Seeking Inspiration
26th August 2017
As of today I haven't yet settled on a genre of my film, therefore I decided to watch six Thai short films in order to find inspiration and possibly find a genre that I could finally settle down with. But in turns out that I haven't even be able to give myself a genre to work with yet. I called it a day there and decided to work on other things instead.
Initial Plans
31st August 2017
As of today, Richy, Toy and I spent sometime together to plan for the short film. Toy had the idea of a survival drama short film but I wasn't really intrigued by the idea. All 3 of us agreed on it not being animated for obvious reasons and also that the film must deliver a strong message at the end.
Initial Storyboarding
1st September 2017
Up until this point, I the survival drama idea haven't really stuck with me to say the truth. During my free period, I decide to spend the entirety of the hour inside of an empty classroom to have a real think with myself and to draw the storyboard on the whiteboard. My initial idea was to have a short film revolves a character who's been discriminated and bullied. When he think he had enough, he went on forums for help. Eventually, he was able to get help and find love and someone who cares for him. My storyboard only went as far as the main character just having enough of the bully.
I pitched this storyboard Richy and Toy as well as talk them through of what's going on as well as the love side of it. However, he agrees with me on the bullying approach to it. However, he did not agree on the love aspect of it. We had a real deep conversation about this and he wanted to the bully to go deeper. Furthermore, they wanted the protagonist to commit suicide
Skyping + Planning = PROGRESS!
3rd September 2017
Last night, Richy, Toy and myself, we had a little discussion more on our further plans, location scouting and most importantly the story line. We started calling each other on Skype around 10:40PM ish since Richy wasn't feeling really well and just got back from the hospital. We finished the conversation around 11:50PM. We were all assigned a little job to do each. My job was to location scout my bedroom.
At the start of the Skype conversation, I thought to myself why not record it as one, an evidence and also for the good memories. The length of the recorded session was about a minute and a half, I must then delete some segments that we went topic off. As I was editing, I decided why not make notes by actually adding them to the footage itself. Therefore I added some keywords we talked about in the discussion throughout the video.
I also sped up the video to 150% to have the video be even shorter and even with the chipmunk voices, the video was still understandable.
Location Scouting
4th September 2017
A couple day back, I was assigned by Richy to location scout my bedroom and here are some photos of my bedroom which I used my phone to capture since it was the only device I had which was able to take panoramas which gave a more wide look of the room. I then sent these pictures to Rich and Toy in our group chat and I also apologised to them about sorry that my bedroom was a little bit too fanboy nerdy. However, Richy was actually quite intrigued in that he said it might be possible to link my figure collection to the story in that the protagonist only has inanimate objects in his life.
LOCATION: MY BEDROOM
ADVANTAGES:
- The room fits in with the vision of the rough storyboard we are doing
- Relatively small to suggest loneliness or uncomfortably
- Adjustable; able to easily move mis en scene
- Close to school; easy for Toy but not Richy
- All camera tools are accessible; many angles to shoot from!
DISADVANTAGES:
- Mirror may be a problem; camera/crew may be in risk to be seen
- Shelf cannot be moved if it doesn't flow with the story
This is an angle that I really wanted to maybe use but we'll reconsider the possibility of utilising a shot here.
This is the bed which I want to do this angle but I may need a chair to stand on top off when I'm actually filming.
LOCATION: MY SISTER'S BEDROOM
ADVANTAGES:
- Potential ideas being made with the mirror and the dividers (third picture)
- No mirrors around the bed which means that camera won't be seen unlike my bedroom
- More space for camera movements
DISADVANTAGES:
- Many item must be moved out of the way for specific shots to work
- The room emits a more warmth feeling than a more claustrophobic and dead feeling
- Too spacious may not fit in with the story
- The storyboard didn't take this room into consideration
Primary Resarch
6th September 2017
Today, we conducted a primary research on the topic of bullying and was conducted to sixth former. We mostly did closed questions and also included one open questions so that we at least get one qualitative result.
We then compiled the information and tallied up then Richy created this wonderful result sheet in Google Slides for us so that we can put it up on our blogs.
Target Audience
7th September 2017
Putting what we researched about target audience, we put our short film into context of the LCAGES which were (Life style, class, age, gender, ethnicity and spending power)
25 September 2017
For the past few weeks, the team and I have been finding the bullying short film really difficult. Last Friday I've been pitched a bizarre idea by Richy but I totally love the idea!; I was thinking of recording the sound and making a podcast then putting it on my blog, however I decided to film it instead since Richy was a more "visual" kind of person. I then edited and shortened the video on Sunday night and uploaded the video to YouTube as an unlisted video.
The target audience was identified for the short film and we decided that it's a mainstream short film. As for the demographics, we also identified that as well.
The Day I wasn't in School
26 September 2017
For the entirety of today, I wasn't in school due to the fact that I went on my Travel & Tourism field trip to the Intercontinental Hotel Bangkok.
During lunch time, I called Richy and Toy in order to plan and expanding upon the idea of what Richy pitched to me on Friday then he forwarded the note he written to me.
The short film is no longer going to only be in the toilet, it is going to be based around Gratification sources and also applying the film to Blumler & Katz 'Uses and Gratification' theory apparently.
Brief Catch Up
27 September 2017
A Brief Timeline of The Short Film
28 September 2017
Today was quite a productive day for the team if I do say so myself. We started off by having a meeting together and writing down the brief timeline and details of the short film. Took us around half an hour to catch up and also putting the timeline together so that we were all on the same pace.
Location Scouting
4th September 2017
Prep School Adults Restroom
ADVANTAGES:
- Good natural and artificial lights so lighting won't be a problem
- 3 Stalls (Exactly what we need)
- Colour of white = innocence
DISADVANTAGES:
- Teachers frequently walks in and out as it's a Teacher's toilet
- Limited of camera angle (tight space therefore wide angle lens must be prepared)
Back School Entrance
ADVANTAGES:
- Wide space, opportunity for range of camera angle to be utilised
- Less people since it's the back entrance (ease of filming)
- Good scenery
DISADVANTAGES:
- Natural light cannot be manipulated e.g. weather
- White noise in the background may cause audio issues
Back School Entrance
ADVANTAGES:
- Big area, lots of places to tables to choose from
- Well lit with artificial lights
- Realistic (Mis-en-scene of food and people eating)
DISADVANTAGES:
- White noise of people talking
- Busy at times e.g. traffic
Sixth Form Centre Common Room
ADVANTAGES:
- Big space to choose for filming
- Decent artificial lights
DISADVANTAGES:
- Busy, this may cause inconsistency issues between shots of people in the scene
- Messy at times
- While filming, changing settings may be difficult if utilising both artificial and natural light of the window
Mood Board:
All these may seems really random and out there, but all of them actually links to tour short film
INITIAL IDEA OF THE NEW SHORT FILM
10th October 2017
Statement of Intention
10th October 2017
Today, Toy and I had a Business Studies exam to sit. Meanwhile, Richy was working really hard on the Statement of Intention. Here is a scanned version of what Richy worked on.
Target Audience For The Comedy Short Film
11th October 2017
The Wix Wall
12th October 2017
The team and I was finding the paper really hard to keep track of, therefore we started to put every original paperwork on the wall next to wear we normally sit. Our Teacher approved of us doing this and this is a picture of what we currently have.
Development Zone
Before we stuck everything on the wix wall, I took a photo of the development zone we did earlier, I then recreated this document in Adobe Illustrator.
Topic Research
13th October 2017
Protagonist and Antagonist Research
17th October 2017
The Name of The Film
19th October 2017
For the past few weeks, the team and I have been struggling to come up with a name that suits with our film. On Tuesday 17th we narrowed down the list to four. We decided to go with Stranded Smile at first; however, as it went on the name doesn't seem to fit in with in with our film and evokes a more survival feeling to it. We then change it to the final decision which is now "Gratifly"
As a team, we then proceed onto designing the title of the short film in Adobe illustrator.
Whilst we were working on the title, our teacher happened to walk by therefore we asked him for his opinion on the title, he said it's really good and he also suggest having flies flying around the word 'FLY' and also change up the colour a little bit. We took this into consideration for the final title design. Richy then took the mouse and drew the fly that is coming out of the Y.
That gave me an amazing idea of what if the fly was animated so that it is first going to hang on to the Y then flying off into the film then becoming a reoccurring element in the film where the protagonist gets annoyed by the fly and possibly tying it into the story and having it be called the "Gratifly".
The reason we called it "Gratifly" was because its a combination of the word "Gratify" and "Fly". This is because the gratification that the protagonist experiences are being taken away for him. Also, the L is made less obvious so that it looks more like "Gratify" in the first place but when looked carefully it says "Gratifly"
Paperworks: Treatment
20th October 2017
As a team, we created a film treatment and the equipment list. Each of us have our own layouts and design but the content will be similar throughout all 3.
Paperworks: Equipment, Props and Budget List
20th October 2017
RODE Microphone - must be borrowed from Media Department
Trolley - must be borrowed from school staffs or bring one in
Clear plastic shield - might have to buy one
Spare camera batteries - not that urgent unless we shoot tons
Masks - we had to email Mr Herbert, the Drama Teacher about borrowing the masks before hand.
Genre Research
22nd October 2017
What makes a good COMEDY DRAMA film?
A good comedy-drama film should occasionally balance their humor with more dramatic and humanistic moments.
3 Elements of Comedy-Films:
Comic Timing
The use of rhythm and tempo to enhance comedy and humor. The pacing of the delivery of a joke has a strong comical effect.
An example of this would be Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" where the rhythmic orchestral music highlights the chase scene and the hits that the protagonist and antagonist exchanges while acting as puppets from the police.
Slapstick
Slapstick is an element in Comedy which involves the over-exaggeration of physical violence.
An example of this is a cartoon called “Tom and Jerry” where the montage of violent exchanges between the two are viewed as playful "banter".
Pregnant Pause
A pregnant pause is a technique of coming timing used to highlight a comedy element.
An example of this would be Mr. Bean's "Car crushed by Tank" episode in which the silence of enjoying his brownie accentuates the comedic contrast of loosing his car to a tank.
6 Elements of Drama
Storyboard
23rd October 2017
GratiFly Script
24th October 2017 (Richy's Birthday)
Today was Richy's Birthday! YAY! We decided to work on the most challenging task of making a film. In my opinion at least...
But anyways, we managed to get it done and out of the way!
Film References and Shot Types
25th October 2017
We identified the different shot types within the storyboard and discussed about the references of each shots we we went with.
I then decided to make a video compiling a few references from different genre and type of media in order to keep it simplistic!
Paperworks: Release Form
26th October 2017
Paperworks: Casting
27th October 2017
Paperworks: Risk Assessment
October 29th 2017
Paperworks: Call Sheet
November 1st 2017
Today I decided to research about what a call sheet is and how do we actually use one in our film. As a group we decided when is the best time we can film.
