For this assignment, we were asked to create a film that had a rough narrative and contained a structure much like those described in the research. We started out by writing up a small story which we would then provide a small pitch and the idea that the most people voted towards would then be the film people worked to create, my idea was voted the highest and a large percentage of the class wanted to be part of this project, however, due to the size of group going over the limit, we decided to have two episodes by two different teams rather than one small movie by a large group, this required writing up scripts for both episodes and then discussing what improvements should be made. Once the scripts and storyboards had been drawn up and written we then moved onto the character designs which we used for roughly around three characters. Thanks to the in depth questionairre we used, it gave us a really good idea of what characters we would like and the actors we could use for to portray these characters. After this was all done, we then contacted multiple actors to use during the filming and we also arranged to use several locations including a hotel, bar and an old abandoned office space.
After a couple of weeks of planning, we were then contacted by the actors who notified us that they could not arrive and that they will be unable to film with us, this was a major problem in the development process as we had delayed the filming whilst waiting for the actors and in a quick attempt to fix situation, we then decided to film with ourselves, we acquired some fantastic shots and the team put together a great office atmosphere but due to time limits and lack of resources, we had to go back to previous footage from an old film and incorporate this into our project as we had just not recorded enough footage to be able to create a small film, at first we attempted to provide a trailer as it allowed us to balance the footage of both the old film and our current recordings, however, we had to create a certain narrative and the structure had to go along the ABC narrative so through editing, we then put together a proper film by just connecting both pieces of footage.
Overall, I was incredibly happy with the performance with the team, despite being hit by major disadvantages including time restraints and missing actors, we still worked hard to create something out the small amount of footage we had recorded, project wise, I really felt we could have done more, it is very clear we fell massively short of the original idea and if we were ever given the chance to work on this project again with more time, I really feel we could create the project exactly like we wanted but I am really impressed with the overall cooperation and work the team put in to try and get the most out of what we had recorded.
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Characters and Story
Many films normally stick to having very generic characters as it gives you a sense of who is good and bad and this can be good in very particular positions, however, to create a truly in depth character is incredibly difficult and can require a lot of work and discussion. Sheets providing many questions into who the character is and what they do are given out and the team gets together to discuss these questions, starting out easily with questions like gender and name and slowly moving onto far more in depth questions like what is their cousins name or their long term aspirations. There are many sites offering insight into the process, here is one example: http://writeworld.tumblr.com/private/25825848476/tumblr_m65jd5nLbY1rnl2v3
The Seven Original Stories
Stories, despite how varied they can be, all rely on a base premise, these are the original seven stories that all plots are based upon:
Overcoming the Monster
This is the plot in which the protagonist sets out to defeat a specific villain or creature, a good example of this would be The Hobbit film in which the protagonists go out to slay a dragon which has now made his home in their city.
Rags to Riches
This is the process in which the protagonist starts out with everything they could have wished for before suddenly losing everything only to gain it back or gain something else in exchange for this, many Disney films go along this same plot.
The Quest
This is the story in which a group of characters set out to accomplish a certain task and they must deal with the many trials that this journey will present to them. A good example of this would be Lord of the Rings, in which the protagonists set out to destroy a ring and find themselves going through many trials and events in the process,
Voyage and Return
This is the story of a character heading off to distance lands or even universes and going through a life changing experience. A good example of this would be Jurassic Park, in which the protagonists head off to a small island and inhabited by dinosaurs.
Comedy
This can go along any sort of plot, however it provides comical situations or dialogue to create humor. A good example of this would be the large collection of Romantic Comedies.
Tragedy
Tragedy is the story arc in which all of the characters either pass away or find themselves in a position where they cannot continue, a good example of this would be 47 Ronin, in which the protagonists find themselves partly absolved of their crimes but as payment for this, they must all commit seppuku.
Rebirth
This is the story in which characters find themselves changed men over a certain experience or event, this normally starts out with the protagonist as a grumpy and vile character but over the course of the plot, they become joyful and carefree. The best example of this would be Christmas Carol, in a cruel man who hates Christmas goes through the plot being shown his mistakes, this obviously changes the man and by the end, he is loving and kind.
Character Origins
Characters also span from seven original ideas much like the plot, these are the eight examples:
The Villain
This is a character who intends to stop the hero performing good or just accomplishing his goal.
The Hero
He is commonly the protagonist and is normally very caring and always goes out of his way to help others.
The False Hero
This character normally starts out as a hero but slowly transforms into the villain.
The Donor
This is the character who provides the protagonist with the tools and skills to accomplish his quest.
The Assistant
This character normally stands by the protagonist and provides help.
The Princess
This is normally the goal of the protagonist and is either is possession of the villain or is just an overall target.
The Dispatcher
This is normally the man who provides the protagonist with a quest.
The Anti-Hero
This can be a hero who accidentally causes evil or a villain who transforms into the hero.
The Seven Original Stories
Stories, despite how varied they can be, all rely on a base premise, these are the original seven stories that all plots are based upon:
Overcoming the Monster
This is the plot in which the protagonist sets out to defeat a specific villain or creature, a good example of this would be The Hobbit film in which the protagonists go out to slay a dragon which has now made his home in their city.
Rags to Riches
This is the process in which the protagonist starts out with everything they could have wished for before suddenly losing everything only to gain it back or gain something else in exchange for this, many Disney films go along this same plot.
The Quest
This is the story in which a group of characters set out to accomplish a certain task and they must deal with the many trials that this journey will present to them. A good example of this would be Lord of the Rings, in which the protagonists set out to destroy a ring and find themselves going through many trials and events in the process,
Voyage and Return
This is the story of a character heading off to distance lands or even universes and going through a life changing experience. A good example of this would be Jurassic Park, in which the protagonists head off to a small island and inhabited by dinosaurs.
Comedy
This can go along any sort of plot, however it provides comical situations or dialogue to create humor. A good example of this would be the large collection of Romantic Comedies.
Tragedy
Tragedy is the story arc in which all of the characters either pass away or find themselves in a position where they cannot continue, a good example of this would be 47 Ronin, in which the protagonists find themselves partly absolved of their crimes but as payment for this, they must all commit seppuku.
Rebirth
This is the story in which characters find themselves changed men over a certain experience or event, this normally starts out with the protagonist as a grumpy and vile character but over the course of the plot, they become joyful and carefree. The best example of this would be Christmas Carol, in a cruel man who hates Christmas goes through the plot being shown his mistakes, this obviously changes the man and by the end, he is loving and kind.
Character Origins
Characters also span from seven original ideas much like the plot, these are the eight examples:
The Villain
This is a character who intends to stop the hero performing good or just accomplishing his goal.
The Hero
He is commonly the protagonist and is normally very caring and always goes out of his way to help others.
The False Hero
This character normally starts out as a hero but slowly transforms into the villain.
The Donor
This is the character who provides the protagonist with the tools and skills to accomplish his quest.
The Assistant
This character normally stands by the protagonist and provides help.
The Princess
This is normally the goal of the protagonist and is either is possession of the villain or is just an overall target.
The Dispatcher
This is normally the man who provides the protagonist with a quest.
The Anti-Hero
This can be a hero who accidentally causes evil or a villain who transforms into the hero.
Act Structure
The Act structure is the discussion of how these three parts should be performed, this shows that the beginning of the film should be roughly around 20% of the film with the middle of the film taking up 65% and the finale taking around 15% of the story.
Unrestricted vs Restricted structure
The difference between this two would be the disclosure of information throughout the media, this can be best explained through by saying that an unrestricted structure explains the entire story from the very beginning, you know who is responsible for certain events and why they performed this act where-as a restricted structure works to keep the audience under a real sense of tension in which not even the viewers know who is responsible and the story slowly goes over the events that occurred to reveal what really happened within the plot. Crime commonly uses both of these themes with some crime dramas presenting the murderer from the very beginning and allowing the audience to watch the detectives slowly go over the case where as other crime dramas keep all the facts from the audience so that they, in turn, find themselves in the very same shoes as the protagonist.
Sympathy vs, Empathy
This is the effect that the characters and story have on the audience and this can effect whether you feel sympathy for the character i.e. if something terrible happens to the protagonist, you feel sad for the character whereas empathy for the character is to find yourself in their very shoes, this allows you to feel a deeper link with the character and this makes empathy a far more powerful tool, however, this can be incredibly hard to perform and is very rarely used in film.
Logical vs. Illogical
This is the use of explanation in the universe and story set up by the films, sci-fi films are well known for this as they go into massive amounts of detail to explain every piece of technology and history, a good example of this would be Alien, where even the aliens themselves despite being a new creature to present itself to the protagonists, its biology is given an in depth explanation as well the ship and technology they use during space travel. Deductive however, is providing objects into the plot without really explaining why they are there or why they serve their purpose for instance, a lot of Fantasy's use this structure as they just use the explanation "it was magic or supernatural" but there is no explanation into the whole history behind magic or the abilities performed using this magic.
Inductive vs. Deductive
This is the use of the overall story and it's many components for instance, Inductive is the sense of starting off small and slowly uncovering a far bigger picture, a good example of Inductive would be Drive, a film in which we start out watching over the life of a stunt driver/small time criminal who performs a robbery only to find out that this robbery is really a set up for a much larger crime syndicate. Where as Deductive starts off immediately with a far larger plot but instead focuses in on certain characters or events, a perfect example would be the Transformers films, a film that originally focuses on the war between the Decepticons and the Autobots before then moving in on a small group of Autobots protecting a young protagonist and their relationship.
Unrestricted vs Restricted structure
The difference between this two would be the disclosure of information throughout the media, this can be best explained through by saying that an unrestricted structure explains the entire story from the very beginning, you know who is responsible for certain events and why they performed this act where-as a restricted structure works to keep the audience under a real sense of tension in which not even the viewers know who is responsible and the story slowly goes over the events that occurred to reveal what really happened within the plot. Crime commonly uses both of these themes with some crime dramas presenting the murderer from the very beginning and allowing the audience to watch the detectives slowly go over the case where as other crime dramas keep all the facts from the audience so that they, in turn, find themselves in the very same shoes as the protagonist.
Sympathy vs, Empathy
This is the effect that the characters and story have on the audience and this can effect whether you feel sympathy for the character i.e. if something terrible happens to the protagonist, you feel sad for the character whereas empathy for the character is to find yourself in their very shoes, this allows you to feel a deeper link with the character and this makes empathy a far more powerful tool, however, this can be incredibly hard to perform and is very rarely used in film.
Logical vs. Illogical
This is the use of explanation in the universe and story set up by the films, sci-fi films are well known for this as they go into massive amounts of detail to explain every piece of technology and history, a good example of this would be Alien, where even the aliens themselves despite being a new creature to present itself to the protagonists, its biology is given an in depth explanation as well the ship and technology they use during space travel. Deductive however, is providing objects into the plot without really explaining why they are there or why they serve their purpose for instance, a lot of Fantasy's use this structure as they just use the explanation "it was magic or supernatural" but there is no explanation into the whole history behind magic or the abilities performed using this magic.
Inductive vs. Deductive
This is the use of the overall story and it's many components for instance, Inductive is the sense of starting off small and slowly uncovering a far bigger picture, a good example of Inductive would be Drive, a film in which we start out watching over the life of a stunt driver/small time criminal who performs a robbery only to find out that this robbery is really a set up for a much larger crime syndicate. Where as Deductive starts off immediately with a far larger plot but instead focuses in on certain characters or events, a perfect example would be the Transformers films, a film that originally focuses on the war between the Decepticons and the Autobots before then moving in on a small group of Autobots protecting a young protagonist and their relationship.
Genre and Narrative Structure
For films to appeal to specific audience, they must be from a specific "genre", genre can be best described as an overall style and this is displayed through the world, characters and story of the film. A good example of this would be a horror film, the most obvious genre, this is considered to be part of the horror genre through it's use of suspense, atmosphere and the story normally goes along the lines of one of the several smaller genres i.e. Supernatural, Fantasy and psychological.
However, the amount of genres has massively increased since the beginning of film due to the inclusion of "sub-genres" which as already explained, are specific styles of that genre this can include "dark comedy" and even "romantic adventure".
Narrative Structure
For a film to be truly effective, it must have a basic but crucial structure and that is to contain a beginning, middle and end. The ending can be varied and either have an open ending and this can either be used as a hint to a sequel or it can be used to give the audience an opinion into how the film ended. Or the film can end properly and answer all the questions that the intro of the film introduced, most films follow this structure, a good example would be: The first three films of Star Wars, in which the characters are presented with a problem in the first film of the trilogy, they spend the films fighting this issue and eventually in the third film, they defeat the villain and solve whatever problems they were presented with, this could be easily explained as he ABC method or a linear story.
However, certain films can follow a less simple method, this is called a non-linear story, this is normally along the lines of time travel or a more common method of this would be to use different perspectives or to start from the end and slowly work up to this finale through the use of memories or recordings, the best example of this would be Tarantino's Jackie Brown or Pulp Fiction, a film that suddenly rewinds and heads back to the beginning of the film, however the story is then portrayed from a separate characters viewpoint.
Another structure would be to slowly circulate back around and end up where the movie began, this is normally done through the use of beginning at the end of the film, flashing back to the start of the plot and slowly working back to the finale, this style of structure isn't as common but a film that uses this same structure would be Fight Club in which the intro clearly portrays the ending before suddenly flipping several weeks earlier in the plot and slowly working it's way back to the finale.
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