Title:
Aurora
Genre:
Alternative/ indie
Log line:
Ever feel so alone till someone sparks the light of your life?
Synopsis:
A girl has a lantern tat isn’t lit, she goes to a party in the woods where she feels so left out she runs away, a boy follows her, he then lights her lantern.
Treatment:
The opening scene you see a girl on her own alone, with a lantern that isn’t lit. Her friends convince her to come along to a party in the woods. She sees everyone else happy with there lit lanterns and she runs away due to them laughing at her. A boy follows her because he does have a lantern. The film ends with a shot of them both holding a lit lantern.
Blowing up balloons for the set
The team!
This morning we discussed the film screening. We came to the conclusion that June 20th is the day all our FMP’s will be shown. The doors will open at 6:30pm, the screening will begin at 7pm.
The supplies we need are as follows:
The box one seats 140 people, this means that each student gets to invite a maximum of 3 people. This doesn’t include tutors.
Other invites consist of:
Each student has been given a job for the screening, this is to help the whole event run smoothly.
This gives us all an idea of what needs to be done on the event and allows us to reference if needed.
The opening shot of the film is supposed to show how lonely she is… The idea of the train going past was to disorientate the audience so that the first thing they see confuses them (because it going so fast) after that they are left with a girl stood alone and sad. I like how this shot was framed but looking back at it I would have had the camera closer to her… However this was difficult with the trains and keeping everyone safe. We did check train times to make sure we could go on the and around the tracks.
The idea behind this shot was to show time passing, but it ended up looking too jumpy, this isn’t something that will make the final cut. Another reason I don’t like it is because Id rather have stood in the middle of one side of the tracks and her her off centre… Just a preference and to break up the rhythm from the first shot being centred
This shot when colour corrected could be amazing… The reason is because the focus is on the lantern and not on the girl. This shows the main focus of the film and the audience knows that the girl and the lantern will be coming together. This shot was filmed at least 10 times because of placement and getting the right amount of blur when she moves it.
I DO NOT LIKE THIS SHOT ONE BIT! This is because I wanted to show movement, but it ended up looking like a moving potato… The slider should have been higher and I should ahem told her to walk slower… But alas this is the rubbish I ended up with.
This shot would have been better from the opposite side, main reasoning is because the lantern blends in to the railings and you loose the focus. Also it set perfectly centred….
This is probably my favourite shot from the test shoot this is because I had to think outside of the box to get it. We started off with the camera on the tripod at the same height of the swing, it needed motion, the static shot wasn’t allowing the breathing room it needed. So i put the camera on the swing, this worked but the height was wrong, so we moved the swing up and this is the final product. I also like how you can see the chains from the swing the camera is sat on.
The shots so far were pretty basic, so I thought it was a good idea to lie on the floor under the swing with the camera and get this shot, I like how it is out of focus and its like the camera isn’t even there, I feel like this shot is very free.
Things I learnt from my test shoot:
21/03/17
We’ve been given the following themes to think of film ideas for our FMP
I have thought about each one and have settled on choosing identity, this is because I want to make something personal to me but indirect.
23/03/17
My ideas for this project are not flowing as well as I would have hoped, I have been free writing in hope that this sparks a motive for an idea. This helps me because I can ramble on about things then look back and figure out what works for me. I have a few ideas in mind, such as a sound scape and filming a story I wrote for GCSE’s
29/03/17
I have started looking in to tattoo culture and where it originated and the different history in different cultures is about, I have found this really interesting. The reasoning behind this is identity, tattoos are marking on the skin that tell a story. It shows what people have been through. But in todays society it is locked down upon. I wanted to research why this is. I stumbled upon lots of interesting history in Polynesian culture.
04/04/17
After researching tattoo culture more I have realised that there are so many documentaries out there on the culture of tattoos. So much variety that I’m struggling to think of something unique to create without travelling to other countries… Back to the drawing board…. Not that this in not a subject that interests me but I feel like there is enough out there already to make this a covered subject.
25/04/17
After having the whole of easter off and thinking about ideas, I have come to a decision. the idea I’m going with was inspired by the song I’ll be good by Jaymes Young. To me this song speaks to me on a level of mental illness. Something I have been dealing with for 6 years. However instead of filming a really cliche film about me feeling sad most of the time… I thought it would be a nice change to create a storyline in a fictional way. The story to the film is a girl with a lantern, she is sad because it isn’t lit, she goes to a party in the woods, where everyone’s happy because there lanterns are lit. She is unsure of a boy who looks intimidating. When the party goers see that her lantern isn’t lit they begin to laugh at her, with this she runs off in to the woods. With fury she trows her lantern down and begins to cry. This is when the boy from the party picks it up and lights it for her. Showing that bad things, are actually good things. The film will end with a shot of them both holding the lit lantern.
02/05/17
After having the pitch to Rebecca Day I now feel more confident about my final idea. The feedback I received gives me hope that my film will actually get done. I just need to be more confident when speaking in a pitch. I’m currently planning a test shoot where I will see if my narrative makes sense. Im taking the Canon 5D to multiple locations in Grange over sands and hoping that I can figure out the style of my film whilst testing.
04/05/17
After test shooting I discovered that I’m not prepared enough to create my film yet. We got to the locations and I had mental block about the shots and what needed filming…. If I’m honest I wasn’t prepared for the shoot. After sitting down and talking to tutors about narrative, I have decided that I need to adapt/simplify my idea in order for the audience to understand the message I’m portraying. I wanted to stay away from cliche mental health films. After creating spectrum, I feel like I can achieve this. As spectrum was about bi polar and battling with the other characters in your head. This gives me confidence to create a film that does mental health and bullying justice.
10/05/17
Im researching music videos and films about mental illness to create a basis for the look of my film. Gods whisper by ray inspired me to get more people involved in the cast of the film. This sparked the idea to not make it such a lonely film. I am going to get a group of teens to throw a party in the woods which my main character goes to. She will feel out of place because where lantern isn’t lit, this is when Jack will be revealed as a good guy. I also created an online survey as primary research: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/F963GT2
17/05/17
I have a shot list!! After sitting down with Kitty and making her my cinematographer we started writing a shot list, most of the ‘party’ scene will be shot off script just because I wan to go with the flow that the actors want. Speaking of actors I have asked the performing arts students to help me out, I still need to cast the two main characters. Today I got all my pitch feedback up on my blog and Im starting to feel really positive about the film. We will hopefully be filming in the first few days of June in serpentine woods in kendal. Before I film I do need to go location scouting. Another big change is filming on the FS700 instead, Kitty and I discussed having slow motion in the film to make the audience feel ‘drunk’ as if the were in the party, also to have most of it handheld to break the film up, this way the audience will feel more like they are there.
23/05/17
I’ve got actors!! Theres at least 20 people helping me out on this film, looks like filming is ready to go ahead as soon as equipment is available. For now I need to research music videos and mental health films to get the biggest range of shots and understanding of what needs to go in to this film. However today I have been helping Izzy paint her sets for her final major project. This afternoon I’m planning on annotating my research and photos I have collected.
24/05/17
This morning we discussed the film screening. We came to the conclusion that June 20th is the day all our FMP’s will be shown. The doors will open at 6:30pm, the screening will begin at 7pm.
The supplies we need are as follows:
The box one seats 140 people, this means that each student gets to invite a maximum of 3 people. This doesn’t include tutors.
Other invites consist of:
Each student has been given a job for the screening, this is to help the whole event run smoothly.
This gives us all an idea of what needs to be done on the event and allows us to reference if needed.
6/6/17
FILMING DAY!!
We started filming at 7pm and finished at around 11:30 pm, It was wet, muddy and cold… however I got the middle section of the film down. The rain stopped us from being more mobile with the shoulder rig, however the outcome in the shots are better than expected. All the actors were brilliant and moral stayed high thanks to the many musical numbers the sung for us. Im excited to being the edit!
7/6/17
Today I showed the class, as well as Dom and Simon the (really) rough cut of my film that I threw together in 10 minuets! The feedback I got was really positive!
My three biggest targets from this feedback are:
13/6/17
All the editing of the footage I have so far is done! I’m filming on Monday the 19th (the day before the deadline!) This is my last chance to get the beginning and ending filmed. Today I’m blogging about the test shoot I did a few weeks ago and finalising the edit. Ive been taking screen shots of all the colour correction I have had to do because of the FS700 killing and draining any colour in anything ever!! Wishing I had used the 5D
