Music used in my Short Film

Due to copyright issues, I will have to use cover versions of the songs I intended to use. 

The following are said examples, which I have taken from YouTube. 

They are;

Sia- Breathe Me 

Covered by:  kc89

Eva Cassidy- Fields of Gold

Covered by:  juegafutbol1

Leona Lewis- Fields of Gold

Covered by:  geaniemariejenkins

Evanescence- My Immortal 

Covered by:  cdnchuchu

Celine Dion- My heart will go on 

Covered by:  yoursoul85

Funkadelic- Maggot Brain

Covered by: AlexQFactor

Storyboard

 NEEDS TO BE RE-UPLOADED DUE TO VISIBILITY ISSUES 

This is the Story board for my short film. Along with the script, it will show me all of the technical aspects which I will need to consider and include within my short film.

Final Script

Black Screen

Titles: “Whitestone Motion Picture” opening sequence

Fade out

Mood music: Sia - Breathe Me

Scene I

Fade in

LONG SHOT

From top of stairs, shot of front door.

                        EMILY.

Opens front door of house and runs up the stairs towards the camera.

Runs to camera left side and runs into room.

MID SHOT

From window, shot facing the door.

                        EMILY.

Runs into bedroom, pulls cabinet in front of door and sits down next to bed facing away from camera.

CLOSE UP

By door, facing character by bed

                        EMILY.

Head in hands, panting and crying.

Reveals bruising and

bleeding on face.

Knock at the door.

                        EMILY.

Looks up past the left side of the camera.

POINT OF VIEW

MID SHOT

                                  By the bed, facing

the door

                        UNKNOWN.

          “Are you alright? What happened to

your face? Tell me!”

                       

                   MID SHOT

ZOOM/TRACK

EMILY.

Head in hands, still crying.

Looking from; past camera, to the floor, closing eyes.   

“Please. Just leave me alone”

Fade out

Scene II

Fade in

Clip of Sky – Cloud movement

To represent the

advancement of time

                   Not full screen

Fade out

Scene III

Fade In

Stop Motion Picture

Burning Paper - Happiness

Fade out

End Mood Music

Scene IV

Mood Music: Eva Cassidy – Fields of gold

Fade in

LONG SHOT

Facing coffee bar corridor.

                        EMILY.

Walking through corridor.

                                           LONG SHOT

Opposing direction to coffee bar. 

                        GROUP.

Walking towards Maia.

                                  OVER SHOULDER SHOT

Over Emily’s left shoulder.

                        EMILY.

Walking towards the group of people.

                        GROUP.

                        BULLY 1.

          “Well look who it is.”

Push Emily to the ground. 

CLOSE UP

Showing half of Emily’s face, similar to ‘Panic room’.

Group kicking Emily (off screen)

                        EMILY.

Crying.

In a quiet whisper/ whimper.

“Why are you doing this? I haven’t

done anything wrong. Please. Just

leave me alone”

With tears running down her face.

She closes her eyes.

Black screen

End Mood Music

Scene V

Mood Music: Leona Lewis- Footprints in the sand

CLOSE UP

Showing half of Emily’s face, similar to ‘Panic room’.

                        EMILY.

CLOSE UP

HIGH ANGLE

Opens eyes

Standing next to radiator

                        EMILY.

Lying on a bed

Looks to her left to reveal another person lying next to her

                        MAIA.

Then looks back at Emily.

                        EMILY.

         

          “Where am I, what is this place?”

                        MAIA.

          “We are in your head. This is a place where you can get away from all the people          who hurt you.”

VARIOUS SHOTS

VARIOUS ANGLES

Fade In

Montage clip of both Emily and Maia together

Both looking happy and laughing together.

Reduced screen

Fade Out

                        MAIA.

          “It’s time for you to go.”

CLOSE UP

                        EMILY.

Closes her eyes.

Fade out

End Mood Music

Scene VI

Mood Music: Evanescence- My Immortal 

CLOSE UP

Standing over looking down.

EMILY.

Opens her eyes.

HIGH ANGLE/

BIRDS-EYE VIEW

MID SHOT

                  

Standing at end of

the bed.

EMILY.

Lying in bed

(After moments)

Looks to her right

Realises that the person in her own world is not there. 

Fade out

Scene VII

Sky Montage

Designed to show advancement

and movement in time.

             

                                  Not full screen

Scene VIII

Fade In

LONG SHOT

By doors near social areas.

                        EMILY.

Walking past doors from computers to toilets.

Heads into toilets.

MID SHOT

                                  In cubicle

                        EMILY.

Heads to mirror.

Film at angle so not to      get camera in reflection

          SOUND: Door opening

                        GROUP.

Walk into shot and push Maia into wall.

     MID SHOT

CLOSE UP

                                  Opposite hand dryers

                        EMILY.

Slides to the ground.

CLOSE UP

                        EMILY.

Closes eyes.

Fade Out

End Mood Music

Scene IX

Mood Music: Leona Lewis- Footprints in the sand

CLOSE UP

HIGH ANGLE

                        EMILY.

Fade In

Standing on end of bed

Lying on bed

Opens eyes.

Looks to her right to reveal other character once again there.

                        EMILY.

          “I wish I was always here with you.

          They keep bullying me, why me?” 

                        MAIA.

          “Some people are ignorant, they just

  don’t understand you”

               

Fade In

VARIOUS SHOTS

VARIOUS ANGLES

Montage clip of both Emily and Maia together

Both looking happy and laughing together.

Reduced screen

Fade Out

                                           MID SHOI

LOW ANGLE

On floor standing next to them

Standing on bed

                        EMILY.

              “I just don’t think I can take this

 anymore.”

                        MAIA.

              “You’ll be fine, just don’t let them

get to you. You have to stand up for yourself”

CLOSE UP

                        EMILY.

              “Okay.”

Closes eyes

Fade out

End Mood Music.

Scene X

Mood Music; Celine Dion- My heart will go on

LONG SHOT

Near doors of Design Technology

                       

EMILY.

Walking down stairs.

Sees girls.

Walks up to them.

Pushes bully 1 into wall.

MID SHOT

CLOSE UP

              “Leave me alone. Okay!”

                        GROUP.

Push her back into wall.

                        MID SHOT

CLOSE UP

                        BULLY 1.

              “Where’s’ your girlfriend, oh that’s

 night she’s dead, she killed herself,

 why don’t you go and do the same.”

Push her to the ground and start beating her.

                                      CLOSE UP

                        EMILY.

On ground.

Crying.

          BULLY 1.

Diegetic sound

“She’s dead and she’s not coming back”

          EMILY.

Still crying

Closes eyes.

Fade Out

End Mood Music

Scene XI

LONG SHOT

                        EMILY.

Waling upstairs.

              “Maia… Maia?”

Briefly looks into bedrooms.

Heads into room on left side of camera.

     Speed reduced to 30%   

     No diegetic sound

     Mood Music: Funkadelic- Maggot Brain

LONG SHOT

MID SHOT

                             Standing at end of bed

                        EMILY.

Walks through door into bed room.

Horror takes over her face.

                   MID SHOT

                        MAIA.

Lying on the bed with bottle of pills in her hand.

                        EMILY.

Runs into shot.

Starts shaking Maia.

CLOSE UP

                        EMILY.

Puts hand on Maia’s neck to check and see if she has a pulse.

                        MID SHOT

     Next to radiator

EMILY.

Crying.

Turns around towards door.

CLOSE UP

                        Emily.

               “HELP!”

          Audio is not heard

Fade out

Scene XII

[Repetition scene]

LONG SHOT

From top of stairs, shot of front door.

                        EMILY.

Opens front door of house and runs up the stairs towards the camera.

Runs to camera left side and runs into room.

MID SHOT

From window, shot facing the door.

                        EMILY.

Runs into bedroom, pulls cabinet in front of door and sits down next to bed facing away from camera.

CLOSE UP

By door, facing character by bed

                        EMILY.

Head in hands, panting and crying.

Reveals bruising and

bleeding on face.

Knock at the door.

                        EMILY.

Looks up past the left side of the camera.

POINT OF VIEW

MID SHOT

                                  By the bed, facing

the door

                        UNKNOWN.

          “Are you alright? What happened to

your face? Tell me!”

                       

                   MID SHOT

ZOOM/TRACK

EMILY.

Head in hands, still crying.

Looking from; past camera, to the floor, closing eyes.   

“Please. Just leave me alone”

Looks down

[Idea]

Looks up

                                           TILT

Runs over to drawer

(Placed in other side of bed)

                             OVER SHOULDER

Gets bottle of pills.

                             CLOSE UP

Empties pills into hand

MID SHOT

Swallows them.

Sits down on bed, facing away from camera                    

Fade out

Scene XIII

Flower stop motion picture montage

              Reduced screen size 50%.

Scene XIV

Fade in

CLOSE UP

                        EMILY.

Hand falls from the bed, dropping the empty bottle and few remaining pills to the floor.

Scene XV

Fade In

Stop Motion Picture

Burning Paper - Life

Fade out

End Mood Music.

Closing credits:- 

Director Helen Chamberlain

Writer    Helen Chamberlain

Actors    Emily Fiddy

          Maia Rodgers

          Naomi Dunnet

          Nafeesah Ali

Location

Locations with films in general are very crucial in making the plot of the film believable and realistic to their audience.They need to be accessible to their audience and easily recognisable, setting up the scene.

With the research on audience which I previously carried out on my TMG (Target market group), I will need to make sure that the locations which I choose are not too specific as this could decrease the number of people in which my short film would appeal to. 

Even though the locations which I have located are primarily situated within a school, they are not too obvious. As a result, it makes it more accessible to a larger audeince.

The locations which I have chosen include;

• School hallway, outside the Coffee bar
• Toilets
• School hallway near exit 
• House landing 
• Bedroom 

School hallway, outside the Coffee bar

This location was used for it lighting as it was bright and had both natural and artificial lighting. This was important as it was used for the 1st bully scene. Due to the fact that the real world clips were desaturated and turned into black and white, I wanted the 1st bully scene to be lighter. My overall intentions were to have each bully scene progressively getting darker and darker in light, so that the scenes would match. The reasons for this, was because I wanted it to be symbolic for the unhappiness and the state of mind of my protagonist to be getting darker and more unhappy and unable to cope.

Toilets

The toilets were used, because they are a global feature, so it meant that people all over the world would be able to relate to the situation and concept of bullying with within toilets.

Additionally, the tile pattern on the walls, I thought, would be an effective visual on screen, especially when edited in post production to turn it into black and white.

School hallway near exit 

This location was used because of its limited lighting. As I have previously mentioned, I wanted the bully scenes to progressively get darker throughout my short film. I therefore thought that this was an effective location to achieve this. Moreover, the fact that the scene was back light, meant that it created shadow in the characters, which I believed would enhance the artistic feel to my short film.

I additionally thought that the use of the stairs was an effective concept, and believed that this could be used to imply the level of hierarchy between characters within the film.

House landing  and Bedroom

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Both these locations were also used for their global use. Everybody will be able to relate to the idea of the sanctuary of bedroom and the fact that they are considered people's 'safe place' and 'haven', away from the rest of the world. 

Music

This is a testing clip which I have recorded. The first is the scene without the use of a soundtrack, whilst the latter has had a cover song of Sia's- "Breathe me" played over the top of the scene.

It can be seen from these two tester clips that the latter, (the one with the soundtrack) is more effective in creating the emotion needed to make my short film successful.

From this I can see that to make my short film have the desired emotional effect, I will need to try and incorporate mood music within it.

Music

The sound within films is very important. It is both the diegetic and non-diegetic sound which is what primarily create and enhances the emotion within the scenes. Within the film company which my film will be released with, music is a crucial feature in their films. Many of the films which they make a produce consist of no dialogue, but are instead consisted of mood music soundtracks.

Similarly, in my short film, mood music also plays a key part. The use of the soundtrack helps to evoke the necessary emotion to make the scenes and as a result the whole film effective. My intention is to use sad and iconic songs which the audience will automatically recognise. Within this, I am hoping that these emotions that the songs bring to the audience will help enhance my film. The range of songs will be from both the music industry, and also from the film industry. This should then increase the chance of the audience recognising some of the songs within my short film.

The sad songs which I intend to include within my short film are covers of;

• Eva Cassidy’s- fields of gold
• Evanessence – my immortal
• Celine Dion- My heart will go on
• Sia- Breath me
• Funkedelic- Maggot brain

From the testing which I carried out on whether the scenes were more effective with the inclusion from music, I found that

Progression of Time - Sky

VIDEO UNABLE TO BE UPLOADED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES
WILL BE UPLOAD AT A LATER DATE

Progression of Time - Sky

 Due to my film being set over a long period of time, I want to visually show this to my audience in a visual way.

With the cloud scene, I will set up the film camera within my garden and leave it to film for a couple of hour.

Once it has been filmed and uploaded to the computer, I will then speed up the clip. This then means that the speed of the clouds was visible and visually effective.

Ideally, I would have liked to have shown the progression of time through the use of a sunset or sun rise. However, this could be too problematic to film, especially with the safety of the camera. 

Overall,  I believe that using the visual movement of clouds to represent the progression of time will be effective. It will also adhere to the artistic nature and content of short films.

Symbolism - Burning Paper

Video

Symbolism - Burning Paper

I have decided to go with the the idea of having stop motion pictures of pieces of paper with specific words written on them, to burn. This is because I feel that this will have both symbolic, but also have a sense of literal meaning also.

Following on from the lighting results which I got from the stop motion pictures of the flower, I decided to use artificial lighting for the images. Thus meant that I could then eliminate extraneous variables from the the environment which could cause variation within the lighting of each picture.

The specific words which I decided to include and use to be burnt were;

•  Happiness
• Hope
• Life

These will be used to represent the characters emotions and are designed to represent how they have lost their, happiness and hope. Also the use of life will be used at the end to show the audience that their life has been destroyed and that they have killed themselves.
These are the images which will be burnt. 

The use of the typeface will be intended to appear hand written. But they are also designed to represent that character's vulnerability through the use of the the very thin font.