Wednesday 27 November 2013

New Version of the Script

With the duel completely filmed, I had to organize filming the beginning and the end; the main character is in the 'real' world before he gets lost in his fantasy and returns to reality afterwards. However, after going through the end with my teacher, the weakness of the ending became evident and it wasn't an ending that really worked. I couldn't explain why it was a western and what the point of it was, so upon discussing this with one of my other teachers, we came up with a new ending, which changes my perspective of the protagonist and the story as a whole. Now it ends with the relevation that Simon has actually killed people, his isolation and obssession with westerns has led him to commit murder, but it is through his eyes we see it - the 'fantasy' western duel. Providing us with a twist and giving the duel more depth, I think this version of the script is a lot stronger and gives us more of a character for Simon and a sinister twist that is also genre defying and intriguing.

With this new script, I'm going to enter the shooting with a lot more in mind for Simon's motivation and feelings. I have some changes to make as well, so this script will go through a few more drafts, before I shoot.

CLICK HERE:

Monday 18 November 2013

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - The Trio BREAKDOWN

An incredibly insightful video into the power and complexity of editing and cinematography in this shot by shot break down of the amazing standoff in the end of 'GBU', the scene that inspired my short film. Very indepth and informative.
The Art of Editing in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Max Tohline on Vimeo.

UPDATE:
I have had trouble with this video and have had to relink it from another source, which is what is above. It may not be accessible at the time of marking.

Anciliary Task - Poster

I really like this style of poster and I think I can tie it in nicely with the research I've done into Western posters already.

First Cut of Duel - Questionnaire.

Looking for audience feedback, I have prepared a questionnaire for people to fill in when they have viewed it in order to get an idea of what people think of it.

The video you will see is an early cut of the duel scene from my short film. It still needs audio work, a soundtrack and the footage needs to be graded.

Please take a moment to answer these questions as best as you can. Most are questions that can be answered by using numbers 1 – 10 and all feedback will be reviewed and used to improve the final cut.

Thank you for your time.

Question
Answer using numbers 1 – 10
(1 being lowest value and 10 the highest)
How much do you understand the story?
 
How much did you enjoy it?
 
How would you rate the story?
 
How would you rate the acting?
 
How would you rate the cinematography?
 
 
 
Any additional comments?
 
 
 
What changes would you suggest?
 

Genre Theory in relation to my Short Film


Monday 11 November 2013

First Stages of editing

I'm assembling the footage into a first rough edit of the short, beginning with what I have filmed of the duel. At the moment it lacks music, sound effects and grading. Some of the cuts need to be neater and I need to sort out the audio track so that it doesn't have me speaking over the top.
I'm thinking 'Trio' from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" soundtrack will work better though and I'm looking into getting permission to use that instead! I'm also going to create a questionnaire to get feedback on the current stage of the edit so I know if I'm going in the right direction.

Short Script Analysis

I wrote some points down about my script and how I feel about it. I will go more in depth with it with a audio post on Kizoa at another point.