Firstly, I had to check the weather for Sunday, the original plan was to film on Saturday but as I started work at 4pm, I wouldn't have had as much time to film whereas I knew I had the full day free on Sunday. On the weather report it says that there will be a chance of rain; this was ok for us as some shots will be done in doors, therefore if it does start raining we will move our location from outside to inside.
-Rachael  

Filming after party

Change of plans

After having a word with Jon, Rachel and I came to the conclusion the project would be easier to finish if it was filmed in my house, instead of Rachael's. The storyboard might have to be modified slightly, but apart from that I think everythig should start falling itno place from now on.

Problems with our main actress

Our creative project was put on hold, since our main actor (Beth) has not been able to attend the filming sessions in the past weeks.
Due to this problem, Rachael and I have been obligated to get another actress.

The end

After reading out the possible endings to random people, and asking for their opinion, I have come to the conclusion that the 'blender story' is better for our creative project for several reasons. One, it is an interesting ending, all shorts need a twist, or something to get the audience's attention, and Rachael and I believe that cutting her hands off works very well for that. Also, it is an ending relatively simple to achieve, and fun to make.

Second thoughts...

Rachael and I are planning to start filming on this coming weekend (15th-17th of November). The filming will be done in Rachael's house and garden.

But after having a chat with Jon Towson, we aren't sure anymore if our project will be an extract from a full length film, or a short film in itself.
If it was to become an extract, the synopsis and action plan would have to be completely re-done, which is why I think it's a better idea to stick with a short film.

An idea I had, if our creative project were to be a short film ,was to make it as though there would be a happy ending, with the main character and her friend (who, we've found out, also has a problem with stealing) getting on a bus to go to a clinic and get expert help. On the way there, they pass a clothes and accessories shop. They both see the shop, and then they look at each other. The screen goes black, and we hear a "beeeeep" (the sound the bus makes when you press the STOP button). We never know if the girls were the ones who pressed the button, and became stealing partners, or if they ended up getting help.
personally, I don't really like this plot, because I feel it won't have the desired impact on the audience. With this in mind, I thought of another possible ending:

The objective is to make it seem like the main character was sick of stealing, and, unable to get help from outside, she decides the only way she can stop her hands from grabbing anything they can reach, is to get rid of them. This ending, itself has two 'conclusions':

1. She finds this huge pressure press (I've looked for anything remotely similar on the internet, and it doesn't seem to exist, so it'll be hard to do this ending, but it'll be worth it if we do). The press goes up and down, once, say, every five seconds, making a horrendous noise every time it goes down. The main character observes the press for a while, plays with her hands, anxious and afraid, while the loud noises sound in intervals. In the end, we see her trembling hands (CU) moving closer to the press. just before the press goes down again, we see her nervous face (ECU, focusing on the eyes). Then, just when we hear the loud noise again, the screen goes black.
2. She gets a blending machine, and, using the same principals used in Reservoir Dogs (Q. Tarantino), when a police officer gets his ear cut off, we only see her turning on the machine, and slowly moving her hands towards it. The camera then looks away, and the audience is left with only the sound of the blender destroying her hands. This works nicely in two ways: one, the impact on the spectator is much greater if the he/she can't see what's going on, but is left with his/her imagination, which is normally a lot more gruesome, and the sound to guide it. And secondly, it means that the scene would be a lot easier to achieve, given that we don't have to actually blend somebody's hand, or even worse, try to fake it well enough to make it realistic. 

Creative Project Storyboard

Audience's expectations questionnaire

What does the word GREED mean to you?

Take the word greed, what would you expect a short film film to include just by this title?

What does this word mean to you?

What do you think about when you hear this word?

Do you think greed is completely negative?

What type of person would you think of when you hear the word greed?

Just because someone is portrayed as 'greedy' does this make them a bad person?

Do you think there is a positive element to greed?

Do you think people have control over greed?

Does greed necessarily mean having 'a lot' of materialistic things? 

Short film analysis by Rachael

The editing in this short film is key; it has all been slowed down to indicate the slow passing of time. This is because the woman is desperately waiting and trying to win over the 'rock monster' to gain food, therefore time is passing so slowly because his decision could go one way or another. It also creates tension when she walks over to the 'rock monster'. It is a strange looking beast and therefore the audience doesn't really know what to expect. It also enhances greater concentration on her movement, showing us how she is desperately trying to get food. Not only then, as the food falls down into her basket in slow motion, it almost makes it appear like a dream, it is as though she can't believe it has actually happened. 
The low angle of rock monster dominates the screen and indicates who has the power in the scene, indicating that the woman looks up to the rock monster and worships it. The panning shots and zooms in enable the audience to focus on the movements of the character and also her surrounding; indicating the poor conditions of her lifestyle which makes the struggle for food appear more detrimental. 
Her performance compliments how poor she actually is, it shows her desperation for food and shows us as an audience the struggle she is going through. Her facial expressions enhance the conditions which she lives in; connoting the desperation, this suggest how important it is that she gains food from the rock monster. That then creates more tension on whether or not she will actually get food or whether the rock monster will send her away. 
Using natural, warm colours within the mise-en-scene may suggest that the conditions which she lives in is overheated and abandoned; it could be why she is desperate for food. Along with the handmade clothes it suggests that she lives in a poorer country that can't afford food to feed their families which is why she becomes so desperate to get food from the rock monster. 
Creating tension is also done by the music, more tension is made when the non-diegetic sound becomes louder and deeper. It co-insides with how the main character is feeling as a decision from the rock monster is about to be made and therefore she becomes more paniced and nervous. 
All of this being done follows the conventions of the genre, Drama. Even though, like pencil face, it has fantasy eliments, it still indicates real life struggle of povety in 3rd world countries. It then creates an emtional response from the audience as we form an allegience with the character, hoping she will get the food she deserves. It also teaches us how difficult it is for some people to get food, whereas we as an audience can get food easily from a shop. 

-Rachael

Audience's expectations - questionnaire

What does the word GREED mean to you?

1. Take the word greed, what would you expect a short film film to include just by this title? 
2. What does this word mean to you?
3. What do you think about when you hear this word? 
4. How would you portray greed? 
5. Do you think greed is completely negative?  
6. What type of person would you think of when you hear the word greed? 
7. Just because someone is portrayed as 'greedy' does this make them a bad person?
8. Do you think there is a positive element to greed? 
9. Do you think people have control over greed?
10. Does greed necessarily mean having 'a lot' of materialistic things? 

Story, setting, character & genre

Story, setting, character and genre

There would be one main character, she dresses in fancy clothes to show she already has a lot of money, but she has Kleptomania and cannot stop herself from stealing things, even if they don't have any value. Her room slowly becomes more and more full with materialistic things, unfortunately, she cannot see how much she actually has. "The more you get, the less you see" is the moral behind this story. The genre would be a drama as it is a real life situation. It will meet the conventions, hence gaining an emotional response from the audience. The objective is to tell the audience a story, to explore the themes and experiment with the micro features of film and conventions of a short film.

Creative Project Action Plan

For our FM3 creative project (short film), Rachael and I will focus on the micro features cinematography and editing, to help structure our storyline and let the audience/viewer relate to how the main character is feeling (alone, ashamed, isolated).
To achieve this, we will be incorporating shots of how she (the main character) sees the world and herself, and shots of how she looks like from outside. This is where editing comes in, as, to have a clear division of the two situations, and to add to the theme of loneliness and isolation, we will use a black and white filter over the point of view shots of the main character.

Based on the nature of kleptomania (see my kleptomania post here), and how kleptomaniacs act and feel like before, during and after the act of stealing, we will be using cinematography to show the anxiety and rush, followed by the sense of relief and pleasure after the act of stealing has been accomplished. Using the hands and eyes as a focal point, using close and extreme close up shots, we hope to show to the spectatorship just how our main character feels during the events she experiences throughout the short film.

After looking at documentaries (find links bellow) and articles about how kleptomania works, I have found, among other things, that victims of this psychologic issue unconsciously fiddle about with anything they have in their hands, bite their nails, play with their hair, etc., before stealing something. All symptoms anybody will experience while feeling nervous and/or anxious.

After looking at a number of short films on YouTube, and considering the themes of greed, isolation and loneliness, I have chosen a few to use as reference to construct our own short film, based on how the micro features are used in each one to create the effect desired, and communicate to the audience whatever message each communicates.

Bellow are some examples:

"The Black Hole" is a short film which explores the themes mainly of greed and even depression. The use of light in the film and the props used give the viewer the impression of the type of life the main character lives: a boring, gray, exhausting square life.

"Piracy - it's a crime"

Although not being a short film itself, focuses on the topic of stealing, which is what our short film will explore, among other topics. In relation to cinematography and mise-en-scène, this clip is very similar to what Rachael and I would like to achieve on our own creative project.
For example, the close up shot of a man stealing a film (0:20-0:22), where the viewer can only see the man's hand taking a DVD from a shop and hiding it inside his jacket, is a shot we would like to reproduce in our short film, as it shows the act of stealing, but not the subject's face, which reflects kleptomania being superior to the individual, taking control of the actions of the thief, instead of the person being in command.

In this shot (0:10-0:14), unlike the first one, the audience does get a glimpse of the thief's face, but, again, it is blurred, which reinforces the idea of the problem being larger, more important than the individual.

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUuNv3W_bKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PnYb_ZvMzU
http://mental.healthguru.com/video/kleptomania-when-stealing-is-an-addiction

How kleptomania works

This article can be found here. 

How kleptomania works

While shoplifting has been a problem for centuries, kleptomania was first described as a psychological disorder in the early 1800s and has been only intermittently recognized by the American Psychiatric Article System Association as a type of mental illness since the 1950s. Psychiatrists continue to debate whether kleptomania is a distinct mental illness or a manifestation of some other psychological disorder. Although there has been little research on the neurobiology of kleptomania, some studies have provided biological clues, and some have attempted pharmacological treatment of this condition.

There are many reasons for shoplifting: resale, supporting a drug habit, personal use and "just for the thrill of it." However, most of these reasons fit stealing, but not kleptomania. Kleptomania is characterized by an impulsive need to steal, and many kleptomaniacs are first discovered in the act of shoplifting. The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) has outlined the following criteria for a diagnosis:

1. The individual repeatedly fails to resist the impulse to steal items that are not needed for personal use or monetary value.
2. The individual experiences tension before stealing.
3. The individual's tension is relieved or gratified by the act of the theft.
4. The theft is not due to anger, revenge, delusions, hallucinations or impaired judgment (dementia, mental retardation, alcohol intoxication, drug intoxication).
5. Other psychological disorders can't account for the individual's stealing behavior (like manic episodes and antisocial behaviors).

Often, the stealing behavior of kleptomania occurs along with other psychological disorders, like obsessive-compulsive, personality and mood disorders. This observation has led some psychiatrists to question whether kleptomania is indeed a true psychological disorder or a manifestation of some other psychological disorder. Generally, kleptomania has been classed with other impulse control disorders, such as pathological gambling, pyromania and trichotillomania (chronic hair-pulling). Impulse control disorders are those where the individuals cannot resist the impulse to commit some behavior, criminal or otherwise.

Pencil Face

Looking at other short films on Youtube, I came across Pencil Face. This is a drama with morals in the narrative. The caption for this video was "He'll help you draw, he'll help you erase, waste not want not, he is pencil face". This short video basically shows the audience how you should not take things for granted. The girl thinks that know that she has this magic pencil, she can get everything she wants and throw it away when she is done; this is what you see when she draws the kite. However, there is a sense of karma in the plot and she gets sucked into a black hole when Pencil Face notices that she has discarded the kite.
Watching this helped me come up with ideas for my narrative. I wanted to make my plot as realistic as possible, so instead of going for the fantasy approach with something magic happening, I based the plot around someone with a mental condition. Therefore, there will still be a moral in what my short film is portraying, but it will also educate my target audience about the mental condition and what the effects are. Moreover, the slogan for my film would be "the more she gets, the less she see's" basically implying how greed can make you take things for granted and that you never realize what you actually have until you stop to appreciate it.

Synopsis

Short film project --> Rachael & Maia Rose

Genre- drama

Synopsis: 
A teenage girl suffering from Kleptomania; whenever something catches her eye, even something with no value, she can’t resist the urge to steal it. Once she has stolen something her mood changes and she feels satisfied at first. This feeling of satisfaction begins to disappear, the teenage girl starts to believe she doesn’t have enough and begins to steal more to try to regain the feeling she once had. Unfortunately, she can't see how much she actually owns from all the stealing, but we as an audience can. There is a voice inside her head that is telling her that she needs more. It is a violent addiction which she cannot overcome. The addiction begins to take over who she is and she slowly becomes panicked, isolated and depressed. She fears admitting to people that she has stolen which is why she doesn’t seek advice or help about her condition. But she can’t handle the effect it has on her by herself.

25 word pitch

A girl has Kleptomania, the more she steals, the less she thinks she has. Eventually, this idea takes over her life, she slowly becomes insane.

Initial ideas

Our initial ideas: 

Rachael and I first came up with an idea to make the narrative about a teenage boy being bullied at school. The secret behind it was he was a werewolf and he manages to get the main bully when he is alone and kill him. This narrative wouldn't just end with him dying though. The end would be a shot of more bullies abusing him and the guy being bullied silently waits until the next full moon to strike again. 

However, after a 1-1 meeting, it was decided that this idea was too complicated and after looking at other videos and getting more ideas, we chose to base or narrative on Kleptomania. 

Aims and Context

Aims and Context:

Rachael Rogerson and I will be creating a short film called "Greed". We're focusing on the drama genre, as our narrative is based around kleptomania. We hope to create an empathic emotional response in the audience.

By creating a sense of empathy in the audience, we hope to explore the depths of mental illness, and enhance the understanding of the matter.
We will be using micro features such as props and colour to help structure and develop the storyline.
Our target audience, mainly, is teenagers and adults, men and women, with an interest in mental disorders and experimental short films. 

Conventions of Drama genre

 Conventions of the drama genre

In the drama genre, meaning is created through the use of micro features such as editing, mise en scène, cinematography and editing, among others. These features  are used to create a specific meaning to the spectator through dialogue, facial expressions, location, types of angles, non digetic sound, etc.

One of the key themes in a drama film is realism, in almost every case, the story will focus on real life problems, such as racism or alcohol and drug abuse (instead of dragons and unicorns), and the characters in it will be people the audience or spectator can relate to. To achieve a realistic sense, a drama film will normally have very long shots, and a very slow pace editing, in contrast to the fast editing in, for example, action films. This can also build up suspense.

Drama films and short films  are based on the character’s own emotions towards a situation or situations. This is interesting, because in almost every other genre, it’s the other way around; the characters will go through something, which will make the film, and then they will feel different. Or not. Whilst in drama, the main focus is on the character and what they are feeling. This is why lots of drama films will use  close and extreme close-ups to let the audience or spectator see the emotions the character is feeling. This is why, normally, dramas will develop the characters’ emotions more than any other genre of film.

In a drama film, lighting is often used to create a certain feeling in the audience or spectator; low key lighting may create an unsettling or confusing feel, whilst high key lighting might be used to accentuate a certain location, or to create a sense of happiness among the viewers or characters.

The use of non digetic sound is not so popular in drama, as it is in, say, a fantasy film, or a romantic comedy. The reason for this, is that background music makes the film less realistic, which contradicts the first statement about the drama genre. A lot of drama films will avoid, or get around this problem by using music as a digetic sound, for example, when a character turns the radio on, and a song starts playing. Sound in the form of music, in a drama, can be used to add emotion or rhythm to a specific scene or even to portray an aspect of certain character. This also can be used throughout the film, once the viewer can associate a musical theme with a character or situation, to give the audience a hint of what might happen to that character in the film.

The Maltese Falcon - Recreation ------> Bloopers

Recreation fail - The Maltese falcon

The Maltese Falcon - YouTube

The Maltese Falcon - First scene storyboard