STORY BOARDS

Progression on 'Cast Off' short film production

For our short film, we hadn't really decided on a title. We wanted a name which would link with the storyline and the plot as well as the main characters.
So we looked into the semantic feilds of words like disposal, rejection, outcast.
In the end, we all decided on 'Cast off' as these two words together create alot of connotations such as to reject or discard.
The title also links to the storyline as its like the family of the bride are casting her off to another family and discarding what used to be her life.

So far, we have completed the script, and the storyboards as well as the production schedule and risk assessment.

We also decided to shoot our entire film at one location, which is the wedding venue, as its more convenient for us as the camera crew as well as being more convenient for the actors involved as we are all Leyton college students and the venue is very local.
This should not create any problems for us while shooting and editing as the scenes we need are outside the venue, inside the venue and two rooms (One room being the brides bedroom at her house and another room being the in-laws house). Obviously issues can be arised with wedding venues as they are very busy and if they cannot book us, a back up plan will be to shoot the wedding scene in the college theatre and create mise en scene with the lighting, props and surroundings. To do this, we will seek permission from the photo studio for the sofa and put a robe on it to disguise any rough edges and then put any other chairs around. This is just a back up plan.

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Case studies- Media Studies A2

Dulhe Ka Sehra – Dhadhkan    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIEToHb7Mcg

I chose this as one of my case studies as it is very similar to my idea for our short film. As in this film, the storyline is similar to mine and the shots included in this Bollywood film are initially what I had in mind to include for our film. The synopsis of this short film is that the girl is being forced to marry another man when she’s in love with another man, and that the wedding continues. This isn’t really a short film nor a music video but it’s a clip taken from a film. The film is shot in live action. The theme of this short film is of sad love story. The main character being the bride is represented as how most south-Asian women were on their wedding day, crying, sad, dramatic etc. As forced marriages were more encouraged and seen as a norm before within the Asian culture, but it isn’t as practised as before. Throughout the whole film, the boyfriend of hers is represented as loud mouthed and of a lower caste than his girlfriend, hence why her parents were adamant to get her married to another man who was of the same class as them and it would’ve been seen as ‘dishonour’ for their daughter to be married into a poor family. The camera skills have also helped contribute ideas to our project for shots as well as panning shots and reverse shots as well as deciding how to structure the shots. This clip has also helped by giving ideas of specific scenes with certain shots, for example, it has given us ideas of where to have close up shots.

The mise-en-scenes of this clip were also very good, and the locations, props, costume, makeup and lighting had contributed to this. The locations which were included of this clip were wedding venues which were decorated, the props which were used was obviously, surroundings as well as having extra people as Asian weddings are huge, involve everyone and last for days. The costumes which were used in this clip were those of the traditional Indian bridal wear which consists of saris, salwar kameez, and very bright coloured embroided clothes etc. The make-up also added to this. The lighting of the clip was also good as it was set in the late evening, but the lighting in the film is still pretty amazing, the colour and brightness of the motion picture quality is of a high standard.

The dialogue of the clip was of a satisfactory quality, it isn’t exactly great, it seems like its dubbed. The clip includes music as well as a soundtrack which ties in with the story of what goes on in this clip. The target audience for this film is the south-Asian mature teens to adults as it doesn’t involve much that may interest teenagers such as comedy, horror as these are the most popular genre and themes aimed at teenagers. I say that the target audience for this film would be south-Asian mature teenagers and adults as they may be able to relate to the story, or be familiar with the whole concept and that the entire film is in Hindi, so the focal audience is obviously of those who understand it. It doesn’t have a very broad audience like the recent Bollywood movies released.

Occupied - Future shorts      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WcgAkK2LTo

I chose this short film as one of my case studies as the shots which are used are very precise and are similar to what we want in our film. The genre of this film I would have thought was suspense but when it got to the end, I thought it would have been suspense/comedy, as the ending was comedic for me. The synopsis of this film is that a woman is on the plane and she sets off to the bathroom, gets a sandwich out of her pocket, opens the sandwich and pulls out a card and a nail clipper. At this part of the film, I automatically assumed that she was possibly a spy or maybe even some links to terrorism. She then uses the card to open a hatch which is above her, gets a piece of paper out of her bra with instructions, then clips a wire using the nail clipper. She then gets what looks like a small orange box off her thigh and places it near the sink. At this point of the film, I was still confused as to what she was doing and whether she was a spy or terrorist. She then gets out what looks like a lipstick from her bra, twists it up, rips the wrapper off and flattens it. She then gets her shoe off and a lighter falls from her shoe. Then it was at this point of the film that I thought she may have been a terrorist but I was still confused.  She then puts the thing which she had flattened before into the lighter. Moves her hair to her shoulder and she has a bottle of gas, which she then drops into the lighter to. Then she puts the lighter into the small orange box which she had placed before near the sink. Then she tapes up the air vents, sits down and lights up a cigarette.

So she went through everything for a cigarette, which at first, whilst watching it makes you think she may be a terrorist or some sort of spy agent, when really she just wanted a ‘quick’ cigarette.

The film is shot in live action. The character is a woman and her appearance is of an average woman in a shirt, skirt, hair out and red lipstick. Her appearance in the film contradicted with the thought of her being a spy agent or a terrorist which is why it was confusing.

The camera skills of this film are also something I would like to use for my film, such as some shots from over the shoulder, extreme close up etc. The location of this film is set in the toilets of the plane and the lighting of the film is really good as you can see everything clearly. This is something I need to make sure to do with my film, to ensure that the lighting is of a good standard.  There was no dialogue, as the character of this film did not speak at all, instead there was suspense music playing and it would stop at some point of the movie which would have any importance like right at the end when she lights up the cigarette, the music stops. I think the target audience for this film is very broad, it can appeal to anyone.

LOSERS – Future shorts    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R6VE0i1Zt4&feature=relmfu

Out of all the case studies I chose, this is my favourite one. It’s about bullies and the affects it can have. The way the film has been structured as well as the soundtrack choice, which begins with rhythmic clapping which goes with clips of other teenagers being bullied. It then changes to rapid shots of bullied teenager victums faces whilst the audio is of fast rapid aggressive curses, as if it’s being said about them, to them.

There is no narrative to the film as it has no storyline but a moral to it instead. The synopsis of this short film is that it’s about the harm that can be caused by bullying, it shows images and clips of people who are more vulnerable to bullying and the occasional violence of them being cornered, spat at etc.  The film is also shot in live action. The theme of this short film is based on bully prevention, the characters in this short film are represented as vulnerable as well as victims. The camera positions and shots are excellent and the editing skills are even better. The overall thing just ties in together, it’s very punchy and gets to the point but at the same time sympathetic and makes you realise the moral. The location of this film is set in a high school as where bullying intensifies.  The costumes are all normal, actors are dressed like normal teenage high school students. The directors have made it look so realistic and like the bullying in the film actually happened whilst recording, because they stuck to making it as realistic by choosing not to dress them up.

The sound is also fantastic, the soundtrack is of a rhythmic clapping and then throughout the scene with the rapid images and cursing, the swearwords get louder and louder which is like a crescendo, builds up and then stops to the scene of a girl crying (above).  The target audience is teenagers as this film involves Facebook a couple of times. Facebook, teenagers and bullying all link together.

The ideas that I would like to use in our film is the use of shots and intense sound as well as lighting, everything in this short film worked so well together.