We've come up with several story ideas over the last month. Trying to keep things simple and keeping in mind the restrictions we have as new filmmakers and highschool students. One of the stories that was come up with incorporates narration that acts as a conversation between two characters. Another explores loneliness that one may feel in the world that some may resonate with after still being quaratined for months.
With the future not looking too much brighter in terms of the pandemic, we've been trying to work out how we're going to go about shooting while also sticking to safe/healthy practices. We've limited our cast to three actors and somewhat worked out story around things like social distancing. I've gotten into three of my books so far; the first is Making Movies by Sidney Lumet which is a good insight into the workings of a film set, but gives a lot of advice for people on a level way above where we are. But its nonetheless informational and intriguing. Setting Up Your Shots by Jeremy Vineyard has been the most clear cut, it defines cinematography terms and gives examples on the page and from different movies. I've probably learned the most from it so far. The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video is a book full of infodumps but detailed and educational. We've also purchased a script writing tool as well as adobe premiere. Time to hit that steep learning curve.
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We both have been learning a lot about the mechanics of creating an audience grabbing film. I started my Dramatic Writing Class at NYU and I've been reading the script for a lot of feature and short films. This week I worked on establishing a character before introducing a conflict. The opening scene is so important because it establishes the rules for the world that the movie takes place in. My favorite script that I read was from the movie "What About Bob?" The movie opens with Bob swallowing a toothbrush and although the movie has nothing to do with toothbrush swallowing it's a good way to capture the audience's attention and set the tone for the ridiculous movie. I found that most movies will juxtapose the public main character vs private main character. This way, the audience really gets to know the person that movie is following. I've written three monologues, a short play, and the opening scene to a movie. I hope to use these going forward when I start writing the script for our movie.
-Chela While trying to come up with beat sheet outlines and reading through recommended books (as well as waiting for Amazon to deliver them) we've checked out a few of the winning short films from the All American Highschool Film Festival.
We've seen things that we want to avoid but also implement into our own movie storywise and visually. I.e. soft lighting is definitely the way to go for most of our scenes, and avoid trying to light in the nighttime if solutions don't look pleasing. We've also seen examples of tying visual elements to what is going on in a scene in the best way. Also two of six books came in the mail: "The Bare Bones Cameria Course for Film and Video" by Tom Schroeppel and "On Directing Film" by David Mamet. The first book comes with plenty of diagrams for setup and shooting, and the second full of helpful lessons a professor pulled from his lectures during his career as a film professor. - Yeala Recommended Books:
- On Directing Film by David Mamet - Making Movies by Sidney Lumet - Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell - Cinematography Theory and Practice by Blain Brown - Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video by Tom Schroepel - Setting up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Should Know by Jeremy Vineyard Movies to Watch for Story Inspiration - Imperial Dreams - The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Moonlight - Life Itself Goals: - Shoot for a movie that is within the range of 5-15 minutes. Write a story that will fit within those restrictions. It's hard to make a film engaging for long amounts of time, even if it's just 30 minutes. A short film also forces you to look and give more attention to details and add nuance. It also requires that the idea or emotion of the story be short and direct. - Limit ourselves, K.I.S.S., Keep It Simple Stupid. - Go to All American High School Film Festival Website and watch the short films. Watch the movies and take notes on what is good, what is not. What we like and what we don't. Keep it in mind throughout the process. Look at the winners. - Things to avoid in our story: Suicide, split personalities, homeless people, last second twist. They're all cheap topics. - Do something unique! Don't be afraid to do something gentle and simple, stories don't always have to be super complex and sending the audience in every direction. Stories can and should be about empathy. It's okay to write about our experience. - Main focus should be getting good performances from actors and getting a good story out of it. When shooting, focus on moving forward and not the setup. - Since it's our first film, we should follow the rules instead of breaking them. - Beat Sheet: A (very) simple outline that gives the beat by beat of the story. After writing it tie in the potential visuals. Be fully willing to make changes. Although there isn't much camera work to be done over the summer, in terms of visualizing our story we know we need to first start with storyboarding. We need to know how to use and apply techniques like focal points, the rule of thirds, and leading lines in our footage. With a detailed storyboard early on in our process, we'll be able to identify type of equipment we need to create the moods and effects we want, as well as transitions, movements of characters and the camera, etc. We also need indoor and outdoor lighting and recording equipment so that all of our scenes have the right look.
Ms. Johnson helped us understand that the idea of the story is the foundation of the project. It's the first step. It will help us create our storyboard, decide our cast, the equipment we need, our settings etc. She also recommended to start working with Adobe Premiere early because of it's steep learning curve, and the fact that being familiar with it could also give us more ideas in making our movie. And that we should invest in textbooks that could help us learn more about compostion, storytelling, etc. At the Fellows Leadership Lab on June 2, we developed a clear pitch and began to finalize our timeline. During our meeting, we decided on possible mentors to reach out to and defined our summer goals as the school year comes to an end.
Going into the summer, we’re going to do a lot of research on the process of shooting and writing an amatuer short film. Our first step is to solidify our story and characters so that Chela can begin the writing process. Our biggest concern right now is the logistics of our timeline. Although we would like to start shooting by the beginning of next school year, we also want to have a backup plan in case there is another stay at home order. We’re also aware that social distancing may still be necessary in the fall. We’re trying to make sure our story is still plausible with everything that is going on right now. |
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May 2021
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