character profile

CHARACTER PROFILES-ALEX

CHARACTER PROFILES:

ALEX.

PART ONE.

AGE: 2-3 YEARS

WEARING: SOLDIERS OUTFIT.

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ALEX AND HE STRANGER HAVE CROSSED LINES. ALEX DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS HAPPENED AS HE IS TOO YOUNG. BUT HE DOES NOTICE THAT THERE IS A CHANGE IN THE ROOM.

PART TWO:

AGE: 7-8 YEARS

WEARING: JEANS, JUMPER, COAT, SCARF ETC

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ALEX HAS MET THE STRANGER BUT HE SEEMS TO RECOGNISE HIM HE IS HESITANT AT FIRST AND LOOKS TO HIS PARENTS FOR HELP. HE ISN’T SCARED THOUGH AND COMES TO TERMS. HIS REACTION TO THE CHARACTER IS PRICELESS EVEN WHEN HE SMILES ALEX MAKES SURE HE SEEMS UNFAZED ESPECIALLY WHEN BEING GIVEN THE FIGURE. THIS ALEX HAS TO BE VERY CONFUSED AND FRIGHTENED.

PART THREE:

AGE: 16-17 YEARS

WEARING: MAINLY DARK CLOTHING HE NEEDS TO SEEM CONFUSED AND LOST THIS IS SHOWN THROUGH COSTUMING.

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: A VERY CONFUSING TIME IN ALEX’S LIFE. AS WE CAN SEE CLEARLY WITH PROBLEMS WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE THIS HAS DONE TO HIM WITH THE STRANGER HE HAS CLEARLY BECOME OBSESSED.

PART FOUR:

AGE: 19-20 YEARS

WEARING: A FOOTBALL SHIRT AND JEANS HE HAS CHANGED BUT IS THE SAME ACTOR THAT PLAYED THE TEENAGER. THIS WILL BE SHOWN THROUGH A HAIRCUT.

SYNOPSIS OF CHARACTER: ALEX FEELS LIKE HE IS BEING WATCHED AND STARTS TO PANIC MORE WHEN HE SEES THE CLAY HEAD IN HIS EMPTY PINT GLASS. HE GETS EVEN MORE FRIGHTENED AND CONFUSED WHEN HE SEES THE STRANGER AND HE SPEAKS TO HIM. WITHOUT HAVING A FULL CONVERSATION WE CAN UNDERSTAND THAT HE FINALLY UNDERSTANDS AND IS AT EASE WITH HIS PAST.

 

-CM 

Development update 2

Developement Update #2

-CM, RM & BW

first draft script

TEMPUS

DIRECTED BY BW, CM AND RM

WRITTEN BY BW, CM AMD RM

INT. PAN AROUND A CHILD’S PLAYROOM/BEDROOM. THERE IS A GAME OF SOLDIERS GOING ON.

CLOSE UP ON SOME OF THE PLASTIC SOLDIERS.

CUT TO A CHILDS EYES.

DECREASE SHOT SO WE SEE THE WHOLE FACE. THE CHILD IS WEARING A SOLDIERS HAT AND IS UNDERNEATH A TENT SURROUNDED BY A BATTLE.

THE CHILD’S MOTHER CALLS TO HIM.

MOTHER: ALEX DARLING!

HE LOOKS UP BUT DECIDES TO IGNORE WHAT SHE IS SAYING.

MOTHER: ALEX!

CLOSE UP ON THE CHILDS HANDS HE DROPS THE SOLDIERS LEAVING THEM DISCARDED.  CLOSE UP ON FEET. THE DOOR BANGS SHUT.

WITH THE CAMERA STILL ON A CLOSE UP OF THE SOLDIERS A SHADOW PASSES OVER AND A HAND SWOOPS DOWN PICKS UP A SOLDIER AND THEN MOVES THE SOLDIER OUT OF THE SHOT.

SECONDS PASS AND THE SOLDIER IS BACK INTO SHOT BUT IT HAS A NOTE SELLOTAPED ONTO IT.

“I’M HIT”

THE CAMERA PANS ROUND THE ROOM AND SETTLES ON SOME UNSETTLED PIECES OF PAPER THAT ARE STILL FLOARING TO THE FLOOR. WE DON’T SEE WHO IS POSTING THE NOTES.

SECONDS LATER THW DOOR CREEKS OPEN AND ALEX RUNS IN ECU OF HIS FEET WALKING IN.

TILT SHOT HE IS HOLDING AN ANY-WAY-UP-CUP FULL OF JUICE. HE STOPS IN FRONT OF THE TENT AND A CLOSE UP OF HIS CONFUSED FACE.

HE DROPS THE CUP CLOSE UP OF HIS HAND AS HE PICKS UP THE SOLDIER.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT. OF SOLDIER THEN CLOSE UP OF FACE THEN THE SOLDIER AGAIN.

CLOSE UP OF SOLDIER ALEX RIPS THE NOTE OFF AND TAKES IT TO THE BIN.

END OF PART 1.

PART TWO

EXT. A MAN AND A WOMAN ARE SITTING ON A BENCH TALKING. WHILST AN OLDER ALEX IS RUNNING AROUND KICKING A BALL.

POV OF THE BALL BEING KICKED. HAND HELD.

THE BALL IS KICKED FAR AWAY. TILT SHOT TO WHERE THE BALL IS.

WHIP PAN AS BOY LOOKS UP TO SEE WHERE HIS PARENTS ARE HE SMILES AND WAVES THEY ARE NOT REGISTERING THAT HE IS THERE. SHOT REVERSE SHOT.

THE BOY SHRUGGS HIS SHOULDERS AND RUNS OVER TO THE FOOTBALL. HAND HELD CAMERA OF THE FLOOR AND HIS FEET.

CUT TO ECU ON A MAN’S FOOT ON THE BALL. SHOT REVERSE SHOT. THE BOY STOPS HALF WAY. THE MAN’S FOOT. THE BOY’S WORRIED FACE.

TRACKING SHOT OF THE BOY WALKING TOWARDS THE BALL HE STOPS ABOUT 3ft AWAY FROM THE MAN.

ECU ON THE MAN’S SMILE. ECU ON HIS HAND IN HIS JACKET POCKET. HE PULLS HIS HAND OUT AND IN IT IS THE TOY SOLDIER FROM THE PREVIOUS SCENE.

ECU ON THE TOY SOLDIER IN THE PALM OF THE MAN’S HAND.

THE BOY PICKS IT UP FROM THE HAND.

CLOSE UP OF THE BOY LOOKING AT THE SOLDIER HE LOOKS UP AND STARES.

WHIP PAN THE MAN IS NO LONGER THERE. THE BOY COMPLETELY FORGETS ABOUT THE BALL AND RUNS TO HIS PARENTS.

HE LOOKS DOWN TO HIS PALM.

TILT SHOT HE IS HOLDING SAND. HE LOOKS BACK AT HIS PARENTS. THEY ARE CALLING HIM.

FATHER: ALEX WE’RE GOING. HE RUNS.

END OF PART TWO.

PART THREE

INT. THE BOYS BEDROOM BUT IT IS SEEMINGLY DIFFERENT THE YEARS HAVE CHANGED AND SO HAS THE LITTLE BOY. ALL OVER HIS ROOM ARE PICTURES OF THE FIGURE. PAN AROUND THE ROOM THERE IS EVEN A CLAY FIGURINE. THE ROOM HAS A GLOOMY EERIE FEEL TO IT.

STOP ON THE BOY SITTING AT HIS DESK. GRADUAL CLOSE UP. HE IS SKYPING HIS GIRLFRIEND. THEY’RE ARGUING.

MID CONVERSATION. SHOT REVERSE SHOT ON SCREEN AND ON HIM.

GIRLFRIEND:… YOU’RE NEVER THERE FOR ME I LOOKED LIKE A FOOL TONIGHT.

ALEX: I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO.

GIRLFRIEND: I WANT YOU TO ACT NORMAL, ALEX!

ALEX IS LOOKING AT A PAD ON THE TABLE HIS LATEST DRAWING OF THE FIGURE.

ALEX: HUH!

GIRLFRIEND: YOU’RE NOT EVEN PAYING ATTENTION. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

ALEX: DRAWING.

GIRLFRIEND: NOT ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR PICTURES. ALEX IT’S REALLY CREEPY. YOU’RE SCARING ME AT THE MOMENT. THAT’S IT I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE.

ALEX: WHAT? LIL?! BABE!

GIRLFRIEND: SEE YA ALEX!

SHE LOGS OFF.

ALEX: LIL? BABE? AHHHHHH.

HE SHOUTS.

SHOT ON HIM HE LOOKS AT THE PICTURE OF THE FIGURE AND STARTS TO RIP IT UP. THE CAMERA PANS ONTO ANOTHER PICTURE ON THE WALL HIS HAND COMES INTO VIEW AS HE RIPS THEM OFF THE WALL AND STARTS TO TEAR THEM UP. HE FINALLY COMES TO THE CLAY FIGURINE AND THROWS IT AGAINST THE WALL. HE FALLS TO THE FLOOR DISTRAUGHT.

BACKWARDS TRACKING SHOT OF THE ROOM AND THE STATE IT IS IN.

CUT CLOSE UP OF ALEX. HE JUMPS AS HIS PHONE GOES.

BIRDS EYE SHOT OF HIM AND THE PHONE. HE PICKS UP THE PHONE.

CLOSE UP OF PHONE. IT’S AN UNKNOWN NUMBER HE OPENS THE TEXT.

IT READS

“TOO BAD MATE”

HE DELETES IT.

ECU ON HIS EYES THEY SHOWS TERROR.

END OF PART THREE.

PART FOUR.

EXT. ALEX IS SITTING ON HIS OWN WAITING FOR SOMEONE. HE GLANCES AT HIS WATCH.

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT. HIS MATES ARE COMING TOWARDS HIM WITH DRINKS.

THEY SIT DOWN AND HAVE A CHAT. THEY’RE ALL DRINKING THERE PINTS HE FINISHES AND TURNS TO LOOK AT THE TELEVISION. THERE’S A MATCH ON.

HE LOOKS DOWN AND THE HEAD OF THE CLAY FIGURINE IS SITTING IN HIS EMPTY PINT GLASS.

TILT SHOT. THE MAN IS STANDING THERE SIMLING HE PULLS HIS HOOD OFF AND SMILES ALEX MOVES UP. THE MAN SITS DOWN. HE STARTS TO SPEAK.

MAN: OOH THIS IS A GOOD MATCH.

ALEX: YYYYOUR…………

THE MAN TURNS HIS HEAD AND SMILES.

ECU INTO HIS EYE THE CAMERA TURNS SLIGHTLY.UNTIL WE GET A FULL SHOT OF THE EYE.

END OF PART FOUR.

PART FIVE.

THE EVENTS THAT HAVE ALL HAPPENED REWIND BUT IN THE MAN’S POV.

EVERYTIME WE SEE ALEX IT GOES IN FAST REWIND. BUT HEN SLOWS DOWN TO UNVEIL THE MAN’S FACE.

FINALLY TO THE POINT WHERE THE MAN PICKS UP THE CLAY HEAD PUTS A BLANKET OVER A SLEEPING TEENAGER ALEX AND STEPS BACKWARDS. AS HE STEPS BACKWARDS HE VANISHES.

END OF PART FIVE

PART SIX.

 CAMERA PULLS OUT OF SHOT OF THE MANS EYE AND SHAKES HANDS WITH ALEX. HE STANDS UP LOOKS AT THE MATCH ON SCREEN WHILST SOMEONE SCORES THEY ALL SCREAM AND CHEER WHILST ALEX IS LOOKING ABASHED AT THE MAN. POV SHOT OF THE MAN HE LOOKS OUT INTO THE DOOR.

ECU OF HIS FOOT. HE LIFTS IT UP AND STOMPS WITH THAT HE IS GONE.

END OF PART SIX.

BLACKOUT.

 

-CM

title concept - tempus

Tempus - Title Concept

-BW

Audience interview: what have I learnt?

From the data which we've compiled, we have an idea of what our audience expects from any short film. We also know what they want from our short film and what they don't want.

So, what do they think short film is? The majority rightly know that a short film  has a duration that is up to 40 minutes in length. I'm going to be honest, I didn't expect them to know that.I expected them to say that a short film would be up to ten minutes. Meaning they have more knowledge on the subject than previously thought.

Others in the audience only describe short film as having a duration of around 15 minutes, while not wrong, it shows that some people don't have as much knowledge on the subject as others within our audience.
One person also described short film as being "artsy" and "experimental". I like this because it shows that some, while a small percentage, of the audience expect what we are aiming for. They're also thinking outside the box.

A lot of the audience have seen short films before. However, the films they have seen are mainly those from Disney Pixar. This is nothing like our film at all, which could be an issue. Because the audience have seen nothing like it, they could be deterred from enjoying it because it's unfamiliar. Alternatively, they could enjoy the change.

The way the audience consume short film is generally through 3 methods. The first and most common is through cinema. They don't go to the cinema specifically for the short film though, it was just screened before a feature film screening.
The second most common is, surprisingly, at a different public screening. But it was a student film shown at this school, so perhaps this is an anomaly. It doesn't seem that the members of the audience openly seek out short films, sadly.
The third way is through television. They said that they simply sat and watched it. Not particularly interesting, but it's third most common way of short film consumption according to our survey.
This all means that the best way to get our film seen is apparently to get it shown at cinemas before feature length screenings or at public screenings. Clearly this is not realistic so instead we could organise another public showing in the school; we could habe a 'minni' film festival with the others groups film too as this would give us some feeback too.

What do the audience expect from short films? They expect the plot to be simple. I assume this is because it's harder to develop an elaborate plot in a shorter time frame. But if there was an elaborate plot in a short space of time, then it may be hard to follow.
In terms of characters, they all expected less characterisation, again this is probably because the short time frame isn't god for the development of lots of characters.
Some people expect short film to be more experimental, artsy and hence more original than feature lengtfilms.

The actors that are generally expected by are audience are unknown actors. The audience don't expect to see bigger faces in short film. They think it's more likely to be actors who want to get there face out there in attempts to get famous.

And the all important question: what did they think of our idea? Luckily, they all told us that they liked the idea and the concept. Hopefully this wasn't just them being nice to us.
They all said that they thought the film would be good, so long as it isn't too complicated. And what have we learnt from that? We need to make the plot interesting, yet not too hard to follow, as this would seem to make the audience lose interest.

-BW (edited by RM)

All that ben has covered has been very relevant to all that we found out. Another thing I personally learnt was that our audience would have few expectations of short films as they have little experince of them. This would mean that we can be quite free in terms of mise, camera angles and editing because we wont be disrupting thier pre conceived ideas. Also noone is going to mind that our film has unknown actors in it as that is what the expect from a short film anyway.

-RM

Locations

As a group we sat down and spoke about what locations we wanted to use. Our original idea was to use the city as its main location because our film was based on there being two people left on earth and this type of post apocolyptic text needs empty, urban streets to emphasise the sense of desertion.

I went into the city on a weekend to take pictures of places that we could potentially use for our loaction to film. We chose to go to the city first as there is many different places in norwich. Ranging from the old cathedral to new shopping malls. This would allow us to use the sense on time well film in places where the characters could link to the locations.

Bellow is an image taken from the internet followed by all my own images from the shoot -

The problems we have found with wanting to film in a city is the fact there will be lots of other people around. Therefore this may be difficult to shoot what it is we really want without getting other people interrupting. We may use some of these locations for some scenes but for others we began to develop the idea of filming in a different places such as a smaller village or more rural areas. This idea would have worked in the summer as we could have filmed really early in the morning and there would still be broad day light making it look like the middle of the day without all the people being there but this would no longer work as theres not enough light at that time in the morning.

-RM

finished mock poster

-RM

mock film poster

In order to present our idea to our teacher we needed a poster therefore i tried out some different styles of posters that i can do. I knew what i wanted it to look like but capturing an image how i wanted in the light i wanted seemed to be difficult. Im pleased with the outcome and the final poster will obviously have a lot more text and information on it. But the image at the moment is probably going to be similar to the one used here. The models in the poster are also not the people who will be playing the part and but the positioning is the same. The next important thing to do is casting so we can strat properly planning the magazine and poster along with handing out the scripts for them to look over.

The editing i did on photoshop revolved a lot around the adjustment layers and altering curves. The original image was very bright on the face so i wanted this to be dimmed. I also wanted the shadow to kind of look like a shadow so it leaves people guessing if thats another person or himself. Been as our film is about time travel i wanted there to be questions asked about the film poster and for the main character to be clearly shown and the 'time traveler' to be hidden. We tried taking the photos in different places we bagan from doing it a studio with the proper loghting allthough this didnt give the lighting effect i wanted iot was too harsh and looked very faulse therefore we tried outside which meant the light was very different and natural. This was still to harsh so by using a brick wall it gave a darker background. As i wanted the image to look as if it was at night i created this effect in photoshop.

Non edited images from the shoot:

 -RM

Audience interview

The Audience Interview

We interviewed potential audience members in order to get feedback which we'll use when we do some further planning on our film.


More info on this later.









-RM, CM and BW

Film posters in popular culture

Film posters and other posters are now also being used for different products such as cd covers and t-shirts. The point from this being posters are now no longer used just for advertising but also we be hung in people's bedrooms wall almost as a price if merchandise from their favorite film.

The image above is of an example of this happening. The very famous film jaws have printed their posters onto tshirts that people can buy, reasons for this maybe a simple as the like the image or the movie itself but sometimes people even buy tshirts like this purely because they like the look of it; creating the idea advertising isn't always about the product essoeccialy when it's for a film or music.

-RM

What influence does a film poster have?

Film posters are a very important way of advertising films. They are displayed mainly all over cities and popular places where people would see them along with on the sides of busses and buildings. You tend to see film posters on busses mainly from Hollywood blockbusters and ones that have a lot of money to use on advertising not really short films or independent films. 

Film posters also influence who goes and sees the film, for example a guy who likes action movies would not look at a poster of a girl Ina pretty dress covered in pink holding flowers and want to go watch that movie. Although if it was displaying guns and famous actors/actresses and racing cars that would be more up their street. Therefore what we include in our poster must look exciting to the target audience in order to grab their attention. 

-RM

Examples of previous film posters and what is essential in a film poster

As you can see in the college of posters above there are many different styles depending on the genre of the movie; although some posters have a recurring theme when it comes to the information displayed on it. Commonly posters consist of a photograph or illustration (spending how the film is made either by film or animation) of the main characters. All these images are Hollywood cinema films and none are really seen as a short film. Not many short films are advertised in the same way as for example a Hollywood blockbuster would be. 

These are what I would suggest is esential in a film poster :

- the tittle of the film

- and image or illustration of main characters or a scene from within the movie 

- people's names who are staring in the movie

- something intriguing that doesn't give away too much; something that provides enigma 

-RM

Film poster plan

This is a very rough outline of my first idea for our film poster, the idea of having the time traveler in the background with his good up either covering his face or having is back to the photographer is to get the point out that they are mysterious and you shouldn't know who they are. The main protagonist is to make sure they stand out so the person looking at the poster they can tell who the main character is. I haven't decided the font I want to use for the tittle but I will look on sites such as defont to get lots of new ideas but I defiantly want a sting front that relates to the tittle; as it's to do with time I want the title to fade maybe or have some kind of effect that supports this. As for including actors/actresses names of who is in it i will place that with all the information such as what star rating news papers etc have given it. 

-RM

Tempus plot synopsis

"Tempus" is the Latin word for "time". It's also the only title for a movie we, as a group, could agree on.

One person’s timeline is interrupted by a time traveller who’s leaving mysterious messages throughout their life.

These notes include:

The points in their life where the notes appear are: Early Childhood (1-2 years), Childhood (7-10 years), Late teenager (16-18), Early Adulthood (19-21).

Part 1:
A child is playing with their favourite toy, they leave and come back to it, it then has a mysterious note on it. At this point, they may simply discard it, but it happened.

Part2:

A smaller child meets a mysterious figure, the figure gives the, an object of relevance, they go to tell their parents about is, the figure then disappears before the parents see them.

Part 3:

A teenager, obsessed with this figure, has lots of drawings of this figure, though no clear face is shown. A girlfriend breaks up with them because she thinks they’re crazy in this scene. The main character discards the figure and seems to throw them away from their life.

Part 4:

In a local pub, the main character is seen laughing with friends. Another friend enters the pub; they’ve bought a new person with them, the mysterious figure (though this is currently unknown to the main character). They get talking, the figure hands something to the main character. It has something to do with the object handed to them as a child. They remember and a sequence of reverse footage is shown, then the sequences are played from the point of view of the mysterious figure. A reaction shot of the main character is shown as they realize. “Y-you’re-“stumbles the main character “Yep!” says the figure. POOF! The mysterious figure disappears, leaving the main character speechless.

BW

London trip- distribution and marketing

distribution and marketing 

What makes a successful marketing campaign ?

-for commercial success you need a successful marketing campaign 

The role of the distributed :

-chooses which films to distribute 

-attends film festivals 

-decide on the number of prints (copies of the film)

-pays for cast of each print 

-negotiates the release date and site of exhibition - WHEN 

-sends trailers and publicity to cinemas 

-NEGOTIATES BUDGET & PAYS FOR THE ADVERTISING 

Main aspects of film marketing :

-advertising in the media - television / cinema trailer , press, outdoor, social networking, viral 

'Distribution is key' meaning the commercial aspect to get people to want you to watch their film 

-RM

London trip - film production

Film production 

-oligopoly - 6 main companies that dominate film industry 

1)Time Warner - Warner bros -biggest in the world 

2)paramount

3)Disney

4)20th century fox

5)Columbia tristar

6)universal studios  

Why Hollywood film dominate global film production -

-Significant resources 

-safe genres, star and marketing 

-saturated distribution/marketing - cross media platforms 

-audience expectations and familiarity with Hollywood film 

Synergy - when you have two or more compatible products that help sell each other eg) computer games and film

Why is Star Trek into darkness so successful? 

-use huge characters 

-got away from the typical sifi films 

-parts if realism and emotional thread !

-RM

Trip to London - independent film

Independent film:

-Limited distribution 

-Really shown in multiplex cinemas

-tend to not have big stars in , they use people that may have never acted before

-tends to target stereotypical an older target audience

-Bradem biutiful 

Why is it independent ?

.Touch more sensitive topics- in this cancer, if it wanted to sell like mainstream usually do it may not get as many people to view it. 

.Not famous actors etc 

.The camera used was hand held 

.no music etc to tell you how you should feel

.lots of periods of silence no non diagetic sound

.it goes against conventions

.low key lighting

.mise is not glossy 

What the speaker says key features on independent film -

.low production values 

,limited star marketing 

.realist genres 

.critical success not commercial 

.on location shooting 

.more educated target audience (this is a stereotype)

.less entertainment values

-RM

new studio equipment

My media department in school have bought some new lighting and studio equpiment so in preperation for our short movie we did some photography experiments with it. As photography is my main strength i was the one to take all the pictures for this part of the project. We used a range of different kind of light sch as red light, clear light and a mask over one of the lights which made a honey comb pattern apear on the models face. I also used a desaturation effect while taking the image too as the lights added a really nice effect to the image as a whole. Bellow are examples of my work...

This is an example of the desaturated image. The model is not posed properly but the aim of this shoot was to play with the lighting and new equipment therefore this wasnt very important. The aim of using the lights effectivly worked well as her face is really well light and all her facial features are clear rather than shadowed which is what would have happened in natural light.

This image above has been captured by lowering the shutter speed and changing the camera settings to portrait. This meant it had time to capture all the light in the movement, i really lovede the effect it gave the final image and would like to use this again my my photography and maybe in the photograph for the film posters as it can be seen as representing time and movement.

This image is just of the set itself and the arrangement we had for the modle, lights and backdrop. The umbrellea helps bouce the light off aned direct it into certain places. By turning off the main lights so we had a dark room and only using the studio lights it inhanced the effect of the lighting on the model.

The image above is one of my favorite in the shoot I really liked the way the light bounces off her eyes and face with a slight shadow on the side of her face. The model looks well positioned and her facial feauters and hair all highlight her in the best way possible.

All these images are slightly blured, this may be because I wasnt using a camera im very familiar with therefore when we do a shoot for the poster I will be using my own camera which I know how to work properly.

-RM