In this post I am going to firstly show you and explaining what my film idea was through the presentation I used and a video showing me explaining it in full. I am then going to show my other group members pitching their ideas and then I am going to discuss the pros and cons of each idea.
When presenting my own I created a small presentation which was about 4 or 5 slides long which basically included the main plot, the twist, the cast, sounds/music and the locations. I thought my idea was hard to explain to get the audience to understand and gain an interest. here are both the presentation i used and my film idea pitch
The Genre I opted for was Romance. The reason I decided to create a romance film was because I thought that not many people would have designed an idea based upon this genre. I also thought that it would be clever to play around with the viewer where the tension will be increased as they think that Fate isn't going to take it toll and the 'lovers' aren't going to meet
I chose the two time line idea because it goes hand in hand with fate as to whether everything does happen for a reason therefore showing that even if there is a small change which changes everything else then things will still happen the way they were originally intended.
I knew that if I were to do the two time lines the audience could get confused as to which time line they are following. This is why I thought of playing around with the music in both sequences so that the audience knows when it has changed by the music playing and not only that but by the way her hair is styled.
The Pros of my film would be -
- Follows conventions of small cast, low budget, twist near end, etc.
- Creative plot which i have adapted a lot to make it easier to film to reduce time spent filming.
- Easy to find the Actors would be easy to source and location isn't a problem as I already have an idea of where it would be and props wouldn't be a problem as they are just everyday objects.
Con's -
- The one con I could think of would be that the editing stage would need a lot of thought put into it as the way we put the two time lines together is very important to the success of the final cut.
Lauren's film idea was adapted after our first pitch when we did a second pitch of our film ideas just so that we could take on feedback from others and adapt it to gain more interest.
Lauren presented her presentation using notes which she had wrote up and then she expanded on each point made to increase our understanding. Here is a video of her first pitch -
Her first idea left the audience with questions on location and whether the idea was realistic enough to do. she then took our feedback on board and produced a similar idea which would be more realistic to make.
The plot involved a woman who had been in a coma but when she awoke she was suffering with memory loss and couldn't remember how she ended up in the coma in the first place. Eventually we discover she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We then see her having flashbacks throughout showing what happened bit by bit. In the end she is at the police station and asks to make a statement.
The number of actors would possibly be around 2-3 (doctor/nurse, victim, attacker).
Lauren opted for a mystery/thriller genre which sounds as though it would quite easily fit in with the twist at the end as mystery films are always revealing small clues but as it is a short the clues have to be frequent and the big twist would end up finishing the film as it does in majority of shorts.
There would most likely be multiple locations I'm guessing 4 (Hospital, police station, place of attack, home). some of these locations would be hard to use as the hospitals would be hard to recreate unless the film starts with her already being released from hospital and the police station would be possible but wouldn't be realistic unless it were filmed in a real police station so the locations could be a small issue.
The Pros of this would be -
- An appropriate genre for the style of film we are making
- follows most conventions of shorts (Low budget, 1-3 actors, etc.)
- clear start and end with a good twist
Cons -
- Lots of locations which would cause struggles when filming as would possibly have to set different days of filming for each different locations
- some props and costumes could be hard to gather for a hospital or police station
James presented his film the same way as Lauren using notes and expanding on points when asked to. Here is a clip of James's first film pitch -
After James received his feedback he realised that it would be an unrealistic short to film as it would require a larger budget for it to work and would be hard to show economies crashing. that being said he completely changed his idea.
His new plot was along the lines of a man believing in the devil and locking himself in his home for so many days and weird things start happening, i believe the twist is where he looks in the mirror and realises that he himself is the devil.
The genre he has decided to use is horror. This would be a very appropriate genre as there are lots of elements and conventions of horror films.
James decided he would like to film it in a similar style to horrors like 'Paranormal Activity' where it looks as though the protagonist has set up the cameras to film the events that take place during the period he is locked in his house.
There will only be 1 actor in his film which would make it easier to find but with horrors there would need to be good actors to make it believable otherwise the film could look like it is mocking horrors.
The pros of this film are -
- Follows all the conventions of a short (small cast, low budget, 1 location).
- Also follows the conventions of horrors and includes similar techniques used in existing horrors.
- Easy to source props.
Cons -
- Most horror films are shot in open plan houses so that there is a lot of empty space for things to be happening behind the actors and it might not look as effective otherwise.
- Harder to set up cameras and check that the shot looks right without using an external monitor.
In summary most elements out of each film would work and look good but there are some elements which would need to be changed or adapted to make it either easier to film or more appealing to the viewer.
Final Film Idea
After looking at the following we all got together and discussed what path we were going take i.e. which film we are going to produce. We then started to discuss and delegate different tasks amongst one-another and came up with a way of invigilating each documentation once it has finished and we decided to record this discussion to post on our blogs.
Once we had discussed this we then went on to create the individual documents delegated, with a clear understanding of what finished product we were aiming for but before we can do these we need to establish a target audience and create our own target audience profile
