Postmodernism

For the exam, we have been studying Postmodernism, which has really captured my imagination. I have decided to add a postmodern element to the film.
In the first section, there is a sense of hyperreality surrounding the acting which sets up the rest of the short movie.
In the second section, it is filmed in a room of my basement which is painted red, with red handprints on the wall. It adds a very eery sense to that sense. Through a strike of luck, I passed a book i am studying for English lit called the bloody chamber by Angela Carter, and it seemed appropriate with the room, and extending the idea of postmodernism with intertextuality.


BH

Christmas Break

Unfortunately, i had a long gap over christmas, where revision for the january exams took presidence over the filming and planning. But fortunately exams are over, and the media is back on track.
BH

Target Audience

Our Target audience is strongly towards the late teenage market, showing them the consequences of drug related issues. Saying that, there is also strong drama involved with a dark culture and reality in the film. We feel that middle aged and even early adults may enjoy watching something less, non-fictionized and more real, modern and correct.

Process of Creating Film...So far

Myself and Ben have been working with the mese en scene within his basement. This will be for the early and late shots of Dom. The Panning shot which covers half the room (180 rule) works well with the sofa's and door in shot. These means we can quickly shift from motion to other camera shots like over the shoulder with dialogue.

We have thought of numerous idea's for script and i am yet to post them but will be doing that shortly. The core idea of the short film will be of a drug deal gone wrong with revenge also going wrong, leaving the audience with a sour look and feel of drug culture.

We are laying down some effective and powerful work with the hand held camera, switching to classic shots with CCTV style crane shots. It can be very difficult but we are working in the process.

The lighting mostly consists, of dark rooms with lamps, shown in shot. We also feel each lamp, kettle and piece of furniture etc. must be shown as part of the mise en scene, creating a more believable. Some of the lighting is natural, or relied on street lamps for the gritty scenes.

The editing is being done on iMovie for macs, which is helpful since we have easy access to them. We are wondering to cancel the 180 rule, with a Dogme style. It looks more open, though could effect the audiences belief. If done wrong it could look tacky and like a home video. Effects are open to use on the imovie and we are yet to decide on the CCTV shots effect, this works well with a green and dark colour.

The casting is simple to be Myself (Dom) and Partner (Ben), with help from Drama students within our school, willing to take part. We are looking at bout a cast of 7. with one camera man/director.

Costume is of stereotypical street drug dealers, with sport tracksuits, trainers, chains and rings if necessary. an angry appearance, with not much to loose is what we are looking for from each character. Giving out an idea that no one is safe in the world of this film.

Our poster is being created on Adobe photoshop, and will be uploaded shortly.


DW

Dogme95 Realism

Dogme 95 is a film making movement established in 1995 by the Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. They started this film movement to combat the Hollywood-ised nature of modern day film including mass special effects. Dogme was initiated to make film makers and audiences alike re think the art, effect and essence of film making.
The Vows of Chastity are a set of ten rules that Dogme 95 states needs to be employed in a film of this genre. They are as follows:
1. Filming must be done on location.
2. The sound must all be diegetic, including music
3. The camera must be hand-held
4. The film must be in colour without added special lighting
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden
6. The film must not include superficial i.e murder, weapons etc.
7. The film must take place in here and now
8. Genre movies are not acceptable
9. The final picture must not be in widescreen specifications
10. The Director must not be credited


The reason why this is so relevant to our film is that Dogme95 provides a sense of realism to the film, while being made with a very low budget. Also the Vows are very easy to follow, as many of them we don't have the potential to do anyway. For example we dont have special lighting, and even though we go against a few like genre and superficial actions and we need to be credited because its our coursework it doesnt matter because the few we can comply with will help the realism of our film. 


BH

Production: The End

For the end of the end of the film, i want a really strong ending to leave the audience feeling emotionally drained. Even though it is really hard to create i want to have a hanging scene end which sounds slightly drastic, but i think it would end the film with a 'wow factor' scene. The few examples which i looked at have used shots of swinging hanging feet, and the noose around the neck, with the top half of the body. The idea is that you are given enough implication of the act without seeing an explicit long shot showing the whole body hanging, which is obviously quite dangerous.

This link is a clip from Kidulthood, and is the only clip i found with the scene in it, so its slightly longer than needed but the last 7 seconds is what im looking at as it does exactly what i want to create.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFlpF-lvUE

BH

Short Film: BFI Moving Shorts

The British Film Institution created a compilation of short films they consider to be worth recognition. This is based on originality and production. However, the four i watched seemed to contain originality for originality's sake. What i mean by that is that they have been asked to create something original and they have come out with something very abstract. An example is a short film on the dvd called 'The first time it hits' which is just 3 minutes long. However in that three minutes there is not much else than some shots on the end of a skateboard, some close ups and extreme close ups of a teenage girl and a few of a boy. They manage to make it look very grainy and extremely home-made. Having said this it is supported and funded by ScreenYorkshire and it is Lottery funded.
Again, similaar to the virgin media shorts, the films i watched seemed to have no narrative, purely an idea around which the creators slightly adapt a few times.

BH