Audience Research

1) Have you ever watched a short film?

Harrison Calaby (16) No
Ben Thorpe (18) No
Robert Watts (44) Yes
Linda Goddard (47) No
John Seaman (62) Yes
Alice Calaby (92) Yes
Jack Latoy (18) Yes
Sam Hitchins (17) No
Fletcher Watts (11)Yes
Beth Calaby (12) Yes

2) What would you expect a short film to be like?
Harrison Calaby (16) Interesting.
Ben Thorpe (18) To tell a good story in a few minutes.
Robert Watts (44) To have an interesting story.
Linda Goddard (47) To be a simple story that holds an audience’s attention.
John Seaman (62) Short and interesting.
Alice Calaby (92) To have a well thought out story and to be nice to look at.
Jack Latoy (18) A simple or shocking story which is well shot.
Sam Hitchins (17) Something a bit different to the mainstream.
Fletcher Watts (11) Funny.
Beth Calaby (12) Funny and nice to look at.

3) In any type of film, what's your favourite genre?
Harrison Calaby (16) Comedy
Ben Thorpe (18) Thriller
Robert Watts (44) Comedy
Linda Goddard (47) Rom Com
John Seaman (62) Documentary
Alice Calaby (92) Drama
Jack Latoy (18) Comedy
Sam Hitchins (17) Indie
Fletcher Watts (11) Animation
Beth Calaby (12) Teen comedy

4) What's your favourite film and it's genre?
Harrison Calaby (16) Wayne’s World - Comedy
Ben Thorpe (18) The Godfather – Crime/Drama
Robert Watts (44) American Pie - Comedy
Linda Goddard (47) The Breakfast Club – Comedy/Drama
John Seaman (62) Casablanca – Drama, Romance
Alice Calaby (92) Gone with the Wind – Drama, Romance
Jack Latoy (18) The Iron Giant – Animation, Action
Sam Hitchins (17) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Indie, Comedy
Fletcher Watts (11) The Spongebob Movie – Animation, Comedy
Beth Calaby (12) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Adventure, Fantasy

5) Why was that your favourite film?
Harrison Calaby (16) Because it’s hilarious and the characters are iconic.
Ben Thorpe (18) It’s just brilliant, I never get bored of watching it.
Robert Watts (44) I’ve seen it so many times and I still laugh.
Linda Goddard (47) It’s the movie I remember most from my childhood.
John Seaman (62) It’s simple but fantastic.
Alice Calaby (92) I can watch it over and over again.
Jack Latoy (18) It’s the movie of my childhood.
Sam Hitchins (17) It’s different to anything else I’ve seen.
Fletcher Watts (11) Because it’s funny.
Beth Calaby (12) I love the story.

Short Film Recreation: Editing & Final Product

As soon as we had shot everything for the recreation of 'My Beast Friend', we immediately thought about editing.

Since we had filmed on the Sunday and our deadline was the following Friday, it was agreed that I would do the majority of the editing at I have Adobe Premiere Pro on my laptop but then bring my laptop into school to consult editing decisions with everyone else.

By Wednesday, I had a rough cut out together and I spent the next two days working closely, particularly with Lizzie, to perfect shot transitions, correct audio volumes of different shots, creating the title and the credits, fitting in the music and the foley sound (of which we only had time to do the doorbell. Had we had more time, we probably would have liked to re-do some of the audio from the footage). On Friday we made our last few changes and then we had done as much as we could in our two week deadline.

Here is our recreation of Ewan Torrance's 'My Beast Friend':

I think that, considering we only had two weeks to put this together (as well as not falling behind in other subjects) we have done a pretty good job. We acknowledge that it isn't perfect. There are a few eyeline mis-matches and the lighting isn't consistent throughout the video. Other than that though I am proud of what we had achieved and am very greatful particularly to George (who played 'Fluff'), Ryan (who played 'Ed') and Henry (who was our official photographer) who don't do Media Studies but gave up their free time to help us anyway.

Short Film Recreation: The Shoot

On Sunday, my group and our actors assembled at my house in order to film our recreation of 'My Beast Friend'.

I think that the shoot went really well and I personally got a brief feel of what it is like to be a director, which I loved! Here are some photos from the shoot:

OUR TAG

ME SETTING UP A SHOT

RYAN CHECKING OVER THE SCRIPT

BRIBING FERRIS WITH TREATS

GEORGE IN HIS BOX

PREP TALK

GEORGE READY FOR A TAKE

ME SETTING UP A SHOT

MENTAL PREPARATION

MAKE-UP

SET, MARKER & ACTION

ME CHECKING OUR SCENES WITH THE ORIGINAL

GEORGE BEING... 'FLUFF'

THE TWO CATS

ME DIRECTING

SETTING UP

After the shoot, we thought about taking some original stills to do a practice ancillary task and so here are the images that we took for that:

Short Film Recreation: The Script

MY BEAST FRIEND by EWAN TORRANCE

FADE IN:

ED BYRNE walks across the frame carrying a cardboard moving box.

FOUL-MOUTHED CAT, FLUFF, wears a tag, labelled ‘Please look after this cat free to good home.’

FLUFF

Please… please… please…

Ed, tell me what’s going on right now or I’m going to sick up all of yesterday’s tuna.

Oh no-

Ed stands up.

It’s that girl isn’t it? Amoeba.

You’re mad. She’s way out of your league.

ED

This has nothing to do with Amelia. I just want to sort my life out, you know. Get rid of some of the dead wood. So, I thought I’d take you to this great, fun place just for cats. Yeah – just until I finish tidying up.

It’s called… Pleasure Land.

Ed raises his eyebrows and waves his hands in an attempt to look enthusiastic.

CAT (humouring him)

Pleasure Land? Sweet.

Ed nods to spur him on.

But not before time.

And then walks off screen, Fluff watching him angrily.

The doorbell rings. AMELIA can be seen as she approaches the door, phone held to her ear.

AMELIA

I’m so sorry Ed, I know I’m super early! Oh my god -

Ed stares at Fluff anxiously. As Amelia notices the cat, she walks over to it.

Who’s this?

ED

That’s – er – Fluff.

Amelia pets Fluff, who now appears as an actual cat. She reads the label.

AMELA

‘Free to good home.’

Fluff becomes the man again. She tickles his chin, whilst he looks immensely happy with himself; shooting Ed a winning look.

Some monster actually abandoned this sweet little creature!

She picks up the cat, which then becomes the man again.

Well – Fluff, I guess that makes me your new mummy now.

FLUFF (to ED)

You lying Cu-

CREDITS ROLL

Short Film Recreation: Brief & Planning

We have been given the task to recreate a short film in order to gain experience in how a short film is made. 

We were given a choice of either recreating 'Get Off My Land' or 'My Beast Friend'. I am in a group with Lizzie Starling, Lily Vosper and Beatrice Norman. Although we preferred 'Get Of My Land', due to the practicality of all of us being very busy with our A-level work and only being able to shoot on one day, we thought that it would be better to recreate 'My Beast Friend' as we wouldn't be dependant on whether it was sunny or raining, day or evening.

 

We have to recreate this short film exactly - shot for shot, line for line. At the moment, Lizzie is working on getting a script, Lily and Beatrice are prop hunting and I am thinking about a location and how the camera will work within the space we can get. I'm also providing the cat...

We started by creating a list of everything that we would need before we could shoot:

-          Storyboard/ pictures of each shot that we would need to recreate.

STORYBOARD FOR ORIGINAL FILM

-          Cast – the 3 characters + a cat.

MY CAT 'FERRIS' WHO WILL PLAY 'FLUFF'

RYAN WHO WILL PLAY 'ED'

LILY WHO WILL PLAY 'AMELIA'

GEORGE WHO WILL PLAY 'FLUFF'

      Out of the four of us in my group, I was the only one with a cat so my cat, Ferris, was chosen by default to play Fluff.

      The character of Ed comes across as a little bit shy and reserved but decisive and in control of his life. We chose to cast Ryan (below left) in the role because his personality is similar to that of the character's.

      The character of Amelia is a very happy character, loves animals, is sympathetic and a little ditzy. We asked around for actresses but everyone seemed to be busy so Lily (up right) volunteered herself for the role as she thought that she was similar to the character (minus the ditzy part, of course!)

      Fluff is a melodramatic, foul-mouthed, grumpy and extrovert cat with a big personality. When we chose to do this film we instantly had George in mind to play the part. I've known George for many years and his larger than life personality and charisma meant that we agreed that he would be good for the role.

 

      Location – a hallway with adequate room to shoot in.
      Props – boxes, blankets, books, lamps etc.

-          Costume – cat costume, coats, gloves etc.

      We quickly threw a costume idea together and tested it on Ryan to see whether it would work: 

 

      We thought that the dressing gown idea worked really well but we would have to make some adjustments and make sure that it tied together so that it didn't end up looking like a dressing gown. I also had a pair of cat ears, tail and bow tie (just because really) that matched the dressing gown.