Narratives: Short Film 006

Here is the report I wrote on my piece of Narrative A Day In The Life. Enjoy.

Introduction

The first assignment given for the narratives module of the course was to produce a short film that was no more then two minutes in length. We were given no other specification so it was 'up to us' what we produced (whether it was moving image, still image or animation). After been assigned into different groups we set about gathering each others ideas. Through a number of group meetings we discussed our thoughts and feelings for the narrative and decided that it shouldn't be complex, as we only had a two minute time scale, but it should still have a relatively good storyline to keep the audience interested.

Development

When we first came up with our initial idea we discussed what we thought would and wouldn't work and decided to develop the structure so that it wasn't too complicated to follow, but still gave the desired effect¹. We decided to go with the idea of producing a film that started at the end, in a non-linear narrative structure. Examples of similar styles can be found in films, such as 'Fight Club' (David Fincher, 1999)² and 'Memento' (Christopher Nolan, 2000)³. We wrote the list of shots that we would produce and posted them on the VLP for future reference⁴. We only used the VLP a few times for this piece of work because in most cases we were together when we needed things to be discussed and it was a lot easier getting touch with other group members through text messaging. I think that this method was a great downside to the group as when it came to discussing the changed ideas some of the group didn’t know which idea/thought was the most recent, and this got complicated. If I was to do this project again this is one of the main aspects I would change, more use of the online forums for discussion.

When it came to presenting our idea to prospective 'clients', we (as a group) were fairly confident that we had a stable idea that the clients would approve, or so we thought. After much discussion and debate after the presentation with the clients we realised how much you have to know at that stage in development in order to make the presentation successful in the real world. We came to terms with the flaws in our idea and our presentation skills themselves that we were unable to see. Afterwards we took all comments into consideration and discussed what we thought we should change with the idea.

This stage was the hardest of all of the stages that we encountered, in my opinion. As we were given a very open ended task it was very easy to slip into an idea that wouldn't have much thought behind it. Trying to come up with the initial idea with a group of people who all had different views and opinions proved to be quite difficult at times, but due to the correct teamwork we were able to incorporate everyone's thoughts, no matter how small, into the idea.

Production

At the production stage of this module we had to establish roles that each member of the group would take. We discussed the option that even though everyone had given roles anyone could take upon any of the roles if the specific member of the group couldn't make it. This seemed reasonable as each member got to take part in each aspect of the filming process. We decided a specific order in which to produce the shots due to availability of location and/or characters. We encountered a few minor problems during filming, which shortened the amount of time we had to edit the shots together, but we decided to start the editing without finishing the filming. This was a good idea as we were able to re-shoot any of the shots that didn't work or that we had forgotten, and to also see if we had enough shots to fit the time scale.

After filming we set about a schedule of when the editing should take place. Emily was the main editor as she had previous experience but we didn't feel it was fair to let her do everything, so we arranged to meet up at specific times to help and to share our ideas on what style would work best. Owais was in charge of collecting the music to be used in the film. He produced two unique tracks each with different beats that complimented each other very well and could be faded in and out of each other easily. We decided to use just two tracks as it was only a short film and it only really had two moods, which both of the tracks were designed around.

Up until the editing process our idea was still the same idea that we presented to the client, but after gathering our footage and placing into Adobe Premier for editing we realised that some the order and types of shots we initially had discussed wouldn't have had a great impact. We removed the idea of having still images and changed the order of the flashbacks, and only quick scenes towards the end (climax) of the film, we thought that this idea worked better then if we stuck with the original.

I really enjoyed this stage as it involved a lot more hand's on approach in the filming and editing process. Although we met problems with missing scenes and deciding our idea wouldn't work as well as we hoped we overcame this by re-editing and creating more shots.

Conclusion

I believe that as a group we were very happy with the end result. Although we encountered many unforeseen problems during the filming and editing processes, we found alternative routes round them in order to complete the task set correctly. This should that we could work as a team in order to overcome the slightest mishap. If I was given the chance to produce this film again I would organise both the group and time more efficiently. This was our first piece of group work and yes, we completed the task thoroughly, but there was still problems concerning how much time we had to film and edit, especially after realising we had wasted a large proportion deciding how and when we were going to produce the film. Our main problem as well was trying to find time when everyone was free in order to film, but using myself and a close friend as the only characters in the film is was very easy getting hold of 'the cast'.

Throughout the Narrative module I have learned how to work in a team that you have never met before in order to complete a specific brief in a relatively short space of time. I have used equipment and programs that I have had no experience or very little experience with before and learned a few ‘tricks of the trades’ as a shortcut round a few challenges. I enjoyed every aspect of this module even if there were a few disagreements along the way, which were discussed and resolved to everyone's satisfaction.