Sound

Shh sound , Shh sound 2 , Breathing sound , Bullying 1 , Bullying 2 , Heartbeat

All of these sounds I did with a microphone connected to my phone, and used a voice recording app. I have many more sounds recorded but for an example, i have linked these ones here. The 'Shh' sound i have more copies of from different people, and will layer them over one another in the party scene. I will also do this with the breathing sound, and heartbeat sound too to indicate distress and worry, and to show that something dangerous has happened / is happening.

With the 'Bullying 1 & 2' I again have more copies of this sound with other people saying different things, and will have this playing as the protagonist Grace walks down the hallway, to show peoples disgust for her and to increase suspension and tension.

This idea of layering sound over one another is inspired by the 'Stutterer' short film where the sounds are jumbled in his head and are layered over one another and repeated to show his thought process and confusion and distress, and so i thought it would be effective to do something similar in some of my scenes for my short film.

Different Lighting Photo Evidence

For the filters I wrapped them around the lamp to create a coloured light effect. I found that the red and blue filters worked much better than the pink and yellow filters, which could be due to the filter not being that thick or vibrant, or could b dow to the light not being as strong as a usual key light.

Again i found that the red and blue filter created a much better coloured light and ambient effect, and that the pink light did not really give any colour payoff at all, and that the yellow filter was much greener than yellow, and worked best from a low angle, rather than head on.

These photos will be used and are representing the shots were we see Grace and Liv walking in the street together. When filming,this shot will actually be taken outside and closer.

I will use this show with either this red ambient light to create the atmosphere of danger and lust as she speaks to the mystery man for the first time, and starts to have lustful and conflicted feelings for him.

This is also just a test shot for when Grace is completing her film task, however i don't like the way it came out so I think I will film it in a different angle or change this concept all together.

This is another shot for when she is messaging the mystery man.

Help Sheet Planning

How to outline a short story plan 
My protagonist is Grace Stevenson, she is a white middle class girl who is 17, and attends college. The story is set in her day to day life, following her through college, her home, and her other surroundings and community such as Nuneaton and Atherstone town. She also attends a house party where we are introduced to her for the first time, as well as her best friend Liv Russel. The problem occurring in this narrative is the constant fear as to who touched Grace and her fear of not remembering and lack of control over her memories and emotions. Grace wants to find out what happened at the party, and who keeps messaging her.

Photo / Video Evidence

These photos are tests that will be used in the first scene. To get these photos I used the Canon 600D and a tripod, however for the final production I will use a mixture of handheld and tripod movement as it will be easier to film, and will make the film much me fluid and run smoothly. I will be able to do this as I will not be the subject of the film and will have an actor to film.


I found that a natural lighting source from my window did suffice along with the camera flash, however for the filming will use a key light from college, most likely an LED light, or I shall use a bulb lamp I have at home. To give an aesthetic to the film, I will be using coloured filters such as red and blue to create emotion and ambience.

These photos are used to also represent the first scene where I will establish the setting, a house party. I will show a speaker of some sort, and introduce diegetic music, as well as a mixture of non diegetic and diegetic sound of people talking at the party, as you never really see anyone's face,  just their torso and down to create a busy and crowded feel, and will show alcohol on the table to show that the teenagers are intoxicated and that it is perhaps dangerous. For this scene, I would have quite a low light with perhaps flashing coloured lights using an at home disco light or coloured filters to create the effect of a party. As we get to the shots where we see the protagonist struggling and we see her thigh, I would have the music more muffled to create the effect that she is somewhere else, and will also layer the sound of heavy breathing, a heartbeat and whispering of random words and phrases such as "shh", "close your eyes" etc.

For this scene, I will film at college during the day as this scene actually takes place in college where we see the protagonist walking down the hallway with students either side of her, talking about her and making rude comments about her. This will be filmed with a hand-held camera with natural lighting at a midshot angle, maybe a zolly. The sound will be diegetic of the students speaking about her, and also the nondiegetic sound of her heartbeat again. This sound will all cut out as she opens the door and goes into the classroom. I don't have a test photo of this scene, but we will see

the teacher standing at the front of the class, explaining a project he wants them to complete. This will be an over the shoulder shot of all of the students where the teacher will be in full view. This last photo shown to the left will be of the mother reading her book, but for the time being, I used my dad to get the point across. This is when the protagonist gets home and doesn't conversate with her mother or father, but just looks at them instead and goes upstairs to her bedroom. The lighting will be quite a low lighting with a slightly warm orangey/yellow hazy undertone to it, perhaps using a gold reflector to create the warm light.

 These photos are all taken on the tripod, however for filming it will be a mixture of handheld and tripod shots. This first image is a test for when the protagonist and her best friend are walking down the street talking together and will be filmed from this side on midshot angle using a handheld tracking shot. This middle photo is to show when the protagonist is thinking about the 'mystery man' that has been texting her, and I will overlay the video to show him with his arm around her shoulder, talking into her ear, however, his face will be hidden to keep the mystery. The last photo was really a test as I don't think I will use this angle, but instead will use the angle shown on my storyboard for scene 9, however I will have the phne in the shot and will have text messages on the side of the screen in the shot to show what thy have been texting abut, including the sound of the iphone notification wjich shall be diegetic sound. 

Planning

Plan

Characters:
- Grace: Protagonist, female, 17, college student
- Josh / Mystery Man: Antagonist, male, 19
- Liv: Protagonist best friend, female, 17, college student
- Shaun: Best friends boyfriend, male, 18
- Mother: Protagonist's mother, female, 40, daily job
- Father: Protagonists father, male, 43, daily job
- Teacher, Protagonist & best friends father, male, 45, film teacher
- Party friends: random

Equipment:
Camera: Canon 600D
Tripod may be used
Lighting: At home lamp, LED light from college, coloured filters, possibly key light from college, home coloured disco light
Sound: Shotgun Mic from college

Shooting times: Weekends & after college

Camera angles:
- Extreme Close up
- Mid shot
- Two shot
- Over the shoulder shot
- Wide angle
- Tracking shot
- Panning shot
- Long shot

Editing:
- Premiere Pro

Location: At home, Nuneaton town, Atherstone town, costa

Lighting Equipment

Lighting Equipment 

The key light is used to create a general all over light to create an atmosphere for the scene, and can be used to create a warm sunlight / natural lighting effect, and can also be used to create a nighttime / moonlight effect too. Fill light, usually done with an LED light is used to fill the spaces where the key light doesn't reach, and can also be used to make the scene brighter, and has a variety of tones such as warm orangey tones as well as blue and green cool tones. Fill lights usually have barn doors which are metal edges on the perimeter of the LED light which can have coloured filters on them to create a coloured light, creating atmosphere and or a specific auteur style. Reflectors can also be used to reflect the key light onto an area that is not reached by the key light. For example, in an interview set up with the subject sitting in the middle with a key light directed on to them from the right, a reflector can be used on the left side of the subjects face to create an even light over the face. A gold reflector can create a warm, hazy and golden sunlight effect, whereas a silver reflector can be used to reflect a bright striking white light on the subjects face. A white reflector can be used on the opposite side of the subjects face to reflect the light, however it will not be as bright of reflective as the white reflector is matte, and not shiny/metallic. The white reflector can also be used to dim the light and create a softer version of the light, usually placed inform of a key light. The black reflector however blocks out the light completely, and could also create a chiaroscuro effect on the subjects face if the key light is shown from the right, and the black reflector is used on the left.

Story Board

1 

Film Idea

Film Idea - The Stranger

Scene 1: Montage of a teenagers party, with voice overs from the characters dipping from non diegetic to diegetic, displaying the one sided relationship she has with her “best friend”.

Scene 2: Wakes up in the middle of the night after being told she has to stop the night at the host's house. Wakes up to a hand brushing against her inner thigh and he makes advances on her without consent.

Scene 3: Best friend entered the room and the lad climbs off while she cowers and her best friend makes her feel as if she deserved it such as saying she was dressed like a slut and she was begging for it. The best friend tells her to not speak of any of this in the morning and to not make a meal of it, treating it like nothing happened.

Scene 4: They all wake up and the best friends parents arrive to pick them up, an argument ensues as the mother stresses that she was worried and she never called for when she wanted picking up, the best friend tuning the blame on the protagonist for being “too drunk” but not by choice.

Scene 5: Cuts to getting back to college and after everyone had heard the lies of how slutty she was at the party no one could take their eyes off her, obviously not for a good reason, walking through the hallways.

Scene 6: She gets the bus back home after leaving college, the stalker that we will later have a big reveal over will be seen in the back but out of focus and will have nothing indication he is a key character just aiming his phone dead ahead.

Scene 7: Gets off the bus and makes her way home beside her best friend as she raves about how much fun she had, having sex with her boyfriend over and over, but not mentioning what happened once, showing no sympathy.

Scene 8: She gets home and as soon as she opens the door, she walks directly into her father, who is on the phone, and is holding a briefcase and is wearing a suit. He raises his eyebrows to her as if to say goodbye and she does the same shutting the door behind herself as her father leaves to get into his car for another business trip no doubt. She see’s her mother on the couch who is watching TV/reading a book. She stands in the doorway to see if her mother will greet her, but is greeted with no response, so she goes straight up to her room instead.

Scene 9: She lays on her bed and receives a text from an unknown number that has a single message saying “You looked amazing last night” She instantly thinks it must have been someone from the party, and so does not think twice about it. As they begin chatting he gets rather defensive and he says “You don’t remember me? I’m not that invisible”.

Scene 10: She gets the train to her college and grabs a coffee, continuously looking down at her phone every 5 seconds waiting for the response of her mystery man. As she arrived at college she shares conversation with her best friend, talking about their lessons they  have, Grace had double media so she had to go film for her documentary of how culture and society has changes in the last few decades, her best friend noticing she was getting brushed off when she began to talk because Grace was checking her phone, the best friend takes her phone off of her and reads through a lot of the messages that had been exchanged, asking if she even knows who he is considering he has an unknown number, teasing her, holding her phone above her head and out of reach, with ultimately Grace looking like a pushover. Her best friend mentions that this person could be anyone and how she could even gets raped or even murdered, pausing ever so slightly, realising what she had said, but chucking her phone back and accepting what was said was said.

Scene 11: Grace gets the flip camera from her college and proceeds to film at different locations by herself, each place getting more a more secluded from the public, filming the busy streets and coffee shops soon getting to the more quiet parts of town, areas with graffiti and homeless people.She looks at the time on her phone and realises she could run a little late with getting back to lesson in time. So she rushes back and moves the footage onto a usb and takes it home.

Scene 12: She gets home and a small montage of Grace editing her footage ensues and as time goes by she slowly drifts off to sleep, planting her head onto her keyboard, but later on being woken up by texts from her mystery man. As she is far too polite to say he annoyed her by waking her up she says they may as well chat while they are both awake so they do, it is round 2 in the morning.

Scene 13: Grace tells the mystery man about her relationships with her best friend and how it feels one sided and how she was treated, and speaks to him about how her mother treats her. The mystery man insists that she cuts off her relationships and he will treat her better than anyone else, and that he wants to get closer and this confuses Grace as she doesn’t even know his name.

Scene 14: Grace walks downstairs and grabs hot chocolate over coffee, her mother notices this and tries to make small talk with her by mentioning how long ago the last time she had hot chocolate was, Grace gets annoyed by this and is really blunt and back handed with her replies.

Scene 15: She makes her way into her bedroom and ranted to Josh how her mother treats her like a child and Josh will say the exact same thing Grace does in the previous scene showing how much of an influence Josh has had on her in the the past few weeks.

Scene 16: Its a new day, Grace goes to college and her teacher tells her to go and film again for her short film. She goes back to the previous locations and talks to herself and bumps into a teenage boy, he says "Sorry Grace" and walks off. She turns around and watches him walk off, and is confused but decides to walk home.

Scene 17: Later in college she gets another message from josh asking her to meet with him. He says how he misses seeing her from the party and that it would be great to see her again. She is unsure and is cautious, even though she loves speaking to him she was always nervous to meet new people. (maybe a montage of possible endings?)

Scene 18: She agrees and they meet in a public place (cafe? park?) and they talk and get along, they talk about the party and he sits closer and puts his hand on her thigh, she gets flashback from the party of the man toughing her inner thigh, and she freezes. he whispers "hopefully this time you'll remember it"

Scene 19: Party flashback sequence. fades into black.

Coursework research

Short Films Analysis 

Stutterer - 12 minutes
A film about a man with a stutter who can speak clearly in his head. The idea of communication is shown through his work and throughout the entire film as he works with forms of communication as typification, and is shown communicating throughout the entire film. This is shown through the editing of sound as they place multiple sound clips over one another when he is confused or distressed. I thought this was really effective and i've taken inspiration from it, and will overlap sounds over one another to create a sense of distress and panic. They also use extreme close ups of his eyes and his mouth especially when these voice overs are used, this is really effective as it makes us feel physically closer to the character, and also emphasises their emotions and inner thoughts. I also really liked this and thought that i could have an extreme close up on my characters eyes when she is in distress to make the audience closer to the character and really feel her inner turmoil and very explicit stress. The lighting used in this short film is very natural, and also creates its own spotlight as when he is sitting in his room at night and opens the laptop, it shines only on him, making him the centre of attention and easier to focus on. I thought this was really good and so I will do this as well when my character is in bed at night, but do it with her phone instead.

Meshes in the afternoon - 14 minutes
An experimental film delving into the male gaze and the sexualisation of women in life and the film industry. The mirrored cape is her husband and mirror face shows and represents she is only face value to him, and that he only cares about her appearance, not her inner thoughts and her as a person. She sees herself as the mirrored face instead of the husband, as all he is and cares about is her appearance rather than her wellbeing. The editing style is very repetitive and uses a lot of long shots as well as extreme close ups, and ominous music. The repetitiveness shows how mundane her life is as a woman and how men expect the same thing from his wife very day. The extreme close ups and long shots could show her extreme distress and turmoil, whereas the long shots show herself distancing herself from her husband and boring life. The repetition and close up of the key in her mouth shows a visual representation of her wanting to escape and the wish of freedom.

About a girl - 9 minutes
The whole film is filmed with a handheld camera, and there is also a large amount of tracking shots used as well. This style of filming is usually connoted with social realism, as the hand held camera makes it seem more realistic instead of cinematic, and makes the audience feel closer to the character. There is also a lot of jump cuts used when the character is giving the narration, this could be to represent the character herself as a young girl whom is very lively and energetic, and could also be used to represent her fragmented thought process, as she talks about a lot of different things whilst walking. The film also jumps to other shots such as the main character with her parents, in a pub, on the bus with her friends, and with a pram and her mother. The fast editing style with the continuous imagery and reiteration of the pram and babies in general, leads the viewer to have a subconscious thought about a child, without ever knowing what its use was until the end. This constant reminder is a good way to keep an audience active and to keep them guessing as to what it's relation to the seemingly random monologue is, in which I thought was extremely clever. I will use this technique in my film too, by having constant reminders of the overarching panic of what happened at the party for my main character.

The Grandmother - 34 minutes
An experimental film exploring the problematic and abusive relationship between a boy and his parents, pushing the young boy to create his own unconditionally loving and caring grandparent, who is not real. The entire film is filmed/edited in an almost stop motion like way, and is very static and rigid, giving a ver eerie and dark sense to the film, making it uncomfortable to watch. The use of chiaroscuro was also used on both of his parents and the boy himself, Mike, to show the good and evil of the parents, and on the boy, to perhaps show his innocence and lack there of. The entire film was also shot in low key lighting to give a dark feeling to the film