Proposal of Short Film

Outline of purpose and concept/plot :

 The film is called Isolation. The film starts with graphics on screen, the camera in a sort of observant view, as if from a camera's perspective with an overlay comparable to that on top. Showing the differences between each week passing in lockdown, by showing a sort of speed up/montage view of the character's actions during the experiment. As an alternative, the character wakes up in the middle of his school, completely alone and isolated, he wanders about the place in search of others, this soon turns too right where the character has spent all day searching to no avail, this becomes a more survival ordeal where the character now has to look for food and shelter to survive this event. In the beginning, the character wakes up to realise that he is alone so he starts to search for other people. In the middle of the plot, there are signs that are seen of other people alive and the character rushes over to track them down, he meets the survivor and figures out its his friends, he hangs out with them for a while and slowly, one by one they start to disappear. At the end, everyone has disappeared again except him, and its seen now that it was all just a figment of his imagination and that he was the only one there all alone. The twist of the film is that his friends weren't real and that he was alone the whole time. The main character in the film is a major, average Joe kind of protagonist. Int terms of conventions, the storyline is basic and can be relatable to the audience. There would be little to no background information about the main character revealed. There would be a voiceover included in the short film which would be a way for the audience to understand the thought process of the main character. 

Target audience and scheduling/distribution :

The age range for this short film will stem from the age of 15-25. The short film will target both genders as both genders may have felt the same type of way that the main character felt when they were in some form of isolation, where they were separated from the outside world. This would be in the interest of those who like a thriller and maybe in the interest of those who may have had to self-isolate due to covid. The location will be in a school-based on how people can familiarise themselves with being alone in a certain place. Also, it allows the audience to relate. The film would appeal to a mixed combination of ethnicity, considering how the issues delayed is something that has affected a lot of different people. In terms of distribution, the film would be uploaded online through some major platforms, such as youtube, which would help reach the audience. 

Genre and theme :

The genre of the film is psychological thriller. In terms of props, this would be something that people have everyday, such as food and drinks. The costume would subvert from the genre, with people wearing school uniform as it takes place in a school. In terms of the situation, it would be based on a real life issue that has affected a lot of people, which would differ to other films with this genre which would have a plot that includes situation, which are far from reality. The convention of having recurring characters will be used in order to present the main character's mindset in which he would see people who are not actually there. With the sounds, There will be sound effects, such as clear audible used to convey where the character is and what scene is being depicted. As for the cinematography, there will be some clear shots that would be conveyed in a normal psychological thriller film, in which the day would be passing and there also would be clear emotions of the main character presented to convey his state of mind. The lighting in a film with this genre tends to be quite dim and changes within the atmosphere. For this film, we will be following this convention. The film will take on a psychological theme. This will be covered through the visual representations of the emotions and the behaviour of the main character and the slow detoriation of him. 

 Setting and locations :

 In terms of the setting, the area would be in an area in London in the time of the 20th century. The reason for his setting is based on the fact that we want to display how this was an issue for people who lived in these areas. As for the location, it will be set in Chadwell Heath Academy in the Hallway. This is so that we can display the isolation of the main character. This location will be filmed inside the real school. We will also film in the Crucible park, which is located next to the school. The idea of this location being used is so that we can display the transition between each scenes and the monad process of the character. As it is an outdoor location, this will be filmed outside. 

 Personnel and job roles - actors, productions team 

 

Production: Director - Richard 

 Camera operator - Richard 

 Actor - Elijah 

 Post-production: 

 Editor - Richard and Elijah 

 In the short film, the key character will be the main character as the plot centers around him. The actor who will play him is Elijah. This is based on how he has done some acting performances in the past which relates to conveying the emotion of someone isolated. 

 Legal and ethical issues - BBFC certification, use of intellectual property :

 The BBFC certificate the film would most likely get is a 12A. This would be based on how there won't be any form of foul language used in the short film as it is meant to be a film that everyone can relate to. The film will not include any type of content that may glamourize the use of any material that can be harmful to someone. 

 Copyright may be an issue in the short film. This may be from the use of music which may not originally be ours. As a way to resolve this, we would need to ensure that most of the content is from our own material so that we won't need to rely on other people's things to use. 

One ethical issue that could effect our short film is harassment. This would be from the public locations that we film in, such as the park, where someone may try and disturb us while we are filming. To ensure that this doesn't happen, we will be filming in the morning where there won't be a lot of people around. 

 As we are making a short film, our budget needs to be looked at ASAP, and we need to make sure we have enough money for all the materials we need, otherwise we won't be able to make a good short film.

For equipment, we will need a Canon Camera, which tends to cost around £500 - ish. A tripod will also be necessary, but these are much cheaper, being around £15. An SD card is a key necessity, these are around £8. An Apple Mac will be required for our editing, and these cost around £150 for a model from late 2012. We will be using Final Cut Pro as our editing software, due to its multiple beneficial features for our editing. This would cost around £250. Alongside this equipment, we would also likely need a keyboard of some kind which costs typically £20+ same with a mouse which is around the same price.

We will of course purchase our own props for the film. For example, for one of the scenes, we will need a notepad where we would write things down. This won't be a major issue in terms of budget as we originally have this item at home and we can bring it for filming, however, we would probably want a specific one for our film, so we would need to buy one from the shops, which would cost around £1 or a little more. There are other props, such as a school bag, which would cost around £11+ and a coat too which normally cost upward of £10. A packet of crisps is required in our film, so we would need to buy some in the shops, costing us from 60pence to £1 as we would aim to get the larger packets. 

As for the locations that we will be using in our film, some scenes will be outside in the park, which could cost us as we are using a public location. This would be around £425. As for our school location, we would get permission to film here for free, however, if this is not possible and we would need to pay to use the locations, this would cost around £150 per hour. We would have an estimate to film the school scenes in two days, giving a total of £300 just for that. 

Travel won't however be an issue as the locations that we will film in are not far apart and is only a couple of minutes walk so if we were to change to different locations on the same day, we could just simply walk there. However, in the case that we are behind schedule or that we would want to get filming done quicker, we would take the bus. This won't be an issue in terms of budget as we have zip cards for 16+, meaning that we can use our cards on the bus for free. But as an adult, a normal Oyster card would be required, and it would cost £1.50 for each time we use the bus. Considering our journey to the location and back and on the days that we will be filming in, we would probably need an estimate of £21 to cover the overall cost. 

During filming, there would be times in which the cast and crew members will need a lunch break or a set amount of time to have food, so we would order some food for each day that we do filming, which would cost around £70. There would be some healthy snacks, which would cost around £15 and there would also be some times where we would have catering for some hot meals, which would cost around £200. Also, as there won't be a lot of people, this would be a suitable price. 

 As we will be filming the short film, we will of course require some equipment in order to do so. 

  First of all we need a camera, which would be used to record all of our footage for our film. We will need a Canon camera as this hardware is able to take clear shots. Also, it includes features which could be used to make each shot filmed more clear, such as exposure compensation, which would be used to change the brightness of the shot, which would comes a benefit as we can film some dim shots for our film. This would come with an SD Card, which would be inserted inside the camera to keep all the footage. This would also be used to put all the footage onto the hardware when it comes to editing. 

A tripod will be required. So that we can film some still shots if we need to, without our unsteady hands. Also, we would be able to film smooth movements with the camera. 

We would also probably need a microphone for things such as voiceovers. As the majority of our film is diegetic sound. This would be used in the purpose to describe what is happening in the story or as the character's thoughts spoken aloud, in form of a monologue.