Initial Plot

After deciding on the story for my short film I have begun to consider the plot and events that will occur in chronological order for my short film. I have stated earlier that I would ideally intend to experiment with different narrative forms, however I feel that this process should be carefully considered and experimented with during the postproduction phase and the traditional chronological narrative should be considered during the preproduction phase.

Initial Plot Outline:

• Set within a prison cell, the male protagonist is sitting down on a chair with a duffle bag, next to him. He is facing forward and has no expression on his face.
• A jump in time, the protagonist is walking behind a prison guarded down the corridor.
• The protagonist is signing him self out of the prison and walks out and away from the prison. 
• He is sitting and waiting for a bus at the bus stop. When the bus arrives he gets on. (This is all shot at a distance and does not follow him on to the bus.)
• In side the bus, facing him over the chair, the protagonist is staring out the window watching the world go past.
• Cut to a long shot of the view out of the bus. Voice over by protagonist. 
• The protagonist gets off the bus and walk home down the street, the camera tracks him.
• He looks around constantly, this sequence is intercut with shots of people, place and CCTV cameras.
• The protagonist enters his house.
• There is a change in time.
• He is sitting down in a chair in a room that looks like it should be a living room but there is only the chair in the room. A ticking clock can be heard. (Long Duration Shot)
• Change in frame and he gets up out of the chair is walks out of the room.
• The next the audience see is him in the kitchen. He is standing aimlessly in the middle of the room.
• He puts the kettle on, a montage of him making coffee begins.
• There's only two things in the cupboard a coffee and a cup, the entire cupboard is empty apart from these items.
• After the coffee is made he leaves the kitchen, and enters the living room and sits down. 
• Many continuous shots are then shown from different angles and framings of the protagonists sitting in a chair drinking is coffee, time passes and nothing happens.
• The sound of the letterbox opening and closing can be heard, the protagonists turned his head to face the direction.
• He gets up and proceeds towards the front door and the letterbox.
• On the carpet there is a flyer that has the heading stating "The revolution will be complete when the language is perfect."
• He got a flyer and turned around and walks back into the living room.
• Night falls and he remained in the living room in a chair.
• The morning comes he gets out of his chair leave the house, (making care to step over the flyer) and walks down the street.
• He enters the newsagents and go straight to the newspapers.
• All the papers have headlines that mirror that of the flyer from the previous day.
• He buys one of each newspaper returns home.
• When he gets home he immediately burns them in the fire.

After this I now feel that I need to begin to consider how I would like my short film to end and as I am having a split ending with the audience decides how they want the short film to conclude I need to script and decide upon the plot for both endings.

Initial Story

After careful deliberation and consideration of my ideas from my brainstorm. on my chosen genre of social commentary, I have decided that no idea by itself is strong enough to carry my short film. Therefore I have decided that I would piece together and we've a story from all of the initial ideas that I had. My idea for the story of my short film is:

The beginning of the short film follows a male protagonist after his release from prison and the audience follows his re-integration into society. When he is released he finds enjoyment in the mundane. However within the society there is an omnipotent presents that overshadows everything. However the male protagonists rebels and rejects the status quo that is forced upon him and rebels against the mundane shaking up his routine. All of the inner thoughts and true feelings are represented through the non-diegetic internal monologue of the male protagonists. The objective of the omnipotent presence is to, control all aspects of society and eliminate all those aspects that they see to not fit into their idea of a perfect fraternity. One of their missions and goals is to perfect the language and this marks the end of the revolution but the start of the dictatorship. 

In regards to the ending I decided to adopt an idea that I had earlier on, to creates two one-minute endings and then the audience would have to decide which ending they wanted for the short film. However as the story revolves around a dystopia the audience would have to decide between lesser of the two greater evil endings.

Feel that I now need to take my initial story to my teacher for his input and ideas on whether it would work and if there's anything that I need to consider.

Genre Ideas

After deliberating on my chose of genre - Social Commentary. I have re-brainstorm some ideas that i will be considering.

• Rejection of the mundane.
• Routine is shaken up.
• A world where we are all watched, but no one knows, apart from one person.
• The audience follows a person but hear there internal monologue.
• "2+2=5."
• "The revolution will be complete when the language is perfect."
• "There is no life in this town, just pixels and pretence."
• "Unfortunately, feeling is a capital offence."
• An omnipotence presents, over shadows society.
• A man is released from prison and the audience follow his re-integration into society.

Chosen Genre

After considering some ideas I feel that I am drawn to the genre of "Drama" with the specific sub-genre of  "Social commentary". However, I still need to create a focus for what the commentary will be on. I am currently thinking of an omnipotence narrative, however I am unsure if the omnipotence characteristic should be a part of a character or a method in which the short film is shot.

Another idea I had was to do a social commentary on a dystopia. However, I would create a narrative that is based on a dystopian world but create two, one minute endings and the audience would have to decide which ending they would prefer for the short film however they would have to choose between the lesser of two greater evils.

I feel that now I have decided on my genre and sub-genre I need to create some new ideas and select some from my original brainstorm. After this I can then begin to decide upon and concentrate on my chosen idea.

Initial Ideas for Short Film

These are some of my initial ideas for the plot or speech that will begin the development of creating my short film.

• A man chases after many girls and keeps making the same mistakes. - Comedy
• "We create lies because we are shamed of the truth, then they grow and fester, than the lie becomes the reality." - Drama
• One main character with a split personality disorder, the audience follows both personals that juxtapose each other. - Drama
• "They would never see each other again, but at that moment she smiled." - Comedy / Drama
• A man is just released from prison: we follow his story (before and after) - Action / Adventure
• "A new secret was born." - Crime / Gangster
• "I have been chased all my life and finally they have court me" - Action / Adventure
• A man that is obsessed with destruction and downfall - Drama
• "My Life was planed out for me." - Crime / Gangster / Drama
• The audience follows a standard dull life, however a voice over presents controversial thoughts. - Drama
• A world that appears to be a utopia however it is a dystopia. - Drama

Initial Area of Focus

After evaluating my audience research and investigating into the codes & conventions of short films I have decided that the two initial focuses that I want to explore and possibly experiment with within my short film are the idea of narrative and the colour quality of the film.

I want to experiment with the narrative, maybe creating a postmodern or subversive narrative that forces the audience to question and consider what just happened after they've watched the film. This idea of experimenting with narrative has come from my analysing of the short films "Back to Solitude", "Plot Device" and "Loop". I think these three along with feature films such as "Pulp Fiction" will really inspire and be used as a reference point for my own short film.

I have recently watched Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" which is been remastered and found a fascination  for the method in which the colour was presented. I feel that the modern way of filming has become so realistic that it actually has become fake and superficial. Whereas the traditional and old-fashioned way of filming where the colours were more vibrances and the contrast was higher has a lower level of verisimilitude yet creates a real sense of life. However I think it goes deeper than that I think that audiences go to the cinema and what short films for escapism and the more accurate and the higher level of verisimilitude the film has, it actually has the reverse effect and it becomes shallow and unrealistic.

These are just a few areas that I would like to experiment with within my short film I need to focus and decide upon key areas that I would like to use such as the genre, plots, narration and characters for a go any further.

Regulations and Restrictions

After my research I have decided that I need to conclude this section of planning by summarising the regulations, restrictions and acknowledging the key aspects that I need to adhere to.

The brief:

• Create a short film in its entirety, 
• Approximately five minutes in length,
• Live action and/or animation,
• A poster for the film,
• A film magazine review page.

Main task:

Codes and Conventions:

  

    Miss-en-scence:

• Decor, setting, costume, space and acting - all depend on the plot,
• The majority of short films use high-key lighting.

    Cinematography:

• Shallow focus is used rather than deep focus,
• I have noticed more high angle framing in short films them low angle,
• The whole range of scales were used - medium shots was the most used throughout all of the short films,
• All movement of the camera was used - Tracking shot was used most often.

     Editing:

• Kept to the simplest and central elements,
• 180 degree rule was used to not disorientate,
• Continuous editing was used to create a seamless narrative,
• Cheat cuts to keep the pace quick,
• Shot reverse shots to show action and dialogue.

     Sound:

• Kept simple,
• Often using parallel sounds with the action of the scene.

Survey:

• Audiences watch shot films most often in the comfort of own home and therefore may be passive to the media,
• Audiences normally consume short films using YouTube on their laptops - can easily be distracted by the Internet,
• Genres to choose from, Action / Adventure, Comedy, Crime & Gangster and Drama,
• Audiences prefer a close narrative,
• Between a linear and cyclical structure audiences are split 50-50,
• Audiences prefer diegetic spoken dialogue rather than voice-over,
• Protagonist and antagonist audience prefer male for both,
• The plot and story sales short film.

Ancillary tasks:

Poster

      Codes and Conventions:

• Film Names
• Actor(s) Names
• Main Images
• Tagline/Slogan
• Cast & Crew

Magazine Review 

      Codes and Conventions:

• Images
• Title
• Text Body
• Rating
• Other (background) information
• Author's name
• Verdict

Survey

• The plot and story sales a short film and therefore needs to be clearly portrayed within both ancillary tasks.

Now after I have concluded all of the regulations and restrictions that I need to adhere to, I can start planning and creating some ideas for my short film and what the plot and story should revolved around.

Audience Survey Response and Analysis

I have completed my survey and have gathered together 50 responses from my target audience of people who watch short films. I believe that it is now critically important to analyse the survey responses to gather together the data that I needs to create an effective short film that appeals to my target audience.

The first four questions where used to identify the range of subjects that took part in my survey, but also to recognize who is most likely to watch short films. Therefore from my first question, specifying the gender of the subject I can extrapolate two things; the first being that I asked a higher majority of females to respond to my survey than males. Also this could signify that more females watch short films than males, as before the applicant filled in my survey I asked them if they watched short films in the first place, and if they did I then proceeded to ask them to fill out the survey.

My second question was specifically looking to identify the age range of all the subjects that took part in the survey. My responses have indicated that a higher proportion of 11 to 20 year olds watch short films, however this is most likely unreliable as the largest group of people that I asked were individuals that went to my school environment and therefore their age range is limited. For this reason I believe that this data is untrustworthy and should be regarded as an outlier, not included in my judgement for my target audience.

My third question was meant to identify the ethnicity of the subject group that I surveyed, however similarly to the second question I do not believe that this data is reliable. I did not take into consideration that I would not extend broader than my local environment of Buckinghamshire and as Buckinghamshire is a majority white county with 91.7% of citizens being white, that this would effect my results. Again I believe this data is untrustworthy.

My fourth and final question to identify the range of subjects that took part in my survey, asked the applicants to enter in their occupation. By analysing the data I can infer that due to the limited scope of my survey the majority of subjects would have entered students as I ask the majority of candidates to fill in my survey from my school environment.  However due to the range of occupations that I received, excluding the tally of each occupation I can infer I have a broad range of professions and therefore a broad range of individuals that watch short films. This is something to be aware of when creating my final product as it needs to appeal to a wide range of individuals.

The following questions identify the specific ways of consumption, genre, narrative, plot, and marketing. The first three questions identify the methods of consumption by my target audience. This question asks what location the target audience watch short films have identified that the highest majority of individuals watch short films in the comfort of their own home. This is significant as because they are home they become considerably more passive to the media they are consuming, than if they are in the cinema with a large group of people sharing the same emotions and engagement. This signifies that I need to pay close attention to creating an engaging and interesting short film that Will captivate their attention.

This question asks what device do the target audience used to consume the media. The highest proportion of individuals have selected laptop as a device that they watch their chosen media on, closely followed by the television. This is significant as usually due to the nature of a laptop the audience can get easily disengaged with their chosen media and, for example start browsing the web. It could also be interpreted that due to the nature of the laptop screen being closer to the audience and therefore may signify that they are more engaged with their chosen media as it is appeared closer to them physically.

The next question asks the audience what source they use to watch a short film. YouTube was the greatest selected source (69%) followed by catch up television such as BBC's iPlayer (47%). This signifies that the target audience and don't pay to watch short films as both top sources are free for viewing. This could also signify that the target audience once a broad range of material that they can choose to watch therefore YouTube is obviously going to be the most popular option. However due to YouTube wanting to promote other content with being the best sites videos have two constantly battle with keeping the audience engaged therefore this can indicate that to create a successful short film that the target audience will most likely view on YouTube I need to create and engaging and stimulating narrative.

This question is specifically asking a subject to indicate a preferred range of genres that they watch. This is a critical question within my survey as this will infer which genre and therefore what style of short film I will begin to create. All genres have been chosen however the top four the genres are, Action / Adventure (66%), Comedy (68%), Crime & Gangster (38%) and Drama (50%) (subjects could select more than one genre, therefore the percentages do not add up to 100.) As these are the top for genres that were selected by the target audience I feel that it is now down to my personal choice of which of these four genres I would prefer to create a short film for. I will begin to create plot ideas in the following month and then choose which one I prefer and then begin to create a narrative around the genre of the idea.

These two questions specifically ask the subjects what type of narrative style do they prefer. The first question asks does the individual prefer a closed or open narrative. A higher percentage of individuals, 62% have the selected they prefer a closed narrative. To create a short film that is engaging I need to keep some of the traditional conventions at the target audience expects but also transform others therefore I believe that I should conform to this traditional convention of having a closed narrative.

However the second question asks the audience do they prefer a linear or cyclical structure, within reason this response (linear 54% and circular 44%) can be considered as being equal and as I would like to transform some conventions I would prefer to try and experiment with a cyclical structure.

This specific question asks the audience which style of a narrative do they prefer spoken dialogue or a voice over, non-diegetic dialogue. Spoken dialogue received the highest majority of 76% preferring to have diegetic dialogue. Originally when considering a short film I wanted to attempt a voice over for my short film. However after receiving my responses my target audience prefers a traditional spoken narrative therefore I might consider experimenting with different types of spoken narrative such as breaking the fourth wall.

These questions combined are investigating the characterisation of the protagonists and antagonist with in the short film. It is interesting that both questions the audience have preferred a male as both the protagonists and antagonist. This is a huge factor to consider when creating the narrative of the short film and I will need to observe how my audience relates to the protagonist. But moreover if I will have an antagonist personified as a character and therefore if I would want appropriate the conventions or transform them.

This question directly blinks to how all I will market my short film within my ancillary tasks and what the target audience feels is the most successful and appealing aspect to a film. 82% of my target audience has said that the story and plot is what sells the short film for them therefore my axillary tasks must portray the story and plot from my short film. Also the plot a story that iTunes must be engaging and interesting for my target audience.

After evaluating all of my responses I now have a better understanding of what my target audience desires from short film and what I am required to do to satisfy their needs for an engaging and interesting product. I will develop and consider what aspects of their responses I will appropriate, transform and subvert within my short film. Now I feel that I need to conclude the research by acknowledging any regulations and restrictions that I need to adhere to.