The Ugly Duckling

I believe that 'the ugly duckling' is a perfect name for our film, but this is my new take on it. Its a typical concept however its quick to tell the story and will be effective.
The girl is an outcast, no one in her school thinks shes pretty, shes into her work not fashion. Her friend/ a boy gives her a make over, remove the glasses and outdated clothing. They put her in a dress, do her hair makeup and suddenly she gets attention from everyone, everyone in the common room is shocked by her outstanding new apperance and the girls who used to bully her, are now jelouse of the girl who got no attention, because she stole the attention of the boys they fancy.
 This idea is simmilar to Robert Iscove 'Shes All That'

Chilhood Tales

Another idea we have for a 5 minute short film, is a remake of the ugly duckling. It was quite hard to come up with a new concept so we decided to look at cautionary tales. One which came to mind instantly was 'The Ugly Duckling'.

Quentin Tarantino

Like myself, Quentin Tarantino has appeared in his movies, much like him i would like to feature at some point in our new one. This gives me a chance to, write the film, direct it, feature in it and also edit. This gives me all angles of experience i could possibly gain from a level media. Until the day i die, I will always own footage of me, in my prime years doing something i fully enjoy. This could also be the reason for Tarantinos appearance in Pulp Fiction, this also gives a face to the name of the director, which the audience will enjoy to watch.

Romeo + Juliet

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, is perfect to study, when gaining ideas on how to film a modern love story. In particular this clip is perfect, the way in which the moment, their lips touch for the first time, is captured takes my breath away, This is the kind of emotion we want to capture as film directors, in our short movie. The attraction is so strong, and the romance and excitement bursts through the screen.
Another reason to why this clip is vital to study, is because until he end of the scene, nobody actually sees romeo, they only see Juliet. Romeo at this point doesn't exist to the rest of the world, he is only visual and only exits in Juliet's eyes at this point. This is similar to what we want to portray in our film.
One other key point, about romeo and Juliet which links to our story line is, Juliet is in love, however they can't be together for a reason, which means eventually they have to let go, although they don't let go and are with each other for the rest of eternity, the idea is still very much there.

Drop Dead Fred

Ate de Jong's, Drop Dead Fred is a child's film, about a grown up woman, who still see's her childhood imaginary friend. Fred tries to ruin her life in some ways, and wants her to return to her fun inner child, however has to let go eventually to have a successful adulthood. This film could be helpful, although its a comedy, which is completely opposite to our style, we could learn a bit about how to portray an imaginary friend, through film.
 By watching this as a group, we will be able to take notes on successful camera movements, editing, and so on. This film is perfect for initial research.

It's all about the pitch

I'm going to keep this speech tot he point, much like the film I'm proposing ,simplicity is key. We should learn how to walk before we try and run. We have been given an opportunity to make a short film, if we stick with a simple idea and make it successful, in the future we can take what we learn and excel our selves. This idea should be chosen because, its relevant to our lives as teenage students from he city. We already have a strong connection to the story line because the majority of us here have, experienced the story. Also such factors as set, location, characters, and costume are at our disposal, we should always take full advantage of what is around us.
 We are also familiar with music which will add to the style of film, because we all listen to the radio, we are exposed to material that will push our film further, every single day.

Opening monologue

This famous clip comes from (director) 's Annie Hall, preformed by Woody Allen. This is extremely successful because it sets the whole film up, it introduces a few characters, it sets the tone of the film. From this monologue we now know who the main character is, his personality, what he thinks about, current affairs in his life and so on. It works perfectly also because, what he is saying could easily get boring, however Allen's performance keeps the audiences attention through out, the energy level is persistant which is what we aim to achieve. The way in which this scene is shot also signifies many things to the audience, the predominant colour is brown, which suggests he is an average normal day guy, with a normal job, a normal life, however his shirt is brown and red, which may indicate that his life has an heir of danger, or lust and something out of the ordinary, much like the brown against the reds, is about to occur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxlfvI17oY

Music

tHese are just thoughts of what we may use in our film, which will relate to the sotry line, because of the genre the charater may listen to, or may be exposed to.


This song may be perfect, because sh sings about being awake for "24 hours" and she knows she should be asleep, and her life can amount ot more, but the temptaion is too strong. Which is exactly what ours film is about.

Adele hometown glory is also another song we may ad tot he non-iagetic sounds to our film for a number of reasons.


Fistly, is the respnose to the lyrics. The title is called Hometown glory, which is perfect for our story line. Its set in London Town, and we hope to incluse int he mise en scene, the london sky line and props such as big red london busses. Also that the girl thinks her life is in its glory days, how ever it is far from. Scondly the tempo changes in the song, it starts off slow and melow, and quite romantic. My vision is the girl with her boyfriend about to consume dangerous substances, the beat drops as they get intoxicated.

Smoking scenes

So these are a few clips i found on youtube, of people doing smoke tricks. Luckily enough, I used to be a smoker. Therefore I am quite decent at doing smoke tricks, nothings as professional as these, however sometimes I can preform an "Irish water fall", and I am very good at doing hoops. This will come in handy when we act out smoking cigarettes or smoking weed. This will make the character more realistic, and will add to the role.

Inspiration

Irvine Welsh will personally always be a huge inspiration, his books are so amazing in my eyes. Coming from a Scottish background, and living with very Scottish people, I read his books, and give the characters a face from my family. This is why I particularly enjoy his books, my family give it a depth. Because we are doing a drug related film, and a planing to use a voice over, the famous passage is brilliant to at least look at, or even study to help our film progress.
 [insert photo here]
Anyone into film, or books will have heard this famous monologue, preformed by Ewen Mc Gregor, a famous Scottish actor, featured in Danny Boyle's 'Trainspotting'. The famous "choose life" passage from this famous punk book which reads-

initial ideas

 
Nick's idea: short film about a day in a life of a teenage londoner, 24 hours of situations. School life.Home life.love life.
It could start of a the day being brilliant and avarage then through out the day, it gets worse and worse. Much like a short story, from one of my fav writers, which has also been put into a film. IrvinE Welsh's 'The Acid house'.

One of the short, twisted, genius story's include Granton star cause, which popped into my mind, the moment Nick pitched his idea. The way in which this short story is composed, is clever, and if we use Nicks idea, then to take note of this story would be wise. The book had also been turned into a film by Paul McGuigan Which includes 'The granton star cause' Followed by 'A soft touch' then lastly 'The acid house'. The film also featurs some of the Trainspottings cast, which i brought shortly after reading the book. The film unfortunately comes nowhere near the book, or Danny Boyle's 'Trainspotting' however is still done well, and portrays a twisted version of Welsh's sthoughts and disturbed ideas!

This is a just thought of what we may use in our film, which will relate to the sotry line, because of the genre the charater may listen to, or may be exposed to.


This song may be perfect, because she sings about being awake for "24 hours" and she knows she should be asleep, and her life can amount to more, however the temptaion is too strong. Which is exactly what ours film is about.

Initial ideas

(just notes, nothing official) Naturally in the cast we must have a boy and a girl, because our concept is of how different world collide and clash. Th girl character (the lead role) starts off life with A grades, then as each factor gets introduced, she starts going down hill, she meets a boy, then we see a C in her paper, the boy her introduces her to vodka, she starts to look rougher and her grades go down and down. Then he introduces her to drugs then they get worse, and int he end, she can't take any more and she kills her self. Dramatic ending but changeable, its just a thought :)...here a clip that might be helpful for when she gets her failed paper back.


she screws it up and trows it, goes for a spliff/ drink (whatever), she splits with her boyfriend, her parents are going crazy, she can't take anymore!

A short film

So, as of today it became official! Our group over the next academic year are going to strive towards making a successful short film. Ideas and creative juices are already over flowing, In a brief chat about life Nicolas and I discribed our lives as a pro-gression of regression. This was a clever off the tongue description of what happened in school, our lives were totally (almost) perfect until certain factors were socially introduced. These include, boys/ girls into our pretty separate world we integrated, then with this came the social gathering, in clubs houses or even in a park on a sunny day. Soon after came such things as alcohol and perhaps even drugs in a brief encounter, which was the progression of our social lives, which led to the regression of our academic lives. This simple concept which (almost) every person can relate to, is now the basis of a short film. This idea is perfect because it will be easy to cast, and easy to write because we have all been through it. An audience will already be intrigued because they may relate to some of the characters. I am interested to how this random conversation, may lead to a successful A2 piece.