OUR SHORT FILM PITCH Laura Eaton and Amy Trickett

BRIEF NUMBER EIGHT

We have chosen to do brief number eight for our media product:

‘A short film in it’s entirety, lasting approx. five minutes long, which may

be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with a poster and radio trailer for the film’

STORYLINE IDEAS Girl is bullied at school and a silent sufferer

Abused at home and alone

Parents never around, always having to look after the household and sibling

Had a loss, grieving

Has no friends and is alone, has a love interest that could never happen

Having two protagonists, both suffering in some way

They meet and both help each other

Give the illusion that they will meet, but they never do and carry on miserable

School closed Due to unfortunatemishap

Fired from job

mugged

Dad dies, was Her only friend

Abused in corridors

OVERALL IDEA FOR THE FILM

After looking at the ideas, we have mixed together a few to come up with one final idea.

We have as yet only came up with a basic storyline for our film, but we already know that we want our film to follow ‘the day of…’ our suffering protagonist.

We want to show someone who is suffering in some way, and outline their daily hassles.

Our film will not use any elements of comedy or humour and the camera work shall use natural lighting to give a more documentary feel.

We hope to project empathy onto the audience, and use a sequence of shots which shall give off false pretences allowing the audience to question.

STRUCTURE After looking at different storyline ideas we

then went onto thinking of the structure of our film.

We liked the idea of having our main protagonist, the girl and then a boy being our motif throughout the film. He shall appear frequently.

At first we wanted to give the audience the sense that the two would meet at the end, however then give a twist and go against the conventions of a ‘Happy ending’.

We then discussed further and decided that we would show the ending of our film at the beginning and have the film as a flashback leading up to the climax.

Beginning – doesn’t show the full ending to the film, but shows most of it. Gives an element of mystery. We see a shot of the girl standing at a grave and the boy coming up to her from behind, it is not revealed what happens next or why he is there.

Middle – showing the story that leads up to this mystery end. A flashback, showing the girl dealing with the loss of her dad. Use of time lapse and hand held camera shots.

Ending – partly shown at the beginning but then unveils why the boy is there and what happens next. Boy and girl come together, left with a shot of the two holding hands at the grave.

RESEARCH As our ideas and storyline began to form,

we began to search around for inspiration.

me and my group watched a series of music videos and clips from films, e.g. Rushmore, Jay Z 99 problems, Battle Rouge and The Royal Tenebaums.

from watching the variations in each film clip i was inspired in many ways e.g. the black and white used in the Jay Z video, i found it was effective in helping to portray the message given in the video and i found it was very similar in the ways we want our film to be shown.

we then searched on the internet for 'Best short Films' and found a website that had award winning short films, one in particular interested us most and inspired us for our idea.

the film we watched was called 'Bullet proof Vest' and it followed the lives of American twins living in a city where gun crime is at its highest. we liked the shots used, e.g. the camera looking out of a car window and streets passing by and the use of time-lapse.

we also liked the idea of following somebody's life and reporting there misfortunes. i remembered seeing a film on channel 4 called 'The Unloved', following the story of a child brought up in an unhappy life and having to be put into care. it was directed by Samantha Mortan and portrayed a powerful drama from a child's eyes. Samantha used her hometown to film in, which inspires me to use rundown middle class areas from local hometowns of my own.

GENRE These are some of the most common and identifiable

film genre categories Action Adventure Comedy Horror Crime Drama Out of these we want our film to follow the drama

genre Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations,

portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets.

AUDIENCE With looking at our storyline and following the drama

genre, we feel our film would not be suitable for a very young audience and in contrast, a very old audience.

This is because our film is on a serious level with no make believe stories and characters. Having no appeal to a child.

Because of the similar conventions to a ‘Channel 4’ documentary film, it shall be shown after the watershed at a time where neither younger or older audiences will tend to watch the channel.

We feel our film will mostly appeal to teens and young adults as the protagonist shall be the same age as them and face real life situations that teens could find themselves in.

In having these features the audience shall be able to relate to the characters well.

Institutions After watching several

films which we feel our own film will have similar qualities to, we want our film to be made by the same institutions because this will help in production and sales. We would like to have Uk Film Council and film four fund our film, and for it to be a Revolver Entertainment Production.

Why UK film council? Short films

Short films can help new film-makers to develop their talent. We fund short films through several different schemes.

Short Films Completion Fund 2009/10The Short Film Completion Fund provides finance and support for short films that show outstanding potential but lack the funds to finish. A fund of £70,000 has been made available to support projects across the Fund's two calls in 2009/10.Completion Fund films have achieved outstanding success gathering over 150 international awards including Best British Short at Edinburgh and the BAFTA for Best British Short.

Why Revolver entertainment?

Revolver Entertainment, one of the leading independents in the UK, is a multi-award winning, marketing-led, all rights film distributor who continues to shake up the industry with a unique, innovative approach to managing releases.

Formed in 1997 the company was recently listed as the UK’s 14th largest Film Distributor and Home Entertainment publisher.

Why Warp films? Warp Films has created some of the most exciting

pieces of British film making in the last five years. It has won numerous plaudits and awards (including three BAFTAs) since being set up in 2002.

In 2006 Warp made their most successful production to date: 'This is England', the story of Shaun, a boy who is befriended by a local skin-head gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. With it's evocative soundtrack, dazzling young star and emotive content it has won numerous international festival awards as well as scooping Best FIlm at the British Independent Film Awards and Best British Film at the BAFTAs. At the same award ceremony Warp collected it's third BAFTA as Paddy Considine's directorial debut 'Dog Altogether' won best short.

A Well Known Shane Meadows film