My short film will consist of a dream had by a young teenage girl called Grace, in which she dreams that she was never born after an argument had with her mum. The dream shows what life would be like without her and how her family/friends’ lives would be. This storyline is slightly inspired by ‘It’s a wonderful life’ due to a similarly based storyline as the film shows the character ‘Frank’, what his life would be like if he did not exist. Other
The first short film I was inspired by is ‘Hilary’ by Anthony Hodgson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqMhU7ke15s
This short film is about a dream that a little boy has while a man tells him a story – as the man is telling it the film shows what the boy is dreaming about as the story goes along – this is similar to the style that I want my film to be like in regards to what Grace is dreaming about as I find it a unique way to edit how the story is being told at the same time as showing what is happening. This way the audience can never be left out
This also influences my idea for a short animation sequence when Grace falls into the parallel world as it is an animation – I am particularly interested in the stop motion animation style as it is slightly jumpy and eerie. This is a similar style to a director such as Tim Burton (although this is no longer the case later on in planning the film as I decided to stick with real life people and have a more drama based genre, however, there are still elements of fantasy such as the dream)
I have also researched how I would like Grace’s bedroom to look in order to set the mood and look like a typical teenage girls bedroom – this gives the audience an idea about what kind of person she is – getting to know the character better without having to read too much into it
Grace’s Bedroom
- Fairy lights over bed
- Lots of pillows to fill her bed
- Not a lot of light coming into the room
- Low-key lighting
I have done research on how I would also like the Kitchen setting to look like – and to make it look as realistic as possible. I like the way the layout of this kitchen looks as it is spacious and is perfect for how I would like the two characters (Mum and Grace) to be standing during the opening scene while washing the dishes.
Kitchen
- Small space
- Green screen
- Dishes piled up
Here will be the scene where Grace and her Mum have their argument while they are washing the dishes in the opening scene
Primary research
I will be hiring the zero one studio at Westminster Kingsway College in Soho, which will cost around £495 a day for a 9 am to 6 pm schedule; this also includes lighting.
However, props and equipment are not provided. This is a limitation to the location I am filming in and other equipment such as cameras and tripods will have to be provided by my production team. As well as props such as the plates, washing liquid for the opening scene in the kitchen and objects in the bedroom such as the fairy lights and bed covers.
I have taken pictures of the studio set up including cameras, tripods, lighting and green screen.
I also created a survey using the survey monkey website, in which I asked short questions based on my film. This helped to gain feedback and see how successful my film would be through the answers I received.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZLXMYZ7
Research outcomes
Using the Primary and Secondary research, this was useful as it helped to influence the appearance of my story, including cinematography such as lighting and the mise-en-scene.
This includes the location, costume, characters etc. it was useful to have this research to help me plan out how I wanted my short film to look, giving me more of an idea to base mine on.
The research was relevant as it helped me to bring my short film to reality. This includes my survey that I created based on the themes in my short film, I determined how enjoyable it will be for audiences of a similar age.
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