Research Dossier

I have scripted a short film called "Only A Joke" and wish to enter it into a competition. I found a local competition called "Withoutabox" this is located in Norwich, this is local so is convenient for me.

https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=7957

The only real requirement that is needed is that the film needs to be under 25 minutes and the screenplay has be be under 30 pages, any genre is allowed.

Example of Existing scripts, and my evaluation of them.



This goos use of scene direction was taken from a Sherlock Homes script.

I beleive good scene diretion is where you can picture the scene in your head clearly, I can picture this scene clearly.

This is another part of the same script, which shows good dialogue, in this the character "Soo Lin" is talking about an anciant tea pot, as she talks about it she poors the tea from the pot which gives the scene a suttle and fragile feel.

Here is an example of Inner/outer presence and some context.

Inner presence is where we learn about a character in a script, ie thoughts feelings, past events etc. These are difficult to show in a film, however the way they dress and the actions and give us an idea, for exmaple in this script is says "Len doesnt like being told his job" to tell the audience this it has to be shown by his reaction and the tone he replys in.

Outer presence is the result of inner presence, its the actions of the character and they way they look. For example here is a snip from a script, as you can see in this part of the script its describing what she looks like and how she moves etc.

 

Context is where the character is, for exmaple pouring a martini in a huge mansion, this shows that the character is very rich and powerful.



                                                                     
                                                                            




Hostage was a brilliant 10 minute short, this is because its very clever in the way that things have been set out, for exmaple the number of money was the number of the girls phone, the clever line "how does it feel to hold someones life in your hand?". Aswell as it being clever it was also intence, the car scene to get to the girl ontime to save her life got me sitting on the edge of my seat. BMW films done a really good job with this short and to fit all what happens in 10 minutes is superb.





This short is very clever, at the start we see a group of script writers thinking of ideas and going though different scenarios, however later the characters they were describing come through the dinner door and we then see that this is a short about them creating a short to them actually being in the short with the short. Its fantastic as it has love, fear and comedy too.

My target audience was young people aged 15-22. i thought of the audience being similar to that of Skins. My idea was based around two school boys who prank a friend and end up being in the situation they pranked about, IE being kidnapped. I thought it was a neat and clever idea that young people would respond to. I did some target audience research by asking a group of 17 year olds if they liked the idea and what sort of films and TV programs they enjoyed the most. My finding showed that people liked the idea and that they enjoyed action movies and comedy so I knew I would try and incorporate both of these genres into my script.

The theme of my idea was boy that cried wolf, this being that these two boys prank calling a friend then one of them being in a similar situation then when he calls for help his friend thinks hes doing another prank and hangs up. Teenage boys doing prank calls and causing mischief is a common thing in our sociaty so i thought by using this as a theme it would attract the right target audience and they could relate to it. also a theme of class rich/poor is introduced, I chose to have one rich boy and one poor boy to show the difference between attitudes of someone who has everything and someone who is grateful to have what they can afford. Wealth and class is a typical issue in britain today so I thought it would be good to show both sides and to open peoples eyes.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2014/feb/03/breadline-britain-pawnshops-private-schools-video

http://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2014/feb/04/breadline-britain-youth-unemployment-video

 This photo shows how rich relax in luxuary while the poor sruggle to earn enough to keep their families alive and healthy.

The simularity of kidnapping is in a few films, such as Fargo, Transporter 2, Taken and Pain and Gain. The kidnappers in these films are older males in their late 30s/40s, this inspired me to make my kidnappers the same, these men usually have nothing and in attempt to get some easy money they kidnapp a rich boy/girl and try to get a randsome. The other simulaty with my idea is the idea of a rich boy and a poor boy being friends and the difference between them, i would say Blood Brothers which is a Book and a Play is simlilar because of the main theme being this idea about Higher class and Lower cass mixing.