Post 8: Decisions & Revisions

Thinking of an original idea of the top of my head to write a script on was proving to be quite a struggle. I had no idea at all on a character or a storyline that I could create what so ever. As this was the case I decided to use a secondary resource to help me develop my ideas. I went onto various news websites to see what was currently happening in the world of affairs.

The Websites I went on were:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

http://news.sky.com/skynews/

http://www.itv.com/news/

After spending time on each of these websites I eventually found an article that interested me. It was about the recent lottery ticket that was won in Britain and was not claimed.

This article gave me the idea to create a storyline about my character as the holder of the winning lottery ticket. I was looking at the possibilities of also including that my character had financial issues that could give you the story of him winning the lottery but does not know it when he is in really bad circumstances.

I decide do create a mind map and brainstorm ideas that I could include into my script about the lottery stroyline. This is the mind map that I created:

After some great debate and discussion with other class members this is the final script idea I decide to come up with.

Synopsis of my short film:


David Smith is struggling in the world. no money, no job and a marriage that is on the rocks. He is desperate for anything. So when his local shop keeper advises him to buy a roll over lottery ticket David ponders an idea that he has never thought of. Should he buy a lottery ticket? With a huge multi million prize waiting to be won has David brought that lucky lottery ticket?

Post 7: Creating Your Own Script.

In class we worked on how to create good short film ideas. The first thing we did was as a starter we went round the class and each one of us told our other class members about what we did last night. We each had a minute to do this. We had to continuously talk about our night and consider what to leave out and relate it to narrative.

We then watched a short film called Signs. The film was a love story about a guy who was struggling to fit into a new environment and suddenly meets a girl in a office next to his and communicates by using signs. When we watched the film through and paused it at significant events and discussed possible outcomes and if we felt the short film was good.

We identified as a class that each short film needs the following:

- A World

- A Character

- A Problem

- A Want

- A Need

- An Obligation










From watching the short film "Signs" this is what we identified about the main character:

This is some of the key words we came up with to describe him:

- Dry
- Shy
- Bombarded
- Scared
- Need

The Want: To be love - This is shown when he shows interest into the woman in the office block next to him an starts communicating via Signs.

The Obligation - Go to work, sleep, Parent Expectations - This is shown when they show his day to day life of getting up going to work and getting phone messages of his parents who are keeping up on him.

Post 6: What makes a good short film?

In class we received a visit from film producer Becky Knapp. Becky gave us information on how to write a short film and gave us her experiences of producing short films.

During Becky's lesson she gave us scripts to read. First we read the scripts through and gave feedback to the whole class about what we thought of the script. We commented on what we thought it was about. whether or not if we understood it and whether we enjoyed reading it. We read two scripts these were Does God Play Football and Donna.



We first read through Donna and as a class we agreed that Donna was not the most interesting of scripts to read. We then watched the film to see if our reaction would change. As a whole I thought that after watching the film I still had the same reaction as I did after I read the script. One of the main reasons was the fact there was not much dialogue involved and it did not really catch your attention for the whole film. Maybe this is something I can take into account when producing my short film.

The second script we read Does God Play Football? We all found this script to be a lot more interesting. There was more Dialogue and the overall storyline gripped you as you read through the script. When we watched the film I found it to be more interesting than the script itself. The fast paced storyline and the dramatic acting made the film very enjoyable to watch. One of the main areas of the film that I thought gripped you as the audience and made the film more interesting was the music they added in the background every so often throughout the film. This added great tension to the film and gripped us as an audience.

Does God Play Football can be watched by clicking on this link:

Does God Play Football?
















Reading these scripts will help me when I come to write my own script. With the information and guidance we all received from Becky and the feedback from the scripts she showed us it will help me into writing a good script.

I have decided that my short film script will need to be interesting and not full of long dialogue that will bore the reader of the script and audience watching. So with short dialogue and a simple storyline I will hope to achieve a good short film.

After Becky's lesson we was set independent study to further our intelligence on what makes a good short film. We was given a few resources to look at by our teacher and had to use our own time to research into them.  

The first task I did for my independent study was to read an article from The Times on how to write a short film.

The article can be seen by clicking this link:

The Times - How To Write A Good Short Film Script

The Times article says that there are no rules you have to follow when writing a short film script but if you want you're film funded then there are a few basic principles you have to follow.

The article states that no one is intending to make a living out of short films and usually make them to show a message or to teach something. Also as it is difficult to make money out of producing a short film you have to make sure you have a reasonable budget to make you're short film with.

It also says that to make a story for a short film you need 3 basic elements. These are:

A World - This will create an easily recognisable world in order to start exploring a characters problem. A simple world e.g a wedding or first day at school will help the audience familiarise themselves with the world.
 
A Character - Who is the main character?, What is their problem?, How will the audience recognise the problem? - The audience must be clear to know who the film is about.

What is the driving force for you're character?:
- A Want
- A Need
- An Obligation

This must all be clear to the audience.
 
A Problem - The audience must see the heart of the story which will be the main characters problem.

The Times article also gave you a sample script. The sample script can be seen below:

The Times - Sample Script

From reading The Times article on how to write a good short film it has given me a brilliant understanding on what I need to do to write my short film script. The World, Character and Problem is a great building platform to create you're story form. Also the Sample script will help me with the overall layout of the Script and reading through it will give you a good understanding of how long it needs to be and how to build you're story up.