Speaker – Short Movie

Evaluation of Short Movie – Speaker

As part of my film making coursework, we had to create a short movie from scratch and film it over the course of 6 weeks. We had to create a storyboard, a treatment, a plot, characters and then shot the film. We created a pre-production pack, which consisted of the following:

• Character creation
• Dress code for characters
• Location
• Job Roles
• Treatment
• Storyboard
• Script

Firstly, we started brainstorming ideas for our film. After 10 minutes of brainstorming and gathering ideas we decided to stick to one idea, which turned out to be our final project. Wanting to develop the idea more, we agreed to have a title name that stood out and spoke for itself. After much deliberation we came up with the name ‘Speaker’. The slogan that we created was “Never seen but always heard”. Me and my team all agreed that the slogan spoken a thousand words. When looking at the characteristics of the main character, at first we wanted the character to be vocally and visually invisible but when filming started we had no choice but to give the audience a 5 second visual image of the character. We wanted the audience to have at least a 5 second connection with the character.

When it came down to looking for a location to shoot the movie, my team and me decided to use Calthrope Park as the location for the movie. We took pictures of the setting in the park and used those photos to figure out where we would position the characters. Even though Calthrope Park seemed like the perfect location for our   movie, we wanted the character to go on a journey so we looked for different locations. When we looked back at the brainstorming ideas, we remember that we wanted the Speaker Guy to be killed towards the end of the film so we decided to extend the story and find new locations for the Speaker Guy to be killed at. The film title ‘Speaker’ represents the main character because in our ideas process we agreed that the main character would walk around with a speaker on their shoulder. We wanted the character to be invisible to the public an they only way they saw him was through music/speaker.

Deciding job roles for each member of our team was very easy. We wanted to use people abilities in certain areas so we chose the right jobs for ourselves so that our contribution would be really help during the making of our film. These were our job roles:

• Alfie – Actor, Clothing & Wardrobe and Part Director
• Jordan – Cameraman, Location and Part Director
• Shay – Producer, Project Manager and Character Development
• Stephanie – Props& Storyboard and Script
• Precious – Equipment List, Treatment and Storyboard

Precious left the college a couple weeks after we had started creating and generating ideas. This meant that we had to re-do the job roles again. Each member of our team was given new job titles and more work to complete. After we had re-arrange the job roles this is what we came up with:

• Alfie – Actor, Director and Editor (Involved in pre-production development)
• Jordan – Cameraman (Involved in pre-production development)
• Shay – Cameraman, Editor, Producer (Involved in pre-production development)
• Stephanie – Editor

There was a point throughout the project where our team fell apart and we lost all focus of the task. In result to this, myself and Jordan both quit the group out our own frustrations and issues. I felt that there were certain times in the group where I was the only one doing the work and actually caring about the project. I felt as if my other team members where playing away and focusing on other people’s projects rather than our project which was the most important thing.

When it came to shooting the movie, we only had 2 days to shoot the film. We were under a lot of pressure to get the filming done but I think we all worked professionally and I think we did an amazing job. Alfie acted as or main character in the film. Narissa and Kyle co-starred in the film as minor characters.

When it came to the editing process, me and Alfie worked very very hard to make sure that our film was to a good standard. Both me and Alfie were very frustrated  by Final Cut Pro for several reasons. One of the main reasons was because final cut pro kept losing our video footage that we had imported into final cut. Also, a lot of the media files that were had kept getting disconnected for some reason. This irritated me and Alfie because we didn’t have a lot of time to edit the movie. I decided to tint majority of the scenes black and white because it wanted it to feel very dark. The scene where Speaker Guy is killed by a mystery killer, the blood on his hands are red so I decided to tint the screen red. At the end of the film you see captions that say “The Fatal End?????????” and “Or Was It????????”. I added these captions because it was a hint to the audience that there was going to be a twist.

(Screen grab of me editing the film)

A lot of the footage that we shot and planned to put in the film had to be cut out mainly because it didn’t make any sense at all. When we finished editing the film, we realized that we need something interesting and captivating to grab the audience at the end. I personally decided to do a twist at the end of the film. We took the footage from the film and rewind it at full speed. I thought that by adding this it would not only lengthen out the film but it would also be an interesting piece to the story.

After we did this I felt very happy about the short movie. Taking into consideration that me and my team only had 2 days to shot all the scenes that we need and then we only had 2 weeks to edit the film, i felt we did a really good job. I asked several students in my class including my teacher Mark of there personal opinion on the final movie. I got a quite response from them and that made me please. I exported the final movie into a QuickTime movie and then uploaded it to YouTube and WordPress.

Overall I am extremely happy with the final result of the project. Despite a few issues that happened throughout the process of making the film we feel that we worked hard and all of my team members put 100% present into the project.

Pre-Production Pack:

Analyzation of Speaker Poster:

• Slogan: ‘Never seen but always heard’ – Slogan speaks a thousand words. From the slogan you can understand the plot of the film.
• Release Date – Tells you when the film will be released.
• Title of the Film: ‘Speaker’ – Font: Big Bold Font grabs the audiences attention
• Blood on Clothes – Tells you that everything will happen that involves blood. Connotation of red; Anger, Hurt, Pain.

Characters

• Speaker – The main character, everything centres around this character and the speaker. They are unknown to the audience but you are aware of their appearance.

• The Killer – Only appears in the last scene, an anonymous character.

• Free runner – In the film he is seen running away from the police officer.

• Boyfriend and Girlfriend – Seen in the first scene.

• Druggies – A group of four people dealing and taking drugs.

Job Roles

• Alfie: Actor (Speaker), Clothing & Wardrobe and Part Director

• Jordan: Cameraman, Location and Part Director

• Shay: Producer, Project Manager and Character Development

• Stephanie: Props& Storyboard and Script

• Precious: Equipment List, Treatment and Storyboard

Location

• Park
• Alley
• High Street

Dress Code for Characters

• Speaker: All in black
• The Killer: All in black
• Free Runner: Sportswear. Trainers, Tracksuit
• Boyfriend & Girlfriend: casual clothes
• Druggies: casual clothes, hats and hoodies

Treatment:

This story centers on the main character (Speaker) as he finds himself in different situations playing music to reflect the mood. In the first scene we see a boy and girl sitting on a park bench, they are a couple. The Speaker walks slowly behind them, and love music plays out of the speaker he is holding. The next scene is fast and up-tempo, it consists of free runners running from the police. Again the Speaker is in the background and fast drum and bass music will be playing out of the speaker. The third situation the Speaker finds himself in is a drug scene. Four drug dealers are doing some business in a park, and the Speaker will slowly walk in the background while music plays out of the speaker. The last scene involves a twist, the Speaker is walking alone and music starts to play from the speaker, the Speaker is confused as to why music is playing when nothing is happening, unknown to him another blacked out character is approaching him from behind, he pulls out a knife and stabs the Speaker, the killer then runs away leaving the Speaker laying bleeding on the floor.

Storyboard:

1.1 MEDIUM CLOSE UP:

Opening Shot of the film, the entrance of the park, camera will pan down into next shot.

1.2 OVER THE SHOULDER:

Over the shot shoulder of the speaker, following the speaker as he walks across the bridge.

1.3 WIDE SHOT:

A long shot of the couple sitting on the bench, speaker not seen in this shot.

1.4 MEDIUM SHOT

Medium shot of the couple sitting on the bench and the speaker will be walking slowly behind. Music will start playing out of the speaker to reflect the mood of the situation.

1.5 MEDIUM CLOSE UP:

Camera following the speaker as he walks down the steps leading to the next scenario.

1.6 MEDIUM SHOT:

A group of druggies will be seen in this scene, again the speaker will walk slowly behind while music plays to reflect the situation.

1.7 MEDIUM SHOT:

This scene will show people jumping off the rocks, something triggers them to run off and thats where the speaker comes into the scene, music will play to reflect the situation.

1.8 MEDIUM SHOT:

The shot of them running away, camera will be still, while they run into the shot.

1.9 WIDE SHOT:

Speaker will be seen in the distance walking alone, camera looks as if someone is spying on the speaker.

1.10 OVER THE SHOULDER:

Camera will follow the speaker as he walks down the alley.

1.11 EXTREME WIDE SHOT

This shot will include the speaker and the killer walking behind, this angle is made to look like someone is witnessing the kill.

1.12 MEDIUM SHOT:

A shot showing the shadow of the killer as he kills the speaker, this will lead into the next shot of the speaker laying dead on the floor.

Script: