Hear Me Out

The final script after adjusting of scenes and lines is as follows:

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Maia: I can't believe I got the lowest in my class again.
Jo: What is this? 13 percent?! My dog could do better than that. I don't even have a dog.
Maia: Give it back!
Jo: What would I want this rubbish for? It's not even worth looking at.

Jo: How completely and utterly rubbish. 13 percent!? But then I'd expect that from someone like you. How dumb.
Maia: I'm not dumb!
Jo: Hah! I'll believe that when I see it.
Maia: Fine! You got yourself a deal!
Jo: Whatever. You'll never score better than me in anything, no matter how hard you try. Why? Because I'm me. And I'm fabulous.

Maia: Oh god. What did I just say?! There's no way I'm ever gonna beat her.

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Jo: Study harder my friend. You're gonna need it.
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Maia: I can do this!
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Jo: Hope you studied hard. Let's see how we do.
---

Amy: Good morning class. I have your results from the test. Some of you have done very well.
Fran: Some of you have not done very well.
Amy: I can see that some effort has been put in.
Fran: And some hasn't. Clearly.
Amy: So, when I call your name I would like you to come to the front, collect your paper, and then sit down. Okay, first name.

Amy: Joanna Dolan.
Amy: Very well done. Congratulations.

Fran: Maia Rogers.
Fran: Well done, very much.
Maia: Thank you.

Amy: Very well done to most of you.
Fran: Some of you not so much.
Amy: Resit forms can be found on my desk if you wish to resit.
Fran: And that will be most of you.
Amy: The forms must be handed in by next Friday. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure teaching you.
Fran: Some not so much.
Amy: Goodbye.
Fran: Bye.

---
Jo: So what did you get?
Maia: I don't know. Tell me what you got first.
Jo: 86! Try beating that!

Jo: WHAT?!

Maia: Yes!!!
---

And I Dub Thee.....

The title I have decided to call my short film is 'Statistics'. I have chosen this for a few reasons whereby the most simplest justification is because the students are studying maths, where the unit in which the test falls under in the short film comes under the statistics aspect of A level maths.

The other reason I believe this naming is fit for my short film is because it fits neatly in hand with the narrative of the film. Where the storyline revolves around the idea that working hard leads to achieving successful results, this can be turned into a maths equation in the sense of: hard work + will to learn/study = successful results. And in many cases, this relates to my audience in the sense that for many of those who watch my short film, they would be able to relate and understand how Maia achieves her goal in the end through first-hand experience themselves.

The Sound of Music

Being a short film, music is needed for a number of reasons such as for an impact factor to support emotions or for an entertainment factor to reflect the genre of the short film. However, where choosing the music can be an easy task to perform, there is the issue of finding royalty free music so as to not use copyrighted material, and therefore abide to the rules of the law. It is for this reason that for my short film, I have used Youtube to find covers of the musical arrangements which I wish to use. Videos of the music used have been listed below with their respective Youtube accounts usernames:

takeman2911 - Gonna Fly Now


Katekyo Hitman Reborn OST - Tsuna Kakusei


drongovids - Countdown Clock Theme Midi Sequence


2gutierrez- Also Sprach Zarathustra (Keyboard Cover)

Short Story Cameo Appearances

In regards to the adapted results scene of my short film, I mentioned that there was the introduction of new characters. The roles of these characters were to be the teachers who handed the results back to the competitive students. The actors which I used were my friends Amy and Fran, who were in fact featured in my AS level coursework, whereby Amy was one of the main characters (a bully) and Fran was featured as one of underlings.

Since these two individuals have a rather humourous personality anyway, I decided using them as the roles of the teachers would be a good idea to boost the comical aspect of my short film; which I feel they have achieved pretty well. The fact that I had actually also asked them to ad-lib their lines during recording (since my decision to include them in the scene came to mind at the spur of the moment) also helped with this comical factor since the lines which they came up were rather sarcastic and humourous - the way in which they spoke as teachers reflected exactly that in which an actual school teacher is not supposed to act.

Short Film Storyboard Adaptations

As I was filming the results scene, due to time and place of where the scene was being filmed, I was rushed to complete the shots needed for the scene. Because of this, I decided to re-film this scene however, this time around, I decided to redesign the scene completely to create a greater effect. In the process of doing so, new characters were introduced for a brief moment of time, as well as a new script and dialogue being produced. As a result, I decided to storyboard this new scene, which will replace the last scene seen on the original storyboard posted a while back:

Justification of Characterisation

As the context of my short film revolves around school, the two friend actors I have chosen to portray the characters in the short film are both school students.

(Jo - intellectual student)

Playing the role of the smarter student, I have decided to portray Jo's character as one who is typically boastful about herself; she enjoys bathing in her intelligence and showing off how smart she is to the others. Her gestures and tone of voice in the short film will accomodate to these characteristics which she holds. In order to show that she is the antagonist, Jo's character will be dressed in black; a dark colour conveying 'evilness' and 'power'. To also make obvious the fact that she is the intelligent student, she also wears glasses.

(Maia - inferior student)

To portray that of the simple-minded student, I have used my friend Maia. I find that she carries characteristics perfect for portraying a lesser intelligent person. For example, she is blonde, so is able to convey the 'blonde' stereotype (although she is in fact the opposite of such a person in real life). As her character is to be inferior compared to Jo, Maia will act as a weak, unconfident student. To show that she is the protagonist, unlike Jo, Maia will wear bright, light colours; where this acts in a way similar to a metaphor in that her lightness breaks through the darkness of Jo, and eventually leads to her achieving her goal.

Short Film Distribution

In terms of distribution and consumption of my short film, looking back at the questionnaire which I had posed to those who fit within the range of my target audience, it had been discovered that the internet was a very popular choice as a place which people shared and received information from. In today's society, it would be expected that the internet would have such a large amount of impact amongst people's lives, especially with young people since it is a fairly new form of media and young people have been growing up with it developing through their whole lives.

It is because of this that I have decided that my short film will be distributed on the internet through web 2.0 sites such as Youtube and Facebook, both of which are extremely popular with my target audience of 14-18 years olds. By distributing on my short film on such sites, it also means the viewers are able to comment on my short film, freely expressing and sharing their opinions. It is also an easy way for my short film to gain popularity and widen the viewers since a range of people would be able to view my film, not only my target audience. Furthermore, people will have the ability to embed the short film into their own social networking site, or even share the link, and by doing this, my short film will gain an even larger viewing audience, thus helping even more with its distribution and marketing.

As well as Youtube and Facebook, my short film can also be distributed on websites dedicated solely to short films. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films) by the BBC is a good example as it hosts a range of short films of different genres, audiences and lengths. Daazo (http://www.daazo.com/) and Independent Lens(http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/insideindies/shortsfest) are also another two good places for short film distribution online.are also another two good places for short film distribution online.

Short Film Audience Research

In order to find out more about my chosen audience (teenagers aged 14-18) to produce an effective short film which adheres to them, I decided to carry out a questionnaire whereby I asked a range of questions to those asked. The questionnaire covered three areas; audience film consumption; film posters; and magazine reviews. Below, I have displayed these results in the forms of graphs, each with an evaluative comment explaining the outcome of the question asked and the effect this has on the short film which I produce.

The opening question of my questionnaire was to classify the gender of those asked. The reason for this is because this will greatly affect and influence the responses the rest of the questionnaire since opposite genders have different prefereces. Out of the 13 people asked, the ratio of females to males was 9:4. In a way, this could probably reflect the ratio of females to males in the world in the sense that from this, it could arguably be said that there are more females. From this, I could therefore presume that more female teenagers would be likely to watch the short film I produce. However, this is based on a small proportion of people and so it would be improper to conclude that this result is the overriding statistic for the rest of the world.

To find out the preferred choices of film genre, I offered a multiple answer question and the result was that all subjects enjoyed comedy films, or at least those with a comical element. The next popular genre was romance however, this should in a way be disregarded considering how two thirds of those answering were female, and as we all know, the romance genre is typical of females. The third most popular result was action which shows people like to watch energetic and lively scenes. From these results, I can say that in terms of how they will affect the short film I produce, it would be strongly recommended that I integrate a comical style as this is what my results conclude. I should also avoid considering making a short film consisting of sci-fi, crime, mystery or the documentary style since these were adequately unpopular genres.

It would seem that the majority of those whom I questionned rather enjoyed films which had a moral. This result will have a great influence upon my own short film as it shows I should try to include some form of message towards my audience. By doing this, it would also mean I would be creating a multipurpose film since not only would the film be produced for entertainment, but there is also a reason behind it. If I choose to do this, the short film I create will need to strongly support this message as this will help with producing a strong narrative which makes sense.

All males asked claimed that they watch short films, and two thirds of females asked stated they watched short films too. This shows that there is a large audience of teenagers who watch short films, thus showing that my decision in producing a short film aimed towards teenagers was a good choice to make since there are a number of people who are likely to therefore watch my film.

It appeared that short films were not seen on a frequent basis with the majority of those asked. However, they did watch short films. This result will give me an idea as to how often my own short film is likely to viewed.

From this, I can see that the topic of films is used in conversations and that people are likely to discuss and in turn, recommend films to each other. This also shows that by word of mouth is the best distribution method due to communication. It can therefore be guaranteed that the short film which I produce is likely to be talked about, even if for a brief moment, but this increases the chance of people watching my short film.

The point of this question was that it would show where the best place would be for me distribute my short film to in terms of which media is used to view films the most by teenagers. The format which appeared to be most popular was that of television, but this is to be expected as the majority of films are bound to screen on television after release in cinema and as a DVD/ VHR. Furthermore, this method of viewing films is free whereas to watch a film in cinema or for home viewing requires money, therefore is widely accessible to a larger number of people. Of course, the cinema would also be rather popular as this is the first place people go to watch films. If I was to have my short film screened in a cinema, the best chance of having it viewed would be by having it shown during the advert period before the feature film is shown (where the feature film's target audience is teenagers). In all honesty, all choices of viewing were popular with those I posed the question to showing that I could use any form of media to show my short film since all are used by my target audience.

From the last question, as I noticed half those asked used social networking sites to view films, I decided to further ask which of the popular networking sites they were members of. It seemed that everyone has a Facebook account and considering the rising popularity of Facebook in the world today, to upload my short film to this site (either using my own account  and relying on my friends to spread the word of my film or requesting to have it as an advert link) would be the best way to distribute my film. Furthermore, since it is quick to do and requires little or no money, the audience would be able to view the film for free, thus being a factor which would make them more likely to watch my short film.

This result shows that even though everyone asked was a member of at least one social networking site, only 4 of the 13 actually used this as a method to stream or link video clips. However, even though this seems a small number of people, it only takes one person to start a chain reaction and spread word about something for it to become more popular therefore, I would not see this as too much of an issue if I were to decide to distribute my short film online through a social networking site.

To also help with research about film marketing, I asked for the ways in which people received information about films from. The most commonly occurring result was that people heard through friends, thus showing that conversations and communication are the way most people spread word. The next popular category was the internet. This helps with the marketing section of my short film as it goes to show that the internet is an extremely helpful and useful method if one wants information to be spread. Furthermore, since the internet is global, it means that my short film would be read about from all corners of the world, expanding on the number of people who would watch it.

As just over half of the subjects being asked responded that they did read film reviews, this shows that the ancillary task of producing a magazine review is important and that when it comes to designing the writing the text for the review, I should try and include as much information about the film as possible as this will be a productive way to hook and persuade readers, and my target audience, to watch my short film.

As many people's decisions appear to be persuaded by what they read, this shows that the discourse of my magazine review is extremely important as it would help determine the decisions of whether a number of people would watch my short film. This therefore means that the magazine review will be a critical selling point for the consumption of the short film which I make.

To find out where is best to advertise my short film and place the posters, I decided to question my subejcts where they are most likely to see film posters. It seemed that the majority of them saw posters for films in the cinema which is understandable since the cinema is a mini film world and would want to use these posters to persuade consumers to watch films. The next popular area was in magazines and newspapers, and the effect this has on my short film poster is that the context of where a text is placed needs to be payed much importance. Taking a magazine as an example, the pages are normally flicked through and not payed much attention, aside from the sections which the reader wants to read, and so placing a film poster in here means that it would need to be eye-catching and prominent in order to catch the reader's attention in the split second that the page may pass their eyes. The same goes for if the poster was to be placed on a bus; people would not have time to read any text since the bus would be moving most of the time so the idea of using text in this case should be dismissed. Instead, it would be the image which catches the most attention, as well as a unique, bold title so that passer-bys on the street would know the name of the film being advertised, and would be able to remember it.

Since it was claimed that many of the people do pay attention to film posters, it means that this needs to be payed great attention to since the film poster is one of many methods used in marketing to sell the film to the audience. This means that what is placed on the film poster will need to do give enough information to the audience to have an idea of what the film is about, whilst also creating enigma codes to make them curious about the film and whilst also conforming to the conventions of short film posters.

Location, Location, Location

 

(Standard Classroom)

 

(School Corridor)

(Copleston Road)

(Outside Copeston Sixth Form)

(Maths Corridor)

The locations I had in mind were the one's shown in the images above. The reason for this was because since the intended audience of my short film is teenagers, and the characters and narrative I am using revolve around school students, it would have seemed reasonable to use a school for the setting.

However, when it came to filming, due to weather, it was not possible to use the outside locations. Therefore, where I would have used my first chioce of Copleston Road and then outside of Sixth Form for scene one where we meet the two characters for the first time at the beginning of the short film, this instead had to be replaced for the school corridor. I would have liked to have used the maths corridor as my third option however this corridor was being used by students in their maths lessons.

Target Audience Research

The target audience for short films tend to be a fine selection of people who are from backgrounds with experience in the film industry. For example, film enthusiasts, film critics or directors. Short films are quite often produced as a means to give ideas for feature films, or as the producer of the short film is using the idea of making as a stepping stone to display their talent, and hope that this way, a scouts person will notice their skills. It is for this reason that people with film experience are the ideal target audience as people such as directors are are likely to visit short film networks (such as BBC) hoping to find raw talent or inspiration.

Examples of short films which have been used for inspiration for feature films would be well known films such as "Napolean Dynamite", which was inspired by the Spanish short film "Peluca" (2003). The recently released computer-animated film "9" storyline was also originally produced by a student from UCLA Animation as the idea for his thesis. The infamous pentalogy "Saw" also received its storyline from the minds of two Australian film students in 2003, before the first of the Saw series films was produced in 2004.

Whilst it may seem that targeting these film enthusiasts would be best, a number of short films also have a broader audience as the goal of the producer's short film is not only to be scouted by a company, but to also entertain a wider audience. The easiest target for this is young people as there are many factors and scenarios which can be used to relate to them. It is for this reason that the audience for my own short film shall be the youth range of teenagers. Furthermore, since the protagonist and antagonist of the film are high school students, and the scenario is a school, it would make sense for the target audience to be of the same age range.

Short Film Storyboard

Cast - 2 people + extras
Props - Maths paper, textbooks, skipping rope, scales, headband, calendar, school classroom
Location - Copleston High School

Short Film Ideas: Final Decision

Looking at the three short story ideas I came up with, thinking about them more deeply, the overall decision I came to was that I would film the story related to the proverb "when there's a will, there's a way."

There were a number of contextual factors for this choice as firstly, with the first idea revolving around the £10 note, the range of props and cast needed would have been troublesome to have got hold of, besides also finding time when people were free to be filmed. However, I really liked this short film idea and to have been able to have filmed it would have been great as I feel a lot could have been done to it, and with the help of good editing, it could have turned out to be rather good.

As for the other story about the music composition based on the proverb "what goes around, comes around" I felt there was too much a demand on a good cast as I have only access to high school students and so to try and make them appear as though they could be middle-class business people would be pushing it, and would also remove the whole realistic vibe.

As for the story which I chose, this only really needs two people (the main characters) and the need for minor side characters such as those in the classroom would be no problem as I can easily use my circle of friends for that. The setting and location of the story is also easy to get hold of as it simply requires a school setting - which I have daily access to. Furthermore, I feel that this story can be made rather comical and not be entirely serious throughout the whole thing, so as to entertain the audience, as a short film should do. A variety of editing shots can be used along with this story too, as I have in mind the use of intergrating a split screen, overlays, voiceovers, and match-on action shots.

Short Film Ideas: Round and Around

The proverb "what goes around comes around" reminds me of the term "karma" and so, that is the theme in which my short story is based around. The storylines goes as the following:

the most popular high school student is gifted with a once in a lifetime chance of gracing a scouting company with her first-class piano composition skills. However, she comes to a dead end as she runs out of ideas for a song which she could make to please the scouters from the company, which leaves not only a strong impression on them but is unique and different from what others may perform. Whilst sitting in the school music room by herself, she begins to panic as she has but a short time left to compose. Suddenly, her eyes come across an old folder filled with music scores from a couple of years ago. Believing these compositions have been long forgotten about, and considering the situation she is in, the young girl copies down the music onto her own blank sheet and starts to practice playing it.

The next day, she is called up to perform "her" composition. At first, all goes well but then, as soon as she starts playing the melody, one of the scouts stops her. Knowing she had taken credit and plagiarised some material from somewhere, the young student starts to feel nervous and begins fidgeting. Unfortunately, the next thing that happens is the scout who told her to stop walks up to her and asks her "did you compose this yourself?" Knowingly lying, the girl replies that she did it all herself but then the scout starts to tell a story about how the music sounded rather familiar. It appeared that the music the student had plagiarised actually belonged to this scouting person. And it also gets discovered that he used to be a student at the very same school as this young girl. Word breaks out about how this first-class music student cheated and from then on, wherever she goes, the other students call her a "cheat" and a "liar".

From this story, I feel not only is the message about karma conveyed, but also the message that one should not steal and take credit from other peoples work; it's simply not right. No good comes from cheating or lying.

Short Film Ideas: Ways With Wills

"When there's a will, there's a way" - the short story idea I have come up with which fits to this proverb revolves around the lives of two high school students; a highly studious girl and her classmate, an academically inept person.

In a nutshell, the story I have created tells about how with lots of hard work and determination, one can achieve what they want. In this case, the lesser learned of the two tries to prove how she is in fact, not as 'dumb' as people may think she is as she ends up challenging the more intellectual student to a battle where she agrees to compete that she will achieve a higher score in an upcoming maths paper.

The short story simply follows the process which happens for the two to end up placing such a bet in the first place as both students reputations are put on the line. First the short film starts off with the two colliding (where the agent of change occurs), and then I plan for a montage to occur which demonstrates the number of things which the less academic student does in order to try and improve her intellectual ability and prepare for the maths test. In the meanwhile, I am thinking of perhaps producing a split screen during this scene as on the second half of the screen, a contrast will be displayed where the other student will be seen wasting her time, not bothering to revise at all as she has too much pride and ego. The final section of the film will then show the two students actually being tested and then finally, receiving their results.

Of course, the storyline is supposed to be predictable and so the ending result will be that the 'dumb' student achieves her target whereas the other realises that she shouldn't have been so egoistical and relaxed. In this story, not only is the initial proverb dealt with, but the message of how one should not think prejudice and act upon it also accompanies this short story as it is because the higher achieving student thought that the other would never get a better grade than her, that she put no effort towards the maths test and ends up being overtaken.

Short Film Ideas: Money Is Evil

For this short film idea, I had in mind of creating a story in which revolves around the life of a ten pound note; the activites it is used for by a various number of people, and the overall misfortune it brings. The reason for this choice of idea is that I believe it matches perfectly with the proverb "the love of money is the root of all evil" as I intend for the characters in whose hands the ten pound note falls into will display signs of greediness for the money and become attached. However, it will be due to this yearning and selfishness for the money which leads to their misfortune, thus explaining why it is evil.

In short, the story will start off with a ten pound note flying around in the air, and its path will be tracked by the camera. The money lands in the sight of a lone chav who is walking down the street smoking frantically searching for some money. He spots the money and picks it up. After looking around, he decides to walk slyly walk away hoping no-one sees him as he is under the impression that the money probably fell from the hands of someone close by. The camera follows this chav walking down alleyways and stops to find him dealing drugs with a gangster. He hands the ten pound note to the gangster in return for some weed.

As the gangster is a high school student, the next scene is him using this "well earned" money to bribe a studious classmate to do his homework for him. Which the class geek gladly accepts. This scene is then followed by the geek happily walking down a street grinning away at the money they have received for their hard work. However, not all is good as they are then suddenly attacked by a trio of bullies who snatch the money away from the geeks hands. This eventually turns into a squabble between the geek and the bullies but then no thanks to a 'tight' grip on the ten pound note, a wind picks up and blows the money out from one of the bully's hands for a brief second.

The ten pound note then lands in the middle of the road and lies there. This is followed by a few extreme close up shots of everyone's head turning to look at the money and in their eyes will be a reflective image of it lying on the ground. After a few shifty movements, the geek leaps into the road and is seconds away from reaching out for the money but unfortunately, they get hit by a passing car (which will coincedentally be driven by the chav).

The final shot will be a canted angle where the audience sees the geek on the floor with the chav running out of their car and rushing to the geek's side calling for them if they are okay. The camera then zooms out slightly and refocuses, leaving the audience to see the ten pound note lying on the ground in the foreground, and in the background is the geek on the floor. To finish, the short story will fade out black.

The reasoning for the choice of such a story is because I intend for the audience to be the teenager age range as I hope to convey the message not only that money is the root of all evil (the proverb which the short story pivots around) but also that things which may seem normal to an ordinary teenager should not be overlooked. This explains why I have tried to involve a stereotype of the most common teenagers (chav, gangster, geek, bully) within my storyline. Furthermore, by using such characters, it acts as a hook which enables the the story to accomodate and catch the audience, since it means the audience can relate to these character types.

Brief: Short Film Ideas

From my analysis and research into already existing short films, many ideas have sprung to mind around what I make for my own short film production. "Alma" is the two short film which has influenced my decision for the plot/ theme in which my short film will revolve around as I have become quite attached to the idea of producing a piece which revolves around the theme of a proverb (whereby in "Alma" the concluding proverb was 'curiosity killed the cat'). Therefore, I decided upon searching around for other proverbs which I could create a short film for and managed to narrow down my choices to the following three:

- the love of money is the root of all evil
- when there's a will, there's a way
- what goes around comes around

I have chosen these particular proverbs as I believe many stories can be produced in relation to these sayings. Also, in my opinion, these three quotes are perhaps ones which have the most relevance in our lives today and can easily relate to everyone about something which they have probably done in their lives, thus deeming to be something which would be useful to produce to, especially in terms of audience as it means the task of trying to converge with the audience will be mitigated.

Brief: Short Films

The brief which I am most likely considering to do is a short film, alongside the two ancillery tasks of a poster and a perhaps a film magazine review page featuring the short film. This is as short films all tend to deal with just one theme therefore are not complicated in the sense of side stories which linked to the main plot, although it does mean short films are more artistic in that they require more in depth thinking and everything from dialogue, mise-en-scene, composition etc. has some sort of relevance. Normally, the most common theme is love, which I am thinking of following too. I have chosen the ancillary tasks stated as this shows the importance of the role which advertising plays when promoting a product.

As of yet, I am still to come up with an idea of what my short film will be about however, I am strongly leaning towards the thought of including a twist at the end of the film.