Idea Background Research

For my idea I have been researching the idea of people sending and receiving messages by mistake or the idea of cheating via text and long distance relationships.

The was one website I found particularly interesting which gives a guide about the whole situation of texts sent to a wrong number: http://www.gurl.com/2013/03/15/sent-to-the-wrong-person/#1

This website shows that calling or texting someone by mistake can be a very common thing, and may happen a lot but people are never aware. Until they are made aware of their mistake it can mean that they never know and will continue to do so until realising- this is true in my storyline.

Text Cheating: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/loren-ridinger/has-your-flirt-texting-turned-into-cheating_b_5087313.html

This website shows that cheating by text also happens, but it may also be a regular thing to happen. We can see that on this source that text flirting is very common not only in a relationship but in a normal friendship and sometimes its hard to tell when it goes too far.

For my audience research I have asked people the questions below that show a very interesting response. The analysis of the responses is below:

This questions responses shows very clearly that texting or calling a wrong number can be easily done and over 80% of people asked have done so. This means that my storyline is relatable by the audience meaning they will understand it and know what its like to be in the characters position.

Have You ever texted or called someone by mistake?

 

Answer Choices–	Responses–
– Yes	84.21% 16
– No	15.79% 3
Total	19

 This question shows that nearly 80% of people asked have been away on holiday whilst being in a relationship meaning their partner may be left behind worrying about their other partner. This also shows that a lot of people can relate to my main characters and how they both feel. This means they will understand the plot line more.

Have you been on holiday leaving your relationship behind?

 

Answer Choices–	Responses–
– Yes	78.95% 15
– No	21.05% 4
Total	19

1st Rough Cut

This is my first rough cut for my final idea. It shows the editing and music in going to use for my New York footage and footage of Demi and Harry.

Still to do:
I need to add the text effects which is edited on using adobe premier pro or flash. This will be the onscreen text messages being sent between the two main characters.
Also I need to film the last scene in Norwich Airport. (this is being filmed on the 13/10/14).
Finally, I'm going to add the first scene, which I'm undecided on what to include, I'm not sure if I will just film the character leaving or I must include the parcel including his prize letter.

Text Effects Planning

After researching and filming my short film I'm nearly at the stage where I will be adding the text messages over the top of my video. This will be an effect added using either premier pro or flash. Probably both. I have started to plan this and researched other films that have used this method. Recently I saw The Fault in Our Stars with a very close friend and noticed the effects used. The messages are exactly as I had planned mine and I really liked the effects used.

Below are example shots of the film with my brief description:

In this picture you can see that the laptop screen has been recorded and cropped then placed over the original video of the actor. The screen recording has a weak opacity meaning it looks like a dream like view and helps to show what the actor is seeing and reading. I really like this idea and may use it in my final piece.

How I will attempt to achieved this effect:

To achieve this I will be filming the screen of a computer (probably using a piece of software) and placing it over the top of the filming of the actor. This will mean they are overlapping. I will then make the screen recoding have a lower opacity to make it visible but not completely apparent. This means the viewer can see through the actors eyes.

 

For this shot you can see the text messages the actor is seeing. I really like this idea of animated on screen effects and had already planned to use this exact same technique to portray what my characters are sending each other. I like the simple yet very effective style of the effect. I will definitely be using this method myself as it will extremely help my audience understand the storyline by seeing the communications between my characters.How is this achieved:

How I will attempt to achieved this effect:

To achieve this I will try using Adobe Flash to draw each individual frame with the drawing of the speech bubble, for each frame I will add a single character more and when played tougher it will look like they are appearing in text format. I like the idea of drawing the text messages as they look more simplistic and more effective. Each character could have their own bubble to reflect themselves or their personality. I will hope to use a graphics tablet to draw the bubble straight to the screen instead of having to draw each one then scan them like the producers of The Fault in Our Stars did.

About the Film (from the producers):

The Fault in Our Stars is a film that pops -- literally.

Throughout the film adaptation of John Green's best-selling novel, white boxes with rounded corners and contrasting fonts appear onscreen whenever Shailene Woodley's Hazel Grace Lancaster and Ansel Elgort's Augustus Waters are flirtatiously texting about the books they've recommended to each other. The scene seems familiar not only because of the "young love" feelings that fly between them with every scribbled word, but also because of the visual design to bring their texts to the big screen in a way that's a cross between House of Cards, the Fault fandom and social media platforms.

"We can't have them staring at phones the entire movie," director Josh Boone tells The Hollywood Reporter of his discussion with cinematographer Ben Richardson. "So we looked at House of Cardsand Sherlock, and said, 'We should do something like this, but make it more like a Twitter-Tumblr aesthetic. That was the idea – to make it look like the fan art people had made for the movie, and feel like Tumblr."

"The toughest part of those shots was making sure they communicated what they needed to for the story without being distracting to the scene," says visual effects supervisor Jake Braver, who also worked on Blue Jasmine and the Cannes favorite Foxcatcher. After selecting pieces as inspiration for mockups alongside production designer Molly Hughes and meeting with Boone and producers Wyck Godfrey and Isaac Klausner, the final shots were executed by a company called Spontaneous. "We needed to find a way to see what Hazel and Gus were feeling as they read and typed the messages … I couldn’t imagine having handled the emails and texts in any other way."

Boone jokes that "there's more effect shots in this movie than the original Star Wars … getting rid of wires, mic pops, stabilizing camera," and more. But a major scene required that a cannula be added in postproduction: "The very first shot of the love scene -- it's a close-up of Shai, and she didn't have a cannula on because it was later in the scene, but we really wanted that look in her eyes, so Jake put a cannula on her. We didn't think it would work, and he did and it was beautiful."

When did you know Fault would feature Hazel and Gus' texts and emails onscreen directly?

Until about halfway through prep, Josh and I had planned on the computer screens and text messages being shot pretty conventionally, by cutting to a phone screen or computer. But the more we thought about it, we got to talking about how the focus is Hazel and Gus, and we needed to find a way to see what Hazel and Gus were feeling as they read and typed the messages. This scene was a lot of fun, because it's a whole conversation between Hazel and Gus where there is no dialogue, aside from the messages that are displayed onscreen.

How were the shots of the texts produced?

We went kind of old-school, actually -- each frame of each text message was hand-drawn and written on vellum, scanned, then animated and tracked, and digitally composited onto the footage. I felt like it was really important to ground those shots by making them feel handmade. I couldn’t imagine having handled the emails and texts in any other way.

[Regarding the hardware's screens], a lot of movies fake the way phones and emails look, and it was very important to us to be 100 percent authentic about that. Hazel and Gus have iPhones and they actually look and act like iPhones.

Boone noted that Hazel's cannula in some shots of her love scene is composed from visual effects.

While editing, Josh and his editor Robb Sullivan found this amazing close-up of Shailene from later in the scene when she had taken off her cannula, and she is looking at Gus, but they wanted to use it right at the beginning of the scene. So we added a computer-generated cannula -- it was a bit tricky to add, only because it was a close-up of Shai's face, and the cuts right before it and after it were of her with the real cannula, so it had match perfectly. Hopefully, it's seamless. 

What are some other VFX adds that fans can spot?

There are almost 350 VFX shots in the movie, and on a movie like this, it's my job to make sure they are invisible. Hopefully, those moments feel organic enough that no one is thinking "How did they do that?"

The scene when Hazel and Gus are on the plane departing for Amsterdam -- it's nearly impossible to shoot on a real airplane, so we added the background outside the windows, and for the exterior of the takeoff, we added the actual Indianapolis Airport terminal in the background of the shot. That's not something anyone would notice on a first viewing, but we tried to add little things like that for the fans where we could.

My Basic Storyboard

Below is my basic storyboard I will be using for my short film idea Wrong Number.

I have used a basic story board instead of an in-depth one as I did at AS because I feel that when Im filming I try and get as much extra footage as well as the very important planned footage meaning I might change the plan all together. By having a basic idea that I know will work it means I will at least I will know what I need to film to avoid having to re-shoot. Which would be impossible after going to New York!

Short film- A Man Who Delivers

Summary of elements I would like to include in my own short film and my own development of own idea(s):

• Technology Elements & Text Effects – I really enjoyed the interaction between technology and the characters to show an insight to their lives. I like how the audience can see what the characters are saying so the audience feel more involved to understand the storyline better. I think the effects of displaying them on screen are very effective and I would love to achieve the same effect with my audience by creating a narrative which is both interactive and educational.
• POV Shots – I furthermore enjoyed the style of showing the audience what the character can see. I think this gives the best view of from the characters life and helps the audience understand them better. I  want to use POV shots to explain and show my characters life but also other shots to keep the film interesting and help make up the narrative.