Planning - Early Ideas for Main Task

I have had an idea for a while about making a film about a salesman. This is because the general thought about door to door salesmen is that they are annoying and want to trick you out of your money. But there is little/no thought about the individual that has the job. So I would like to show the contrast between how people treat a salesman when he is working and when he isn't.

This will have a voiceover being played through most of the film. I will open by showing lots of people angrily closing the door on him, while he explains in the voiceover that he is a salesman and not many people like him, etc. I will then move onto an evening when he has finished his job - he is sitting in a room with a few friends and they are all drinking and talking and having a good time, telling a story or two. Then they will start talking about how the salesman can't flirt effectively, yet he can talk to people on a daily basis doing what he does. This then opens the story up for a romantic comedy, feature length film.

There will be many similar films like this on the market, due to it being a hopeless man trying to get a girlfriend and this is the basis of many rom-coms. This means that there will be many films I can study and help me film the task.

This is the idea that I have finally settled on and started developing the idea for.



However, I had many other ideas such as:

• A teenage boy with super powers trying to get through a normal day. I decided to have everything sped up apart from the main character (when filming, the main character will be moving very slowly, when everything else is normal speed) this will highlight the difference between him and everyone else. there will also be a voiceover that explains to the viewer what the character is thinking.
• I thought about having a film about a character with a mental disorder, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Schizophrenia. This will show an average day in life for them. For example, if I were to look at OCD, the main character could do the washing up, then reach for a towel that isn't there... Leading to him trying to come to terms with the fact that he will have to dry his hands on his shirt, or drip water through the house to get a towel (showing it through voiceover and video clips of what he is thinking about).
• I also thought about having the opening to a film about a man who commits suicide in the end... However, it will be a circular narrative and so will start with the suicide.
• A similar storyline to The Vow (2012). A person wakes up after being knocked unconscious and can't remember who they are, their husband/wife then tries to help them remember.
• A father is trying to get home to see his children, but things keep getting in his way - he is in a different country and the children are with his wife (they are going through a divorce).

I have decided against these for many different reasons such as: the possible complications in actors/actresses; or the possibility of offending someone; or even it just being an idea I like, but think I will lose interest quickly and not have the motivation to complete it to the best of my ability.

Planning/Research - Ideas About a Specific Part of the Task

In the scene that I have in mind for the preliminary task, John flips a table over and Mac falls to the floor in terror. This will most likely be my favourite point of the task, as I have a good idea about how I want it to look and have started planning it already.

To help illustrate it, I have found two clips from two entirely different films that portray similar scenes.

The first scene I have chosen is from The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and shows one character (Tommy - played by Gil Bellows) getting irate angry at his poor performance on a test. I like the emotions this scene creates. It shocks everyone watching it due to the actor's performance and the cut away to the reactions from other people in the room. Tommy starts very calm and then suddenly explodes in anger. I will try and do this with an explosion of anger from John and a quick cut away from him to see Mac's reaction - as he dives to the floor.

Scene from The Shawshank Redemption (contains strong language): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPDMnHspQjk

The second scene, however, is from the film Inception (2010) and at about 1.20-1.45 (in the clip) there is a quick explosion of anger from Leonardo DiCaprio's character (Cobb) and he throws another character (Saito - played by Ken Watanabe) to the floor. Again, the performances make the audience member shocked at what is happening.

Scene from Inception (please excuse the bad quality): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wKcy-6CTNU

I will be filming the preliminary task next week sometime, and a mix of elements from these scenes (and a bit of experimentation) will feature in the final cut of the task.

Progress - Experimenting for the Main Task

10/08/13

I briefly spoke to my friend Adam Fowler before going away on holiday, and we both had a spare few hours... so we decided to experiment a little for the main task. We focussed on the main task as we weren't sure if the school was open for experimenting for the preliminary task, and we didn't have a brilliant camera to work with anyway. So we went back to my house and shot a lot of different things. These looked quite good and could easily be put together to create part of the 2 minute opening. However, when I loaded them up on my PC, an error occurred and half of the video was missing on every file. This was quite frustrating, but due to the fact that I was going to be away soon, I wouldn't have been able to put it all together in time anyway.

When I get back, I will have new editing software to install, which will hopefully fix the problem so we will be able to have a look at what the film is going to look like when we re-shoot it with a better camera and improved lighting. If it doesn't fix the problem, we will need to re-shoot the film anyway, so it just means that we won't have a rough version to improve upon (theoretically we wouldn't need the rough version anyway, but it is just to have a look for timings of shots and the overall speed of the sequence in 'one go').

21/08/13

A few days ago I managed to sort out the error with my editing software, so I sat down and edited together the footage. After looking at the tester footage we shot that day and putting it all together, I have decided that the idea to shoot someone's feet is in itself a good idea, however, for this AS task I don't think it is the best that I can do. So I am going to start developing a different idea.

Here is the footage put together from the previous idea:

Planning - Planning out the Preliminary Task

Due to the short script being created, I have asked two friends to help me film it and they both seem quite keen to do so. However, due to it being the summer, a day for filming hasn't been set (because some of us are out of the country at the moment). As soon as we are all back in the UK, I will get in contact with them again and decide on a day to film. This will be an entire day, as I feel that if we restrict ourselves with time, we may rush a little and some shots won't come out as well as I'd like - causing the need for a re-shoot. We will spend so much time on each shot and try to figure out the best way of filming the sequence - keeping the required techniques in mind of course.

As for the location, our school is open most of the summer and so I will talk to the caretakers and see if they have a room we can borrow. I feel our school is a good place to film as there are many different rooms that are quite large and there are many tables and chairs we can use - perfect for what I have in mind for the preliminary task.

Now, for make-up: there is no need for make-up in the preliminary task, as no-one is harmed (blood) and I want to try and keep it as naturalistic as possible (no need for make-up as such).

For costumes: I haven't thought too much about costumes, as I feel it doesn't matter too much (they are just two men meeting for a chat - no formal dress code or anything). I feel the best course of action is to have the characters dressed in a 'smart-casual' manner, this way they are ready to make a good impression on the new person they are meeting, but they are not going to be 'over-dressed' for it.

The only props needed will be a table, two chairs and maybe some sheets of paper (to make the scene look a little more formal).

Finally, the equipment needed will just be a good quality camera and a tripod. Later, an editing software of sorts will be needed - but I already have that installed on my home PC.

All in all, pretty much everything is ready for shooting the preliminary task - we just need to get back from our holidays and set a day to film.