Shot List! Josh and Charlotte

1 - Establishing. Fade from white into macro close up shot of grass in the field, seeing the female protagonist, walking, out of focus in the background - 5 seconds
2 - CU of the girl's feet - 3 seconds
3 - MCU of her midriff and her dress flapping - 4 seconds
4 - MCU of the backs of her legs as she strolls - 3 seconds
5 - CU of her hands running through the tall grass - 2 seconds
6 - OTS of her walking through the field - 2 seconds
7 - MS of her front on; she starts looking down, and then looks directly at the camera and smiles - 4 seconds
8 - LS of her acting coy, maybe laughing/smiling and running her hands through the grass - 10 seconds
9 - OTS of the girl, who then turns around and looks at the camera. The shot ends with a CU of her face - 6 seconds
10 - Graphic match. CU of male protagonist waking up in bed. 3 seconds
11 - ELS of the boy in the bed, who groans and hits the alarm clock off his bed - 5 seconds
12 - ECU and match on action - camera situated on the floor and the alarm clock lands in front of it - 2 seconds
13 - MS of him rubbing his face and starting to get out of bed - 3 seconds
14 - Start of title sequence - CU shot of his feet landing on the floor next to clock, he steps over it and walks out - 3 seconds
15 - MS of his face as he urinates in the morning - 10 seconds
16 - LS of him walking out of the bathroom and walking into the door 'You shitting door!' - 5 seconds
17 - MS of him getting dressed, does his buttons up wrong, looks down and groans, starts undoing them - 4 seconds
18 - MS of him putting cereal in a bowl, grabs milk - 4 seconds
19- ECU of him trying to remove milk lid -5 seconds
20- MS of him pouring milk all over himself - 'FUU...' - 2 seconds
21-  LS of him eating the cereal, looking glum, milk down his shirt - 5 seconds
22 - MS of him dressing again - 5 seconds
23 -LS of him flopping on the sofa with snacks; he finds the remote and turns on the TV - 5 seconds
24 - CU of TV - some ubiquitous daytime television show, he shouts at the TV - 3 seconds
25 - MS of him lying down. He opens a bag of crisps and starts lazily shoving them in his mouth, maybe he drops some on his chest which he eats later - 10 seconds
26 - CU of him doing something weird with a cheese puff, like licking off the flavouring - 2 seconds
27 - MS of his eyes drooping, he eventually shuts them - 4 seconds
28 - CU of the crisps falling out of his hand, which follows, and hangs there - 3 seconds
29 - Fade to white and then fade into shot of white bedsheets - 2 seconds
SLOW MOTION DREAM SEQUENCE
30 - Pan up to his face in his bed, CU shot, eyes closed, smiley - 12 seconds
31 - POV shot - girl is standing by the glass doors, having a cigarette wearing his shirt, she looks round slowly and smiles at him - 12 seconds
32 - Back to CU of his face smiling in bed, he chuckles - 5 seconds
33 - ML shot of her throwing her cigarette out the doors and walking back in, she clambers on to the bed and smiles - 10 seconds
34 - Side on MS of the bed, tracking the girl as she makes her way up the bed, she gets just close enough to kiss him and we cut back to reality - 10 seconds
35 - CU of his face. Him waking up on the sofa, breathing heavily and disorientated - 4 seconds
36 -  MS of him looking in the mirror, serious, determined, flattens down his hair and clothes - 5 seconds
37 - CU shot of him writing on his calender - 'TODAY IS THE DAY' or something similar - 5 seconds.
CUE MONTAGE SEQUENCE
38.MS him at the sink splashing his face - 1 second
39. CU him shaving foam application - 1 second
40. CU him shaving one side of face - 1 second
41. CU him shaving other side of face -  1 second
42. CU him shaving more face - 1 second
43. CU toweling face - 2 seconds
44. CU putting card on table - 1 second
45. CU putting glitter on table - 1 second
46. CU putting glue on table - 1 second
47. CU putting glue on card - 1 second
48. CU of his face, concentrating - 1 second
49. CU kisses the card - 1 second
50 - CU sprays aftershave on it - 1 second
51 - MS stands the card on a table - 1 second
52 - OTS typing - 2 seconds
53 - ECU on girl's location - 1 second
54 - CU writes her address on a piece of paper - 2 seconds
55 - MS gets up from chair - 1 second
56 - MS of him pouring vodka - 1 second
57 - CU of him shotting vodka - 1 second
58 - CU of his grimace - 1 second
59 - LS him running out the back door - 2 seconds
60 - MS him approaching a bush - 1 second
61 - CU of him picking flowers - 1 second
62 - another CU of him picking flowers - 1 second
63 - CU of him placing bunch of flowers on a table - 1 second
64 - CU of him grinning - 1 second
65 - Another CU of shotting vodka - 1 second
66 - Looking in mirror, psyching himself up, breathing deeply again - 5 seconds
67 - LS of him leaving his house - 1 second
68 - CU of his feet stamping down the road - 4 seconds
69 - CU of his face, determined - 4 seconds
70 - Tracking MS of his legs running - 4 seconds
71 - Panning LS of him running - 3 seconds
72 - ELS him approaching her door- 6 seconds
73 - ECU him pressing doorbell - 1 second
73 - CU of his face at the door, breathing heavily, panicking - 5 seconds
74 - ECU of him panicking even more - 3 seconds
75 - ECU of his eyes panicking - 2 seconds
75- ELS we see him run away from the door - 5 seconds
76 - MS of door, girl opens it, takes flowers and card, confused, looks around goes inside - 10 seconds

FADE TO BLACK

Overall, this added up to about 4 and a half minutes. This gives us a bit of breathing space to make some adjustments to shot length when we come to filming.

Montages - Josh and Charlotte

The first 20 seconds is a great example of a montage used to build pace, through quick cuts and zooming. This is the same kind of effect we are looking to achieve in our own montage, in which the protagonist of our film gets ready to go and meet the girl he is infatuated with

This sequence from Rocky IV is another example of a montage that also uses quick cuts which we'd like to take inspiration from for our montage.

Film plot idea - Charlotte and Josh

Our film will open with a dream sequence involving our female character dancing in a field. We will use high key lighting mostly from behind as well as a soft focus; the shots will be vivid in colour to emphasise the dreamlike quality of the sequence. This character then walks up to the camera, there is a close up shot of her face which then cuts to a close up shot of the male protaganists face whilst he is lying in bed (graphic match).

 His alarm clock is beeping and then we cut to a wide shot of his whole room - there are photos of the girl in the dream all over his walls, suggesting he is infatuated with her and has been this way for a while.

We then start the title sequence with shows our protaganist getting ready for the day - eating breakfast, getting dressed etc -  we want to show this as the mundane routine that it is for him, which we will do through using dull colours and prolonged shots -  we also want small things to go wrong for him through this sequence to show his life at its lowest, for instance spilling his milk at breakfast, doing his buttons up wrong etc. We want to have bossanova jazz as a soundtrack to this scene to give a contrapuntal effect.

We then carry on to see him lying on the sofa watching Jeremy Kyle or some other daytime television, implying that he is unemployed and isn't doing much with his life. We'd like to have an answerphone message in the backround from his mother asking where he is and why he hasn't called in a week, to show the audience that he has been housebound for some time, implying something is wrong.

As he is lying on the sofa he drifts off again into another dream sequence, showing the female protagonist again but this time in his bedroom, with him also in the dream too - she is coming towards him as he lay in bed which the audience sees from his point of view, and we see them almost kiss before he wakes up again, with another shot of him lying on the sofa. This dream obviously had more of an effect on him than the previous dreams, as he is actually involved with the girl this time.

Upon waking up, he has an epiphany and decides to try and win her heart. A montage sequence follows, with the aim to transform the protagonist from a dishevelled, depressed loser into a man worthy of the object of his affections. We will implement fast cuts and perhaps zooms, along with a non-diegetic soundtrack, with the following shots:

• Washing and shaving
• Making a card
• Looking up where she lives
• Shot of vodka
• Kissing the card and spraying aftershave on it
• Picking flowers from the garden
• Looking in the mirror and psyching himself up, breathing deeply
• Leaving his house and running down the street

Once he gets to her house, he knocks on the door but chickens out, dropping the flowers and card and running off. The girl then answers the door, picks up the card and flowers and looking down the street to see the male protagonist running away, arms flailing, tripping on the cobblestones. She then goes back inside and the last shot is of her doorstep before fading to blackout.

'High Fidelity' - Josh

The central character in High Fidelity (Frears, 2000) is Rob, a lovelorn record store owner, whose persistent melancholy and attachment to a girl (in this case his ex-girlfriend) can be paralleled in our own film with our own central character. In addition, he lives on his own in a shabby apartment - as shown in the third screenshot - a very 'male' setting which is conveyed through the messy, cluttered state of his flat, the beer cans and the drab decor of the place. Having the protagonist in mine and Charlotte's film live in a setting such as this would be beneficial, and highlight how downbeat he is without the object of his affections in his life.

'Fight Club' - Josh

This short clip from the opening of 'Fight Club' (Fincher, 1999) has an aesthetic which I would like to try and implement in our film. The shallow depth of field used in the extreme close-up of the coffee cup would give our piece a pleasing visual style. Also, the focus on individual objects is something which I think would work well in the sequences involving our male protagonist in his home; close-ups on his alarm clock, a pile of clothes, a picture on his wall etc. would give the audience an insight into his character.

 The dull, washed-out colour used in this part of the film is something which me and Charlotte have touched on before, although we will probably not be able to re-create an office scene such as the one seen below. This is a shame as, even in this 19-second clip, the oppressive monotony of the setting is obvious and very effective.

Film Research - Charlotte

Another film I have been looking at simply because of its visual beauty is Bright Star, a period drama from 2009. We want to take inspiration particularly from the sequences in the garden of this film;

these frames in particular look aesthetically pleasing and use high key back lighting and great use of colour which we want to take inspiration from for our short film.

Obviously, this sort of filming will be challenging in January - but hopefully, with good timing and lighting we can overcome this!

'Maybe One Day' - Josh

'Maybe One Day' is a short film, just under 5 minutes, following one man casting off the shackles of his daily routine and choosing to live vicariously, spending a day in the countryside and then travelling to a beach. The first half of the piece is what me and Charlotte are most interested in, seeing as we are looking to create a monotonous, humdrum setting for our male protagonist to inhabit. We are going to contrast this with the fanciful dream sequences that he experiences.
  

 

The familiar setting here - a commuter on a train - will create a dull mood, which will be emphasised  by the main character's disinterested facial expressions and body language. We want to give the impression that our protagonist leads a mundane, lonely existence, and mise en scene will play an important role in doing so.

Film Research - Charlotte

Another film that we have taken inspiration from is The Lovely Bones - in particular the scene of Susie running through a field which is meant to represent 'a perfect world' - to show this they have made the colours very saturated and bright, almost neon, and the lighting is again high key to give a dreamy atmosphere to the filming. The following is a fan video, so the soundtrack and editing differ from the actual film - but you can get an idea of the shot styles and colour and lighting that we want to try and achieve in our film.

Film Research - Charlotte

Another film from which we'd like to take inspiration is American Beauty as it follows a lot of the same themes of our short film - infatuation, obsession, and also involves dream sequences that we can use to help us develop our ideas for our dream sequences that occur throughout our film. This scene of American Beauty in particular is very inspiring;

The symbolism of the rose petals I think is particularly beautiful, and the shots of them falling on him in bed is inspiring to us and the development of our film - all of it is in his imagination, which is what we want to make obvious in our film.

Obviously the mise en scene of the first shot is particularly challenging, but we can include some elements of this sequence in our film (eg the colours and lighting) and use it as inspiration. I really like how this scene is in slow motion, as it gives a really strange, surreal feeling to the film - we could use this technique in our dream sequences to make them seem more bizarre.

Film Research - Charlotte

I have decided to research films and short films to find inspiration for our 'dream' sequences in our short film, whilst Josh is researching the 'reality' scenes.

'The Virgin Suicides' is a full length film from 1999. We want to take inspiration from the scene below, which interested our group as it involves a lot of the same sort of shot types we want to include in our 'fantasy' scenes  of the girl meandering around the field, with warm, bright colours and high key lighting.

We found the following shots in particular to be very warm and beautiful, which is exactly the mood we want to create with our 'dream' sequences. They need to completely contrast to the drab, dull shots of his everyday life.

 What is also interesting about this sequence is how some film is super-imposed on top of other footage, creating a collage of different images; we first have the girl in the field, her sisters, then images of horses, her diary, and the boys reading her diary. We'd like to experiment with this sort of film work whilst editing our film and see what sort of different effects we can achieve - normally in dreams different thoughts and ideas are appearing all the time, which is what this super imposing will reflect.

'Sign Language' and 'Signs' - Josh

'Sign Language' and 'Signs' are two short films we watched in class, 3 and 12 minutes in length respectively. The romance element between the male protagonist and a female character particularly interested our group, as this is what we are going to base our own project around. In 'Signs' and our own film, the main character is observed going through his daily routine, e.g. waking up, getting dressed and eating breakfast. The opening overhead shot of the former is something we want to replicate in our film, although in a close-up rather than a mid-shot.

The drab colour palette is another aspect that we thought would work well, as well as the below shot showing the protagonist eating his breakfast. The initial mundanity of the character's life is captured here by the aforementioned dull colour present, his forlorn facial expression and apathetic body language, aspects of mise en scene which would aid the characterisation in our piece.

First ideas for short film - Charlotte and Josh

For our short film we want to mix two genres - experimental and social realism, as we feel this would make our film interesting and unique.
The general story of the film is a teenage boy that is infatuated with a girl his age - so much so he has photos of her all over his walls and is only really happy when he is dreaming about her. We want to include several 'dream' sequences throughout our film showing the boys secret thoughts and fantasies about the girl.

We want our film to open with a dream sequence of the girl in an ethereal setting, with soft-focus, perhaps dancing and spinning in a field with high key lighting to emphasise the ambient dreamy quality, the advert below gives an idea of what we are going to try and achieve;

The scene then cuts to the boy lying in bed, clearly showing that these scenes are just figments of his imagination. We want the rest of the film to be quite drab in colour and mise en scene to contrast greatly to the colourful, dreamy aesthetics of the sequences in his mind, to show his happiness when he is thinking of her compared to the boring life he lives in reality. The video below of the successful short film 'Black Hole' shows the drab, boring quality we will be trying to portray;

Review of last year's work - Josh

Overall, I am pleased with the work we produced last year. We were committed to the project and enjoyed making it, our hard work netting us the 'Best AS Media Film Overall' award at the Mafias! There are certain things that could have been improved though, and I will attempt to apply what I learnt during this year's work. I felt the picture quality of our shots was sub-par, especially in relation to other films by our peers that we saw. Getting to know the camera better and becoming more familiar with using it would help address this in my new group. I think a more professional aesthetic in general is needed, and experimenting with different shots/angles/subjects/editing techniques should aid this. Recording more takes of shots would also be a good idea, as well as having a clear idea what we are going to shoot before we begin the process; a detailed storyboard would help with this. I felt our blog was of a good standard, although posting more during the planning and research stage would benefit the group. I am looking forward to working with less restrictions and getting a chance to be more creative, something which I think will suit me and Charlotte. Conforming to thriller conventions and a 2-minute time limit last year was helpful in that we knew more or less what we were doing, whereas this year, we have more freedom in what we produce.