Development Update #2

With BW, RM, AND CM

CHARACTER PROFILES-ALEX

CHARACTER PROFILES:

ALEX.

PART ONE.

AGE: 2-3 YEARS

WEARING: SOLDIERS OUTFIT.

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ALEX AND THE STRANGER HAVE CROSSED LINES. ALEX DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS HAPPENED AS HE IS TOO YOUNG. BUT HE DOES NOTICE THAT THERE IS A CHANGE IN THE ROOM.

PART TWO:

AGE: 7-8 YEARS

WEARING: JEANS, JUMPER, COAT, SCARF ETC

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ALEX HAS MET THE STRANGER BUT HE SEEMS TO RECOGNISE HIM HE IS HESITANT AT FIRST AND LOOKS TO HIS PARENTS FOR HELP. HE ISN’T SCARED THOUGH AND COMES TO TERMS. HIS REACTION TO THE CHARACTER IS PRICELESS EVEN WHEN HE SMILES ALEX MAKES SURE HE SEEMS UNFAZED ESPECIALLY WHEN BEING GIVEN THE FIGURE. THIS ALEX HAS TO BE VERY CONFUSED AND FRIGHTENED.

PART THREE:

AGE: 16-17 YEARS

WEARING: MAINLY DARK CLOTHING HE NEEDS TO SEEM CONFUSED AND LOST THIS IS SHOWN THROUGH COSTUMING.

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: A VERY CONFUSING TIME IN ALEX’S LIFE. AS WE CAN SEE CLEARLY WITH PROBLEMS WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE THIS HAS DONE TO HIM WITH THE STRANGER HE HAS CLEARLY BECOME OBSESSED.

PART FOUR:

AGE: 19-20 YEARS

WEARING: A FOOTBALL SHIRT AND JEANS HE HAS CHANGED BUT IS THE SAME ACTOR THAT PLAYED THE TEENAGER. THIS WILL BE SHOWN THROUGH A HAIRCUT.

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: ALEX FEELS LIKE HE IS BEING WATCHED AND STARTS TO PANIC MORE WHEN HE SEES THE CLAY HEAD IN HIS EMPTY PINT GLASS. HE GETS EVEN MORE FRIGHTENED AND CONFUSED WHEN HE SEES THE STRANGER AND HE SPEAKS TO HIM. WITHOUT HAVING A FULL CONVERSATION WE CAN UNDERSTAND THAT HE FINALLY UNDERSTANDS AND IS AT EASE WITH HIS PAST.
CM

SCRIPT

TEMPUS

DIRECTED BY BW, CM AND RM

WRITTEN BY BW, CM AMD RM

INT. PAN AROUND A CHILD’S PLAYROOM/BEDROOM. THERE IS A GAME OF SOLDIERS GOING ON.

CLOSE UP ON SOME OF THE PLASTIC SOLDIERS.

CUT TO A CHILDS EYES.

DECREASE SHOT SO WE SEE THE WHOLE FACE. THE CHILD IS WEARING A SOLDIERS HAT AND IS UNDERNEATH A TENT SURROUNDED BY A BATTLE.

THE CHILD’S MOTHER CALLS TO HIM.

MOTHER: ALEX DARLING!

HE LOOKS UP BUT DECIDES TO IGNORE WHAT SHE IS SAYING.

MOTHER: ALEX!

CLOSE UP ON THE CHILDS HANDS HE DROPS THE SOLDIERS LEAVING THEM DISCARDED.  CLOSE UP ON FEET. THE DOOR BANGS SHUT.

WITH THE CAMERA STILL ON A CLOSE UP OF THE SOLDIERS A SHADOW PASSES OVER AND A HAND SWOOPS DOWN PICKS UP A SOLDIER AND THEN MOVES THE SOLDIER OUT OF THE SHOT.

SECONDS PASS AND THE SOLDIER IS BACK INTO SHOT BUT IT HAS A NOTE SELLOTAPED ONTO IT.

“I’M HIT”

THE CAMERA PANS ROUND THE ROOM AND SETTLES ON SOME UNSETTLED PIECES OF PAPER THAT ARE STILL FLOARING TO THE FLOOR. WE DON’T SEE WHO IS POSTING THE NOTES.

SECONDS LATER THW DOOR CREEKS OPEN AND ALEX RUNS IN ECU OF HIS FEET WALKING IN.

TILT SHOT HE IS HOLDING AN ANY-WAY-UP-CUP FULL OF JUICE. HE STOPS IN FRONT OF THE TENT AND A CLOSE UP OF HIS CONFUSED FACE.

HE DROPS THE CUP CLOSE UP OF HIS HAND AS HE PICKS UP THE SOLDIER.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT. OF SOLDIER THEN CLOSE UP OF FACE THEN THE SOLDIER AGAIN.

CLOSE UP OF SOLDIER ALEX RIPS THE NOTE OFF AND TAKES IT TO THE BIN.

END OF PART 1.

PART TWO

EXT. A MAN AND A WOMAN ARE SITTING ON A BENCH TALKING. WHILST AN OLDER ALEX IS RUNNING AROUND KICKING A BALL.

POV OF THE BALL BEING KICKED. HAND HELD.

THE BALL IS KICKED FAR AWAY. TILT SHOT TO WHERE THE BALL IS.

WHIP PAN AS BOY LOOKS UP TO SEE WHERE HIS PARENTS ARE HE SMILES AND WAVES THEY ARE NOT REGISTERING THAT HE IS THERE. SHOT REVERSE SHOT.

THE BOY SHRUGGS HIS SHOULDERS AND RUNS OVER TO THE FOOTBALL. HAND HELD CAMERA OF THE FLOOR AND HIS FEET.

CUT TO ECU ON A MAN’S FOOT ON THE BALL. SHOT REVERSE SHOT. THE BOY STOPS HALF WAY. THE MAN’S FOOT. THE BOY’S WORRIED FACE.

TRACKING SHOT OF THE BOY WALKING TOWARDS THE BALL HE STOPS ABOUT 3ft AWAY FROM THE MAN.

ECU ON THE MAN’S SMILE. ECU ON HIS HAND IN HIS JACKET POCKET. HE PULLS HIS HAND OUT AND IN IT IS THE TOY SOLDIER FROM THE PREVIOUS SCENE.

ECU ON THE TOY SOLDIER IN THE PALM OF THE MAN’S HAND.

THE BOY PICKS IT UP FROM THE HAND.

CLOSE UP OF THE BOY LOOKING AT THE SOLDIER HE LOOKS UP AND STARES.

WHIP PAN THE MAN IS NO LONGER THERE. THE BOY COMPLETELY FORGETS ABOUT THE BALL AND RUNS TO HIS PARENTS.

HE LOOKS DOWN TO HIS PALM.

TILT SHOT HE IS HOLDING SAND. HE LOOKS BACK AT HIS PARENTS. THEY ARE CALLING HIM.

FATHER: ALEX WE’RE GOING. HE RUNS.

END OF PART TWO.

PART THREE

INT. THE BOYS BEDROOM BUT IT IS SEEMINGLY DIFFERENT THE YEARS HAVE CHANGED AND SO HAS THE LITTLE BOY. ALL OVER HIS ROOM ARE PICTURES OF THE FIGURE. PAN AROUND THE ROOM THERE IS EVEN A CLAY FIGURINE. THE ROOM HAS A GLOOMY EERIE FEEL TO IT.

STOP ON THE BOY SITTING AT HIS DESK. GRADUAL CLOSE UP. HE IS SKYPING HIS GIRLFRIEND. THEY’RE ARGUING.

MID CONVERSATION. SHOT REVERSE SHOT ON SCREEN AND ON HIM.

GIRLFRIEND:… YOU’RE NEVER THERE FOR ME I LOOKED LIKE A FOOL TONIGHT.

ALEX: I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO.

GIRLFRIEND: I WANT YOU TO ACT NORMAL, ALEX!

ALEX IS LOOKING AT A PAD ON THE TABLE HIS LATEST DRAWING OF THE FIGURE.

ALEX: HUH!

GIRLFRIEND: YOU’RE NOT EVEN PAYING ATTENTION. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

ALEX: DRAWING.

GIRLFRIEND: NOT ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR PICTURES. ALEX IT’S REALLY CREEPY. YOU’RE SCARING ME AT THE MOMENT. THAT’S IT I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE.

ALEX: WHAT? LIL?! BABE!

GIRLFRIEND: SEE YA ALEX!

SHE LOGS OFF.

ALEX: LIL? BABE? AHHHHHH.

HE SHOUTS.

SHOT ON HIM HE LOOKS AT THE PICTURE OF THE FIGURE AND STARTS TO RIP IT UP. THE CAMERA PANS ONTO ANOTHER PICTURE ON THE WALL HIS HAND COMES INTO VIEW AS HE RIPS THEM OFF THE WALL AND STARTS TO TEAR THEM UP. HE FINALLY COMES TO THE CLAY FIGURINE AND THROWS IT AGAINST THE WALL. HE FALLS TO THE FLOOR DISTRAUGHT.

BACKWARDS TRACKING SHOT OF THE ROOM AND THE STATE IT IS IN.

CUT CLOSE UP OF ALEX. HE JUMPS AS HIS PHONE GOES.

BIRDS EYE SHOT OF HIM AND THE PHONE. HE PICKS UP THE PHONE.

CLOSE UP OF PHONE. IT’S AN UNKNOWN NUMBER HE OPENS THE TEXT.

IT READS

“TOO BAD MATE”

HE DELETES IT.

ECU ON HIS EYES THEY SHOWS TERROR.

END OF PART THREE.

PART FOUR.

EXT. ALEX IS SITTING ON HIS OWN WAITING FOR SOMEONE. HE GLANCES AT HIS WATCH.

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT. HIS MATES ARE COMING TOWARDS HIM WITH DRINKS.

THEY SIT DOWN AND HAVE A CHAT. THEY’RE ALL DRINKING THERE PINTS HE FINISHES AND TURNS TO LOOK AT THE TELEVISION. THERE’S A MATCH ON.

HE LOOKS DOWN AND THE HEAD OF THE CLAY FIGURINE IS SITTING IN HIS EMPTY PINT GLASS.

TILT SHOT. THE MAN IS STANDING THERE SIMLING HE PULLS HIS HOOD OFF AND SMILES ALEX MOVES UP. THE MAN SITS DOWN. HE STARTS TO SPEAK.

MAN: OOH THIS IS A GOOD MATCH.

ALEX: YYYYOUR…………

THE MAN TURNS HIS HEAD AND SMILES.

ECU INTO HIS EYE THE CAMERA TURNS SLIGHTLY.UNTIL WE GET A FULL SHOT OF THE EYE.

END OF PART FOUR.

PART FIVE.

THE EVENTS THAT HAVE ALL HAPPENED REWIND BUT IN THE MAN’S POV.

EVERYTIME WE SEE ALEX IT GOES IN FAST REWIND. BUT HEN SLOWS DOWN TO UNVEIL THE MAN’S FACE.

FINALLY TO THE POINT WHERE THE MAN PICKS UP THE CLAY HEAD PUTS A BLANKET OVER A SLEEPING TEENAGER ALEX AND STEPS BACKWARDS. AS HE STEPS BACKWARDS HE VANISHES.

END OF PART FIVE

PART SIX.

 CAMERA PULLS OUT OF SHOT OF THE MANS EYE AND SHAKES HANDS WITH ALEX. HE STANDS UP LOOKS AT THE MATCH ON SCREEN WHILST SOMEONE SCORES THEY ALL SCREAM AND CHEER WHILST ALEX IS LOOKING ABASHED AT THE MAN. POV SHOT OF THE MAN HE LOOKS OUT INTO THE DOOR.

ECU OF HIS FOOT. HE LIFTS IT UP AND STOMPS WITH THAT HE IS GONE.

END OF PART SIX.

BLACKOUT.

CM

Locations

As a group we sat down and spoke about what locations we wanted to use. Our original idea was to use the city as its main location because our film was based on there being two people left on earth and this type of post apocalyptic text needs empty, urban streets to emphasise the sense of desertion.

I went into the city on a weekend to take pictures of places that we could potentially use for our location to film. We chose to go to the city first as there is many different places in Norwich. Ranging from the old cathedral to new shopping malls. This would allow us to use the sense on time well film in places where the characters could link to the locations.

Bellow is an image taken from the internet followed by all my own images from the shoot -

The problems we have found with wanting to film in a city is the fact there will be lots of other people around. Therefore this may be difficult to shoot what it is we really want without getting other people interrupting. We may use some of these locations for some scenes but for others we began to develop the idea of filming in a different places such as a smaller village or more rural areas. This idea would have worked in the summer as we could have filmed really early in the morning and there would still be broad day light making it look like the middle of the day without all the people being there but this would no longer work as there's not enough light at that time in the morning.

-RM

Poster-mock

In order to make our pitch, we needed to produce a mock of our film's poster. I knew what I wanted it to look like, however capturing the image how I wanted proved to be difficult, especially due to lighting issues. Despite this, I'm pleased with the outcome of it.

The concept of the poster is likely to be the one used.

The editing I've done on Adobe Photoshop revolved a lot of issues, taking advantage of adjustment layers and altering curves. The original image was very bright on the face so I dimmed it. I also wanted the person behind Ben to look like a shadow, giving the implemented idea of being "shadowed" or "followed". As our film is about time travel, I wanted there to be questions asked about the film poster. This question would be about the figure behind the main character, attracting people to see the film in order to find out.

As you can tell from the backdrop of some photos, we did use the studio first. And although we could create some cool lighting, in the end we decide to use the more natural lighting outside because we wanted the poster to have a natural feel. This is because we didn't want the lighting to look face as we thought it looked a bit tacky. And the wall looks cooler.

This is Rachel's first concept design of our poster. I think it looks pretty good. But don't hold us to the 22nd of December cinema release date... Plus there's a "t" missing from Chloe's last name. Also Jacob isn't in our group, he's just the guy standing behind me.

-RM (Edited and added to by BW)
Rachel has been very clever and created a fabulous poster. Obviously it's a draft so there are a few things that need to be changed. for starters my name isn't spelt right unfortunately. But the concept is fabulous. I had an idea which I've brought to the attention of Rachel our chief photographer and photoshopper-I think it would be a good idea if we could fade the bottom half of the time traveller's body as this would create an idea that he's constantly looking after him but he's fading away as well. The convention of time travelling needs to be here.
Ben also mentioned perhaps having the past boys in small snippets around the main picture. This is common in some film posters when there really isn't one main protagonist there are multiple main characters. For example:

Love actually is a good example.
CW.

Tempus Plot

Tempus - Plot Synopsis

"Tempus" is the Latin word for "time". It's also the only title for a movie we, as a group, could agree on.

One person’s timeline is interrupted by a time traveller who’s leaving mysterious messages throughout their life.

These notes include:

The points in their life where the notes appear are: Early Childhood (1-2 years), Childhood (7-10 years), Late teenager (16-18), Early Adulthood (19-21).

Part 1:
A child is playing with their favourite toy, they leave and come back to it, it then has a mysterious note on it. At this point, they may simply discard it, but it happened.

Part2:

An older child meets a mysterious figure, the figure gives the, an object of relevance, they go to tell their parents about is, the figure then disappears before the parents see them.

Part 3:

A teenager, obsessed with this figure, has lots of drawings of this figure, though no clear face is shown. A girlfriend breaks up with them because she thinks they’re crazy in this scene. The main character discards the figure and seems to throw them away from their life.

Part 4:

In a local pub, the main character is seen laughing with friends. Another friend enters the pub; they’ve bought a new person with them, the mysterious figure (though this is currently unknown to the main character). They get talking, the figure hands something to the main character. It has something to do with the object handed to them as a child. They remember and a sequence of reverse footage is shown, then the sequences are played from the point of view of the mysterious figure. A reaction shot of the main character is shown as they realize. “Y-you’re-“stumbles the main character “Yep!” says the figure. POOF! The mysterious figure disappears, leaving the main character speechless.

-BW

As a plot this is going to be fairly simple but putting it into shots and into a script will be slightly harder. I'm glad finally that we were able to agree on the title 'Tempus' I find this title more artistic and interesting. In the group this has been the only time that we have clashed but the majority of s loved the concept, it was just the title that got us all baffled. Once we had all agreed the conflict had ended and this is the only time in the duration of the titling that we had argued. I think that as a group we work well as we all have strengths and weaknesses and one person's weakness is another strength.

CM

Audience Research Video, What have you learnt?

What have I learnt?
A good question I would probably say the most that I've learnt is that not many people know about short films!
And if they have it's most probably animated, like Pixar. Which is a fairly good point as when I started all I knew, when it came to short films, was that they were only a small amount of time on it. And the only time that I'd come across short films was when I'd gone to the cinema and before they show the movie they had shown a promotional short films this was most common when watching Disney Pixar films.
I've also learnt that short films is probably one of the best ways to get involved in filming. I came across this short film company FiniteFilms on YouTube that has started to earn a living through making short films and they have gotten funding from the advertisements that feature on their YouTube Videos. This has allowed them to move on from a self-funded film company to an externally funded film company this is one of their movies below.

I really enjoyed this short film and think that it was very cleverly done. FiniteFilms have made a lot of sci-fi films mostly ones about paradoxes and multiple universes but they have created some comedy movies and romances but I would have to say they specialize in their Sci-Fi's.
CM

From the data which we've compiled, we have an idea of what our audience expects from any short film. We also know what they want from our short film and what they don't want.

So, what do they think short film is? The majority rightly know that a short film  has a duration that is up to 40 minutes in length. I'm going to be honest, I didn't expect them to know that.I expected them to say that a short film would be up to ten minutes. Meaning they have more knowledge on the subject than previously thought.

Others in the audience only describe short film as having a duration of around 15 minutes, while not wrong, it shows that some people don't have as much knowledge on the subject as others within our audience.
One person also described short film as being "artsy" and "experimental". I like this because it shows that some, while a small percentage, of the audience expect what we are aiming for. They're also thinking outside the box.

A lot of the audience have seen short films before. However, the films they have seen are mainly those from Disney Pixar. This is nothing like our film at all, which could be an issue. Because the audience have seen nothing like it, they could be deterred from enjoying it because it's unfamiliar. Alternatively, they could enjoy the change.

The way the audience consume short film is generally through 3 methods. The first and most common is through cinema. They don't go to the cinema specifically for the short film though, it was just screened before a feature film screening.
The second most common is, surprisingly, at a different public screening. But it was a student film shown at this school, so perhaps this is an anomaly. It doesn't seem that the members of the audience openly seek out short films, sadly.
The third way is through television. They said that they simply sat and watched it. Not particularly interesting, but it's third most common way of short film consumption according to our survey.
This all means that the best way to get our film seen is apparently to get it shown at cinemas before feature length screenings or at public screenings. Clearly this is not realistic so instead we could organise another public showing in the school; we could have a 'mini' film festival with the others groups film too as this would give us some feedback too.

What do the audience expect from short films? They expect the plot to be simple. I assume this is because it's harder to develop an elaborate plot in a shorter time frame. But if there was an elaborate plot in a short space of time, then it may be hard to follow.
In terms of characters, they all expected less characterisation, again this is probably because the short time frame isn't god for the development of lots of characters.
Some people expect short film to be more experimental, artsy and hence more original than feature length films.

The actors that are generally expected by are audience are unknown actors. The audience don't expect to see bigger faces in short film. They think it's more likely to be actors who want to get there face out there in attempts to get famous.

And the all important question: what did they think of our idea? Luckily, they all told us that they liked the idea and the concept. Hopefully this wasn't just them being nice to us.
They all said that they thought the film would be good, so long as it isn't too complicated. And what have we learnt from that? We need to make the plot interesting, yet not too hard to follow, as this would seem to make the audience lose interest.

-BW (edited by RM)

All that ben has covered has been very relevant to all that we found out. Another thing I personally learnt was that our audience would have few expectations of short films as they have little experience of them. This would mean that we can be quite free in terms of mise, camera angles and editing because we wont be disrupting their pre conceived ideas. Also no one is going to mind that our film has unknown actors in it as that is what the expect from a short film anyway.

-RM

Audience Research Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x2Gk95dp_5I

This is our Audience research video. It is fabulous and we have all learnt a lot from it.

BW, RM and CM

New Studio Equipment...

My media department in school have bought some new lighting and studio equipment so in preparation for our short movie we did some photography experiments with it. As photography is my main strength I was the one to take all the pictures for this part of the project. We used a range of different kind of light such as red light, clear light and a mask over one of the lights which made a honey comb pattern appear on the models face. I also used a desaturation effect while taking the image too as the lights added a really nice effect to the image as a whole. Bellow are examples of my work...

This is an example of the DE saturated image. The model is not posed properly but the aim of this shoot was to play with the lighting and new equipment therefore this wasn't very important. The aim of using the lights effectively worked well as her face is really well light and all her facial features are clear rather than shadowed which is what would have happened in natural light.

This image above has been captured by lowering the shutter speed and changing the camera settings to portrait. This meant it had time to capture all the light in the movement, I really loved the effect it gave the final image and would like to use this again my photography and maybe in the photograph for the film posters as it can be seen as representing time and movement.

This image is just of the set itself and the arrangement we had for the model, lights and backdrop. The umbrella helps bounce the light off and direct it into certain places. By turning off the main lights so we had a dark room and only using the studio lights it enhanced the effect of the lighting on the model.

The image above is one of my favourite in the shoot I really liked the way the light bounces off her eyes and face with a slight shadow on the side of her face. The model looks well positioned and her facial features and hair all highlight her in the best way possible.

All these images are slightly blurred, this may be because I wasn't using a camera I'm very familiar with therefore when we do a shoot for the poster I will be using my own camera which I know how to work properly.

-RM