Continuity Task: Planning and Storyboarding!

These past couple of weeks we've been working on our preliminary; designed to gauge an understanding of where we're at in terms of our ability and filming skills, the task has been subjuect to a lot of stressing out. The short film has to last around 60-90 seconds (not long!) and the focus of the task is not so much about the concept or the script, but about our ability to work as a team, creating a shotlist and (eventually) a storyboard, and film/edit our film into a clean, smooth product. There were several guidelines that we were given by Mr.Michie to give our film a focus, and it's imperative that we acknowledge these rules, given that it is these guidelines that are going to get us a good mark. They include the following:-

-You must not break the 180 degrees rule

-You must include a shot reverse shot 

-You must include a variety of appropriate camera angles

-You must edit so that continuity is apparent and meaning is clear

-You must include more than one location

-You must include some interaction between characters

-You must include some non-diegetic sound

On the surface of things, the task seemed pretty simple; however, creating something that follows all of these guidelines, as well as making the piece engaging and flowing,is much harder than it once seemed. First of all, we went about discussing the 'concept' for our film. We decided unanimously; we all agreed that the concept needed to give us the ability to use various locations, shots, angles etc. Therefore, we decided upon the idea of an angered student, who realises that his pencil case has been stolen, and looks around the school angrily, attempting to find the 'pencil case thief'. It's pretty infantile but, as I say, we thought the content would give us the ability to 'show-off' our film-making skills. We then went about the casting, and decided without too much discussion: I would play the angered student, opposite Jacob Smith who would play the innocent 'thief'. We then thought of locations: the corridors of the 6th Form centre conformed to the stereotypical idea of a 'school' setting that we wanted. Then, after this, we needed a setting for the confrontation between the two characters; we decided that the Drama studio wouldhave the appropriate lighting for a suitably dramatic face-off. Also, the room's walls are black, which acts as a metaphor for the raging anger our protagonist feels. So far, so good. After, it was down to business: the shotlist-

1) Long shot of person A approaching the doors of the 6th form centre,with an air of malice/anger (pan).

2) Close-up of the door being opened aggresively.

3) Medium shot of the back of the protagonist, looking around hurriedly.

4) Cut to the Drama studios; establishing shot of B (isolated/alone) writing an essay.

5) The door to the studios opens; person A enters, acknowledges his victim; smile crosses his face.

6) Over-the-shoulder shot (at a low angle) of B looking at A; conveys weakness of B; A approaches B.

7) Shot-reverse-shot of person A yelling 'Wheres my pencil case?!'; cut to B's fear/anxiousness; cross back to an even more infuriated person A.

8) Over-the-shoulder shot (at a high angle) of A looking at B; conveys dominance of A; B says 'Please, I really, really need it!'

9) Slow motion shot of A snatching pencil case of B; close-up.

10) Transition- screen cuts to black.

11) A leaves using the same door as before; long shot; distant wailing can be heard.

I was pretty happy with this, it had the potentitial to convey our ability, demonstrating a wide range of shots, angles whilst still being (hopefully) engaging. Next part was the storyboarding, which was inevitably full of heated-debates. I say 'inevitably' because everyone envisioned the shotlist in a slightly different way: which is good. If this process went smoothly (which it didn't) I genuinely don't think we'd have a storyboard of as high a quality. Together, we visualized the shotlist, bringing it to life, as well as considering, dialogue, non-diegetic sound/ diegetic sound, as well as the shots length. The storyboards can be found below:

Entering Chikara centre angrily



Arguing... Finley style

Leaving a bloodied Jacob, pencil-case in hand

For all those keen readers, you'll realise that the shotlist and the storyboard is not identical and I think this important; as good a shotlist you may have, it can be improved upon, especially when you're actually visualizing your shotlist through a storyboard: you realise that maybe that shot didn't work quite as well when actually putting pencil to paper. I guess thats something I've learnt throughout this process: all good practice before the real thing. So there you have it; we've basically constructed and built a minutes-worth short film that (at this stage) looks good, ready for filming. I'm happy with the progress that we have made, our group dynamic being more productive and efficient, and, quite simply, this bodes well for our final piece. So I'm looking forward to filming, which I'll blog about very soon...