Week Three

Well, after studio last week, I was completely undecided about my script, and the whole idea for the film in general. So, for some inspiration, I found a Tropfest DVD (from 2006) and sat down to do some observation in regards to structure and story. It was a fantastic wake up call. While admittedly I wasn't too fond of most of the films, it allowed me to really understand what Mark was talking about last week in Studio when he said short films need a real 'twist' at the end of them. I thought about it long and hard, but I simply couldn't think of a twist that I liked for the end of '20 Good Reasons' and that was the reason it was failing.

I then started to think about what it was I liked about the ones I really liked, and realised it is when the ordinary is made extraordinary. One that inspired me in particular was called Glitch. It was about a guy who calls in a professional to look at his house, where everything seems to be going wrong. Water pours into the sink and turns red, drawers make strange noises when they open, his housemate is stuck in a constant loop, and so on. I had no idea where it was going - until the professional says to the guy - 'I'm sorry, we're going to have to wipe it and start again, and we'll set you up with Norton' that I realised that the house was affected by a computer virus!

This led to me thinking of ways that the virtual world could be transposed onto the real world, and what sort of effects could occur. After a few minutes, I realised the answer was staring at me in the face - Facebook! Or social networking in general. I immediately sat down and starting writing a list of the sort of things one does on Facebook or Myspace, and how those could occur in a 'real-life' situation. It didn't take me long to come up with ideas, and I spent a few hours over the next few days writing a draft script, and tried not to get too attached to it in case no one liked it!

I got to Studio today, feeling a touch nervous again. I hadn't mentioned to Jeremie that I was trying a completely new idea whe I said last week that I would rewrite our old idea. I came slightly more prepared this time, with a printed copy of the draft, and was so relieved when he said he preferred it. I then felt even more relieved when Mark really liked it as well and where it was going, as long as we were able to tread the fine line of not giving to little or too much away. He gave us a few more useful ideas to add and left us on our way. Jeremie and I then finished most of the plan, and he took it home to tidy up which is good so I can get some of my other assignments out of the way and we hope to make a good start on the storyboarding.

Week Two Studio

This week I got to Studio to find Jeremie had received my email with a copy of the finished draft of the script. He seemed really happy with it, even though I was not completely confident with it, so we started working on the project concept document and discussing other issues such as the storyboards we wanted to start work on and locations. Once we finished the concept document, we divided up the sections on the project plan so we could work on that at home, and put it all together next week and have it done and out the way. By the time we had sorted all this out, we still had not been contacted by Mark (our contact staff member). So we got ready to go as soon as he saw us, thinking it would only be a few minutes. Boy, was I wrong! He came along and pointed out what I thought was the main issue with the script - the lack of climax at the end. After a long discussion and pointing out some similar examples, he had me completely rethinking the script. I don't think it will set us back; in fact in some ways it may even make it easier to film, but does mean I need to make a completely fresh start on the script, so I plan to spend at least part of the weekend rewriting it and doing some research on some similar stories.

Welcome to my studio blog (and Week One)

Note: this was written Sunday before I had the blog set up.

Welcome to my blog for FIT3039 Studio One, where I shall be blogging my way through a semester of making an industry-quality product, talking about the fun and games and tribulations that go along with it.

Over the holidays I decided that I was going to make a film for Tropfest. It has been a dream of mine for some time, but I have never had the time or resources. The ability to make a short film as part of my university work was something I was always going to jump on.

Knowing how hard it is to come up with a story idea and script (as I am not a writer) I decided to give myself a head start by coming up with something in advance. Being completely stuck for ideas, I started listening to music for inspiration, and one of the songs that came on was '20 Good Reasons' by Thirsty Merc. This got me thinking about how you never see the other side of the story - did the guy do something (or somethings) to upset her and not realise? I came up with a story where the girl receives an email from the guy and she gives them to him, and we see the different reasons on screen.

By the time I got to the first Studio class, I had a half-finished script. I was rather nervous however going into the class, as I did not know anyone else who was doing the subject. Would anyone else want to work with me, and would anyone like my idea? Was I completely crazy?

Luckily, through the way the class is run, I met Jeremie who not only liked my idea, but wanted to work with me. We therefore spent the last part of studio coming up with the rest of the reasons and working on the script.

On the weekend, I completed the script, but I'm not really happy with it at the moment. I still like the basic premise, but something doesn't seem right about it. At the moment I think it seems a touch repetitive, not really out of the ordinary and I don't like the ending. I think at the moment it's a bit of an anti-climax in that nothing happens. It is a bit of a first draft however, hopefully I'll get to studio on Wednesday and Jeremie will have some ideas.