Consent Forms For "House Of Fun"

These are my consent forms for my short film, showing that the people acting in my film are okay with it being filmed.

Film Production Stripboard

My strip-board is very useful as it shows the order in which I will film for scenes, and also when and where. This will be very helpful for both me and all of my cast members.

Location Release Form

This form is the permission to film at my selected location, saying that I can enter the property with equipment and shoot scenes here.

Location Scouting Sheets

These are all the necessary location scouts for my short-film.

Storyboard For "House Of Fun"

This is the storyboard that I have used for the beginning of my short film. I have made many changes over time and even annotations, I have also sometimes explained my intentions behind certain shots. This will be very useful doing production.

"House Of Fun" Script

My script was written entirely on the free programme CeltX. This is because the programme makes it very easy to correctly format your script correctly.

Film Treatment

Logline:

A teenage boy's girlfriend is stabbed during a mugging, leading the boy to turn to a life of crime in order to exact revenge on the low-life who ruined his life.

Synopsis:

The Boy and The Girl are a happy and normal teenage couple, until The Girl is encountered by a mugger, alone, while on her way home from a night out. After an altercation, she is stabbed and killed. When The Boy finds out, he becomes a shell of his former self, and is fuelled only by the desire for revenge. He enlists an old friend of his to try and find out who did it, and where they live. They find someone they think could of done it, which is good enough for The Boy. He then reaches out to an arms-dealer, and purchases a gun from him before making his way to the house of the suspect. Once he arrives, he breaks in and terrorises the suspect, who pleases innocent. The Boy doesn't believe him, and commits murder before fleeing the scene.

Characters:

• The Boy - Harry Fletcher
• The Girl - Rebecca Cooper
• Arms Dealer - Jack Fletcher
• The Suspect - Joshua Teal

Target Audience/USP:

My movie will be targeted at teenagers and will follow the genre beats of a Thriller. It will appeal to the audience due to the all teenage cast, which is not typically seen in the Thriller genre, making it quite appealing to fans of said genre and to people fitting the age group I am targeting my short film towards.

Initial Assesment

During the summer, I started the plan for my next short film. This wasn’t to be a full pre-production, but it was still planning nonetheless. Unlike last year, this film needs to be approximately 15 minutes in length. To do this, I’ll need a lengthy script, as I won’t be able to make something long without this.

 Due to having a lack of ideas to begin with, my script is not yet finished. However, it is going nicely and will certainly help me hit the mark. This is already an improvement from last year, as my script featured very little dialogue and was mainly action. I have steered away from this, and have included far more dialogue driven scenes in my new film. Admittedly, I would prefer my script to have reached completion, but I am trying not to rush. Last year, I made the mistake of taking too long with the other parts of pre-production that should have been completed quicker. As these things are not necessary this year, I can focus more on creating a solid script and screenplay for my film. Due to the fact that my script is not yet finished, I am yet to start planning a storyboard. As soon as I have finished my script, I will start this. I want my storyboard to be way better than the one I used in my planning last year. I feel like it was really rushed, which lead to it not being very detailed, which in turn made it somewhat less clear to my cast. I managed to get around this, but i feel like the action in that film would have been a lot better had I simply worked more on my storyboard and made it a lot better. I feel like I can easily achieve this now, as I know how to manage my time for the different areas of pre-production a lot better than I used to.

 For locations in my film, I will be having some scenes outside, and some in a house. The scenes in the outside may be difficult to film in terms of audio quality, depending on whether or not there are strong winds, cars going by, or people. The scenes are supposed to take place in back alleys/secluded locations, so hopefully I won’t encounter much of a problem with this. The scenes taking place inside houses will not be a problem. All I will need is permission from the homeowner to film.

 All but one of the roles in my movie has been cast so far, so in this aspect I am already ahead of where I was at this point last year as well. I had many issues with casting last year due to people just genuinely not wanting to be involved, but this year I have had better luck. I hope to find the right person to play the final part and then everything will be fine.

 This time around, I want to make sure every scene in my movie is perfect. Due to this movie having less “action” scenes and more dialogue, it will be easier to shoot. This allows me to be able to focus more on getting good takes with different camera techniques. Last year certain scenes in the final cut could have been vastly improved upon, but were kept anyway due to how awkward they were to be able to film, and it seemed like it was the best that I could manage. I won’t allow this to happen this year.

I feel like my new film will be a massive improvement upon my last in literally every aspect. I have more experience with what does and doesn’t work, and since I’m doing a vastly different idea, which is honestly going to be easier to film, I can put together something that I can be proud of. With more time to focus on the actual shooting of the film and the script, I can make something that is objectively way better made than what I made last year.

Single Camera Techniques

Many modern movies use single camera production. A single camera production is exactly what it sounds like, a production that is filmed using just one camera. This is due to how much better the quality turns out and how much cheaper it is as-well, since it can be costly to use multi-camera due to the fact that it requires multi-cameras. These also take up a lot of space, giving another advantage to using single camera. Using a single camera also allows for numerous techniques to be used, due to the fact they can be used freehand a lot easier and you don't have to worry about filming the other cameras so you can move them more freely. Also, some multi-camera productions have all the camera's in very specific places, so that they won't cross paths and film each-other. This can be limiting as certain areas will be off limits, so everything will have to happen in specific areas of the set. However, single camera production isn't perfect by any means. It can take a while to shoot due to the fact that the camera has to be moved and set up often, and editing will take longer too due to how many shots are taken. A lot of repetition is needed on-set as you will usually have to film the same thing numerous times to see which angle is better, instead of getting it all at once like you would in a multi-camera production. Filming just one thing at a time can also be quite stressful for crew members due to how tedious it can be, and people being annoyed on set can easily slow production as they won't be able to full concentrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlETkY6ogRg       (Scene ends at 18 seconds)
One example of this is the single camera technique used in the 2000 film Requiem For A Dream. This technique is a snorricam. A snorricam is the technique of attaching a camera to the chest of an actor and having it pointed towards said actors face. In this movie, they use this during a scene in which one character is chased by the police and eventually caught. The footage is very shaky because of this, but this is definitely the desired effect. The shakiness of the camera shows the panic in the character, as he is being very frantic to try and assure he is not caught by the police. Due to the camera being on his chest an pointed at his face, we can see he has a look of panic and fear. He is also dowsed in sweat, indicating that he has been running for a while, and also indicating that he could be very nervous. This shot is meant to make the audience feel like they're right in the middle of the intense scene, and the shakiness of the camera certainly does this well. The snorricam creates quite a nauseating effect, due to how the background moves so rapidly, but the actor in the scene stays so clear. This links heavily to the movie's topic of drug abuse, as the scene could be regarded as being quite "Trippy" to some people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTfI75RMG8
Another example is the single camera technique  used in the 2017 movie Good Time. In this scene, it is clear that single camera is used from the beginning due to the constant switching between the character of the therapist and the character Nick during their conversation. These are also very close up shots, which is to make it feel very personal. The switching is used to effectively show how each character clearly feels, as we can see when Nick becomes uncomfortable and starts to cry. The camera rapidly switches again when Nick's brother Connie enters the room. The camera goes straight into a close up on his face, showing his anger at the situation. The camera makes rapid switches between Connie and The Therapist as they argue with each-other, and close-ups are still maintained. This is so that the audience can read their facial expressions, and understand them. During the argument, this is particularly effective as you can see The Therapist's annoyance, and Connie's anger. Connie demands Nick leaves the room with him, and the pair walk down a corridor. The camera once again starts rapidly switching between both characters in close ups, showing them as parallels to each-other. Nick seems more reserved and sensitive, while Connie comes off as more bold and brash. This is very important to the audience, since this is the start of the film, and they can already clearly see what types of people these two characters are. Their personalities have been established early on, something many films struggle to get across quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkYUDQCYGHA
In this clip from the UK sitcom The Office, a single camera is clearly used. This was used particularly effectively in this scene as the shaky and handheld camera made the show feel more realistic, which was certainly good due to the mockumentary style that the show was known for. In this clip, the camera uses many long takes during a job interview. The long, shaky take is very reminiscent of documentaries, but here it is also used to show how mundane and oddly comical the situation is. The camera switches angle quite sparingly, allowing the audience to simply focus on the dialogue and the body movement of both characters. This is very effective, as a multi-cam moving rapidly around the screen would be immensely out of place in a scene like this, and it would be distracting from many of the visual comedy aspects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEG2VTHS9yg
In this music video for the track L$D by musician A$AP Rocky, directed by Dexter Navy, they use a single camera to show many visually appealing shots. This is very effective, as it creates an impressive and smooth sequence for the music video. One particular shot shows Rocky and an unnamed woman walking through a very brightly colored room. This is a direct reference to the film Enter The Void by Gaspar Noe.