Final Cut "Get Off My Land"

Changing My Idea (yet again)

Sound in Short Film

It doesn't matter what film you're creating, whether its long or short, sound or at least music is an imperative convention. 
Music is an extremely powerful tool in film making, it contributes to the entire mood and feel of the whole thing. When working in professional film making the director is able to find a composer and instruct them to create a sound track tailor made for the film. When creating short film, or low budget films like I am, of course this isn't often the case. However luckily, a very talented musician in Sixth Form wants to improve his show reel, so he has offered to sit down with me and go through my own ideas for the film, then he will go off and compose something that he see's fit. This is a great help, meaning I wont need to trawl through none copy right music sites in order to find something perfect. 
Personally I find that one of the first things I always think about when creating anything, is the music. When creating my AS work I found a bit of music and that's what gave me the inspiration for my actual film.
In the professional film world top composers working on the big Hollywood block busters can earn a three figure sum! Also the use of an established artists song can earn them up to 3Million. But normally speaking the score for a major movie represents about 8 Percent of the whole film. 

Pivotal/My favourite Sound Tracks- 

Breaking the fourth wall.

Traditionally when talking about "Breaking the fourth wall" people automatically think of the theatre. However it is also a term used in film. It means when an actor or actress talks directly into the camer, addressing the audience directly rather than staying in the film world.

The idea of the fourth wall was brought about by a philosopher named Dennis Diderot with the advent of theatrical realism, this extended to the idea about having an imaginary boundary between any form of fictional work and the audience or viewer. Speaking directly to the audience is or acknowledging the audience is called "Breaking the fourth wall". 

Often its comedy that uses the technique of breaking the fourth wall, it allows the actor or actress to share their joke, almost like you would a private joke to a friend. One of the most prominent examples where its done very well is in the BBC comedy Miranda. 

However of course there are instances where breaking the fourth wall has been used cleverly in seriousness. For example in Othello, Iago played by Kenneth Branner he often breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience. This is often when times are tense, adding to the suspense. Iago is the evil character, through talking directly to the audience, he is revealing his inner most feelings, which provides some dramatic irony for the audience. 

What is a narrator?

Within the the film/television/short film industry narration is often extremely presen, in a lot of cases its been used at the beginning of films, this gives the viewer a chance to really become at one with the main protagonist.
Of course there are many cases where a narrator has been present the whole way through, the purpose for this type of narrator is often to reveal the thoughts of the character. I think its a really good technique when done properly. This type of narrator is also called a "View Point Character".
A narrator may tell the story from his or her point of view, or perhaps the point of few from one of the characters in the story.

Types of Narration:

Narrative Modes-
Often writers display their story through first person, or third person narrative. Generally a first person narrative reveals the inner most feelings or opinions of the character. The role of a third-person narrative is where it provides an almost panoramic view of the not just one character, but reveals many thoughts or feelings of different people. It doesn't home in on an individuals percpectives.

Multiple Modes-
Sometimes writers choose to have many different narrators within their story. This leaves a lot more to the audience, it allows them to use their reason to decide who is the most reliable narrator, or the one they want to follow the most. It could be that many seperate characters have their own streams of consciousness.
In ancient times Greak Theatre used a chorus to narrate the plays they put on. As a group they made social commentry about what was going on. This is quite similiar to Mutliple Modes of Narration.

During my AS work, I used a narrator, I had a young woman reciting a poem that had connecting themes to my film opening. In my Short Film at A2 I think I will definitely use a narrator as pretty much all of my favourite films and my inspiration have a narrator.

For Example-

"What I'm not sure about..."



"I used to understand it....."



Pitching My Idea; A change in thought.....

Rob Brown- Short Film Director.

When researching film festivals I kept coming across a man named Rob Brown. I was immediately drawn to his work because the poster for one of his short films "Silent Things" really grabbed my attention. Rob Brown is now becoming a very prestigious short film director, his work has been screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and been shown on the BBC, he's also won 'Best Newcomer' amongst many other things. 

I went on to watch the "Silent Things" and realised it is incredibly similar to the kind of thing I am to produce as a short. 

I really like the way he looks deeper into the truth of humans and human relationships. He deals with stereotyping and prejudice, and does all this tactfully and tastefully. 

Interestingly after going on research more of his work, I found that I have actually come across him before. On an earlier blog post i've written about a short called "Paper Hearts" that I found on the BBC film network. It turns out that he has in fact directed that as well. 

I plan to keep a close eye and follow the work of Rob Brown as I think I could get a lot of inspiration from his work. 

Research: Short Film Festivals

London Short Film Festival: "The best short film festival in the world" Guardian Guide. 

LSFF is an event that occurs annually to showcase the best of the UK's short film making talents. Every year for a couple of weeks the festival  takes over London's best independent cinemas to showcase the short film entries. 

The LSFF has now occurred for ten years and have a very established reputation for showcasing the best of the UK's fresh film making talent. 

In 2003 Kate Taylor and Philip Ilson organised the first Halloween short film festival at the ICA. In 2008 the festival grew into the London Short Film Festival  and each year has been revolutionising and growing. 

I think that short film festivals like LSFF and others around the country are extremely important in the film making world. There are thousands and thousands of big Hollywood blockbusters being hurled out constantly and while these are all well and good, what happens to the little people? 

There are so many film makers that are on a budget, or haven't got the time or connections to even think about making a full length feature film. People like LSFF allow this smaller production companies, maybe of only one or two people to showcase their work on a national scale.

Okay, maybe they don't all get greatly accredited but at least their work has been showcased and appreciated. 

I think that smaller, more independent film makers should lead the way in modern media. 

Pixar Short Films

When I first started researching into short film, I thought that I hadn't actually been exposed to that many examples of it. I thought the only times I have actully seen short films was at art festivals and events etc. I didnt really think that they were that widely speculated.
After doing a bit of research I realised that actually from a young age i've been exposed to them. In most Disney Pixar films there is a short film at the beginning, for example the Birds one, shown to the left. There is also the squirrel one in Ice Age, which is widely recognised and speculated.

For the Birds is one of the most famous Pixar short films. Its won a series of awards:

• 2002 - 74th Academy Awards - Best Short Animated Film
• 2001 - Vancouver Effects and Animation Festival - Animated Computer 3D Short
• 2001 - Anima Mundi Animation Festival - Best Film x2
• 2001 - Chicago International Children's Film Festival-Short Film or Video - Animation-Second Place
• 2000 - Annie Award - Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject
• 2000 - Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival - Best Animated Short Film

I think that they are a really interesting way of getting audiences into the film. Clearly Disney Pixar films are aimed at children  and I think that these shorts demonstate perfectly getting their target audience right.



 

Our Individual Roles in "Get Off My Land"

Before the filming process we hadn't really got set roles, it  was something we were planning to do,  however we never really got round to it.
However when it boiled down to it, on the actual day of the filming we seemed to just fall into roles that suited us.
I found myself sorting out the costume and assistant directing. Of course I helped with the other roles, but working with in a big group it was just easier to filter off and get on with the things that needed doing. Organising costume is something that I have never really had an interest in, however I quite enjoyed it. I had to watch the video a number of times to be able to see what the costumes were and how the character wore them. I found this surprisingly interesting. When I looked closer into it, I could really get a grip and an understanding of why the original director chose the costumes. For example the young woman is wearing full walking clothes. A pink raincoat, waterproof trousers and walking boots, the male is in white trainers, that he clearly doesnt want to get mud on, jeans and a fairly smart jacket. The fact the man is dressed in these clothes, shows how little he wants to be on this walk, or how its really not a part of his personality. The woman clearly is an avid walker and it means a lot to her. The fact the couple are dressed so differently really adds to the fact they are clearly in an unhappy relationship. They obviously dont share the same interests anymore. I found it very interesting that I could get all this, just from looking at the clothing that they were wearing.
In my role of assistant directing, I found myself having to really use my patients. As a part of the production team, I knew that one of my imperative roles was to make sure the actors knew what they were doing at all times, so that they could perform to their best ability. As it was a cold afternoon, and we were all tired and hungry, often tension was high.
Mostly I let Aimee do all the big directing, as she was using her family and her farm as actors. I found myself often repeating the information she said, to the other actors, but quietly and more slowly so that they a hundred percent knew what they were doing.

Talking about my working process

Filming "Get Off My Land"

Today was the day for filming our own version of "Get off my land". We chose to begin filming at mid day, so that we had a good few hours before it started getting dark, as when we were filming "The Hangover" last year, we found this a problem. All was well and good and we arrived on location, with everyone set up and in costume for around 2pm. 
The first problem we faced was that stupidly we hadn't thought about the wifi not reaching as far as the field we were filming in. We took the laptop, however we couldn't get the clip to play, and none of us were able to get 3G on our phones. However luckily between all of us, we were able to cobble together what order things came in. 
We had to get all of the parts that Aimee's dad was in first over and done with, because he didn't want to be kept away from work for too long. We decided the best thing to do was to film his lines continuously, as in the actual film you never see the three characters in the same shot. 
Andrew had a bit of trouble learning his lines, so we had to shout the lines to him, so he could then recite them. Even though we got us saying the lines on camera, when we come to editing the final film, we can cut these out. We also had to make sure that the other characters were positioned in the right place, so that we had the eye lines right. This is something we had to play around with a little bit. 
Another issue we had was when we went to shoot the gun to make the birds fly out of the tree, the birds flew in completely the wrong direction. However this wasn't a problem that we could have accounted for ourselves. 
Getting the shot of James dying was another tricky part, it was difficult for  him to act the impact effectively and fall in the right place. This was the thing that took the most shots, but I hope that we have managed to achieve something that matches the real film. 
When it came to Abi having fake blood splattered on her, we could only find blue food colouring, rather than red, which clearly isn't suitable. The only other thing that would have been fairly acceptable was using watered down tomato sauce. We added some bbq sauce to it, to achieve the deeper red colour, to make it look a little more authentic. 
Despite having to have very smelly food substances wiped across her face, Abi was an extremely good sport and did the part justice.
Occasionally we all got a little bit frustrated with each other, but I think its just because we wanted to get the best out of each other. 
Hopefully we have managed to create something that is similar to the real thing, but I guess we wont know until we start editing! 

Short Film Comparison.

Reflection by Sharon Lock (click here)

My Dreams/My Reality by Jon Hardy and James Ward (click here)

Dear Foreigner by Kate Jessop (click here)

All three of these short films have very different stories with different meanings. After watching them, there are two that have obvious similarities. "Reflection" and "Dear Foreigner" are both done in stop motion art work, which I think is a very interesting touch, as the director can clearly portray what he wants in a more natural way. When using actors a director can only do so much of the work, for example you could be filming something very emotional and close to your own heart, but using actors, they wont be able to tap into the exact emotion that you are trying to display, they will be tapping in their own and using their own experiences, which sometimes doesn't have the same impact. If you are creating a piece of art work to make into a short film, you are physically sculpting and crafting using your emotions, the only tool you have is yourself and I think this can be a lot more powerful. 
The fact that all three of the short films have a narration is something I think makes a powerful piece. All three use narration in a different way: song, 1st person narrative and reading a letter, they are all very evocative portrayals and all three have a certain air of social commentary. My Dreams/ My reality and Dear Foreigner deal with much more pressing issues, issues that are extremely prominent in our society which is becoming ever more permissive. Dear Foreigner touches on adoption and parenthood, which is clearly very socially current, however its done in a very tactful way. The narration appears as 1st person narrative, however because its spoken as a letter it distances the audience, this twinned with its almost cheery tone is almost paradoxical to the issue, however displays a sense of innocence which shows a different side of the story, in the sense, often women who give up their children, for whatever reason are shunned slightly in society, however as this woman speaks about her experience in almost poetic language, you cant help but relate to her choices. However much more pressing issues are raised in "My Dreams/My Reality", and the fact that the narration is directly in 1st person really draws on the emotion. She takes the viewer through her own emotional journey and this has a larger impact compared to "Dear Foreigner" although similarly both narrators spoke with a sense of naivety, which seems to impact further. Its touching how the young girl in "My Dreams/My Reality" speaks with such openness and truth, even though the issue of sex trafficking is a bit of a taboo in society, its not widely speculated as its such a disgusting, horrid thing. 
Coincidentally Reflection is about a story of a mans life growing up. Its interesting because it connects really well with the other two films. Reflection shows a child developing through life, in a serious of images, which is incredibly similar to Dear Foreigner, however Reflection is very tame, and the way the director has used stop motion with drawings allows the viewer to relate it to themselves, because by using a drawing, it makes it fairly ambiguous.  Dear Foreigner and My Dreams/My reality are two social extremes, and Reflection perches nicely in the middle, its an honest portrayal of growth and development. 

Script "Get off my land"

In organising the filming of "Get Off My Land" we had to make sure that everything was accurate, including the script. As a part of the production team I wanted to have a very good knowledge of the script, but also we needed to write it out to give to our actors. 

Script- Get Off My Land- 

EXT. 

Male- bit wobbly

Female – sighs

Farmer – I’m afraid this is private land

Male – sighs

Female – sorry I thought this was a public footpath

Farmer – no

Female – im sure it said that this was a public footpath

Farmer – there are two public footpaths across my land and I’m afraid this isn’t one of them. As I’m sure you know, the law allows you across private land, but only on a private footpath.

Female – come on

Male – we’re not harming anyone though are we, eh? what makes it your land anyway?

Farmer – it er, it belonged to my father

Male – where’d he get it from?

Farmer – it’s been in my family for generations

Male – who’d they get it off?

Farmer – well they probably bought it

Male – who’d they buy it off?

Farmer – the previous owner I imagine

Male – and before that? And before that? And before that?

Farmer – somebody probably fought for it

Male – alright, I’ll fight you for it.

Female – what

Male – I’ll fight you for it

Farmer – ha

Male – ha, the moral hypocrisy, of the land owning upper classes. What? What? Sighs.

Farmer – okay, let’s fight for it

Female – look we’re going, okay. No, we’re going, we’re going

Female – hysterically cries

Farmer – you know what, I’ve got a feeling this is a public footpath.