Short thought on effects

The short film 'Stranger' started me thinking ahead, about the effects I'll be using, for example 'Test' is quite dark, and so is almost black and white, this contrasts 'Traffic Warden', as it is a lighthearted and happy short film, as mine will be, and the colours are quite bright. There is an effect on iMovie which brightens some colours which I will probably use.

Companies and logo

After asking a few people about the logos, I have decided to use both, in a kind of 'Pin Point Pictures presents, a Mini Movies production...'
I made a second logo because, as Rob suggested, using Pin Point Pictures as a company for a short film might imply it was a major film, rather than a short 5 minute one.

Company Logo

Updating my last post made me think about the company, logo and credits that will accompany the film. I was wondering whether to use my logo from last year, for Pin Point Pictures:

or whether to make a new company name and logo, specific to short films, such as Mini Movies:

I remade a logo in landscape, so that it fit the screen in iMovie, rather than being in portrait and surrounded by a black edge.

Film Ending

While I was writing the 'Storyboard-ish' post I was thinking about how to end it, whetehr to have a happy ending where I get the item in the photo back and thats it, or whether after the shop assistant takes the item out of the window and everyone thinks I have the item back, but then a someone else walks out of the shop with the item.

Then again, whist writing out these ideas, picturing them happening in my head, I think the first option sounds better. But I don't know, I'd have to think about it in more detail.

Edit:
After coming up with some options for the ending, I decided to stick with my original ending, as having someone else get the item would cause too many problems of firstly finding someone to film, and then permission to film them.

Though, after some feedback about the ending, I've decided add an extra scene at the end, which will go something like this:

I walk out of the shop holding the doll, there is a small pause before someone comes rushing out of the shop and stops me. This is shot from across the road, and will cut to a shot-reverse-shot of a short piece of dialogue between me and the other person.

Other - Hello, 'scuse me, sorry, but I came in here with my daughter Emma the other day and she saw that doll and really loved it. It's her birthday tomorrow, could I buy it from you, for her?

Me - [looks at doll] She was my best friend once, her name's Rosie. Take good care of her.

I pass the doll over and the other person thanks me and rushes off. There is a shot of me, standing for a while, thinking about what just happened, sighing, smiling then walking away.

Storyboard

After a few technical hitches and blogger being blocked in school, I've finally managed to upload my storyboard!
I don't have a scanner, so I just took a photo of the sheet it's on, which looks like it worked out fine.

--Click for full size--

Storyboard-ish

There will be a picture of the original scribble which I call a storyboard, when I get round to taking the photo, but for now this will have to do. (Italics = added in later)

Opening titles, probably over a series of old photos, to tie in with the fact that I'm looking at photos at the beginning of the scene)
Frame 1
Looking at old photos, finds a photo of younger me with an item (I’d have to make sure I still have the item, it’ll be needed later on. If not, I’ll have a go at getting creative with Photoshop)

Frame 2
Insert of close up of photo.

Frame 3
Cuts to low angle shot of me looking at photo.

Frame 4
MONTAGE!!!! Looking for item in photo around the house.

Frame 5
Close up of a random look of confusion, then looking (camera pans) to a laptop.

Frame 6
Cut to printer, printing the posters.

Frame 7
Series of quick clips of me putting posters on walls, lampposts etc, ending with a shot of me in front of a lamppost, then walking away, revealing a poster on the lamppost.

Frame 8
Long shot of me trying to hand out posters (could be filmed on highstreet, using charity shop on there, if they'll let me anyway), ending with a close up of me looking for someone else to give a poster to, when...

Frame 9
The camera cuts to a second hand shop (Charity shop down highstreet), then to a close up of the item in the window.

Frame 10
The camera returns to the shot of me, I walk out of shot and the camera cuts to a wide shot of the shop and me walking through the door.

Frame 11
There is then a close up of a shop assistant taking the item out of the window.

Frame 12
Shows poster on floor/on lamppost, before wind blows it away.

There will be a picture of the original scribble which I call a storyboard, when I get round to taking the photo.

End Credits, either scrolling on a black screen or in the same style as the opening credits, just with new photos of the item)

Coding Schedule

Here is the basic plan for my coding schedule, I need to do one for each short film I watch, I’ll make around 10 for different examples of short film, I’ll probably have just 10 films going across the chart, it’d be so much simpler than trying to organise 11 different charts…

Questionnaire

So, here is the basic questionnaire, I will probably print 10 to 20 of these to actually use, but 5 to use as practices so that I can improve questions if necessary. I will then create a chart of some kind to display the results.
*NOTE* There are boxes on the actual questionnaire, they won’t show up on the blog, so I’ve included a screenshot of the questionnaire, it’s only short, but I will be asking the people who fill it in to write suggestions on the back, about how to improve the questionnaire.
Questionnaire
1.       What age are you?                             Under 16           16 – 30           31-50            50+
 2.       Are you male or female?……………………………………….         Male            Female
3.       Have you ever watched any short films?………………….         Yes               No
4.       If not, is there a reason why?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5.       What would you say is a good length for a short film?

1 – 3 Minutes          4 – 6 Minutes          7 – 9 Minutes        10 Minutes or over

6.       Would you prefer a silent short film, or a short film with speech?

                  Silent                                       With speech

7.       Is there a genre of short film you would prefer? (Tick all that apply, there is space to write any that aren’t included)

         Documentary                    Comedy                      Drama                   Animated (Stop motion)
        
         Animated (Other)            Other (Please specify) ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________________________
______________________________________________­­­­________________________________
8.       Would you prefer:             a solid ending                a cliff-hanger?

Thoughts & Ideas

Hello!
For my piece, I’ll be doing a short film (about 5 minutes), and these are my first thoughts:
Something based on ‘Traffic Warden’, a short film starring David Tennant. I really like the ‘Love at first sight’ story line, and the way things, such as titles, are presented (See screenshots), and I’ll try to mix that into whatever I decide to do.

And idea that I got whilst watching Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix, at the end, when Luna Lovegood (Love her!!) is putting up ‘Missing’ posters because her shoes have gone missing, I really like the innocence and child-like quality Luna has, and how she’s made missing posters for something so trivial, and so I thought My film could be called ‘Missing’ and would be the story of a person searching for something they had lost, something trivial like a teddy bear or clothing, or maybe something symbolic like love, faith or hope.

This picture shows the influences, examples and ideas I had when first posed with the task of creating a short film. To start, I watched some short films on http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/C54731, such as ‘Keel’, ‘Bro’ ‘King of Deptford Creek’ and ‘The Other Man’, and a few on Youtube, such as ‘Traffic Warden’ (Which was a big influence), ‘Stranger’, ‘Test’ and ‘Storm’ (A narrated animation by comedian Tim Minchin)

A few of these short films were stop motion or animation, and one particular stop-motion named ‘Sorry I’m Late’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p006x5jz) really caught my eye. I love the simple style and storyline, and the stop motion and use of toys (Such as the bike shown above or the use of the toy car below) give it a really immature and childish atmosphere, which could help me achieve the innocence and naivety I want in my short film.