Screenplay link

Screenplay link:


https://hrsfc-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/mp130677_hillsroad_ac_uk/EarOx3WvIKtLozZMMBXdawkBqqgcozEG_GhmJ4LzjGwfMg?e=wHNRzw

Film Link

Link to my film:

https://hrsfc-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/mp130677_hillsroad_ac_uk/EXGaXBAhA2BFpXuMrt8VCgMBk2WhG2arJsd7ChGh_SD6cw?e=FnyqhF

Rejected Ideas

When creating my project I have had several ideas that did not get made, they can be found in my onedrive folder, these were:

HER- my first idea which came from a class activity practicing screen writing. I decided to finish the screenplay we'd started which I ended up really liking however, due to available resources I wouldn't have been able to successful make it.

Fluorescent- An idea which I originally started recording but scrapped as I thought 'We'll meet again' suited the short film criteria better. Also filming large amounts outside in bad weather made things very difficult for me and the actors.

After After Prom- A screenplay I wrote as a backup for fluorescent since one actor dropped out and I didn't think I could replace them. This screenplay was rather spontaneous as I wrote it all in one writing session however, I failed to come to an ending which I felt made sense so I scrapped it.

Plot Synopsis

'We'll meet again' is a noir inspired film in which our protagonist is pursued by his landlord because of a forbidden romance with the landlord's sister, Daisy. Starting in media res, the protagonist, P. Clarke runs along a dark street holding what looks to be a stab wound. It then cuts to P Clarke sittting writing a suicide letter that he later scraps. As he decides not to take his life, the landlord takes it for him in one quick stab in the lower torso. We then see how the running at the beginning ends. In the final shots P. Clarke drops a note addressed to Daisy with the phrase 'we'll meet again'. P. Clarke then drops the note and dies.

Character Introduction

This is a character introduction I did in a lesson. I later completed the whole screenplay as a possible short film idea.

https://hrsfc-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/mp130677_hillsroad_ac_uk/EQjwmn43zC1LvtSHZ1gOz_4B_zcGvDwiJTHsNw8WS2noFQ?e=ru1JgI

Three act structure

The three act structure is a commonly used model used in narrative fiction. In this, the narrative is split into three sections (acts).

First Act- Establishes the characters, world and inciting incident that causes the audience to ask what the protagonist will do next.

Second Act- This is where the protagonist reacts to the inciting incident and tries to resolve it. However, this attempt usually fails or worsens the situation due to either the lack of skills or the forces of antagonism against him.

Third Act- This is where the problem(s) are resolved, usually leaving the protagonist in a new state of equilibrium having learnt something.

In my short film I plan to purposely reject this structure in order to distort viewer expectations to tell a more shocking and disorientating story.

Operator - Caroline Bartleet (2015)

Operator presents a call from a woman dealing with a fire to an emergency operator who helps her and her son escape the fire. We are positioned with the operator throughout as she guides the woman to safety and tension rises. Technically this short film doesn't have that many complex micro elements however the fast pace dialogue and excellent performance creates an clear image of what is going on, on the other side of the phone despite us not visually seeing what happens. We are clearly aligned with the emergency operator through only hearing and because of shots which portion her in the centre of two monitors suggesting she is alone in this job. This showcases the importance of the work emergency operators do. One particular micro element that stood out to me was the silence followed up by a sigh after the call takes place which implies that these workers get now emotional pay off for the work they do. The fact that she picks up another call afterwards creates a cyclical structure that also parallels with real life and how their job is never really over.

Cinematic Ideas

Noir- When shooting previous short films I had learnt that without much control over setting, establishing a consistent colour scheme or palette was difficult and therefore making it black and white looked so much better. I had decided on this style before writing the screenplay which meant that I could adapt it around this style of film.

drama- After seeing the set short films, it was obvious to me that drama works best in the short film format as there is just enough time to build up tension and deliver a crucial moment of shock or resolution. I think the best example of this out of the short films is 'over' where the whole short builds up to one moment of shock then ends abruptly. I don't think this type of narrative would work in a feature film therefore it was perfect for a 5 minute short.

Non-linear narrative- As there is a limited amount of time that the short film can be I wanted to tell the story in a way that poses a question straight away to audience. This question was how did the protagonist get into this situation shown in the opening shots. By showing the ending at the beginning I felt it brings a sense of urgency to answering the question which therefore makes the answer much more shocking.

Arrival - Daniel Montanarini (2016)

Arrival follows the inner conflict a pregnant woman has when deciding whether or not to keep her baby before the father arrives. It is significant to note that in the opening it is clear she is planning on having an abortion because of her choice to have 'as much caffeine as she wants' and at the end she orders a decaf so to discreetly suggests that her mind has changed. Personally I feel this short film was rather lacklustre in action however I do feel like the representation of the pressures on pregnant women was done very well. Some micro elements that I think help this portrayal are the camera that slowly zooms into her throughout and the lighting which is dark on one side and light on the other suggesting her two choices. The slow zoom into the woman suggests that time is slowly going down and she has to make a decision soon, the dark and light also suggests that she has limited options but most choose soon. The performance is also crucial in this because it is an internal monologue so her facial expressions convey the inner conflict very well.

Screenplay format

In class we have learnt about how to format screenplays, a professional  screenwriter came into class and taught the class the basics, from this I have learnt:


Slug line- The tag which goes at the beginning of every scene, it contains the location, interior or exterior, and the time of day. (INT. PLAYGROUND. DAY)


Action/description- The line that describes what happens in the scene, excluding dialogue, and the character's looks/actions. (STEVE SMITH opens the door to reveal JOHN DEAN behind in a long velvet gown)


Speech- When a character speaks it is formatted so the name is central and the dialogue starts on the next line, this can also include bracketed directions into how the lines should be said or portrayed.


                                                                           STEVE
                                                                         (frustrated)
                                            What are you doing here at this time in the morning?


Transition- At the end of scenes you can include transitions to indicate to the reader/director how to end the shot, however these are only optional. They appear at the far right of the page like this:
                                                                                                                                        DISSOLVE TO:


He also added that if it does not use the courier 12pt font most people will not consider investing or adapting the screenplay.

Slap - Nick Rowland (2015)

Slap follows a young boxer as he struggles to balance his private drag interests with boxing, friends and family. This is the longest of all the set films and I think because of this it is easily has one of the best narratives and is able to delve deeper into the main characters psychology. We are aligned with Conner through very intimate scenes watching him look at himself in the mirror which feels almost like looking at a reflection of ourselves. The fact that we are aligned so closely with Conner makes the end so much more dramatic and difficult to watch, especially after seeing him finally open up and accept himself while walking to the party. It is uncommon for a coming-of-age film to have such a negative resolution but I feel it works very well in portraying how in reality problems involving pressured masculinity and conflicted young people have still not been resolved and continue to be an issue. The micro elements that stood out to me were the iconography of mirrors, In particular the one in his room. Conner's room is the kind of hyper-masucline thing you'd expect, blue paint, boxing posters and print outs of naked women. It seems that the mirror is the only part Conner actually can identify with, it allows him to be his most vulnerable self. Personally this is one of my favourites of the set films because it tells a captivating story with an incredibly dense protagonist in under 30 minutes.

Tight Jeans - Destiny Ekaragha (2008)

Tight jeans follows a conversation between three black young men as they wait for their friend to drive them somewhere when a white guy wearing tight jeans walks past which leads to Marcus explaining the origins of slavery and how the world was populated. We are not positioned with anyone in particular but instead we just watch their conversation. Personally I think this short film fulfils the expectations of a light comedy but doesn't really do anything that exciting. Despite this short not being full of interesting camerawork, it does use an interesting colour pallet consisting of bright saturated red, orange and blue on a primarily grey background. To me this links to the opening which presents a rough area however I think the colours represent that even in grey area the people still have bright and colourful personalities with stories to tell.

Echo - Lewis Arnold

Echo follows a girl who pretends her dad is in an accident in order to get money off of strangers. The short film ends with what seems to be a flashback to an actual incident she experienced involving her dad which makes the viewer have to decide for themselves if the girl deserves sympathy or not. This ending was my personal favourite as I feel it somewhat explains why the girl does what she does subjectively so that its not clear how you are supposed to feel because it is done without words. I think the most impressive element of this film is the performance from Lauren Carse which is highlighted by lots of close ups on her face to emphasise the emotions she portrays. I think the best example is in the beginning when she gets into the taxi, we gradually see her face go from tears to calmness in seconds. In this short film we are aligned with the girl however we aren't given any details about her till the very end so throughout the film we have to form our own opinions on her.

The Fly - Olly Williams (2014)

The Fly is a short film which follows a getaway driver's wait for his accomplices while being taunted by a fly which causes him to quickly spiral into madness. We are positioned with the driver as we only see his side of the crime and only see and hear the fly when he does however, there are also shots showing an outside perspective to highlight the ridiculous reaction the driver has to the fly therefore making the film feel more like a dark comedy than some sort of fly-themed crime film. personally this short film didn't appeal that much to me compared to other shorts because its slapstick approach of comedy felt too extreme with barely any transition from swatting the fly to shotgunning his car. some of the micro elements that did work well however, were the slow panning movements around the car which seems to mimic the fly's approach to the car. The editing gradually went from very slow to very fast paced as the driver loses his cool. This makes us understand his anger better because as it speeds up you get a sense of slowly losing control and therefore letting the fly win.

The Ellington Kid - Dan Sully (2012)

The Ellington kid takes place in a kebab shop while a friend recalls a story/myth he heard from a friend. Dan Sully's use of flashbacks and story-telling narrative to present this myth works really well in a short film because it imitates the fast pace and tension of an urban legend without it feeling too dragged out and unrealistic. The story doesn't exactly have a conclusion as we are told to 'use your imagination' to guess whether it actually happened however it ends with an ominous shot of a worker sharpening his knife which hints that it might have.  One specific micro element that stands out is the iconography of knives which is present in both the beginning and the end of the film. I feel like the focus on knives relates to the current knife crime problem which makes the extraordinary story still seem somewhat realistic because of what is going on in real life. Another micro element is the ambient music during the story of the Ellington kid which builds up tension until Beefy interrupts the story. The ambient music works really well to separate fiction and reality, this makes us just as curious as to how the story ends as Beefy.

Over - John Threllfall (2015)

Over tells the real life event of an illegal immigrant, who died while trying to cross borders, in reverse chronological order. This short film completely subverts expectations because of this reversal of events, the whole time we are left guessing as to what happened. This makes the eventual climax so much more unexpected because we focus on one spot for the entirety of the film but from different angles except for where we actually see the action come from (the sky). Personally this was one of my favourite short films we watched because it uses the medium of short film so well to capture this short moment of tension that couldn't be done in a feature film. To me the lack of information with gradual clues kept me guessing throughout which meant during the climax I was caught completely off guard because I was looking for some sort of clue rather than expecting something to happen on that spot. Particular micro elements I liked were the reverse clockwise long shots around the spot which parallels to the reverse chronology of the event, and the ambient sound of just regular people on a regular day which allows me to feel a connection because it suggests this sort of incident can happen in any place to anyone.

What is a short film?

A short film is a film that is not long enough to be considered a feature film (Under 40 minutes) They are used to present short ideas that benefit from the length because it keeps consistent focus on the idea that a full feature film may not be able to do. They usually only explore one major idea, concept or relationship due to its short run time. It is usually important to reach some kind of resolution within the film or at least hint at what will happen after the film ends.

Short films can also be used as a way for directors and filmmakers to show off their talent in order to have their film taken by investors, for example a short film I recently watched, 'lights out'  by David Sandberg, was picked up after it's success on YouTube and became a feature film of the same name. This also happened with Damien Chazelle's 'Whiplash' where , in order to get funding for his feature length screenplay, he transformed a key scene into a short film which lead to the full length film being made.

Introduction
Welcome to my film studies blog, my name is Marty and I have been tasked with creating a screenplay or a short film. I will use this blog to document my progress and planning for this short film. I plan for this film to be around 6-10 minutes long with a screenplay with equal pages to minutes. I have some experience in short film making already that I have done independently and hope to use what I have already learnt to help carry out this task. Although I am mostly interested in more coming-of-age genre films I think that I might try something new such as a more drama-based film because the medium of short film seems to capture short concentrated moments of suspense better than other forms of film. I know this from what short films I have seen so far (Operator, Over) which are able to focus on short but intense moments of drama that wouldn't get that much focus in a full length feature film. However, I am yet to fully see what other genres work best with short film so my idea might still change. -Marty