Developing Our Short Film

Story Developing and Script Writing

For my class's short film, I've recently been involved in helping writing the script, along with a few others who have created the story. Throughout the process so far, I've learned many techniques and skills, and overall I've gotten more dedicated to our story and not to mention I've grown closer to my classmates.

Everyday for the past month, we sit in the conference/studio room with the script projected on the TV that's mounted on the wall and discuss ideas and how the script will play out.
I should probably mention that when we first developed our film idea, the entire concept was COMPLETELY different than what it is currently.. (Long story short, our original story was too risqué and we couldn't film it due to the risk that it would lead to a very admired teacher being fired).

example of our not yet developed ideas

After several modifications and ideas straying far from the original plot, we finally have a developed storyline. One that includes interesting reversals and twists that will play with the audience's minds. Through the process, I've learned much about story developing and how to create interesting characters that the audience will either sympathize with or absolutely hate. 

Before even beginning to write the script, we wrote a short analysis on each of our key characters. We wrote their age, background, history, what their passions are, the experiences they've been through, and really as much as we can come up with about the person. This helped us get a feel of how each character would talk, react, and think as the story goes on. After writing each analysis on them, during the writing process, if we needed help with what a character would say or feel, we'd refer back to this document.

With the help of Alex Noury (this cool former student who's had experience in LA and came back to ONW to teach about story developing), we began to finally write our script on Celtx. The main writer and person responsible for our story concept is Clayton. He was in charge of actually physically typing out the script and the majority of the credit for the story goes to him.

first page of script on Celtx

Overall, the process of writing the script was very interesting and I feel like I've learned a lot from this experience. Because our story included many twists and reversals, we had to contemplate exactly how each character would think, react, and what they would want others around them to see and what the audience actually sees. I never actually thought that this much thinking and consideration goes into writing, but after this process I've learned so much and love how much thought goes into writing. I think its so interesting how much you can easily play with feelings and surprise the initial judgments of characters.

20 Steps Challenge

20 Steps

For this week's project, we followed a challenge on vimeo, where the rules are to take 20 clips after every 20 steps in one area. The purpose is to tell a story from your point of view using different angles and being creative with your 20 shots.

My cousin and I went to the lake one day, and I decided to bring my camera along to film for this project. I made a quick short list of shots that I knew I wanted to include, then when we got there, I spontaneously filmed the rest of the clips I wanted as we walked around. I made sure to get beautiful shots of the water and other random shots of plants and the sky to include variety in the video. I wanted to continue filming after sunset, however my camera battery died in the middle of shooting. On the bright side, I had more than enough footage to edit and use.

The editing process went fairly quick and easy. I tried to keep the shots in order as much as I could, that way it would show the point from where we started, then down to where we stopped walking, which was the dam on the other side. From this project, I learned a couple things: 1) I should fully charge my  battery before leaving the house 2) I still need to learn how to keep a steady hand with my camera and lastly, 3) favorite more precise clips in Final Cut to make it easier to find exactly the shot I'm looking for.

Short Film Shot On iPhone?

Potential of Smartphones

Recently, a journalist group, RYOT, have made the first 4k short film using the new iPhone 6s. After watching this, I agree with NoFilmSchool, that this reveals the potential that smartphones have of being a powerful tool for film and can even change journalism.

RYOT captured impressive shots of the location, using their iPhone 6s. However they did use lens and stabilizers which definitely helped the quality, but overall you can see the quality the iPhone camera itself already provides which is comparable to DSLRs and high end cameras.

The author gives the short film video itself and also the behind the scenes video, then follows with examples comparing iPhones' cameras throughout the years. They include various pictures comparing each phone with different tests such as macro, backlit, and sunset. He also claims that smartphones have the ability to become very powerful in filmmaking and can influence filmmakers as technology advances.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this article and what the author has showed with the ability of smartphones, since most people, if not all, have one right in their pockets including me. This was interesting and has given me many ideas and inspiration to do more with my own phone and learn how to take advantage of its quality. 

• Website Title: No Film School
• Article Title: Check Out the First 4K Short Film Shot Entirely on an iPhone[…]
• Date Accessed: October 05, 2015

Shutter Speeds vs. Frame Rates

The way frame rate and shutter speed can be adjusted can greatly affect an audience's emotion toward a certain scene.

On No Film School's article, frame rate is defined as the number of frames captured per second, and shutter speed is duration of time each frame is exposed to light. They say the basic rule is: the standard setting for your shutter speed is double your frame rate. 

The author does a great job at showing examples of how higher frame rates can benefit slow motion shots and also how fast shutter speeds result in clear images. The article provides two videos to show these examples. However, the author could do better by explaining more variations of how shutter speed and frame rate affect other types of desired shots to create different effects. In general the author briefly informs about how adjusting these two settings can help create a better desired effect.

The author did support his main argument, but the article was short and only showed two specific examples. The evidence provided by the videos were convincing and very informative. In the future, I plan to use what I've learned from this article to make shots in my videos better and find ways to help tell the story. 

• Website Title: No Film School
• Article Title: How Shutter Speeds & Frame Rates Can Be Used to Change t[…]
• Date Accessed: September 23, 2015

Parallax - Short Film Review

Parallax, filmed by Sawyer Hartman was a beautiful film, filled with stunning shots, admirable characters, and contains (spoiler) a really sad ending. This is one of his first popular short-films that I loved watching. So now I guess I'm reviewing it.

Summary
Jonathan, a father/astronomer predicts a meteor shower, which he believes will cause all life to end on the surface of earth. Although no one believes his prediction, he prepares for this day by building a shelter that will house him, his sister, and his wife, as well as food and supplies for only three people. Suddenly, his wife tells him she is expecting a baby, which he hasn't prepared enough supplies or food for in his shelter. On the day of the meteor shower, all three of them enter the shelter, waiting for the end to come.
Suddenly, Jonathan "forgets something important" and leaves the shelter to grab it. His sister and wife realizes he had sacrificed himself in order for them to survive along with the baby, and ends with a beautiful wide shot of the desert sky.

Application & Review

A couple things I admire that Hartman did to make this film was his use in location and producing dramatic cinematic shots. The color scheme of the video overall fit the mood, as well as the music he's chosen, especially at the end. I plan to apply these same elements in my future work.





Hartman did an outstanding job capturing my attention with his colorful & artistic shots and using minimal but significant dialogue to explain the story. I thought the main actor, Jonathan's character did a great job, however I personally did not like the rest of the actors' acting. Also, the lighting in a few shots were a bit too dark for the context of the scene. 

In general, I thought it was a great video and Hartman had shot in a beautiful dessert location. The film could've had more convincing actors but overall I enjoyed the story and the main character.