WELCOME MODERATOR

MAX RAGAN

CANDIDATE NUMBER 1656

CLAREMONT FAN COURT SCHOOL

Welcome to my blog!

I worked with NATHAN FOSTER 1623 and CHARLES GORDON 1626

Our brief was to create a short film, accompanied by a film wesbite. The title of our short film is 'Down and Out' and the genre is horror. The main blog roll includes my construction, planning and research work. The pages at the top of my blog are to navigate to other areas of my work. My work will appear in reverse order (most recent post first etc). To present my work creatively, I have used a wide variety of platforms and tools. These include; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Adobe after effects, Scoopit!, Piktochart, Final Cut Pro X, Slideshare, Canva, Prezi and Visme.

EDITING

In my opinion, editing is my most signficant aspect in the construction of our film. Due to previous experience with Final Cut Pro X (other work shown in PRELIMINARY EXERCISES), I was able to convert my skills into the editing of our short film. My team helped me with editing ideas such as visual ideas and/or SFX or VFX that I could try to incorporate into our film. I wanted to give our short film the most professional feel possible, therefore I spent a lot of my time in the editing process to ensure it looks as good as possible.

DIRECTING

In terms of directing our short film, I worked closely alongside Nathan Foster to ensure we capture the best angles and visuals as possible. I took a lot of control in the basement scene of our short film where Joe (main character) encounters the doll for the first time. With the use of multiple cameras and lights, Nathan and I were able to, in my opinion, capture this scene to its best ability. 

CAMERAWORK

Closely related to directing, camerawork was extremely important to consider, especially due to the fact that we were creating a horror short. The use of close ups and interesting angles which are not typically scene in other films such as worm's eye view are important as they add to the quirkiness of the horror. As a team we came together to think of the best camerawork possible, therefore this role was shared among all of us. 

MY SHORT FILM

CONSTRUCTION: BBFC CLASSIFICATION

All UK films are given an age rating by the BBFC.

The BBFC's focus is on helping children and families choose well by providing them with the guidance they need to help them choose what’s right for them and avoid what’s not.

The BBFC’s classification standards reflect people’s current views and expectations and their decisions give due weight to what people find acceptable for each age rating.

The BBFC has two main principles. These include:

• To protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content.

• To help children and families choose what’s right for them and avoid what’s not.

For our short film Down and Out, I found a template of a BBFC rating that was used in an actual film. After finding an appropriate template, I imported it into Photoshop to edit the title of the film and the details about rating etc. 

We decided as a group that our short should be rated a 15 due to 'threat and horror' and also 'infrequent violence'. 

PLANNING: CHARACTERS

In The Morphology of The Folk Tale, Vladimir Propp identified common themes and character types. Propp argued that stories are character driven and that plots develop from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story. He claimed characters could be classified into certain roles that progress a story. Our protagonist undergoes a journey of discovery in our short film: his initial representation is a confident, self-contained and rather superficial man embarking on his early twenties with a comfortable lifestyle afforded by a secure place in society. However, unsettling experiences unexpectedly unnerve him as he encounters a whole world of poverty, insecurity and hopelessness. His appearance changes as he plunges into experiences that he cannot explain or handle.
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 The corner shop is a familiar feature of every urban high street. It a place that usually excites no alarm. However, in our film, it is the location where our protagonist experiences an initial uncomfortable and inexplicable experience.
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 The homeless man in our film acts almost as our antagonist, cursing our protagonist. However, the homeless man represents much more in our short. The homeless are a group usually disregarded by society and looked down upon, but they are still human. It shows our audience that it is important to always treat everyone well; you never know the consequences to your actions!
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 In order for our audience to grasp the genre of our short easily, we have included many visual and audio codes linked to horror films. The pictures below represent some of the aspects of our short: scary dolls, shadows, blood and the supernatural. In order to really make our film a good horror these are essential.
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PLANNING: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

HOT SEATING

In order to develop our main character in our short film, we decided to hot-seat him. This therefore gives the audience more of an idea about his role in our short film and gives them extra information about their life and what will happen to them. To complete this I used Soundcloud which is a website which allows anyone and everyone to upload audio files to the internet. 

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE