Ideas Development – FMP Year 2

22/3/17

Idea Evaluations

After exploring the brief ‘Horizons’ and going through a process of idea generation I am now at the stage where I need to begin comparing my ideas and deciding which I would like to develop.

To help me do this I have analyzed a number of good and bad points about each possible idea:

Grandpa’s Story – (Mr goblin is accused of illegal magic when supplying children with extra sweets during the sweet rationing of 1943)

Good Points –

• Engaging story – I feel that this particular idea contains a really interesting and potentially engaging story. There are a selection of contrasting characters to help drive the story. Also I think the idea that there is a little goblin living in the fells giving extra sweets to children during rationing is a really nice concept as well a good example of how people can create stories to deal with difficult situations, as this story comes from towards the end of WW2.
• Space for Character Development – Due to the number and diversity of the characters available to me within this story I think that this would be a good opportunity to focus on how I present my characters and make them relatable to the audience.
• Lots of Research Material – Although it is a very short and disjointed story there is a wealth of material to use and draw inspiration from within the text. There are a number of different characters and locations each with a rough backstory that I can feature and pull ideas from.

Bad Points –

• Too Long – Although I like the story I think that it is definitely too complicated and in depth to try and squeeze into 2-4 min. I could perhaps find a way of cutting it down or focusing on one aspect but I think that the story would end up getting lost as a key part of it is it’s rich backstory. This idea would be more suited to a 10-15 min film.
• Lots of actors – This idea contains at least 3 characters that would be vital to the story as it stands but would most likely feature more. This is not only a lot of character development that would need to take place but also a larger number of actors and crew that I would need to organise. This means that if any one drops out for any reason it will be significantly harder to fix and regroup.
• Difficult locations – For a start the story is set in 1943 and needs to be so the timeline of sweet rationing makes sense and so I think it will be very difficult to achieve that ascetic due to the amount of props, costumes and careful location choices I would have to consider. Also a large part of the story focuses on the company MI7 which would be really hard to show as a massive fully established operation.
• Unstructured story – Although there is a semi clear progression in the story there is no coherent structure to it yet and would require a lot of chopping and changing in order to present it in a format that will flow and be understood. I also have very minimal experience with dialog and script writing and don’t think my FMP is the right time to try out something this drastically different.

Book Transport Story – (A young woman on a train is sat reading a number of traditional fairy tales, she then starts to envision herself as the main characters)

Good Points –

• Simple – The actual story for this idea is relatively simple meaning that it will be much easier to organize shooting and to make sure I get everything I need. It also means that I will have more freedom and time to experiment with different styles and techniques.
• Coherent Story – This particular idea has the bulk of the story laid out already therefore I will be able to focus more on how I want to tell the story rather than what i’m telling.
• Visual – I feel that this idea will be very heavily based on visuals such has how i’m going to portray each fairy tale character and the emotions tied with them. I tend to be quite a visual thinker so this is a stronger area for me as opposed to something that had a lot of dialog.
• Minimal Actors – For this film I should only need one main actor and possibly a handful of extras, depending on how I decide to go about it. This means that it will be far easier to arrange things such as shoot days, costumes and props as I will be working with a small group of people.
• Coherent Ending – Unlike some of my other ideas this one also has an ending that makes sense and works with the film. Not only dose this mean that there is a complete story there for me to work with but also that I don’t have to worry where i’m going, only how i’m getting there.

Bad Points –

• Emotional Pay Off? – Although as a story it is an idea that makes sense and has a conclusion, after discussion I was made aware that there isn’t necessarily a clear emotional pay off (meaning behind the film) as part of it. I know that it is centered around how people can empathise with characters but this perhaps isn’t made clear in my story. This is something that I would work on in the development phase.
• Costumes & Props – I feel that a key part of this idea is making the fairy tale characters easily recognizable and this would involve a lot of effort in sourcing the appropriate costumes and props in order to create the visuals I want.
• Cutting between fairy tales – As of yet there is no clear way for me to smoothly transition from one fairy tale to another. My initial thoughts were to cut at climatic moments of the stories on each one but definitely feel that this is something that needs to be considered more so that my film isn’t disjointed.

Little Miss Muffet – (A visual representation of the ‘Little Miss Muffet’ nursery rhyme, exploring the idea of the spider being a metaphor for an obstacle or boundary in life)

Good Points –

• Minimal Locations and Actors – For this idea I will likely need just one main actor and location. The story is centered around a woman sat under an oak tree and so this is likely all I will need in terms of actors and locations, depending on how I decide to develop my story/idea. This means that it should be relatively easy to shoot and gives me time to work things out if things go wrong.
• Visual – Much like my ‘Book Transport’ idea I feel that this one will also be very visual. Focusing on how I use imagery to present the themes and emotions contained within my film. As I said before I feel that this is an area I am stronger in and more comfortable with.
• Space for Character Development – As the premise for this idea is quite simple this gives me a lot of room with which to focus on developing my character and her emotions rather than moving the story along.

Bad Points –

• No coherent story – As of yet there isn’t a complete structure for this story. This means that theres nothing yet that I can use as a motivation to move the story towards an ending. I will need to look at this in development and work out the emotional arc that I want to portray.
• Unclear Meaning – For this idea I want to focus on how we put up mental boundaries and obstacles for ourselves but I haven’t yet found a logical and clear way to show this within my story.

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Chosen Idea – Main & Backup

Main– Book Transport Story (A young woman on a train is sat reading a number of traditional fairy tales, she then starts to envision herself as the main characters)

After considering the possible ideas for my film and exploring the brief ‘Horizons’ I have decided to pursue my ‘Book Transport’ Idea. I feel this is a good one to choose as it fits the brief well and gives me plenty of opportunity to experiment while also not being too overly complicated. It is also a very visual idea focusing on how I chose to use imagery to present my themes and story, this is an area I feel I have had experience in and could do well rather than taking a risk on something completely new.

The next step for this idea now is to move into the development stage. This mean that I will generate feedback from friends and family with which to structure my progression and solidify my idea.

Backup – Little Miss Muffet (A visual representation of the ‘Little Miss Muffet’ nursery rhyme, exploring the idea of the spider being a metaphor for an obstacle or boundary in life)

In light of my idea evaluations I think that this would be the most appropriate one to choose as a backup in case things go horribly wrong with my main idea. This is because it is a relatively simple idea and wouldn’t require an extensive amount of planning to make it work. The minimal requirements for locations and actors would also be a blessing as if things do go wrong I may not have a lot of time left. It is also a very visual idea meaning that I would still be playing to my strengths.

However this idea would still need to be developed in order for me to make it into a coherent film. I may start to think about this as I go along but I think it’s more important for me right now to focus on my main idea and make that as good as I can.

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22/3/17

Initial Pitch (elevator Pitch)

In order to generate feedback with which to develop our films everyone is writing a short pitch of their current main film idea. We will then constructively criticize each others proposals giving us a collection of feedback to help evaluate and develop our ideas.

Draft 1 –

My film is about the difference between imagination and reality and how books are the boundary or ‘horizon’ between them.

My film will feature one leading actor playing the main roles of traditional fairy tales such as, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel or Snow White. I want to show how readers can empathise with characters and put themselves in their shoes. I plan to focus on key visual moments that are recognizable from the selected fairy tales, for example with Red Riding Hood I might show her running through a dark forest with a red jacket and picnic basket coupled with a selection of atmospheric and howling wolves sounds.

Towards the end of the film I want to cut back to the reality of her sat reading on a train. I plan to do this by fading in the sound of a train conductor/announcement just before I cut from the last fairy tale to the train. I also aim to make this cut at a climatic moment such as just before she kisses prince charming or gets eaten by the wolf.

Draft 2 (final) –

My film is about a young woman sat reading traditional fairy tales on a train who then starts to envision her self as the main characters.

This is inspired by the difference between imagination and reality as well as how books are the boundary or ‘horizon’ between them.

The film will feature one leading actor playing the main roles of traditional fairy tales such as, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel or Snow White, showing how readers can empathise with characters and put themselves in their shoes. I plan to focus on key visual moments that are recognizable from the selected fairy tales, for example with Red Riding Hood I might show her running through a dark forest with a red jacket and picnic basket coupled with the sound of wolves in the distance.

Towards the end of the film I will cut back to the reality of her sat reading on a train. I plan to do this by fading in the sound of a train conductor/announcement just before I cut from the last fairy tale. I also aim to make this cut at a climatic moment such as just before she kisses prince charming or gets eaten by the wolf.

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23/3/17

Feed Back Generation – 

Into order to generate effective feedback we went round and left comments on each others ideas:

• “This is a good starting point for a film and it is a very relatable subject, especially amongst young people. I would give more thought as to what specific challenges she is going to face and how she is going to overcome them.”
• “I really like this, super original. How will the stories link together? I think thats the only thing you need to look into? Maybe mix the stories together somehow? So there isn’t starts and stops. Create a flow.”
• “Love it, got no faults, well done dude”
• “www: aesthetic appeal, cool narrative, dramatic ending. EBI: Trains are difficult to film on, lots of locations cause pain in logistical terms”
• “I think this is a brilliant concept for a short film. The concept of imagination is portrayed really well and is very compatible with the theme of books and fairy tales. I would definitely conduct tests as to how many fairy tales you want to include as this wounds like a lot for a short film.”
• “I really like this, I can see it being quite magical. I can see it being hard to do but I can see it being achievable too.”
• “The image of red riding hood would be really arresting, maybe if it was a bit blurred to start with? what about turing it on its head?  Have her pull a gun out of her knickers ( Ronald Dahl – Revolting Rhymes) – feisty female in red.”
• “How are you going to make the set look like a train? could be difficult. I really like the idea of looking at how we tell stories and empathize with characters. nice. I think her getting eaten would be a more dramatic and interesting ending. How you end this film could change the entire mood of it.
• “Will you be able to fit this into 2-4 mins. Maybe you could simplify it a little?”
• “The pace of the film is very good, definite story arc and conclusion. I especially like the idea for the end scenes. Seems like a lot to cram into the time allowance, if you do too many fairy tales it could be an overload of info maybe.”
• “Try to put your own spin on the shots. Would be nice to see colour play a big part, but i love this.”

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28/3/17

Key Feedback points –

These are some of the most common or valuable points that I have received as a result of our feedback session:

How they link together – How I actually transition from one fairy tale to another and the motivation behind this is still undecided. I knew that this was something I wanted/needed to address and my feedback has clarified that this is an important idea. This will mean the difference between my film running smoothly and coherently from start to finish or being too jarring and disjointed. I plan to research various fairy tales and the similarities/differences between them so that I can identify common themes that I may be able to link them with.

Specific Challenges – Although I have a reasonable idea of the flow of the film and the overall structure I have not yet settled on the actual physical content. What I mean by this is the specific moment I will feature of each fairy tale and wether these share a theme or come together to make a bigger picture. This will be very much dictated by how I decide to link them together but also I will have to choose moments that won’t require a huge production budget to pull off, as it’s none existent for this project.

Time Limit – Another common point from feedback was wether I would be able to make this idea work within the given time limit of 2-4 mins. This is something I had thought about but not included in my pitch. I feel that focusing on 3 fairy tales would be appropriate. Firstly the rule of thirds/triples is apparent in film as well as language, people tend to prefer things in groups of 3 as this feels more natural. I think this system would work as I can structure my film so that I have 1 min for each fairy tale with a 30 secs conclusion and a spare 30 secs just in case.

Versions of Fairy Tales – As part of my feedback it was suggested to me that I look at some modern versions of fairy tales and if there was a way I could incorporate them. Personally I feel that I want to stay closer to the traditional versions as I feel it will be a purer representation of how people empathise with characters. I am toying with the idea of showing each fairy tale in a different style e.g ‘red riding hood – horror’ or ‘Hansel and Gretel – Dreamlike’ and so looking at some modern takes on fairy tales might be valuable to help me stylize each section. This also made me think that perhaps I could branch out to classic children’s stories such as peter rabbit in order to have a bigger pool with which to draw inspiration from.

Trains/Locations – One common point from my feedback was the difficulties I might face from filming at a number of different locations logistically as well as the legal implications of filming on trains/stations. Although having a large number of locations could prove troublesome I think that it is perfectly doable with careful planning of shoot days and if I am fully prepared before filming on each day. The train however I think I will need to think about, I am still enthusiastic about the conclusion of her being sucked back into reality but think that I will have to find a different medium for this rather than the train journey.

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28/3/17

Choosing Fairy tales:

For my idea I need to end up with 3 main fairy tales/stories that I can link between. How they link together is perhaps more important than the actual fairy tale and so I decided to use a mind map to help me identify common themes/visuals easier.

I started off with 5 of the most well know fairy tales to help get me thinking about how they can link together and the visuals associated with them.

Wizard of Oz – Red riding hood – Hansel and Gretel – Snow White – Cinderella

What was made most clear from this exercise was the strong links between Red riding hood and Snow White. The common visuals of a forest and the colour red I think would be a really good tool to help transition and link them together.

From this mind map it feels as though The Wizard of Oz would also link fairly well as it follows the red visuals as well as the basket. I’m not sure wether this would fit as well with the others though because of its story falling slightly outside the fairy tale category and so it would be easier for my audience to become confused.

I think next I will put together a rough structure of how these 3 stories could link together and work in the film.

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First rough timeline draft:

This is the first rough draft I have done of the structure and overall content of my film. From my feedback I had decided to use 3 key fairy tales as the basis for my story, in this case I chose Red riding hood, Snow White and Wizard of Oz. I chose these because I felt they had some really strong visuals that I could incorporate and derive links between them from.

Context – Red riding hood – Snow White – Wizard of Oz – Reality

Action – Running from wolf – Abstract forest dance – Talking with scarecrow – Making a brew

Link – Dress torn into ribbon, tie ribbon up – drop apple, pick up apple – scare crow makes kettle sound, props round house (cloak, apple, straw hat)

Good:

• Strong get out/Ending – One of the things from my feedback was the fact that using a train as a location could prove difficult for logistical and legal reasons. I knew that having a non diegetic sound to bring the character and the audience was the way I wanted to go but needed a different medium with which to present this. After considering this I thought that I could use the whistle of a kettle as my sound and bring her back to the reality of her reading a book while making a brew. I really like this idea as making a brew could be considered as a lot of peoples everyday action and so I feel this will be a better link for the theme of reality. As well as a kettle whistle being a really distinctive sound that brings you back to what you were doing which is a similar concept to what I’m trying to represent.
• Visual Links – A key part of my film will be how I choose to transition and link to the various scenes/fairy tales. I started brainstorming any visual connections that I could draw between my fairy tales and settled on a few key aspects/moments. I think that using these visuals will be a great way to show the connection between each fairy tale and transition between them. I plan to research types of match cutting to get a better understanding of how I would do this practically.
• Similar fairy tales – I think what works really well about this structure is how similar Red riding hood and Snow White are to each other. By using two fairy tales so clearly from the same pool means that it will be far easier to draw links between them while also allowing for an all over smooth flowing film as then my themes of fairy tales will be apparent all the way through and clearly established. This doesn’t ring true for The Wizard of Oz however as it falls outside this clearly defined category and therefore could potentially confuse my audience as to the themes of the film and prevent the film from running as smoothly.
• Visual Moments from fairy tales – So that I can clearly establish particular fairy tale/character I am portraying I know that I want to focus on key moments from the stories that are particularly visual/recognizable. This is important as my audience needs to understand and recognize the fairy tales in order to understand the themes of the film.
• Minimal Actors – For this particular story structure it is likely that I would only need two actors to make it work. The main female protagonist and the scarecrow. This would be ideal as it would make organizing shoot days a lot easier as well as replacing any actors that drop out last minute.

Bad:

• Wizard of Oz doesn’t fit – Unlike Red riding hood and Snow White, The Wizard of Oz is not a traditional fairy tale. This means that it could cause confusion within my film as the reason I’m linking between these stories might not be as clear and disrupt the flow. What I did like about this idea was the possibility of developing some humor from the scarecrow character as I thought this would create some nice contrast to the rest of my film. I am still undecided as to wether I can make this work but feel that I should look more into other fairy tales that I could use as well.
• Are the scene changes clear – One of the things simon picked up on when I asked for some feedback on my structure was that fact that it might not be fully clear that I am transitioning  between fairy tales and that I should perhaps work on solidifying this idea. I could maybe look at some more abstract camera movements to help show these transitions and that fact that it’s effectively changing worlds. He recommended looking at ‘Stranger things’ and how they show the transitions between scenes.

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Timeline Draft

Scene – Red Riding Hood – Snow White – Cinderella – Kitchen

Context – Running from Wolf – Expressive Dance – Forced Perspective Pumpkin – Making Tea

Link – Whip Pan – Whip Pan – J Cut

Good:

• Matching Fairy Tales – I think these fairy tales work much better together as opposed to The Wizard Of Oz. I feel that this is because they all fall under the classic fairy tale category making the link between them much clearer. Also the fact that they all focus on a single female protagonist helps to match the stories together in a much smoother way.
• Whip Pan – After doing test shots and research on a variety of cuts and transitions I have decided to use whip pans as my main method of cutting between scenes. I quite like this cut as it resembles the action and feel of turning a page, further linking in the themes of my story, as well as providing a really clean and smooth transition. Also the actual physical filming involved with creating these cuts is really simple and easy to do.
• J Cut – Another cutting technique I am planning on using is the J cut. This is where the sound from the next scene is faded in before the visual cut to create a different type of transition. I think this will be a really effective way to transition back into reality as the fact that I’m using sound as a method to cut reflects the lack of sound within books and the contrast between the two.

Bad:

• More technically difficult – I’m planning on using a technique called forced perspective as the main focus in the Cinderella scene. Although this is an in camera effect it can be quite tricky to pull of and look convincing meaning that tests shots and substantial planning will be require to make it work.
• Improv Dance – For the Snow White scene I’m intending to use an expressive dance as the focus and film it in a multi camera/music video type set up. My actress is an experienced dancer and so we’ve decided to work around each other and improvise a dance choreography. This could prove problematic having not planning anything definite. However I am still fairly confident as I feel I’ve had enough experience with this type of filming to go with the flow and she is skilled enough to be able to improvise. The way I have planned it is as if I was setting up to film a gig and have laid out my camera angles ahead of time.
• Cinderella loose story – Although I feel Cinderella will work much better and I have a focus point in terms of the stuff I’m doing with the pumpkin and forced perspective, I think the actual context is still quite open. I aim to be pulling inspiration from the suspense/thriller genre and have her sneaking away with the pumpkin in some way but there is not yet a specific action set in stone. This will develop more as I start to do test shoots and story board.

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 Selection of notes/idea generation 

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