As Media studies blog- Jess Travers
Deciding a genre: September 2015
Deciding the genre of my group's short film opening is the key. Some have been completely ruled out; comedy- hard to get right and easy to mess up, gangster films are hard to make, unless you are backed by a wealthy production company that can pay for all the stereotypical gangster garb and sets, dystopian is also unrealistic to do for a small AS production. Although there are many other genres, thriller is the most popular genre as it is easier to pull off and interesting to film. From this knowledge my partner and I decided to add a twist with a 'spy element'.
My starting idea on theme and overall plot of the film: September 2015
My first thought was a 'drop package'; I've always wanted to try and film a drop scene. Having watched 'Alias' and 'The Blacklist' I have become really interested in the spy genre. In every undercover/ spy/ secret agent film or TV series there are always drop package scenes. The camera shots that could be produced would possibly boost our film considerably. I put the idea forward to my partner and she agreed, after some persuading, that doing a spy opening would offer lots of opportunities to show off our skill behind the camera lens.
Wednesday 23rd September: Having decided that Spy thriller was the theme for us, my partner and I came up with 3 story ideas. Our original (Spy) and two other new ideas- all to expand our ideas for the final outcome. Hostage quickly became complicated and 'Spy on spies' didn't seem as interesting. We made the decision to stick with the first idea and develop it; with the help of Jan (Bournemouth University lecturer). With his help we came up with new idea and a slight new twist in the plot.
Friday 16th October: From the ‘3 story ideas’ above, you can see our basis for the plot decided by my partner and I, however a new scene has been added. After obtaining the package (from the man in the café) the woman (recently named Katrina) moves to walk down an alley; cargo in hand. When she reaches the end of the alley, a black bag is forcefully yanked over her head by an unknown assailant. The screen changes to black- a cliff-hanger, leading on to the rest of the film. We thought this scene would add more mystery and intrigue our audience into wanting more. It also links to the suspicious character highlighted earlier on in the scene.