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.