Easter Holidays + FMP Week 4

Easter Holidays
I was set the target of having finalised my casting and having shot something by the end of the easter holidays. I didn't end up doing this as it ended up taking me three weeks of experimenting with different story ideas before I was content with the format I wanted to present my FMP. So that when term started I could hit the ground running and make progress
Continuing with the idea of the heroin/insulin misconception concept from last week I  thought about different structures I could use to tell that story.

Short Film Idea
A potential idea for a short film with this premise I had was for a foreign exchange student to be visiting a local British family and to have fainted from her blood glucose dropping at a house party. This stems from a miscommunication due to the language barrier but the same mistaking the medicine for illegal drugs stands. The film wold follow how the host student has to face the consequences of a foreigner falling unconscious under her care, all whilst she is also a bit tipsy at her own house party. This is intended to be a comedy but I decided to make the character that falls unconscious foreign since it raises the stakes slightly.

This or That 

This was another short film idea I had based on arguments that I had written for Charlie and Bernaliya's characters. The idea is about finding common ground in spite of differences in upbringing. The dialogue shows them saying things that are different about theme.g calling a Gilet a body warmer and whilst the visuals show them gradually coming closer together such as sharing food and spending time together.


Three Part Structure/Different Perspectives -Non linear storytelling 
I decided also to have another look at the one event from different perspectives idea that I originally had. The event in question would be Bernaliya's character falling unconscious during a house party and the friend group take her to A&E and they try to retrace their steps at the events leading up to the party trying to figure out how Bernaliya ended up in this situation and the final episode reveals that she is in fact diabetic.

Non linear storytelling research
Steve Jobs,Master of None-ThanksgivingNew York I love you,Memento,Piglet movie

Sticking with the sitcom 
I ended up deciding to continue with the sitcom style series idea as it allowed me to continue with the light hearted atmosphere that I had decided I wanted in week 2. With the short film ideas I found I was trying to compromise with my original idea and see how I could fit it into one complete feeling film. It felt artificial and forced trying to create something that felt poignant. Instead by sticking with the sitcom I will be working on something that I am excited and motivated by

Satire- When writing Will's Character I found myself writing a character who was jealous of Charlie and Max's friendship. In some ways he was dealing with a sense of unrequited platonic love and I thought it could be interesting to have an episode that parodies the film 500 days of Summer since it is a film that deals with unrequited love but in the context of a friendship. I thought about perhaps paraphrasing a famous scene from the film as a sort of parody.

I started researching how other shows such as Gossip Girl and master of none pay homage to films

Week 4 

This week now that I have decided that I definitely want to carry on with the sitcom style idea I need to write up the scripts and begin making preparations in terms of casting and location scouting. I did find that I had to start discarding many of the episode and character ideas that I had started with. I got rid of the character's M and Tilly since I found they didn't really bring anything additional to the stories. For the purpose of this FMP I need each episode to be as short as possible so in order to keep each episode as concise as possible I will have to trim away any excess character irrespective of how attached I was to them at the start of the project.

• Pilot-When Charlie and Bernaliya swaps scarves all whilst Max is suspicious of Charlie's sexuality 
• 500 Days of Summer Parody when Will imagines that he confronts Max about the fact that he is jealous of Max's bromance with Charlie.
• Charlie and Bernaliya have an argument about Agave nectar over Indian food,Will stands up to Max's toxic masculinity
• Bernaliya faints because Charlie won't let her take her insulin at a house party because he is very drunk and mistakes the insulin for heroin and tries to convince her to go into rehab
• The next morning Charlie takes Bernaliya to the GP and finally realises that she is in fact diabetic and that she sweetens her coffee with agave nectar because she can't have sugar and not because she is a rich snob.
• Magical Scarf- Charlie still has one of Bernaliya's designer scarves from the first episode and he has an unusually lucky day when he wears it and comes to the conclusion that rich people are magic.

For the magical scarf episode I am keen to feature a fantasy sequence when Charlie in his head sees that his scarf is genuinely magic and for there to be a glow around the scarf so I started looking at after effects tutorials to see how I could best execute this. I also looked at Lily Allen's LDN video for further inspiration . Dermot was quite interested in this scarf idea during our crit. He suggested that it could be read deeper as a metaphor for privilege and how it is upheld by the establishment. I was excited that what seemed like a daft idea could be interpreted in such a way because it allowed me to understand in practice the idea of interpersonal and extra personal stories.

This Week Laura also gave us a lecture about mise en scene which basically encompasses decisions that go in the frame from sound design to lighting and production design. She wanted us to think carefully about this since our films are quite short so it is important that we learn to convey as much information without wasting time with dialogue. This helped us reinforce ideas about subtext that we had learnt last term. Laura showed us Hitchock's Marnie.

This week I also started writing my casting call.
Below is an example of an email I sent one of my actors.

Thank you so much for coming on board so last minute. So to give you some more information I am a student on the Film pathway on the Art foundation course at Ravensbourne. This series is part of my final major project for the year 

 and I'm shooting 3 episodes of mini web series. So it's a slightly whacky sitcom style series with some surreal elements to it. It follows a group of 5 friends and most of the episodes take place in the common room of their halls of residence.

Some information about the characters

Bernaliya-The lead character in the show. She is British/Indian and from an affluent family. This often leads to her being misunderstood by her flatmates and mistaken for snobbish since she grew up in a 'private school bubble'. Otherwise she has a heart of gold, is extremely talkative and intelligent.

Charlie-Charlie is very jovial. He is incredibly charismatic, plays rugby,and is good friends with everyone in the group. Charlie is also working class and enjoys winding up Bernaliya about the differences in their upbringing.

Tiff-Tiff speaks very rarely but when she does she is usually very sarcastic; however she does have moments where she shows more empathy. She provides the comic relief in many of the episodes and the actress should be able to communicate a good range of facial expressions since Tiff doesn't speak much. Her hobbies also include painting.

Will-Will is a huge fan of the film "500 days of Summer." He is more shy and introverted compared to the other characters and as a result can feel insecure about his place within the group. He also has a very active imagination.

Max- Charlie's best friend and a fellow rugby player. He is pleasant but sometimes worries that people mistake his bromance with Charlie for a romance.

A brief synopsis of the three episodes

1.Pilot- Max is worried that everyobody thinks he and Charlie are gay and starts to panic even more when he learns that Charlie is short for Charlotte

2.500 Days of Summer-An imaginary sequence in Will's head where he imagines himself and Charlie in a scene from the film '500 days of Summer' where he vocalises his jealousies about Charlie's friendship with Max

3. Magical Scarf- Charlie has a day an unusually lucky day when he accidentally takes one of Bernaliya's designer scarves and is convinced that rich people are magic.