(Somebody Else Made It For Your Entertainment.)
My name is Hannah Williamson and I am a student a Plymouth College of Art studying Moving Image. I am in my final year of my National Diploma before moving to London to a Degree in Film and Television.
This webpage is my workbook for my Final Major Project.
CONTENTS
INTRO
PROJECT PROPOSAL
MY BRAIN
CRITIQUES - 4 WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, sixth sense, momento.
RESEARCH - BOOKS,websites.
SCRIPT,
STORYBOARD,
FLOATING IDEAS,
final idea,
daily blog,
set ideas,
camera angles used,
Market research results,
equipment list,
evaluation.
Thats me.
18 and always smiling.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
The Piece that I am individually producing is called ‘Mourning in the Morning.’ This piece is an opportunity to look deeper into mourning and poetry than one would like to do. I am specialising my work in poetry and how it has effected people’s lives, what emotions do poems evoke on us and why? To answer these questions I conducted a
survey that the general public answered and the results helped me intertwine this poem, that is being used in my production to the general dialogue. The story itself is one of neutral sadness towards a man who has lost his wife, however, due to his taking tablets every day, he still thinks that she is still alive, it is about his subconscious helping this man to mourn and move on from his wife by reading a poem by W. H. Auden, however as he gets over his wife and is ready to leave the house someone is coming into the house, it is his wife dressed in black, crying and holding the poem, he recognises her and as she looks into the hallway where he stood you see that there is no one there. This confusion to the audience is intended.
At the beginning I started out looking at book about medieval times and the dark ages because I was thinking about an idea where somebody was looking through their family history and discovering something horrific, the story never expanded so no further details spread. A book called Europe in the Dark Ages by Jean Hubert, Jean Porcher and W.F Volback was an interesting read showing the history used back then, the weapons produced when I was thinking about the family history idea I thought this book would have been perfect for looking at certain historical facts to bring into dialogue, alas it had no further use when I decided to go with another idea.
Master of the Poster 1896-1900 by Roger Max, Alain Weill and Jack Remert; however was an inspirational book to pick and read. It was about all the different film and theatrical posters produced in the time between 1896 and 1900, it had a brief history about each piece of work and a small synopsis about the film or theatrical piece it is advertising. This book is helping me produce a front cover for my production: With all of the books I have read I took down some quotes, pictures that I thought would help, words that I didn’t understand so I can find the meaning and fonts that I thought would be the right fit for my final major.
Now that I have my idea and am close to shooting I am going to decide what equipment to use. I think that this is tough decision to make because some people want crisp quality whilst others like the old grain quality. I like both but I think for this project I am more interested in the dialogue used so I will use a high quality camera and lots of different shades of lighting in different angles depending on what type of mood I trying to set.
List of Equipment potentially used on my production set;
A1 Sony Video Camera with Microphone attachment x2
Gun Microphone with pole attachment
Marranz with microphone and headphone attachment
Reflectors.
Lighting kits 2x 300 Watts 1x150 watts. X2
After recording I am going to upload onto a Mac and edit on Final Cut Pro which is the program used on degree level.
I am most probably going to book out an edit sweet for 2 weeks so I can intensely break down each second of the footage so I can have a thorough understanding of the complete, step by step guide of the storyline.
I am currently undergoing a schedule that will be added to my webpage of the activities that I should complete each day pre, during and post shooting. I am also going to produce a diary/journal of the time I had spent on set, with actors rehearsing and editing, this is going to be either in film form or written. I would like to produce a making of. Where I speak about my production and answer questions I have provided to get a quick idea as to what type of mood I am expressing with this production.
MY BRAIN!
This is a spider diagram of what I was thinking as this project was given to me. At some points there are ideas in which I wanted to follow and in other parts I have pieces of advice to my future self looking back at this piece of work. This is what goes around my head whenever a new project is forming. And what I love so much about this piece is that 9 times out of 10 i never use the idea which I have formed in the page. It is an idea that would be perfect for the next project that I take on.
MASTERS OF THE POSTER 1896 - 1900
I wanted to study the movie advertisements in the past, because i was always fascinated with the painted versions of people and the detail that is put into each front cover. I also loved looking at the similarities between each poster. After looking at this book and taking notes of some fonts, pictures, unusual words, quotes and page references I decided that I wanted my front dvd cover and poster to be in the style of these posters. I wanted to make a print of my poster and stick it up to advertise my film.
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Quote: More so than any of its predecesors, our generation has become concerned with the esthetics of the streets.
Words: Chromolithography -Page 11 - Meaning: Is a method of multi - coloured printing.
Lithographed -Page 15 - Meaning:Is a painting that has been printing from limestone the method is called Lithography.
Preeminence -Page 15 - Meaning: It is the state of Preeminent which means superior and surpassing this comes from the segent eniment that means above or below others.
Behooved -Page 14 - Meaning: It is the duty or responsibility of someone to do something.
Influencial
Posters
Pages 52,67,96:
Years 1890, 1895,1890:
Names Will Bradley - When Hearts are Trumps Art Magazine Joseph Sattle, English Poster Hyland Ellis.
FILM POSTERS FROM THE 40'S
This is another book that I studied to expand my creativity with the whole production including the front cover and the font and colours and lighting and vocabulary which connects deeply with dialogue.
Quote: Thats what I like about your book sir, you can pick them up and put them down anytime.
Words: Neo-realist -Page 4 - Meaning:Taken from the work Neorealism which is an establishment founded by two painters at the beginning of WWI set up to explore the shapes and colours of daily life.
Enigmatic -Page 129(back page) - Meaning: Difficult to interpret and unpredictable.
These are just some of the posters that you could have seen in the 40's i chose these because each one is different in artistic ways. Looking at the posters carefully i wanted to take something from each poster i chose to influence mine.
MEDIEVAL MYTHS
Origianlly I wanted to produce a movie that was all about a man who had uncontrollable strength and someone suggested to look up his family history and make up a famil;y tree so that in the end he finds out that he is related to Thor, so I read this book to do my research in the giants of the past.
MEDIEVAL MYTHS
Random Fact: Beowulf was originallycomposed in approximatly 725 AD, it is one of the earliest extant poems in a morern european language.(page1)
Quote:Myths are the backbone of culture - theya re the common propety of even man, deeply embeddedin his racial memory.(page1)
Words: Thus -page 27 - meaning: As a result of something, or from that fact or reason.
Many Hued - Meaning, unknown - sentence to put the word into context - with fowers many - hued amd starry eye.
Unfathomed - meaning - situated in or extended to great depth.
Deadnought - Meaning - 20th Century Battleship.
Unfortunatly I could no retrieve the pictures from this book as there are very few pictures within this book.
However this book was an eye opener to what type of movie I wanted to make I wanted to bring history into the present day with a twist of the original storyline.
Critiques
I am critiqueing each film for different reasons because they have all had an impact on my final major project in different ways. The film that helped out the most was 4 Weddings and a Funeral. This R- Rated british comedy is the reason that I chose the poem. The scene where Matthew read W.H Audins poem at the funeral, is the most significant piece of footage that is related to my Final Major.
The poem itself is by W.H Audin and it is called 'Funeral Blues' although I personally couldn't find the name out until i watched the funeral clip of this film on youtube. The film was a screenplay written by Richard Curtis however in 1994 a novilization was released. Richard Curtis is most famous for his very british humour and wit, his timing with jokes and gags are renound in this film and also his other most famous writings of Mr Bean.
Richard Curtis said in an Interveiw that the ' film was based heavily on his own experiences.' This quote was taken from 'Penguin Readers Factsheets' about Richard Curtis. ' He thinks that much of the screenplay's excellence is owing to the fact that he had twelve months in which to develop it, which is unusual in the British film industry.' I personally think that the script was well presented and well timed. although some scenes were completely improvised, as like any film actors elaborate on lines which sometimes pay off.
4 Weddings and a Funeral was nominated for 2 oscars with 23 awards won and 15 nominations it was one of the most talked about film in the early 90's. After researching through reviews and interviews with Richard curtis, I could tell that hardly anyone had anything bad to say about this film. At a Rotton Tomatoes. com had hardly anything back to say about the movie (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/four_weddings_and_a_funeral/.) some of the reviews on this website were from high class newspapers and magazines for example - Janet Maslin from the New York Times said 'If ever a film resembled a wedding cake it is Four Weddings and a Funeral, a multi-tiered confection with a romantic spirit and an enchantingly pretty veneer.' This was reviews almost 10 years after the films release which claims that even 10 years later it is still a classic. Her full review is on the New York Times website still, (http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9507E3DC173DF93AA35750C0A962958260&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes)
However on the same Rotton Tomatoes website there were some bad reviews, Johnathon Rosenbaum who was writing for Chicago Reader didn't enjoy the British wit and said - 'A grocery store would sell this on its generic shelf: the brittle upper-class British cleverness is strictly standard issue.' Which I find slightly amusing because it personally feel that he didn't actually get the storyline (I hate to be stereotypical but it wasn't made for american audiences.) Overall I enjoyed referencing this film in my short film and presenting the true meaning behind the poem.
FONT
Looking at the font that was taken from some
titles i have decided on these 3 are the finalists
llke 3thethe D effect that they all have it was all the rage to have a 3D effect on your title
sequence
I have chosen to use the fonr 'TO which i think
looks amazingly detailed, and it would be suitable for the genre of my movie.
FONT
Three fonts used for the titles of the posters I chose. They are all suitable
However none of them jump off the page to be my poster font.
MOURNING IN THE MORNING
By HANNAH WILLIAMSON.
SCRIPT
Scene 1
INT – UNKNOWN – DAY
(The screen is white with shock whilst the background noise changes to produce a beginning to the story.)
You begin by hearing a song being played on a car radio whilst the sound of the car speeding around and people laughing.
JO: (shouts over the radio) THEODORE, JEFFREY WALLACE YOU ARE GOING TO GET US BOTH KILLED SLOW THE DAMN CAR DOWN!
She says this whilst giggling due to the sheer speed running through her.
THEO: (Shouts over the radio) I CAN’T SLOW DOWN I’M JUST TOO EXCITED TO GET THERE.
Theo revs the engine into its highest gear and you can hear the strain it is starting to take on the car now. JO turns the radio off as she senses a problem.
THEO: Hey! Don’t turn it off that was a good song.
As he moves his left hand off of the wheel to stop JO from turning the radio, his right hand slips and moves the car to a side on position to the road, you hear tires screeching and an echo of the two people screaming, and the screen fades from white to black.
Scene 2
INT – House/Dining Room – Day
(You begin to hear heavy breathing whilst the camera focuses in on a room that looks plain and uncomplicated. The camera focuses on a few things that look too ordinary and organised to be ignored, for example a perfectly laid out table for breakfast, a filled kettle with a cup with tea already in it and milk left on the side symmetrically perfect. After the single close – up shots of objects the camera follows the sound of the heavy breathing to a man lying on the sofa curled up as the camera closes in on his face he wakes up and starts to narrate in his head.)
THEO: (sits up and stretches) 5 seconds. (Gets up and walks into the kitchen and whispers) 12 steps.
The camera moves from his eyes looking at the kettle to a first person perspective of the kettle. Numbers appear next to it.
THEO: 1 minute 46 seconds to boil.
The camera then goes back to his eyes which are now looking at the tea cup with numbers that appear next to it just like the kettle
THEO: 2 minutes 3 seconds to brew.
You see the kettle turn on with the light and THEO walks away to the toilet, and camera stays stationary staring at the toilet door and a timer starts, when it gets to 5 seconds the timer speeds up and slows again at 1 minute 40 and you hear a toilet flush.
He returns to the kitchen as 1 minute 46 clicks on the timer and the water is poured into the tea cup. He them moves to the perfectly laid table where you see the cereal being poured into the bowl and the tea is sat next to the milk on the table. The camera cuts to THEO chewing as he stares at the empty seat in front of him and looks depressed.
THEO: 9.24, shower for 6 minutes.
You see the shower curtain go across and the shower start.
Scene 3
INT – Lounge – Day
The curtains are drawn so it looks dark when it should be light. THEO is sat on the sofa watching dull television staring into space when his watch beeps.
THEO: oh shit tablets.
He runs to the kitchen to find a woman standing there with the tablets in her hand and a glass of water in the other. It is his wife JO
JO: Here are you tablets darling, you always forget the first lot of the day. (she says smiling)
THEO: (not changing his expression) Thank you, shouldn’t you be at work?
JO: Not today sweety
THEO nods and returns to his television where he stares into the screen like nothing had happened. JO comes into the room behind THEO and stands behind the sofa looking robotic and staring around the room
JO: This place is a tip THEO what have you been doing?
THEO: Well you clean the house so why isn’t it clean?
JO: I have been busy.
THEO: doing what? (still staring at the screen)
JO: calculating.
The camera zooms into THEOs face as he looks shocked and turns around to say something to her but she isn’t there. THEO shakes it off and carries on watching the television – fade out.
Scene 5
INT – IN HOUSE - DAY
As JO says this her words echo in his head as he looks confused at her then very slowly wanted to test her theory. He lifts his hand and as he does this her opposite hand lifts and whatever he did with his hand, she did and his facial expression.
THEO: your... you are.... not real?
JO: No.
JO still is copying THEO’s every move and his facial expression.
THEO: If you are not real how come I can touch you.
THEO reaches his hand out to touch JO’s, as their hands touch it cuts to him touching a mirror with the camera angle the same before THEO jumps and JO is in the reflection, THEO turns around feeling vulnerable:
THEO: But the crash, someone died didn’t they, was it you?
JO: If you think I am dead, then I am.
THEO: I think you are dead. But you are still here. Right here, in front of me.
JO: I am but light and sound, I am you.
THEO: I must be losing it, (he scratches his head and closes his eyes, He starts to ramble in his head calculations. These numbers comfort him) 365.25 days in a year yes that is true a..a.a.and 52 weeks in a year and divide the 2 you get 7.03 which will calculate.... which will calculate (he screws up his face in concentration to try and find the answer whilst shaking all over, he stops and stares at his wife)
JO: I may look and sounds like your wife but I am not your wife.
THEO: Then why are you here, if not to haunt me.
JO: you’re not peaceful THEO are you. You are comfortable. Anything you think I say, anything you do I feel, I am apart of you and I cannot go away.
At this point you see the camera pan around the room as THEO tries to focus on one subject to try and get rid of JO.
As the camera pans it cuts quickly to JO with evil eyes staring at THEO, It cuts to a ticking clock and a telephone started to ring at a piercing sound:
THEO: What the hell is the noise?
he slams his hands cupped over his ears his eyes could barely open with the noise, he looks painfully over at the clock as his vision blurs.
JO: (whispers) Stop all the clocks,
As she says this the clock noise fades out but makes the telephone noise so earpiecing that THEO’s eyes started to water and he had gotten very red in the face.
JO: cut off the telephone.
Suddenly, silence and THEO looks around with relief but looking confused at the whole situation. He looks at JO who was no looking robotic, lent slightly forward and facing the wall, the only part of her body moving was her right arm which was doing the same movement over and over again, her hand was pointing at the points of a compass first north then south then east then west and repeated again, THEO walks over to her and looks at her as she looks at him and smiles slightly.
JO: clues.
THEO: clues to what though.
JO: Think my love. If you remove calculations, you will have the answer.
SCENE 6
INT – KITCHEN - EVENING
A small time has past and THEO is sat at the dinner table with an empty plate and a full glass of water. He gets up and pours the water into the sink. THEO looks shocked and scared.
THEO: Pour away the ocean.
THEO steps backwards and hits the table and the plate falls off and smashed on the floor.
THEO: oh, fuck sake!
He looks frustrated at the mess he has created on the floor and starts to sweep it up and the camera is focused on his face as you hear the clinking of the broken plate being swept up. However as he turns back to the table the plate is still sat there
THEO looks around the room as if someone was playing a trick on him and he looks scared.
THEO: Jo?
There is a silence in the room as he looks around expecting to see her saying another insignificant thing. Then he starts to think.
THEO: Pour away the ocean, where have I heard that before.
He turns and runs up the stairs in search of a book shelf.
He searches through all of the famous poets , keats, blake, milten Shakespeare, nothing could be found, and then he remembered..
THEO: wait.
The camera zooms in on his eye and he is transferred from sitting down with books around him to the sofa in the lounge with JO in his arms watching a movie. The movie is 4 weddings and funeral and it is the scene where a Scottish man is saying a poem at a funeral.
Scene 4
INT – LOUNGE – EVENING
THEO is still sat on the sofa staring at the screen but all that is on the screen is static.
THEO: 4 hours and 53 minutes
JO appears behind him again.
JO: 4 hours 53 minutes of what?
THEO: since I last saw you.
JO: what are you talking about THEO I have been here the whole time
THEO: Yes, you have, calculating.
JO: Yes, calculating how long it would take for you to notice I was here.
THEO (swallowing) Are you here?
JO: What a stupid question to ask THEO, of course I am, can you see me?
THEO was still staring at the screen. As the screen turned off.
THEO: (thought) I have no reflection.
As he says this however JO says it aloud.
JO: I have no reflection.
THEO spun around and was staring at his wife with dagger eyes.
THEO: Did you steal my reflection?
JO: No, you have a reflection.
THEO: well where is it, I cannot see it!
JO: I am your reflection THEO.
SCENE 7
INT – LOUNGE – NIGHT
(FLASHBACK)
JO: Oh I love this part, it always makes me cry.
THEO: I never understand your fascination with this movie, its funny then its sad, I think films should stick to one genre and leave out all the bullshit twists.
JO: you have no imagination hunni thats why you get intimidated when something unrealistic happens in the story line. Awww look at him, (pointing at the television) you really feel his pain, this should be our poem.
THEO: Do we really need a poem? We already have a song, a movie, a pet, a book and a type of food, do we really need a poem.
JO: (smiling) alright grumpy we won’t have a poem, I just thought it would be nice if I could have that read at my funeral.
THEO: What a morbid thought Jo, but whatever you want if you want that read at your funeral so be it.
JO smiles and returns back to her position snuggled up to THEO and watching the film, there is a white flash and you see the present.
SCENE 8
INT – DINING ROOM – EVENING
THEO looking at a folded piece of paper on the table breathing deeply as if he knew what was coming he opened the piece of paper and stared at the words on it carefully, as he read behind his shoulder JO was stood there with the poem in her hand reading it aloud as he read in his head.
THEO: stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone....
The poem transfers to JO’s voice.
JO: Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and muffled the drum,
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come,
Let aeroplanes circle moaning over head,
Scribbling on the sky a message, He is dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the policeman wear black cotton gloves,
He is my North my South my East my West
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, My midnight, my talk, my song,
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong,
The stars are not wanted now, put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,
For nothing now can come of any good.
As JO finished the last word and it echos slightly into the distance THEO is teary eyed and turns around to look at JO who is also teary eyed:
THEO: Is that why you are hear?
JO: yes, you have to mourn, you have to move on.
THEO: (starting to cry more) But I don’t want you to leave, I love you, Your my wife and you have to STAY!
As he Shouts and gets frustracted he tries to touch JO and hug her but again he is transferred to a mirror which is smears with his wet hands as he slowly slides down the surface to the floor, He curls up in a ball and sobs continuously as the camera pans out of the shot and a black out.
SCENE 9
INT – LOUNGE - MORNING
Time has passed again and we are back in the lounge with heavy breathing, as he follow it around the breathing it is THEO on the sofa again, as he awakens he stretches and goes into the bathroom he heaves a sigh and looks at himself in the mirror and smiles slightly.
THEO: I miss you Jo, but I still feel you around me (heaves another sigh and moves into the kitchen changed in a suit)
He looks around the house as if he was expecting to see her turn up like before but the rooms stayed empty and silent.
THEO: Bye house.
He walks towards the door and as he goes towards the door handle to open it, you hear and see a key enter the door and twist and open, the door flies open with such a force that the person outside drops her bag as THEO looks up before a steps out he steps backwards with shock.
THEO: JO?
As he says this the camera pans around the JO stood in full black looking very depressed and sniffing profusely as she picks up her bag and a close up of a piece of paper in her hand which is the poem. And as you pan around behind her you see there is no-one in the hallway, the camera closes on her face all red eyed and she sniffs and it cuts to black.
THE END
The font used on this for simple effect, no drama attached, however as it is a book on history it should have old fashioned fonts to go with the medieval stories. After Lots of thinking i don't think i will use any of these fonts for my movie.
Floating Ideas.
Originally I wanted to produce a film with the scene of history to it. For example I wanted to have a male lead character discover that he was related to a mythical being therefore discovering a whole new world that we thought was fiction when it is actually factual. This story was soon abolished due to it being too detailed to film in such a short space of time, however I am keeping the story as a project that I might touch upon in the future.
Another idea that I had was to make a music video with a local band of my peers. The band were a post - rock band, unfortunately they hadn't produced a name that had stuck when I saw them live. I approached them with an idea to film a music video based around one of the their songs. The song we eventually chose was called Victoria and was about a woman who was in such despair over losing her husband she goes on a rampage of violence, sex and alcohol abuse. Eventually after listening to the song over and over again I had a final idea for the song. I wanted to have an abstract feel to it and to make the audience feel her pain and suffering through clever camera angles that make the watcher feel disorientated. Again this idea fell through because the band split not long after I pitched the video idea to them. They explained that it was due to musical indifference and there was no way of them returning together as a band again.
Finally I had an idea of a short film which was about a family behind closed doors. You would see the whole thing through the baby of the families eyes, which meant that the vision would be slightly blurred and the sound muffled but you could still hear and see what was going on. You would see what the family were like outside in the public view all loving and holding hands and being happy, but then behind closed doors you would see a different side of mistrust and hatred between each other and they blamed the baby. This film idea is still fresh in my mind and I am going to definitely use in the future because I enjoy this idea.
Final Idea.
My final idea was extremly hard to finalize because I had so many other ideas that I wanted to produce and originally i tried to form them all together but that just got messy, so I got a simple idea and slowly added to it using my brain. Through just writing words down on a page I managed to get a single plot. I wrote 7 words down - Love, Life, Lost, Mind, Blank, Blind, Poem. From that I got the idea of someone losing a loved one and living in this normal situation and forgetting about this tragic feeling straight away withough giving the time to mourn and move on.