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: Component 3 Overview

The third component of the A-Level Film Studies course is a production-based unit worth 30% of the qualification. This entails an entirely independent filmmaking project, involving the creation of a short film with a duration between four and five minutes. The coursework process will be entirely documented in a series of blog posts referred to as the Production Diary, this post being the first of many. The short film must align with one of the four briefs established by the exam board, listed below:

• A narrative which has a distinct genre.
• A narrative which has parallel stories.
• A non-linear narrative.
• A narrator.

The creative process of the making of the short film can be clearly divided into six ‘elements’ of production:

• Element 1 – Research
• Element 2 – Pre-production
• Element 3 – Production
• Element 4 – Post-production
• Element 5 – Evaluative Analysis
• Element 6 – Submission

Research involves the viewing of the Eduqas Short Film Collection, which consists of 18 films that will be viewed in class and will each receive a respective blog post afterwards. During the Evaluative Analysis process, at least three of the 18 films must be credited for imbuing creative inspiration within your own short film.

Pre-production is a lengthy process which occurs after a clear, finalised idea of what the short film will entail has been reached. The mandatory aspects of the pre-production process are listed in bold:

• Production Idea
• Treatment (written in detailed prose, using film-specific language)
• Pitch (filmed verbal delivery of the treatment, followed by discussion)
• Pitch Reflections (subsequent thoughts, audience response, teacher feedback, etc.)
• Action points and preparation possibilities
• Research into screenplay conventions
• Research into storyboarding conventions
• Research into lighting
• Research into equipment – cameras, lenses, etc.
• Location scout
• Casting
• Finalised screenplay, with evidence of drafts and versions
• Filmed rehearsals
• Filmed screenplay read-through
• Storyboards
• Practice shots
• Wardrobe and prop acquisition
• Makeup
• Special effects
• Soundtrack research

Production involves the entire filming process of the film and all aspects of camerawork and editing are assessed. A diverse range of camera shots and editing techniques are encouraged within the production, through the application of the key elements of film form. Performance skills are not assessed.

Post-production is another fairly lengthy process which has the potential to impact the final mark significantly. Through the process of frequent screenings in order to receive invaluable feedback, this process will involve reshoots and rewrites in order to improve the film in the best way possible. New cuts of the film will be edited in LumaFusion.

Evaluative Analysis involves a 1600-1800 word evaluation of the production. It is here that the Eduqas Short Film Collection will be referenced. The evaluative analysis will include:

• The narrative structure of the short film – an analysis of how the narrative features and dramatic qualities of all short films studied are constructed – highlighting key ideas which informed our own production.
• Cinematic influences – an analysis of how audio/visual elements of other professionally produced films or screenplays – including short films -influenced our own short film.
• How our film creates meaning and effect – an analysis of how our production creates meaning and generates responses for the spectator in relation to other professional short films – including at least one of the Eduqas Short Film Collection.

Submission is the final element of the creative process, involving the handing in of three specific documents:

• A cover sheet, completed with the class teacher.
• The final short film itself, uploaded as a .mp4 file.
• The evaluative analysis document, uploaded to the shared OneDrive folder.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Treatment

My film will involve two characters, a father and a daughter.

We open on a closeup of an empty glass containing a few drops of water which the father then inspects to see if there is any water remaining. After discovering it is practically empty, he picks up the glass and he heads towards the kitchen. Before he reaches the kitchen, he encounters the daughter holding another empty glass. The father then asks the daughter if she can refill his glass, seeing as she is doing the same anyway. She reluctantly accepts the request and takes the glass from him.

We cut to the daughter in the kitchen pouring squash into one of the glasses, then diluting it with water. She moves onto the father’s glass and pours some squash into the glass. She then realises that he asked for water, and proceeds to carelessly throw the squash into the sink, unknowingly leaving a minuscule amount remaining in the glass. The camera focuses on this. She dilutes the squash with water, realising her mistake and masking the contents of the drink. The daughter enters the dining room and she places her squash down on the table. She then gives the other drink to the father. The daughter takes a sip of her squash, scrutinising the father. As he takes a sip of the drink, we cut to a reactionary shot of the daughter’s devious expression. The film ends on a closeup of the father’s confused reaction to the extremely dilute squash before any dialogue can ensue between the two characters.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Introduction

We have been tasked to plan, film, edit and upload a sequence featuring two characters in a kitchen, during which a drink is offered and accepted but secretly has something added to it.

The first order of business is to write a treatment. A treatment is a document that presents the story idea of a film before writing the script in its entirety. They are often written in present tense, in a narrative-like prose. Information included within a treatment usually contains the title of the film, a story summary as well as character descriptions.