Story-telling unit - 25 Word Pitch

Title -

Embers

25 Word Pitch - 

The relationship between two friends is put at risk as one seeks to escape her town and flourish whilst the other lacks ambition.

The genre -

Drama

The Two Main Characters

Millie – Age 21 – Driven quite heavily on the hunger of expanding her knowledge and life experiences, she wants to know more about the world and what it has to offer. She stands at 5’4 with a slim/skinny build, an avid reader of a spectrum of books. As well as this Millie loves her films, a favourite being ‘Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’, for its originality and surrealism.     

Sarah – 21 – A life filled with conflict and a fairly underprivileged background summarises Sarah quite well, there is such contrast between Sarah’s life and Millie’s. Sarah stands at 5’5 with a slim build. She loves the cigarette and brew combination right before the start of the day. A favourite film for Sarah would be ‘Snakes on a plane’ (Absolutely loves her high concept films).

The main location(S) -

A few locations that have already crossed my mind whilst walking around the local areas include the pier, possibly the train station. I would have the pier being potentially the main ideal location as it sets a particular mood and captures the mise en scene quite well for the type of scene I would like to shoot.

Inspirational source material - 

After watching 2-3 short films online (Soft, Alone Time and Gift), reading through various online posts on how to get your cognition's going, I still couldn’t get the juices flowing! So I went for a walk and finally having  broken the mind block I thought to re-watch one of the short films that I had just watched previous (Alone Time). A brief summary of ‘Alone Time’ is that it consists of a female protagonist escaping the monotonous lifestyle she has fell in to, through camping out in the wild with herself and a camera. This short film gave me a sort of concept of escapism from the mundane and monotonous life styles some people gradually slip in to the routine of unknowingly. It stuck with me and I managed to manipulate it into something that involves two characters and a conflict.

A few extra lines describing the full story - 

Millie and Sarah’s relationship deteriorates so much that contact is futile. Sarah has mistaken Millie’s ambition as a personal attack on her and so has reacted in a manner of such. Millie is extremely conflicted and anxious of losing a childhood friend and realistically one of her only friends in the neighbour. However she knows deep down that a move out into the big city would be the right decision, ultimately opting to leave and resulting in a positive outcome in every sense, as Sarah eventually just has to accept this and move forward with it.  (Finding the new equilibrium).

Camera Workshop - Wednesday 28th September

Camera Workshop

Camera equipment used

CAMERA MODELS - SONY PXW - SONY XR

TRIPOD - 

MICROPHONE BOOM

Working with Sam and Fergus was a real treat, with such experience between the both of them on the technological and practical side of things, whatever stress or worries we had about the camera would be put at ease by one or the other. They both made an extremely strong point of focusing on the sound just as much as the actual content through the lense; there's no point in having quality footage coincided with terrible 'hubbub' diegetic sound.

'SWEFF - Sound - White Balance - Exposure - Focus - Framing '

Certain tasks we'd be given were maybe an over the shoulder shot, pull of focus, tracking shot etc. In groups of 3 we would operate these shots out as best as we could, cultivating as a group the skills required to master the cameras. I thoroughly enjoyed the task of shooting the tracking shot whilst trying to keep the same frame i.e 'Mid Long Shot' through out it. It was the challenge of it and trying to master the shot which i found most rewarding, ultimately why i enjoyed attempting it so much.

Something that I found myself struggling with was the usage of the Tripod, being a bit apprehensive and worried about causing damage to it did have an effect on how I approached them.

As a big fanatic about cameras and how each of them differ with their operations, I was really impressed with the quality of the cameras. I felt I left the studios today with a much better understanding of the cameras than when I walked in this morning, personally leaving with a feeling of achievement. Overall the camera workshop was an extremely satisfying and fun experience with which I believe I gained lots from. 

Story-telling Unit: Story Workshop - 21st September

Short Story: Cellar Bar

Characters: Fitness trainer and political activist

Fitness trainer - (Tony) - His character consists of a muscular build with a wide chest. He is 6ft2, with dark short side and back hair style. His life style consists of eating, gym workouts and living the 'lad' culture. However Tony has a side to him that no one expects.

Political activist - (Sandra) - Her character consists of a slim physique, pale skin and light ginger hair. She isn't afraid to voice her own opinions especially when she is intimidated. 

Location: Cellar (Cellar bar nightclub)

Story:
Sandra has just finished uni (studying politics) and has decided to come home to London. She keeps seeing Tony around in different places (i.e. the train station, town centre etc.) That night she goes out with friends as a back from uni night out. On the night out, however, one of Sandra's friends goes missing. Obviously being a night club, they don't panic (assuming she has just gone off with a guy). Later that night she sees Tony (just a random guy) with her missing friend's phone (it has a distinctive phone case). Panic sinks in. She approaches Tony from behind and grabs his wrist to uncover another item belonging to her friend, this time speckled in blood. He disappears into the crowd. More friends go missing throughout the night with their items appearing in different places (i.e. the bar, the toilet etc.) Ends with Sandra coming face to face with Tony. 

...

Feedback from lesson:
- Use the characters and situation to your advantage. They're already unique characters and a story can be made from that rather than trying to create something too elaborate. 

Story-Telling Unit:Speed Pitching - 21st September

Pre-planning on concepts for script and Speed Pitching

Pre-planning of 25 word pitch

Initially I thought I had already found a fairly strong idea whilst walking into the Maidstone Studios on 21st September until slowly but surely it came to me as Simon continued his presentation that it was quite pivotal that i should change it. 

My initial idea wasn't anything special however it was something that I found I could do with great effect and originality! the idea consisted of:

A male struggling to get to grips with having lost a loved one, suffering with denial, depression etc and how it can take its toll on the mind, body and soul. 

The concept did not take long for me to come up with, and probably why it didn't take long for me to realise that it was a weak idea, but what made me think initially that it was a weak idea and probably not suited to me was partly down to the presentation Simon was going through with us. 

'What’s the point of writing a beautifully structured script, with all the right technical points in it, if the writer has nothing to say?” Lynda La Plante – TV screenwriter/producer'

This stuck with me for sometime and had a drastic effect on what i wanted to do. Honestly it made me panic a bit as I just could not come up with anything whatsoever that meant something to me. 

Until however I thought quite long and deep about it, realising that I could potentially do it about the adverse effects a chronic illness can have on someone. It made me cringe a bit having to think about actually writing something and basing the concept on yourself but it is something meaningful to me. Still though there are a lot of rough idea's going through my head and it wouldn't surprise me if the current concept changes!

Speed Pitching

Concept 1 - 'Big budget thriller with a main star' 
Title - Illusion
Star - Jake Gyllenhaal
25 Word pitch - Jake Gyllenhaal, confident yet naive man with two minions, unknowingly come across a cargo that could bring extreme pleasures, but is it too good to be true?

The idea was contracted from a short article in the local newspaper, worded -   

Slightly over running on the word count, easily preventable however over complicating things ourselves in the thought process of it all! Looking back on this it easily could of been put into less than 25 words. 
Concept 2 - 'Channel 4 British Comedy - Series - Late night viewing'
Title - The Council worker 
25 Word pitch: Female council worker takes it one step too far, leading to her dismissal, ultimately leaving her homeless and staying with ex clients rough on the streets. 

This idea was derived from another newspaper article clip - 

Again similar to the first idea, just about ran over on the word count! Need to refine and be clear with the concept and not add as much description. 
Concept 3 - 'Low budget short film - Location @ Council Estate' 
Title - Inner Circle
25 Word pitch: Following 4 male adolescents and how they escape their deprived environments through art, which is achieved by bombing the city with colour and paint. 

This idea differs from the rest as it wasn't really taken from anything, more so just a general concept that i've always thought about documenting and capturing. Graffiti as an art form intrigues me and always has since an early age, watching videos online an having friends that took a serious passion for it. Possibly not a very original idea, but one that could be documented very well and turned into an interesting short film if done right! 

Summer Project

The video below is my UCA summer project, it features brief/short shots of things to do with my interests, hobbies and life, which is based in the city of Manchester. 

(The link to the video is also below if the video above does not work.)

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tPA-15uDE