The meeting reflections

After every Unit, it's a good Idea to reflect on all the work that's been done as it helps to see where you've gone wrong and what you can improve and also it's a representation of the quality of your work.

I'm going to assess myself in stages so that my reflection can be detailed for my understanding.

Idea Development: 

This stage of the process has always been the easiest part for me given that I'm creative and love coming up with new stories and ideas. However, being too creative is also my fault. I feel I didn't think about actuality and whether or not it would be possible to put my film idea on screen as a student - and this is where a budget comes in. When making a film on a budget, it means there are less elements to keep your film going for the audience so it has to be a well written story and well written characters. When coming up with the idea of my characters I was particularly drawn to Maryanne as I felt I could empathise with her character having experienced a few deaths in my family, so in that sense it was an easy start to making up her character. But, at times i felt a bit stuck with the direction she was going in I felt controlled by her character rather than me making the words that would control her. For instance, she has a poetic and victorian nature about her, but other times she had a modern youthfulness to her character which didn't add up with the style of the script. But overall, I feel Maryanne's character is more complete than Jeremy's. Jeremy and Dr.Whittaker didn't have much character to them and were practically there to do my job which was to tell the audience maryanne's awful fate and at the same time show promise towards the end of her life through a relationship with Jeremy in which she would learn to love living despite her own complications. I could have included Jeremy's back story some more in the script to give the audience and myself a better understanding of his character. But there is always room for improvement and I intend to revisit this script and give his character more depth and personality so that his character is believable. This also applies to Dr. Whittaker whose character has the same faults as Jeremy's.

Scriptwriting: 

Having been taught the way Final draft works, and doing some research on my own, I was comfortable writing in final draft and following my tutorial with Steve it was apparent that writing is probably my best skill set on this course.  Writing my script was good seeing as i had planned it beforehand, all I had to do was follow my plan sheet. Although I made several changes to the story and style of the script.

Production Process:  

Production was the hardest part of the film process for me. I didn't enjoy the process because I was working alone without much help and the weather was completely against me. In addition, i couldn't use the camera I know how to use best as it was fully booked so I had to rely on my mediocre knowledge of the sony cameras. We had previously done workshops on the sony cameras but I just couldn't get my head around it. So not knowing how to make the most out of the camera really limited my work. In addition I experienced a lot of last minute problems. my initial cast made themselves unavailable after committing to my shoot date so I then had to get my sister and her friend to play the role and seeing as they;re not professionals they could only do so much. The editing process I mentioned in a seperate post in more detail so check it out there. 

Forever in Days (Opening Scene)

Live every moment, love every minute. A tale of life and death and two souls caught in-between...

Research and continued story development.

To come to a conclusion of the tale of my film I drew inspiration from some of my favourites which have tugged on many heart strings.

The fault in our stars which debuted in the summer took the world by storm with the reluctant Hazel Grace and the adventurous Augustus Waters. This movie inspired my piece in so many ways which I shall state.

- The Normal boy meets girl/girl meets boy didn't feel so typical in this film. The circumstances in which they met were far from ordinary. In fact it was by chance which makes the journey towards their relationship all the more sweet and also doomed by limitations. I tried to depict that in my script by having my main characters meet out of life's choosing. I feel this has a better effect as it evokes a sense of mystery as to what can happen between two people.

- The plot twist at the end is absolutely incredible! Instead of the expected - Hazel Grace dying, It's the brave and kind hearted Augustus that takes a fall. Now many would be disappointed because he is such a sweet character, but any audience will admit they love the unexpected. In a way this is what made the film special. It's always a girl changing a boy's life but for once it was the other way round. A good guy helping a girl blinded by rage see the beauty there is in life when you choose not to be blinded. In my story I felt it would be lazy to take the same route. I took a more drastic turn and ended both of my characters. I chose to do this because I feel life isn't made up of only happy endings and sometimes we leave without knowing truth about feelings, thoughts etc. In my story Jeremy commits suicide upon hearing about Maryanne's death. It's a bitter sweet ending - Maryanne dying in peace having found meaning and love in her life, and Jeremy dying in eternal rage against her for ever leaving without mentioning the most important truth.. Plot twists are very important because they are what gives the story a climax and tension in the audience whenever something intense happens.

- Finally, I love this movie in general and wanted to see if I could challenge myself to tell a story about two people in the way they did.

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Now is good tells the story of 17 year old Tessa suffering from leukaemia. With little time left she embarks on a journey of spontaneity and rebellion with the new and cute neighbour.

- This film is more about a girl who never lived and takes the opportunity to in her last few days. Although your typical love story is involved the main focus of the film is hardly love at all but living and enjoying every moment with those that matter the most. This film particularly inspired the character of Maryanne who discovers she will die in three weeks. having lived a life led by depression she embarks on a journey of self discovery through her relationship with Jeremy.

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Never let me go tells the unfortunate story of three kids, and the fragility of life.

This film is one that evokes emotion and is one of my inspirations because every film should aspire to move people in some way. What I loved most about this move was it's ability to take me through a range of emotions over the course of the entire film. Having said that, I wanted to adopt this in my script. I wanted the audience to feel their emotions at every point and empathise with them. I was able to do this by using emotive language in my script and creating a grim mood with brief moments of happinness between two people. Doing this would allow me to completely crush my audience as they would have built up hope for these characters only to be crushed with their doom.

All in all, I think these films are good ones to watch especially when writing about love and death and other things in-between.

Forever In days (Post Production)

I always felt Post production was a breeze but today I found I was wrong. After feeling successful with filming, I learnt that my sound had a lot of background noise which would irritate the audience and following my review with simon it was clear that I needed to demonstrate more effort where sound is concerned. I also noticed you never really realise what you've filmed unless you planned well which I didn't. When I started to edit, I realised I didn't have much coverage despite filming 70 clips which is why PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL and a team too to help point out where I could do more.

So with the little I had I tried the best I could to make the most of it, although I feel the story won't translate well as I had to cut out certain parts. I also noticed my script was very unrealistic in terms of bringing it  to life. It's great to have an active imagination that can sound good on paper but as a student, when it comes to making the production, it has to be reasonable which is something I really need to come to terms with as it has repeatedly happened and is partially the reason I failed this project the first time around. I complicate and make my project difficult by attempting things that are way beyond my reach and experience. Now I'm understanding that I can do that once I've learnt the various skill sets that a quality film demands and when I have the money to make it possible. 

Having had many problems with my edit process already, I was glad that Fergus came to save the day. He was kind enough to give me a mini tutorial on final cut pro and how to make the most of this project. One of the key things he said was that the piece controlled me which, in this case is true. I didn't feel proud of the work, nor comfortable with it because I know the standard I'm aiming for. And this created a situation where I created a piece of work which doesn't match up to my work ethic at the studios. 

That said, he showed me ways to improve sound by adding effects, changing frequencies and shifting other components that make sound what it is. Which helped reduce the noise level and brought out the vocal of one of the characters. Due to the other being ill, I had to put subtitles as she can hardly be heard by me, let alone anyone else. in addition to the sound my visuals had slight problems as well. The white balance was odd and gave my clips a reddish tint which made it hard to see. I had previously changed it myself to what I saw fit, but then Fergus told me that there is more to colour correction than moving little dots around. I needed to know what I was doing and I didn't I just gave it a blue tint thinking it would cancel out the reds. Fergus then showed me with one of my clips how to colour correct monitoring the vector-scope and luma to know what needed correcting like blacks, and harsh highlights. 

The structure of the story was missing a few things. I started with a black screen over a voice over which consumed the first half minute. Simon reviewed my work and told me the start of the project needed some reworking. So I tried to find ways to fill up the space but with little coverage i found it difficult. I then thought perhaps a dream or premonition hinting towards what was coming which was a meeting with her doctor, so I did but then something still didn't feel right until adele gave me a helping hand with adding something that was missing in the beginning scene which was a sleeping shot as I went straight into the dream. 

Overall, I'm glad that in the mist of production mistakes I've made, and slight lack of belief for my work during the process; I managed to put this piece together. Last year I made a brutal mistake of not submitting because I was embarrassed by the quality of my work which cost me continuing on into the second year. But mistakes are made for a reason. I'm just happy I haven't made one so bad this time that can't be rectified. 

Forever in days (Production Process)

Production was difficult for me because I was basically a one-man team. My friend hardly had experience in camera work so the most she could do was hold things and help bring me things I needed for the shoot. I had to be on top of sound and visuals; and concentration on two things at a time can be difficult for me. The first hindrance was lack of cast. I had looked on casting call pro and received confirmation from my desired cast but as the day drew closer towards filming I was getting excuses that weren’t going to help me. My male character dropped out the project saying he had found a better opportunity that pays which I can’t be against him for. However it was rather inappropriate to leave it so late and not giving me enough time to execute a backup plan.

But difficulties and all, I managed to get my sister to take on the role of Dr. Whittaker, it may not be an accurate description of my character, but at least I had someone in place. My female character was ill which limited her performance of the role, but as stated earlier it was too late to make any more adjustments so I made do. I am grateful as she still went out of her way despite being very ill. In addition, due to the weather I wasn’t able to get much coverage because of the rain, I couldn’t let any damage happen to the camera. And bad planning also was a reason for little coverage for my film.

In addition, I found that after several camera sessions I was still having difficulty using the camera to it’s full potential, which shows I can show more interest and pay attention in the technical aspect of this course.  As there is no film without hard work on this part.

Overall, the production process had a lot of hiccups for me, which I now know to avoid.  Such as checking the forecast for suitable filming conditions, Planning shoot days way ahead of time to avoid time wastage and problems on the day. An on going solution to the quality of my work would be to research more into editing and filming and different tips and tricks that can help one to produce an artistic and meaningful piece of work. Websites I'm aware of are Phillip Blooms and Marvel's Film. 

Forever in Days - Tutorial and Feedback with Steve Coombes

(Unfortunately I couldn't find clip art with a male teacher lol)

Not too long ago, we were scheduled tutorials with Steve in which he gave us feedback about our scripts that he went back to read.

STORY & STRUCTURE  
 "In a sense, this is a Director's script. Full of nice and considered detail...However there are anomalies in both time and place." - S.C.

At first I was a little confused by his meaning but he went into detail stating that at times their speech was modern and estuary in nature and at other times it was as though the characters came from a gothic and dark Victorian world. An example of this in my script is when Dr.Whittaker says "It's donkeys", it doesn't flow nicely after use of proper english for example: "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news". Taking his advice I reviewed my dialogue and chose to stick with the Victorian gothic style as I felt it would be interesting to tell in that way. So instead of simple dialogue, everything is much more exaggerated and poetic. Allowing scenes and dialogue to flow nicely together.

ACTION & DIALOGUE
"Maryanne's dialogue is good and I particularly liked the voice in the voiceovers. But, I wasn't persuaded that character's who talk with the sweep of the opening and live in a world where waiters call you "madam", would say 'whatever' or be the subject of lines like 'coming right up.'
"Dr Whittaker speaks like he's just stepped out of a 19th century novel to discover a CT scan!" - S.C.

From the above statements it was clear my script needed some work. I needed to be clear and concise about what side I was on - victorian and gothic / simple and modern. As stated earlier I stuck with the first option. Besides changing dialogue, I had to change action as well i.e the parts of the script that give a visual guide as to what is happening. At times, I myself felt it didn't roll off the tongue quite right. There were parts of action I gave my utmost attention, and others I didn't pay much attention to at all; and when writing a script it's important that there is a balance in writing. Of course some scenes in a film will be more important/mind-blowing than others, but nonetheless each scene, action and even piece of dialogue must be well written. Even now I'm still in the process of making changes according to the feedback. Certain parts I have re-worked, others I have changed completely. It''l be interesting to hear thoughts on the final piece now that I'm more aware and confident in my piece.

Working and Learning from Steve Coombes was an essential experience. Being a professional in the industry himself meant he was able to guide us into the right direction with our projects.

"Nevertheless, an enjoyable piece of work which almost lives up to its lovely title: Forever in Days." - S.C.

Forever in Days - Pre Production (Characters and Cast)

Pre-Production is a process that entails preparing equipment, cast and other essentials for production of a film, play or series.

My pre-production process has involved most of these elements. Having finished my script and deciding to do my first two minutes, the first thing I did was search for ideal characters for my cast and locations to film in.

Maryanne: She is the central character of my film and all other characters and situations revolve around her. Given that she is terminally ill I need someone with a look gloomy enough to pull it off i.e her sad facial expressions, moody tones etc. However, she is also very poetic, and when she meets Jeremy the gloomy part of her fades away to reveal someone who is unlucky, innocent and inexperienced where love is concerned. I searched through actresses on casting call pro and was lucky enough to find some potential cast for Maryanne.

In the end I chose Marie Kemp (Middle) I felt she was the perfect fit. Her face has an innocence to it that I feel will evoke into the audience a sense of purity tainted by cancer. She also is in tune with the style of my film which according to Steve Coombes is Victorian and Gothic. Part of the pre production process is alerting the chosen cast of their roles and their lines. So,  I forwarded an updated version of my script following my tutorial with Steve.

Given that I am only doing the first two minutes of the film for assessment, Jeremy  won't be necessary. However I will be casting someone for his role later on as I wish to complete the entire film solely for my pleasure and portfolio.

In addition to Maryanne is Dr. Whittaker who will be in the opening two minutes. At first his character mainly did my dirty work which was to tell the audience that Maryanne was terminally ill. However, again, after my tutorial with Steve this changed. I decided to give a bit more to his character by including subtle tells and changing certain lines that were too obvious to the audience. Rather than hitting the audience straight away with an exact issue thus making it easy to determine the rest of the film; I left an air of mystery, allowing the viewer to decide for him/herself what would happen to Maryanne from this point. Below are potential cast I felt would suit the role in the end I chose Drew McGurren (middle).  He had previously played the role of a doctor and having seen his showreel I felt his delivery was exactly what I needed for this intense and dark piece.

Forever in days - Story Development

The following are new developments I intend to use when writing the script.

Character Summaries - more details about their character which will allow me to determine situations and events for the plot. I intend for both characters to be the complete opposite of the other as I feel this will work well for comedic purposes and also serve well to the change in both characters at the end. She is looking to break free from her demise while he is looking to put himself back together. Their respective journeys which will intertwine mid way will allow them to achieve their goals. 

Possible Locations

Tenterden town. I've chosen this area because it has this rural charm about it that I feel will work well for my story. My main character Mary Anne is quite the introvert and placing her in a wide and open space is one of the ways in which I intend to express that part of her personality. She and Jeremy come from two entirely different places and will find their answers where they least expected it. This location will be used for most of their dates/activities scenes. There are also a lot of lovely places that are great for sunset shots.

My Opening and closing scenes will take place in a more solar and open setting. I felt the white cliffs in dover/eastbourne would be good for the Voice over that will start the film. I intend for my character to be in the middle of all the emptiness to really captivate in viewers that feeling of abandonment or being left behind for another to peacefully move on.The open sky and sunlight will create the lens flare which will give the feel of another presence that isn't visible.

Below are some locations I have sourced online that I am hoping to use for this project. I took quite a while researching into this as I really want the story to be told visually rather than easily said.I feel the locations chosen will best represent my characters with a few props added here and there to make the characters even more relatable.

(Jeremy Scott's 'secret pad' in his aunt's garden)

I found this place online and instantly took a liking to it. It's fun, cosy and quirky like I intended for my character to be. This serves as a huge contradiction to where he is coming from and is a metaphor for the parts of him he is unwilling to accept until he meets Mary Anne. 

(Mary Anne's House)

I felt this was perfect because it was humble, Isolated and precise in its tones like MaryAnne. Homes reflect personality, flare and character. I want this to pertain to my story too. The house to me seems like a white canvas begging to be splashed with paint. It's bare and can still do with a little more colour. This can be seen as a metaphor for the excitement Mary Anne has been lacking most of her life until Jeremy.

StoryTelling Unit: The Meeting | Forever in Days

PITCH - Live every moment, love every minute. A tale of life and death and two souls caught in-between. 

MaryAnne and Jeremy share a love that sweeps them on an emotional journey through love, life and death. Living and Loving every moment they await their bittersweet end. 

Genre - Drama / Comedy 
Location - A village in the countryside - Home, Bedroom, Coffee Shop, Outside. 

Characters : 

Mary Anne - is a patient suffering from neuroblastoma cancer since the age of five. She lives with both parents in a cottage in the village. Given failure of various treatments over the years she has finally arrived at the end of her life With one month left to live. Her Illness robbed her of her happiness and stopped her from living a life that was ordinary and special in it's own way. Through discovering this tragic news Mary Anne Decides it's better to live in these last few days than to not have lived at all.

Jeremy Scott - A neighbour that has just moved into the residential area with his parents from a well populated and full of life city. He is eccentric, charming and spontaneous - Exactly what Mary Anne needs in her last few days. Through a first encounter he discovers she is very pessimistic and unbothered about life and takes it upon himself to help her find meaning in her life.

The Story Idea: 

Mary Anne is Twenty Two years Old and dying. Having been told she has a month left to live she sums up strength she's never had to live life fully in her last few days. Throughout the experience she learns more about life, death and a love which she never knew she could feel, allowing her to depart from loved ones and life itself peacefully.

Goal - To seek meaning in her life and do as much possible in her remaining days to avoid dying unhappy.

Problem - She falls ill before a major event with Jeremy causing concern and showing signs of her life quickly diminishing.

Change - She gains a strength she lacked most of her life and finally has found meaning in her existence. She has lived, loved and like we all must one day, died.

Storytelling Unit - What is a story?

''...A  story is first of all a chain of events that begins at one place and ends at another - without any essential interruption... ''

Other definitions of a story:

• A detailed description of a situation/event.
• Fiction/Non-fiction 
• Sequence
• Point of View/Perspective

What are the Ingredients of a story?

Theme >> Plot >> Story structure >> Characters >> Setting >> Style and Tone >> Goal, Change & Problem >> Climax

A theme is an important message the story is passing across to it's readers. It is effective it will touch an aspect of the reader's life in an emotional and thoughtful sense and in it's own small but sweet way help out in the lives of many.

The plot of a story can be considered as the detailed ins and outs of the journey that starts with the main character at the beginning and draws to a close at the end. The plot will consist mainly of conflict against other characters or a personal struggle. Throughout this journey, the character will grow and learn many things alongside the audience. This little piece of wisdom the character will earn when it is most vital can also be recognised as the over all theme of the film.

Story structure is all the methods used to piece all the ingredients together. Is the story in present tense or past tense? Does the use of first person narrative sell the story more? or does third person narrative allow your readers dig deeper into the characters as though to play God? Will the story be told in the eyes of one character or all characters? The choices made here will determine the outcome of the story.

Characters are who the stories are all about. Perhaps the main character who could be either an antagonist - the villain of the story, or the protagonist - the hero or main person of the story, has an obstacle to overcome, a goal to achieve or both. The build up of a character depends on your creative capacity as a writer somewhere between safe and spontaneous is always good it adds to the element of surprise in a story. A perfect character rarely ever works well in fiction, most times they have a flaw or weakness they overcome by the end.

Stories should be set in places and times that will be interesting or familiar. This contributes a lot to context - these are other events or issues that frame/influence the meaning of the story given that they happened during the same period of time.

Style and Tone are important when writing. If it's an intense drama some use of emotive language should be in effect to really capture the hearts of avid readers, if it's a thriller an in-depth but ambiguous telling of opinions might be a good way to show deception and lack of truth or confusion amongst characters. Plain or complex language can be used depending on the nature of the story and its characters. 

Goal, Problem and Change these are the various challenges the characters will face throughout the course of the story. Reflection of real life issues in narrative is a good way to draw in an audience as it is easy to relate to and understand. 

The Meeting | Coming up with ideas: The art of lying

Story Idea –

Two former schoolmates, “THE DICK” and “SNOOZY LUCY” who hardly knew each other back in the day, have an encounter in which they discover a whole lot more about each other. A friendship is developed through which Lucy discovers there is much more to Tom than his wicked ways in high school and that he is capable of much more than he believes.  Over time Feelings are developed which lead to the prospect of a relationship however Tom has built this friendship partly on lies. After a heated argument they both realise they’re better with that without each other.

Genre – Romantic Comedy

Title –  Jock and the geek?????

Character (The Artist) – Lucy Whittle: (Snoozy Lucy)

Appearance description –

·      Shoulder length and super curly brunette hair

·      Hazel brown eyes

·      Full heart shaped lips

·      Bushy but neat eyebrows and fluttery lashes with a pair of fully prescribed glasses

·      Warm but porcelain skin with rosy cheeks

·      5’4’ in height, slim in figure

·      Baggy and simple sense of style

Personality description – Shy, cute, innocent, introvert

Character (The Plumber)  - Tom Jeffries (THE DICK)

Appearance description –

·      Clean cut brunette hair (shaggy and spiked)

·      Warm brown eyes

·      Straight cut jawline, good dentition.

·      Straight brows

·      Bronzed skin

·      Tall 6’2’ with nice abs

·      Big strong hands and biceps

·      Conventional plumber look – white tee, tattered trainers, ripped old looking jeans.

·      Mini white van.

Personality – spontaneous, funny, charming, witty, charismatic, Vulnerable (Within himself/ no one else knows his insecurities.)

Cross Cut between shots of both characters

Both getting ready to head out, Shower, Hair, make up etc.? Grabbing a pair of shoes, looking at phone messages and the time to be sure they’re punctual. Walking across the hallway to approach the front door. Very different surroundings in both houses however artistic in their own respect.

StoryTelling Unit - SOFT 25 word pitch

PLOT: Written and Directed by Simon Ellis, Soft is the tale of a fragmented relationship between father and son when confronted by a group of rebellious teens in the comfort of their own home.

We had previously watched the film in a lecture and explored the themes expressed in the film and how well they were captured visually. Having done so, we were asked to go back and re-watch the film and create a 25 word pitch that would best describe/sell the film.

* A father and son relationship is tested when confronted by a group of angry teenagers.

* A modern society drama sees through the deterioration of a father and son's relationship when both    are made victims of teenage violence.

* A son stands in confidence when his father is tested by a group of ill mannered teens.