Planning - Storyboard for Nina

Darren S Cook

I had a visiter come in to my school to talk about short films which was handy considering I am currently in the middle of producing one.   Darren has vast experience in editing, directing and much more, and after working his way up from being just a rune on set, he became his own director. As being a part of a production crew, he told us about adjusting lighting, colour correction on cameras, camera angles, film budgets etc... 

He showed us these...

WISDOM from Darren S Cook on Vimeo.



Little Angels from Darren S Cook on Vimeo.

Experience

I was lucky enough to be invited on set for a feature length film. This experience in filmmaking enabled me to see how it's all done, not only did I watch but I helped out with sound and setting the equipment up. 

It also enabled me to consider the time, effort and money put into filmmaking. Equipment such as, black magic cameras, sound boom, jibs, tracks, camera lenses, and many more. This helped me get an idea of what sort of thing that is expected when filming my short film, only with a smaller crew and cast. Obviously with my short film being amateur I won't be using black magic cameras, therefore, I will be just using a Sony NEX 7 that will give be a good enough quality image to improve the professionalism of my short film. The equipment they used on set, for instance, the tracks shown in the pictures, as I would not be able to supply myself with this type of equipment, however, I thought about how I could adapt it and use something else like a household object to allow me to film a smooth steady handheld camera shot. 

Thinking of an idea for a short film

After completing my 1 minute short film, I started to begin thinking about my initial idea for the concept of my final short film. I started to focus on the essentials of short films, for instance, a small cast and no major plot or plot twists that could cause confusion upon the audience. I started to think of a main, simple initial plot, I also thought about the main characters that I could include which could include a greater impact on the audience. I am personally inspired by the short film "ReMoved" by Nathanael Matanick. ReMoved follows the emotional story through the eyes of a young girl taken from her home and placed into foster care. 

This video inspired me to create a short film with a protagonist of a young girl and her past life that revolved around being bullied and/or abused. With the help of editing techniques I then decided to incorporate flashbacks within my short film to create a bigger impact on the storyline. On the other hand, with sticking with the essential codes and conventions of short films, for instance, I have the two main characters, and then one other characters. I then thought about different shots I could include to make and help my short film look better and more professional. For instance, over the shoulder shots, close ups, POV, tracking shots... etc. Similar to ReMoved I have decided to have a voiceover of the main character, the voice will be of a young girl around the age of 7, this young voice will definitely help me create a more sympathetic atmosphere for the audience as hopefully it will be touching. I have decided that I might add in a slight plot twist to my short film where the main girl is seen in a counsellors office at the beginning, then leading on to flashbacks of being bullied and/or abused, however, at the end it shows the main girl in the counsellors office again as if the whole thing was one big flashback, the cousellor asks what her name is, she replies with her name, which establishes that the cousellor was once the bully. Now I have a main plot for my short film I have to think about the type of audience it will attract, the genre...

Main Task Planning and Research

As part of my primary research for my short film I produced a mood board. Once I discovered my short film initial idea, I began to go on the internet a google images related to my film idea, this was also a free, easy and reliable way to research. 
My short film idea is of a teenager who lives a normal life, when suddenly we see a flashback of her life, we see her walking on the same street gradually getting older, but as this is happening we see again more flashbacks. These flashbacks start with her playing with her friends in the park, then to her so called 'friends' are standing behind her talking about her a pointing as her, lastly, we see her mum aggressively coming to pick her up from school and pushes her in the car. This mood board helped me grasp a better understanding and a clearer picture of what I wanted to produce. For example, the consistent images of young children being bullied I feel makes a bigger impact on who ever is watching as it is hard to see someone so young going through something so horrible. Also creates a bigger impact as it shows how bullying or distress in someone's childhood can affect their life later on, a bit like nature nurture. 

Initial short film ideas

Evaluation and Feedback of 1 Minute Short Film

This is my evaluation for my 1 minute short film "A Day in the Life of Feet". Firstly, because the short film was so short I found figuring out the concept and main ideas really easy as there was not much to it. Apart from the match on action at the beginning the rest of the shots were really simple and quick to film, and actually finding the actors to be in the 1 minute short was the hardest bit! The filming was done very quickly and filmed over a couple of days during our lessons, we also filmed on a simple handheld cam recorder supplied by the school. However, on the other hand, I found the editing rather difficult. With having never used FinalCut Pro before in my life it was a challenge trying to work it out. In the end we managed to figure out the basics of FinalCut Pro on the macs and we were able to edit the shots of our 1 minute short film together to finish with a complete short film.

Personally, I feel very proud of what I have accomplished considering I had never used the software FinalCut Pro before nor have I ever filmed and made a short film or video with a purpose before. I also feel that this has proven me and given me enough experience to now go on further to now focus on my main task; a short film roughly 5 minutes long. Spending time filming my 1 minute video has allowed me to expand on my knowledge and creativity, for instance, when we filmed the 1 minute video "A Day in the Life of Feet" we decided that we were going to put the camera on a tripod, hold the tripod the wrong way around to then have the camera at a low angle making it easier for us to film the close ups of peoples feet without making it look messy. Finally, with the techniques of FinalCut Pro, we used the power of the software to turn out footage the right way up, since using and holding the tripod upside-down left us with footage that was also upside-down. 

I will now go on to carry on using these techniques I have learnt along the way whilst producing my 1 minute short film, and I will also expand on my knowledge and learn new things whenever I am filming or editing. I want my final short film to look as professional as can be with all the little resources I have available to me, so therefore, I will make sure that I never fall behind and always know what I am doing to that assure that I am confident with my project unlike the 1 minute video. 

Disappointingly, in the 1 minute video we slightly ran out of time which could be due to the fact I didn't know how to use FinalCut Pro, due the lack of time, the sound was very poor. Throughout most of the video it lacks in sound which prevents it from looking professional. However, we did manage to add diegetic sound such as the school bell which did help with establishing the location and the plot. Overall, I feel that FinalCut Pro was the downfall to the 1 minute video as more knowledge of editing would have enhanced my video greatly. Next round, I will ensure that time on editing is spent wisely as the editing has a greater effect of the overall short film as a whole. In order to do this I need to fiddle around with FinalCut Pro to establish what does what, theoretically this has already been done as this is what my preliminary task was originally for; to get a feel for filmmaking covering all aspects. 

On the other hand, I am proud of what I have accomplished so far and I have learnt from my mistakes so I have a lot to bare in mind for my future project of which I will be creating a short film of around 5 minutes long. 

~Feedback~

Nathalie - "Considering you have never made anything like this before and this was your first shot it is pretty good, I like the close ups of the feet walking. But I would work on the sound and making it look more professional in the future."