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

PLANNING: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

Scene	Sound/Voice Over	Visual	Actors	Props	Shot type	Notes
Street	Footsteps. Homeless dialogue.	Low lit street Homeless man sitting down with pan handling sign Protagonist walks down street on his own	Homeless man Protagonist	Pan handling sign	Establishing shot, long shot of street Tracking shot of protagonist as he walks along- glide cam – as protagonist walks past homeless the camera stops and focus’ on homeless man. (enter dialogue) Pan camera round so that protagonist is behind homeless man. (two shot) – then curse Close up, pull shot of protagonist (reaction shot)	At the end of this scene - hard cut
Corner shop	Cash register Dialogue from protagonist and shop keeper Bell as he walks into the shop. Heart beat	Contrast between outside darkness and light inside shop.	Shop keeper ` Protagonist	Wallet Money Food/ snacks	Establishing shot of corner shop Long shot from inside shot to a mid-shot as he walks towards the camera through door. Wide angle two shot from side of counter. As protagonist puts items on counter. (doll down the end of the corridor peaking round the corner, audience only see it for a second) POV shot of shop keeper looking at protagonist. As he goes down to get another item. Then over the shoulder tracking shot as he comes back up, reaches for wallet but it’s gone. Close up of his face, as he feels a curse. Steps back from counter. Long shot of him checking his pockets. Pans round to the door as he leaves. Then focus on door.	As protagonist puts items on counter shot is level with table Close up on protagonist as he losses wallet- heart beat fades in
Ext. Home	Quiet wind	House and window looking in.	Protagonist	Laptop, sofa	Long Shot from outside window zooming in on him in living room on laptop, hard cut to in house.	N/A
Int. Home	Notification sound from laptop. TV on quietly in background of news about homeless crisis Heart beat	Protagonist looking at laptop screen dark room and blue light reflects on his face TV news about homeless crisis.	Protagonist Shadowy figure		Close up of protagonists face with dim blue light from laptop. over the shoulder shot of him looking at his laptop, (possibly in background something walks past the window.) TV and window in background. POV shot of laptop as notification pops up in corner of the screen. (clicks on notification) Close up -to a reaction shot Long shot of Lights all go out in room, he screams in anger.	looking at something on laptop, then notification pops up in corner of screen about job, when he clicks on it and it pops up full screen.  After this he turns off TV. Close up reaction shot = heart beat fades in. Hard cut to finish this scene.
Int. Bedroom	Echoed Dripping	Dim lit bedroom	Protagonist	Picture frame with image	Mid shot of him in bed Track across past a picture with his daughter with a doll.	The image with the picture has the daughter with a doll
Int. Kitchen	Heartbeat dripping	Lights flicker	Protagonist Shadowy figure	Smashed plate	Long shot of door as protagonist enters Long shot showing the whole kitchen, then to POV shot, light flickers. Doll appears – hard cut to close up of the dolls face, slowly tracks down the dolls body to its hand as a single blood drop drips off its finger. Lights flick off and then the doll disappears. Close up shot of the protagonist lights headed and rubbing his eyes. As he stumbles over to the tap to get water. Echoed dripping	Light flicker on and off. Then silence Build a soundscape consisting of cutlery shaking, heart beating. (Crescendo to silence) Shadowy figure outside (subliminal) This shot makes the protagonist seem lightheaded with disbelief, slightly distorted and shaky.
Basement	Dripping	Brightly lit basement, lights then suddenly go out and red room is lit by a red light. The room is filled with old dolls, all staring at the protagonist ‘Stranger Things’ effect	Protagonist	Dolls, fake blood	Tracking close up shot of protagonist’s feet as he walks down the stairs. Longshot from down the steps (maybe use glide cam to zoom out) (look at IT basement scene for inspiration) Shot from behind the dolls as he walks past them to a single one at the end	Use a super 8 film effect. Use of red gel.
Int. House	Footsteps, heavy breathing, doors slamming.	Dimly lit stairway with straw light	Protagonist		Tracking close up shot of protagonist’s feet as he runs up the stairs.   long shot from dolls perfective as he runs out the door, camera slowly begins to slide to the right as if the doll is moving away.	Fast paced hard cuts, intense. Super 8 effect. Use of yellow gels
Int. house	Light high pitched ringing sound and echoed fast paced footsteps as he leave the house.	Distorted corridor/ visuals, hard cuts			Long shot from door of Joe stumbling down the corridor, hitting against walls.	Hard cut montage as he runs out the door (3 hard cuts of him running through the corridor to the door)
Street	Non- diegetic music	Dim Lit street, we see Joe walking down the street.	Joe	N/A	Establishing shot, long shot of street.	Same street as first scene.

PLANNING: PROPS LIST

PLANNING: TREATMENT

After some debate, we ended up changing our actual title of our film from 'Homeless', to 'Down and Out'. We thought 'Down and Out' was a more fitting and professional title for our film. This explains the old title of 'Homeless' included in the treatment above.

PLANNING: CASTING

Casting from MaximilianRAGAN

PLANNING: RISK ASSESSMENT

	HAZARD TO HEALTH AND SAFETY	RISK POSED AND TO WHOM	LEVEL  L/M/H	CONTROL MEASURE TO REDUCE RISK
Transport eg accident/delay/platform safety/derailment/missed train	Travel by SW trains. Travel through Surbiton towards Wimbledon	Students looking wrong way and getting knocked over Students being hit by or falling into train	M	Monitor each other during a group travel by keeping and eye out for each other Make sure to stay in contact with each other Monitor road crossings and only cross at designated pedestrian crossings
First aid issues	Trips/falls/cuts/bruises	Those moving around onset	M	First aired to be present at event
Weather	Rain - possibility of slipping, wet clothing	Everyone	L	Students are required to bring appropriate jacket and clothing
General public eg theft/assault	Theft Assault Student causes incident with member of the public	Threat of pick pocketing on crowded locations	M	Students to stay in a group Students are not to approach other members of the public or respond to any comments intended to provoke Follow guidance and advice of emergency personnel
Staffing eg ratio of first aid cover	1:6		L	Ensure that the ratio of first aiders to staff stays at 1:6
Major public incident eg terrorism	Act of terrorism given national threat level	Group could become caught up in a terrorist incident causing injuries or separation	H	Esnsure every venue has assembly point and pupils know where it is. Ensure pupils know the national advice to run if possible and hide if not Ensure pupils know to always follow police instruction Issue pupils with printed emergency contact card detailing school landline and school mobile – instruct them to call if they become lost (as well as alerting security official)

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

Who is my primary target audience?

The target audience for my short film is male and female 15-35 year olds who enjoy watching horrors and thrillers.

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PLANNING: LOCATIONS

RESEARCH: FILM POSTCARDS

ARMSTRONG

At the very top of the postcard, there is a sentence clearly stating what this piece of visual text will be about. Due to how factual it is, the audience can expect that this will be a documentary rather than a film about the first landing on the moon. Therefore, this will be a true story. 

The positioning and framing of the actor is central, giving him emphasized importance in the documentary. Furthermore, the lighting upon his face and the way how he is looking downwards makes him seem like a saintly figure, almost with a halo around his face. 

The font of the title 'Armstrong' is spread out, strong and simplistic. This makes the atmosphere have a sense of beauty and cleanliness to it which is something we as an audience should appreciate, similar to Neil Armstrong. 

Personally, I think the USP of this postcard is the small text beneath the title that states it is narrated by Harrison Ford. Not only is Harrison Ford a famous name, he will also bring some of the Star Wars audiences' attention to this space documentary as the theme of outer-space is consistent between both Star Wars and Armstrong. The placement of the text is also important as it ensures the audience do actually read this line of text due to the fact that it is placed right under the main title 'Armstrong'.  

The tagline 'the mission you know. the man you don't.' adds enigma and raises questions to the audience. It makes them want to find out more about Armstrong and his life as it is clear the information nobody knows about will be shared within this documentary. The full stop in the center of the tagline gives it symmetry which in my opinion increase the suspense and emphasizes the drama of the documentary through punctuation. 

Billing block is placed underneath the tagline which is a requirement by the film institution. The billing block text contains companies, actors, directors, producers, and other crew members. This however is not a definite requirement for film postcards (only posters) therefore some may not include it. 

Lastly on the front of the postcard you can see social media @s alongside when and where you can book tickets in order to watch the documentary in cinemas.

On the back of the postcard, there is 3 short paragraphs in order to give the audience a small overview of what the documentary will contain as well as other details such as the name of the Director which my also add to the USP if the director is well known for previous documentaries or films.

Finally, there are a collection of four images that show memories of Armstrong's life which will most likely be explored within the documentary. From family to outer-space, you can see that Armstrong lead a very normal lifestyle when not on the moon.

From this postcard I will take away some ideas for my own film such as taking care of the font in order to represent the genre of our film well. Also, I will use the billing block as a template when designing my own postcard. Lastly, the tagline inspired me to attempt to create something similar with the use of a full-stop to add suspense and make it symmetrical.

PLANNING: ADVANCED PRODUCTION INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

In order to learn more about horror films and the production side of them, I searched on YouTube for tips. One video I came across was perfect - 'How to make a no budget horror film'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O98vK-Qs5Dg