To prepare, we watched several short films, such a very funny professional one. These were all to give us ideas for our own stories/films. I think that actually it was very successful in doing this and I immediately thought of several ideas that could possibly be put into action. We also discussed why 'the short film format is different from the full length film'. We came to the conclusion that short films HAVE to be quick and fast in order to keep up the pace, and more importantly keep the audiences attention. Also because they're so short (5 minutes really isn't a long time), we have to be able to get the gist of what's going on very quickly, so we don't confuse the audience.
My film idea varied between 2 different ones, but both of them involved the concept of using bikes. I really liked thinking about the various angles that a cameraman could use when a chase on bikes could happen. The bike idea was the main one, and at the time I really loved it. It was inspired originally from the television series 'Misfits', which is based in suburban London. Although there is only one scene in the whole TV series that involves bikes, I really loved how they filmed the chase. The colour scheme too, interested me a lot. The program mostly used greys, blacks, and browns. Although it was very gloomy (the saturation must be very turned down), I really liked how it looked on the screens. Because I'm working alone, I don't have a specific crew to work with, however I have talked to the actors I am planning on using and we have sorted out various things, such a suitable locations and props, etc.
I developed my idea by myself; although I potentially had a very good shot-list I had no story line to base my idea around. At the moment, all it was, was an idea. I needed a plot. There were various things I could use, but the idea really needed developing so I could create a script and a storyboard, etc. However, when I talked about it with other people, I realised I didn't necessarily need to come up with a story. Instead, I chose a documentary style film, with a twist in itself. It would be a mocumentary. This idea appealed to me most because I think lots of ideas could be incorporated into one. Once the idea had been thought of, I immediately wanted to start on the script. I thought of a plot that involved my original idea, bikes as well, which is great.
We looked at how to format scripts in class too which was very helpful, and we were also given an example of one which helped a lot. I wrote my script in stages, but once I got going it wasn't different to continue, and when I paused it was easy to pick it up again. The script developed quickly, and I am proud of how quickly it got done. It's a great thing to create a structure of the film with. I have encountered no problems so far, except missing a week of school because I was ill, so I needed to catch up fairly quickly on the storyboarding.
