An idea we forgot!

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When looking at the draft of the script I remembered something that Ellie suggested in an earlier meeting. She said that we should use the objects in the flashbacks and show them in the present day somewhere in the house. For example during the flashback including the beach ball we could show it in the present in a box in a cupboard. Or when Jon gives Melissa the house key, we could show the key dusty on a shelf somewhere. I feel that this is a better way of transitioning from flashback to present day as I think that it would break up the sequence a little better. 

Update - we were unable to find all the props in time and therefore had to stick with the original script

Treatment

Today we met up and exchanged and compared our parts of the treatment and made the necessary changes. When comparing we realised we had some continuity issues and still a missing logline. After a long meeting, we finally managed to get everything together as well as come up with a logline (finally!). 
Here is our final treatment minus the script and the storyboard:

 

My part of the treatment - draft

For the treatment I am doing the overall outline of the short film, Kat is doing the script and the synopsis, Ellie is doing the location shots, Ilarna the character profiles and lastly Jenna is doing the storyboard. Here is my first draft of the outline:

Final Logline

We finally managed to come up with a logline that we all liked:

"Drifting from past to present remembering the best moments of their time together."

The word "drifting" links the movie to the sea while also gives the sense of just going through the motions. The logline also doesn't reveal too much about the couple and who is remembering the best moments. It manages to get across the story we are trying to tell but also grip the audience into wanting to find out more about the film.

Character Descriptions

Main Characters

• Jon (older version)
• Jon (younger version)
• Melissa

Older Jon

Age: Early 40's
Height: around 5ft 10
Hair: Dark, turning grey
Build: Medium
Job: Solicitor

Grieving the loss of his deceased wife. The two of them met through university.

Younger Jon

Age: 18-20
Height: around 5ft 10
Hair: Brown
Build Skinny
Job: Student

Jon and Melissa are in there first few years of dating.

Melissa

Age: 18-20
Height: around 5ft 5
Hair : Mousy brown
Build :Skinny
Job: Student

Inspiration - Short Films

"Love is a bond that is not easily broken"

This short film "Love of mine" is about a young girl who is remembering her boyfriend who she has lost to a car accident. Similar to our film, it does not revel to the audience that the boyfriend is dead until the very end. Seeing this idea implemented so well in this short film makes me think that our idea will work well.
The 2 things that mainly stand out to me about this film are the lighting and the sound. The lighting when the girl is with her boyfriend is very bright and warm. When it is revealed that the boyfriend is dead, there are a lot more shadows present and the lighting seems a lot more darker with a hint of blue. This helps to create the mood and subconsciously makes the audience feel the emotions that the character was feeling. For our film I think that would should pay close attention to the lighting and have the lighting a lot darker for the present day and a lot brighter during the flashbacks to implement the same effect. 
The soundtrack for the film is played all the way through unlike ours where want it to only play during the flashbacks. Like the lighting, it helps to set the tone of the film hinting that something tragic has happened but not revealing what it is. We should make sure that our music should match the mood of the scenes well as to not confuse the audience.

Conventions of a Romantic/Drama

Films similar to our idea:

• The Notebook
• Titanic
• The fault in our Stars
• A Walk to Remember
• PS I Love You
• Romeo and Juliet

Conventions

• Most romantic films include a heterosexual relationship
• Romantic locations such as beaches, parks, posh restaurants etc
• A lot of the romances portrayed are very passionate, get the audience invested into the storyline
• The biggest tragedy in a romance/drama is the main character dying. The films have made sure that the audience is emotionally invested in the character and the relationship to make the death have more of an impact. 
• The target audience for most romantic films are females. This is because it is thought that females are interested in love and relationships compared to males.
• Often an exchange of gifts is given to show the love the couple have for each other. 
• Music is often soft-classical and crescendos when the drama of the film increases to help build emotion. 
• Flashbacks are also used to show the audience more of the couples back story and again to help make the audience emotionally invested in the relationship.

Video Camera Workshop and shot types - 11th February

Today we had a workshop to do with how to use the cameras and what different types of camera shots there are. It was good to get used to cameras so that we can feel confident when we are filming the short film. It was also useful to practice some of the different shot types and helped us to consider which ones we should use.

Extreme long shot - usually a landscape or the outside of a building with the camera being far away from the main subject.

Long shot - Shots that include the full body with the head near the top of the frame and feet near the bottom. It focuses on the characters while also including plenty of scenery.

Medium shot -  shows a person from the waist up and can usually fit 2 to 3 people. 

Close up -  consists of very little background and often focuses on a face or a specific detail in a scene. One object often takes up the whole shot.

Extreme close up -  magnifies things more than the human eye can see. There is no background detail included in the shot.

Rules to bare in mind during filming

While preparing for our film I researched some camera rules that we should use in our film. It is important that when making our short film we bare in mind all the different camera rules. The rules help to make sure that the film will have good continuity and sequencing of events.

Match on action
Match on action is  cutting from one shot to another that matches the action and pace of the first shot. The flow of the movements should  look continuous. This helps to add pace to the film .

 

Shot reverse shot
This is when the camera is placed in the same place when cutting back and forth between 2 shot positions e.g. over the shoulder of one character CUT to the face of another character. This shot is used to make the movie more interesting to watch, keeping the audiences attention. It is used often to show 2 peoples point of views as it is able to get more than one characters reactions and expressions. 

180 degree rule
The 180 degree rule is an invisible line that the camera must never cross when filming multiple angles. This helps establish clearly where the characters are.  If the line is crossed then it can disorientate the audience and end up taking the audience out of the story.  

Group Meeting - Starting to finalise our idea - 11/02/15

Title - Shells - interesting, doesn't give away much of the plot
Logline is still undecided

Have now decided to move away from the photo album cliche and instead use the shells to instigate the flashbacks
We want to give the impression that his wife is alive up until the end of the film

We also decided on our rolls - 
Ellie - Director
Kat - Producer
Ilarna - editor
Jenna - sound

Idea Brainstorm - 3/02/15

• Want to steer away from him just randomly picking up the photo album as it doesn't feel realistic - he needs a motive.
• Maybe he spills something onto the book - coffee? This then leads him to then want to look through the album
• Could be something in the album that he does not want to see - he has been putting off looking through it - a note from his wife - something simple - "Gone to the shops, love you" - could be written on the day she died 
• Wife could of died young, doesn't have to be an older couple, the death would therefore have more of an impact. Also helps with time period issues.
• Trying to find the couples quirk - decided that they could of collected shells during their time together and that there is a jar of them on a bookshelf. He some how knocks them over and leads to him looking through the photo album.

Title - Shells?

Logline Ideas - 

• Reliving the greatest day.
• A love story one photo at a time.
• The greatest chapters of true love.
• The chapters of love that are never forgotten. - favourite so far...
• Love is never lost.

Inspiration and further research

• (The Notebook) – “Behind every great love is a great story.”
• (Letters to Juliet) - “What if you had a second chance to find true love?”

Inspiration - Life Insurance Advert

While researching similar films I came across this Thai life insurance advert about a husband looking after his wife who is suffering Alzheimer disease. The storyline coincides with own except that instead of the wife being diseased, she doesn't remember her husband instead. To me this is more painful than death and I suggested that we change the storyline to be more similar to the one displayed with the advert but the group decided that they wanted to stick with the idea we have currently. 

Unlike the Up montage, this advert has dialogue with the husbands voice over taking us through the story instead of just a soundtrack. Although I think the advert is very well done, I feel that no dialogue is better suited to the short film that we are trying to achieve. 

However I do like the constant flicker between past and present that shows the contrast of how they used to be and how they are today. This is also similar to what we want to do. The pictures and video that they show in the past are in black and white which helps show the audience the change in time. This is something I think that we should do in our own short film. 

One of my favourite parts of the advert is the flicker from when the couple was dancing in the past to when they were dancing in the present. It was almost heartbreaking to watch and I would like to incorporate it into our idea somehow. 

Inspiration - Married Life

When first settling on an idea for the short film, the pixar movie "UP" came straight to everyones minds. Within the film there is a sequence of the life and marriage of them main character and his wife.

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Something that stands out to me as that unlike a stereotypical pixar film, not all the moments are happy and joyous. In fact the "Married Life" montage actually hints that the wife Ellie has had a miscarriage. Not only is this aspect shocking, it helps to keep audience members gripped on the storyline being told. It also allows for the audience to become sympathetic towards the couple and therefore keep everyone engrossed in their storyline. 

Another thing that stands out is the lack of dialogue, something that I will suggest we do in our short film. I love how the audience has to purely focus on the visual aspects of the sequence and how beautifully the story is told without any words. This is done mainly through the use of colour and lighting where the colours are quite monotone and desaturated at the beginning to give a hint of the past. The colours then progressively get more vibrant as the montage progresses. 
Colour is also used to create the mood where there is a clearly darker colours and more shadows used when Ellie finds out she lost the baby and more shadows are present at Ellie's funeral as well.   

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In our short film I would like the couple to be different, to have something like a habit or a quirk that is personal to them. Up doesn't just tell a stereotypical love story, it shows the couples own personal adventures and the things that have become personal to them. These include Ellie tying his tie or cloud watching as well as the both their over all desire to go to paradise falls. This is what helps to keep the audience gripped on watching and shows how developed the couples relationship was. 

The last thing that makes this montage successful is the music. The music is what takes the audience through their journey of their highs and their lows. This montage has made it clear that we will need to have a good soundtrack in our own short film. 

Research - Peoples Greatest day

Having discussed all our ideas, I have decided to do some research in to what people believe are their greatest days or the best moments of their lives. I wanted to see if our idea fits in with what people say.

While researching I discovered that Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch had previously tweeted, "How many of you have a photograph of the single best moment of your life? If so, what a gift." 
related. Here are a few:

Steve Wendt @steve_wendt

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@richarddeitsch I got a pic of the happiest moment of my life the exact second it happened. She said yes!

Heather Brittany @HeatherBrit

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@richarddeitsch I can't not play... I don't think I've ever laughed so hard... Best. Day. Ever.

Chelsey @misschelslynn

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@richarddeitsch this was take 2 days before my Grandpa passed. Capturing my Grandparents 66 years of true love.

KatieAnnaK @katieannak

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@richarddeitsch @Sports_Casters #bestdayofmylife Meeting my first born for the first time :)

 These  can be used for inspiration for our film as they are romance related. Seeing that we have the idea of the couple reminiscing through a photo album, we can actually recreate some of these moments for our film. 

Idea Brainstorm 28/01/15

On the 28th of January we all met up and compared ideas: