Sound Devices

We visited the CLC and took part in a sound workshop where we learnt about a variety of equipment which we could use to record our sound for our short film. We also learnt about how to change the volume of voices and music on Final Cut Express. Recording in different places can make a huge difference to the quality of the sound that is recorded. If a voice is being recorded in a large empty room the sound will echo and distort due to the sound waves bouncing off of the walls.

Possible devices we could use within our short film are:

- Radio Mic UHF Synthesized transmitter and UHF Synthesized Diversity Tuner

The transmitter sends radio waves on it's own channel to the diversity tuner so the sound can be picked up and recorded. A clip-on mic is attached to the transmitter so the voice of the wearer is clear and crisp. This equipment has a vast range so people far away can be heard before they are even in shot. More than one clip-on mic can be used and be recorded at one time.

- Rode Boom and Windjammer

Windjammer

The boom is held up above the action and actors and helps create a crisper sound to be recorded. The windjammer is used to lower the background noise and wind so that only what needs to be heard will be heard clearly without interference.

- Merantz Professional Solid State Recorder

Allows easy playback of recordings from the device. Both clip-on mics and headphones can be plugged in. The volume of a recording can be raised and lowered using the inner and outer dials of the Manratz; this is a useful feature which can lower the need for editing later on.

- Sennheiser Mic

This mic is hand held and picks up all background noise as well as the movement of the person who is holding  it. This device would be more suitable for interviews in a documentary than a drama.

- Edirol by Roland Mp3 Recorder R-09

Much like the Marantz this device records and plays back what has been recorded. Both clip-on mics and headphones can be attached to this device. We found that this recording device was of a lower quality than the Marantz and so we have decided not to use it.

Our Decision

We have decided that we are going to use a Boom with a Windjammer, a Marantz and a clip-on mic to record our sound in our short film. We will use the Boom and Windjammer to help give us a crisper sound while we shoot our flashback scenes which will be outside. The Marantz will be used along with the clip-on mic throughout the whole of our short film which is shot mainly within one room. The Marantz will allow us to  play back the sound and decide whether we will record it again or not.

Our voiceovers could be recorded in a small room with either a clip-on mic or a handheld mic. Due to the handheld mic recording all the rustling sounds as we move we are going to use the clip-on mic. The clip-on mic records some rustling but as much as the handheld.

Update

We have decided to use a Handy Recorder H2 to record our sound. It can be used for the voiceovers easily and should give a good quality recording.

We are no longer going to use the boom and windjammer, Marantz or clip-on-mic because we only have a few shots outside and the camera should be able to give us all we need since there isn't much talking in those scenes. 

Target Audience and Questionnaire

Moodboard About Teenagers and young people between 15 and 25
By Lorna

We have decided that our target audience is going to be:

- Teenage girls and young people between the age of 15 and 25.

- People who have lost someone they love and feel like they can relate to the film

- People who feel trapped or isolated in a situation and can't seem to find a way out but there is always a way

- Young people often turn to other things when they are depressed such as smoking, drinking and drugs which all have a negative affect on themselves.

Questionnaire

We created a questionnaire and distributed it to young men and women around our school to help us. We decided not to restrict our questionnaire to just women because we wanted to see what the men's choices would be and whether we should use two men who are bothers rather than two women who are sisters. The results of the questionnaire have told us that a lot of people have got siblings that they are very close to. From this we have decided to stay with the idea of the story being based around a young girl who has lost her sister and is looking back in her sister's eyes through her journal.
The question about personal possessions could have been a lot clearer if we had given specific options such as music box, digital camera, teddy bear and asked which possession would have been more precious to them. Most of the people we distributed the questionnaire to thought that storyline and emotion were the features that attract them to dramas and are very important.

 

Changes to Our Narrative

The plot revolves around a story of a girl who overcomes despair after losing her best friend. The film deals with bereavement, death and acceptance.

Theme: Despair
Genre: Drama

Narrative: The story opens with a girl dressed in black clothes, she is sitting on a bed in a room, staring at the floor. It is quite evident that she is getting ready to go to a funeral. She begins to walk up and down in her room and begins to get bored and opens up the drawer, as she is looking through the drawer she spots a journal, and begins to read it, she skims through the first through pages and goes to an entry talking about her and her sister. This entry talks about the present the sister got for her birthday from her.

This then leads to a flashback of the time, the sister gave her sister her necklace for her birthday. Constantly throughout the rest of the film we are shown precious moments between the two sisters, the girl reaches a more recent entry of when the sister and her fought, just before her death. In the entry the sister is complaining about how she hated her sister for what happened and this puts the girl back in a mood of despair again, as she feels that the situation can never be reconciled. In rage she throws down the journal and it lands on the last journal entry, the girl goes to read it and the sister is saying sorry in it and gives her a sense of hope in the entry.

The girl is finally able to accept the death of her sister and feels reconciled. In the last shot she is seen leaving her room, and closing the door behind her.

The reason why we changed the friend to the sister, is because we felt it would have more of an emotional impact on the audience. The majority of the audience should have siblings, so straight away they have something to relate to and to put the main character in the situation of the death of her sibling, automatically makes the audience feel empathetic and attached to her as they begin to imagine themselves in the same situation.

We decided on the girl also to wear black formal clothes, to hint that she is getting ready to go to a funeral, so the idea of her sisters death, comes out straight away.

We kept the low lit room as it represents the girl's current state of mind and the condition of the room such as it being in a mess can be how she feels physically, with little light coming in to represent a dim sense of hope within her.

Instead of objects, we decided to just keep the journal and have the girl flick through the entries of different moments herself and her sister shared. Some objects such as the teddy bear and necklace would be kept for in the flashbacks, as things the sisters exchanged between themselves.

The final shot of her leaving the room and closing the door, represents a closure within herself and that she is finally leaving that state of mind and accepting the situation.

First narrative of our short film

Our idea was to tell the story of a girl who overcomes despair after losing her best friend.

The story was to be told through a voice over of each possession which she had been given/relates to her best friend who has died recently. Each voice over would have a different voice as it is the objects themselves telling the story of the two best friends.

The first few shots would be in a small dark bedroom with low key lighting. There may be a gap in the curtains, allowing a bit of sunlight in to show, there is a glimpse of hope within the  girl's. The reason why we chose a low lit room and that it should be small is to represent the girl's present condition.

The girl's parents can be heard having a conversation from downstairs, talking about their daughter and how she hasn't come out of her room in days as well as their worry about how she is coping with the situation.

The girl would be lying on the floor with objects scattered across the floor and a mobile in her hand. This would be shown in a close up of her face and then slowly zoom out into a mid shot shot from the floor of her lying down trying to call someone, with a name presumably her friends name on the screen. The girl would then slide the phone under bed and she gets up and tries to pick up the phone.

Instead she places her hand on an object which then tells it's story to the audience. The objects we are thinking of using are a necklace, teddy bear, journal, digital camera and music box. Each object has a significance to the young girl's past with her friend. Short flashes would playback when she is holding the possession and thinking back to that particular time. Throughout flashes the young girl's moods are constantly changing as she is confronting her own feelings.

The last object which she looks at would be the journal, reading from it she is saddened and in frustration ends up which throwing the journal. The journal lands open with a note falling out from her best friend.
The note encourages the friend and tells her to carry on with life, through the note there is a sense of reconciliation.

This could be highlighted by a ray of light from the window hitting the girl to signify the hope the young girl has now found, with her opening the window and finally leaving the room.






When Five Fell - WongFu Productions
This is our initial inspiration for our short film. Wongfu Productions have used a collection of objects and a voice over to tell the story of the young girl we may do something similar in our own short film.

Bereavement

The Five Stages of Bereavement
Denial - Where the person refuses to accept what has happened. They continue to deny that they have lost their loved one forever and pretend that everything is how is was before their loss.


Anger - The person may blame other people for their loss and become increasingly agitated. There may also be strong emotional outbursts of rage where objects are thrown around or smashing of mirrors and photo frames to try and get over the loss.


Bargaining - With either themselves or with God. We try to take away the reality of what has happened and so we try to make a deal to rewind everything back to how it used to be.


Depression - Often the most difficult stage of bereavement to deal with and one that most people will go through. The person may feel dazed and confused along with a feeling of numbness. They may also burst into tears at any given time due to the overwhelming emotions. Other people may feel the need for an attempt so suicide because the are without the person.


Acceptance - When the individual realises that they must carry on without that person no matter what happens and that they aren't coming back. Energy and goals will return to the person and they try and carry on with their lives.

Moodboard - Despair, Loss and Isolation



Moodboard showing images which represent Despair, Loss and Isolation
 By Lorna

Despair, Loss and Isolation
Despair also known as hopelessness, is the feeling of no hope, that something can't be resolved or is inadequate and far beyond the point of optimism. The pattern of thinking is one of being in trapped misery.

Despair can take someone to a whole new place and level of depression. They don't feel any encouragement to go out or do something. Most people in despair will be in a place where they feel comfortable; for example their bedroom. More often than not people wish to be alone and away from the rest of the world.

The thing that can trigger despair is a trauma in someone’s life or an overwhelming loss of something close to a person.

A dark room is one of the most common signifiers for despair. The room has low key lighting and gives the feel of isolation. A small ray of light breaking through the curtains could signify hope. We are hoping to use this visual image in our short film.

About losing a loved one

Death and grief

*People react both emotionally and physically to death and grief. The feelings we usually associate to loss are sadness, worry, fear, shock, unprepared, confusion, anger and emptiness.

*Some people find they have trouble concentrating, sleeping and eating.

*People lose interest in activities they used to enjoy and often turn to alcohol.

*The intensity of grief may be related to how sudden the loss was and how you felt about the person.

Acceptance

*Acceptance is when a person agrees to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition without attempting to change it.

Bereavement

*The five stages of grief are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

*There is often a Numbness along with the mourning until finally the person lets go and accepts.

Treasuring Memories

*Treasuring the moments you shared with the person, for example remembering the places you went together with the person.

*You can remember a person by keeping items that belonged to them.

Personal Possessions which show the relationship between the two sisters could include:

Necklace - A heart shape to represent the love between the two sisters. Could be a necklace inscribed with their name(s).

Journal - Personal diary entries which could tell the story of the two sisters through one of their eyes. A note inside the journal apologising to the sister about a fight that they had.

Rose - Slowly withering and dying. Connotes the death of one of the sisters. No one lives forever.

Teddy bear - Sesisitive side of the lead character. She hasn't quite matured enough to accept her sister's death.

Camera -  This shows still moments of memories that are precious. It can connote the memory and the mind, by the things contained inside of it.

Good times in the past give you hope

*Past memories encourage the person of the good times they spent with their love one that’s passed away and it gives them the hope to carry on.


*Talking about the person can help accept the death of the person by avoiding the death of the person by not reflecting on them at all.

*Also, when a person loses someone they could consider looking up to the sky. This could represent the person looking towards brighter days despite the loss of a loved one.

1.     Alienation- Tend to close themselves off from everyone, since they fear further pain and rejection.

2.     Forsakenness- Individuals feeling alone in their time of greatest need.

3.     Uninspired- Unmotivated to do anything creative or enjoyable

4.     Powerlessness- One feels incapable of navigating one’s way toward desired goals.

5.     Oppression- The individual feels crushed or emotionally overwhelmed.

6.     Limitedness- Individual feels deficient, and lacks the right stuff to make it in the world.

7.     Doom- they feel as if their life is over.

8.     Captivity- can’t leave something because of the feeling of attachment.

9.     Helplessness- feels as if they can no longer live safely in the world.

Research into our Chosen Genre - Drama

Conventions and Narrative Structure of a Drama
Emotion - A very important part of a drama is the emotion which is projected onto the audience. If the audience is affected then the drama has done what it was intended to do.

Within any drama there is always different conflicts such as:
Man vs Self
Man vs society
Man vs Nature
Man vs Technology
Man vs Fate

Freytag's Theory - Freytag's Pyramid
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist who saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze them.

Freytag believed that every drama can be divided into five major acts or parts. These were known to be: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and finally Dénouement. They are also known as a Dramatic Arc.

Exposition: At the beginning of a film the exposition provides the background information needed to understand the story. Following the exposition is the focal conflict or problem which the story is based around; although this may not be clear until further into the film.


Rising Action: The initial conflict becomes more complex as other smaller conflicts become noticeable. These conflicts make the road of the protagonist more difficult and deters them away form reaching their goal.


Climax: The key turning point within the film where something could progress the story further or go terribly wrong. 


Falling Action: The point in which the climax is reversed and the conflict starts to diminish slowly.


Denouement: Also known as the resolution of the film where the conflict is finally resolved. The word denouement was derived from the French word 'denoer' which meant "to untie". More often than not this is the ending where the protagonist is better off than they were when the story was first introduced.

Freytag's Pyramid

Our short film will be using Freytag's Theory and it will be based around a young girl who overcomes despair.

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Each of these films are examples of dramas.

Brainstorms

(Above) The Wordpress Photo of the Year 2009. This photograph was our initial starting point. We used it to help us think of a suitable theme for our short film. Below is a brainstorm of themes which we have come up with based upon the image. It generated a lot of dark theme ideas such as sorrow, fear, despair, depression and poverty.

Defiance - Our initial theme was going to be defiance. To stand up against authority such as the government or the police force and to have your own say is a very powerful thing and we thought this theme was a good starting point.

Our chosen theme is Despair. Above is a brainstorm with our ideas about despair. From this brainstorm we decided that our chosen genre will be a Drama. 

We had a collection of things which could have gone wrong to the character including an illness, disability, family breakup,loss of family member/friend/partner, addiction and foster parents

We are thinking of creating a short film involving a young girl who loses her best friend and falls into despair but picks herself up in the end and looks to the future. We are going to use close ups of props which are very important to our main character. These include a teddy bear, a necklace, music box and journal. They will help tell the story of the two best friends.