Narrative Visual perspective in Film
In film class, we were tasked to make a short narrative film. We were asked to use all the skills we had learned in the past and add dialog and lighting. We Had multiple months to work on this project, so we went through a lot of steps.
Pitch/Logline
We started with thinking of a story we wanted to do, we eventually came up with pitches and gave them to the class. My original idea was to do a film on a brother and sister lost in the woods. Along with out pitches, we had to write log lines for our stories. Mine was “Two siblings get lost in the woods, but end up finding themselves there.”
Synopsis
After we all gave pitches, I fell in love with my friend, Sydney’s idea. I decided to work with her on an idea about a brother and sister struggling through a day together. We were asked to write a synopsis of our story. Don’t read mine if you don’t want spoilers.
A boy sleeping in his bed wakes up to his alarm. As he gets up, his sister bursts in the room, excitingly dancing around and cheering that it’s their birthday that day. He doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge his birthday and is dismissive of the sister, who continues to try and get his attention. They go downstairs and the mom is in the kitchen. She says good morning, but the boy does not respond. He pours himself a bowl of cereal and sits next to his sister. His mom says she knows it’ll be a hard day for him. He still refuses to respond, but looks up at her. She asks if he wants to visit but he cuts her off with a sharp “no” before she can finish her sentence. Without finishing his breakfast, he grabs his backpack, gets up, and leaves, the sister trailing behind. Before he leaves, he spares one last look at his mom. “Sorry, I just…” she smiles softly at him, waving him off.
On the walk to school, the sister asks if they’re going to visit their birthday tree like they do every year. He refuses, and the sister argues slightly but eventually gives it up.
At school, the kids are wary of him, looking at him and whispering, and they ignore the sister. Someone tries to say happy birthday, but another student cuts them off and says “don’t.” A teacher in class attempts to sing them happy birthday. The sister is excited about this, but the brother gets so frustrated that he storms out of the class, the sister following behind.
On the street, they get into a huge argument, the sister angry the brother can’t even just enjoy their birthday, and the brother frustrated that the sister just doesn’t understand what he’s going through. This results in a yelling match where the brother reveals the sister isn’t alive. He turns around in anger, but when he turns back to try to make some sort of amends, she’s disappeared. He immediately becomes frantic and concerned that she’s no longer there, and tries to figure out where she is, before understanding where she’s gone and running away.
He arrives at a tree to see the sister underneath it, alone. They sit in silence for a minute. The sister talks about how she wants him to be happy, but she doesn’t know what to do anymore. He realizes that though he loves her and wants her to stay, to truly be happy, he needs to move on and let her go. She makes him promise to still go to the tree on the birthday, and he finally lets her go, watching her fade into the wind.
He walks home alone to find the mother there, worried sick as the school had called saying he left class. He hugs her and apologizes, and they reconcile. He tells her he wants to visit the grave, and they go together.
The next morning he wakes up, and his sister isn’t there anymore.
Acting scene
We took a break from our stories to learn how to do a dialog scene. We learned how to use multiple camera angles and a mic to create a scene.
Screenplay
We also learned how to write and format a screenplay. We worked on perfecting our stories, while also furthering our knowledge in film skills.
Shot lists
Once we finished out screenplay, we had to create a shot list for the story we created. We had to figure out what shots we needed for each scene.
Schedule
With the shotlist, we had to create a schedule to figure out what we were doing, and when. This was difficult because we had to find dates that would work for both us and our actors.
Narrative Breakdown/Lined script
Then we lined our script. This means we figured out exactly the shots and angles we needed for each scene.
Light Scavenger Hunt
We wanted to further our understanding of how lighting for a film works, and what different types of lighting there is, so Mr. Talyor created a lighting scavenger hunt to do.
Gallery of on location shooting production
Narrative Trailer
Narrative Film
Reflection
I learned a lot about myself through this film. I learned a lot about dedication and hard work and following through on a commitment. This project was incredibly long and time-consuming. It took a lot out of everyone working on it. I also learned a lot of technical skills. I learned how to use lighting to make a shot look better. I also figured out how to productively use a boom mic and an audio recorder to get good audio.