1. 4. References / Inspiration
1.1. These are inspirations for the short film and my part of being the script writer.
1.1.1. Joker
1.1.1.1. An inspiration was the film was Joker, this was within the narrative as well as visuals. The narrative was an inspiration in that it represented a mentally ill person under pressure from his drugs and his mental problems getting worse and worse. It also has him hallucinate stuff which makes his life worse and are quite weird in visual appearance in them (hallucinations). For visuals it is mostly the colouring which has been implicated into our ideas, we want to use a similar colour grading technique on that the colours through out the film can represent the characters feelings and mental state at the moment.
1.1.2. Good Time
1.1.2.1. Good Time is inspiration in that it has a story of someone who is seemingly average try to survive under pressure of society with there mentally troubled friend. The narrative inspires our work in that our story will also try to show more struggle for the characters as I want our film to have an emotional part of our film by having a strong relationship between a character with mental issues and a friend trying to drag them out of it and get some help. Good Time also has some visuals we want as the story has a very gritty look of reality with a lot of colour against greys, these will work well for the gritty reality we will compare to the hallusination sections of the film.
2. 5. Platform
2.1. YouTube
2.1.1. YouTube is the most common choice for videos and short films being uploaded to, this was something that was considered as we wanted our film to be able to be found with other short films like it on the site. We changed our minds once we noticed that with YouTube being so big that us putting a short film on there with such a large variety of videos it would be difficult to find and would likely be rarely be seen by anyone. Also the YouTube demographic isn't very specific which can help get a more bigger ranged / variety of audiences but also makes it more difficult for trying to specifically find the audience we want - professional film makers.
2.2. Vimeo
2.2.1. Vimeo was chosen on that it has the demographic that we want of being filmmakers prioritised, and as well as having connections to sites which hold film festivals, competitions we may want to be involved with. Vimeo also has a lower amount of videos which helps in that our film will be easier to find when people try to search it up.
2.3. Dailymotion
2.3.1. Dailymotion was an option removed on that the site didn't have the demographic audience we wanted, it is more of a casual site which focuses on news and popular media, not on film making.
2.4. Facebook
2.4.1. Facebook was removed as an idea once we thought that Facebook is more just for showing the film to our friends and family, this is good for our own personal uses but not for when we want to bet our names out there.
3. Location
3.1. Warehouse
3.1.1. The warehouse is location we wanted based on that we wanted an area for the protagonist to feel calm but also alone. This ended up being a warehouse as we could also have it represent his mind. We chose on this kind of area representing it as a graffiti-ed area with a ruined look can represent a mind which is very dangerous but also an area which is unkempt, these are things we want our protagonist to be in the inside anyway. A warehouse also can be helpful for lighting as the roof of a warehouse can have holes in which can give a selective lighting look to the scenes which can give a better look when we film a low key lit scene.
3.2. Pub
3.2.1. A pub was what we chose the final act to be in. This was because we wanted the narrative to end in a more calm and safer area which makes the darker parts there more horrifying and unexpected. A pub would have visuals which are of warm colours which can trick people of this being a happier ending which will subvert what people expect t happen, and hopefully will get a positive reaction.
3.3. Nightclub
3.3.1. A nightclub was considered before the pub, it was instead removed because of it. The night club has interesting lighting and visual elements due to the colouring of lights there making reality and the hallucinations in the narrative more of a mix, this was scrapped though based on that nightclubs are only available at late nights with usually a lot of people there who may not want to be filmed.
3.4. Bedroom
3.4.1. The bedroom of the protagonist was an idea for that the story will start there as the character can have a calm beginning to the story before the equilibrium is broken. For visuals this can work well as it can give a very normal tone to the beginning with a very normal looking bedroom, but as well making the start look peaceful with lighting elements mostly being high-key lighting at the start.
4. 1. Format / What to make for FMP
4.1. Short Film (Group)
4.1.1. I went for this choice because making a short film in a group is much easier than making it alone and will let me focus on certain skills of production in bigger detail rather than looking into all. Also in a group project communication skills and working in specific roles I want to be in can be easier as there are others to work with.
4.2. Podcast
4.2.1. This was going to be my FMP but I decided to not do it due to the chance that I will not get the higher marks because of how I would only have a limited amount of things to say about it. As a format it seems much easier and simple than the others.
4.3. Photography
4.3.1. Photography was going to be chosen at one point due how I was very poor at this format. I thought that this would let me have a lot to write about. I decided to let it down as I think I would still not do to well in it and also I have little interest in doing photography in the future.
4.4. Short film (Alone)
4.4.1. This was a back-up to if I ever had to leave doing a Short Film in a group, the reason is that I really want to go into film production and think that developing my skills in FMP, even on my own will help showcase my interest. My big issue was that I would have to do areas of film production I have less interest and less skill in which I think would drive down my grades, and that I may also go over the time schedules.
5. 2. Short Film Genre
5.1. When coming up for a short film genre I had to choose with the group on which genre we would go for which would get us the higher marks, help all of us showcase skill, and be enjoyable for us. We came up with a few genres...
5.1.1. Horror
5.1.1.1. We decided to not go with horror based on that we had done a horror film before, we thought that going for another genre instead will help us show a more bigger range.
5.1.2. Thriller
5.1.2.1. Thriller was going to be our main choice but when looking more into it we decided to go for a more sub genre to this as the thriller genre made us think we wouldn't come up with a compelling narrative.
5.1.3. Psychological Thriler
5.1.3.1. Psychological Thriller became our genre pick once we thought that we could be come more creative with the narrative over regular thrillers, as well as letting us be more creative visually as psychological films usually have weird stuff in them. We also think a more weird narrative could help get those higher grades.
5.1.4. Action
5.1.4.1. We passed on the action genre most because of the reliance on action scenes. We thought that action scenes are too much effort and difficulty to film well and correctly and that all the effort wouldn't pay off.
5.1.5. Sci-Fi
5.1.5.1. Sci-Fi was passed because of the budget and props we would of had to invest. We would of had to be creative in designing items and settings which could take really long and that all of that work would be something we could be risking our FMP grade on.
6. 3. Themes / Narrative
6.1. For this we had to come up with a narrative basis on something for the psychological thriller genre. It had to be something that would show the genre well.
6.1.1. Drug-Use
6.1.1.1. Drug use was the initial idea for the short film, this was mostly to appeal to the genre as we wanted to have a visually creating film which we thought psychedelic drugs could provide in a narrative. We then found out that drug use can't be in FMP, so the idea was partially scrapped for another
6.1.2. Bullying / Street Thugs
6.1.2.1. This was a theme and short film rough idea to have, this was also on the creative idea of having people in cartoonish masks be traumatising this character in a creative way. We thought that this would be like a reality weird story with weird stuff happening through out, but the idea was also partially scrapped when we thought that it was too drug like.
6.1.3. Mental Illness / Schizophrenia
6.1.3.1. This was our final and current idea, this was chosen as an evolution of the other two as we went for a character who has hallucinations and can see weird stuff like masked people, but also be able to have a narrative which can go between a characters mind and reality which can make a much more compelling visual story when compared together.