Leanne Stone
Year1 FMP
contextual thinking
Thematic exploration (seeing into the future)
My main theme here is some sort of invisible power. Whilst this has begun with a telepathic approach, I have developed an idea of a flash forward. This will be a good cinematographic style to pay off to show how my character has developed a sixth sense on the world from becoming so protective. This raises the question if what i'm dealing with is really is just telepathy. This is because although this is still relevant and my character will still have this, this may not fit there whole description. So what really is telepathy?
'Telepathy is the ability to know another person’s thoughts. A telepath is able to communicate with another person by using only their mind — no other sensory input. Out of all the different types of extrasensory perception, telepathy is the most researched and the most popular. 2. Precognition. Precognition is the ability to see into the future.'
I was quick to research what telepathy really is and the first result was the text to the left. This states telepathy is a connection between two people of the mind and nothing else, which when first reading, I felt matched my character. They will be able to connection into the other characters mind therefore being able to predict the next move. However towards the end, suggesting that something called precognition is the act of being able to see into the future. This opens a new door for me to understand that maybe my character discovers his telepathic powers through being able to see into the future. The visions he see's when being knocked out come true which ultimately shows that he has these telepathic abilities. This made me wonder if any real life experiences have been founded including this.
I found this article particularly interesting. When I first read the title stating it is real I was in disbelief but watching the video and hearing the science behind how it is actually possible was extremely fascinating. They say that telepathy is in a lot of what we do, a day to day bases being able to read emotions without one stating it but being able to actually read thoughts with no physical or emotional que is possible with science and read the neurones in our brain. This shows both people involved in the experiment being connected together with something physical to transfer the emotional. This is not a tie I have thought about in my film. However I do feel having some kind of physical similarity between the characters will create a more mysterious, cliff-hanger environment and therefore deepen the connection between my characters. This may be a discovery that my main character has at the end when they realise they have both been physically given the same thing. This will make a further problem as the police sirens go off. Overall this article really helps, as I can look into how telepathy actually works and portray some of these aspects. However I do wonder what experiments there have been to test to see if telepathy is actually real, as I know experiments like that have taken place such as the Ganzfled.
Looking into the kind of experiments people do for telepathy, the most common I found was the Ganzfeld effect where a person is given an unfinished serious of patterns and noises for at least half and hour. They experience hallucinations and see things that they think finish the image. The effect has been used for research into telepathy as you have no control over the appearing thoughts. This is very interesting, supporting my idea by the body shutting off, and then seeing visions you feel to be coming true.
expanding on my pitch
reviewing past work
The 3rd dimension project was probably the most influential piece of work I have made so far. This is due to the knowledge learnt that shots may not always turn out how they have been planned. The other important things I have learnt from this film is that the camera theory is very important for the overall look of my film. This was also the first film where I was properly working on creating visual effects. This taught me a lot about a good workflow when doing visuals in my film. I will aim to do something like this but with all the knowledge I learnt here and improved skills.
The cartoon caper is useful as it had some good shot and camera choices in it. Whilst the animation is not useful for what I am doing here, the tracking and masking done is useful for the visuals I wanna do. For this I will take my mask work and show choices and the sequences that worked best here.
One thing that will be very useful for this film will be all the after effects practice and effects I have been creating on the side from my main projects. These are effects that I most enjoy doing and therefore will be similarly doing in my film. This has required a lot of independent problem solving which will greatly benefit me when creating my FMP. I will be doing after effects experiments like these before doing the main effect for my film so doing projects on the side has develop my software skills and problem solving for tasks like what I have coming up.
My work in Maya will be useful as well for if I need to complete any models for any visual effects, I now know better how to incorporate my Maya modelled assets into my after effects files. This will be important as I want to create my own kind of line interface, which will most likely have to be made in Maya and then put into after effects.
The last important pieces of work I have done is the storyboards and animatics. These were very useful to me as not only would it show how my film will look in a digital world but it also was something I would put into a document form and print of. This was a reference source not only being very useful when filming but also was easily editable if I had any notes I wanted to remember and write down.
why a short narrative film
I want to create a short narrative film because I am confident in telling short story's and feel this is the best environment for me to improve all of my skills I have started to develop over the past year. I also already have a lot of inspirations through the short films I have been watching on YouTube. Therefore I have several ideas and ways I can present a story and develop a story through knowing what visual effects I want to include. Having a story means I can have more precise and meaningful visuals. This will help me feel like the effects are commenting towards something and making the story bigger and better. The effects make the world you are living in more realistic and more believable. I also enjoy working on shot choices and cinematography as well therefore having a narrative story means that I can work on both my visual effects and have a sequence I can edit and really focus on the dialogue between two characters. The main reason I want to do this narrative is because of this, I can have a sequence at the beginning where I really push to create a cinematic account of what is happening, an intense and personal environment for the two characters. And in turn have a powerful scene driven by visual effects towards the end where I can really practice getting that professional feel you would see in cinemas to date. A narrative offers a lot of room to improve and get close to that industry standard.
my original inspirations
research plan
Making sure I include all ranges of research is a very important aspect, therefore creating a research plan will help to create a path for me to follow so that I don't forget anything I am planning to include in my research. This is my plan, thinking about what to include but also all the different category's I can write about.
Theme and Genre
One thing I want to research more is the difference between themes and genres more specifically and the difference between each type of these, as I am not fully aware of what each one fully involves.
I want to look into different techniques people have had for creating films of similar genres and themes, looking at what bigger companies prioritised may help me with my own film planning.
Research into the atmosphere and what creates a good film for that genre and what makes the most successful movies of that genre.
Most recognisable genre specific effects.
Audience
Surveying different age ranges about favourite genres and particular reasons for liking that genre.
Showing people I know short films on Youtube similar to the one I want to create and ask them what aspects they liked and if they would watch something like this again.
Researching what kind of audiences watch similar franchises to bigger movie brands.
Real World
Due to my film idea being a supernatural like nature, there is only a small amount of real world research I want to do aside from photographing locations:
The physics behind some effects I want to do that will affect the real world.
The effect of different lights on the real world to make everything more realistic.
Experimental
After figuring out any effects that I will use, if they are unlike anything I’ve done before, I’ll experiment by doing the effect before shooting day so I can have it perfect for shoot.
Surveying and showing others short films like mine to see what they find most appealing.
Creating smaller effects then showing them to others to see what I could improve on.
Contacting a practitioner with the same genre skills.
Watching films and TV shows, picking out what links them most to that genre (My influences)
looking deeper into types of research
Having three different tabs for research on my website meant I need to know the difference well between primary, secondary and experimental. Therefore we looked into the deeper difference of qualitative and quantative data. Showing the difference between numerical data representation and more written representation. This will help me make sure I am covering all bases of my research.
