Summary

Through collaborating with my team members, we decided to stray away from our usual genre and try something new: comedy. A show that we all agree is funny is The Office and so we built our film idea around that. Having a smaller team proved to be slightly challenging, but through efficient collaboration we were able to have a successful pre-production.

4 Cinematic Storytelling Elements

X-axis screen direction

• When Lily comes to sit next to Adia and me, I want her to come in from the right side of the screen in order to show that she doesn’t necessarily fit in with this scene

Y-axis screen direction

• when Lily walks away after Adia and I reject her, I am going to show her walking away to represent her character losing power

Shapes within the frame: square shapes

• When Lily comes to sit next to Adia and me, I want Adia and I to be sitting in front of our computers to show the rectangle shape representing the structure Adia and I have in our assigned seats

Symmetrical blocking

• for the interviews, I want each character to be centered in the frame so that the audience’s full attention is on them

Explanation of the Film Vision

A camera crew follows the life of a group of high school students (two best friends, an emotional wreck, and a girl trying to find her seat). This is supposed to be a lighthearted film that shows some of the unexpected but simple problems encountered by high schoolers, like finding a place to sit. My team and I wanted to make this film in order to stray away from our usual genre of horror and try something new. We also wanted to try adding interviews into one of our films like The Office.

Target Audience

Our target audience is our film class, and possibly advisory members that are available to watch our film. We also intend to submit this film to a film festival. In terms of reactions, we are hoping to make our audience laugh at the dramatic portrayal of each character.

Genre / Style of the Film

Genre: Comedy

We are hoping to have a realistic comedy that’s not too over the top. We want to make things funny without having to use too many crazy scenes.

https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-are-the-different-comedy-genres.htm

This article talks about the different subgenres of comedy, based on these, our team chose to make a “mockumentary” of sorts.

Style: casual- we wanted a really laid-back feel to the style of the film to try and incorporate elements of reality tv

We hope to have a pretty light feel with the warm tones of our locations and the casual clothes of the characters.

Influences from Other Films

The Office

We were inspired by the office and the casual film style that it includes, for example, shaky camera movements. We were also inspired by the interviews that took place in the office which allowed the audience to know everything that was going on, even though the characters didn’t.

Influences:

-characters dramatic characters

-casual interviews of each character

Although The Office has several directors, Ken Kwapis is the most known director of the show. He is well known for his single-camera sitcoms.

Consultations with the Production Team

My team only has three other team members which meant I was only able to collaborate with the sound designer, cinematographer, and editor. When discussing the film with the sound designer, we both agreed we wanted a lighthearted soundtrack to highlight the comedy in this film. The cinematographer and I agreed we wanted the interviews to be held in the same place each time. The cinematographer and I also decided we wanted to keep the cinematography casual, not making it too cinematic in order to capture an authentic feel. The editor and I decided there would be very little editing in terms of the scenes between characters, but obviously, there will be edits to cut to interviews.

Location Scouting

Since we are filming a group of high school students we figured we would just film at school and follow the drama that happens at school. For the interviews, I wanted to do it at the compass of the school but I thought it would be too busy and so we decided to use the green room. The rest of the shots will be taken mostly in class but there are a few that we will do in the hallway.

Casting Decisions

For casting, I decided that Adia and I would be the two best friends that talk about each other behind their backs. Since Sophie is a cinematographer, she will be the one in the group that doesn’t really care about all the drama and is just there for short clips. Lily will be the instigator of all the fights that take place and be the one who kind of eggs them on. And for our emotional wreck, I thought Meredith would be the best choice because she is a great actress.

Permissions

We haven’t had to ask for permission for anything since we will be doing the filming mostly in the classroom and won’t be doing anything disturbing or crazy out in the hallway.

Scheduling

Since we are filming at school, my team decided we would use our class time diligently to film. Since most of us have classes together as well, we may take a few shots during the passing period.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned that in order to get an entire team prepared for production, I had to be a little bit harsh in making sure everyone was on task and delegate tasks to team members. I also learned that when making a comedy it’s pretty difficult not to have a screenwriter. However, I solved this problem with my team by having a strong background for each of the characters so that we all know how we need to act in the film.