The short form project is one that I haven’t really enjoyed as much as the others. Before I started this course I really enjoyed doing film based projects but the lack of structure and having no freedom for creativity has somewhat dampened it for me.
I think that my original negativity towards this project has also hindered my enjoyment of the project as it is hard to feel positive about something when you have no real desire for it.
Overall though, this project has turned out alright, our group worked well together and while our tasks had the least creative freedom I feel that we have made a reasonable attempt to put some of our own style into the piece.
Short Form Evaluation April 29, 2010
The Beginnings Of A Script For The Lecturer February 27, 2010
[Thanks to Alice]
INT. Lecture hall day
Brian is stood at the front of the lecture hall ready to begin the lecture. The students are scattered around the room and have no interest in beginning the lesson. The Film crew are setting up their equipment in the corner of the room. Brian Leaves the room to make a call.
int. corridor day
Brian leans against the wall and gets his phone out of his pocket. He calls the head of department.
Brian
The class are playing up again. I’m fed up, is there no one you can send down to shut them up?
The person on the other end of the phone explains that he is very busy and cannot do anything about it at this point in time.
BRIAN
This is ridiculous. Its very embarrassing, I got the film crew in the room with me too…
The head teacher apologizes and the call ends.
INT. LECTURE HALL DAY
Brian re-enters the room and scans his surroundings. The students are still scattered around the room and are messing around with the webcams on their laptops. The filming crew are now ready to go. Brian diverts the students attention and begins his lecture on the power and dangers of CCTV.
BRIAN
Since the 1980′s, the UK has had more surveillance cameras installed than any other major city in the world. Statistics show that on an average day in London you are captured a staggering 300 times a day on CCTV. More and more people are fearing George Orwell’s dystopian novel ’1984′ and its central theme of Big Brother becoming a reality. Surveillance has caused much controversy. Perhaps most famous is ‘The Watergate Scandal’ and its subsequent cover up by The White House in which former president Richard Nixon approved bugging and audio surveillance of his opposition during the 1972 presidential election. This scandal lasted 2 years and resulted in the only resignation of a US president in history, by doing this he avoided trial and perhaps even prison. The main question asked by the public nowadays is ‘Are these camera’s actually for our protection or just to keep an eye on us’ and much of the public are complaining about invasion of privacy.
INT. LECTURE HALL DAY
Brian begins the first lesson of the day with the morning register.
Short Form Video; Who’s Doing What February 24, 2010
Team members
Gina Tratt, Alice Lewis, Cat Abbott, Dan Fuller, Max Hamling
Roles
Director: Cat Abbott
Producer: Alice Lewis
Editor: Gina (Everyone)
Camera Operator: Dan
Sound and Lighting: Dan
Costumes: Alice
Actors + Props: Everyone
Filming Permissions: Cat
Script: Alice
Storyboards: Gina
Location Research: Cat + Max
Treatment: Max
Locations
Not currently arranged
Bournemouth Pier
Classroom and University
Characters
1 Lecturer- Not currently arranged
Extras
Key Props
Mobile phone with video technology
Car?
Scripting Notes February 24, 2010
Chapter 1
Brian is trying to settle the class down to start the lesson. The Doc. Crew have already arrived and are setting up for a day of filming. The class won’t listen to him and so Brian leaves the room to make a call.
Brian makes a phone call to the head of department to complain about the persistent bad behaviour of the class. He claims that he is not only annoyed by this but also embarrasses as the filming crew are nearly ready to go. The department head tells him that there is nothing he can do at this point in time and that he must deal with it himself and compromise.
Brian re-enters the classroom and scans the area. The students are messing around with their phones, the webcams on their laptops and the Doc. Crew are waiting and ready to film. Brian begins his talk on the power and dangers of CCTV.
Chapter 2: None
Chapter 3
Chapter begins in the classroom. Brian begins the lesson with the morning register. He calls out one girls name (Chloe) and there is no response. Brian pauses for a minute and looks at his watch before he resumes with the rest of the register.
After the register, he makes a crude excuse to the Doc. Crew who are once again waiting on him to film, and abruptly leaves the room.
Brian makes a call. His voice is reduced from his usual authorative register to a much calmer tone. Brian asks the person on the other end of the phone if they are alright and why they are not in class. He sounds concerned. After hearing a response from the other person, he suggests taking some paracetamol and asks if the person is still willing to meet up that same evening. After and affirmative response, he suggests a time and meeting place before saying goodbye.
Chapter 4
Brian is stood by his car at a secretive location. He wanders off onto the beach and under the pier whilst looking at the time on his phone. Its 10 minutes to the arranged meeting time. He calls the same person he called earlier to let them know that he has arrived at the location. The voice on the other end informs him that they are running a little late but should be there soon, and Brian assures them not to worry. Halfway through the sentence, he hears a footstep behind him, he begins to turn his head around but a hand conceals his mouth before he has the chance to make a noise. Before he is completely constrained, Brian manages to slip his phone back in his pocket, but does not end the call.
Everything fades to black, but the person on the other end of the phone can be heard; “Hello? Are you still there? HELLO?” The scene ends with a hang-up tone.
[Copied from Alice]
Short Form Video; Lecturer Group February 18, 2010
Ok, so for the short form video unit, I’m in the group that follows the lecturer, which is essentially us using a video phone to film things. I’m not quite sure about this because it’s quite limited in terms of quality and shots, unless we use a nice camera and then make it look like it’s from a phone in the post-production. I’m sure this is something that we’re going to debate at length in the coming weeks!
We’ve gone through the guide and sorted out which parts of the video our lecturer is in and from this we can then formulate a list of shots and start writing a rough script.
Chapter 1: Brian makes a phone call
Chapter 2: -
Chapter 3: Brian is on phone
Chapter 4: On the phone outside at night to woman friend
Chapter 5: He gets abducted whilst on the phone. Phone is put in pocket, audible sounds.
Chapter 6: -
Chapter 7: Talks on his video phone, cant get reception but records messages.
Chapter 8:
Chapter 9: The terrorists talk to him, he agrees with them
Chapter 10: -
Chapter 11: -
Chapter 12: -
Chapter 13: -
Chapter 14: -
Chapter 15: When the body is taken out, the phone begins to transmit data
Introduction To The Short Form Video Unit February 3, 2010
We’ve now been introduced to both of our new briefs and one of them is to make a sub-10 minute video. Originally we all believed that this would be making our own ideas and videos and whatnot but it turns out we’ve got a story to follow. I was a little down on the idea to begin with because I was quite looking forward to what we had planned but nonetheless it’s something different. I don’t really agree with how controlled it is but I guess time will tell as to how much of a creative input we get.
So far we’ve done a few little exercises writing stories and then writing scripts for them. Personally, I’m not interested in scriptwriting and it’s something that I’ve done previously so I did find it all a little tedious but I do realise that it has to be done for some people who may not have touched onto it before. We’ve also had yet another filming practice in which we have been asked to remake a chase scene from Hot Fuzz. Results to come, we still need to edit.
