Reggae Sounds

This is the selection of fast tempo songs for the drinking scene,

The first one is 'Chase The Devil' by Max Romeo, This song is very reggae and talks about catching satan which could be used as a metaphor for the weed therefore it could match the scene very well.

The second one is 'So Much Trouble In The World' by Bob Marley, This song is also very reggae and talks about so much trouble in the world which is portrayed in the film as he is smoking illegal drugs and ends up committing a murder therefore it fits very well.

Fast tempo Sounds

This is the selection of fast tempo songs for the drinking scene,

The first one is 'Shots' by LMFAO, This song is fast tempo and the beat could match the editing of the shots and it's also about drinking so is relevant to the scene itself.
 

The second one is 'Drinking from the bottle' by Calvin Harris and Tinie Tempah, This song is like the one above, it has a fast tempo and is about drinking therefore it fits the scene perfectly.
 

The third song i've chosen is 'Kids' by MGMT, This is because it has a fast tempo but it's not so fast that it will make it to hard to edit against, It's not like the others as being about drinking itself however it would fit the scene very well.
 

Sound

As I am in charge of sound I am starting to look at sounds that could be included within our Short film, after looking at how our film is going to look, I have decided to get a few different sounds, such as some fast tempo music for the drinking scene, Some slower tempo music with some strings involved for after the protagonist has smoked the drugs and is in the state were he does not know whats going on, I am also going to look at a possible inclusion of some reggae music for whilst he is actually smoking the drugs.

Props List

Living Room:

• Sofa
• Cushions
• Coffee Table
• Beer cans
• Beer bottles
• Side Table
• joint (Cig roll)

Kitchen:

• Fridge
• post-it notes
• toaster
• bottle opener
• Knife

Hallway:

• Mirror
• bowl
• Chest of drawers
• screw driver
• brief case

Bedroom:

• Bed
• chest of drawers
• screw driver
• Knife

Shooting Schedule

Shooting date: 17/11/2013

Time schedule

12 till 1.30 pm:

Shooting of the kitchen scene.

• Depicting Billy Hash taking bottles out of the fridge.
• Also the shooting of him disorientated in the kitchen.

1.30 till 3.30pm:

Shooting of the Living room scene.

• Depicting Billy drinking bottles and cans of alcohol.
• We will also be shooting him smoking
• Lastly we will film Billy waking up stumbling around the house.

3.30 till 5pm:

Shooting of hallway scene.

• Shooting of billy stumbling through the hallway towards the door.
• filming of billy seeing his reflection in the mirror.
• Stacey walking through the door.

5 till 6pm

Shooting of bedroom scene.

• Billy waking up in bed
• Shot of the screwdriver

6 till 7pm

Refining of Shots.

UPDATE:

We managed to film all of the shots except from the bottle sequence and are now in the editing stages as I am the main cinematographer, I filmed the majority of the film and as Holly is the main editor she will do the majority of the editing so therefore I have to get the bottle sequence filmed so Holly can produce a first draft of our film.

Character Profiles

Characters:

Billy Hash (Played by Lewis O'Loughlin)

Age- 20

Occupation- Accountant

Appearance- Billy Hash has Blonde hair, Blue eyes, and is 6'3 tall.

Location- Hessle

( We have Chosen Lewis to play the role of Billy Hash because he has previous experience with acting and is able to play a variety of different roles.

Stacey (Played by Holly Huzzard)

Age- 19

Occupation- Waitress

Appearance- Stacey has Auburn hair, Hazel eyes, and 5'5 tall.

Location- Hessle

Screenplay (Adam)

Walking through the back door, Billy Hash finishes his conversation with his friend on the phone.

Billy

“Yeah just let yourself in when you get here Stacey.”

Billy laughs at Stacey

“See you later!”

Billy proceeds to put his suitcase on the side, he goes into the fridge and gets himself a beer, he goes to the draws and gets the bottle opener out, opens his beer and goes towards the living room, once he’s entered he collapses back into the sofa and lets out a huge sigh of relief.

Billy

“Finally!” (in a relieved fashion)

Billy sits there watching the TV and having several more beers, after each one he’s looking at his watch more and more in anticipation of his friend coming over, in the end he decides it’s taking too long and he goes up the stairs to his bedroom where he pulls out a tin from underneath his bed, he pulls open the tin and inside is Billy’s drugs, he takes the tin downstairs, he pulls out some of his papers and puts a pinch of  the drugs on the paper and rolls it, he lights it up and smokes away. Due to Billy smoking all his half of the drugs and his friend being late he decides to finish the drugs off. After all the drink and drugs that Billy has had he falls asleep on the sofa, after half an hour or so, Billy hears the door open which wakes him, still in a drug fuelled state Billy’s vision is blurry and distorted, he sees a figure but can’t make out what it is, he thinks it is someone invading his home so he shouts at the figure however can’t really make words out because of the state he’s in.

Billy

“Get out of here! Go Away!” (Mumbling loudly)

Billy is getting increasingly threatened and very annoyed, he hears the figure talk however it’s in a menacing low pitch voice and he cannot understand.

Figure (Stacey)

“It’s me Billy! I brought you this back.” (In a monotone hard to understand voice)

Stacey goes to hands over the screw driver that she borrowed off Billy, Billy thinks that she is attacking him and grabs a knife from the top of the kitchen side.

 

Figure (Stacey)

“Billy! Billy what are you doing!?” (In a monotone hard to understand voice)

Billy

“Get away from me!” (Shouting)

In a swift motion Billy takes the knife he is holding and stabs Stacey in the stomach.

Figure (Stacey)

“…*Cough/splutter*” (Gasping for air)

Billy has no idea what’s happening and blacks out. He wakes up in the morning in his bedroom; he wonders about what a crazy dream he had the previous night.

Billy

“What a crazy dream!”

As he sits up the blood soaked knife which he used to kill his friend who’s blood soaked corpse still lays downstairs is on the floor of his bedroom, the camera focuses on the knife as Billy blurs out in the background.

Scene.

Examplar Candidate J - Welsh Board

Cinematography	Mise En Scene
The use of the handheld camera Close ups – intensity	House undergoing construction, good setting
Sound	Editing
Bad audio when talking into handheld camera From too quiet to, to loud Song is irrelevant	Bad transitions of shots, TV break up Non – diegetic material misspelt “1 Hours later”
Macro comments – Horror genre	_______________________________________
Grade/Level & Feedback Level 3 lower - Good setting for ending (House) - Bad audio and sound - Non diegetic material needs spelling correctly	________________________________________

Again due to my partner not being there I had to take all the notes so there aren't as many as there could have been.

Examplar candidate C - Welsh Board

Cinematography	Mise En Scene
Close ups - Intense	Face painted, creepy Knife – weapon used Bedroom poorly decorated for film
Sound	Editing
Music matched genre Childs voice, Horror convention Church organ - eerie	Short snappy cuts Black + white compliments eerie nature
Macro comments – Horror genre	_______________________________________
Grade/Level & Feedback Level 4 - Some very good shots E.g. the girl praying - Editing short and snappy and very well done - Could have done with more of a narrative	________________________________________

There isn't a lot of information as I was supposed to be in a pair and we would both focus on two aspects, however my pair did not turn up so I had to do all four aspects in just two screenings.

Title of our Film

We have decided that we will call our film "Hash", this is because it is the surname of our main character and it is also a nickname for weed which is the drug which causes all the trouble for Billy during the film.

This is what our title will look like as it shows it very distorted and this is what is the theme throughout our film as within the film it shows the main character feeling very distorted and the title really compliments this.

A look at a previous students short film

In order to get an idea of what to do with my short film I am looking at a previous wyke students short film, Riley Wong, I am looking at Riley's as I have seen it before and thoroughly enjoyed it and he also got a very good grade. I am watching his film 'Avarice' and seeing how many shots are in each scene as although my film will have more of a dark side to it, I believe the structure of Riley's film matches mine well.
 

In the opening scene of Riley's film, it starts off very slowly as the opening scene lasts 1 minute 55 seconds and within this time period there are only 23 shots that take place. This means each shot lasts on average 5 seconds which is a long time for a single shot, this allows us as the audience to get into the film slowly and not rush straight into the main angle of the film.

The second scene has a much faster pace to it as the 1 minute and 13 seconds that it is on the screen for, it has 28 shots, so in a shorter time period it has an extra 5 shots, this means each shot is on the screen for an average of 2.6 seconds, this means the pace has just about doubled as it is showing you the item that is going to be the main body of the film and showing you that this item will lead to the climax.

The third scene is incredibly fast, I counted 32 shots in a time period of 38 seconds and i'm not sure whether I may have missed a couple of shots so it could have been more, this means however that each shot was on the screen on average for 1.2 seconds, this again has doubled in pace from the last scene, Riley has done this to show that the jar doubling her money has gone to her head and she is rushing into stupid decisions.

The fourth and final scene returns back to a slower pace as it has 15 shots in 47 seconds that means each shots last on average 3.1 seconds, this is to show that her power has stopped and the jar has taken away her priveledge as she has become greedy.

The narrative theory for our film

We are using the Narrative theory by syd field.

 

This is because each of the points within the structure match incidents within our film, The inciting incident would be the protagonist coming home from work after a busy week, the plot point 1 will be the protagonist deciding to have a few beers, the pinch 1  will be finishing the beers and deciding to do drugs, the midpoint would be actually doing the drugs, the pinch 2 would be the friend coming round and disturbing the protagonist, plot point 2 would be the protagonist actually killing his friend, and finally the climax would be the protagonist finding out that what he'd done wasn't a dream and deciding what he should do.

Storyboard

Synopsis (Adam)

After a hard day’s work, Billy Hash decides to unwind the only way he knows how. After a couple of ice cold beers, Billy decides to get out his weed, after a large amount compared to what he usually would do, Billy becomes completely different due to the overdose and when a friend pops by to see how he’s doing, everything turns a bit sour, with the state that Billy’s in the worst happens, Billy is threatened and kills his friend, after passing out due to the amount of drugs taken by Billy, he wakes up thinking that he had dreamed everything from what had happened the previous night, this is until he goes into his kitchen and sees a blood soaked knife on the table, he knows straightaway that something bad has happened, he looks in the next room and his worst fears are confirmed to him, he hadn’t dreamt a thing and it was all real. Billy is feeling all sorts of emotions, sadness, regret, guilt and with all these emotions running through his head he doesn’t know whether to hide the body, just leave everything and run away or turn himself into the police. With all these ideas running through his head at such an intense time who knows what he will do?

Moodboard

this moodboard features all the aspects of mise en scene that will be included in my short film. by creating this it allows me to plan ahead and learn what we need to include to create verisimilitude within the film.
as the key theme to the short film is drug and alcohol abuse, i have featured a large amount of images that show scruffy clothes, smoke, messy rooms, alcohol and young adults as these are some of the stereotypes for the life of someone resorting to drugs.
i have also included some images that a slightly blurred, half way through the film, our character, Bill Hash, begins to hallucinate and struggles to see the difference between reality and his imagination. this also represents the effects that can be caused by schizephrinia, a mental disorder that can develop over time.

Codes and conventions essay 1st draft

For the short film that I and Holly Huzzard will be working on we have decided that we want our story to be a dramatic one with a crime/mysterious tweak to it too. In order to do this we will have to look at the codes and conventions of these particular types of films and apply them to our own, we must choose relevant ones though as if it doesn’t apply to our film than we will not be able to add it in. Some of the codes and conventions of drams include; One very significant convention of a drama film is that it shows the emotions of the characters at the very highest point and also at the lowest, this will apply to our film about a man who is addicted to drugs as we can show that he is only happy whilst taking the drugs and just how low and horrible his life and emotions can be when he waiting for the next hit. Another main convention is that the story line has to be something that can be relatable and real. Using this convention is how we got the idea of using a drug addict as many people are addicted to drugs and talk about how it only takes one time to become addicted therefore it makes out that this one person who is suffering from this awful drug filled life could be anyone and this will get the audience feeling the emotions too. In a drama the protagonist is usually unstable or vulnerable and in our film our main character is certainly unstable. As it is a drug addict he will be very anxious and on edge with the smallest of things being enough to flip him because of the addiction that he has got. Drama films are often used to portray a message about the society which we live in, it gives across a message in an entertaining world and through the use of mass media the message can be viewed in the masses helping to spread the message of the film. This shows in our film as there is a lot of publicity on teens doing drugs in this day and age and this is shown in a bad light so we are taking this and using this idea for our film. A sub-genre of the Drama genre is a Crime Drama which is what we will be doing were the films main theme is Good Versus Evil, in the film the protagonist often wins, however in ours it is Evil that wins. This is because the protagonist is the good guy and the drugs portray the bad guy and the drugs lead our protagonist to killing someone which makes him eventually kill himself.

There are other sub sections of dramas which if our idea changes however we still want to do a drama we could look at Teen dramas, these are often focused on teen pregnancy such as the film Juno who used the topic of teen drama to also include a comical side to it, making the issue of teen pregnancy somewhat not as serious but was done to show how common or typical teen pregnancy has become. Such as previously mentioned with Juno there could be a comical drama, these are usually very light-hearted and the drama tends to be not as intense, the moment is usually ruined by awkwardness rather than passion when it comes to a comical drama.

Another example of a sub-genre of the Drama genre would be a Romantic Drama were by love within the film is complicated because the two main protagonists have difficulties in been together for example family disapproval. An example of the Romantic Drama would be Titanic were Rose and Jack fall in love aboard the Titanic and the first problem they encounter is that Rose is from a wealthy background were as Jack is from a poor working class background, another problem is that Rose is due to be married therefore hindering the romance between the couple.

There are many different codes and conventions for us to use in our current idea and there are also many different ideas for us to explore as we have many different sub-genres of drama to look at, the codes and conventions of all these sub-genres however make it easier for us to fit our film into the specific genre of our choice and with these guidelines to follow we can construct our film perfectly so that it can be just as well thought out as any films that are created professionally. These conventions will also help when it comes to selecting our mise-en-scene and completing our editing as it will allow us to make sure that it fits in with other films within that genre and look professional.

Genre

We have decided that we will be doing the drama genre, this is because dramas can be very powerful if done right and this is what we want to achieve, through the codes and conventions of drama which can  be seen in a later post, we are hoping that we can get across the real dangers of drugs in a powerful and off putting way.

Setting

This is the setting of our short film, it is my house, We chose this because with the protagonist being male, we need a male persons bedroom and scenery to make sure that the mise-en-scene is correct. Therefore out of mine and Hollys, the choice was pretty easy.

Some pictures of the rooms we will be shooting the film in.

 This is where Billy will wake up in the final shot.

 This hallway could be used when Billy looks in the mirror and thinks he is smashed but it's treally the mirror.

 This could be the room Billy sits in when he gets drunk and stoned.

The same room at a different angle.

 Again at a different angle.

 This is where Billy will walk in at the beginning of the film.

 This is the kitchen we will see Billy walk through to get his beers and go to the sitting room.

 Another angle.

 The fridge where the note will be placed and where Billy gets his beers from.

Another possible sitting room for the drinking and smoking scenes. 

Another angle of the possible sitting room.

 

Character types

Seen as though we only have two characters within our film, we decided that the best character types theory to use would be Goffman's, this is because we have our main character, Billy Hash, who is the protagonist and then we have his friend who later gets murdered and they will be the deuteragonist.

Aims and Context

 I will be aiming my film at 15-24 Males/Feamles, this is because these people are the ones that will be most tempted by drugs and this film may help put them off when they see what can happen when they take drugs.

Our aim is to bring the bad effects of drugs across in the cinematography and editing whilst keeping the dialogue to a minimal. This will make the film more effective as seeing it is much more pwerful than hearing it.

My main focus within the film is to be the cinematographer as I will be doing 75% of that work and so Holly can still get some experience with the camera she'll do the other 25%, this is the opposite way of the editing, Holly will be doing 75% and I will do the other 25% again so I can experience editing a piece. The mise-en-scene and sound will be split 50-50 as we feel we're both as capable as each other at making sure we use these features correctly.

Initial Ideas

Some ideas which me and Holly have come up with is to have our short film fall under the drama genre; The ideas for our film are:

Someone who suffers from OCD tries to fight the disorder which sends them crazy and ends up in suicide.

Another idea is to have a drug addict takes a high dose and starts hallucinating in which he ends up murdering someone however he wakes up thinking nothing is wrong and that it was all a dream and finds out that it was real.

A mental patient suffering from split personalities sets out to find the person that is torturing his life to find out it is himself and ends in suicide.

We have decided that we are going to go ahead with the second idea so we are working on this idea of the drug addict who commits a murder whilst hallucinating.

Pair work!

I will be working with Holly Huzzard in order to produce a short film for my coursework, we will be splitting the pre production work along with the filming and the editing, finally we will also split the post production work.