A detailed realisation of the rationale and processes required to execute the project, working collaboratively and/or independently where appropriate, to achieve a successful creative outcome.
Create strategies for negotiating the creative, technical and intellectual challenges of your production processes, identify simple and complex processes, as well as coming up with appropriate solutions to the complex processes(aka problems).
Discuss, evaluate and justify approaches are taken and decisions made in relation to the successful and effective completion of your project.
Log document production processes in relation to the outcome(indoctrination) Document creative processes, demonstrate effective planning, risks are taken and solutions to creative problems.
For my final major project, I have decided to go with a short narrative drama (5-7 minutes) following a male character with certain mental conditions(intermittent explosive disorder, an antisocial personality disorder and alienation) through his life as he becomes exposed to media violence, displaying desensitisation and side effects eventually becoming obsessed/aroused by watching graphic deprecations of violence. The purpose of my short film is to address the critical and cultural issue of media violence, being readily available to the mass consumption of media, and the issue of over-publication of media violence being identified as the problem.
My short film will be targeted at 15 classification age rating as strong violence will be implied however it will not be directly shown more portrayed through sound. The target audience is 15 and upwards, this is due to the factor that it should have some intrigue of the implication of violence, whilst at the same time being no higher than a 15 rating doesn’t put off people who don’t like visually graphic violent content. By doing this it should allow the piece both give a preferred different message about the correlation between, media violence and acts in which it has been linked to ‘real crimes of violence’, whilst at the same time leaving the audience to make their own assumptions about the effects and causes of media violence from this different perspective.
I am going with the genre of drama to address the issue of media violence “Drama films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worse, and everything in between” – Filmsite.org By going with drama attention should be drawn to the issue of media violence whilst at the same time is an interesting short story making it more likely to make people think about the issue.
https://dalesmedia.wordpress.com/2020/01/17/research-proposal/ – In my planning for the major project I did some research and mood boards into potential lighting and camera visuals which have contributed towards the visualisation of my short film which is bringing to from. However, after reading https://nofilmschool.com/2017/06/guide-how-use-light-communicate-emotion-film I have looked into various Lighting techniques, and ways in which to communicate emotion in my short film as that will be an important factor.
For the scenes in which the character is looking at videos, I originally had an idea to show a view of the actual computer screen, however, decided against this as it would require getting youtube algorithm to show the videos that would need to be relevant and recommended. I, therefore, decided to go with a motion graphics option, of showing graphics around the character of what they are typing, clicking on, I took inspiration from the film “The Circle” which uses to portray digital input, messaging etc.
Indoctrination Script – First Draft
For my first draft of the script, I went with an in-depth descriptive, and step by step narrative of the character becoming affected by the media violence, however, after giving it a look over after I had done it, I discovered I had used too many acts of exactly what the character was doing, which isn’t necessary and may even become boring to the audience being shown every act the character does without interpretation.
Indoctrination Script – Second Draft
I shorted my script and took out unnecessary scenes, as well as restructuring the descriptions as they went correct for the format an actor needs them to be in. I then had my script looked at and gone over by someone else in order for a new perspective on the narrative structure, and overall effectiveness of the script.
After getting feedback on the script I altered the necessary parts in order to make the draft to a more professional standard.
After changing the script and getting feedback on it I read an article https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay/, on the correct formatting of scripts and improved my scripts format, which is important in order for it to be correctly understood by the cast and crew.
Experimentation
I set up a meeting with the actor to go through some lighting, and camera tests of the computer scene shot. – Reference in bibliography – I did this to practise the shot, and work out some of the problems.
After practising the shots with the actor, a few problems raised, I had booked out small led lights which in the past had been sufficient, however, due to the time of day and light they didn’t make enough of an impact, as I discovered from filming in a room with a lot of light. So I decided rather than continuing to try and get the light to work which it didn’t, I booked out the studio to try some of the night time shots, this worked well with the led lights, however, in the end, I actually looked better with the just the light illuminating the character which goes with the feeling of the character been filled, with all of the over-saturated of media violence, and he’s becoming something different because of it.
I experimented with different lenses, DOF, Position and movement with the actor, I did this to try and go with a gritty feel, and to ensure the characters feeling and motives can be inferred visually whilst at the same time not being too obvious.
This was a useful session as it allowed me to communicate with the cast and crew and get a feel for what it would be like on set, as well as building communication with the actor as to the exact performance I needed.
After getting a feel for how long shots/scenes would take to film due to difficult camera shot and lighting I created a grant chart style schedule in order to order what Needed to be done from the deadline backwards. I did this because on a project such as this one of the important factors is management, by going with this style of schedule it allows me to go by and highlite tasks done as I go along making the project more manageable.
I did a recce of some of the locations quickly, for potential locations to film at as shown below.
After doing a detailed recce of some of the interior and the field locations, I saw a few potential problems, first of as to the mise en scene of the interior it needs to look like the character lives alone and is antisocial (Reference planning for major.) However, in its current state, the kitchen doesn’t look like that however I addressed this by coming up with a backup hour and a half to get to the location and remove some of the pictures and ornaments and rearrange for the correct theme and mise en scene in order not to attract attention away from the character.
Call Sheet Interior, Call Sheet Streets, underground Norton
After doing a recce, I created call sheets for, equipment that would need booking out, exact hour by hour day schedules, as well as all of the cast and crews, contact details. I created call sheets as it will be effective in managing the cast and crew and project on time and in order, as to minimise potential problems.
I decided against going with a shot list and instead went a detailed storyboard, I have done this because often on set in the past I haven’t used one and are more likely just to use a script and a storyboard to show the visualization of a shot, however in consideration by professional standards this would not be done and If I were to give my storyboard alone without a shot list, it is possible the vision I have for my project could be portrayed, however, in the future I will fill out the correct documents as it is important whilst working in the industry to understand all the building blocks that lead to a successful project.
If the coronavirus outbreak haven’t happened a few things I would have done differently is to have made a more detailed and precise recce of the interior as I had planned which would have produced a more detailed and effective storyboard, as at the moment its okay but not necessary to professional standards.
Evaluation
If I had done the production of my short film as planned it is likely I would have hit a few problems such as lighting, as I have done some research into lighting a scene, however one thing I would have had problems with is lighting a day scene whilst not making it look like a soap opera with not enough dramatic lighting. I could have potentially overcome this by bringing Devo lights and focusing more and specific parts of characters face rather than non-directional such as led lights and turned down the exposure on the camera to create a more dramatic look.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak/lockdown in the UK, I was unable to film my short film at all, even though I had planned out shots, and lighting I often come up with some ideas on set for shots, which I haven’t as I’ve only planned, this plus the factor that the Covid-19 affected a more invasive and descriptive plan for a recce of the interior of the location I had a less in-depth visualization of the shots in location, this means that the portrayal of my short film will not be as good as it could have been. This affects my creative artefact in various ways by it not being visualised to the fullest potential it could have been my creative artefact won’t portray the feeling, and thought invoking visuals it could have done. This means it probably won’t invoke a strong sense of the effects, causes and perception of the critical issue of media violence.
For the storyboard, I’m very good at drawing and so, I went with the pre-programmed models in a program called ‘Storyboarder’ this would be sufficient for portraying the visuals needed to be taken and could be given to a camera operator director and the vision I have for the film should be reasonably the same, however in the direction of the actual purpose of the short film, which is to: get the audience to have thoughts about media violence, to challenge their perspective and opinions whilst at the same time allowing them to formulate their opinions about the causes of media violence and its effect on individuals with mental conditions. However, due to the basic formless models used in this storyboard, it is unlikely that it will invoke emotion and thought to the standard my film would have if I had been able to produce it. In the shorts, I looked at in my planning for the major project they portrayed a feeling, to the audience, to be invoked by the audience, however in its current state as a storyboard animatic it just doesn’t invoke feelings the way a live film would have. However, it does portray the idea of what the film would look like and need to portray and could be used in conjunction with the script and be shown to a director/ Camera operator and I am confident that it could be used and correctly visualise the idea for my short film. I could have however tried contacting an artist to commission sketches which may have portrayed the feelings, the effect I wanted my short film too, this would have improved the effectiveness of my short film.
By conventional standards the idea of the piece does follow a realistic story of a real character with issues and mannerisms, however, in its current form as an animatic storyboard, it just doesn’t portray the emotion and verisimilitude the way in which I had planned to with an actor who is effective at portraying various subtle and extreme levels of emotion.
In the future at some point, I do want to produce this film as it is an issue that I have a passionate interest about, and in order to do this to the highest professional standards and creative expression, it can be there are a few things which would need to be changed improved. The following are the storyboard/shot list doesn’t have enough variety of shot sizes and angles and makes the piece less likely to evoke strong and powerful emotion in the audience, this could be improved upon by doing more research into similar pieces as well as looking more into the codes and conventions of drama genre. Another thing that I could improve upon is certain parts of the script, which are lacking in description of the actor’s performance at part, and if I couldn’t get the same actor I was going to use who can understand my vision and improvise very well, my vision of the performance required wouldn’t be effectively expressed in the script. This could be improved by reading more scripts and articles on correct script writing specifically of drama script writing.
I had problems in adding audio to the animated storyboard and so, in the end, went without it, this has negatively affected the video and will mean its message won’t be effectively portrayed although there are descriptions of the sound effects that would have been used in the detailed storyboard.
Due to the nature of the storyboard ananmic I wasn’t able to add in the motion graphics in which I would have portrayed the flooding of media violence into the character, making it seem less like his fault and more at the fault of the over-saturation of violent media content.
Bibliography/References
https://dalesmedia.wordpress.com/2020/01/17/research-proposal/
V. Renee (2017) “a guide on how to use light communicate emotion for the film”. Retrieved from https://nofilmschool.com/2017/06/guide-how-use-light-communicate-emotion-film
Sc. Lannom. (2019) “how to write a movie script: screenplay format and examples”. Retrieved from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay/
T. Dirks (2020) “Drama Films”. Retrieved from https://filmsite.rog/dramafilms.html
(Klein, A. N, Wang, J. G, Preston-Campbell, N. R, Moeller, J. S, Parvaz, A. M, Zhu. W, Jayne, C. M, Wong. C, Tomasi. D, Goldstien, Z. R, Fowler, S. J, Volkow, D. N ) (2014) “Reactions to media violence: It’s in the brain of the beholder”. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4160225/
L. Rowell Huesmann (2007). “The Impact of electronic media violence: scientific theory and research”. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2704015/
Science Daily. (2017). Cross-Cultural-Study strengthens link between media violence, aggressive behaviour. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases.2017/04/170411085742.htm/
Columbia Medical Centre(2007). Science Daily. (2007). “This is your brain on violent media”. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206093014.htm/
Nature. (2019). “Exposure to violence affects the development of moral impressions and true behaviour in incarcerated males. Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09962-9
Glassman. S PsyD. (2018). Is it time to look away? Health effects of watching violence in the media. Retrieved from: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/health/is-it-time-to-look-away-health-effects-of-watching-violence-in-the-media-20180315.html
(Klein, A. N, Wang, J. G, Preston-Campbell, N. R, Moeller, J. S, Parvaz, A. M, Zhu. W, Jayne, C. M, Wong. C, Tomasi. D, Goldstien, Z. R, Fowler, S. J, Volkow, D. N ) (2014) “Reactions to media violence: It’s in the brain of the beholder”. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nig.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4160225/
Archer M.D, D. (2019). Violence, the Media and your brain. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201309/violence-the-media-and-your-brain/
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/downloads/story-circle-template/
Dale 