New shooting schedule

My new shooting schedule:

Actors:

Main character: Atique Hussain as Shazad Zahid but calls himself Shazia Zahid.

Bully 1: Zara Zahid.

Bully 2: Sabah Younis.

Bully 4: Haleema Parveen.

I decided to use the actors real names for their characters the bullies as they make a small appearance in the film.

Shots:

Take 1: At home in the bath.

Take 2: In the bathroom as the water is filling and the main character is getting in the bath.

Take 3: Bullying scene in school.

Take 4: Bullying scene in the park.

Take 5: In the main character's bedroom at the end of his bed with his head down.

Take 6: At home in his bedroom in front of the mirror, of him wearing makeup.

Take 7: Another shot in the bedroom but this time him on the prayer mat.

Take 8: In the kitchen taking a knife out of the drawer.

Take 9: In the bath.

Locations:

• The bathroom.
• School.
• The park.
• The kitchen

Props:

Main character: Casual clothes that he wears to school, night clothes and a pair of shorts he wears in the bath. A box with heels, makeup, towel for his head, school bag, knife, fake blood, makeup to draw on fake cuts.

Bullies: Casual clothes.

Weather:

The short film will be shot in the daytime especially when in the park, I would like the weather to be a typical autumn weather. The shot where he is in the bath, bedroom and kitchen will be shot at night.

I will have non-diegetic sound throughout my short film.

New character profile

I decided to get cut some characters as the film is only meant to last 5 minutes long and I felt as though the film will be longer if I used all the characters I started out with.

Shazad Zahid/ Shazia Zahid:

Shazad is a quiet boy that is alone most of the time as he finds it hard to make friends because of the way he feels about himself. He has confidence issues and likes to isolate him from everyone else. He calls himself Shazia at home.

Zara:

Zara is the top dog in  her gang, everyone is scared of her as people feel intimidated by the way she talks. Zara is loud and loves to pick on people.

Sabah:

Sabah is the small one in the gang; she follows Zara and tries to be like her. She is the new member in the gang. She used to get bullied when she newly started school so she may sympathise with Shazad.

Haleema:

Haleema is the sarcastic one that follows the rest like a lapdog. She used to be quite intelligent however; she hangs around with the wrong people because she wants a status in school.

New treatment

I made another treatment as I decided to change my story before I start my editing. My changes were not too big.

Working Title- 'My Identity?'

The main character is not comfortable in his body, he would like to change genders. However, because of this he is getting bullied at school. The end of the film is shown at the start.

The scene starts of with the protagonist in the bath.

A reverse clip is used to show how he got there. The reverse clip shows the character filling the bath tub up as an establishing shot of the bathroom is used. The character gets into the bath as it continues to rewind back to why he is in the bath. The bullying scenes are shot in the park and school.

The protagonist is in his room with his head down thinking about what to do as he just got bullied at school and in the park for wanting to be a girl. He walks towards his wardrobe and takes out a purple box with heels inside them, he looks at them. There is also a scene of him wearing makeup. After discussing with my friends I have decided to put in a shot where the main character is on a prayer mat asking for forgiveness, as he knows this is against his religion. 

A scene of him in the kitchen is shown as he opens the drawer and takes out a knife. He tries to slit his wrist but looks at all the marks of his previous cuts on his wrist and puts the knife back in the drawer and closes it. The next scene is in the bathroom as he is laying in the bath with his clothes on. He is laying under the water bleeding. This is where another shot of him is used getting out of the water coughing showing he is alive.

End scene.

After discussion I decided to have two endings where I let the viewers decide what will happen. My film is a raising awareness film so after every scene I will have words on the screen with facts about people wanting to change their gender.

Storyboard

Before I started my filming I made a storyboard with my rough ideas that I might use.

Questionnaire results

These are four out of the nice questionnaires I distributed. Everyone wanted a short film to last 2-5 minutes and the majority of people chose the genre documentary and drama which is why I decided to use the genre documentary based drama. A couple of people did choose thriller and horror and I believe this is because those genres are quite popular. This is why I put in the suicide scene, also the sound adds to the thriller genre. My target audience was from the age of 12-26 so I think this age group will be interested in my finished product.

Questionnaire

This is my finished questionnaire. I have printed out nine questionnaires that I will distribute this week.

Target audience

Knowing your target audience is important as you know who to target your product at. I am in the process of making my questionnaire to distribute. I will post my results as soon as I finish.

Shooting schedule

My first shooting schedule:

Actors:

Main character: Atique Hussain as Shazad Zahid but calls himself Shazia Zahid.

Bully 1: Zara Zahid as Vicky.

Bully 2: Sabah Younis as Titch.

Bully 3: Sarah Tariq as Magz.

Bully 4: Haleema Parveen as Shanny.

Parents: My parents.

I have decided to keep the actors real names as the english names are not realistic for the characters because the actors are asians.

Shots:

Take 1: At home in the hallway.

Take 2: In the bathroom.

Take 3: At a shop in town.

Take 4: Changing rooms.

Take 5: A 5 second shot of him walking home.

Take 6: At home in his bedroom in front of the mirror, him dressing up as a girl.

Take 7: Another shot in the bedroom but this time him on the prayer mat.

Take 8: In the park.

Take 9: Walking through the front door.

Take 10: In the kitchen picking up a knife.

Take 11: Walking up the stairs.

Take 12: In the bathroom again.

Locations:

• Home.
• Town.
• The park.
• Street.

Props:

Main character: Pair of boy clothes that he wears to school and a pair of girls clothes that he wears in his bedroom, school bag, make up, shopping bags, knife, red food colouring.

Bullies: Hoodies, big earrings, loads of jewellery, trainers or pumps, small side bags.

Parents: Casual.

Weather:

The short film will be shot in the daytime especially when in the park, I would like the weather to be the typical autumn weather. The shot of him in the shop and street will also be in the daytime. The shot where he is in the bath, bedroom and kitchen will be shot at night.

The only dialogue in this film is going to be in the park when the main character is getting bullies. The rest of the film is going to have a voice over of the main character telling the views how he feels, what he did etc...

Character profile

My first character profile:

Shazad Zahid/ Shazia Zahid:

Shazad is a quiet boy that is alone most of the time as he finds it hard to make friends because of the way he feels about himself. He has confidence issues and likes to isolate him from everyone else. He calls himself Shazia at home but to everyone else he’s.

Zara:

Zara is the top dog in  her gang, everyone is scared of her as people feel intimidated by the way she talks. Zara is loud and loves to pick on people.

Sabah:

Sabah is the small one in the gang; she follows Zara and tries to be like her. She is the new member in the gang and has taken Sarah's ‘best friend’ position. Sabah tries to rub it in Sarah's face. She used to get bullied when she newly started school so she may sympathise with Shazad.

Sarah:

Sarah is also loud like Zara, she’s not as popular as her though so she envies her and tries her best to be like her. Her and Zara have been childhood friends but now Sabah has taken her ‘best friend’ position. Sarah is not fond of Sabah and wants her out of the gang.

Haleema:

Haleema is the sarcastic one that follows the rest like a lapdog. She used to be quite intelligent however; she hangs around with the wrong people because she wants a status in school.

Parents:

Typical Asian parents that are against the idea of a sex change. They have a distant relationship with Shazad. The parents used to be quite close to Shazad but since he told them about how he feels they tend to ignore him and argue with him more.

Treatment

My first treatment. Changes are in different colour as I got feedback from friends and my tutor.

Working Title- 'Pulse'

The main character is not comfortable in his body, he would like to change genders. However, because of this he is getting bullied at school. The end of the film is shown at the start.

The scene starts of with the camera slowly moving towards the bathroom door, water is heard filling the bath up. As the camera slowly moves towards the bathroom door, the door opens and the camera is tilted to the ceiling with the light moving from side to side.

The main character is shot in the bath as he is trying to drown the water is filled to the top.

An edit is put into this and all this rewinds and goes back to the start to show how it all happens.

The main character is in a shop looking at girls clothes, he moves to the mirror and looks to see how he looks, he then puts them down. He walks it home alone then in his bedroom he experiments with makeup, nail vanish and girls clothes. After discussing with my friends I have decided to put in a shot where the main character is on a prayer mat asking for forgiveness, as he knows this is against his religion. He forgets to remove the nail vanish and is bullied the next day in the school common room by some girls. He is pushed and shoved when the bell rings and starts to cry. The bullying continuously happens.

After a short while he comes home and skips his tea, he picks up a knife from the kitchen and tries slitting his wrist but cannot do so. So he walks up to the bathroom and lays in the bath with clothes on. He fills the bath in and lays whilst its filling up. This is the part where we see him at the start. Another edit is put into place and it forwards till the part where he slits his wrist (red food colouring).

End scene.

After discussion I decided to have two endings where I let the viewers decide what will happen. I will either put in clips of successful transgenders or I might do a '10 years later' and show the main character as a successful happy woman.

Research into Short Films

As soon as I got an idea of what I'm going to be doing, I went onto the internet to research successful short films. I used Youtube to research many short films as I did not restrict myself from researching a specific genre.

I began by researching a film that I had seen in my Media class called 'Ronan's Escape'. This film was the first film I researched:

The short film begins by the title of the film which is a convention for short films. Then it goes onto an establishing shot, whilst the camera is tilting down from the trees onto the playground as it shows children playing football, a close up is shown of the football being kicked around as we are introduced to the protagonist who is sitting alone eating his lunch whilst the other children are playing. The camera slowly zooms into him into a mid-shot whilst diegetic sound is used as you can hear the children talking and playing which suggests it is lunch or break time. Also, I know they are in school as they all have their uniform on. The camera is cut as Ronan who is the protagonist in this film is looking at the children playing football so we are looking at a mid-shot of the children playing football which could also be a point of view shot. Ronan continues eating as we are cut to a boy who then kicks he ball at Ronan as he falls on the floor, the camera is placed on the ground as Ronan is laying there and the camera is cut to other children as they are laughing and gasping at what has happened. The camera is still placed on the ground looking up at the boy who knocked him down which suggests power as the camera is then cut to Ronan from a high angle shot which may suggest how he is weak at this point. As the school bell rings the camera slowly tilts down from the bully as he walks towards his friends and another establishing shot is shown, then a cut of Ronan's close-up on the ground and then another high angle establishing shot to show the children. Ronan is left alone as a mid-shot is used showing him on the ground putting his lunch away. Ronan sees a bird and there are a few cuts to show him looking at the bird whilst he is breaking some bread to feed to the bird. Non-diegetic sound is layered on top of diegetic sound as we hear a slow instrument. A close-up of Ronan's hand and face is shown whilst he is trying to feed the bird. As the short film is 16 minutes long I only annotated 3 minutes of the start and 2 minutes of the end as my task is to make a 5 minute short film. Towards the end a close-up is shown of Ronan looking in the distance as the camera focuses on him for 10 seconds and he starts to look onto the ground so the camera slowly moves with him. At this point non-diegetic sound is  used of a piano slowly playing sharp sounds. Ronan picks up a scrunched up paper from the floor which he opens up, as the camera is cut to him face which shows his reaction. On the paper is says 'LOSER', it is shown as a point of view shot as Ronan is looking at it. At this point he seems upset as the camera focuses on him again for about 10 seconds. The sound of the piano builds up as it sounds a bit more joyful now. The camera is cut to Ronan's mother and a close-up is shown of her whilst she is looking into the distace and then the camera moves into an establishing shot to show trees. Then a close up is shown of Ronan's feet dangling, at this point the non-diegetic sound fades and diegetic sound is used as we can hear the wind. A layer of diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound is used as we are then shown an establishing shot of Ronan hanging of a branch dead as he has hung himself. The shot fades into black and the credits are shown.

This film really inspired me as there was a message behind it so I began to do more research on this film:

• The film is directed by an Australian film writer/director called A.J Carter.
• It is set in Western Australia.
• The film is about a 14 year old boy whom is bullied his whole life at school and finally decides to make his escape.
• The film was released in 2010.
• The film has been screened around the world in public film festivals and has also been used for educational purposes in school primarily in the USA against school bullying.
• The film won 10 awards such as 'Best Short Film' and 'Best International Film'.

The second short film I researched was a film called 'Tick Tock':

This films starts of with the credits which could suggest how this film is challenging conventions of a short film. A close up is used of a clock ticking away as diegetic sound is used. The camera then moves to an establishing shot of a woman sitting on her bed as a dramatic sound is used whilst she gets up and the camera moves again in a circular motion and faces the door. A man walks in and the man hugs the woman, the camera is placed on a table as a little box is shown and the characters are blurred. The words 'Cowardice' pops onto the screen as another sound is used. The man then moves back and goes out of the room and the picture is unblurred again. A long shot is used of the woman and a heartbeat sound layered on top of dialogue as the man enters the room again with another man. The three of them are having a conversation where they look anxious about something. Subtitles are shown on the screen as the characters are talking foreign. The camera  constantly cuts between the man and woman standing together ad the other man as the door opens by itself and the other man walks out backwards. A shot is shown of the man and woman sitting on the bed having a conversation as an eary sound is still playing. The camera keeps moving as though someone is holding it. The camera keeps moving back in a messy way as the characters are having a conversation as the camera keeps moving back and forth towards them. Then the camera moves back along with the man as though it is dragging him out. He is running backwards and closes the door, which could suggest how this is a reverse clip. The man is running backwards whilst some slow music is playing, he is running with the same box that was shown on the table when he was having a conversation. Whilst running backwards the word 'Reputation' is shown as the man is having a conversation with his lecturer as he knocks his papers over. The word 'Greed' is then shown on the screen as the character runs past coffee cart. He is still running whilst having a conversation. Dialogue and music are still layered on top of each other. The camera is in front of him whilst he is running backwards. The character is apologising to his mother on the phone for being a bad son as the words 'indifference' is shown on the screen and a typewriter sound as the words disappear. Whilst the man is running back into his room the word 'laziness' appears on to the screen. He runs back into his own room as the man from the start is in his room and the heartbeat sound is playing again. The camera is moving in a circular motion around the characters and the room. The character swallows the wrong tablets as the shot turns black and white. The camera shows a close up of the bin and the torn up pictures of the protagonist who swallows the tablets and the woman at the start. The camera is cut to another clock ticking as quote from Steve Jobs is shown. The title of the film 'Tick Tock' is shown. At the end of the film I figured out the start of the film was at the end and the end was the start. The whole film was a reverse clip.

I thought this was effective as the film did not make sense at the start but this made me carry on watching it as I became more and more interested so I watched the film till the end. I thought the editing was impressive.


The third short film I discovered was 'The Return':

The film starts of with the film company producers as it fades black and an establishing shot is used. You can hear the sound of the wind and a soundtrack is played whilst the title is shown 'The Return'. A boy is walking towards the camera as credits appear on the screen. This is also a convention for short films. A close-up shot is shown of the boy's feet whilst he is walking, the camera is on the ground following the boy as credits continue to appear on the screen. A mid shot is shown of the boy as he walks towards the camera. At this point the camera does not move, the boy comes closer and now the shot is a close-up. The boy disappears and another close-up is shown of his feet. A cut is shown of the same boy on the phone, the shot is edited as it is brighter. This may suggest a flashback. A shot of the same boy is shown as the camera moves around him in a circular motion. Another cut is shown as there is a little boy on screen now, which could be the same flashback. The camera cuts back to the boy and carries on moving from the side to the front of his face. At this point you can hear cars going past and a piano playing the same sound rhythmically. The boy looks to his side and sees a flashback of a close-up of a bloody hand. An over shoulder shot is used as the protagonist looks in someones garden. He walks towards the garden getting closer to the camera as a voice over is layered on top of the soundtrack and the diegetic sound. Another flashback of him on the phone is shown of a close-up. He carries on talking in his flashback whilst the piano is still playing. The camera cuts to a woman driving as the camera is in the back seat, a medium close up is used as the camera tilts to the side and the same little boy gets closer to the car. The camera focuses on him getting in as dialogue is used. It happens to be a shot of a mother picking up her son from school. The protagonist walks towards the garden as the camera is following him he continues to have the flashback of the mother and child. The camera focuses on the mother and son in the car whilst they are talking. A cut is shown of the protagonist on the phone, the camera is a close-up of the side of his face. An extreme close-up of the wheel is shown as the car is moving. And another cut back to the present of a close-up of the boys face whilst he is walking towards the house. Another cut is used as the protagonist continues to have his flashback of the mother and son, a long shot is used as you can see their car as the mother and child is getting out. A cut of a close-up of the protagonist on the phone is shown as he drops his phone. And then a cut of a medium shot of the mother and child as she is checking her mail box. The camera moves around her and the camera cuts to the protagonists phone in the car. An extreme close up is shown of the phone on the floor whilst the he is trying to find it. An extreme close-up of the his face and the wheel is shown whilst the car is moving all over the road and another medium shot of the mother and child is shown as the protagonists car approaches towards them and gets closer to the mother and child. It cuts back to the boy in the car and an extreme close-up is shown of the lower part of his face whilst he puts the phone to his ear. An extreme close-up is shown of the wheel as the protagonist tries swirling and a skidding noise is used. The camera is cut back to a close-up of the his face in the present time as he gets closer tot he house door. The camera moves towards the door bell and a point of view shot is used. The camera moves back to the protagonists face as his reaction is shown. He looks anxious and quite scared. The camera focuses on his reaction for about 5 seconds and the point of view shot of the door bell is used. An extreme close-up from the inside of the house is used as the door opens. The camera cuts between the child that opens the door and the protagonist as a medium close-up is used. An over shoulder shot is used as the protagonist is looking at the child. The flashback is shown as the little boys basketball is rolling on the road and a medium close-up of the protagonist getting out of the car as he is getting closer to the camera repeating 'I'm sorry'. He is looking at the little boy crying as a close-up is shown of his face looking at his mother on the floor. The camera moves up to the sky and the camera cuts back to the present time of a close-up of the protagonists face as he repeats the words 'I'm sorry' again. Another over shoulder shot of the child's reaction is shown and an over shoulder shot of the protagonists reaction as a medium close up is used. This happens a couple of times as the child says 'I forgive you'. Both their reactions are shown as the soundtrack starts to change and gets slower. The film blacks out as it finishes.

I think this film is quite good as the film does not go in chronological order. Flashbacks are used throughout the film as the protagonist is walking towards the house to apologize to the child. This short film makes it obvious it is about the guilt of killing a young boy's mother as his reaction is shown several times whilst he is walking towards the house.

Introduction

Hi everyone welcome to my blog, I have finally decided what I will be doing.

For my A2 Media Studies coursework I will be making a short film, lasting approximately five minutes which will be a live action, together with a poster for the film and a film magazine review page featuring the film.