Unit 6
Short Film production
For this Topic, I am going to make a short horror film that's roughly 3-5 minutes long. To start off this topic, give been given the task to carry out a story structure analysis, here's how it went.
A narrative structure can be broken into three parts very simply;
Set up, Catalyst/ Conflict, Climax, Resolution.
The overall story structure would look something like this.
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​The set up, or Exposition is the introduction or beginning of the story. This gets the audience a bit of information before the main story begins.
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The catalyst sets up the start of action, something that is present as a problem that the protagonist must strive to fix. This is used as a hook to keep audiences watching, usually by withholding information.
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The climax is when the story has reached the pinnacle of tension, usually depicted with a confrontation between a protagonist and an antagonist.
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And finally, the resolution, where the the conflict is resolved. Though this follows a normal story structure, some stories end at a climax
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In other movie examples this is what it'd look like.
Conflict
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Climax
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Resolution
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Set up
The Suicide Squad
Set Up:
The movie starts off with the first ten minutes having a team assembled of prisoners and Harley Quinn who survived from the previous movie. They are deployed to this island in southern America where they find out one of their teammates had sabotaged them and they are ambushed as they arrive, leading to all of them (apart from Harley who is then captured), being killed and leaving Harley with a javelin.
Then the real suicide squad is assembled and deployed, the prior team being used as a distraction.
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Catalyst
It goes into a few flashbacks which introduces the new characters including Bloodsport and peacemaker. They are then given a mission debrief on a man named Luna who is their target was well as an investigation mission into project starfish. This then makes the story flash back to the present of the team arriving at the island.
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Debate
Peace maker and bloodsport despite over how the team dynamic should go and end up running into another teammate who survived. They then make their way into the city on the island to go undercover to find a scientist.
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Fun & Games
Meanwhile, Harley Quinn is taken by Luna and various montages of them is shown of them getting along and shows a love story. Until the point where Luna talks about project starfish and Harley Quinn shoots him with a gun.
It then goes back to the rest of the team finally getting along drinking at the bar.
When the Scientist arrives at the bar, the next point in the story is introduced.
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Mid Point
When soldiers start raiding the bar looking for the "Americans", the team splits up and Bloodsport along with the Colonel and Peacemaker, distract the soldiers and are arrested and dragged into a van. Where they managed to barely escape and reunite with the rest of the team, As they now have the scientist, they start planning their break-in to the Lab where project starfish is being conducted, but not before they plan their rescue for Harley who Is being held captive.
Harley Quinn escapes by herself with another few montages when she then reunites with the team.
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All is Lost
When half of the team split, one side finds the project stairs, but after finding out the misdeeds and involvement of project starfish by the US government, The colonel is about to take the drives containing this information when Peacemaker stops him, revealing his solo mission of making sure the secrets aren't revealed to the public. Peacemaker kills the colonel when Bloodsport arrives again and shoots peacemaker in a gun fight after the building is demolished. Half of them die,
The giant starfish escapes and starts terrorising the city, Leaving the remaining survivors of the group unsure of what to do.
Finale
They have their final battle with the starfish and Hilary stabs the eye with the javelin she had been carrying around since the start of the movie, (tying the end and beginning together). They do this against the Boss's orders and finally kill the starfish.
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Closing image
They go back to the US. (the weasel is alive)
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Character development
Woody from toy story 1.
Woody’s main motivation in Toy story one is to keep his position as Andy’s favourite toy as he has been from the very start. Woody is a cowboy sheriff toy and takes that role somewhat seriously amongst the other toys. Thinking of himself as a leader very dedicated towards Andy and sees himself as his best friend.
Woody’s catalyst for his journey is when at Andy’s birthday, he opens a new futuristic space ranger doll, Buzz Lightyear. Suddenly taking the spot of Andy’s number one favourite toy. Woody feels threatened and a deep sense of jealousy as his status is suddenly taken away from him. Their rivalry suddenly escalates when Woody accidentally knocks buzz out of the room. So Woody tries to get him back before he's missing.
Woody’s central conflict is his emotions. Feeling insecure and jealous, with the fear of being replaced. They cause external issues that lead to physical conflict between Woody and buzz. As Woody tries to sabotage Buzz and his position in Wood’s life. Eventually getting them both stuck outside the house.
The story opens with introducing Buzz as the main antagonist, however Buzz has done nothing wrong and the main antagonist is Woody’s internal struggle with his insecurities and deep jealousy. Sparking his need for validation and incapability to overcome change.
Throughout the movie, Woody undergoes a tremendous transformation. At the start. He is self absorbed, only concerned with maintaining his status. However, the further he and Buzz go on a journey together to get back to Andy’s house, Woody learns what it means to be selfless and letting go of his self centered nature. And realises that the problem wasn't buzz, but his own emotions.
Woody’s story arc is all about growth and self improvement. Beginning the film feeling threatened and resorting to sabotage and trying to get rid of Buzz forever. Woody comes to understand the importance of friendship and acceptance after almost losing buzz. Becoming a teamwork driven toy, instead of a selfish one.
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We have been given the task to pitch our own ideas for a horror movie, Heres how my pitch went.
My Pitch
Our First draft
Directors visual treatment
Script Lining
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ZOOM IN
Horror production Evaluation:
Pre production:
The process of coming up with ideas for the horror film itself was relatively easy. Everyone had an idea that contributed to the final script. However, I think with all things considered, we were too ambitious, we had aimed to initially shoot in a hotel using scenes along the hallway but had been either rejected or ignored by every hotel we had contacted. I think we were very lucky to be able to find someone with an air bnb instead, and didn't need to change much about the script. I do believe however, that it would have looked visually better in a hotel especially because it matches the theme of horror a bit better and would have looked nice to get shots of really long corridors.
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Another case we might have been too ambitious is when we had trouble finding an Actor. With the script that we had, we needed someone who was good enough to be able to give the audience a story without any dialogue. Some scenes also required very heavy emotions, and I think that either a non-actor friend or someone from my group would have been unable to deliver that, which meant the whole script could have been compromised. It was lucky when we did find an actress but it was all very last minute. In the future, I think it would be better to rely less on a script that would need a better actor, and focus more on the story itself.
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For our first day of the production, we had a total of 3 days to record sounds and film everything we needed. So that was 1 day where we recorded sound and the other two days which were reserved for filming, with a strict deadline of finishing at 10:30pm on the 2nd filming day. We started recording all of the sounds to add to the final edit (like doors opening, forks dropping, etc.). We did this easily since the airbnb was old and made quite a few loud noises anyway.
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There were also times I feel that we could have been a bit better prepared with charging batteries, despite only having a limited amount of time, we had spent a while waiting for the camera batteries to charge which meant that we weren't getting as many shots as we were hoping to. I think this was very inefficient, and one instance where this was happening was at the start, the main character had stood outside the airbnb and cut to the Dutch tilt, I had only 2 takes to do this as camera was on 6 percent and it was being shot in an awkward position. This was also likely to spending too much time on the first couple of shots in the beginning which took around 10 minutes each. I didn't think the shot looked too bad in the end with what i had to work with but definitely think i could have done better with more preparation. If I were to do this again, I'd make sure there were spare batteries that were constantly put on charge after another, and also plan out how long each shot would take beforehand and stick to a strict time schedule.
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We had also did a few test shoots of the dragging scene at the end. This was quite difficult to do because we couldn't test it out too many times and it hurt every time we had our stand in the drop. However when it came to the actual scene, I think it turned out quite well, the second take had a nice speed to the fall and drag at the start. So practicing was definitely effective. This was done in a very limited amount of time since we had only 10 minutes to take the longest shot, it meant that unfortunately we weren't able to pay much attention to the quality of the image. If I were to do this again however, I'd say the camera could probably get a bit closer since it was harder to see if the actual footage was in focus properly, and you can see that with the final result.
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On the first day of shooting, I found it a bit difficult to work with the actress because we had found her when she applied to our advert that we had sent out. This meant it was a completely different experience because we had to get to know her properly, and also make sure she was comfortable, as well as making sure we had enough work done to fit with our schedule since we were on a time crunch. Overall, meaning I found it quite stressful from the start. I think this could have been better if we had met the actress first or atleast have a video call with her and is definitely something I'll consider in the future.
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In conclusion, I think that the overall production went well with what we had. I liked a few of the shots, and definitely wish we had done a few others differently. The whole planning process itself could have definitely been a bit better and the time management wasn't as efficient as I had hoped. But looking at the shots we had, it came together quite nicely which was great and made all of the stress worth it.