Rough Storyboard and Selection of Camera Shots/Movements

We recently made a Rough Storyboard which basically outlined the core elements/selection of camera shots and movements that we would use in our short film. This was a 2-page storyboard , however i am able to upload only one pg of it , as an error in my home scanner resulted in an unreadable scan of pg.1 of the storyboard. I will upload the other pg. as soon as possible. I tried to scan it 4 times but i still could not get my scanner to scan the page properly thus only one page uploaded below.

Layout of Blog

I recently decided to change the overall look of my blog. This resulted in me asking my good friend "Muhammad Yousuf Bhatti" for the rights to use his photograph(he is a photographer) as the layout for my blog. The picture has not been edited , but the size has been reduced in order to upload to blogger.

Above : Special thanks to my good friend Muhammad Yousuf Bhatti for giving me the rights to use his photographs for my blog layout. 

Alternative Rock Music Recording

One of my closest friends , Faraz recently vouched to help us out with our Music. Faraz has been playing the guitar for over 4 years now. He is also an amateur drummer. Since his music is not copyrighted , we will be able to use it in our short film. In my previous post , i explained on how we will make a fusion of trance and alternative rock music. We will make trance by using FL Studio 10.0 and record rock/guitar riffs etc. with help from Faraz. I will upload photos of us recording Faraz's music as soon as we begin our jamming sessions. We will record Faraz's music with a processor and then export it over to our Laptops. We will then use Deckadance for mixing our trance beats with Faraz's playing.

Above : Hailing from Islamabad , Pakistan. , Faraz Ullah Hussain is an experienced Guitarist and an amateur drummer. He has been playing for over 4 years and recently broke up with his band "Prophecy". He is now a solo artist who hopes to make and market his own music in the near future. His band "Prophecy" has played in various gigs and concerts throughout Karachi , Pakistan and are known for their dedication to the rock genre. 

Background Music and Sound Effects

Due to the lack of experience and available equipment/absence of time last year , we were not able to compose our own music/sound effects in our film. We mixed samples instead to save ourselves time. We were spending most of our time learning video editing , instead of focusing on all aspects of our short film. This year , however Me and Andrew have decided that we will most probably compose and mix our own music , then add it to our short film. As the script below shows , our film is of the comedy/drama genre. I searched the internet , but i did not quite come to know of any film/short film that closely matched our story. Thus , i was not able to grasp the music/effects that are used in such films. We have decided to put in a fusion of alternative rock+trance/electro music in our short film's background music , then add samples to our liking. During the summers , both me and Andrew have learned music composing software such as FL Studio , Ableton Live 8 and Deckadance(for mixing). We will use them for making the background music for our film. Below our screenshots of the softwares on my pc. All of the above mentioned software provide great command and portability(as they also come in mobile versions) and will help us a great deal in the making of our music. We are still not 100% sure , about making our own music. It is extremely time-consuming and can be a bit of headache. But still , if we have the time(and most probably we will) then we will make our own music this time around.

Above : a screenshot of the latest version of FL Studio (10.0) , which we will use in composing our music and making beats/electro for our short film.

Above : a screenshot of Deckadance 1.8.1. Deckadance is a mixing software to which we will export our beats/wav./mp3 files and mix them to create our final music for our film.

*Although we are sure of the above decision to create our own music , if any change to our plan arises then a post will be updated.

Final Script

We have finally come up with the final version of our Film's script. Me and my partner , Andrew actually came up with the script a week ago but we decided that it was best that we kept making changes until we were completely satisfied with everything and then upload it to our blogs. After a week of editing our script  , here is the final version of our script. There might be minor changes made later on to the script , for example : the main character's name is not finalized yet. This is why we have named him Andrew.

"Andrew is walking to school. It’s the first day of college, and also his first year. He is a normal boy, but a bit scared for his first day. He reaches school and as he enters the school gates, he gets a sense of fear. There are seniors everywhere and they all seem to be prepared for the ragging of the first years in college. In assembly, the principal announces that the first year students will be ragged today and it will be from 9 am to 11 am and after that the first years will go to their home rooms and will meet their home room teachers.He doesn’t like how the day seems to be going. He decides to go to the washroom; walking through the corridor towards the washroom, he sees a guy who is a senior carrying a spray can in his hand. He looks at Andrew and says, “Sup man?” smiling and in a sarcastic way.

Andrew ignores him and goes to the washroom. However, the washroom doesn’t appear to be a safe place. Andrew goes there just to ckeck if he’s looking fine, but there are a group of people who appear to be seniors, but they are not. One of them, the main bully in the film asks him “Hey man. You new hear?” Andrew thinks that they’re just asking so he says, “Yeah, I am”. The main bully says “that’s nice man,” but just when Andrew starts to leave, one of the guys blocks him at the washroom entrance. Then two of the guys grab him and pull him back. The main bully says, “Since your’e new you must know that your first day is the day you first years get ragged.” Andrew is a bit scared, because he is a wimpy kid. The bully asks him, “so are you ready?” Andrew now knows that whats about to happen is not good. The guys pull Andrew to a corner and Andrew is not seen but sounds are heard of Andrew trying to escape, and of the guys laughing.

The next shot shows Andrew standing in the washroom, wearing a pink skirt and with his face painted black, with red lipstick and his hair in ponis. Now the bully says, “Now, you can stay like this for the whole day, or we can let you go on one condition,” Andrew asks “Whats that?” He says, “You have to dance.” Andrew runs away, because he doesn’t want to do the dance. He runs till he finds a room where he thinks he is safe, but when he enters the room, he finds all the other first years who have been ragged and who are hiding. They throw him out of the room because they hear people coming after him. Andrew starts running again to find a place where he can stay safe and out of the sight of the people he thinks are second year seniors. After some time he notices that it is almost 11 am, so he goes to the washroom to wash up before class. When he enters class, he sees the bully and some of the guys who were with him, in the class. It turns out that the bully has been failing the first year since three years.

Now the home room teacher enters the class. He gives his introduction and as he is speaking one of the students who is with the bully puts a cigarette in his bag which is half open, and then tells the teacher “Excuse me sir, I think you should see this,” and points to Andrew’s bag. The teacher sees it and says “Cigarettes on your first day hun? Come with me” and he takes him to the principals office. Andrew keeps on saying that he doesn’t smoke but the teacher doesn’t listen to him.

Principal decides to expell him saying “We have a strict policy son and we don’t care if it’s your first time or your last.” Andrew keeps on saying that he doesn’t smoke and that he didn’t know how the pack got in his bag. The principal is just about to sign the paper and expell Andrew, when suddenly his alarm rings and he wakes up.

Andrew is shocked and yet relieved to find himself in bed and realises that it was only a dream. He checks his calendar and finds that it is his first day of college. He gets ready for college and reaches there believing that he had just had a bad dream.

But when he reaches school he has the surprise of his life. While walking in the corridor and looking for his class, he hears a voice of a person that he thinks is familiar, and when he realises that it was the bully from his dream, he turns around to see if its him. To his relief he is not there. He finally gets to his class, but with the class he finds the people in his dream. As he enters the class, the bully who ragged him in his dream is at the door with the other bullies in the dream and he asks him “Hey man. You new hear?” Andrew gets shocked, and he turns around to find the people who were also ragged in his dream as well. And when Andrew is just trying to pull himself together, the same teacher from the dream enters the class and gives the introduction. At this point, Andrew screams from frustration and the film ends." 

Questionnaire

We made some changes to the questions posted in the last questionnaire post. We made the question to-the-point and brief so that genuine feedback can be gained from the audience. After making changes , we printed the questionnaire and distributing it to the general public/audience who have no idea of film making etc whatsoever. They were not media students. By letting the audience fill the questionnaire , we were able to get a rough idea on the majority's preferences of short films. We thought that honest opinion from our audience would give us better ideas to further improve our product / knowledge before we start shooting.

   After getting valuable feedback from our audience , we came to know that most of our audience does not know much about short films but has adequate knowledge on feature-length films , this shows that feature length films are in more demands rather than short films. Some people considered short films to be a waste of time (in oral talk) just before the interview. However , all of our audience were surprisingly very co-operative and helped us in filling the questionnaires in a jiff. 

Short Films on School Life

Short films are usually made according to an appealing idea. The director wants to meet the demands of his consumers , this is probably the only way to make money for the cast from the short film. If the demand is low then usually the topic is cut off from the reviewing section and replaced with another topic. There are very scarce short films made on the life of Teenager. I have noticed that mostly short films are from the Drama and Comedy genre. This is due to the rise in demand for the movies. 

Ancillaries - Film Magazine Review Page Analysis

Film reviews have become very common in both electronic and print media nowadays. They can be found in both Television Channels and various Magazines. Some magazines prefer giving one page to the film section of the Film Review Page, others consider a larger number of pages. Some examples of magazines where Film Reviews can be found are The New York Times and Empire Magazine. Locally , in Pakistan , a world renowned magazine by the name of "Herald" issues 5 pages every week to the Film Reviews section of the Magazine. Film Magazines contain teasers and brief notes of the Film itself. They are purposefully made attractive with , usually shining bright colors and pictures of famous actors are used to attract consumers to buy the magazine.The review itself contains a different variation of a tag-line. It contains a brief note which would attract consumers to watch the whole film. By using such technique , film makers are able to pull of some profit from magazines. The film review contains pictures from the movie and the information is usually classified according to it's pattern. Certain film reviewers also tell the time it has been released on , and where should people get their tickets( if the tickets are in shortage). The name of the Director and Producer , and also the actor(s) / cast is also mentioned in the review. Some film reviewers also prefer telling whether the particular actor has been more successful in the latest movie(did he meet his fan's expectations etc?)

Ancillaries - Film Poster Analysis

Posters are used by film makers usually to promote their product/film to the audience in general. Closely following certain examples of film posters , i came to know that film posters also follow certain codes and conventions i.e format. Film posters usually contain the main character(s) /cast of the film. It contains the movie's title in usually bold letters in large sized font. Publishing an image of the main character(s) staring in the film naturally attracts the audience (the more famous the actor(s) are , the more promoted the movie is likely to become). Film Posters also contain a tag line. This is basically a brief sentence which gives valuable information about the film itself. This is put in to give the audience a rough idea of what the movie will be about. It may sometimes contain a "teaser". A teaser is a unique kind of tag line which attracts audience to their full extent. This is because it lays on certain information to the audience , and does not provide the rest of the info. This makes the audience curious as of what would happen in the film. The film poster always contains a billing block , which is basically made up of credits of the particular film. It contains the name of important personalities such as the Director , Producer , Co-Producer , Sponsors , the main actors etc. The billing block is included in usually all film posters nowadays.
Film posters are found everywhere , in and out of cinemas , on the streets , shopping malls and may even be found in public bathrooms. I have noticed that Posters are usually put in such an area where a larger number of audience is able to view it. This increases the rate of promotion.
In the making of my film , i will use photographs/snapshots from my film  , combined with Block Font and a Tag Line.

The Above paragraph contains information on Film Posters as a whole . Now off to our genre. i.e Comedy.
I analysed a couple of Film Posters in the comedy genre and found out some interesting facts. Firstly , if you notice the posters below , you will see that the main cast/protagonist is always displayed on the poster. So is the Billing Block. The theme of Comedy Film Posters is usually bright( i.e Bright colors are used to decorate the film poster).

Right : Notice the "Billing Block" of the film contains names of important cast members and actors such as Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. There is also a tag-line for the film "Life's a party . Crash it"

Upper Left : Tagline : "Leave your Comfort Zone"
Lower Left : Tagline : "Some guys just can't handle Vegas"

Change of Genre

On the 12th of September , Monday , Me and Andrew decided that we would switch our genre from Thriller/Suspense towards a more Drama/Comedic approach. We had previously decided to make our film based on the Thriller genre , we wanted to show an innocent Muslim wrongly framed for crimes he had not committed. However , we could not decide a mind-blowing ending for such a short film and Furthermore , we thought that targeting a particular group of people/race/religion in our short film would not be to our advantage.  
So we decided that we would make a film on the life of a teenager. The teen is not interesting his studies , he does not understand the importance of studies and has no idea of how much his parents have sacrificed to afford his expensive start-of-the-art elite education. The kid is interested in football and hanging around with friends. He  will probably be shown bunking/skipping classes to make the audience aware of his daily schedule. However , his life turns around as soon as he gets a really bad grade in a major subject and is caught cheating on his parents. He decides to quit football and all other "fun" activities and focus for once on his studies. After days of crucial studies , he finally gets an A in the desired subject. But , in the end we have decided to show , that he still remains interesting in all the other activities but now understands the value of studies in practical life. He decides to take his life seriously from there on-wards. 

Questionnaire

This week we decided to research more on our target audience. Thus we came up with a Short Questionnaire. As you will see it contains all basic questions. The trick was to get the most out of the Viewer , rather than to implement our views upon him which would give us incorrect feedback.

Q.1. Which genre(s) of Films do you prefer watching?

Q.2. Do you already predict an ending even before than the movie has come to an end?

Q.3. Do you become frustrated if the story-line has a twist in the end?

Q.4. State three of your favorite movies in your preferred genre.

Q.5. Do Thriller movies appeal to you? If so , then why?

Target Audience for Short Films

Before beginning shooting my short film , i thought that it was compulsory to have vast knowledge of various areas of Short Film. I ended up researching and found some very interesting information.

Why do Directors make Short Films?
Like any other media product , making a short film is no easy task. It takes days and maybe months of hard work. So , i was curious to know why do Directors spend a bunch of time on making short films rather than making other media products. Directors make short films due to the freedom of implementing ideas. In a feature-length film , usually the budget is high and there is a large team working on the project. The director does not have the time to carry out different ideas (of various camera shots as an example) as he has to meet the deadlines. Making short films allows more freedom of expression and the directors have more control over the film. Some amateur or even experienced directors make short films to become famous in the eyes of the audience.

People(Audience) who watch Short Films.
After researching on the Audience for Short Films , it is safe to say that it is less compared to audience of feature-length films. There are simply less people who want to watch short films. Usually when people discuss about "Films" they automatically relate to feature-length films rather than short films. But WHY? Why do less people watch short films. This is due to a number of reasons. The budget for a short film is very low when compared to a feature length film. Any amateur with sound knowledge of camera movements and shots can himself make a short film without hiring a team of editors etc. Whereas this is not the case in feature-length films. Due to the budget being low , many short films clearly look as if they were made by amateurs and not professionals. For example: Some shots might not include enough head room , or the panning may be incorrect. These problems are not noticeable/found in feature-length films.
However , there are indeed certain groups of people who do watch short films due to several reasons.
Students studying Media Sciences might watch short films if they intend to make one themselves.
Directors who are in search of new talent might wish to view short films.
People who would want to pursue an acting career etc might want to watch short films.
Short Films are usually screened in select film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. In these festivals , short films are nominated and they win awards etc.

Promotion of Short Films and Youtube's Role for increasing it's popularity
It is an interesting fact that short films are not promoted through the television media but largely through internet. You would not find short films running on television nowadays. Why is that so? It is due to the popularity of the world's largest video-sharing website "Youtube" which has played a key role in the promotion of short films throughout the world. Director's make short films and then upload them on Youtube. From there on wards the whole world can view the short film. In other words , just by uploading the film to Youtube , the maker of the film is able to market it's product to the world, free-of-cost. The audience can also comment on videos and "Like" them , this helps in getting feedback from the audience. Dedicated Youtube applications for mobile phones , psp , tablet pc and recently iPhone/iPad have led to the audience throughout Youtube to increase.This enables mobile people to watch videos on-the-go.


What does it take to make the Video go Viral?
A video to go viral is solely based on the quality of the video. By quality , i mean the originality of the idea and quality of the camera shots etc. The camera quality nowadays also makes a big difference to whether the audience will watch the video or not. People with stable internet watch videos in at least 360p/480p resolution while some wish to view the videos on HD resolutions (720p/1080p). Shooting videos in HD also increases the chance of audience viewing the video. Even if the video is well structured(but of bad quality), many viewers may not watch it just because of the bad quality.  The story and relevance of the shots to the story is also very important. There is no doubt that a video will go viral , if the above mentioned factors are kept in consideration.