New Shooting Schedule

Locations (in order): 

• School toilets
• My bedroom 
• School corridor
• Public park (swings)
• School Quad (hall)
• School yard

Props: 

• Packet of tablets
• A tablet
• Tissue 
• Casual everyday clothing 
• School books
• Pens/Pencils
• A bin

Actors:

• Anisha Choudary played by Sarah Tariq - A quite and shy person, relies on her friend Zara on most things.
• Zara Zahid played by Fiza Hussain - A controlling and essentric character.
• Voice of Anisha's brother - Atique Hussain

Type of weather/Time of day:

• The park scene: Sunny and dry, probably around 12pm.
• The scene of Anisha running outside: Dark, gloomy and raining. Preferably late afternoon/evening time.

New treatment

- The main character (Anisha), will be crying in the toilets and at the same time I will include eerie music and he editing here may be sepia to give it a scary tense.

- After the first scene I want to include a reverse effect of my whole short film however, it will be quite fast as I don't want to give my story away, this reverse effect leads to the scene which explains why Anisha is sat in the toilets crying in the first place.

- Following the reverse effect will be a scene of a close up shot of a pack of pills to which Anisha refuses to take, she then leaves for school.

-  In this scene we also meet Zara (Fiza Hussain), Anisha's best friend, they both walk in arm and arm showing their closeness . I want to just include this scene as an introductory scene for Zara as I will also be featuring eerie/scary music so the audience can sense the negative vibe for the character of Zara straightaway essentially knowing she's the 'villain' in the film.

- The scene I want to take in a public park as I thought it would be ideal for a scene showing how close they are, laughing and giggling will be their only motive in this scene in to order to inform the audience of their close bond.

- The following scene will counteract the previous scene as this will be the climax of the play. I want to take some shots of them both studying in a big empty hall, the setting of this scene gives the effect of Anisha being vulnerable and alone in the company of Zara who we already know from a previous scene plays the 'villain' character. This scene will also include eerie/scary music enhancing the suspense  as well as telling the audience something is about to happen. My storyline will continue to show the relationship of these two friends, Anisha becomes annoyed with her school work to which Zara responds with telling her to give up, surprising Anisha to which she replies I can't. Here we also see the true colours of Zara as she throws Anisha's work to the floor when she refuses to stop working resulting in to an upset Anisha who then decide to walk out. Zara then responds to picking up Anisha work and throwing it in the bin.

-Following the climax we see Zara chasing Anisha outside right after upsetting her. Just as Anisha turns around. I want to include another transition which will feature the words 'But what really happened was..'.

- This scene will feature a big twist answering the big questions probably raised at the beginning by the audience. After the transition, the story returns to the scene of Anisha and Zara walking in school arm and arm however, this time the scene consists of Anisha walking in arm and arm with no one.

- Further more, from here we see all the scene repeating themselves however, without the character of Zara being there.

- I want to use more of a emotional tone of music, drastically changing from the eerie/scary music used before.

- The repeating scenes will show Anisha sat on the swing alone, laughing and smiling to herslef.

- Then he final scene will consist of Anisha sat on her own, doing her work in a big hall as well as talking to herself. Then I want to freeze a shot of her talking to an imaginary Zara.

My Short film - New brief

I have decided to now go ahead with the thriller genre however it will still have some elements of horror in it.

My new story line consists of the main character Anisha (Sarah Tariq) and her best friend, Zara (Fiza Hussain). The film will show their close bond which eventually escalates into an obsession Zara has with Anisha. One great convention of horror/thriller films is the element of a twist in the storyline, my twist will be that Zara never even existed, leaving the first three minutes to be Anisha's imagination. One of the very first scenes will be Anisha refusing to take a pill, explaining later that it was the pill that caused Anisha to be in this situation.

For editing I want to include a fast reverse scene that explains the very first scene of Anisha sat in the toilets crying.

Changing my Story

After much deliberation I have decided to change the story line for my short film, as I felt it was a much bigger challenge than I thought. What I was imagining for my first story line was pretty much unrealistic as it would have been hard to find actors to take on the 'Zombie' roles seriously. Buying the make up and applying it correctly also would have been difficult. My new story will be coming soon.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Location:

·      Snicket, nearby school

·      School Bathrooms

·      Countryside, woody area – Heaton woods

Props:

·      Zombie make up – fake blood – Latex

·      School white shirts and school tie’s for the actors

·      White powdery substance

Actors:

·      Zombie – Zara (Zara) - first to volunteer to try the drugs. Turns into a ‘zombie’ and attacks her friends. Zara is a daring and loud character

·      Cameraman –Anisha (‘Sam’) – a bit geeky/nerdy ‘always saying it’s our last year’ and trying to document memories for a CD she is planning to make full of school memories, she also a caring person as she’s the only one willing to save Zara.

·      Drug dealer – Atique (‘J’) – A dealer as well as a taker himself, he seems uncomfortable. He is also slightly an aggressive character always worried about getting caught selling drugs.

·      Victim of the Zombie – Umaira (Umaira) A bit slower than the rest of the gang, she falls victim when she reacts to slowly when the zombie attacks her.

·      Friends ( Benish, Umaira, Sabah, Zahra) always cheering on other people to do the dirty work but never themselves. Not true friends as when Zara is suffering, they are worried about themselves and make up a story ‘saying we were never here’ and run away.

Type of Weather:

·      Cloudy and grey at the scene of the drug deal taking place in the snicket

·      At the scene taking place in the countryside, Cloudy, but no rain (due to Zombie make up) and a slight wind.

Time of day:

·      The scene of the drug deal would be preferable at an afternoon, as light would be need in that location as there are high fences, lots of trees and no street lamps

·      The second scene in the school bathroom could be done at anytime.

·      The third scene is to be filmed at around 5-6pm , near the evening as a bit of darkness can help with the suspense of the film.

My short film - Brief

My storyline for my horror based short film will be about a group of friends who are wanting to experiment drugs for the first time, they attempt to take the drugs to which they believe is only cocaine however, things take a turn for the worst as one of the characters (Zara) starts to have a reaction to the substance. Zara begins to twitch and growl scaring most of her friends off but leaving one to which Zara rips her face off in a frenzy.

I was inspired by the 'Miami Zombie attack' in May 2012 where a drug user resulted in biting another man's face off. I knew it was still a new and sensitive topic however, I believe my short film also can raise awareness for youngsters against taking drugs especially not knowing what is truly in them.

I have decided to use the effect of a hand held camera as its a very diverse and creating more of a realism impact on the audience creating the sense of panic as the audience are almost reeled into this 'world of horror'.

Films such as 'The Blair Witch Project' inspired me in terms of which shots will be effective for what scene, for example one scene I am hoping to have a close up the victims face, a famous shot from 'The Blair Witch Project' which I have posted about before on this blog.

Short film - Horror

I have decided to do a horror based short film as it appealed to me more than the other genres, I also think that with horror and even possibly thriller you are more free to do any shot type you want which is why horror was the genre that attracted me most. Down below are some unique shots taken from horror films:

Paranormal activity: This shot is taken through an actual camera, the effect caused I believe is much more tense rather than the shot being taken from an any other camera.

The Blair Witch Project : This film was one of the first films to feature hand held shots making scenes and essentially the whole film a lot scarier and tense than it actually could have been if they were not to use these effects. 

Research - Short horror films

'Red Balloon' is horror/thriller genre based short film that I uses a variety of different shots and eerie music, all clearly adding to the suspense of the film. 

This mid shot includes both the victim and the murderer in the same shot. We only see part of the complete shot as it is very dark of course adding to the suspense. The mise en scene in this shot includes the killer wearing an animal mask which in any other genre based film would be considered perhaps humorous however, in this short film the mask makes makes the scene even more tense.

Research - Short horror films

Films such as '28 days later' and the hit TV show 'The walking dead' inspired me to create my very own zombie inspired short film. I think it is different idea compared to the obvious horror genre that many people tend to choose.

This short film called '48 hour zombie' is more of a comical short film whereas I aim to make mine a serious film however, some of the shots really appealed to me a long with the make up of the zombies which looks much more realistic compared to some other zombie inspired videos have seen.

Questionnaire results

I chose to conduct my questionnaire in my sixth form however, this limited my results as I go to an all girls school, the gender was limited to mostly females and the age range of 17-21 year old. The results of my questionnaire concluded that :

• 80% of my target audience is female
• 70% were the ages of 17-21 the rest were 29-35
• 80% watched short films occasionally 
• Their preferred length is 2-5 minutes long
• 50% preferred horror. 40% preferred thriller, 10% preferred romance and crime
• 60% of people preferred a plot twist ending leaving 40% preferring a cliff hanger 

 This questionnaire made me realize that my target audience consists of mostly females who are teenagers.The preferred length for a short film is 2-5 minutes and their favorite genres are horror and thriller. They also preferred a plot twist. I will follow these up as best as I can.

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire I created in order to find my target audience.

Target Audience?

Knowing your target audience is essential, before you can even start to think about filming you should know your target audience. At the moment I am making my questionnaire to distribute all around my school so I know what I'm making and who I'm making it for. I will upload my questionnaire up soon and the results after.

Genre research

I have been researching different genres that I could possibly use for my own short story video, including thriller, horror and romance. From the results of my questionnaire I discovered that thriller and horror tend to be the popular choice of genre, perhaps due to the fact you can use a wide range of scary/spooky sounds in the video which makes it more interesting.  In the genre of thriller and horror, changing the screen to grey, rewinding and fast camera movements also were popular within my search of videos.

A2 Coursework Project

I have decided to go ahead with the decision to make a short film with a poster and film review page in a magazine.  At the moment I am thinking of doing a short film under the genre of horror, as I believe this will enable me to use a range of different shot types and editing, such as a point of view shot if the main character was getting haunted as well as using black and white or a sepia effect to make it more spooky. 

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!

In the coming months I am hoping to create my very own short film and detailing the process along the way on my blog, I will include my research, treatment, shooting schedule, case studies and any changes I decide to make.

Here is a little brief about my whole project...

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

• a poster for the film;

• a radio trailer for the film;

• a film magazine review page featuring the film.

Treatment

Treatment – Short film

• ·      A group of fiends (4-6) are walking into a snicket; they are about to buy some drugs off a dealer. One friend is filming saying its for ‘memories’. The dealer is not happy about the presence of the camera; the camerawoman pretends to turn it off but leaves it on really and films in secret. A deal is reached; the group of friends then buys 10 grams of alleged ‘cocaine’. The dealer leaves.

• ·      The next scene is set in the school toilets, a bit of the ‘cocaine’ is sprinkled on the sink top but everyone is scared to be the first one to try it. They are all egging each other on but no one try’s, suddenly a teacher walks into the bathroom saying ‘This is a study period!’ One friend stands in front of the drugs, hiding it from the view of the teacher. There is sighing of relief.

•        The final scene is in the countryside; the cameraman takes the camera out at the point of Zara finally agreeing to take the drug. One friend then says ‘I have seen crack before, this looks different’ as Zara is pouring it out on their school bag but she is told to shut up. Zara takes one sniff, everything is fine but when she continues she falls unconscious. Everyone is panicking, one friend starts to do CPR when a foamy substance starts to come out of her mouth, she also realises some scars beginning to appear on Zara. The camera grows closer to Zara, she begins to growl and twitch. Zara suddenly gets up and starts to attack her friends, grabbing one unfortunate one, at this point the cameraman has hid behind a tree as they she does not want to leave Umaira and the rest have all fled the scene screaming. ‘Zombie Zara’ kills and tears part the face off the friend. The camera is filming everything and whilst crying she is saying her goodbye to the camera. The Zombie has now heard her and walks towards the tree and attacks her resulting in the camera to turn off.