Soundtrack

To produce my own soundtrack I asked for help from a friend with experience in music. These are some clips I recorded him playing. The music was played by Wil Allen.
 
This the ending


  
This the beginning



This the beginning 2



this the ending 2

Filming #2

Due to some continuity issues and the quality of picture in my first set of filming I will be re-filming some scenes to improve the overall quality. Issues I had before were clutter in the background and problems with lighting at the beginning of my production, this is because of the lack of light at the beginning but to improve this i have changed the narrative at the beginning from the protagonist waking up in the morning to waking up later so there is more light and so I wouldn't have to film my protagonist waking up and getting ready for the day etc. As I will be filming scenes again I will have to make sure my actor is wearing the same clothes and hairstyle. I will also need to be careful for continuity issues due to having scenes filmed of different days.

Background Music

These are some of the websites I have been looking at which most are copyright free. This was mostly just to research and get a rough idea of the music I wanted to use for my production and then ask a friend to create something similar. From the research i have gathered I think I will need 2 or 3 different soundtracks for the beginning, middle and end as I want to build the tension up slowly towards the end of the production

Update - Editing

This week I have focused on editing the clips I have filmed and getting the rough structure of my narrative. From editing I have realised that there are a few clips I will need to re film as there was some issues with the lighting and continuity. Overall I think most of the clips worked well and the dream sequence at the being of my short film was effective but from some feedback I have seen that I have used to much transitions which I will be cutting down on.

Filming #1

This weekend will be the first set of scenes that I will be filming so I will need to think about the following things and possible problems I may encounter.

• Continuity issues
• Clutter in background
• Lighting
• Background noise such as wind

As most of my scenes will be indoors sound and lighting shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Film Poster developments

To develop my poster designs I did a single poster for each event that the main protagonist has a flashback from. For the last design I included all of the designs which describes the main events in the narrative. Overall I think the designs went well the only thing I would change is the colour scheme which I could possibly get some feedback for.

Lighting Research

As my production will mostly be set indoors i will be able to play around with the lighting and mise en scenes more easily.

The three point lighting technique is a standard method used when creating productions and for photography. It is a simple technique which forms the basics of most lighting systems in filming.

Key light
This light is one of the most important lights, its function is to highlight the main subject

Fill Light
The fill lights purpose is to lesson the contrast and shadows around the subject, by being angled differently to the main key light. It usually is softer than the key light.

Black Light
This light is placed being the subject to illuminate it creating a silhouette or to create separation or the subject and background.

High Key 
This is often used in comedies as it brightens and enhances the sense of liveliness or dramatic scenes

Low Key
This creates a more shadowy effect and usually darkens the scene. They are usually found in thriller or horrors.

Risk assessment

Hazard	Persons who may be hurt	Property which may be damaged	Risk controls already in  place	Risk assessment LOW, MODERATE, HIGH, EXTREMME	Further action required to control risk
Someone being run over by a car (Road safety)	Actors, driver	Car	Wear a seat belt and be sensible on the road	Moderate	Make sure the actor and the car a safe distance apart
Glass cup breaking	Actors camera man	Glass cup	take caution or use a plastic cup	Moderate	If the glass breaks clear it away carefully
Falling down the stairs	Actor	n/a	Hold onto the banister	Low	Hold onto the banister and be careful when using the stairs and the falling over scene
Tripping over while running	Actor	n/a	Be aware of your surroundings	Low	Be aware of your surroundings

Naming My Short Film

I already had an idea of what the production would be called as the whole narrative is based around events that the protagonist has already experienced in a dream so i wanted the film to be something along the lines of Deja Vu. I used an online thesaurus to come up with more words around the word premonition.

Out of the words i have came up with i feel that 'The Premonition' works the best and suits the style of my film which is a slightly unconventional film.

Semiotics

Conventions of a short film

Questionaire Responses

For my responses i asked people who fitted into my target audience which is males aged around 16-20.

Most of my target market have seen short films before so my production and structure isn't going to be a shock to them as they know the general layout of a short production.

Again my responses show that the majority would like to see a film about a vision of the future so my narrative is likely appeal to my target market.

Considering my target market had different opinions on the length i have deiced to go roughly in the middle like 5 mins is a suitable length.

Further Film Poster Research

These are some minimalistic film posters which I feel work better than realistic photos and a collage of images. Also their simplicity means that the audience has to be active to understand which scene or prop the poster represents.

Film Poster draft

This is a draft of my film poster(Created using Adobe Illustrator). I wanted to create a minimalistic film poster to make the audience more active when reading it as they have to think about what scene it represents. Also I felt that too many film posters in the present day just include the actors faces to promote their film but i feel that a decent illustration of the overall film is more effective I think overall it worked well however in my final design id like to include more detail and possibly add a real life picture which is what most film posters include, for example a face of the actor. Also i think it would be important to have some sort of boarder to add more detail to the finished product.

Breif Outline of my Plot

The beginning of my narrative will start of as a montage of events of a normal day and a car crash at the end. The main protagonist instantly wakes up and assumes he just had a nightmare. As the character gets up a heads downstairs the beginning credits will appear. The main character then gets himself some breakfast and as he runs the tap to get a drink, he has a small flashback of his 'dream'. As he thinks nothing of it he continues to get himself a drink and puts the glass on the table. He then accidentally knocks the glass over causing the drink to spill on the floor and as the drink is in free fall time slows down and he has another flashback of the 'dream'. Again he doesn't really realise what is going on so he continues his normal day of life and heads back to his room. On his way to his room he trips over a book and once again he has another flashback of him tripping and falling down the stairs but as he goes back to reality he prevents himself from falling down the stairs as he knew what was going to happen. The protagonist picks up the book and the front cover has the woulds deja vu on it, he then starts to realise that his dream is coming to true. He then grabs his laptop and starts researching about his condition. As he researches he finds out that he can try and simulate his dream to remember the rest of his dream before it happens and save whoever gets hit by a car. As he starts to remember parts of his dream he finds out that the event is close to his house as he recognises street sign in his vision. He the runs out of his house and looks at his watch to see how much time he has left to save the person from being hit by a car. He gets to the same street sign in his vision and has a small flashback to prove it was the same street sign. As he has nothing else to go on so he looks around frantically to see if he can see the car but as he looks around someone bumps into him with headphones on and walks past him. As the main character then realises that this person was the guy that gets hit. He then runs to try and catch him up but before he catches up, he sees the car that hits him turn into the road he is on. As the main protagonist attempts to call for the character with the headphones he obviously doesn't hear him or the car. The character with headphones starts to cross the road without looking and the car continues to build up speed. This is then the moment where the character decides to be the hero and save him risking his own life or the villain by letting it happen, but before he makes a decision it cuts to black and all you hear is a car breaking and someone being hit leaving the audience to decide what happened and who died.

The Genre of my production

From reading my narrative I would suggest that my short film will fall into the thriller genre due to the following conventions

• The aim of a thriller is to create suspense and excitement for the audience
• The narrative revolves around an investigation or enigma
• The hero is the only one that is able to solve the enigma
• The hero is often an outsider, isolated and secretive but moral
• A lot of the cinematography includes extreme close ups to show emotion of the protagonist

Although my narrative follows some of the conventions I think it would likely be an unconventional thriller as it is not centred around violence, except from the end and it doesn't have many characters only a protagonist.

Location Pictures

For the ending of my film I needed to find a small quite road near my house and I found that this road would work well. As its a small close there isn't usually many people walking down and doesn't have a lot of traffic so I wouldn't disturb many people.

Also in the top left image there is a street sign that I might end up using for a flashback to his dream so he knows he's close to the next event from his dream

Other than this location the only other location I will need is my house.

Script?

As my short film is only going to have one character for most of the scenes there isn't going to be much dialogue because I didn't want the character to break the fourth wall and I felt narration wouldn't fit in with my plot. It is possible that I could have a phone call with the main character so there is at least some dialogue at the start of the film but towards the end there will be some dialogue when the main character tries to prevent the car hitting someone. As there will be minimal dialogue I was thinking of using quite powerful soundtracks and close ups of the main protagonists to show emotion.

Codes and Conventions of short films

Target Audience Primary Research