Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Production Diary: Week 1 - 25th June 2014

Hello and welcome to my G324 media A2 blog, the blog that will be taking you through the coursework side of my A2 course. Within this blog, you will be able to view all progress that I have made with my coursework, planning and evaluations, as well as short, weekly diary entries and production Diaries. Each of the above will have their own specific tab, meaning that they can be grouped and viewed with minimal effort and frustration. I must inform you now, that this specific diary entry is also my first official Production Diary post, so it will come under two different labels. However, the two types of entry will have content that is only relevant to them, unlike this post - which has a mix.

So, here is an insight into our coursework task. Similarly to last year's course, we have been asked to create a piece of coursework of our choice. This year, our options were either; A music video or A short film. Whilst both of these are extremely tempting, I know that unfortunately, I cannot proceed with both of them.

As soon as the task was thrown upon me, hundreds of ideas filled my head as I tried hard to battle against getting lost in my thoughts, whilst trying to listen to my media teacher, Mr Fisher. A music video would have been ideal for me, because ever since I find out the task for A2, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted it to be based on. I was planning to use my band from last year's music magazine - "Roode Pelikaan", as a way of continuing the work that I had involved them in and to give the band an even more realistic feel. However, this idea was short lived. None of my friends who were in my fictional band can actually play an instrument, so this meant that filming a convincing music video would prove to be a little more difficult than I had originally thought. If there were any lingering temptations to make a music video, they were surely gotten rid of after I stupidly agreed to watch a "Wannabe" death metal band's music video. Having to turn the video off 12 seconds in was a sign.

So this has left me with my one and only other option. A short film. Now, I don't usually tend to work outside of my comfort zone in life. But for this work, I felt I had to. Mainly because I didn't have another choice, but also because I felt that I should try and enhance my skill development and probability of success, by "taking the plunge", if you will.

This sudden change of plan has somewhat changed my normal way of thinking (If you can call it normal). I tend to spend a while thinking of an idea, developing it and then finishing it, rather like my idea for using Roode Pelikaan for a music video. But this task has changed that. Once I knew that I was going to have to produce a short film, thousands of ideas filled my head. I would sit there, thinking in silence before frequently gasping during a eureka moment, only to find that I didn't like it. Despite sounding like quite a tedious and long winded process, I developed an idea for a short film that I feel can be successful and thought provoking (This is where the production diary element comes in).

The name of the film? No idea. I haven't really thought about minor details such as characters, props or editing at the moment. It's more of a pitch.

<b>My short film:</b>

My short film is based on the life of a small boy, who has frequent nightmares of monsters and other things that make him uneasy. The opening scene depicts the boy being attacked by a monster from under his bed, which is in his imagination. This nightmare ends when the boy goes to his "happy place", a tranquil forest that he sends all of the nightmares to in his head, so that they cannot bother him.

This attack from the monster provokes other nightmares of the child's to come true. The child constantly sees what he fear sin everyday places, such as the reflection of a mirror. A few different clips show that the boy is terrified at his young age. However, as the film progresses, so does the ageing of the boy. With every new chapter (Highlighted with a fade out), the boy has aged 4 years. Each time the chapter changes, he becomes less and less afraid of the monsters. The film reaches a point where the boy (now in his late teens) gets fed up with the monsters. He is no longer scared of them and is finding them annoying. Every time he sees a monster, he ushers them away from wherever they may be, and guides them to his happy place. The monsters are locked away in a see through, glass prison cell that is sat in this tranquil field.

The boy then goes on to working in an office. It has now been another 4 years since the monsters were gotten rid of. His job is going well, until he gets extremely stressed and goes home early one day. As a method of escaping reality, the man tries to daydream and reminisce... but he can't remember anything. He then sits up and realises what has happened. He then visits his happy place, which is now dark and cold, instead of warm and sunny as it was in his childhood. He approaches the cell to see all of his nightmares sitting in there together, cold and alone. He places one hand on the glass. One of his nightmares goes to do the same. A single tear runs down the man's face as he takes away his hand before the monster can place his. He then sulks and says "I'm so sorry" and walks off.

The scene then fades out and a quote (From myself) appears... it reads: "Don't ever try and forget your dreams, even if they are nightmares. Because it will be far scarier when you can't remember them, than when you used to all the time".


So that was my brief synopsis of my short film. I am sure that it will change and be altered a little bit, but there we are! I hope you enjoyed this first post. Keep and eye out for more. Thank you.

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