My Storyline

I have finalized my idea for my storyline and now I have decided to have it set between England and NewYork. The genre will be drama.

My Storyline
The storyline for my film will be about a young girl who dreams of living like a star. She travels to NewYork in order to see the homeland of fashion and make it big in the world. The film follows her from her home in England to her runaway trip to NewYork where she thinks the city will be the answer to everything.

Research into Trailer Form

I have decided that my film will me a drama. I have been looking into films similar to this for an idea of trailer formation and ideas of the types of things I want to be involved in my film.

The first film I looked at was Happy Go Lucky.




Looking into this film I like how its comic, but also has a lot of realism that the audience can relate to. From this film I like how the locations are your everyday places and that the things she does are things people could relate to for example having a driving lesson.

The ideas that I want to take from this for my trailer form is using a few different locations and having the shots go back and forth of the different scenes so that its muddled up and not in order so the storyline is harder to depict.

Another Film I looked into was Angus Thongs And Pertfect Snogging.






I like how this film trailer uses people of the same age that im looking into using, the realism that people can relate to, how its comic, the locations used and how it uses voice overs.

The ideas that I want to take from this trailer is the use of voice overs, words/phrases added in with images on a book (0:16, 0:20 and 0:27 seconds) and the use of a few locations.

The third film i looked into was Kick-Ass.



I don't want my film to be a lot of action or adventure but i wanted to use this film as a representation of the comedy side of my film idea.
The ideas that I want to take from this trailer is the use of voiceovers and how things go from serious to comic. I also like how it has a focus on the four main characters for a little bit and shows their names and sort of introduces them (1:20, 1:22, 1:24 and 1:33)

My Main Actor

My main actor is going to be Talia Goodsell. Shes 15 years old and will be playing my main character whos is in her late teens.

Location shots

Whilst in New York I took some shots to help with ideas for locations back here and to help me get an idea of the sort of places I want to use for my trailer.

These locations are all very different in the sense of settings and the feel that each location holds. I have learnt that this is a key thing to take into acount when deciding on the choice of my locations to film.

My next steps

Over the half term I'm going to New York and im going to take some footage whilst I am out there for mise and locations. These shots could be potenitally used in my film but at the moment my aim is to get ideas.

A New Idea

After researching into plot ideas I want to adapt a book called Teenage Kicks - 101 things to do before your 16. From this I would keep my idea of a documentary style and use documentary techniques to create a film about a group of teenagers who make a list of things to do before they turn 18 and have to go off to University and grow up. I want the film to have some humour within it and also be the kind of film that inspires others to create a list and do everything written on it.

The Bucket List Trailer

I wanted to show this trailer because I like the idea of having a list of things you want to do, the difference is my idea will follow teenagers, may have more humour in it and will be on a happier level as its about coming to the end of your teens not the end of your life. Other obvious factors will be the lower budget and the difference in scale on what is featured on the list that can actually be done or be filmed, for example my trailer would not be able to feature sky diving etc.

My Mood Board!

Here is my mood board. I decided to put images of all the things that influenced my film ideas, this includes images to show the two loacations that I've decided I want to use. I also put images of three films in because I believe they could help with my film and I may want to use certain aspects from these films later on, when I have decided on a final idea for my film. I also put in a list of directors who's work I like and think I will use as a guide that I can adapt from along with some of their techniques that they like to use. For example I like Noel Clarke because his films have a lot of realism in and this is something that I want to adapt for my film and create so audiences can relate to.

Development Of My Film Ideas

I'm still unsure on what I want to do for my film. I know I want to create a film which the audience can relate to and uses realism within it. I've decided I want to have some elements of humour within it because I don't want the film to be too serious all the way throughout. I'm thinking of shooting parts of my film within New York as well as the UK to make the mise-en-scene and loactions different and more interesting. For my actors I will have to take into account that I need people who will be in New York as well as the UK.

Here are some images of potential locations that I could use whilst I'm in new York.

Narrative

The source where i collected my information from was http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/students/ota9901.html

I have looked into the different narrative theories. The nature of narrative that I may choose to use for my film is a voice over technique to give my documentary or docudrama as a way of telling the audience footage in a way of a story.

Research into the Genre Documentaries

After carrying out research into documentaries I’ve found that some main features that need to be put into them. This has given me the idea that some features like real life events and interviews included within it.

I researched more deeply into documentaries and found a site with a lot of information on documentary film making. (http://www.mightycompanions.org/cropcircles/advice.html)
This made me decide that I want my film to deal with people and society, this would mean focusing on the human actions and feelings. As the website says “what makes a human being do what they do, what makes a society go in the direction it does and the evolution of culture.”

I have also learnt that you have to be careful how you film things and be careful on how things are portrayed to the audience because they could perceive things in the wrong way.

My Early Film Ideas

The different type of film genres and conventions that I have considered using is:

Realistic life/ documentary

Highschool based

Romcom

I've decided upon these genres because of the scenery/ locations, technology and actors that I have available. As my actors will more than likely be around a young age I will have to make sure that the conventions of the film suits them and the roles that they may have to play.

A main concepts that I may choose to focus on for my film trailer, could be a documentary on cheerleading which would follow my cheerleading team the “South East Stars” in different events from training, to competitions and a trip to Disney Land Paris to partake in the Disney Parade.

Another concept I have thought about is making a documentary based on college/ school life and use my sixth form trip to New York within this. By filming parts in New York this could give a lot of different scenery as well as just using the college/ school premises to film on.

As my final decision I have decided to make my film a documentary. I have chosen this genre because its real and nothings fake, people can get an insight to things they dont know about or haven't experienced and also insight to other peoples lifes/ experiences. I also like the idea of a documentary because the characters play themselves. I like the idea of creating something that the audience can relate to or can get a deeper insight into things they dont know too well.

Research into existing films for ideas

By looking at the differnt type of films that already exist I can get ideas of the particular genre I want to focus on and look into it more deeply. I am mainly focusing on the lower budget films because my film trailer will be made on a lower budget.

Examples of high and lower budgeted films include:

Kidulthood. (A film based on a day in the life of troubled 15 year olds growing up in west London) This type of film was made to make the audience feel and understand how it was and could be portrayed as a documentary type of film that looks realistically on life. This film only had a budget of £600,000.

Fishtank. Again this low budgeted film follows Kidulthood in the sense of looking realistically on life in a documentary style following a foul-mouthed, stroppy fifteen-year-old who lives on an Essex estate with her tarty mother. This film had an annual budget of £4 million and was directed by Andrea Arnold. Here is the trailer for Fish Tank to help get a feel for what the film is about:

This trailer is useful to my film because it shows alot of realism, this is a main factor which I want to incorporate into my film. The shots used in the trailer are also good to the audience because they can relate to the surroundings and scenes from the realism used. This trailer uses shots/ scences which I could use in my film easily because the mise-en-scene is so basic but realistic, this would mean that I could create shots/ scenes like this myself from the resources which I have.

American Teen
Amerian Teen is a documentary film which follows seniors at a high school in a small town in America and highlights the steriotypicalness of their various cliques. The film was written and directed by Nanette Burstein. Heres the trailer for American Teen:

I like this trailer because of its documentary style and this is what I'd like to create. I also like how it follows a group of teenagers and uses alot of voice overs. This is something I would like to adapt for my film trailer. The part I like the most in this trailer is the shots from 24 seconds to 34 seconds when each character is introduced but not for who they are, but who their social status has made them known as. I like this because it doesn't tell you about them but atomatically a sterotype character may come to mind so this leaves so much more for you to find out.

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propps theory examined 100s of examples of folk tales, to see if they shared any structures.Propp looked at 100s of folk tales andidentified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions.

The character roles and the functions identified by Propp can be applied to allkinds of narrative. In TV news programmes we are often presented with'heroes' and ‘villains'

The 8 character roles are:

• The villain(s)


• The hero


• The donor - who provides an object with some magic property.


• The helper who aids the hero.


• The princess (the sought for person) - reward for the hero and object of thevillain's schemes.


• Her father - who rewards the hero.


• The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way.


• The false hero

Todorov's Theory

Tzvetan Todorov's theory is a narrative theory that studies the devices and conventions governing the organisation of a story (fictional or factual) into a sequence. Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forcesare in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of thefiction.

The diagram below shows the three different stages that his theroy supported.