Locations for Sets

Chris' House

Living Room-
This is where I will be filming all of the scenes that take place in Chris' living room, which is the majorty of the film, it is actually my living room, but shooting it here will be easier as I don't have to carry around any equipment and it's well lit (both naturally and with lighting equipment) and I can get better camera shots.

Kitchen-
This is where we will be filming the scenes in Chris's kitchen, again, this is really my kitchen, again, just because it is easier to film here and I know it well enough to know what type of camera angles I can use for this.

Zoe's House
The sets for Zoe's house have been confirmed, I will be filming them at a friend's house, for living room, kitchen & exterior of the house. Photos are yet to be taken, but will be updated soon.

SSRP Books for Referencing

For my Small Scale Research Project, I am writing about John Hughes, and some of the research material will be used through books, several of which I have already found and purchased, so I will be using them as reference and as 3 out of my 15 items that I will use as research for this project.

The first of these books that I have bought is titled "John Hughes and Eighties Cinema - Teenage Hopes and American Dreams" by Thomas A. Christie. The reason why I have chosen this book is because it is a full length analysis of his films, not just the ones he directed, but the ones he wrote as well. It discusses his films and the impact they have made and their significance in social and culutural aspects and how they define a generation. The film as his that they focus the most on is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), which is also one of the several Hughes films that I am focusing on.

 

The second book is "You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried" by Susannah Gora, this book is different from the other two I have picked as it doesn't focus on John Hughes making the films, but more specifically on the films themselves and the characters and ideology that is created through them. In fact it doesn't focus on just Hughes' films, but the films of "The Brat Pack" a group of actors who often collaborated together in the 80's, however the majority of them are Hughes films (Such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink) so it still has valuable information and research in them. However that being said, there will be sections that aren't very useful as they have nothing to do with Hughes or his films (i.e. St. Elmo's Fire). 



The third book that I have already bought is "Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes" written by a group of writers. This book focuses on the films and the ways how Hughes' writes teenagers and how they are represented. They explore the majority of his films, including all three that I am focusing on, and the motifs and ideology featured in all of them, focusing on love, angst and self-discover that make his films some of the most famous coming-of-age films of the 80's. As you can tell by the cover and title, they focus mostly on The Breakfast Club, one of-if not-his most successful film and the effect that it has had on a generation of teenagers.

Production Update - 24/09/2013

• Cast has been confirmed for the two lead characters, Zoe Lewis as Zoe the Character and Chris Coates as Chris the Writer

• Two out of Three locations have been confirmed for filming, the first being at my house acting as Chris' home, and all the shots of Zoe on a computer screen will be filmed on the green screen here at Wyke 6th Form College, and edit in the website backgrounds in post-production. As for the location of Zoe's house, I am currently deciding between two locations on which would be better. (Full details and photos to be posted here in a later post)

• I am hoping that I can edit from my home where I use Adobe Premier CS6, and hopefully I can just bring it in on a memory stick and continue to edit it here. If I cannot transfer it with a memory stick then I would still prefer to edit from home, as I would have more time and are more accustom to using my home computer.

• For cameras, I can use either a college provided camera or my own camera, I am fine either way, seeing as most filming takes place at my house and I can provide my own camera and tripod and I wouldn't mind bringing it in for filming on the green screen, so it wouldn't be an issue. However, the college cameras are more likely to be better quality than mine (not that mine is bad quality) so those might be a better option for me to film with.

Codes & Conventions: Comedy

These are the conventions that I will be taking into consideration when making my short film. Firstly, to take into consideration is that their are two main forms of comedic films, there are those that take place mainly through gags and sketches, usually more surreal humour where entire scenes can be centred around a single joke (E.g. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World). And then there are those that have a more coherent storyline, and the jokes come from the characters and events that happen along the journey (E.g. Paul). There are other sub-genres of comedy, such as romantic comedy, teen comedy, gross-out comedy just to name a few; the sub-genre that my film is, are a mix between Surreal Humour and Satire. The surreal humour comes from the fact that my main character is interacting with a fictional being, and the satire comes from the end when the two are constantly parodying famous series finales of popular TV Shows.

Cinematography
In a lot of comedy films, a lot of the humour can come from the visuals, this is the most common way of getting jokes across during gross-out or slapstick films, where if you took out the visuals then there would be no comedy.

(21 Jump Street, 2012, Dir. Phil Lord & Chris Miller)

However in other comedies, this doesn't apply and the humour comes from what they say, rather than what is seen. In this case, cinematography is still important, but in the same way how it is important for any film to have good cinematography. Although in most comedies there will be at least one joke that is told through visual humour, if not multiple jokes. It's hard to think of a comedy that was ruined through bad cinematography, as normally they would be bad because the jokes were bad, not because they were poorly framed, or at least that wouldn't be the main reason.

Mise-En-Scene
Again, similar to cinematography, Mise-En-Scene is important, especially when it comes to visual humour, as humour can come from props, costumes and provide a large amount of the comedy within the film. A famous example is the coconuts from Monty Python's Holy Grail, the use of coconuts instead of horses gets a big laugh from audiences everytime.

(Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, Terry Gilligan & Terry Jones)

Although sometimes the mise-en-scene of a comedy can ruin the film, for example” Cat in the Hat”, where the sets and costumes are made bright and colourful to look similar to the original book, although it ends up looking distracting and ugly. While not every comedy uses mise-en-scene as an important way of getting jokes across, it is still an important feature, the same as any film, again, using another Dr Seuss film as an example, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, even though it is supposed to be a kids Christmas film that uses the spirit of Christmas as a moral, it horrible represents it due to the sets all looking bleak and foggy, it doesn’t look nice or welcoming like most kids Christmas films.

Editing
An important part of comedy, is correct pacing, letting a shot/scene linger for too long, or cutting it short can ruin an entire joke. Timing and pacing is a very important part of comedy, and this is controlled through editing. Depending on the genre will depend on the pacing, so for my film, the pacing will be rather slow, similar to Doug Walker (Who I am using as my inspiration). However, in the majority of comedies, they are normally fast paced in order to keep the jokes coming and to keep the audience engaged. One of the best comedic directors Edgar Wright tends to used fast paced humour in his films, and they normally always work.

(Shaun of the Dead, 2004, Dir. Edgar Wright)

Like I said, editing is pacing, and that can change how well a joke works, however I can’t really think of any cases where the editing of a comedy ends up ruining the jokes, again, usually if a comedy film is bad, then the editing is not normally the major problem with the film, and even if the editing in a film is good, doesn’t mean that the rest of the film is good. An example is the parody film “Epic Movie” which is a horrible film and a horrible comedy, but on a production perspective, the film is well made.

Sound
Sound creates the majority of the comedy within a film, the most obvious of this way is through speaking and people telling jokes, but there are other ways how humour gets across, like music and sound effects. For music, the way how this can be used to tell jokes for example is contropuntal music can lead to a scene that would otherwise be dramatic or dark, and having a light-hearted tone; an example of this is the fight scenes of Hit-Girl in the film "Kick Ass", usually playing upbeat pop songs as she's murdering drug dealers, making the scene both an action scene and a comedic scene. As for sound effects, these also create comedy, this is most commonly found in slapstick, particularly cartoons such as Tom & Jerry, by putting silly sound effects over violence, makes it more silly and more conventional of the slapstick genre. Although these conventions usually work in smaller sketches rather than full length film, again, Tom & Jerry make a good example; while they were funny in 5-10 minute sketches, making a full length featured film with this type of humour (The Tom & Jerry movie), will get annoying rather quickly.

Aims & Context

For my Film Studies coursework I will be making a short film called "Procrastination" that follows the conventions of the comedy genre. I will be writing, directing and editing the piece all by myself, starring Chris Coates & Zoe Lewis. My main inspiration for the work is that of film maker Doug Walker, who does satirical but slow paced comedy films via his own website. The reason why I am using him as inspiration, is because he is well known for making ameteur films, but uses well done cinematography and editing to make his films appear more professional than they actually are.

(To Bodly Flee, 2012, Dir. Doug Walker)

 

 

What I am aiming to acheive with this short film is simply to make a well made comedy that at the very least will make people chuckle, seeing as it's a short film it's hard to get a balance between story and jokes, and I am focusing more on story just because that is easier. So I'm not expecting anyone to laugh out loud at this, just not be bored watching.

Short Film Script (1st Draft)

Procrastination

[Establishing Shot: Zoe’s House]

[Scene: Zoe’s Kitchen, Zoe is stood making herself a cup of tea, when she walks into the living room to turn on the TV but it’s nothing but static, she changes the channel and it’s still static, she then here’s a crash and car alarms from outside, she goes to the window and looks outside, she then grabs her coat and walks away]

[Scene: Outside Zoe’s house, Zoe runs out and looks around with car alarms blaring off, she then turns to her left and see’s something, the camera then fades to white]

[Scene: Living room, Chris is sat by his computer with his fingers on the keyboard but not typing anything, it is dead silent apart from the sound of a clock ticking, he brings his hands up to his hands, briefly puts his fingers back on the keyboard as if he’s about to type but then brings his hands back to his face, he then looks at the clock and see’s that the time reads 10:20, he then looks back at his computer with the page remaining blank, it then cuts to that night with Chris lying on the couch asleep and the computer still on]

Mysterious Voice: Chris…Chris…Christopher!

[Chris wakes up and sits up and see’s the lead character Zoe on his computer screen]

Chris: Zoe?

Zoe: yep

Chris: …am I dreaming or am I losing my mind?

Zoe: doesn’t matter--

Chris: --for me it does--wha--what are you doing here!?

Zoe: what am I doing here? It’s been 12 hours! How come you haven’t finished writing the episode!

Chris: I-I just haven’t been able to come up with a good way to end it; I mean it’s the final episode, how can I end it?

Zoe: you’re a writer! Think of something dumbass!

Chris: there’s no need to behave like that

Zoe: bite me frog face

[Chris taps the computer and it changes to his YouTube with Zoe gone, he then sits back and sighs, until Zoe shows up on screen]

Zoe: still here!

[Chris sits back up]

Chris: wha--leave me alone!

[Chris taps the computer several times changing to Wikipedia, Twitter and Google]

Zoe: you can press that as many times as you want Otacon, you’re not getting rid of me, not at least until you write the episode

[Chris rubs his eyes trying to wake up]

Zoe: hey, have you ever googled “do a barrel roll” it’s really cool

[Chris shuts the computer to turn it off]

Chris: …time for bed

[Establishing Shot: Chris’s house at night and then fades in to morning]

[Scene: Kitchen, Chris walks downstairs looking really tired, he pours himself a cup of tea and takes a sip, he then turns around and see’s Zoe stood behind him and makes him jump]

Chris: AH!

Zoe: did you write the episode yet?

Chris: How are you here!? You’re not even real!

Zoe: I told you last night that I’m not leaving until you write the episode

Chris: why is this important enough for you to give me a mental breakdown!?

Zoe: you’ve been writing this episode for weeks and haven’t thought of anything, so I’m here to make sure that you finish writing it

Chris: well I can’t think of anything, maybe you’d like to give it a go!?

Zoe: alright fine

Chris: Fine! Let’s go write this episode!

[Chris and Zoe walk away]

[Scene: Living Room, Chris and Zoe sit down on the couch and Chris turns the computer on]

Chris: Alright, let’s get to work

[Cuts back to outside Zoe’s house, repeating the scene from earlier with Chris talking over]

Chris: how about as soon as she leaves the house, she turns to the left, and gets hit by a car!

[Cuts to black as a car crashes, cuts back to the living room]

Zoe: that’s terrible! I don’t wanna die in a car crash! And not to mention the fans would tear you apart

Chris: [Sarcasm] strange, I didn’t think my hallucination would care for my health

Zoe: shut up

Chris: well then you think of something better

Zoe: okay

[Cuts back to the final scene with Zoe talking over the scene]

Zoe: I come out of the house and it turns out that I’m all alone; and then it turns out my house is on an island and I’ve been dead all along!

[Cuts back to the living room]

Chris: …you know for a figment of my imagination you’re not very creative

Zoe: screw you

Chris: okay then well [They start talking over with the footage of what they’re talking about] maybe it ends with the police arriving and you being sent to jail

Zoe: or it ends with a spaceship showing up to take me on adventures

Chris: or maybe you are an alien

Zoe: and my dog is an alien as well and speaks fluent Japanese!

[Cuts back to the living room]

Chris: …we’re not very good at this

Zoe: yeah you must be going insane to think up these things

Chris: well we’ve gotta do something, I mean it’s not like we can just end it like The Sopranos and cut to black mid sce--

END

SSRP Proposal

Film Studies: SSRP Proposal

For my Small Scale Research Project, I will be focusing on the Writer/Director John Hughes as an auteur. The three of his films that I have selected are “The Breakfast Club” (1985) “Pretty in Pink” (1986) and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986) and exploring the similarities and motifs that feature within all of these movies, focusing especially on the issues that the characters deal with and the audience that Hughes’ films are targeted towards. Mostly they are teenagers and usually the issues that they tend to experience are ones that teenagers can relate to; as in most of Hughes’ films, they are praised for their representation of teenagers for being realistic. These tend to be his more successful films, as the ones he has made that are targeted towards children tend to be panned by critics and audiences alike, such as “Flubber” and “Uncle Buck”. Although there are exceptions such as “Home Alone”, and he has also written family films such as “National Lampoon Vacation” and “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, however these were less frequent than his teen films and don’t have as many similar motifs as the ones I have chosen, also his teen centred films tend to be more critically acclaimed, so that is why I chose these films.

In terms of what I’ll be using for my research, it will be a mixture of websites from the internet and biographies and books based on 80’s films. The reason why I will be using these sources is because his films (including the ones I chose) are a big part of films from the 1980’s and whenever there is a book or documentary based on 80’s cinema, Hughes films are always discussed and I can get plenty of information from them.

Initial Ideas & Brief

Brief
I will be making a short film as part of my Film Studies Coursework

Idea
A procrastinating TV writer with writer's block begins having hallucinations of his lead character "Zoe" coming to life and annoying him into finish writing the episode.

Narrative
Syd Field

Genre
Surreal Comedy

Characters
Chris The Writer, Zoe the Character

Target Audience
Adults: 18-30