Storytelling unit - "ASHORE"

Malcolm Caine’s reasons for continuing his dead daughter’s work of keeping the local beach free of garbage gets challenged by a young boy. 

ASHORE is a drama about Malcolm Caine who is left alone after his daughter, an always smiling and active environmentalist, die in a car accident caused by her friend's reckless driving. Without a job and any contact to other relatives his only connection to the outside world is now gone. As a result Malcolm desides to shut himself away from society and continue his daughter’s work of keeping the local beach clean.
Every morning he goes to the beach to clean up the garbage that has been washed on land during the night, but one day a young boy shows up and slowly breaks Malcolm's mental wall that keeps him from opening up to other people.

Characters:

Malcolm Caine, 60

Divorced. His wife moved when she discovered she was pregnant with another man’s child.

Had a daughter who died in a car accident.

Greatly affected by his daughter's death.  

Never been very open or social. 

Doesn't like other humans. 

Doesn’t work because of mental disability.

Enjoys reading.

Jenna Caine 16, (dead)

Malcolm's daughter, a typical "daddygirl".

Active environmentalist.

Social, always happy.

Smart, did great at school.

Rob Wescott, 7

Live alone with his mother.

Curious, smart, always questioning everything.

Active, plays football. 

Doesn’t miss having a dad ‘cause his dad left when he was very young.

Elisabeth Wescott, 35

Rob's mother.

Got divorced when Rob was 2 years old. 

Currently flirting with another man. 

Working as a doctor.

Enjoys reading and art.

Locations: 

Local beach - A small beach close to a small city. 

Malcolm's house - A small house close to the beach. Old furniture, No new/modern decorations.

Rob's/Elisabeth's apartment - Small apartment, two bedrooms. Modern, clean. 

Inspiration:

I got a lot of inspiration to the idea from "UP" and "Mr. Robot".

"UP" is an animation movie made by Pixar where an old man named Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his home equipped with balloons, and unwillingly ends up taking a young boy with him. 

"Mr Robot" is an American drama-thriller television series about Elliot, a young programmer who works as a cyber-security engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot fins himself at a crossroad when he get recruited to destroy the corporation he is payed to protect. 

I have wanted to make a short film that takes up the problem surrounding the garbage in the ocean for quite some time as i find a lot of inspiration from the YouTube channel AsapSCIENCE and articles from Greenpeace and NRK. And therefore want to have this environmental problem as an important part of this story and a great influence on why Malcolm thinks and acts the whey he does.  

Link:
AsapSCIENSE

Article Greenpeace

Article NRK

//All images from Google.com\\

Malcolm

Jenna

Rob

Elisabeth

Malcolm's house

Appartment

Appartment window

Beach 1

Beach 2

UP

Mr Robot

Contextual Studies - Mise en Scène

Everything being shown on the scene or screen, actors, lightning, props, costume and so on is called "Mise en Scène", which is a French term that means "placing on stage".

The key elements of mice en scene is:
Staging - Placement of characters and props, and their body language
Costume/makeup - Visual look of characters (good vs. bad)
Setting - Environment in which the story takes place
Lightning - How it affects the setting and characters (shadows)

We looked at different clips from Game of Thrones to compare the Mise en Scène, and also compared the Mise en Scène in drama and dokumentary.


Tyrion and Cersei in King's Landing

Staging - The body language of Cersai conveys female dominance. She is the one in control over Tyrion in this scene.

Costume/makeup - Wearing nice clothes and gold being everywhere shows wealth and importance. Cersai's red dress and Tyrion's black clothes also shows contrast (good/evil).

Setting - Warm, grand (maybe a castle), rich and exotic

Lighting - Soft and warm natural lighting. Could be morning or mid afternoon.


Jon Snow prepares to head towards Craster's Keep

Staging - Those with higher priority was placed higher up, (like a stage). Status and rank.

Costume/makeup - Everyone wearing similar clothes, uniformity. Also gives them a bond to eachother.

Setting - Colder and darker. More masculine.

Lighting - The warm light is replaced with a colder, blue light. The lightning is harsh and makes lots of shadows.



Mise en Scène - Drama:

Staging - Director specific.
Costume/makeup - Designed as character specific.
Setting - Film & TV drama classically use studio sets.
Lighting - Classically high-key designed, even if simulates natural lighting.

Mise en Scène - Documentary:

Staging - Typically "natural", but often director specific.
Costume/makeup - Often authentic, but can be directed,
Setting - Classically uses "real" locations.
Lighting - Traditionally "natural", but often artificial/designed.


How does Mise en Scène help us in storytelling?

- Useful visual shorthand. Show, not tell.
- Can help define characters, their emotional state and status, (class and occupation).
- Can help define relationshipsbetween characters through staging, lightning and framing.
- Action is character. What we do is as important as what we say.

If we don't have Mise en Scène we wont have any visual context. We will essentially only have audio which makes it radio, not television.

//Images from google.com and youtube.com\\

Picture

Screenshot

Camera Workshop

Today we started off with out first camera workshop to get a grasp for some of the equipment.
We went through the basics and were given tasks to test out focus, white balance and different framing.

I've only used DSLR until now so it was fun to play and learn about the Sony cameras and it made me really look forward to learn more about the settings and to shoot our "The meeting"-project.

 As part of the workshop we also got to play playing around with sound using a microphone and boom, listening to the effect of pointing the mic in different directions.

It was a fun workshop, and it was nice to finally get to touch the camera equipment since I'm working to become a camera operator.

//Image from google.com\\

Picture

Steve Coombes - Storywriting

As part of the preparation towards our storytelling project we are having scriptwriter Steve Coombes as a lecturer for a few days over the next couple of weeks.
Steve got into screen writing through acting and it was his wife, who's a producer, that got him to write for television. He is known for "What Rats Won't do", "Sold" and "Frank Stubbs".

Steve's golden rules of story writing:
- Don't bother with adjectives, verbs are what you want. 

- Tell the audience only what they need to know. 

- Show, don't tell. "This is SHOWBIZ, not SAYBIZ."

- Set up -> distraction ->punchline

- Don't start writing a screenplay before you know what the ending is. 

- Count your moments. 

"If you don't have any moments, throw the script in the bin."

From idea to final script:

Loggline/pitch - a one-sentence summary of the story. 

Treatment - Summary of the story where you outline the whole story. (Not more than 10 pages). 

Bible - Where you tell how you want everything in the story to be. 

First draft - Script, 60 pages long, 12 000 words. 

Green light - Start shooting

Writing the script

"Almost anything you write in a screenplay can survive a bad director, it can also survive a bad producer, but it can't survive a bad actor."

//All images from google.com\\

Picture

Storytelling unit - Short film "Soft"

"Soft" is a short drama from 2006, written and directed by Simon Ellis. 

The film is about a father who rediscovers his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.

"Soft" has won 17 awards and has  been nominated for 3 awards, including 1 BAFTA Film Award.

//IMDB\\

Soft by Simon Ellis on Vimeo

Simon got the idea for the script when he was taking the buss one day and saw a kid being bullied. The buss driver appeared to be the kid's dad, but he didn't stand up for his son.


Setting: Modern day, urban
Character: Father, son, gang of thugs
Conflict: Fear, pride, emotional conflict
Change: Moral compass, roles reversed
Theme: Father/son relationship, masculinity
Gritty, real


We were challenged to make a pitch for the film, either alone or in pairs. my group came up with two ideas:
1. "A father has to protect his son, but is the conflict too much for him to handle?"

2. "A father has to protect his son and home from an external conflict, but the battle outside is nothing compared to the one within."

We took most liking to pitch number 2 because it isn't as vague as the first one while at the same time it doesn't tell too much of the story and spoil the whole film.

Storytelling unit - Working on ideas

During our first unit we are challenged to write and develop an original 10 page which we will translate it into a 2 minute short story, or a 2 minute trailer.

The idea should be derived from the starting point of "the meeting" and should focus on the character's goal, problem and change. The film should have one main location and the genre must be either comedy, thriller or drama.

I'm currently deciding between three ideas; one where i have a character i like, one where i already have a first draft ready and one where i have nothing, but an idea. My ideas are:

1. Escape plan - Toothbrush 

"An Schizophrenic old lady decides to escape the mental hospital only equipped with a toothbrush."

I love the character i have for this one because i find her both interesting and funny to work on, and i like the idea of her escaping the mental hospital only equipped with a toothbrush.
I found a great deal of inspiration to this one from the movie "One flew over the cuckoos nest" and "The hundred year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared".
This one is quite challenging to make because it requires quite a few old people as extras. It's also challenging in the way that i don't know much about how the healthcare system in UK works.

2. Project Boyfriend

"Ellen has finally found herself a boyfriend, but struggles to become the sexy, perfect looking girlfriend she think she has to be."

Most girls who have had a boyfriend knows how hard it is to try to be "perfect" all the time. How difficult it is to eat spaghetti in a cute way, to not burp when you really have to burp and how hard it is to buy makeup for the first time if you have no idea how the whole "make up-world" works.
I got this idea after talking with my friend and thought it could be a cute and funny short film. Also got some inspiration for the story from watching "White chicks" and "How to be single".
This is probably the easiest one to make in terms of finding actors, but challenging in the way that i have no idea about how i want the story to be, i only have this idea which i really like... I'm also struggling to find one main location for this one.

3. ASHORE

"After loosing his daughter to an accident Nick continue to clean the local beach in her place, but his reasons for doing so gets challenged."

I've been a huge fan of the Pixar movie "Up" ever since i first saw it. I love the old, grumpy man character and got the idea to this story after reading some articles by Greenpeace about Great Pacific garbage patch. This i figured out the characters quite fast and had a first draft almost finished two days after coming up with the idea.
This is probably the easiest one to make out of my three ideas since it doesn't require many actors and i already have a pretty clear picture of how i want the story to be. It will be challenging to find the locations that I want and an old man to play the main character, but i think it will be manageable

I'm currently working a bit on all three of them and hope to find out soon which idea I take the most liking to.

//All images from Google.com\\
Old lady
Corridor
The 100 year old...
One flew...

Ellen
Man-woman
White Chicks
How to be single
Beach
Boy
MrRobot
Up

Storytelling unit - Short project

After looking at what's needed to create a pitch, plot and a short story we paired up with somebody in our class to create three pitches (max 25 words) in a limited amount of time. To get inspiration for the pitches we used articles we found in newspapers.

Our pitches:


"The bees bites back"Johny Depp is being hunted for a freak accident. The bees he tried to save humanity with bicame it's greatest threat. 

"Prime jacked"Two boys car jack the prime minister on her way to an illicit dealing and kick off a national incident. 

"Successful Screw up"A newbie director gets a big budget after the scripts are mixed up, and he makes a porno which becomes a sensation.

After making the pitches we were put into groups of three and asked to choose two random characters and a location. We would then make a story around these where we would think about the goal, conflict and change.

Characters:
- Private investigator
- Beach bum

Location:
- Country lane

Private investigator:
- Sarah Turner
- 36 years old
- High morals
- Organized, tidy
- Recently left police due to an unknown reason
- Single
- Has no children



Beach bum:
- Richard Tugger
- Young, 18 years old
- Regularly gets drunk at the beach
- Low self esteem
- Unmotivated 




Location:

"Lonesome Road"

Sarah is hired by Richard's mother to find him as he hasn't been home for two days. She sais she thinks he's somewhere around the beach. Sarah then drives down the country lane at a high speed when someone walks in front of her car. She hits the brakes too late and ends up hitting the person with her car. She gets out and realize the person on the ground is Richard, and he's dead. She is then faced with a decision, does she tell the mother that she killed her son or does she lie and tell her she found him like that? If she tells the truth she could lose everything, but if she lies she will lose her honor. 

She decides to leave him and gets away with it, but struggles to sleep because of the guilt.

Why are they meeting:
Sara is hired to find Richard because he has gone missing.

Goal:
Getting Richard home

Conflict:
Will Sarah tell the truth and risk loosing everything, or will she lie and go against what she stands for?

Change:
Sarah decides to lie and therefore loses her honor and struggles with guilt.

//All images from google.com

UCA - Summer Project

Hi, I'm Trine, 21 years old from norway, and here is a short introduction video to show some of the things i like, projects that I've been working on, etc. Enjoy~


UCA - Summer Project from Trine Hagan on Vimeo.