How Short Films Are Consumed...

So in order to create a successful short film, I must explore how shorts films actually are consumed therefore allowing me to get an idea of where people may view my short film. Especially now that technology has developed alot of short films are consumed via the Internet and sites such as BBC film network (www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/) and virgin media shorts (www.virginmediashorts.co.uk) and off course Youtube where it feels like anything and everything can be accessed (http://www.youtube.com/user/futureshorts). However there are also short film festivals, that take place in order to get up and coming film makers recognised and awarded for their talents, such as The Very Short International Film Festival (http://www.vsiff.com/shortfilms.html), London Short Film Festival (http://shortfilms.org.uk/) , Futures Shorts Festival associated with their network of short films programme (http://www.futureshorts.com/) and Bang Short Film Festival (http://www.bangshortfilmfestival.com/).

The London Short Film Festival

 

 

The film festival is now in its 10th year, and is recognised as the premier UK show-case for cutting edge UK independent films, demonstrating the best of the country's raw young creative talent. Originally it was formed as the Halloween Short Film Festival in 2003, however it was in 2008 that it was re-branded as London's Short Film Festival, and it has been growing year-on-year. In 2011, over 5000 tickets were sold, with over 220 films being screened. The Times quoted it as "A London bastion of cutting-edge short films and multimedia".

 

Future Shorts Festival

 

 

Future Shorts is universally the largest short film network, and it is producer of the Future Shorts Festival. It is the biggest pop up film festival, it show cases the most exciting short films from around the world. It has the aim of breaking boundaries, borders and conventions to connect a global audience to the world's best short films, in order to have a true celebration of cinema. Above is a film created in order to appeal to new filmmakers to join future shorts.

 

Bang Short Film Festival

 

 

It was set up in 1999 by filmmakers Bowyer, Cooke and Robertson, and was created to provide non-competitive, inclusive platform on which local filmmakers are able see both their work and others in a quality cinema environment. It started off as just one section to the festival which was the main event , but it has now expanded to 9 sections which screen a variety of genres (main event, bangimation, crash/bang/wallop, community, mu-sic vid-e-o, rights in motion, middle east, the source and hedge). 



 



Creation of a Short Film : Audience Feedback to Inital Idea...

The video which I created describing my initial idea, was shown to my peers within one of our lessons, they then all commented on my blog post giving me feedback of what they initially thought of the idea, what problems they thought would arise with the idea, and proposing a few questions about characters/locations/ structure. Below is the comments that I received :

Caitlin RobbinsOctober 1, 2012 2:38 AM

This idea is really original and I feel it will work really well especially with your niece's shoes compared to that of a career woman or something like that. Would you have a narration over the top or any dialogue at all?

Lily VosperOctober 1, 2012 2:38 AM

Unusual and original idea, what range of age groups are your going to use? Will you use elderly people?

Ben 'Gary' HurstOctober 1, 2012 2:38 AM

The idea of walking in someone else's shoes has always been in film, making a short film about it would be a great way to highlight this point in life about how you should consider other people before yourself. How do you plan on making the emotion out of just simply shots of shoes?
Evie CalabyOctober 1, 2012 2:38 AM

You have a very strong idea of what you want to create and it's good that you can already identify possible problems with the piece as it means that you can plan well in advance. I like the idea but as you think that it's unstructured, have you thought about ways to keep the audience's attention i.e. with music or a voiceover?

Farah's MediaOctober 1, 2012 2:39 AM

Really interesting idea Alice! I like the connotations and meaning behind the shoes which is creative; the philosophy will really engage the audience and perhaps teach them a lesson morally! Varied use of shots will be really interesting, you should start thinking about effective locations etc. Well done! :D

MarthaOctober 1, 2012 2:39 AM

I think your idea is really creative and it has so much potential. I think its good how you have said you want it to be more artistic, and by shooting in a range of locations etc it will be. I love the simplicity of the idea, because you're right, everyone does look at least one other person and wonder what it would be like to be them. How many different characters and paths are you going to follow?NicoleO'MalleyOctober 1, 2012 2:39 AM

Really like your idea, it seems to have a good structure to it by following a range of characters. Have you thought about what locations you will use - you mentioned the character in stilettos to be in London, will it be too busy to film there or will you find a more friendly environment? Also, how well will you be able to capture the characters' lives considering that it is a short film?BeatriceOctober 1, 2012 2:39 AM

I think you have a good solid idea and I like that you have used a quote to back up your idea, but have you thought about what the actual story is going to be and how to set it out in each part. I think you've thought a lot about what the film should make people think and feel, but maybe work some more on the films structure.LizzieeOctober 1, 2012 2:39 AM

It works really well that you have come up with an idea that is based on a saying that everyone will have heard of. This will help the viewer to ask the right questions when they watch the film and consider the thoughts behind it. There is also a lot of scope for considering camera angles and making it visually interesting. Do you have a clear idea of the character?

aimeeshingfieldOctober 1, 2012 2:39 AM

I really like the idea, but feel perhaps you do need some structure and follow a certain person, as well as others. Perhaps you could focus on two people, very different, so black high heels and working boots, and they meet? I just think it may need a plot to keep the audience interested. Also how are you going to get the whole day in a life of someones shoes across, will you write this in as titling? I also think you could maybe go with ages..so work up the ages of shoes, such as a little girl, teenager, adult, grandparent etc maybe? or all the shoes that go past one place? I like the idea just think it needs a little bit of structure, should definitely keep the idea of shoes though!

 

I personally believe that I need to develop a more of a structure to my film to ensure that the audiences interest is always kept, also to ensure that I have enough footage for a 5 minute short, therefore I am going to explore through research how I could incorporate more structured yet still keep the contemporary feel to my film.

Creation of a Short Film : The Inital Idea...

So I have decided to progress with my first idea on my mindmap, however before making a final decision on the idea, I wanted to get the opinions of others to see if as audience members they would be interested in my film, whether they think it would work or not, or whether I need to go back to the drawing board of ideas.

The Script

Alice : So the time had come again to start brainstorming some idea, I firstly reviews my AS piece and I feel that my biggest weakness was that I had not included a variety of shots therefore I have been thinking of idea where I can include different shots, location and people to make it interesting and eye catching to the audience. I have also been inspired by stop motion after reviving some of the work of Jan Svankmajor and his work on youtube especially his piece on Alice in Wonderland. However due to the length of it would take to create a five minute stop motion short I decided I would include an aspect of stop motion but mainly focus on a documentary genre. My main inspiration surprisingly enough for my idea was shoes. I want to hopefully create a more contempary artistic short where rather than following a narrative linear, I focus on different characters with different shoes, and the lives that are associated with them shoes. I wanted to include contrasting lives, and in turn contrasting shoes and the milestones that can be overcome in a pair of shores. For example I might focus on babys first steps, the contrasting life between a busy business londons high heel lifestyle and walking up a country lane in welly boots splashing in puddles. My film therefore poses the question to the audience "would you walk in another persons shoe for the day". People say you can judge a character by there shoes that they have but it really true? I am as I stated before hoping to include a varitey of shots, for example starting with extreme snap shots of all different types of shoes. As my piece is more unstructured than a typical short film, I am going to take my camera in a few weeks and have a play about taking a few short clips of eliza (my baby niece) walking to see if it will work or not. If i do decide that in fact it does feel to unstructed, I shall still carry on focusing around the object of shoes, but follow one pair of shoes and one character therefore creating a more narrative piece.

Creation of a Short Film : Ideas...Ideas...Ideas...

One inspirational idea always comes about from a number of I like to call slightly less inspirational ideas, some may say completely mad or unrealistic, but put the term artistic onto a film and anything can go! Therefore I have got my thinking cap on and like a pro (or so I like to think) had my little notepad with me to scribble down all my thoughts and ideas however wacky they may be and from this created a mind map of all my initial ideas (and yes some of them did come to me whilst i was swimming up and down!). One of my main ideas I developed after carrying out research into the elements of stop motion and the work of inspirational directors such as Jan Svankmajer, I have always found the concept and how such small elements of still images can come together to create a film interesting and even before I began media studies stop motion was one of the main elements which I wanted to get stuck into and have a go at (yes talk talk adverts do make there audience think, shame its not about their product and more about how cool the stop motion is!). I developed this idea about viewing the stop motion film he created of 'Alice in wonderland', however obviously i would be unable to create a book in a five minutes film, therefore I thought about taking a well known childhood nursery rhyme and recreating it through the use of stop motion imagery. Another of my main ideas came to me very early on, and is an idea that has stuck with me and one that I have kept being drawn back to. At the very start of my AS course I was very interested in creating a documentary, as for an audience viewer I particular enjoy watching them about other people as it is lives which I find fascinating however I felt that as a genre documentary was not really pliable to a two minute opening therefore I put the idea to the back of my mind in order to draw on for my 5 minute short film. For this documentary I drew inspiration from two sources firstly from 'in her shoes' which initially inspired me to incorporate shoes as the primary object and secondly from the 2011 film 'life in a day' which consists of 80,000 clips submitted to YouTube showing the respective occurrence from around the world on July 24th 2010.

This film gave me my main source of inspiration, as my idea for my documentary is to follow different peoples shoes, to see the contrasting lives from mothers to children, from farmers to doctors, from the highs to the lows to the milestones over come, to shoe the truth of life behind the shoes, and not to just judge an individual of the pair of shoes they wear. Below I have also created a mind map of my other small ideas as well as these two main ones, this allowing me to track all the progress stages of my film :

Film Openings : Existing Short Films...

For our advanced production we have the task of taking our knowledge gained during out foundation production, to help us develop a five minute short film, that includes a beginning, middle and end whilst as for our foundation production we only had to construct the opening and develop in thoughts and ideas the rest of the plot within the advanced production we have to produce all three aspects. Therefore similar to how I researched existing film openings (example = Juno and Se7en), I have also been analysing existing short films which have been developed by a range of film makers (www.virginmediashots.co.uk), I decided to analyse the a short film's from the latest top ten choices for this week and put my own thoughts and ideas of the films across:

Basic Dave buys a phone

Firstly the idea, is simple but affective I personally think. We have all experienced the process of buying a phone, and as a younger generation watched the painful process of our parents go through the trauma of spending hours trying to work out how to take a single picture on a phone, therefore the idea is one that we can all relate to so appeals to the audience. The film also has strength as by using a natural setting of a city street, natural lighting can be used therefore there is no issue with bad artificial low budget lighting, however the digentic background noise to the piece is times is louder than the actual digetic dialogue this is one area which would benefit from being focused on in post-production in my own opinion. The repetition of the term 'basic' I personally thinks adds to the comical value, as the audience finds it humorous that he cannot cope with a phone that slides up, or has a camera - the idea of such a simple basic character is funny to the viewer. The film is only 2 and half minutes long, which I personally think again is another strength to it as if it was any longer it could become over repetitive and lose the interest of the audience.

Origami birds

I chose to focus on this film, as firstly it is completely different to 'basic Dave buys a phone' also I personally think that it is an original idea, which steers away from the typical trends and themes that are present in many short films. I think it demonstrates how in order to create an effective simple film, there must be high production value and I personally think the stop go animation especially shows a talented use of post-production computer effects. I think the use of low lightening at the end creates a sense of fantasy which compliments the birds. However in my own opinion I think the weakest part to the film is the sound, I find the non-diegentic music after a while repetitive, and find it a bit to hard and modern for the fantasy, magical effect created by the birds and lightening at the end especially.

Said Susan

So my third and final short film that I reviewed was 'Said Susan' I chose this one as I personally think it shows a cleaver basic idea as it has a twist to it. Firstly the actress used for the main character I think adds to the strength of the film, as her voice is irritating and grates on the audience, therefore adding a humours factor as what she is actually discussing is how much Darren annoys her, however also the casting of Darren shows a character who is dressed in a dull suit therefore giving the impression of a dull, boring character to the audience straight away informing the audience of the characters status and personality which I think is a strength in a short film as it keeps the movement snappy and interesting. I also think how it plays around with the convention of sound and dialogue adds to the uniqueness and therefore strengths the film. The film is only 2 minutes 20 seconds long, which means that the effect created is not lost, as the film does not feel repetitive, also by adding an endings which was unexpected means that the audience's attention was kept captured until the end.

Similarities and Differences Between The Films

 

Firstly a comparison can be made between the genre of the films, both 'Basic Dave buys a phone' and 'Said Susan' are comedy, which complies to the typical genre of short films however 'Origami birds' has documentary genre, it is based on a group of people recreating a tree full of birds in order for the public to see and admire, however similar to another trend seen within short films it uses stop motion, it order to project the process from making one bird, to making a number, to places them on the tree, to the general public admiring them. Therefore 'Origami birds' takes on a linear narrative, as we see the creation of the birds - placing the birds on tree - people admiring the birds, this is similar to 'Said Susan' which follows a linear narrative of Susan's morning routine. In terms of characters this again portrays another similarity between 'Basic Dave buys a phone' and 'Said Susan', both of the protagonist's are "normal", they do not demonstrate any special qualities or traits, therefore are believable characters which is one of the key criteria to creating a character. This is another contrast between the two comedy shorts and the documentary short as, within 'Origami birds' there is no emphasis on the characters, rather the birds are seen as the characters to the film. A further contrast is that 'Origami Birds' only uses non-diegentic sound, whilst as 'Said Susan' and 'Basic Dave buys a phone' uses diegentic sound.

Recreation of an Exitisting Short Film : The Final Piece...

Here is our take on "my beast friend", so put your feet up and enjoy 3 minutes of a few giggles and our attempt at trying to recreate a short film : 

 

Recreation of an Existing Short Film : Time to Get Filming...

So a little later then we had originally planned, we have finally completed our filming! So the first obstacle for me and Nicole at least to overcome was getting on the bus to jakes to even start, however eventually we all (well minus caitlin who was coming at 4 after her lesson). We decided that we would wait for Caitlin before we started to film, so everyone could have an equal input into it therefore we had half an hour to get costumes ready, hunt around for props (there is never a cardboard box around when you need one) and off course bring out the eyeliner for Nicole to become make-up artists and draw the cat whiskers on, we also were able to try and persuade Errol the cat that the cardboard box was a great place to sit in (he didn't seem to convinced though). Once Caitlin had arrived it was time to actually do a bit of media, and get the camera rolling so to speak. As Jake and Nicole were both starring roles within the recreation, me and Caitlin both took on more of a director role, this included rushing back to the laptop to check we had the right angle, reading out the script if lines were forgotten and what felt like holding up the camera (which actually is quite heavy) for ages at a weird angle - oh what we all do for media! This time unlike the first filming at the gateway, which had a lot of challenges to over come went a lot more smoothly and although we had to adapt some of the shots I feel we are able to create as close a recreation as possible. Jake has said that he will do the editing for us, as he has the technology to do it at home

Recreartion of an Existing Short Film : The Script...

This is the script for "my beast friend". We have ensured that our actor (George) already has a copy allowing him to learn his lines and his roll prior to filming.

INT.  HALLWAY.  DAY

ED BRYNE enters shot through door way, stops and shrugs and then walks across the frame. Dressed in a black logo t-shirt and cargo green jacket and he is carrying a cardboard box full of books. FOUL-MOUTHED MANCAT FLUFF, sat in large card board box. Dressed in a fluffy grey cat outfit, with a luggage tag tied to him which is labelled ‘Please look after this cat free to good home’
 



FLUFF

(Struggling to say the words)

Please...Please...Please...

FLUFF

Ed, tell me what’s going on right now or I’m going sick up all yesterdays tuna

FLUFF makes retching sound

FLUFF

Oh No..

ED BRYNE stands up from crouching over box and walks towards camera, tucking hair behind ears as he walks.

FLUFF

It’s that girl isn’t it? Ameiba

Your mad. Shes waaay out of your league

 ED

(turns swiftly to face fluff)   

This has nothing to do with Amelia. I just want to sort my life out. You know, get rid of some of the dead wood. So, I thought I’d take you to this great, fun place just for cats. Yeah – just until I finish tidying up.

 Camera focuses on FLUFF who is curling his claws

ED

(in an over-execrated voice, waving his hands)

It’s called… Pleasure Land.
 

FLUFF

(humouring Ed)

Pleasure Land? Sweet...But not before time.
 

ED BYNE looks pleased and walks off camera. Door bell rings shadow of AMEILA through frosted glass, opens door. She is dressed in a black coat with a scarf.
 

AMEILA

I’m so sorry Ed, I know I’m super early! Oh my god –

AMEILA approaches FLUFF, ED BYNE looks anxious

AMELIA

Whos this?

 

ED

That’s-er-Fluff

AMEILA strokes the real cat FLUFF and picks up luggage tag

AMEILA

‘Free to good home.’

Some monster actually abandoned this..

Fluff becomes the man again. She tickles his chin, whilst he looks immensely happy with himself; shooting Ed a winning look.

 

AMEILA

..sweet little creature!

AMEILA picks up FLUFF, the real cat. In her arms FLUFF turn into the mancat and pats AMEILA’S shoulder

AMEILA

Well – Fluff, I guess that makes me your new mummy now.

AMEILA rubs her head against FLUFF

FLUFF

(to Ed)

You lying Cu...

The End. Credits Roll.

Recreation of an Existing Short Film : The Storyboard...

As my artistic skills are defently not award winning, I decided to take print screens of the actual film in order to create my storyboard, I have also included what a description of what character is presnt in the shot, what shot angle/movement is used and what props are present within the scene.

Recreation of an Existing Short Film : Location, Location, Location...

So our next challenge as a group to overcome was the location of our film, who would know finding a hall way in a house would be such a dilemma. Within this video extract me and Nicole have discussed the dilemmas we faced finding a location, a few of the possibilities and finally our last location :

Recreation of an Existing Short Film : Characters, Characters, Characters...

Within 'My beast friend' Ewan Torrance created three characters; Ed, Amelia and Fluff the cat.

Ed Bryne : As a character, Ed is the owner of Fluff, therefore the driving force behind getting rid of Fluff. He appears a character who cares about what others think of him, and this shown by the fact he is scared that Amelia will stop liking him, and not want to be with him because of Fluff. Fluff has now become to him more of a burden, he sees him as "dead wood" he has moved on from him. Originally we had George playing Ed when we did our first filming at 'the gateway' however after George played the starring role as Fluff in Evie's piece, we decided that it would be better for him to play that character as he knew what to do. Therefore Jake moved starring roles, and became our Ed. This I feel was the right decision as Jake was more suited to the character of Ed, and also meant we could overcome one of the issues we had on our first location were Jake was stuck in a box and had to dictate his opionons on angle shots, this time as a group we could all work together on which shot looked best ect.

Fluff : As a character Fluff, is seen in Ed's eyes as just a man in the cat suit, and this is how as the audience we view Fluff as well until Amelia is introduced. He appears to the audience as a self-centered character, however also afraid that now Ed has met Amelia, he will not want him anymore. He shows hatred towards Amelia to start with, as he thinks she is the one influencing Ed to get rid of him however when Amelia is introduced we learn that actually it is Ed that wants to move on. Originally we had Jake playing Fluff when we did our first filming at 'the gateway' however issues were raised with the fact that as a character we only see Fluff in the cardboard box therefore Jake had to spend all on filming in the box and therefore was harder for us all as a group to have an input into what shots worked ect. Therefore George took on the character of Fluff, and this not only practically was better but also because he had played Fluff in Evie's film he knew how to act "catish"!

 

Amelia : Before we are introduced to Amelia we presume that she is the driving force behind Ed wanting to get rid of Fluff however when Amelia is introduced we see Fluff in her eyes, as the real cat and she automatically falls in love with him. However we also see that she is an optimistic positive character and sees the best is all the characters, Fluff she sees as the cute cat and Ed she sees as the person who rescued him and gave him a good home.

 

Recreation of an Existing Short Film : Costumes, Costumes, Costumes...

So, the major challenge with regards to the recreation of "My Beast Friend", was tracking down a cat out fit similar to that in the picture(typical me assigned myself the challenge of finding as solution to the cat out fit). Firstly I decided to check out the local fancy dress shops to see if they could give us a helping hand, my first port of call was to the dressing up box in my local town, as in previous years she has worked with some other A-level students so we thought financially we may get a deal ect., here is the email that I sent here and the response I received  :

Dear Alice, Sorry no cat like you clip, I do have a grey fur 'donkey' costume which could possibly be customised.  When did you need the cat for as I do not have time to do anything to it until after the 21st September as I have a big show to costume.
Sue, The Dressing Up Box

-----Original Message-----
From: Alice Leng [mailto:aliceleng@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: Wed 12/09/2012 12:05
To: sue@the-dressing-up-box.co.uk
Subject: Rental Cat Costume - A2 media studies project

Dear Sue, I am writing to enquire about the rental of a cat costume. I am currently a student at wymondham high school studying A2 level media studies, and we have been set the task of re-creating a short film, attached is an image of the cat scene we have to recreate. If you have any costume that would be appropriate for us to rent for the re-creation we would be really grateful for a reply and I shall come and see it. Thank you Alice Leng

As our film is due in on Friday 28th September, we thought as a group the 21st September would be to late to start recreating an outfit, then film and then edit therefore we went back to the drawing board. I emailed a called a few other fancy dress shops however none of them had an outfit that suited our request (reminder to self do not go in a full cat out fit to a party!), therefore we decided it was time to get creative and create our own cat outfit, below is a step-to-step guide of how your can create your own!

Recreation on an Existing Short Film : The Task...

Within AS before we started to develop our own ideas of an two minute opening, we were set the challenge of recreating the opening two minutes of 'The Hangover', so after many hours of re-watching the hangover, our Sunday afternoons spent on chilly farm yards or in a nice hotel, last minute rushes for editing, we finally all screened our creations. The time of year has come again to give up our Sunday afternoons (or more Wednesday afternoons for us), and recreate a short film, within class previously we had watched two short film, "Get off my land" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00gs4yj) which was directed by Douglas Ray and "My Beast Friend" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p007xb6t) which was directed by Ewan Torrance. We were instructed to get into three groups of four (mine consisted of me, Jake, Caitlin and Nicole), and chose one of the shorts to recreate, between the three groups both must of been reconstructed this is where the first challenge came as we all initially wanted to all recreate "Get off my land", as being typical Norfolk we all knew farmers so could access the props, land and actors, initially we picked from the envelope "Get off my land" however after discussing as a group, we decided that because we were not all free on the weekend so would need to do after school filming and with the nights getting dark earlier, we would be more rushed to film in the light with "Get off my land" so we decided to face the challenge of tracking down the cat outfit and chose to do "My Beast Friend". In order to execute a piece as close to the original as possible, we must take into account factors such as the gender/age/build/physical appearance as well as the role of the characters (in order to really get a feel for the characters we must create a biography for each of the main characters), the mise-en-scene (looking at the location, props, costume and make-up), the sound (luckily by choosing "My Beast Friend" we do not have the issue of the wind which we had in "The Hangover". We have been given two weeks to complete the task, with the dreaded hand in date being Friday 28th September.

Character Work : Creating a "Big Brother" Character...

So as with my last posts, I hope I have showed the importance that a character is to a short film, it is after all in many short films the character that drives the plot (example = in 'Said Susan' it is Susan's annoying personality which drives the plot) especially within my idea where I am not using a specific narrative, the characters are of key importance. Therefore for a final close to our character exploration (and a bit of fun on a Wednesday sixth period), we were set the task of developing to characters, one which we would hate to be in a lift with and one which we would like to be. We then through inspiration of the "big brother" audition tapes where for once being quirky, annoying, sexist, plastic ect. can let you have your five minute of fame, developed a Big Brother audition tape on a character which we could incorporate into our short film, but would you vote to watch these housemates?...

 

Character Work : Example of Character Biographys...

Throughout the last few lessons we have been focusing on characters, and how it is not the story that creates a character but a character that creates a story (example = 'Big Fish' (Tim Burton, 2003) which is an example of how the story was created from the life story of the character Edward Bloom). In order to make a believable character, one that has the ability to drive a plot, we must create a character biography, allowing us to understand the character, why they behave in a certain manor, what their motivations are behind an act and what drives them through life.

Within class we also were set the challenge of taking the characters we had created and putting them within a interview situation, where we could explore our characters more. Nicole, Caitlin and myself (and a little help from our last minute recruitment actress, big thank you to Lizzie!) decided to create a radio recording based on the life of Karen. We decided to take a more comical path, by creating a dating show (where the presenter asks the guest to describe themselves then gives a phone number for people to call if they are interested). The reason why we decided to do a radio show was also for practicality, we were given the task of creating our piece in an hour, therefore we did not have much time to recruit an actress, therefore we luckily found Lizzie who was on a free and willing to help however she most definitely did not look 40, so we thought the best path was a radio show where all that would be needed was a woman's voice.

Character Work : Biography of Potential Characters...

In order to create memorable and intriguing characters , and most importantly believable characters, I must ensure that as the writer I know my characters inside-out, back-to-front, that I know every high and low of their life, their habits, morals and little quirks. Therefore I have constructed a template of a few key questions, to ask in order to construct a biography of my character, allowing me to understand why my character behaves in a particular manor, why they wear a particular garment and why they react towards another in a certain way.

General Details
Name :
Age :
Birthday :
Weight :
Height :
Hair Colour :
Eye Colour :
Contacts or Glasses or None :
Disabilities :
Right or Left Handed :
Nationality :
Sexuality :
Smoker :
Marital Status :
Favourite Colour :
Religion :
Occupation
Life
Day-to-Day Routine :
Habits :
Morals :
Phobias :
Living arrangements :
Family :
Education :
Personality
Dependent or Independent :
Description of Voice :
Hobbies :
Emotional State :
Likability :
Life Plans :
Position in Story
Goals and Achievements :
Development Throughout :
Audience Feelings Towards Character :
Relationship to Other Characters :
Character Type (protagonist/mirror/antagonist/resolution) :

Below is an example, of a short character biography
Name : Karen Harris
Age : 40
Height : 5"6
Hair Colour : Thick, wavy, long chestnut brown
Eye Colour : Dark brown
Disabilities : No
Right or Left Handed : Right handed
Smoker : No
Religion : Christian
Nationality : British
Marital Status and Family  : Karen met Simon 20 years ago when he bumped into her at a busy platform causing her to spill her coffee over her cream silk blouse, after a thousand apologies he finally persuaded her to let him make it up for the ruined blouse by taking her to dinner, five years later they married in the small church in the centre of Karen's home village, however her husband Simon suffers a heart attack on the tube on the way to work at the tender age of 45 leaving Karen a widow at 39 years old with two small children. Karen is a mother to Molly aged four and Luke aged Seven. Karen was brought up in a small village 20 minutes from Canterbury by her mother Kathy
Smoker : Karen does not smoke, having only tried one cigarette at the age of 14 she promised after much coughing and spluttering she would never touch another one again
Nature and Likability : Karen is gentle natured, she works as a nurse at The Royal London Hospital however she is only part time, working the days that Molly attends nursery, she is family orientated, however is still independent and ensures she has time of not being labelled as a mother, wife or nurse instead just "Karen" when meeting up for her coffee and cake catch up with her friend Anna
Living Arrangements : She lives in a three bedroom family home, over the years they have re-furbished the house, it now has an open planned kitchen/dinner with patio doors out to the small yet adequate garden, the living room holds two big baskets filled with children's toys, both matching however one in blue and one in pink. The house is clean, however has the homely feel, with children's pictures scattered over the fridge, and bright stripey kitchen bowls and plates. Financially they are able to live comfortably, with her husband Simon being within the banking industry.
In her free time Karen enjoys reading romance novels, and has treated herself to subscribing to good food magazine one of her life's small luxury's, she enjoys relaxing in the evening when the children have been put to bed to some TV and a glass of red wine, as a family they try to have most evening meals together

Character Work : The Hirachy of Characters in Film...

Three dimensional characters are one which are intriguing, they catch the audience's attention but also can be related to, and a writer the aim is to create these three-dimensional believable characters. All characters have specific functions in order to fulfil, and their is a basic hierarchy of characters within film:
Main Character/s
In most cases the main character is the progtatognist of the story and it is through conjunction with them that the story progresses (for example on Shrek, he is the main character as well as the progtatognist). The protagonists is the character that the audience focuses on, in most cases it is there point of view that the audiences experience the story through, the character must be believable as it is the one that the audience most identifies with, overall it is their outward motivations and goals that drive the plot. The main character is seen as the most memorable character, below is a link to a video created on what makes a character memorable and how it can be portrayed within film:

Secondary Characters
These are the character that interact with the protagonist, therefore have a significant effect on the main character. In many films the secondary characters play the roles of the mirror, antagonist and romance however it can sometimes be the protagonist for example in 'Rain Main' (1988), Dustin Hoffman plays the main character of Raymond however it the secondary character Charlie played by Tom Cruise is the protagonist as the story follower his journey of going from a self-seeking business man to an unselfish loving brother

Minor Characters
These are the characters that add atmosphere, deliver message, open door and generally hold the role of contributing the world of the story

Character Work : The Brainstorm of Ideas...

Within our AS course we focused on the first interpretation of characters, and how the opening two minutes of a long film can allow the audience to start to derive their own ideas of the main characters for example we focused on how we personally interpret the character played by Lester Burnham in American Beauty). In today's lesson we advanced on our characterisation work, firstly we looked at how every film demonstrates a beginning, middle and end however the narrative may not be linear, for example in the film 'Brick'  starts in the middle then goes to the beginning then to the end. We then focused more on characterisation, we looked at 'Shrek' which as a film followes a linear narrative and is a good example that demonstrates the break down of a characters, most basic films demonstrate the four key characters; the protagonist (hero), the antagonist (villain), the mirror (side-kick/buddy) and the resolution/romance.

 

When focusing on Shrek we can break down the characters into these four key roles: 

 

Protagonist or Hero : Shrek

Mirror or Buddy : Donkey

Antagonist or Villain : Lord Farquad however also at parts Shrek's own self-doubt

Romance : Princess Fiona
Within Shrek the story line followes the Shrek who is the protagnist , to start with his main aim to get his swamp back, however when he goes to Lord Farquad (antagonist) to ask for it back, he is told that he can have it if he saves the princess and brings her to him (as Lord Farquad wishes to marry her). However as the story continues the twist starts, as Shrek falls for Princess Fiona (the romance), However when Donkey (the mirror) sees Fiona turn into an ogar, he believes that Fiona and Shrek blong together, when Dinkey and Fiona are chatting Shrek over hears Fiona talking about herself however he belives that in fact she is talking about him when she says "hideous, green and ugly", and at this stage it is Shrek's own self-doubt that makes them fall out. However Donkey saves the relationship by making Shrek see that he has mis-understood, another issue than arises as now Fiona and Shrek wish to be together however Lor Farquad stands in the way between true happiness, and it is not untill Fiona reveals her true self that her and Shrek can be together, and they live happily after ever...(well untill the next crisis!)

 

We were then set the task of enforcing our new knowledge of the role of characters in films by coming up with a few short film ideas in a small group that demonstrate clearly a protagonist/mirror/antagonist/resolution, so off me, Caitlin and Nicole went into the sunshine to get our thinking caps on and try to think as much as we could outside the typical box! We decided to go more down the comical side for our two ideas as when creating a short film, many of the most successful films are comical
Idea One
As valentimes day is fast appraoching, a young, timid and small boy (the protagnist) has since reception been in love with the beautiful, cleaver and musical girl that sits infront of him (the romance) however he does think such a girl would love a boy like him. However his bestfriend (the mirror), decides that the best way for him to show the girl his true feelings, and too see if she feels the same is to send her a card in the school "love box" every day for the fourteen days prevous to valentimes day. However he is not the only one in love with her, and his greatest rival, the school bully (the antagonist) also likes her and when they girl recieves the mysterous cards he pretends that he is the sender. Whilst the timid boy is to scared that the girl will reject her if he tells her the truth, hides the fact that he is the true author behind the cards however it is his bestfriend that plays cupid and ensures that the girl understands who is the true sender behind the cards. The happily ever after ending is that in fact the girl has always been in love with the small and timid boy that sits behind her, and the boys recieves the valentimes kiss he had been dreaming of!
The Protagonist : Author (timid, he lacks confidence and victim of bullying)
The Antagonist : Jack (over confident and popular, however is also a bully who is in all the sports teams)
The Mirror : Rose (author's bestfriend)
The Romance : Florance (beautiful and cleaver, she is musical and kind)
Idea Two
Inspiring childrfen that maths is cool, the hardest task for a maths teacher to do - however this maths teacher takes education to a whole new level when he becomes the next Banksy, graffiti wall art + maths calculations = a whole new sort of education, to insipre the young minds of today. However now all of the community agree with this "new banksy" and the neighbour-hood watch man goes around in the day painting over all the new art that has been added by night. All the teacher wants to do is insprire the children, however the more he paints the more that is destroyed, however in the end it is the neighbour-hoods daughter that shows him that the art is not vanadalism instead it is amazing, by gaining her B through the calculations she sees on the walls that surrond her.
The Protagonist : Mr Waller (a highschool maths teacher, he has a passion for art and the aim to insprie young minds that maths is not always the boring subject)
The Antagonist : Larry (the neighbour-hood watch man, he sees the art as vandalism and is jealous that it is recieving so much praise)
The Resolution : Tilly (the daughter of Larry, she has struggled with her maths for years and the chance of  getting a C in maths seems so distant however she is inspried by teh graffit resulting in her getting a B)