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.