is about a girl having flashbacks of her youth and it I still didn’t think the audience would understand so the clips from the past are in black and white and tomorrow I will be slowing them down to which means all the clips won’t be on the beats now but I know it will make the trailer look better. Today I feel that I have achieved a lot and although I had a disaster weekend I’m beginning to believe I could make a good trailer.
My trailer one disaster after enough
The weekend just gone was my turn you use the camera to film all the shots for my trailer and what happens the evening before shooting? An actor tell me he has 'made other plans'! This is when I begin to panic luckily I managed to find someone tell thanks to the actress who went around her school asking EVERYONE! Then the second problem occured the actor was only free on Saturday after 4.00pm - which I thought ok thats not too bad i'm sure I'll have enough time before the sun goes down. Saturday arrives, I decided I can quickly pop to town with my mum and sister before filming and will have plenty of time to get back and get ready for filming. Nope! My sister dissappears and doesn't reply to texts or calls so I don't find her until 4.00pm.
After racing back to drop her home and pick up my actor and actress; the actor is running late so I don't get to start filming until 5.30pm.
I managed to be a complete plonker and forget my script and storyboard in the stress and rushing too which meant I had to go with the flow and try come up with shot ideas. I decided to get the boy and girl to act but i wasn't going to use their voice and was going to explain the trailer and mood through text and music. After managing to get all the filming I needed with the two people i went home for a well deserved glass of wine!
Once at the studios to edit my trailer I realised that one shot which is 'the kiss' is so dark and grainy, I forgot to do any close ups and I hadn't thought about any music ideas. To be honest you only learn from your mistakes but I hope I don't have anymore to learn from!
After racing back to drop her home and pick up my actor and actress; the actor is running late so I don't get to start filming until 5.30pm.
I managed to be a complete plonker and forget my script and storyboard in the stress and rushing too which meant I had to go with the flow and try come up with shot ideas. I decided to get the boy and girl to act but i wasn't going to use their voice and was going to explain the trailer and mood through text and music. After managing to get all the filming I needed with the two people i went home for a well deserved glass of wine!
Once at the studios to edit my trailer I realised that one shot which is 'the kiss' is so dark and grainy, I forgot to do any close ups and I hadn't thought about any music ideas. To be honest you only learn from your mistakes but I hope I don't have anymore to learn from!
Monday, 28 March 2011
It's been a while!
Due to no internet and a broken laptop I have been unable to update my blog. I have changed my idea slightly so that means my pitch, main plots and synopsis has changed. I'll put it up below:
The Meeting
Genre: social realistic drama
The idea/story: The Meeting is about a girl called Ellie who is stuck in a rut and living the tedious life of a 21 year old girl. When she gets to work it all changes, her manager offer her the promotion of a life time where she gets to move to Japan. She now has the choice of continuing her mundane life or going on the adventure which will change her life forever. When trying to come to a decision memories start flooding in of a friend she had once forgot. Can these memories help her to choose?
The plot: The audience enters Ellie’s life when her mundane life is interrupted.
Main plots:
1. Opening scene: Ellie is walking the downstairs to the breakfast table, laid out with a large selection of breakfast choices. She is greeted by her mother who is ironing her work clothes. While eating her mobile rings saying she needs to come in early.
2. She arrives at work where she is told about the usual night out that she did not attend as she was ‘too busy’ and how much she missed out, and then she is called into her manager’s office.
3. Once she is in the office her manager puts two envelopes on the table. He explains they need to cut staff down but there is a new branch opening in Japan. In one envelope there is a redundancy package and the other an aeroplane ticket to Japan with a contract to be the manager for the new branch.
4. This is when Ellie reach’s her life changing point; should she leave her sheltered life and go into the unknown. When her manager says ‘you only live once, Ellie’s remembers an old friend once forgotten.
The next few minutes will turn into flashbacks and memories of Ellie when she was 15 years old. Each number is a different day, time and place.
5. Ellie is 15 years old ignoring a guy who looks the same age following her. While he is trying to get her attention she finally turns around when the boy says “come on you only live once”. She stops and turns around he smiles and gives her a hand shake saying ‘I’m James’.
6. It’s a hot summers day Ellie and James are messing about at the playing field when she asks him what he wants to do when he is older. In which he replies live life to the full and asks her the same question. She stutters and replies she doesn’t know.
7. Ellie is around James house and watching him spin and turn his car in his field. He then comes over to her and tells her he’s going travelling in the summer holidays with his parents and would be going away for three months. He says how excited he is as they are going scuba diving, bungee jumping and swimming with dolphins. Ellie says how exciting it is but her heart is broken that he will be away so long.
8. Its night-time and they’re at the playing field lying on the grass looking at the stars. James places his coat over Ellie and there is more talking about living in the moment. There is a kiss between the two which fades out to darkness.
We go back to the future now to the final scene where Ellie is sitting on her bed with one of the envelopes in her hand. A taxi beeps twice in which she stands up and heads for the door.
9. Ellie is outside the front of her mum’s house with a suitcase behind her. Her mum is teary and Ellie is struggling to choke back the tears as she is getting in the taxi. The taxi stops down a quiet country lane where the girl gets out with a bunch of flowers. See puts them down next to old dead bunches. A single tear drops down the side of her cheek and get gets back into the taxi.
10. Ellie is at the airport where her manager is waiting as he greets her and says how she is making the right choice Ellie turns around and tells him she is not going to take the job in Japan and is going to travel the world. As she is boarding the train she remembers her last memory of James. Ellie is 16 years old and at James funeral who tragically died in a car crash.
The Pitch
A reclusive girl living in a rut now faces redundancy or a life changing decision; could memories of someone special help her choose her path.
The Synopsis
The meeting is short social realist film based on a reclusive girl called Ellie. Ellie is a petite, brown haired; blue eyed, 21 years old who is still living at her mums. She is well dressed and smart, currently working as an IT worker in a big London company. She lacks in confidence but is such a likeable character for her sweet childlike behaviour. She has lived 21 years in a sheltered life and as she is very shy, quiet and not outgoing she has become stuck in a rut. At work she is called into the manager’s office and gets offered two envelopes, one containing a redundancy package and the other containing a ticket to Japan with a contract to become the manager of the new branch opening out there. Timid, ‘mummies’ girl Ellie now has to choose between her safe and sheltered life and a new journey full of the unknown. When going down the elevator Ellie is remind of a friend from her youth with words said by her boss. We then travel into Ellie’s past and see how she meets her complete opposite, a guy called James. Although James has very childlike behaviour, he is spontaneous, outgoing, happy, bubbly, crazy, wacky and a cheeky chappy with a smile that could melt your heart. He takes risks and never regrets, living for the moment and life to the full.
The meeting is a story about a girl who is stuck on which path to take. Should she stay on the safe road of an average paid job where she’ll always have a place at home and her family around her or leave the country for a better career and into the unknown. Ellie thinks back to her past and a strong friendship she once had with James to try decide where her future belongs.
The Meeting
Genre: social realistic drama
The idea/story: The Meeting is about a girl called Ellie who is stuck in a rut and living the tedious life of a 21 year old girl. When she gets to work it all changes, her manager offer her the promotion of a life time where she gets to move to Japan. She now has the choice of continuing her mundane life or going on the adventure which will change her life forever. When trying to come to a decision memories start flooding in of a friend she had once forgot. Can these memories help her to choose?
The plot: The audience enters Ellie’s life when her mundane life is interrupted.
Main plots:
1. Opening scene: Ellie is walking the downstairs to the breakfast table, laid out with a large selection of breakfast choices. She is greeted by her mother who is ironing her work clothes. While eating her mobile rings saying she needs to come in early.
2. She arrives at work where she is told about the usual night out that she did not attend as she was ‘too busy’ and how much she missed out, and then she is called into her manager’s office.
3. Once she is in the office her manager puts two envelopes on the table. He explains they need to cut staff down but there is a new branch opening in Japan. In one envelope there is a redundancy package and the other an aeroplane ticket to Japan with a contract to be the manager for the new branch.
4. This is when Ellie reach’s her life changing point; should she leave her sheltered life and go into the unknown. When her manager says ‘you only live once, Ellie’s remembers an old friend once forgotten.
The next few minutes will turn into flashbacks and memories of Ellie when she was 15 years old. Each number is a different day, time and place.
5. Ellie is 15 years old ignoring a guy who looks the same age following her. While he is trying to get her attention she finally turns around when the boy says “come on you only live once”. She stops and turns around he smiles and gives her a hand shake saying ‘I’m James’.
6. It’s a hot summers day Ellie and James are messing about at the playing field when she asks him what he wants to do when he is older. In which he replies live life to the full and asks her the same question. She stutters and replies she doesn’t know.
7. Ellie is around James house and watching him spin and turn his car in his field. He then comes over to her and tells her he’s going travelling in the summer holidays with his parents and would be going away for three months. He says how excited he is as they are going scuba diving, bungee jumping and swimming with dolphins. Ellie says how exciting it is but her heart is broken that he will be away so long.
8. Its night-time and they’re at the playing field lying on the grass looking at the stars. James places his coat over Ellie and there is more talking about living in the moment. There is a kiss between the two which fades out to darkness.
We go back to the future now to the final scene where Ellie is sitting on her bed with one of the envelopes in her hand. A taxi beeps twice in which she stands up and heads for the door.
9. Ellie is outside the front of her mum’s house with a suitcase behind her. Her mum is teary and Ellie is struggling to choke back the tears as she is getting in the taxi. The taxi stops down a quiet country lane where the girl gets out with a bunch of flowers. See puts them down next to old dead bunches. A single tear drops down the side of her cheek and get gets back into the taxi.
10. Ellie is at the airport where her manager is waiting as he greets her and says how she is making the right choice Ellie turns around and tells him she is not going to take the job in Japan and is going to travel the world. As she is boarding the train she remembers her last memory of James. Ellie is 16 years old and at James funeral who tragically died in a car crash.
The Pitch
A reclusive girl living in a rut now faces redundancy or a life changing decision; could memories of someone special help her choose her path.
The Synopsis
The meeting is short social realist film based on a reclusive girl called Ellie. Ellie is a petite, brown haired; blue eyed, 21 years old who is still living at her mums. She is well dressed and smart, currently working as an IT worker in a big London company. She lacks in confidence but is such a likeable character for her sweet childlike behaviour. She has lived 21 years in a sheltered life and as she is very shy, quiet and not outgoing she has become stuck in a rut. At work she is called into the manager’s office and gets offered two envelopes, one containing a redundancy package and the other containing a ticket to Japan with a contract to become the manager of the new branch opening out there. Timid, ‘mummies’ girl Ellie now has to choose between her safe and sheltered life and a new journey full of the unknown. When going down the elevator Ellie is remind of a friend from her youth with words said by her boss. We then travel into Ellie’s past and see how she meets her complete opposite, a guy called James. Although James has very childlike behaviour, he is spontaneous, outgoing, happy, bubbly, crazy, wacky and a cheeky chappy with a smile that could melt your heart. He takes risks and never regrets, living for the moment and life to the full.
The meeting is a story about a girl who is stuck on which path to take. Should she stay on the safe road of an average paid job where she’ll always have a place at home and her family around her or leave the country for a better career and into the unknown. Ellie thinks back to her past and a strong friendship she once had with James to try decide where her future belongs.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Soft Trailer
Last week we were introduced to Final Cut Pro and to help us get used to the program we were assigned to produce a 1 minute trailer. We all had to use clips of our choice from a short British film called 'Soft' which was directed by Simon Ellis. So here it is have a look :)
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