CDM 345 Short film production
Theme and Narrative structure of JOKER:
At the start of this film we start with Arthur Fleck who is are main character who lives in the city of Gotham, his job is to dress up as a clown and to do odd jobs with this costume. Having this job also for shadows what he will do in the future by being the clown prince of Gotham, they also set it up by showing how Arthur is treated by other people and how why he turns the way he does in the future building his character by having him imagine stuff about people. The conflict and rising action is shown slowly and why h becomes this person such as getting fired from his job ,finding out that his mum is not his real mum and also getting beaten up and mugged. The main conflict which sets up the main story arch point is when Arthur kills 2 men on the subway which causes lots of mayhem and also allows Arthur to become his true self this also influences many people to cause mayhem and to commit crimes this would be the trigger point of the film where it changes the life of Arthurs. In the end Arthur murders a famous tv star live on tv and also admits to his crimes which causes up roar leading to people supporting him and rioting for him against the police, the tv star would was not nice the Arthur and would call him names. The theme of Joker is bullying and how being tormented and lied to can create and new person and make them do bad things to other people but how not getting help and cause this. In joker you can see what the classic 3 act structure is and what points make what and how they build the story throughout. They do this through the lighting and tone they use in the film as they use lots of scenes will low key lighting which creates a sadder, doll look to create mystery. The music is also don really well to create different tones such as when Arthur is sad or something is going bad or not right.
​
​
Arthur being beaten up and lied to
Arthur getting fired and kills 2 people on the subway
Arthur killing a famous tv star on live tv and admits to his crimes then gets arrested
start, middle and end
Theme and Narrative structure of DIE HARD:
In Die Hard the film starts off with John Mcclane on his way to see his wife who he has fallen out with for christmas but to also se his kids. John Mcclane is also a officer of the New York police, when he arrives at his wife's place of work at the Nakatomi plaza where it seems like a normal christmas party when terrorists take over the building and John ends up hiding and gets away from the terrorists. This point is the set up and the rising action point of the film where you can see the film and where it is going using the classic theme good vs bad. The rising action increases more and more in the film creating a good build up of tension between everyone this is done by the terrorists blowing up a police armoured van which then makes the FBI try to go into the building but cant so they decide to try and use a helicopter to go in from the roof which is found out to be covered in c4 which is found by John building the tension even more. The c4 is then exploded killing the FBI which leads to the terrorists to trying to escape quickly when the leader of the terrorist group taking John Mcclane's wife so that he can try and escape which he doesn't and John Mcclane drops him out the window this point is the crisis and then the falling action happens as he is framed as a hero by everyone and stopped the terrorists on his own. The overall theme of this film is good vs bad and how the muscle of one person is able is able to beat a massive terrorist group but also they follow the classic the boy gets the girl and becomes the hero of the film which everyone wants to be like. The tone and theme of this film is shown very well in many different ways such as the lighting, actions and dialogue and such as being a cross of genre such as being a action , comedy adventure and mystery.This is shown in the action of the film such as the explosions and shooting and fast pace action but also comedy side such as the way john talks to the terrorists and the dialogue he uses such as "yippee ki yay motherfucker" giving a comedic vibe for the film.
end
start
Middle
John going to his wife's christmas party for the holidays
terrorists take over the building for money and John kills them on by one and the FBI are killed
John kills all the the terrorists and becomes the hero
Theme and Narrative structure of SCARFACE:
In this film Scarface the lead character Tony Montana is migrant which come to Miami After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami, this is the set up for are story getting ready for are rising action. Tony joins a drug cartel doing jobs for it and killing lots of people who stood in his way Tony then decides to kill his first boss so that he can take over but his boss becomes aware of this and sends an assassin to kill him but before he does this he is Tony kills his boss Frank which leads him to become a power hungry boss who is ruthless and kills and anyone who is in his way this part of the story is are rising action. Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the drugs that comes into Miami which becomes his biggest downfall as he becomes hooked on drugs himself and becomes so big other cartels try to kill him as a result of him becoming so power hungry. Because of this the other cartel sneaks into his mansion and try to kill when Tony sees them coming for him and then ends up killing loads of the people who are coming from him but then is overwhelmed with people and then is shot to death. I think the theme of this film is that Tony thinks that he is immortal because he has so much power and money that he can do anything and no one can stop him and this is all been done by him self becoming so hungry by dominance, power, and influence. In scarface you can see the classic 3 act structure as he comes to Miami to find a new life and then becomes normal to his life style and wants more and more then kills his boss after that becomes his own downfall by all the power he had gained and gets himself killed. The tone of scarface is that what ever goes up much come down as he rises to power so quickly with money and drugs.
Tony comes to Miami in search of a new life
wants more and more ends up killing his boss and becoming very powerful
All his power and killings catch up with him and his house is taken over by the cartel and he is shot to death
Character development
What is character development ?
Character development is when you make a character more alive by making the more of a relatable character ,giving them more depth this can be by making them have more emotions or a background in which people can relate to but also how they respond to challenges and to other people.
Forrest Gump
What is Forest Gump's overarching motivation ?
In forest Gump the main protagonist Forest Gump has a very different overarching motivation as you really never know what is going to happen next and what adventure he will be going on and whether his choices are good or bad ,so i would put this in the story arch which way is up. According to kylan Pardew, Bianca Louis, Christina Hurtado-Chavez, Ashley Kreiter, Justin Gonzales, and Shelby Wolfe ,Forrest Gump Forrest strove for success, as a psychologically healthy person. His blessings were stupidity and physical impairment of legs/back. His "final goal" was to be himself. In doing so he brought success to his own life and those around him.
​​
What is his backstory ?
In Forest Gump the story is told so that you can understand and found out his backstory as its being told and you find out more and more about him as the film goes on. Some of the key points in his back story would be his physical impairment which made him have to wear legs braces when he was a younger child which made him walk slower and also his mother dying who was always there for him at a young age. Some other key points are him getting with the love of his life but then she sadly dying but also him serving in the army and going to fight in the Vietnam war. Another key point is him meeting the presidents of the USA and also playing in the olympics becoming a ping pong master.
What is the catalyst that sends them on their journey ?
I think in Forest Gump there is many things which causes a catalyst which causes his journey to start some of them are him coming over his disability and running after he could not walk that well this leads to many things in his future such as running coast to coast, playing in the olympics for ping pong and also going on lots of other adventures such as fighting in the Vietnam war and also having his mother pass away
who/what is is their antagonist?
I think in Forest Gump there could be a couple of different things which could be classed as his antagonist as there is many different stages in his life where he has an antagonist some of them could be, the bullies at the start as they tease and push forrest at the start and make fun of his disability this pushes Forrest to over come it and break through it. Some of the other key points which could be classed as his antagonists could be the people he fighting in the Vietnam war which kills his best friend. I think overall the main antagonist in this film is the people around him and how he wants to prove to everyone that he is different and can do anything he puts his mind too. However himself as he is overcoming everything in his life as well, such as life its self is the antagonist in his life but he doesn't let this stop him and he overcomes it.
How does the character change over the course of the narrative?
I think at the start of the film forrest is a shy young child but over the film you see him break through this by becoming more and more confident in himself, I would say this is because of Jenny helping him over come the bullies in his life and after a while he becomes compassion towards others especially his mother and Jenny. You can see how Forrest deals with his emotions in the film such as when Jenny and his mother passes away he just decides to run across to the country away for him dealing with his emotions. In the ending Forrest gets the typical happy ending as he gets to spend it with his son.
What is their emotional story arc?
Forrest Gump is a very emotional story and this is why its such as classic film as everyone is able to relate to it and it touch peoples souls with a different emotional story arc such as having happy ,sad and exciting scenes and some of the scenes which make this is the death of jenny and his mother but also his best friend. Also the happy scenes being him over coming his disability but also all the other adventures that he goes on which are many. In Forrest Gump you can see his emotional arc as they are shown very well but how he deals with them and how he reacts to them this can be see in the scenes from the start and how his emotions are shown at the end which can be compared and show a clear change and the main one his shyness and how its different but also his compassion.
Horror Film Generations
Working Title: Levels
Log line: "After a hard day of work a man comes home when he takes his last ever elevator trip ?"
synopsis:
After a long day of work George comes back home from his office job to his run down apartment block when he takes the elevator as he is too tired to take the stairs and presses the button to his floor when the doors opens its the wrong floor but shrugs it off and pressing the button again but as it goes up the lights flicker on and off to black and then you hear the ding of the elevator as the doors slowly open revealing the wrong floor again when someone says "hold the door " but tries to quickly close the door as he wants to get home. George who is showing signs of being annoyed and frustrated looks outside of the elevator then presses the button again then revealing the wrong floor again when he is really annoyed decides to to take the stairs but yet again he comes out on to the same floor when he hears the elevator doors open and it dings and shouts "hold the door" suck on this floor he presses the button again and again till it opens when it comes back then it opens he gets in and when he turns around and sees a shadow standing next to him but theres no one there being confused and scared he walks away slowly as its pushing him against the wall bagging his head making him bleed he runs away up the stairs trying to get away when he hears someone struggling running towards him scared of this noise and running he runs back down stairs and then finds himself in a hallway then the door slams shut on him with no escape the shadow comes closer and closer the lights go out he turns on his phones torch as he shivers in fear and as the monsters face is slowly lighten up with the torch of his phone the monster jumps out cutting straight to back with the films title.
Character development and their development throughout the story ?
The character development through the story as you can see him become more and more scared and confused by what he is seeing as the story progresses and the stress that he has already endured as the story is set as George has come home after a long day of work at his office job as you can see this from his clothing and the objects that he's carrying there is no dialogue but you can hear the worry in his actions and his expressions.
My Pitch to my Group
This is me pitching my idea to the group overall I think that we are going to take parts of mine and someones else and put in a bigger and better idea. we done this as we all enjoyed elements of each others ideas and wanted to put them together in the end.
Visual Treatment
This is the idea we put together from everyones ideas which is called leaving levels and everything bellow is for are final idea below you will find all the necessary paper worked need to make this production.
Scripts
Peer Feedback :
With the peer feedback that we got they really like elements and ideas from each of our ideas but wanted some things to change such as they way we explained his friends death within the script as they thought it was a little insensitive the way it was said which we changed they also liked the ideas of how the location changes from one. This gave use the idea of bringing are ideas together to make one big idea.
Final Script:
Behind The Scenes
Short film Pre-production
Final film product
Post production and evaluation
CDM 350: Film editing
Go to the CDM 350 page to find the editing evaluation