RESEARCH - Film making Advice
We had a visit from Ryd Cook who is an enthusiastic filmmaker and teacher. He showed us some of his amazing films as well as giving us a speedy crash course in filming and the making of a film in general. We got to watch and analyse his short film Single to London which was fab because, it's only a 4 minuet film which means I could relate lot more to the task I had to complete. Some of the other short films I have watched like Slap, have actually been 25 minuets and so this wasn't helpful when looking at structure or content because, they obviously have more screen time to complete all of their goals.
So instead of falling into my usual waffle! What did I gain from this helpful talk? Well really just a giant bunch of new tips and reminders that should save me loads of time later on.
Log Line : So this is the first I'd heard of a log line! I know shock horror! But, I know about them now and am ready to use it well. So they go on the front of the script and if the director doesn't like the log line they will kiss that whole script goodbye! So yea it's kind of a big deal. In short a log line tells you the story in you guessed it ... one line! Included in this one magical line one needs to see the Protagonist, the Goal and the Antagonist. Hefty content for one line. But Ryd added if you can't turn your idea into a log line then you are going to have a lot more trouble making a film out of it. I thought what a fab way to brainstorm my muddle of ideas that I have been thinking up all of this time.
Lets put this to the test! I used this website that Ryd suggested to help me out! ;)
Idea 1 : Drugs - A film about a girl who takes a pill and starts seeing crazy things receives a phone call from herself and ends with herself entering the house she's already in. From reading through the website this is what I came up with...
Unsatisfied student decides to take a pill and embarks on a trip to cure her boredom.
PROTAGONIST GOAL ANTAGONIST
Idea 2 : World Cup - A film about a lonely barista who fancies a regular customer but, he is clearly preoccupied by the fact that England are about to play in the Semi-Finals. Unlike everyone else she is preoccupied by the idea of securing a date with said customer. And must knock up thee courage to speak to him before the match starts.
Lonely barista tries to get a customers attention before the World Cup match begins
PROTAGONIST GOAL ANTAGONIST
Idea 3 : Tasty Coffee - A nervous wreck who works the night shift, tries to go for a solo coffee at the trendy coffee shop in town and needs to try and enjoy their coffee before having a panic attack.
A nervous wreck tries to go for a solo coffee break without having a panic attack
PROTAGONIST GOAL ANTAGONIST
Plan : Ryd then helped us with the idea of planning. He advised to think about the location and the actors before writing. This makes complete sense because, imagine writing a piece and then not having anywhere to film it. That would be a total waste of time! I took this advice under my belt immediately and asked one of my old Bosses if there was any way I could shoot my film in her cafe! She was very positive about the idea, so this helps me with whittling down my ideas. I have a venue now I just need to create a story to fit it.
He also suggested that it's a great idea to have a shooting schedule and showed us a nice simple example of the one that he used for one of his recent short films.
Day | Scene | INT/EXT | Location | Shot description summary | Cast | Start time
It surprised me at first that the shots for the scenes were not in order. When I first looked at his example I thought it was a total mess. However, after he had explained - everything made total sense. Instead of wasting time going back and fourth you shoot the same location at the same time. And if someone is going to have certain makeup/costume it's best to film all those scenes at once instead of taking off and reapplying. Otherwise it won't look EXACTLY perfect and that's something that if I can avoid I will do so willingly!
More advice was to have 2 locations - ideally 1 and 3 characters max - ideally 2.
Cinematography / camerawork
To create a good short film I need a small team for the shoots. This will include a Director (ME) someone on sound and a cinematographer. His advice was to also not include the dialogue as this will make it trickier sound wise. And also I could end up with too much exposition which can potentially ruin a film.
1st draft of the script should have no dialogue then you can learn to describe the film without any explanation. So even if there is any dialogue just put in brackets (They talk to each other about such and such)
Cinematography / camerawork
To create a good short film I need a small team for the shoots. This will include a Director (ME) someone on sound and a cinematographer. His advice was to also not include the dialogue as this will make it trickier sound wise. And also I could end up with too much exposition which can potentially ruin a film.
1st draft of the script should have no dialogue then you can learn to describe the film without any explanation. So even if there is any dialogue just put in brackets (They talk to each other about such and such)
Editing : He suggested to begin with you just chuck all of the footage into a timeline this is called the Assembly. Then watch it through and cut what isn't needed. This is the rough cut. Ignore music and sound to begin with and sort that all out after the final draft is complete otherwise a lot of time can be wasted on getting some sound perfect for a clip and then ending up cutting it. Then with any music or voice overs it's best to focus on adding that all afterwards.
I feel like this session was an amazing help and I am all ready to get going with writing my screenplay. He told us to go and see films at the Cambridge Film Festival that's taking place at the moment! This will be a great final opportunity to watch a few more short films, get inspired and start getting everything underway!
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