I've got a treatment for that...

Here is the treatment for our short film.

Our piece is going to be a short gangster style film. We want to have a quirky feel to the piece with comical edges intertwined. We have sited Quentin Tarantino and (more importantly) Guy Ritchie as major inspiration for the project. We are aware that these are amazingly successful directors but we have decided to aim high and hope to perform as best we can. The piece will be clever and humorous with excitement provided through action scenes/chases.

We need to consider that if we are to pull this off, that we need to consider our time limits. As this requires complex props and scripting, coming up with a schedule would be necessary.

Thinking about props, as we need things such as police cars and undercover cop suits, we need to make a plan as to how we can acquire these things and if we need to consider hiring out several pieces of equipment.

Having a snappy quick style is something I have thought about a lot, based on the research that I have undertook, e.g. looking at Tarantino and Ritchie films, having a quick, snappy base would compliment our style of films.
Having fast paced music - especially during the chase scene would add drama and tension.
Having quick camera changes would also make sure that this is mirrored in the direction style.
Similarly having a snappy script that keeps the pace going would match this and keep the style of the film very obvious.

Although considering this, a lot of this can be done in the post production part, so filming as much footage from as many camera angles will make the film easy to edit with a greater outcome.

We want the film to be clever yet easy to follow. To achieve this we have decided to file down our original complex storyline into a more manageable yet still engaging narrative.

Here is a taste of the storyline;

Main characters: Johnny & Adrian

1. Johnny finds lots of unpaid bills, electricity goes, milk off etc. Everything going wrong. Chats to Adrian, suggests dealing drugs to earn some more money. Adrian against the idea, too much at stake i.e. girlfriend.
2. Adrian meets girlfriend Cheryl, for lunch, she looks fed up. He asks if she can pay. Then asks if she can sort out his rent. She's pissed off and leaves him. Also leaves her wallet. Adrian eyes up the wallet & takes it. BINGO!
3. Adrian calls Johnny tells him to meet him at certain street.
4. Walking shot of Adrian telling Johnny he is now keen to deal and that he has money to do it but doesn't go into detail. They walk to their old dealers, Oily Pete.
5. Inside their oily Pete's house, he thinks he's a bit of a Gangster will try and make it funny(?) Both want to know where they can get hold of something stronger. Oily Pete says he is about to go down to Big Druggy Raggy who may be able to sort them out. Oily Pete calls Raggy and gets the go-ahead.
6. Johnny, Adrian & Oily Pete go to Raggy's and negotiate a deal. Adrian hands the briefcase of money to Raggy, Johnny appears shocked that he has all that cash. Raggy barely checks it but remains intimidating. Raggy eventually hands over the drugs, saying something like "I like you guys, I feel like I can trust ya".
7. J&A exit Raggy's. Johnny asks how Adrian got the money but Adrian says to start running.
8. Back to Raggy & co, one of his cronies checking the money. "Boss, we've got a problem..."
9. Raggy & co "OOOOOIIIII!!!!" Start to chase them.
10. Big chase scene Raggy & co vs J&A
11. Police notice Raggy & co with gun so chase them & arrest them
12. J&A get away, with drugs.
13. Stills of successful drug deals with captions underneath.
14. Stills of the other characters, Raggy & co behind bars. End of story!!!!

This is a general outline of the narrative and changes will surely be made during production. We are thinking of filming in Bath and Bristol. We believe that the piece would benefit from filming in Bristol when filming some of the outdoor shots due to bath looking to posh. Reconnaissance has been performed on possible shooting destinations. Are main issue at the moment is finalising the script and casting.

In short, we need to make sure we all undertake a different role in order for the whole piece to come together, we will dedicate different parts to each team member and contact each other regularly in order to make it work and hopefully the team effort will pay off with a well presented short film.

OMG I hate to abbreviate...

Fri 5th Feb

Today we viewed all of our attempts for our short film project entitled, 'Oh My God'. I was really pleased with our group's efforts and felt that we worked to the best of our abilities. A few points we need to work on are:

• Background light. There was a point where we were filming inside and the light out of the window was very bright and over exposed. This made the inside image we were actually trying to film look very dark.


• Apparently using the car would make health and safety have a cardiac arrest. Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Other than that though I feel we did really well. And although the use of the car was technically a bad idea, I feel that it was shot really well and was really effective. I also think the continuity of the shots were good, though there is always room for improvement.

As we were filming from Camera right to Camera left we were asked to join with another group who filmed from camera left to camera right. We then had to upload both versions into final cut pro and edit them together to create a sequence. I really enjoyed doing this and found it was fun to create a chase sequence with the two different films.

Here is the final edited piece:

Oh My GOD! from Rachel Sowden on Vimeo.