Original plan
My original plan was to show how cocaine can quickly become introduced to someone's life as a way to escape the aspects of deprivation and trauma. I chose the perfect actress in Nimah Grace who was not involved in the underground scene and dressed completely different and not street/hip, in order to capture the change in her life as a result of cocaine and raving. I planned on showing the deterioration of the character through physical appearance (by bags under the eyes gradually and having an ever increased dishevelled appearance), and the knock on effect at school and work by being shown sniffing at school and becoming increasingly un organised.
I started filming Niamh in the lyndhurst estate, capturing her excellent acting skills via facial expressions and body language. I gained some footage which was perfect for my film including a slow motion shot establishing the tower blocks panning to niamh smoking a fag and at that precise moment a police car went past in the background and the sirens in slow motion really enhance the deprivation aspect of my film and really created a tense atmosphere. The film ended with niamh completely encapsulated by the coke, she finally became negligant and left the cocaine lying around, her little brother would mistaken it for lemon sherbet and die, hitting the audience hard.
But, due to Niamhs commitments to college and personal problems, she kept letting me down until I took the decision to cut her from the role and alter my plot to accommodate my new actress... Harriett Carolan-Ortan. I had to consider that Harriett's style was already street and so the drugs shouldn't be introduced yet already apart of her lifestyle.
The scenes I had filmed with niamh in my original plan;
I filmed Niamh in 'The Fox' (a pub) toilets doing drugs to get her through her shift, i filmed it in slow motion just as her head goes back, this dramatises the whole episode. The costume was a white shirt and black trousers to get across that she was in work uniform.
I realised after i filmed scenes with Niamh that filming vertically with the iPhone was a mistake as the borders on the screen wasnt consistent with the horizontal view, which covered the whole screen and looked like a film. This shot is a prime example as i positioned myself to be the mirror but holding the phone vertically, making the shot un-usable.
My favourite shot when I filmed with Niamh was the shot when I filmed the establishing shot of her estate in slow motion and at that precise time a police car went past, giving the scene added reality and authenticity, the slow motion dragged out the sirens that were gradually getting louder. When the slow motion stopped, the sirens came back into real time, shocking the audience with its volume.
As these scenes where filmed around Christmas time I really wanted to get the festive season across to my audience as Christmas is a time for family and happiness so the depressing nature of my film would be enhanced by this notion. Another scene which was unusable thanks to my vertical positioning of my camera was this rave scene which was perfect to get across the Christmas vibe.
I made use of opportunities that threw themselves at my at the time of filming, for example there was some sick on the floor so I filmed Niamh over it like it was her sick, as a repercussion from drugs and ill health.
When filming Niamh working in the pub I put a time-lapsing effect of a pint being drunk as to show the passing of time/her shift.The scenes I had filmed with niamh in my original plan;
I filmed Niamh in 'The Fox' (a pub) toilets doing drugs to get her through her shift, i filmed it in slow motion just as her head goes back, this dramatises the whole episode. The costume was a white shirt and black trousers to get across that she was in work uniform.
I realised after i filmed scenes with Niamh that filming vertically with the iPhone was a mistake as the borders on the screen wasnt consistent with the horizontal view, which covered the whole screen and looked like a film. This shot is a prime example as i positioned myself to be the mirror but holding the phone vertically, making the shot un-usable.
My favourite shot when I filmed with Niamh was the shot when I filmed the establishing shot of her estate in slow motion and at that precise time a police car went past, giving the scene added reality and authenticity, the slow motion dragged out the sirens that were gradually getting louder. When the slow motion stopped, the sirens came back into real time, shocking the audience with its volume.
As these scenes where filmed around Christmas time I really wanted to get the festive season across to my audience as Christmas is a time for family and happiness so the depressing nature of my film would be enhanced by this notion. Another scene which was unusable thanks to my vertical positioning of my camera was this rave scene which was perfect to get across the Christmas vibe.
I made use of opportunities that threw themselves at my at the time of filming, for example there was some sick on the floor so I filmed Niamh over it like it was her sick, as a repercussion from drugs and ill health.
I used a camera angle of a drinker in the pub to project how Niamh feels paranoid due to the drugs.
Original production
I used adobe elements as my platform for the production of my film on a Samsung desktop, as I was using it, I noticed the quality of the film was extremely poor and nothing like what it looked like on my retina display iPhone. I realised this was the result of emailing my shots instead of downloading them onto a memory stick, also the lack of technological convergence was to blame in the lack of consistency in my work and the quality of film.
Outline of the adapted plot;
The youth culture theme is what my narrative will be based around, the typical student will do a film generically on drugs and crime, however my film will be about the real life of a girl who uses drugs as a way of escaping aspects of her life that are traumatic. The negligence of Harriett causes drastic consequences as her negligent father finds the cocaine and mistakes it for lemon sherbet which is constantly referenced throughout the film innocently as the fathers favourite sweet. The audience never finds out what happens to the father, which will surely hit home to the audience as Harriett is a representation of the average girl who goes out on the weekends experiments with drugs as other aspects of her life need escaping, this basic story applys to many young people and what my film does is warn the audience as to the damage drugs can do to the normal person if addiction gets a grip.The storyline will follow a non linear narrative as it flows from beginning to end with one scene of rewinding/ going back in time, disrupting the narrative, Todorov's narrative is being followed apart from the fifth point - the restoration of equilibrium, as the audience don't know what happens to the father so no new equilibrium is established.So for my short film or trailer to induce messages of information or moral elements, I don’t have to rely on the audience being dominant because my message ‘drugs are bad’ essentially is pretty clear. The hypodermic needle theory would say that I am subconsciously persuading the audience not to drugs as there could be dramatic consequences. However, an element of dominance needs to be had as my actress takes drugs and is seen having the time of her life, therefore to prevent copycat theory the audience need to be dominant.
Adding theorys to my work, Blumler and Katz's uses and gratification theory would be manipulated in my film as my audience would be watching for the information gain;
INFORMATION
Finding out
about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the
world
Seeking
advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
Satisfying
curiosity and general interest
The information on youth and drugs and the up to date state of the youth today would entice my audience to watch this film.
Storyboard
- The title of the film written in lemon sherbet on the pavement, scene see Harriett walk through the writing, camera follows Harriett's direction. Close up of the writing on the pavement, rotation tracking long shot of Harriett. The introduction of Harriett as the main character,walking to work in the dark. Establishing shot of her work place.
- Point of view shot of a drinker in the pub showing Harriett work encapsulating the audience as they feel they are spying on Harriett from inside her work. Time-lapse edit of a pint which signifies time passing by.
- Going home on the bus, tired and sad, shot of the bus cctv of Harriett at the back of the bus staring out of the black window.
- Get a shot of a bus moving with Harriett sitting by the window
- Establishing shots of the council estate
- Harriett smokes a cigarette behind the council flats, long shot with camera movement from top to bottom.
- Harriett walking along the path on the outside of the flats, entering the flat
- Cupboard shot-camera placed in cupboard to the opening of the cupboards by Harriett to show the lack of food. Facial expressions are key. Walks past living room to see her dad passed out on the sofa surrounded by beer cans, the poverty and bad parenting should come across through these shots via props. E.g portable TV, no pillows.
- Scene of Harriett in her room getting ready to go out
Reference to lemon sherbet throughout.
- Close up of calender being crossed off till Friday, showing repetitiveness of the week. Time lapse.
- Friday sees Harriett walk into her room still camera movement, cross off Friday on the calender, sit at her desk writing an essay, piled up work around her, phone on charge by the desk
- Texts are received asking her to come out, close up of screen, she tries to resist temptation but finally gives in, slamming her pen down, getting up to get ready.
- Clothing focused on in getting ready, close up of top to bottom.
- Use the camera as a mirror
- Drug use
- Scenes of the rave/slow motion/blurred
- Shots of the dad placing down and empty container of lemon sherbet, constantly switching to the rave and sniffing to show the contrast in environments and aspects of her life, it also shows that the inclusion of lemon sherbet is important.
- Dad walks (filmed walk capturing the fact he is drunk) into the kitchen to find a bag of cocaine, thinking it is lemon sherbet because he is drunk.
- Harriett comes home from the rave taking her jacket off being extremely negligent, the drugs fall out her pocket and she goes to bed
- To find that in the morning the drugs have gone
- The dads hand slowly fades in, relaxed, possibly dead, with 'lemon sherbet' everywhere.
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