Lauren's NEA blog

My short film requires two characters, one being the online 'stranger' and the other being the 'victim' of online stalking. As my short film planning process developed, I thought about using two online 'strangers' talking to just the one 'victim' to be a representation of how easy it is to talk to someone who you do not know, the victim assumes that they are talking to one person whereas the viewers know that they aren't therefore showing the overall message of the short film. When discussing this idea with my peers, I am still undecided on this aspect of my film however I do think this would be an effective 'spin' on the exsisting videos focussing on this subject. *UPDATE* After discussing this idea of using two antagonists and one victim, I think it would be more effective to keep to the original idea of having one protagonist and one antagonist. This will be more effective at conveying the overall message of my film as I think having two...

The main setting for the short film will be in the room with the laptop, to show how our lives evolve around technology and how we actually spend the majority of our day looking online. When thinking about the setting, it would be ideal to have a small cramped room however this may be difficult when filming, I will make the room appear to be small by using lots of close up shots as well as this I want to have depth to my shots and so I will do this by shooting through doorways, not only does this make the shot more interesting, it will also give an idea of the size of the room.  I want to have a small cramped room to act as a representation of the restrictions which talking online brings to people, we no longer properly interact with people, we just talk over a computer screen. The second setting will be in the main characters house, where we will see the intruder come in at the end of the film. This setting choice has been made to show how they now know wh...

Voice over script: Unnamed Protagonist: Social media is used by millions everyday. Allowing us to connect with those near and far. It's expanding all the time, new accounts, new friends, upload, like, retweet. The internet has a dark side too. A dark side which our parents cannot protect us from. A dark side, that we are exposed to. And you might not even know about it. But it's there. Plot outline- So far, the basic plotline for my short film is based around the dangers of the internet and how we never really know who we are talking to. The film will begin showing a POV shot from a yet unknown character, they will be looking at two adults leaving their house through the trees. We are then introduced to the protagonist of the story where they come home and see a note that their parents left them telling them that they will be out for a while. They then go upstairs and go on their laptop for a while, scrolling through their different social media accounts. They then leave th...

When considering the forms and conventions of films I will be using the genre rules for a thriller film, which are: Low saturated lighting, quick cuts, music adding to tension, shadows, extreme close ups, and to zoom in on the characters emotions, zooming in can also be used to focus on props which develop the narrative. As well as this, a lot of films have a subliminal message which is a feature that I aspire for my short film to include. My overall message from this creative piece will be that we can never be sure about who we are talking to, even if we think we are educated enough on the dangers of social media. Where are you planning to develop on existing forms and conventions? A conscious decision that I have made for my short film which will challenge the verbal forms and conventions of film as no speech will be used in my short film. The conversation between the two people will be shown through screen recordings and shots of the screen. I have made this decision to add to th...

Plot synopsis for a short film based on this article The short film would begin with a family sitting down outside having a family picnic. It is then realised that they have placed their blanket over a wasps nest and as the wasps slowly start taking over their picnic the family start to swat the wasps away, however they then look in the sky and see that hundreds of wasps are heading their way due to the distress signal that wasps have. The wasps then make a formation of the family's surname in the sky and starts darting towards them trying to get their nest back and even when the family move their blanket to a different area of the field they get attacked by even more wasps. The wasps have taken over everything, the drinks, the fruit and the sandwiches and they have even started to crawl on the baby that everyone seems to forget about during the wasp panic. The short film would end with the family suddenly dissapearing and it is hinted that they have ended in the was...

Idea and genre This second idea is based around the lottery, and what would happen if someone found a winning scratch card on the floor that belongs to someone they know and see the questions they are faced with: Do they keep it? Split the money? The genre would be a comedy which is one of the factors holding me back from this idea of producing a funny short film is challenging as everyone has a different idea of 'whats funny'. Mise-en-scene The mise-en-scene elements which I would primarily focus on in this short film would be character expression and movement and props. Character expression and movement is an important element to focus on in this short film as it would be character prompted meaning that the characters are the main feature of the film so they have to be comedic in order to fit in and be suitable for the chosen genre. Props is also an important aspect of this film seeing as the plot is all about a scratch card, and what the character decides to do with the m...