Story-Telling Unit: Soft Trailer

SOFT  

Simon Ellis

As part of our story-telling work, we looked at Simon Ellis' Soft (2007) to help us with our writing and construction of our own short films. As well as this, we were tasked with making a rough trailer to assist our editing work and to look deeper into how trailers are structured. This hopefully shows some of my progression after becoming more used to Adobe Premiere, and how I have developed my editing skills over the past few weeks.

My Rough Edit:

Story-Telling Unit: Storyboarding

Storyboarding

(Wednesday 9th October)

Rough, initial plans - complete with directions and shot descriptions

Reference Material

In preparation for my shoot on Monday and Tuesday evening, I have drawn up some storyboards to give me an idea of what I’ll be shooting. As well as giving me a better understanding of creating storyboards, this will give my shooting time a planned focus - making my time on location more effective.

To help me with this, I've used 2 books:

• Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb - Sergio Paez & Anson Jew
• Exploring Storyboarding - Wendy Tumminello

Which have helped me consider aspects such as colour, perspective, lighting and the creative process as a whole. 

Contextual Studies: Sit-Coms

Sit-Coms

(Thursday 10th November)

Today’s lecture focused on Sit-coms, or Situation Comedy, and looking at how they are structured, filmed and produced. Typically, the shows are formatted in two different ways:

• Traditional - Recorded in a studio setting with a live audience ("live" edit), using multiple cameras and high key, uniform lighting.
• Location - Usually recorded on one camera, so more of an emphasis on post-production. No laugh track / canned laughter.

For example:

Traditional:

Location:

The plot of a Sit-Com often follows a similar formula to its plot, moving in a circular motion as detailed by:

Basic Sit-Com model

1. A character is in a zone of comfort,

2. But they want something.
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation,
4. Adapt to it,
5. Get what they wanted,
6. Pay a heavy price for it,
7. Then return to their familiar situation,
8. Having changed

We also looked at characters of comedy, going through the ideas of Archetypes and Stereotypes:

• Rebel - aggressive humour, sarcasm
• Fool - one-liners, usually offering visual humour
• Authority Figure - attempts to restore control, often creating clashes between other characters and creating a catalyst for humour
• Libertine - playful, hypersexual

ID - Emotional / Instinctual

SUPER EGO - Rules / Social
Convention

EGO - Mediator / Balance

These character types quite often fall into Freudian personality types, perhaps making them more relateable to an audience - but more importantly allowing the different characters to clash and the story to progress.

However, comedy has branched off into different sub-genres, including:

• Mockumentary - a comedic television programme taking the form of a fictional documentary
• Parody - makes an original work through comedic imitation
• Satire - similar to parody, but more angry and often with political intent
• Spoof - poking fun at a genre / style
• Physical - reliant on slapstick and comic violence
• Farce - highly improbable narrative situations and coincidences exaggerated by physical behaviour
• Black Comedy - a twist on farce, black comedy uses taboo topics (such as death, sex and violence) to create its humour

Story-Telling Unit: Script Review 1

SCRIPT REVIEW 1
(Tuesday 8th November)

Following both Steve and Simon's feedback in my script tutorials, I have had to make some distinct changes to my story. In this review, I have focused on the opening of my script (first 5 pages), as this is what I will be filming shortly on my location shoot.

From my first initial draft, I have altered Eve’s method of detaining Adam, as knocking him out with a brick as opposed to tackling him would be potentially more realistic for her character. Also, this cuts out unnecessary dialogue and perhaps adds some shock/slapstick comedic effect.

This comedic effect comes more into play as the story goes on, and Adam becomes gradually more and more tied up. As he escapes, Eve continues to knock him out – both adding more scenes to my screenplay and developing my characters effectively.

Finally, I have corrected certain formatting errors (including the ill-placing of parenthesis), and cut down some of my descriptions and words.

Now that the first half of my script has been altered for my shoot, I need to work on modifying the ending to match my new storyline. I’d also like to give Adam more of a character through his dialogue, possibly giving him some kind of accent, and cut down my words even more to avoid waffle and keep my script simple.

Story-Telling Unit: Script Tutorial

Initial notes from tutorial

Script Tutorial
(Monday 7th October)

In my tutorial with Steve, we discussed several changes to my script and story. The main consensus with my narrative is that there are too many coincidences, including:

1. He's not really dead, but no one notices
2. Eve has no signal
3. Homeless man talks too well
4. Young/fit, but cant break free from a belt
5. Woman who can tie him up forcefully

Steve's report

To solve these, we discussed alternate endings, and how to help the story progress.  Rather than Eve using her own physical strength to stop Adam, she could knock him unconscious with a blunt object. Instead of simply being detained using one belt, Adam could break free of his bonds several times, only each time to be attacked again by Eve and restrained with even more bonds - progressing the characters / story, and placing my dialogue in a different, more comedic context.

 I've also decided to keep my dead man actually dead, giving the story a constant and avoiding a floppy ending. I'm also thinking that eventually the police will arrive to help Adam and Eve, and Eve clearly pointing the finger at Adam. However, the paramedics point out the livor mortis on the body, stating that he has been dead 12-24 hours. Instead of Adam's arrest, Eve is arrested for assault / grievous bodily harm. My dialogue is also too wordy, and needs to be cut down.

Contextual Research - Dog Altogether (2007)

Dog Altogether (2007)

Contextual Research - Short Film

Dog Altogether (2007), is a film following Joe, a man who searches for redemption as his explosive temper and irratic behaviour slowly causes him to self-destruct. The film is closely based on the writer / director (Paddy Constatine)'s own experiences growing up around his Father (modelled on the character of Joe). The title of the film itself, "Dog Altogether" comes from an Irish expression Paddy's father would use when situations became desperate - highlighting the dire, yet personal nature of the film's story.

Sound design, or in this case a lack of, is prevalent within the film; as a lot of the film's sound is diegetic, or natural - for example the ambient sounds of wind or city streets. A non-diegetic soundtrack is used at 8:07, consisting of a simple sad, yet hopeful piano melody:

Opening shot - Slow dolly shot moving from a close up
to wide shot of dead body, slowly revealing the scene and setting

This is the only use of non-diegetic sound in the film, and occurs as Joe first sees Anita - creating a motif to perhaps foreshadow his redemption at her hands. The lack of an extravagant film soundtrack emphasises the severity of Joe's situation, as there are no distractions from the unfolding events, leaving them to simply resonate amongst the audience and Joe himself. This is a simple yet powerful idea which I intend to use in my own film, especially in my opening shot. I had planned to include music over this, but I think silence would be more resonant considering the already powerful image of a dead body on the floor, and the silent nature of death, a theme at the heart of my story.  Instead, I think I will use my soundtrack to close off my film, or perhaps emphasise certain points of the dialogue.

Contextual Research - Love Hate (2009)

Love Hate (2009)

Contextual Research - Short Film

Love Hate is a dark comedy short film, focusing around two juxtaposing characters. Tom, a kind-hearted yet meek charity worker is one day followed home by a mysterious and beguiling woman. After inviting herself in, Tom realises that he has set himself up for a relationship from hell, as she reveals herself as his “Hate.” Over time, the pair bond over violence and loathing as hate gradually takes over Tom’s life. When he inevitably falls in love with Hate, he embarks on a self-destruct mission, isolating himself from every friend he once had. Things suddenly take a turn when Tom is forced to tackle “self-hate”, at which point he decides that the relationship “isn’t working.” The end of the film sees Tom in a seemingly much happier place, reunited with his ex, aptly named Joy. However, we soon discover that he and Hate are expecting their own child, creating an excellent cliffhanger.

One of the things that really stuck out to me in the film is the fact that it is completely centered around two completely opposite characters. The story itself comes from character development, meaning that strong personalities are needed to carry the narrative and engage an audience. The writing and portrayal of these characters is therefore complex yet believable. Even tiny mannerisms add detail to the characters, things such as a facial expression or body movement, could potentially be missable - for example:

Tom trips his elbow over the fireplace, shows that he is insecure / not confident within his own movements; perhaps putting on a front of confidence.

A cocky smirk and raise of the eyebrow demonstrates Hate's superiority over Tom, and the fact that she is well aware of how she can easily manipulate him. Furthermore, the fact that her character is often seen smoking highlights a sense of rebellion and a bad attitude - everything her character stands for.

Tom's character development is evident here, as in contrast to the beginning of the film, he now is more sure of himself and the way he conducts his movements as he finds himself engulfed by passion and hate. This makes him potentially  more threatening to an audience - highlighting his progression.

I have tried to employ this same detail into my own characters, Adam and Eve, through my writing process - making it clear even at this initial writing stage the exact way I wish my lines to be delivered (even if it is more for a note to me as director rather than my actors).


Similarly, I have also started to develop storyboards for my shots, depicting the style of my film, and how my characters will be portrayed within it. Blake and Dylan Ritson, the writers and directors of Love Hate have used specific camera angles and mise-en-scene to enhance character, including:

Low Angle shot of Hate, dressed in dark clothing - symbolising her dark and domineering role within the narrative.

A tightly framed shot of Tom and Hate, demonstrating how close they have become. They lie in darkness, in contrast to the higher-key lit scenes earlier in the film - implying Tom's decent into darkness.

This wide shot of Tom and Hate emphasise just how dependent on her he has become. There is also a sense of isolation in this, as no one else is anywhere to be seen. But, the scene is also lit with high-key daylight lighting, implying that in this scene, Tom is still happy - just falling innocently in love.

Now in a room lit with low key lighting, Tom indulges his darker side with cigarettes and alcohol. The candles perhaps symbolise his new-found burning passion of/for hatred, with a sense of diminishing light throughout the film perhaps representing his fall from grace.

 Here, the film’s visual representation of Tom's destructive urges is evident. John Lynch’s cinematography creates a gloomy and malicious rendering of Tom’s powerful Hate. The darkened and dimly-lit interiors capture the increasingly gloomy nature of his deeply immoral actions. The cloudy skies in the exterior shots which are so characteristic of Britain, effectively demonstrate the darkness and explosion of Tom’s inner turmoil that’s lurking just above him.

Again, this attention to detail is something I would like to consider in my own film. I plan to film at night to emphasise the dark themes explored in my story, and as the narrative resolves, it is reflected by the approaching daylight - restoring balance and clarity to the situation. I would also like to visually represent my character's confusion and disorientation by using low-key lighting, hopefully using mainly natural light and streetlamps to imply Adam and Eve's inability to see their way out of the dark situation they find themselves in - as well as making the most of my location.