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.