Shelby drops out of 'Misfortune Of Fortune'?

shelby Yearwood, who was originally Grace in the film has given up her role as she would not be able to film on the days that have been set.

Me and David chose to film on Tuesday + Wednesday during half term because we would have the whole day to film, and we including Shelby didn't have plans, and were up for filming those days.

Now me and David have to either see whether we can film on different days which may be complicated, or find a different girl to take over the role of Grace.
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Practice Shot 1

Before we filmed this for our real film, we decided to practice it at school where it was going to be relatively easy to get all of the characters together. We practiced this particular shot because we thought it may be difficult on the day as there a zoom was involved, and getting this steady and framing the shot correctly could of been challenging. After editing the filming of this shot, we then believed we were ready to go to our location a few days later and film the real thing.

Magazine Film review Idea 1

This magazine film review layout is meant for a mainstream audience as most of the attention will be on the big iconic image from the film at the top of the page. We will be writing in a casual house style as this magazine would be for a younger target audience, of around 18-30 year old males. In this film review, we chose to follow main conventions, for example, we will have the 5-star graphic system and 'see if you liked' breakout box, where we will have our AS media film, 'The Predicament'. We got the idea of this layout from the more mainstream magazines, for example Total Film. Furthermore, we will have relatively the same mode of address and house style of these mainstream magazines, as we think it would be appropriate for the type of film we are making.

shooting schedule: second day

Date: 26/10/11

Time: 2pm - 5pm

Location: Outside house/on street

Shots: 22-25

Actors: Jamie (STUART), Shelby (Grace)

Crew: David (camera, props), Jamie (director, props)

Costumes and Props: combat uniform for Jamie

Equipment: Camera, DV tape, Tripod

Potential Issues: Lighting and weather, as we are outside, we cannot control the weather and whether the sun is shining in the camera or not. Weather may also cause continuity issues.

Risk assessment: - medium: as we are filming on the streets, we have to make sure the tripod doesn't get in the way of people walking, or watch out for cars if we need to film on the road. There is also a possibility that someone could steal the camera so we have to make sure we are on constant watch.

Shooting Schedule: first day

Date: 25/10/11

Time: 2pm-6pm

Shots: 1-21; 26-34

Location: In the house

Actors: Jamie (STUART), Shelby (GRACE) and David (OFFICER)

Crew: David (camera, props); Jamie (director, props)

Costumes and Props: Combat uniform for Jamie (STUART), officer uniform for David (OFFICER), scratch cards, lottery tickets, photos of Grace + Stuart

Equipment: Camera, DV tape, tripod

Potential issues: Lighting could be an issue if the house is not well-lit enough, also it will start to get dark at 6pm. Weather could be an issue if we show a window, and it is different weather when we film outside.

Risk Assessment: Low-we are filming inside where there is no real risk

character cast

Character cast

Stuart:   Jamie Del Mundo

Grace:   Shelby Yearwood

Officer: David Coates

Jamie is good for Stuart because, most soldiers are young, so Jamie would fit the role perfectly. As we have a soldier costume, we can use it to make him fit the role more for when he leaves to go fight in the war.

As Shelby is the same age as Jamie, it makes it more believable that they are going out, by having rings on, the audience will know that they are going out.

David would be good as the officer as he has a complete officer costume.

These 3 actors would be good for practicality reason, as David and Jamie are the cameramen and the directors of the film, so they would have to be there, and Shelby is willing to give up a day of her half term to be in our film.

film poster ideas

This poster has all the necessary conventions, and has everyoe that is in the film on the poster, t is showing that Grace and Stuart are a couple, and by having a photo of The Officer behind them, it shows that the Officer is going to do somethng, or has a role in somethng happening to them two. In The background, i would have a montage of pictures of bills, money, scratchcards etc. showing that one theme/genre is money problems.

Final Synopsis-The Misfortune of Fortune

In the beginning of the film we are shown a tracking shot of Grace gone to open the door, we then see an over the shoulder shot of the officer looking at Grace saying,  "I'm Sorry". Then there will be titles, so it will be clear that this was a flash back. We then see Grace breaking the 4th wall and explaining the narrative slightly and the situation they are in. We see them arguing, with bills racking up and her trying her luck on lottery tickets. After, we see Stuart leave the house, and this is where the narration stops from Grace. When he leaves, Grace starts to pray for help for their financial problems. Later, we see her sitting down watching the news that Stuart's regiment has been hit. An officer knocks on the door and tells Grace the news, and he begins to comfort her. After, there is a picture of Stuart in a frame with Grace crying at it. The film ends with the main titles at the end, including all of the crew and character names.

Script draft 2-FINAL

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy) .

OFFICER

I’m sorry

FADES TO

INT. ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down looking at camera.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Despite all of the arguments and bad times we had, through all the money problems that we had to face, I wish I prayed for him instead of thinking about the money.

FADES TO

ELIPSE OF TIME/TITLE

GRACE (NARRATOR)

And this is how it all began

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE and STUART arguing and shouting at each other about their financial problems.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

I hated all of the pointless arguments we had together. I said too many things I didn’t mean and regret saying to him.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

Montage of bills racking up on the table, GRACE scratching a scratch card, filling out lottery tickets.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Our money problems got so bad; I had to resort to my luck. I was getting restless.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

STUART leaving to go to war in Afghanistan.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

And then he left. If only I knew this was the last time

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

GRACE kneeling next to bed, praying to God.

GRACE

Dear God, I wish we had more money together so we could be happy

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down in living watching TV, having a cup of tea. News comes on about bomb going off in STUART’s regiment.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Knock at the door. Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy).

OFFICER

I’m sorry

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

OFFICER comforting GRACE, but she is crying.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

This was probably the worst moment of my life. This was the misfortune of fortune.

 FADES TO

ELIPSE OF TIME

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Picture of STUART in a frame on the mantel piece. Zoom out to see her crying sitting down in the living room.

TITLES

We chose to edit the first script slightly because we were not sure that our film would meet the brief given and be around the duration of five minutes. Also, we thought that putting a little more narration in the script, so we could explain the narrative a bit more and it would allow us to not use a lot of dialogue and scores, to be able to follow the conventions of short film. Furthermore, we chose not to script the argument, so instead we will have a montage of clips with them arguing. Moreover, as we were concerned about the running time of our short film, we added another montage of Grace filling out lottery tickets and trying her luck. 

Script draft 1

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy) .

OFFICER

I’m sorry

INT. ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down looking at camera.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Despite all of the arguments and bad times we had, through all the money problems that we had to face, I wish I prayed for him instead of thinking about the money.

ELIPSE OF TIME

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE and STUART arguing and shouting at each other about their financial problems.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

I hated all of the pointless arguments we had together. I said too many things I didn’t mean and regret saying to him.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

Bills racking up on the table, GRACE scratching a scratch card.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Our money problems got so bad; I had to resort to my luck. I was getting restless.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

STUART leaving to go to war in Afghanistan.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

And then he left. If only I knew this was the last time

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

GRACE kneeling next to bed, praying to God.

GRACE

Dear God, I wish we had more money together so we could be happy

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down in living watching TV, having a cup of tea. News comes on about bomb going off in STUART’s regiment.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Knock at the door. Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy).

OFFICER

I’m sorry

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

OFFICER comforting GRACE, but she is crying.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

This was probably the worst moment of my life. This was the misfortune fortune.

ELIPSE OF TIME

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Picture of STUART in a frame on the mantel piece. Zoom out to see her crying sitting down in the living room.

TITLES

synopsis idea 4

Ths is a story showing the life of a girl/boy, the person has a problem where she has two sides to her, good VS evil themed. Its a docuentary with both sides doing the monologue. When shown from her left side, you can see her in bright clothes, and is happy. But when seen from her right, she has dark clothes on and is angry.

This synopsis was altered to show two people, one to represent good, and one to represent evil instead of the same person.

This idea could have been the final choicee, but it would have been difficult to think of many events for each person to do.

synopsis idea 3

Two random university students start talking on a chat site, not knowing that they live in the same dorm and actually see each other a lot, but never talk in real life. while flirting and talking online, they both decide it would be a good idea to meet up somewhere, and see them face to face. So, they tell each other what they are wearing, and they say they are going to leave at the same time, but straight after, as they leave, they see each other, they are shocked to find out that they both knew each other before.

CONCLUSION:
This ended up to be one of our best ideas, but not the final one, this was because we thought the film was going to be quite boring as most of the film was going to be of two people at a computer screen all of the time, so we were going to find it difficult to make this film at least 5 minutes without getting too repetitive and use a variety of shot angles and positions. 

Synopsis Idea 2

We are first introduced to a couple in the film, who are facing a big financial problem. The woman wishes a person could just knock on the door and give them enough money to sort their problem out, preferably £100,000. Furthermore, we see that the man is a soldier in the army, as he leaves to go to Afghanistan for his next tour. A few weeks later on the news, a car bomb has exploded killing and wounding soldiers in his regiment. An officer knocks on the door to tell the woman what has happened, he is still alive but missing a leg. A few months later, the man is back at home with his partner, but with one leg, where a letter comes through the door, it is from the Ministry of Defence, as compensation for £100,000.

CONCLUSION:

In the end, this was decided that this was one of our final ideas and eventually came to be our final idea, but due to some practicality issues, we had to change some aspects of the synopsis.

Synopsis Idea 1

After the recent election, a new president has been brought into power, he decides to bring back the death penalty. By now many people have died by his hand. A person from the public thinks he is quite suspicious, so he decides to look into his life file, where he discovers something which could end the presidents power. A few weeks later, the person decides to show this to the world via blogs and various websites, to which he is taken to court for, but the president was found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty himself.

CONCLUSION:

In the end, this was not one of our most promising ideas, simply because of practicality issues. We knew we were going to find it difficult to obey the brief given, 'make a short film', we found that this could probably be a feature length film, but not a 5 minute short film. Also, finding the correct mise-en-scene for this was going to be extremely difficult, especially for the president and locations.

Film Poster ideas

I got this idea of our film poster from 'Saving Private Ryan', where the silhouette of Stuart is standing on a hill on his own, and there will be the two other characters, Grace and officer, faded on either side of the hill. In this idea, I chose to include the main stars of the film, with Jamie higher in the clouds as he has died in the film. There will also be the main title in big font with the tag-line underneath in italics. This film poster's target audience is 18-21 year olds as we think the message of this film could mainly affect this audience. 

For this idea for our film poster, I deliberately left out the names of the stars of our film since we are not very well known. However, we will still keep to other codes and conventions of posters by having a billing block, including all of the names of the crew. I felt like having the name of the film in big letters, and the tag-line in smaller italics just on top of the image. 

Furthermore, with the image I was thinking to show the relationship between the two front characters, Start and grace, and a person looming between them, separating them. As the intended audience for our main film is 16-25 year olds, our film poster is going to be targeted at 16-18 years olds to attract a youth audience and tell the message of our film to them.

Storyboard

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