Lesson Catch-Ups

When I use this title, I don't mean Curtis and I have missed any lessons, more on that I haven't blogged every lesson, because we had been stuck for filming and the book. We have been looking at various film sequences and doing some textual analysis to build on our ideas instead. We are only able to film at weekends really, because Alfie is at school all day, and Alex's house needs to be available. We can't just interrupt everything. Also, we need to have Jake help us with the nursery rhyme book, and he hasn't been in college the past week, and lives in Salisbury, so we can't get to him easily. However, we have been productive and trying to add ideas to make things clearer for the audience. We need to be sure everything is right before we film.

Script

Yesterday in Media, Curtis and I decided to start on the script. We only had an hour lesson, so we started writing the script by hand. We then went to use 'Scriptmaker' but it wasn't installed on the computer. So we called in the IT Technician to fix the problem, and began typing our script on 'Scriptmaker'. We got halfway through and the lesson ended. So we finished doing the script today.

Build on Story

We have stuck with the original idea of the nursery rhymes, and have thought more about how we can animate the dream sequence. We both have a mutual friend who is extremely good at art, who can help us with the dream sequence. Obviouisly he will be credited and we will do as much as we can, but he can be there to help tweak it and correct perspective mistakes we may make. We also thought about involving a packet of Haribo Horror mix sweets, and him visualising the spider, but I couldn't get hold of any Horror mix after Halloween went by. I think this would of been a good idea and a subtle extra touch, however it may have been too much spider-orientated visuals. Our film is aimed at somebody on the children's TV channel, and so the audience doesn't have the most complex mind, and I think one or two mention of spiders will be sufficient, instead of overloading their minds with spidrs, so they get lost in the moral of the story, which ironically, is infact NOT to be scared of spiders.

Spellbound Dream Sequence

As the viewer, I understand when the dream sequence begins, because it is clearly shown through a fade to black transition to the next scene. It's then shown through a fade from black into seeing all these eyes. Hitchcock used Dali as the designer for his dream sequence, and the combination of both their unique styles had a really good effect on the viewers in 1945. The zoom into one of the eyes keeps the reader intrigued and expecting something to happen. Instead, another shot of all these eyes, staring at the viewer, including them in the film. The camera never stops moving; in different directions with each overlapped shot. Another shot then fades in, and the eyes fade out, to be replaced by a stage surrounded by eyes. It zooms in to a stage full of people playing musical instruments. A close-up of the musicians fades in and the camera carries on zooming in. The camera then fades into close-up of an eye on the stage, with some man using giant scissors cutting it up from the viewers right to the viewers left; revealing another eye underneath the cut away eye. Another shot appears in the pupil of the eye, and the camera zooms in until a fade from back ends the dream sequence. All the transitions in this sequence fade and go to and from black. This helps the viewer understand that this IS the dream sequence. The lighting is very dark, even though it is a black and white film. There is a lot of contrast and dark moments, which help the viewer understand the surreality of the dream sequence. The mise-en-scene is interesting because Hitchcock and Dali's surreal dream sequence works really well in this scene, bacause the viewer clearly understands there is a dream going on; which is what Curtis and I need to be careful of not confusing the viewer and disrupting the continuity.

Step Outline

Scene One - Child comes home from school to an empty house. Reads a note from mother explaining she is working late tonight, food in fridge. Various shots of empty house, shows audience he is alone and the time.

Scene Two - Child walks into Lounge and sees the TV playing. He is intrigued, so sits down and just starts to watch it. He doesn't know it is 'Eight Legged Freaks' playing, and he is petrified when a huge spider comes on screen. Runs away. This shows his phobia of spiders.

Scene Three - Child is in bedroom reading Nursery Rhyme book. Is reading Humpty Dumpty aloud. Close-up of book, so audience can see the nursery rhymes he is reading.

Scene Four - Mother comes in and child confesses about the film scaring him. Mother says not to worry about spiders and shows him Incy Wincy Spider. They read it aloud and he falls asleep smiling.

Scene Five - Dream Sequence. He sees a hill and there is a well on top, like in Jack and Jill. (animated) He then blinks and a Shoe appears instead of the well, like There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe. He walks up the hill, and a huge spider appears, like in Incy Wincy Spider. He then runs back down the hill, and falls, breaking in half, like Humpty Dumpty.

Scene Six - The child wakes up and tells him mother about his dream. She tells him not to worry, and that the spider wasn't real. The child realises extra-large spiders are fictional and do not exist. His arachnophobia then subsides and he feels calm again.

Nursery Rhymes

'Jack And Jill'

Jack and Jill went up the hill,
to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe'

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn't know what to do,
So she gave them some broth without any bread,
And she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.

'Incy Wincy Spider'

Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout,
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out,
Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain,
And Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again.

'Humpty Dumpty'

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Nursery Rhymes

Curtis and I spent the hour-long lesson yesterday brain-storming some ideas that could link in with a dream sequence and the animation/live-action idea. We had to think of a well-known story that was not copy-righted, and that would easily be recognised by the majority of the audience. We thought that Nursery Rhymes are part of nearly every child's young memories and that they would easily be recognised by the audience, even adults who have children or know of the Nursery Rhymes. We then decided how we could incorporate the Nursery Rhymes into a dream sequence, here is our first idea;

o A child laying in bed reading a Nursery Rhyme book
o Mother comes in and the child recalls their scare earlier in the bath when they saw a huge spider - appears as a flashback
o The mother then says not to worry and shows them the Nursery Rhyme 'Incy Wincy Spider'
o The child looks unconvinced and starts to fall asleep
o The child starts to dream (about parks or swimming pools) then it changes suddenly into a nightmare
o They dream of four Nursery Rhymes - 'Jack and Jill', 'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe', 'Incy Wincy Spider', 'Humpty Dumpty' - and a story forms *
o The child wakes up upset and calls for their mother
o The mother comes in and comforts the child, allowing them to fall asleep uninterrupted

* The story is as follows:
o The child falls into their nightmare, and sees a hill. They start to climb it (influence from 'Jack and Jill')
o When the child reaches the top of the hill, they see a shoe, and believe a woman to live there (influence from 'There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe')
o However, a huge spider appears (influence from 'Incy Wincy Spider')
o The child then runs down the hill and falls, breaking in half (influence from Humpty Dumpty)

We appreciate a lot of planning and research is needed to be done and therefore, some changes may need to be made. However this is our initial idea.

New Ideas

Curtis and I have been thinking about the accessibility of the polyphasic sleep idea, and have been debating whether it is actually likely to work. We realised we would need an interesting twist to the documentary to make it entertaining and highlighting the point of the documentary. We came to the conclusion the polyphasic sleep idea wouldn't work and that we needed to have a serious re-think about what we could do with this project. So, we have come up with the idea of a short film, using both animation and live-action in order to make the film interesting and entertaining. We are thinking primarily of an animated dream sequence and can have all these distorted images and animated objects. We know it will be very time-consuming and probably very stressful, but the two of us have a good work ethic and are willing to put the effort in. We are now going to spend the lesson thinking of a narrative storyline that we can incorporate animation and live-action sequences into.

Ancillary Task Ideas

Whilst Curtis and Keri are absent, I can gather some ideas and information to help me with my ancillary tasks. The short film brief goes as follows:

3. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
o a poster for the film
o a radio trailer for the film
o a film magazine review page featuring the film.

I think it would be easiest, most cost and time efficient if I completed these two ancillary tasks:

o a poster for the film
o a film magazine review page featuring the film

I think I would be best at doing these two ancillary tasks as I study Art, and English Literature and Language, so these two options fit in nicely with skills I already know. I have developed a lot of skills within my art class, such as drawing to a good standard, and how to apply paints and other medias properly. I have learned how to analyse drawings which relate to a target audience and how to draw to attract a certain audience, by drawing in the same way or using the same technique. I have also learned a lot of skills in English Lit/Lang which will no doubt help me to write the film review. I can either use a chatty, colloquial style of language, which would appeal to a majority of the public, and would most likely be published in a tabloid newspaper such as 'The Sun' or 'The Star'. Or I could use a formal, informative tone which will appeal to a large proportion of business men and women, which would most likely feature in a broadsheet newspaper such as 'The Times' or 'The Guardian'. Either way, it would appeal to a certain audience and gain their respect. I think we need to sit as a group in the pre-production stage and decide what tone we want our documentary to take; whether it is a 'fly-on-the-wall' home-made style piece, or a formal analytical view of the effects of sleep. This will then help us to all understand the theme behind our own individual ancillary tasks.

Documentary Formats

I have been onto 'iLearn' on the Totton College Website, and had a look at the files there to help us. I found a file named 'Documentary Formats' and thought I would take a look. It has been REALLY helpful, and I have been able to gain better knowledge for what style of documentary we should shoot and what category our idea fits under. Unfortunately, both members of my group are away; I heard from Curtis who is ill, but I haven't heard from Keri, so I don't know where she is. This means I can't really get anything solid done this lesson, as obviously it is group work and there needs to be at least two group members here to make a solid decision. I am trying to gather some useful information which I can show my group once they are both back in lessons next week.

This is the document I found: