Keri's NEA Blog

Film studies evaluation It’s A Long Goodbye is a short film which shows the effect of the dementia in the perspective of a loved one who has lost her husband. My film is based around the idea of flowers being prearranged to be sent to a lady on certain dates. The flowers are sent from a loved one who is seemingly not to be around anymore. As my short film progresses it becomes clear that the loved one is still alive but in a care home, hinting that some aspects of the loved one has become to fade. My film includes a poem about Alzheimer’s and voice clips of both my actors. I wanted my film to show dementia in a different light, with happiness around the idea of the flowers being pre-arranged. Throughout the planning, recording and editing of my film I was inspired by different elements of film form which helped me create a successful outcome. Through representation , I created a short film which is clearly identified as showing age and dementia. I was able to do this through ...

My Final Film  This is my finished 4 minute 50 second film. 

Rough Cut  Before completing my finial film, i created a rough cut. This allowed me to experiment with ideas, trail out ideas and also try different techniques with editing and camera angles. In my rough cut i used the same settings as i wanted to in my finial piece, however used different actors. For my finial cut i want to use my Nan and Grandad as the two actors, however as they live in London i needed to experiment before they came down to film. This led me to using my friend and mum in my rough cut footage.   When filming the rough cut i used the poem i had found over the top of the footage to see how this could work in the real film. I felt this was extremely successful. I felt i really benefitted from completing a rough cut as it allowed e to review and refine my ideas. 

Draft Script For my film I intend on using a poem over the top of acting on screen. The poem I want to use is about Alzheimer's. I will also be adding in voice clips from  my characters. The lady will be reading the poem and the man will be reading the notes attached to the flowers and the one at the florist.  The Poem - It's A long Goodbye She’s leaving me, little by little, I wish she wouldn’t go. I will be there as long as she needs me. How do I let her know? I’d like to hold on to the memories. I’d also like to share But she’s further away, getting further away. And yet she’s always there. It’s a long good-bye, and yet I believe that she can sense us. So much time between now and then, when its time against us. There are times she almost seems like herself. Sometimes it’s just a phase. A part of the person I once knew, And sometimes just a trace. It’s a long good-bye and I still don’t know just what to say. There’s so much ...

Plot Synopsis My film will start in a florist, where a certain bouquet is being made. There will be a variety of shots in the florist as the flowers are being chosen and put together. There will be a hand written note from the male in my film, stating the dates for the flowers to be delivered. This note will also be spoken by the male and overlaid on top of this section. After this the camera will change to the Ragged Robin Florist van driving and parking outside the house. The lady will then get out and give the flowers to the lady inside. Between these clips I may have others from inside the house and the lady coming to the door. She will then walk the flowers into the house and place them down next to a photograph of her and her husband. When opening the card attached the audience will hear the males voice again reading the card, this will then lead into a memory scene. The first note will be wishing her a happy wedding anniversary and lead onto a memory at pasta gusto. Thi...

Storyboard Once I had my idea for my film I completed a storyboard to get a rough ideas about camera shots and how I will make the setting. Bellow is my storyboard.

Generating ideas After beginning to have an idea around what I want to do for my short film I began to complete an idea list. For my film around dementia I need to look at where I will be recording, my characters, props and trial footage. Potential Locations: - Florist - Ragged Robin Florist - A Home - Potentially mine - however need to adapt to link to the characters I will be using e.g photographs, modern/vintage style - A Care Home - Windmill House - volunteer here - Restaurant - Pasta Gusto - work there - Wymondham - memory sequences, walks around Wymondham potentially the Abbey. When going to the florist I fell in love with the bold colours of the flowers, the logos and signs in the florist. The people working were friendly and approachable which made me love the place more. From volunteering at a dementia care home in Wymondham I was able to talk to the manager and find dates for recording. From working in Pasta Gusto I was able to find times...

Montage video Before completing my own montage video we were tasked to watch the two videos bellow to see famous examples used in films. The first being the married life montage in UP and the other being the training montage in Rocky. These two clips were extremely inspiring and allowed us to develop our own ideas for our theme of day 6444, the average number of days a 17 year old has been alive for. This is my own short montage with the stimulus of 6444 days:  Cuts and transitions video In today's lesson we learnt more about cuts and transitions, we watched the YouTube clip bellow which extended my knowledge more. from this we then were tasked to create our own video about cuts and transitions with examples. in my group was Emily, Henry and Joe. We worked together to create our own video. Both of these tasks have helped me see and practice using a range of techniques. i really enjoyed completing this wor...

Horror Experimental Makeup In today's lesson we were given floor, red food dye, a fake wound, and wax to create two fake injuries. My group and i created two wounds, one of the face of Henry and the other on the arm of Joe. in both these wounds we used plastic cutlery to add depth to out piece. we also used dry mud when mixing the floor and red food dye together to create a more textured blood liquid.       

Dragons Den' Pitch planning

What's in the news? https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/richard-hammond-and-family-gassed-and-robbed-as-they-slept-in-french-holiday-villa-a3925596.html Plot Synopsis 5 min film either 1- family talking about the horrific event 2- as is you where there 3- flash backs If i was to take this story from the current news and turn it into a short 5min film, i would do this by the film being a monologue from an actor playing Richard Hammond, and when in certain areas of the house he would have flash backs from the robbery. intro- The actor playing Richard Hammond sitting by himself in an empty room of the villa that was broken into. a chair in the middle of the room clips from behind him. close ups to his face with his eyes just staring into the distance. *footsteps* - creaking floor boards His head quickly moves, close up to his eyes - pupils getting bigger. Then his monologue about the attack starts - "it all ...

Why are there short films? A short film is any motion picture not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".  Short films are generally used by filmmakers to gain experience or prove their talent in order to gain   funding   for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or   film studios . Short films are used for entertainment, to express a message and for film makers to gain experience. What is the point of them? Short films are generally used by filmmakers to gain experience or prove their talent in order to gain   funding   for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or   film studios . Short films allow a film maker to show off their talent in hope to be commissioned to complete o...

Research into existing student made short films As well as watching and researching into professionally made films we have also looked into films created by students. A key difference i found when watching a range of films of different genres created by students is some lack the professional feel, in ways such as the costume used for the actors, the limited camera angles and edited sequences. One key issue that has stood out is the setting, some students have been able to gain access to settings which match their intentions of their film. However some have almost limited themselves by reusing the same setting within their film. An example of this is The Blonde. This short film is about a day which has gone wrong in some aspects due to the change of the actors hair colour to blonde. This film starts with a really strong introduction where there are lots of short snippets of hair dryers, straighteners , h air curlers all im...