The Importance of Education Short Film

                                                 'The Icing On The Cake' 

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This week I have been testing the copyright free tracks against demo test footage I made as samples to see how the film would play out and I'm quite surprised that it actually came out better than I could of ever imagined. With knew knowledge of how my project would look I literally cannot wait to begin filming and am extremely excited about this project. 

I have decided to have the opening credits not to play at the beginning but rather to start the film and show a few actions (the student comes home and enters his house and closes the door to the camera) followed by a quick title screen displaying creator and contributor credits. I feel this would be a good way of getting the audience attention straight away by starting the film and while they are already watching just simply show a few quick credits. 

I developed this idea because I know that sometimes it can be a drag to get a film started when the credits take so long that the audience have already lost interest. I have also decided to have my actors be colour coded (if possible) I would like ideally to have my actress wear red because this I feel is a colour that is associated with love (red rose, love hearts etc) and my actress is playing an important role of being the emotional part of the protagonist's life and the cause of his inner pain when he is betrayed. 

I would have the villain of the story (the guy who steals her away from him) to be wearing dark colours which often villains are associated with darkness. (E.g: Mr Dark from 'Rayman', Master of Darkness (Vampire Story),the Dracula's dark clothes, and Ghost face killer from 'Scream'. There are more examples like this out there in the media but I think this is just a few to justify my point. 

Ideally I would want the protagonist to wear black and blue colours to show that he is feeling down and emotionally beaten up inside (''Feeling blue and depressed''). I think it is important to show the representation visually in the film what is being said spiritually in the story. 

I have also written descriptions of how each shot and scene will play out and unfold which will help me to direct the actors in terms of emotional expressions and visually aesthetically pleasing use of mise on scene. I feel that I have everything I need as I have a great meaningful story to tell my audience, keen experienced actors joining to work with me on this project, locations, music, wardrobe selection confirmed with actors, equipment (camera, tripod, batteries), script, transport, call sheets, risk assessments and location release forms (pending approval). 

Lunch will be provided and made available for the actors by me on request and any other needs my actors have will be handled, dealt with and assisted by me. I have also been working on three people's projects such as  'Tell Tale Heart' radio drama adaptation for Callum Blitzz second year Media Production BA student, 'Junk Mail' short film for Oliver Mays (Television Production student) and Wing Tam's ''On The Edge'' short film (Producing for Film & Television student) which this takes care of the experience part of the assignment of working on three other people's project whilst working towards out own graduate project. I was requested for this assignment to work on three different productions and I feel that these three productions was successful and I feel that these three productions helped me to gain even further experience in terms of acting which will help me direct my actors and gave me a great insight into what I want and will be looking for in these performances from my actors like I mentioned in my previous post. 

                             'Advanced Specialist Production Skills: Summary'

This project started off as a real life encounter that I witnessed and felt very strongly about because I witnessed a good friend of mine (now ex friend) who was on a good path to life with a bright future but due to negative life choices and bad influences surrounding him it had become clear to me that he is now no longer furthering his education and he has now given up on life to the point where even I couldn't help him as the rebellious attitude has taken over him and influenced him.

I always feel this huge sense of loss because I couldn't save my friend and I always told him from a young age that I would always be his Savior. I couldn't save him but I wanted to be able to share how passionately I disagree with his negative life choices as I believe he should have stayed with the choice of education and continue it further.

I was told that we were to make a graduate project and it was advised to me to provide a project that people can relate to. I looked inside my heart and realised that I knew exactly what I now wanted to create.

I studied existing media such as the famous Carlo Collodi's Adventures of Pinocchio story and the movie 'Educating Rita' starring Julie Walters which influenced my film's style which was to be a story of a student who has been mislead down a destructive path but later realises the importance of education and wants to come back to the right path.

Now that I had my own personal passion attached to this project I felt I should do something for the audience and show them something that I know will hype them up for sure which is that not only was the student distracted but he was distracted by a love interest who later cheats on him and adds to the character's confusion and problems that the protagonist needs to solve.

I set out to make a film about 'The Importance of Education' which is the title of my short film. However just because I had the idea doesn't mean I knew how I wanted to show this. Research is an area of the project that forms and influences the project. I had been working on three other people's project for this assignment for the team work experience part of the assessment but during these projects I realised that a pattern between the films I been making with others which was that I am typically cast as the male in his 20's who is going through a rough patch in his life either by going through a break up or experiencing stresses in his life leading towards possible depression.



I felt that this character type should be the leading protagonist character in my film. I attend editing workshops with Adrian Butterworth to tighten up on my editing skills and familiarise myself with the mixing of Photoshop masking on Premiere Pro Cs6 and the basics of editing, trim, cut, paste and export along with colour correction, picture tone, white balance and audio mixing.  


I had wrote a script for my film in the style of first person perspective telling you the story as the events unfold on the screen visually but more based on the moral rather than describing the action in this sense. The script faced several adjustments when I found actors interested in being in my film.

I researched the thematic signatures that my favourite auteur directors (Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino) play with to great affect in their movies which would influence my style of directing. This was the same for the movie scores they use which also played a big part in the influencing of my soundtrack.


The storyboards came soon and I found myself shooting test shots as place holders to create a music score to with the pictures. I also collected a selection of copyright free tracks. These tracks I found were from a long file which plays multiple songs so its not possible to put a legit title in my references and also I'm still debating if I'm even going to use these tracks as my original plan is to complete a soundtrack for the film that I composed myself.

I provided a risk assessment, call sheet, location release form for my tutor and the University to give permissions to film on their grounds. From here it was location decisions, location permissions, informing the actors, a plan for the shoot (what I want to film and how I'm going to achieve it) with a fixed time schedule. Next steps will be to finalise the soundtrack choices for the film, record the narration voice over, edit, export and provide a portfolio of all my documents related to the project along with programme as complete form.

And the further career aspirations for this project would be to gain it recognition at London Film Festival and other film festivals. The previous productions I worked on gained me practical skills experience in production and educated me in the process to follow to successfully complete a short film production. All I can say now is ''Sit tight audience and get for an eye opening and life changing short film''.

                                          The Importance of Education

                            Tweaks and adjustments before the production

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This week I have made some great process with the project in terms of increasing depth to the story and overall film. I have included an extra scene for the film to really exaggerate on the sense of loss that the student character feels which the audience will be able to relate to as we have all felt hopeless at some point in our lives.In terms of music I have collected a collection of copyright free tracks just in case I'm unable to complete the soundtrack for the film to satisfaction as its not only a matter of creating music but also testing it on audiences to see their reactions.

I am currently booking first meeting with my supervisor James Fair to discuss the progress of the project so far and receive his advice regarding how to excel further with the project. Despite whether I use the copyright free tracks or my own music track I believe that my structure for the music score would now consist of a cinematic and epic music entrance to the introduction of the film to get the attention then will go into depth and mystery as to where the film is heading. This will be followed by the music intensifying as thing goes wrong and sympathy and sad music will come into play whilst concluding with triumphant and uplifting score to finish on a high note. I feel that these sources of research below helped me to understand what I should look for in choosing actors and made me realise the principals of the story structure and how my music that I use in the film should also reflect upon the three act structure. 

My own personal experience with acting such as University productions, my own projects outside of the University for entertainment purposes along with short indie productions I had been involved with in the past and current helps me to determine how I would want to direct my actors to tell my story through facial expressions and emotions. 

These techniques will be useful as I am to perform a monologue for this film which is the narration of the story from the perspective of the student and I will need to show a variety of expressions and emotions in my voice as the audience will be hearing my voice and not seeing my visual expressions which will force me to draw extra focus on the exaggeration of certain feelings and elements of the monologue such as the sadness, regret, sorrow, hopelessness and epiphany based emotions in the student's voice as he tells the story. 

The three act structure is useful to use in order to place my ingredients within the film into the three stages such as choosing a part of the story whether act 1, 2 or 3 and determining what kind of elements I would need to show in the 'Hook' stage of the film to get the audience attention. The same goes for the 'Conflict' stage and the build up climax to a meaningful and satisfactory conclusion.

I feel that the following week will be all I really need to launch this production as it seems I will have everything by then and will be ready to get the show on a roll as I'm feeling extremely excited about this production as the story means a lot to me personally and I feel that the audience will be able to feel and relate to the story too as anyone with a human heart will know that bad things in life happen but message in the film is not only to not give up but to prevent bad things from happening by taking extra caution at the beginning which I think is a positive and appropriate message to deliver to the audience.


My Research for this week consisted of the following: 

Directing Actors Chapter 01: Welcome (2015), 'HollywoodCameraWork', Avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMItbaXKF_Y [Accessed at 06/01/16] 

Scriptwriting: Three Act Structure - Five Minute Film School (2014), 'Fiveminutefilmschool' (Video File), [ONLINE], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIGYtzR-Ylw [Accessed at 07/01/16]

                             The Importance of Education - 3rd January 2016

                                    A New Character Enters The Story

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This week I have had an extra male actor apply for a role in the film. Originally he wanted the part but was unable to do it but has now come back for the role so to improve my film even further I have made it possible for him to be in the film by adding to the script a new character which is the mysterious person who will be watching the student's behaviour from a distance and warns him that he his going to get hurt because Camilla (the student's love interest) is not a straight forward girl and will mess with his mind and heart to which the student will get angry with this person and ask him to keep his thoughts to himself but will later come to realise that this person was right.

I have added this to the call sheet and will film this extra scene at the Bournemouth University grounds and I feel that this project is getting better all the time and we now have a bigger cast from what originated as just me has now resulted in a full cast of five people.


Transport fees have been now made available for me on request and I will be getting the permissions sorted out for the filming this week as soon as I hear back from my tutors. I have been doing extra practice with Adobe Premiere Pro and have learned how to successfully edit and produce high quality exports without fail.  I used to struggle with this as it is different from other editing software I used in the past.  There has been some delays in the production stage as things don't always go as smoothly to plan as hoped but it is still very much under my control.

The storyboards for the cut shots for my actors are now ready and will enable me to direct each member of our cast whilst making an appearance in the film myself also. The script for the new characters dialogue has also been prepared and has been included in to the main script.


The soundtrack has had a few new tweaks to it as I changed a few of the instruments from guitar to strings as I feel that the strings instrument in some areas of the music creates a more dramatic and cold feeling whereas I noticed that guitar can be quite a warm sounding and comforting instrument which I felt should be changed because the nature of what is happening in my story is more cold and sorrowful rather than warm and comforting.

Evidence of the conversations and agreements between me and the actors can be made available to tutors from me on request as evidence of development and progress with the project along with the scripts or any other desired or requested piece of written documents.

                               The Importance of Education Short Film

                                             On with the Show

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This week I am glad to be able to say that I have finalised the cast in which I will be working with as both actors have informed me that they are definitely up for doing the film and I now decided on a date for the filming to take place which they have also agreed to but is now a matter of getting the legal permissions approved by the university to film on the university grounds with the cast and crew.

Personally I am hoping that there are no further problems with the cast members dropping out because I personally feel that these members are truly fitting to the roles. I will not be revealing in this post who the actual finalised cast members or crew are for their own privacy as I feel it is best to keep it confidential and professional.

I have been in touch with a student who has said that he will be able to possibly produce a film score soundtrack for my film should I need. His name will be available on request for tutors of the university only. This is good to know as a back up in case I have some issues or troubles finishing and creating my film score soundtrack music.

I have been visualising how the actors would interact with each other in the film and taken some notes of how the body language should be presented in order to communicate to the audience what type of person they are in the story (e.g: friendly, arrogant, selfish, awkward, shy and upset).

I have also changed and selected some better brand new copyright free music as a back up just in case I couldn't get the soundtrack finished on time. I have wrote some additional scene for the two actors for when we film that would do great as extra scenes to place within the film. This extra scene being a scene where the ex girlfriend of the main character is happily enjoying her time with her new boyfriend under a tree. This scene I feel will be good for the film because their new found glory will be the ultimate sadness for the main protagonist and will make the audience care about the main character and feel sympathetic for him which is important as the audience need to feel a connection and care about the character and what is happening in the film in order for it to be a film that people can relate to.

Other than that I have been working on completing the legal paper works such as the risk assessment, call sheet and location release form requests to send off for approval.  Then we can begin our first filming session which will be interesting and our first step towards the goal.

                      The Importance Of Education - Script Expanding and Improving

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This week I have been taking upon me to include greater range in the story by including the characters Camila and her boyfriend in the story to have some dialogue and interaction with my character as I feel it will bring a dramatic feeling to the film and give the audience a nice control intermission from the constant narrator dialogue over the scenes style of directing.

I wanted to show that I can produce both types of film which I why I have made adjustments to the script in the way that if I couldn't get these shots for whatever reasons I will still be able to produce the original idea of the film I had in mind where the narrator's speech is placed over the top of the events happening in the student's life which is being shown visually.

I wanted to create an intense scene where the boyfriend and the guy who got cheated on in the story would meet to discuss and sort things out in a diplomatic way or at least try to and put the audience on edge and make them feel like a fight could start at any moment. I feel this would be exciting and makes the audience care and sympathise with the student character even further as it is important that the audience feel a connection with the character and the story.

I have also included in the script some new dialogue for the character Camila who is the love interest of the student and a scene of her confession of her love for him followed by a scene of her telling him that she has found another and breaking his heart.

Relationships are a common theme in life and I felt that although the film's main purpose is to exaggerate the importance of education in life, I also felt that the film could benefit from having a relationship element to it to draw the audience into the story.

I have been talking to three contributors, one male actor and one female actress who will ultimately make the love triangle element complete. I have also created some intense music for these scenes which I am looking forward to showing in my film providing it has the intended affect that I am searching for being of both heartbreaking and motivating at the same time as if the bad things that are happening to him are motivating him to action for a better good.


Harvard Referencing: Research

FilmSkills - How to Write a Script - Story Structure, 2008, 'Filmskills', [Video File], [Online], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0yqUmedyOM [ 17/12/2015]



Making movie music - getting started, 2012, 'Neumannfilms', Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WopdkBci3vs [Accessed 17/12/2015] 

                              The Importance Of Education: Professional Practice

                                        Visual Concepts and Editing Training

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In this last week I have been making great use and practice with the practice test footage of scenes I recorded for camera shot ideas that I would use in my film. I have been using what I learned from the editing workshops in terms of colour correction and how to produce better looking visual elements.

I have been experimenting with the idea of 'Reflection' as being an area of the life of the student character in my story where he hits the crossroads and begins to reflect on the mistakes he has made and begins to realise what he should've done the first time around.

I thought what better way to show a sense of reflection than to use an actual visual representation of some sort of reflection. Normally the most easiest one to do would be a window and show his reflection but this felt almost too easy.

My second idea was to show his reflection in a cracked glass to represent that his life and soul has been smashed but then I thought of a more complicated idea but with a better result. I had made a puddle using several buckets of water and places this in the forest area and used the puddle to show his reflection.  This works greatly in the sense that he is now looking down on himself visually and then he walks away from his reflection because he doesn't like what he sees.

This idea of the water reflection came from to me from the film 'The Lion King' (1994) and I just thought that I simply have to have this motivational shot in the film.


I found similar videos that covered the similar techniques that I was taught in Adrian Butterworth's advanced editing classes which I felt I should do some extra studying and recapping on the techniques he mentioned.

I have started to refresh by doing some practice with the teaching materials in premiere pro and just getting used to the ins and outs of the editing process and shortcuts such as the I and O for in and outs and the three point editing system.

Harvard References: Bibliography

Mufasa's Ghost - The Lion King, (2011), 'Lionkingsongs', [Video File], [Online], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_OMPrqhA_4 [Accessed 10 December 2015]


Getting started in premiere pro in 10 minutes, (2012), 'Softwaremedia.com', [Video File], [Online], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVR8S1-a6Ak [Accessed 10 Decomber 2015] 

                                             The Importance of Education
                                                Character Development

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Recently I have been working for other people's projects which weren't necessarily the original other people's projects I agreed to with the exception of one which was Callum Blitz radio drama project of the 'Tale Tell Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe where I played a voice actor of a removal man along with several other actors. This project is now completed and was in my original negotiated learning agreement but I have also completed two other projects which I believe serves as a form of research and personal practice for my own project as I was an actor in these last two projects.


The first film being a short film for Oliver Mays team in Television Production titled 'Junk Mail' I believe where I played 'Ian' who is a stressed business man called Ian who is down on his luck with work, life, love life and overall just negative outcomes in his life but the film shows how changing your mindset and outlook can help you to have a better life.


This film I felt was a great practice for the character I will play in my graduate project which is very similar to Oliver's project as it revolves around changing your behaviour and mindset in order to get back on track of life.


The second film project I was featured in was 'On the Edge' for Wing Tam's film group which I played the character of 'Oliver' who is a drug addict whose older self comes back in time to warns him to change his ways and not to influence his friend to become a drug abuser too.


I feel that this project as helped train me for the character I will play in my graduate film project about 'The Importance of Education' as it again was based on changing the outcome of ones future.


From here I have been developing my character for the graduate in terms of appearance and behaviour in two stages. I had been watching two videos online which had influenced me to focus now on the development our the protagonist in my story and how he will end up towards the end and what difference will be made in terms of character development. These two videos can be found at the end of this post in the Harvard references section.


 The two stages will be the beginning version of my character who is a failure who dresses with wool hat, hoodies and pretty much what you would expect a youngster to wear and then we have the developed version of the character that we see at the end of the film which is the business man, sharp and smartly dressed, reliable version of the character.  I feel this motivation is important for the audience to see character development to help assist getting the message across.



Harvard References

5 secrets to writing a bestselling novel - secret #2: creating memorable characters', (2013), 'Write to sell book' , [Video File], [Online], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVjwUry2ZDk [Accessed 04/12/2015] 


Starting to write: developing character, (2012)  'Writing .ie',  [Video File], [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0VCBshzYk4 [Accessed 05/12/2015] 

                                               The Importance Of Education

                      Equipping Myself In Knowing Of Tools I Will Use In Production

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This week has been all about equipping myself with knowledge of the tools I will need to use in order to produce my film. These tools would include Premiere Pro for editing and the camera (Techniques)(although not decided which type of camera I will use yet).


I have been doing workshops with Adrian Butterworth where we have been using Premiere Pro and have been working closely with him and had received great positive feedback from him in the workshop for my ideas of how to Photoshop out objects and my insights on what areas of a picture I should be aware of when performing colour correction.


I feel that colour correction is important as not every shot is going to originally look decent and presentable. Things can go wrong with the shot like it could be very bright on the day when you are trying to create a dark and more dull atmosphere so therefore I would film the scene and then colour tone it down and maybe add rain and mild thunder sound effects to the scene to make the audience feel the intended impression of what the scene was meant to be like.


We have done some masking and replacing with imported photo versions of the scene from photo shop, colour tone correcting, identifying colour faults and general editing, cutting, copy and pasting whilst familiarizing myself with the shortcuts such as I and O for setting left and right locators for selecting a certain piece of the footage for editing. I have been looking into this further by studying a YouTube tutorial for Premiere Pro colour correcting and colour grading which can be found at the end of this post in the reference section.


Steven Spielberg is a remarkable director as far as the world of cinema is concerned and I have been working on understanding his vision of how he sees stories and films and how he draws deep emotions into the hearts of his audiences. This source shows the studies of Spielberg I have been investing in doing my studies towards producing my film.


Spielberg enjoys moving the camera and often moves it as the composer plays the music or a choreographer arranges a dance. Although he may have actors deliver dialogue he also likes to show and explain things with a visual representation for the audience. Steven Spielberg's camera use does not so much observe the scene but rather it interacts with and gather its details.


I feel that I will start deciding on which objects I will use to show and tell my story visually. I may use the character isolated with only a care free animal around which he can use to show his affection to and express his loneliness to show that no one understands him or is on his side anymore to the point where his only temporary companionship comes from an animal.

I am writing my script the way that even if the audio is turned off, the audience will be still able to understand what is going on in the story. This technique was used by Charlie Chaplin to great extent in his movies as most of the story was told through the use of mime acting. I have included a scene which is typical of the style of Charlie Chaplin's mime story telling at the end of this post in the references.


Harvard References

Steven Spielberg's techniques and themes, 2012, 'Steven Benedict, [Video File], [Online], Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uCBYFHRHU0 [Accessed on 25,11,2015] 



Premiere pro tutorials - COLOR CORRECTING and COLOR GRADING - Part 1, 2012, 'Tara arts movie', [Video File], [Online], Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WozBxv9RnY [Accessed on 25,11,2015]

Charlie Chaplin - The Lion's Cage, 2011, 'JoseMonkeys', [Video File], [Online], Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpjEyBKSfJQ [Accessed 25,11,2015] 

                         The Importance Of Education - Casting and Location Decisions

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In continuation with my project I have been location scouting for interesting scenery and have come upon the idea of choosing the new forest as one of my locations as I believe I will be able to film great forest based scenery which will contribute nicely to the idea I have of using the trees as the visual representation of the obstacles of the students confusion and life. In other words, the boy trying to find his way through the woods is a lot like how it works in life when you are trying to find your way to light which in this case is the sun as in the sunshine through the trees.


I have also decided to use areas within the University provided I can get the filming permissions approved for it. I am thinking that the University entrance would be good for the in depth conversation that I want the student character to have with his love interest 'Holly' in the story.


I have been talking to several actresses and auditioning them for the role of this character. Casting is a big part I am working towards right now and I hope to also find a male actor to play the role of the guy who steals the students love interest away from him as the leading antagonist which makes the student start to question the motives of people around him as the antagonist is originally supposed to be the student's main friend which will ultimately become his worst enemy.


So far I am auditioning Char Frost and Becca Hyland and finding which characters would best suit them for this film.The places I search for actors are Star Now and Casting Call Pro and sometimes just typically searching my local area on the internet search engines like google and the word 'actors' or 'actresses'. My ultimate goal at the moment would be to define a script that features all the dialogue that I want to use in the film, a shot list, cast list, decide on all the locations I will use and get permissions for filming on the locations I choose.

                           The Importance Of Education - Pre-Production Stage

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It has come to the point where I am preparing my project for the actual production and therefore producing of the content stage. In doing so I have been attending Script Writing workshops with Resh Somauroo to refresh my mind about the concepts and structures that we should when writing a script.

An example of this would be how the story is laid out where you would have the opening where everything is normal then the problem area which is the middle and then finally the conclusion at the end where we learn the lesson and moral that the film was trying to pass on if any.


I was advised to attend a script clinic where I was asked to produce rough draft of my script which I have now completed and will be sending to them to get it tweaked and they can provide me with advice and guidance on how to improve my use of dialogue and other aspects of the story.



As far as workshops go I have been also attending the editing workshops with Adrian Butterworth who has given us a great inside look at using Premiere Pro and the tools we can use when it comes to editing our film. These would include 'White balance, title screens, colour correction, trim and pasting and matching bit rates.


I have been practicing with Premiere Pro with default footage from the teaching materials to get used to the system of how to edit using this software so that I can do a profession edit when it comes to my own project.



In the following workshops I hope to list the areas in which I feel I need to improve with so that I can go through them with Adrian and simply get trained in those areas. I have taken upon myself to also attend Guy Montrose's camera workshops optionally to gain extra knowledge about camera works and safety of equipment along with the techniques that can be used when creating motion picture.

                      The Importance of Education - Post 6: Sources for Inspiration


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This week I have come to terms with a bunch of great sources that I would use to do my research from in order for me to produce my film more professionally. I have looked into the mechanics of what I would need to learn in order to produce my film and have scheduled different sections of the production that I would need to study and perform research upon.


These being movie composers who style I feel would influence me when it comes to writing and composing the music score for my film and also how to produce music using editing software s in general which I have experience with but I am using this as a chance to refresh my knowledge of it.


I would also look into the filming techniques used by one of my favourite auteur directors 'Steven Spielberg' and Time management tools along with educating myself in ideas of how to write screenplays.


I have found that the film 'Educating Rita' would also be a great influence to base my film on as it supports and shows how the neglecting an education can negatively shape a life as Julie Walters character Rita is tired of living with her abusive boyfriend in a down and out life style and decides she deserves more out of life.


Hans Zimmer and John Barry are music composers whose music are not only just well known by many but their music has the ability to fit with most films which is easy to see why as the music has such dramatic composition of the instruments. I will study Hans Zimmers and John Barry more closely in the coming week and will begin deciding how my shots will look in the actual production.

                         The Importance Of Education Post 5 - Music Score

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In order to produce a music score that would best contribute to the motivational film I am creating, I felt that nothing makes people feel the importance of the message being told in my film better than making them feel emotions and the best way I felt to achieve this would be through the use of the visual elements being both dramatic and somewhat emotional along with a music score that makes the audience feel great emotions from sadness, despair, triumph, hope and relief.

I will take the audience on an emotional roller coaster but will free them at the end by showing how things can be reversed and corrected in order to get back on track in life. The music score artists I have been listening to and paying close focus on are 'John Barry' for his great use of emotional composition movie score music as heard in the soundtrack 'Born Free' as he makes fantastic use of brass and strings playing dramatic melodies designed to make the listener feel drawn in to the conclusion.

I also have chosen John Williams musical scores because he is a composer who I feel brings a great triumphant movie score themes to movies such as 'Saving Private Ryan - Hymn To The Fallen'. I personally love the uplifting strings and use of trumpet which I have come to symbolise as the instrument of triumph in my own personal opinion as it plays a very conclusion based sound, similar to the themes they play when they spread ashes at sea as a sign of respect for brave men who were killed in battle or war.

This combination is beautiful because it shows the two types of movie music I wish to make which are 'Sorrowful but also triumphant' which I believe is in sync and symbolises the message of ''Things may go bad but they can get better in time if you work and stay focused and most importantly, never give up''.  I will be looking into purchasing software in which I can create ny own film score music this coming week.  

                                    The Importance Of Education Post 4


                                  Composition of Music, Narration and Style


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The style in which my film will be delivered will be in a prologue voice narration while the visual elements have been shown. I have researched into media that is similar and in fact very close to the style I will be using. The video game Mafia features a close resemblance to the style of delivery I have in mind. The voice contrast with the music are clearly in synchronisation with each other and contribute to one another. I plan to create a similar music film score to the one you will hear in this ending scene from Mafia 1.

Also pay close attention to how the narrator makes the story personally relevant to the listener as he uses keywords like 'You' and 'the world'. This is a very clever choice of words because in every human being there are two things that will always be important to him or her and that is themselves and the world around them. If he simply just said 'the world is run by all types of people', this wouldn't be as interesting as saying 'You know, the world is not always run by what is written on books', it makes the listener become more engaged with the story and draws them in.


The reason I chose Mafia as a great source of media research into the style of the narration composition is not only due to its success as a game that is known for drawing audiences in to the story very effectively but the story in Mafia 1 is also about a man who got mislead in life and who went down a path of destruction and his desperate attempt to escape the Mafia was successful for most of his youth as he was put under witness protection and put his mobster boss 'Mr Salieri behind bars but many years later as an old man he is watering his plants in his front garden when he is paid a visit by two men who openly shot gun him on behalf of Mr Salieri.


 The moral of this story is that you made get away with doing bad for a while but it will eventually catch up to you which is similar to my previous research into the Pinocchio story where I spoke about how he mislead away from his responsibilities by the Wolf and the Weasel who were only out to use him.


I will write my script narration based on both Tommy Angelo (Main protagonist from Mafia 1) and Pinocchio's perspective of the story as if they were both dead and telling this story as a somewhat ghost to warn others of the mistakes they made.

The Importance Of Education - Short Motivational Film - Graduate Project POST 3
                                              ACTORS and DIRECTORS

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I have now began casting for the film and contacted Becki Hyland who works with children's Television and felt she would be an interesting contributor for the graduate project I am working on. I have also began taking a bigger look at my project and have decided to try to make this film as realistic as possible by not over using montages of scenes to show a sense of the passing of time and in other words I would focus more in actually creating the scenes and will be interested in showing some drama style dialogue.


I felt that the student should fail his education officially before the bad things in his life really take a big swing at him for negative impact to exaggerate his sorrow and regret when he sees that his education is gone and so are the people who were supposed to be his friends.

I have placed advertisements on the University Facebook pages and begin have more in depth conversations with people from my class and other classes and fish out some keen performers and actors from the arts department not only in the University but keen actors from wherever I can find them.  I will be doing a lot of asking around to find interesting characters who I feel will reflect upon the protagonists character.

Personally I see this project as a great chance to develop my auteur skills as a film director and also look back over previous films I have been in or created and see if I can spot any common links that are always common in any stories I write.

I researched the affect of auteur theory and began to see what types of trade marks and signatures different directors use. One of the videos I found interesting was this one which is regarding the origins of auteur theory which shows how people judge a film from both perspectives of what it is and from a auteur experience scanning to see if the director is showing the type of signature style that audiences have come to expect from them.

I have learned that there is a strong feeling in my heart for people who have been mislead in life by distractions just like in the Pinocchio story where he gets distracted from his school and responsibilities when he believes that the wolf and weasel are going to take his gold coin and plant it in a 'magic tree' to grow many gold coins.  

                     
                       The Importance of Education by Ryan Bicheranloo  - COLOUR PLAY

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For the colour representation of the themes of this film I had chosen black and white to represent the bleak stage of the students life but would make use of both audio and visual working together. When the narrator says  ''After turning my life around, colour finally came back into my life'', I would transition from black and white to colour visually which was an idea which was influenced by the great Quinton Tarantino's film 'Kill Bill Volume 1' where the dark and negative parts of the woman's life from the past is shown in black and white but when it shows her in the present time where she is now coming to a point where she knows what she is going to do about her bad situation, it is shown in colour. 

During my research into why colour is so important in film and how it can affect our moods I came across this video which I felt gave me a great insight into the values of different colours and how they can be used to nicely manipulate how the audience feels in different situations according to what particular feeling or emotion I want to bring out in my audience through the use of colour. 

I also now have a fellow student Catherine Alice Porter who has stepped in to assist me and help me in whichever area I ask of her and I will also be helping out on her projects. This will help to gain credit for team work experience within this project. I do believe that I will receive further result with teaming up with two more groups in order to meet the requirement to be able fulfill team work areas of this assignment.


I have had several discussions with Catherine Alice Porter about my project and she said that she would be up for doing some acting in my film to help contribute to the casting side of the production as well as the practical aspects of the production such as camera works with me and booking out any rooms or equipment that we may need to use.  


However, in terms of target audience for my film, I have decided that based on a conversation with my tutor for this unit that it would be a wiser decision to have this film to be targeted towards film festivals and upon my research I personally feel like a specific film festival that this film would be well suited for would be the 'London Short Film Festival' rather than bigger organisations as it is exactly what film festivals would appreciate (e.g: a short film with a meaningful story). 

                     The Importance of Education by Ryan Bicheranloo
                             
                                          The Beginning
                                       
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This project will be a film that examines the importance of education and the positive impact that education can have on a person's life compared to those who have no education or worse, have the opportunity to get higher education but turn their noses away from it. In the story we follow the life of a male student who represents all of us and the traps that we could easily fall into as the student fails to see the importance of education and neglects his studies to seek out instant cheap thrills in life believing that rebellion and a false sense of popularity among people who are pretending to be his friends will lead him on to a better quality of life and that he doesn't need education but in reality this all nothing but a sweet illusion.


This story is influence by a personal friend of mine who fell victim to this exact scenario but a more research based influence of this story can be found in the classic and world famous Carlo Collodi 'Adventures of Pinocchio' story where a boy neglects his studies and ends up trusting the wrong people who he believes are his friends but would later reveal themselves as the people who have now made a fool of him. Not only does neglecting your education lead you astray but it also makes you behave irresponsible and often people who neglect their education are only being untrue to themselves and others around them when they come to justify why they didn't follow their education and responsibilities like everyone else.


This clip from Walt Disney's Pinocchio shows how people can become engaged by their own self neglect of their future to the point where they are literally begging for a second chance at life because they didn't follow through with their responsibilities the first time round because they were too busy chasing after cheap thrills. No lie will ever be convincing or believable enough to justify their situation and will always catch up with them.

The style would consist of showing the events that student goes through such as feeling depressed in class, hanging out with friends drinking and leaving his studies neglected, arguing with his parents about his negative change in behaviour, meets a new girlfriend and starts thinking that he is considered a cool person because he now has friends and a girlfriend but all falls apart as his life style starts to impact his health and his girlfriend leaves him for one of his friends to which he begins to realise that these people don't really care about him but were just using him because he let them and finally the biggest event of the student's life which is the triumphant rise of recovering and building his life, health and career back to what it was originally meant to be.


This would consist of the narrator telling his story in the first person perspective while the visual representation of what he is talking about is being shown on the screen. The music would be mostly emotional and provoke feelings of sadness due to the negative events that are occurring in the student's life towards the beginning of the film but as his life progresses, the music will also progress into more cheerful and triumphant music.