Editing Software

For most of my short, I will be using Final Cut Express, the editing software provided by school, I have a lot of experience in this from the years I have spent using it with past projects. It has an easy to use layout and intuitive controls for easy editing of footage and audio, the only drawback I have found often is the time it takes to render individual pieces of footage after making even the smallest of changes.

Alternatively, at home I have Adobe Premiere CS2 which, while dated is an incredibly effective piece of software and used by me on a wide range of personal projects, I find myself a lot more comfortable and content with this software and I find it easier to use and as a result I have a higher turnaround rate for projects (a 4 or 5 minute video often taking only a couple of days maximum) compared to Final Cut. Because of this I will most likely be using Adobe Premiere as much as possible for a higher quality final product.

Filming Equipment

When producing my short film, I will have a lot of technology and tools available to assist in filming. Below is an overview of some of this technology and other filming equipment.

To produce my short, it is planned for little equipment to be used. Apart from a camera, tripod and microphone, there should be no need for anything else.

The camera we will be using is a Nikon D3200 DSLRs provided by school, this allows for us to record high quality, widescreen video and is easy to set up, use and export footage to computers.

For stabilisation, a tripod will be used, while this means that we may not have as much stability in the handheld shots, this is not an issue as the style I'm filming doesn't have many handheld shots. A steady cam is available in case stabilisation is needed for the handheld shots but is not expected to be needed.

For audio, I will use an external microphone to record sound independent of the camera. While this means that the sound and video will have to be synced in editing it allows me to have more control over the audio as well as giving the audio much better quality.

Locations

When it comes to locations for my short, it is one of the easier parts of production as I only need a wooded area and a house which can obviously be found easily and with my past experience filmed in relatively easily. For the wooded areas, I will use the same area used in my AS worked due to the ease of access and familiarity with the area and for the indoors scenes I will use my own home for the same reasons.

There are however a couple of issues I will face with my choice of locations, firstly since the production of my AS work the wooded area is under new ownership and I will need to seek permission from the new owner to use it, however it is most likely my request will be accepted.
As for using my own home, it is quite a distance from the homes of my cast and crew and transport will have to be arranged, I will also have to work around the schedules of my own family so that I can use all the spaces required for production.

Storyboard

Stylistic Influences

When making a serious product of the action genre or similar (adventure/thriller/etc) my preferred style is that that replicates real life, such as the type of footage seen in 'found footage' type films. I like this because of it's just how realistic it looks despite being acted and how it can make a story look almost like a documentary. It connects with the audience at a deeper level due to it's realism and because it is believably shot and edited.

A good example of this style is the film '84 Charlie MoPic, which is filmed like a documentary and is often regarded as one of the most realistic war films due to it's tone and content when considered alongside the method of it's production.

Copyright

What is copyright?

When it comes to media products, copyright is the law that gives the producers of that media exclusive access to reproduce their work, distribute their work and display their work in public. Works that can be claimed by copyright and are of importance to me include "motion pictures", "sound recordings" and "pictorial works".

Why this is important to me?

Because I'm making a short film on little to no budget, the most important copyright is that protecting audio, therefore for music to be used in my short I will either need to create my own, use copyright free audio, or contact a copyright holder and ask for permission to use their music.

Copyright also matters as when I have produced my work, I will have full control over what becomes of it and the content within it and means that my work is prevented from theft.

Film Outline

Working Title: The Runner

Act 1 (Set up): Main Character (MC) runs through various environments as camera fades in and out (give impression of lack of consciousness/passage of time). MC collapses and is rescued by unseen secondary character (SC)

Act 2 (Confrontation): MC wakes up and is questioned by SC, exposition given, police arrive, one questions SC while another searches house.

Act 3 (Resolution): Continued interrogation of SC, second officer finds MC, fight breaks out, prolonged action sequence, end.

Planning Action Plan

Equipment:

Take stock of all equipment available and make notes on which equipment I may need, how I would use it and which equipment I plan on definitely using. Make sure to have equipment booked out for when I need it.

Locations:

Find suitable locations for filming and make notes on the pros and cons of the location as well as how I plan to use them for which scenes and make a assessment of potential issues and how I would overcome them.

Characters:

Make some brief character outlines so that I have a solid basis for actors to work off, include basic overview and what props and costume they would have.

Script/Screenplay:

Create an outline/guide for the speech and actions that will occur in my media piece, will help to keep my production on track and will prevent any stoppages caused by lack of readied content.

Storyboard:

Much like a screenplay, a storyboard is a bit more in depth and more tailored to shot types and camera movements than the actual narrative or actions in my product. Useful for the same reasons as a screenplay.

Film Classification

An aspect of media often overlooked by students is the classification of their product, this is required for a short film so that it can be distributed and viewed by the public, below is an infographic I produced showing the different classifications as stated by the British Board of Film Classification.

Steve Neale's Genre Theory

Short Film Home Page: Curfew

Short Film Home Page: The Chicken

Short Film Home Page: Stutterer

Short Film Home Page Analysis

The other ancillary product I need to produce is a home page for my short film, this is an important feature for a director as it gives their products their own space on the internet and can also be customised and edited to their liking. To showcase some and research the effective conventions of a short film home page I will be analysing the home pages of three short films.

Film Poster: The Martian

Film Poster: Skyfall

Genre Questionare Results

Results to the survey on genre can be found HERE

With these results I can now start planning my short film as I know what my audience want to see in a short film in the action/adventure genre. A realistic setting and story with a mix of fast and slow editing and minimalist soundtrack, in terms of narrative my audience want to see a male protagonist and either action scenes or suspense.

Genre Questionare

Now that I have collected the results of my audience questionnaire I can conduct a follow up questionnaire of what they want to see in my short film in the genre that they showed the most interest in. Below can be found an embedded version of this questionnaire.
Create your own user feedback survey

Narrative Theory

Audience Questionnaire Results

After receiving the results of my questionnaire I have compiled the results to display the average answer after having responses from 21 different responses.

Average age - 19 - 21
Gender - Male
Movies viewed - Once a week
Favourite genre - action/adventure (tie)
Valued aspect - action/suspense (tie)

Audience Questionnaire

In order to create a short film which will be well received I have made a questionnaire which I will hand out to various people in my social circles, a method called opportunistic sampling. Below is a transcript of the handout.


R&P Questionnaire


1. What is your age?

13 – 18 [ ]
19 – 21 [ ]
22 – 28 [ ]

2. What is your gender?

Male [ ]
Female [ ]

3. How often do you view movies?

Every day [ ]
Every other day [ ]
Once a week [ ]
Every other week [ ]
Once a month [ ]
Other [ ]

4. What is your favourite genre?

Action [ ]
Adventure [ ]
Comedy [ ]
Science fiction [ ]
Non-fiction [ ]

5. What do you value most in an short film

Suspense [ ]
Mystery [ ]
Action [ ]
Exposition [ ]
Credits [ ]
Other [ ]