Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Monday, 24 September 2007
Jens ideas for a short film
Idea 1.
Basic plot outline:
A young well-off girl who is a high achiever and is well behaved is having a difficult time at home dealing with her parents due to either options of;
- her father having an affair with another woman.
Or…
-her father that abuses and beats her mother.
Their arguing is so often that their own depression an anger has taken their attentions away from the girl and they begin to neglect her as well as taking their anger out on her.
The girl begins to rebel and becomes attention seeking. She becomes pregnant due to loosing her virginity to a an older boy from her school in a one night stand. She then gets into drugs, starting with coke then moving onto LSD. The film shows how her life goes downhill and what she experiences during her trip. The trip will end in her being involved in a car incident by getting run over or passing out in an alley as well as loosing her baby.
Themes:
Drugs and their effect, pregnancy and abuse.
Audience:
Teenagers and Young adults as the content wouldn’t be suitable for young viewers.
Jens semiotic analysis of 'About A Girl'.
About a Girl by Brian Percival, is a social realist text that was made in 2001. The Protagonist is a young 13 year old girl whom is also the narrator of the script which uses a linear narrative.
The film begins on a hill from a field or park with the girl dancing and singing in silhouette, at this stage of the film the plot of the film is quite mysterious and unknown.
The film is set in Manchester in a stereotypical working class area with stereotypical working class values of life. Her accent, use of language and clothes imply she is a working class background. The girl is in a silhouette while singing Britney Spears’; ‘Not that innocent’. This song deceives the audience at the beginning, protesting her innocence, showing it as being her teenage dream. The shot then switches to alongside the canal. The girl, Toni, is walking along while the camera follows slightly in front of her. I think the wobbliness of the camera is used to make it more casual as if it’s a friend she is speaking to. The lighting of the short film is natural. It is set on quite a dull day which could portray a casual or depressed meaning to fit in with the surroundings. As she walks along the canal background sound is very quiet, perhaps to keep focus on what the girl is talking about.
Through out the film the shots jump to past scenes showing what she is talking about, for example her mum and dad. In these scenes we see how weak her relationship is with her and her parents as well as the weakness in her mother and fathers relationship.
The girl jumps from subject to subject, telling the audience bits of information about her family such as her parents bad relationship as well as her own with both the mother and father. This shows her loneliness and isolation. She also tells the audience about her and her friends dreams of being singers which is the topic she always comes back to after floating onto another. As it comes to the end of the film, she tells the audience how she’s good at keeping things from her mother, again showing isolation and weak relationships. The camera switches to a high crane shot to show the surroundings. She throws a bag in the river and we learn that she had an abortion. A low underwater angled shot shows the fully formed baby falling out of the bag still with umbilical cord and blood seeping around, which is the only strong colour that is used in the film. The way she throws the baby into the river and walks off emotionless as she again sings ‘stronger’, is very cold and disturbing. This again shows her dreams of being a singer, which is another theme of the film. The open ended narrative shocks the audience which is a technique often used in short films.
The film begins on a hill from a field or park with the girl dancing and singing in silhouette, at this stage of the film the plot of the film is quite mysterious and unknown.
The film is set in Manchester in a stereotypical working class area with stereotypical working class values of life. Her accent, use of language and clothes imply she is a working class background. The girl is in a silhouette while singing Britney Spears’; ‘Not that innocent’. This song deceives the audience at the beginning, protesting her innocence, showing it as being her teenage dream. The shot then switches to alongside the canal. The girl, Toni, is walking along while the camera follows slightly in front of her. I think the wobbliness of the camera is used to make it more casual as if it’s a friend she is speaking to. The lighting of the short film is natural. It is set on quite a dull day which could portray a casual or depressed meaning to fit in with the surroundings. As she walks along the canal background sound is very quiet, perhaps to keep focus on what the girl is talking about.
Through out the film the shots jump to past scenes showing what she is talking about, for example her mum and dad. In these scenes we see how weak her relationship is with her and her parents as well as the weakness in her mother and fathers relationship.
The girl jumps from subject to subject, telling the audience bits of information about her family such as her parents bad relationship as well as her own with both the mother and father. This shows her loneliness and isolation. She also tells the audience about her and her friends dreams of being singers which is the topic she always comes back to after floating onto another. As it comes to the end of the film, she tells the audience how she’s good at keeping things from her mother, again showing isolation and weak relationships. The camera switches to a high crane shot to show the surroundings. She throws a bag in the river and we learn that she had an abortion. A low underwater angled shot shows the fully formed baby falling out of the bag still with umbilical cord and blood seeping around, which is the only strong colour that is used in the film. The way she throws the baby into the river and walks off emotionless as she again sings ‘stronger’, is very cold and disturbing. This again shows her dreams of being a singer, which is another theme of the film. The open ended narrative shocks the audience which is a technique often used in short films.
Short Film Scripts
There are many types and genres of film scripts. Many tell a story, send out a strong message or shock the audience. These techniques are vital in a short film as the audiences attention and interest must be kept as there is a shorter amount of time to allow the film to be successful.
Some successful short film scripts are found through film festivals. Here, people can enter their own film to be judged.
The Awards for the 61st Edinburgh International Film Festival went to
Control, We Are Together and Billy the Kid
Control by Anton Corbijn was presented with 2 awards; Best New British Feature Film and the Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film.
The Skillset New Directors Award went to Lucia Puenzo for the short film; XXY. Teen orientated, this film is about a 15-year-old hermaphrodite. This is an example of controversial scripts that are often used in short films.
Some successful short film scripts are found through film festivals. Here, people can enter their own film to be judged.
The Awards for the 61st Edinburgh International Film Festival went to
Control, We Are Together and Billy the Kid
Control by Anton Corbijn was presented with 2 awards; Best New British Feature Film and the Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film.
The Skillset New Directors Award went to Lucia Puenzo for the short film; XXY. Teen orientated, this film is about a 15-year-old hermaphrodite. This is an example of controversial scripts that are often used in short films.
Funding
Funding
‘The New Cinema Fund encourages unique ideas, innovative approaches and new voices.’
They are aimed at providing funding’s for films that appeal to a wide audience which short films should cater for.
They will be looking for films with;
-fresh original and dynamic work in any style or genre;
-diverse, innovative, new and 'cutting-edge' filmmaking talent;
films from across the UK and/or from black, Asian and other ethnic minority filmmakers;
-films that utilise the benefits offered by digital technology in the making and showing of films;
-films that have secured or are in the advanced stages of securing the services of a director and principal cast;
-films that have contractually secured, or in our opinion have the potential to do so, a UK theatrical release or a high profile digital release with a distributor, or with a web broadcaster acceptable to the New Cinema Fund
(bulleted info copied from Ukfilmcouncil.org.uk)
They look at projects from scripts with no funding’s through to films that have been shot but in need of completion funding.
-The New Cinema Fund supports:
-Feature films from script stage
-Pilots
-Shorts
-Documentaries - feature length
-Feature films - completion funding
-Warp X
(bulleted info copied from Ukfilmcouncil.org.uk)
The UK Film Council and FilmFour, over 3 years are each going to invest 3million each to help launch the Low Budget Film Scheme to build a scheme for short films for the first time in the UK. Their budget will be 5 million which will fund both feature films and over 100 short films each year. Which scripts will receive funding’s will be decided my the Head of the New Cinema Fund.
‘The New Cinema Fund encourages unique ideas, innovative approaches and new voices.’
They are aimed at providing funding’s for films that appeal to a wide audience which short films should cater for.
They will be looking for films with;
-fresh original and dynamic work in any style or genre;
-diverse, innovative, new and 'cutting-edge' filmmaking talent;
films from across the UK and/or from black, Asian and other ethnic minority filmmakers;
-films that utilise the benefits offered by digital technology in the making and showing of films;
-films that have secured or are in the advanced stages of securing the services of a director and principal cast;
-films that have contractually secured, or in our opinion have the potential to do so, a UK theatrical release or a high profile digital release with a distributor, or with a web broadcaster acceptable to the New Cinema Fund
(bulleted info copied from Ukfilmcouncil.org.uk)
They look at projects from scripts with no funding’s through to films that have been shot but in need of completion funding.
-The New Cinema Fund supports:
-Feature films from script stage
-Pilots
-Shorts
-Documentaries - feature length
-Feature films - completion funding
-Warp X
(bulleted info copied from Ukfilmcouncil.org.uk)
The UK Film Council and FilmFour, over 3 years are each going to invest 3million each to help launch the Low Budget Film Scheme to build a scheme for short films for the first time in the UK. Their budget will be 5 million which will fund both feature films and over 100 short films each year. Which scripts will receive funding’s will be decided my the Head of the New Cinema Fund.
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