Component 3: Pre-production – Otis Morley’s A-Level Film Studies Blog

Production Diary: Soundtrack Research

Soundtrack is a vital element of film, being responsible for the contextualisation of the mood and atmosphere of a scene. The context and atmosphere of a scene are subject to completely change with the addition of a specific soundtrack.

My film will contain a mix of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout, with both requiring to undergo careful consideration. For example, I will underscore the opening shots of the film in the bedroom with the diegetic ambience of a clock ticking, indicating that the student is under time constraints.

For the woods scenario, I will select a score that evokes a sense of urgency, typical of a chase scene in a thriller. My current plan is to use parts of “Labor Intensive” from A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018).

For the café scene, I am currently planning to use Elliott Smith’s Between the Bars. It is stripped back in nature, being made up of only soft vocals and an acoustic guitar. This matches the setting and aligns with the conventions of the intended romance genre I am attempting to emulate and parody.

For the ending of my film, I require a piece that evokes a sense of unnerve, accentuating the drama and shock value of the scene. Currently, I am using “The Greatest Trick” from The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995), which plays during the shocking reveal of Keyser Söze’s true identity.

Production Diary: Wardrobe and prop acquisition

The costumes and props that I plan to include in my film are relatively basic, and will not require meticulous planning. Below is a general outline of the costumes and props that each character will wear and use.

Costumes

The Student/Protagonist: basic casual clothes – hoodie, tracksuit bottoms, etc.

Hooded Figure: black hoodie, black trousers, werewolf mask

Love Interest: casual clothes suitable for a date

Props

An iPad for The Student to conceptualise their film idea. For this, I can simply use my own Film Studies iPad.
Menus for the café scene, which I should be able to simply borrow from the café itself.
I have now decided for a werewolf mask to be worn by the Hooded Figure. Harry has a mask perfect for the occasion, and will simply bring it on the day of filming.

Production Diary: Storyboards

Below is a list of the 21 planned important shots that I hope to include in my film, as well as the corresponding storyboards.

Important Shots

Establishing wide of house
Closeup of clock ticking
Birds-eye-view shot of the student at a desk
Closeup of calendar
Tracking shot of student walking to curtains
Mid closeup of student typing
Ground level tracking shot of protagonist
Over the shoulder shot looking at hooded figure
Crab shot of chase
Tracking shot of protagonist tripping, slowly dollies up to reveal face
Low angle shot of hooded figure looking down
Mid closeup of student at desk
Tracking shot of protagonist in cafe
Mid closeup of protagonist at table
Wide shot of love interest walking through the door
Shot/reverse shot at table
Waiter POV shot
Closeup of love interest talking to camera
Closeup of student looking out of window
Multiple snippets of the two ideas cut in sequence (editing)
Over the shoulder shot of student watching TV

Storyboards

Production Diary: Screenplay

Writer’s Block: First Draft

Writer’s Block: Final Draft

In the redraft of my screenplay, I decided to cut down on the amount of narration as I deemed some of The Student’s internal dialogue unnecessary. I also presented The Student as slightly more sarcastic and self-aware in the final draft, which can be seen particularly during the window scene.

Production Diary: Location Scouting

As previously mentioned, I will shoot my short film in three locations: my house, the woods and a café. Below are a collection of photos, displaying each setting.

Bedroom

*The desk at which The Student will sit*

Living Room

*This is the angle at which I plan to film The Student, who will sit on the sofa*

Woods

*An intriguing dip in the woods that The Protagonist could trip over*

Café

Production Diary: Research into equipment

Throughout the production process of my film, I must utilise an array of basic filmmaking equipment in order to best capture adequate footage.

Filmmaking Equipment: The Basics

Camera

It goes without saying that the camera is inarguably the most important piece of equipment to consider during the filmmaking process. For my film, I will most likely employ the use of my iPhone 11 due to it being extremely compact, whilst also being able to film at a professional quality. However, if I am unhappy with the quality of my camera, I can resort to borrowing a camera from the department at school.

*My iPhone 11, which I plan to film with*

Lenses

If I do decide to film with a proper camera, I must carefully take different lenses into consideration. Each lens is best utilised for a specific shot type, or to create a specific effect. These include:

Macro lenses which are best utilised for closeups/extreme closeups with the intention of capturing a colossal amount of detail in a single image
Telephoto lenses are zoom lenses that have multiple focal points that are best utilised for isolating a subject that is placed far away in the frame.
Wide angle lenses are used for fitting a large area into a frame. This is very useful for establishing wide shots with an intended deep depth of field.
Standard lenses have mid-range focal lengths and can be used for a wide variety of shots, including wide angle shots as well as closeups.
Fisheye lenses are ultra-wide-angle lenses that capture a full 180º radius. In effect, this distorts an image’s field of view and creates a peculiar bubble-like effect.

Lighting

As detailed in a previous blog post, most scenes benefit from the implementation of a basic three-point lighting setup. This includes a key light, a fill light and a backlight.

Tripod

In order to guarantee steady and stable filmmaking, the use of a tripod is imperative. I currently own a basic iPhone tripod, but it is relatively small in height and it has the potential to restrict my filmmaking ability. I am considering the possibility of obtaining a different tripod, but am currently uncertain of the means of doing this.

Microphone

Capturing sound is another vital element of filmmaking which I will most likely achieve through the built-in microphone on my iPhone. Alternatively, I could employ the use of a boom mic and pole for an overall improvement in sound quality, but I do not believe the drastic inconvenience to be worth only a marginal improvement.

Production Diary: Research into lighting

Lighting is a vitally important element of filmmaking and is a quintessential technique in evoking a specific style. The three core types of lighting are key, fill and, backlighting – each serving a different purpose which is explained below.

Types of lighting

Key Lighting

The key light acts as the primary light source of a scene, usually being the strongest light on the set. The key light can be placed anywhere to create a number of different effects, but it is recommended to avoid placing it near the camera.

There are two main types of key lighting, being high key and low key. High key lighting refers to a style of lighting that displays an extremely bright scene, with no shadows present. Conversely, low key lighting contains lots of shadows and perhaps only one strong key light source.

Fill Lighting

Fill lighting is used to ‘fill in’ any unwanted shadowy areas that the key light creates. Noticeably weaker than the key light, the fill light is usually placed in the opposite direction to the key light.

Backlighting

Backlighting completes the third dimension of a scene, usually facing the primary subject of the scene. Once again, the backlight is considerably less intense than the key light. In effect, a backlight accentuates the silhouette of a subject.

Film Lighting Techiques — *Diagram of the three-point lighting system*

Production Diary: Research into storyboarding conventions

At their core, storyboards act as a visual guide for the production process of filming, informing the director of the basic composition of each shot of the film. A basic storyboard consists of a series of images that read like a comic strip, each panel representing a shot of your film. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to create a storyboard.

Steps to create a storyboard:

1. Make a shot list

After writing your screenplay, write down and number a list of each shot in a particular scene. At this point, it is important to consider what type of shot or angle will most effectively convey a particular meaning or effect.

2. Sketch out storyboard panels

Either using a storyboard template or digital software, sketch out each shot in a separate panel on your storyboard, numbering each as you go.

3. Add any important detail

Be sure to convey any important motion on your storyboarding by implementing directional arrows. Any props of particular importance must also be detailed on the storyboard.

4. Write the corresponding action or dialogue below each panel

This helps to contextualise the particular shot and illustrate the bigger picture of the film as a whole.

Production Diary: Research into screenplay conventions

The screenplay which I will soon write for my film must be formatted in a specific manner, consisting of six main elements.

Elements of a Screenplay

Scene Heading

Also known as the slug line, the scene heading is written in all capitals and is accompanied by INT (interior) or EXT (exterior) respectively. Alongside this, the scene heading purpose is to also give a brief description of the location or setting, as well as the time of day.

Action

Action describes anything that is able to be seen or heard. Any sound effects of importance must be written in block capitals.

Characters

The names of characters belong on a separate line in all capitals. Any character who appears off-screen or any voiceover should be accompanied by (O.S.) or (V.O.) respectively.

Parenthesis

Parenthesis (or brackets) provide contextual information or act as a stage direction for dialogue delivery. These should be used sparingly as to not reduce the readability of the screenplay.

Dialogue

Dialogue is formatted as blocks offset from all other text and is centralised on the page. Any overlapping dialogue is written in a block parallel to the main dialogue block.

Transition

Transitions mark the change from one scene to another, perhaps denoting a shift in time or place. This effectively marks any visual cues on the screenplay, but these should also be used sparingly.

*An example of a correctly formatted screenplay*

Production Diary: Action points and preparation possibilities

In order to fully prepare for the production process of my film, there are a number of actions I must take, primarily involving location scouting and casting.

Locations

My film will take place over three locations, being:

The house of the student (including a bedroom, living room and possibly a kitchen)
A forest area for the setting of the thriller scenario
A café setting for the romance scenario

The first two locations are relatively convenient to film in, due to the fact that I will film the scenes with the student in my own house. Alongside this, I will utilise the woods area located near my house for the setting of the thriller scenario.

The café setting will be slightly more of an inconvenience to locate, as I will have to contact one of the local cafés in my village to request filming permission. At this point in time, my main targets are Woodlands Café -due to my family being in acquaintance with the owners – or perhaps the outside café area in Jubilee Park.

Casting

As previously mentioned there will be four main characters in my film. Listed below are the actors I have cast to play each character.

James Wickes – The Student // The Protagonist

*Pictured above is James Wickes, who is set to play both The Student and The Protagonist. Here, he can ironically be seen with an iPad* *at a* *desk*. *His nonchalant yet modest demeanour will suit the role perfectly.*

Harry Batkin – The Hooded Figure

*Pictured above is Harry Batkin*, *his wolf-like appearance and dark brown hair will suit the hooded figure character well.*

Jessica Gates – The Love Interest

*Pictured above is Jessica Gates, her friendly and outgoing disposition will greatly suit the role of The Love Interest during the hypothetical romance scenario*.

Production Diary: Pitch and reflection

Below is a video of me pitching my film idea to the class. I believe it went relatively well, as the feedback from my teacher was all positive. I was also not asked any questions from the class.

My pitch

Reflection:

During the pitch, perhaps I could’ve directed more of my focus towards the bigger picture of my film, rather than unnecessarily focusing on specific shot types.

Production Diary: Treatment

Working Title:

Writer’s Block

Logline:

Centring around the concepts of both Metacinema and breaking the fourth wall, my film idea involves a student hopelessly attempting to conceptualise an idea for a short film.

Characters:

The Student – the Film Studies student who is attempting to create a short film.

The Protagonist – the central character that will appear in each of the hypothetical film scenarios.

(I am currently unsure whether The Student and The Protagonist will be played by the same actor or not.)

The Hooded Figure – the pursuer of the protagonist within the horror idea.

The Love Interest – the romantic interest that will appear within the romance idea.

Brief:

Despite previously noting that my film will classify under the “parallel stories” brief, I have now decided to opt for the “narrator” brief, due to it being much more achievable and lucidly recognisable.

Synopsis:

We open on an establishing shot of a house, before cutting to a birds-eye-view shot of a student – sitting at a desk – who is hopelessly attempting to conceptualise an idea for a short film. The student begins to type an idea, whilst narrating his thoughts out loud. We then cross-fade into a visual representation of what this idea is, alongside narration of what is happening.

The idea depicts a highly stereotypical horror chase scene in the woods, during which a terrified protagonist is running away from a hooded figure. As the chase ensues, the student’s narration continues before fading out. The chase ends with the protagonist falling to the ground, before the hooded figure reveals themselves to be just a regular person, telling the protagonist that the idea is too generic.

Out of frustration, the student deletes the typed idea before leaving the room. We follow him to the kitchen with a tracking shot as he pours himself a drink, contemplating the ideas in his head (more narration). Coming back to the desk, the student receives a message from his teacher urgently asking him to submit his idea before the deadline. As the student begins to type and narrate a new idea, we fade to another hypothetical scenario involving a cliché scene of the romance genre in a café.

The scenario involves the same protagonist arriving at a restaurant/café for a first date. A tracking shot displays the protagonist sitting at a table, before anxiously awaiting his date’s arrival (glance object of watch?). The woman enters and sits at the table, after which the pair engage in conversation in a shot/reverse shot sequence. The scenario ends with the woman breaking the fourth wall, and informing the protagonist that this scenario is also far too stereotypical.

In a state of desperation, the student continues to frantically type as we rapidly cut to different snippets of the scenarios in a sequence. The film ends with the twist reveal that the student’s final film idea is in fact the film that that you are watching. This will be revealed during the final shot of the film, with it being an over-the-shoulder of the student sitting and watching the opening shot of the film on their TV.

Production Diary: Production Idea

After viewing and blogging about each of the eighteen short films that make up the Eduqas Short Film Collection, the research stage of the coursework process is completed. It is now time to move onto the second element of coursework: pre-production, the first order of business being an outline of my production idea.

Idea

The keystones of my film idea involve the concepts of both Metacinema and breaking the fourth wall. The basic plot of the film depicts a student who is attempting to conceptualise an idea for a short film. Perhaps opening on an establishing shot of a house, the opening scene of the film will display the student sitting at a desk with an iPad, hopelessly unable to come up with an idea.

After displaying a closeup of blank Notes page, the student begins to type and we then cross-fade into a visual representation of what this idea is. We fade to a highly stereotypical horror chase scene in the woods, before coming to an abrupt end (perhaps a comedic resolution). Out of frustration, the student deletes the typed idea before leaving the desk. Coming back later, the student receives a message from his teacher urgently asking him to submit his idea before the deadline. As the student begins to type, we fade to another hypothetical idea involving a cliché scene of the romance genre in a café.

In a state of desperation, the student continues to frantically type as we rapidly cut to different scenarios in a sequence. The film ends with the reveal that the student’s final film idea is in fact the film that that you are watching.

Due to the film involving the portrayal of multiple hypothetical narratives, my film could nicely classify under the ‘narrative which has parallel stories’ brief.