Online dossier of 10 minute screen play research.

Birdman Script.

Character development.

In regards to character development we instantly recognise there is something peculiar about our protagonist in that he appears to be floating and there is perhaps a voice inside his head. The scene is also quite a tense one until it is "shattered" by a skype call, This sudden change in the tone of the film helps to make the transition to what is the real world and what is inside our protagonists head, as well as making that transition a sudden and therefore a profound one. We also learn of the protagonists relationships building him as someone we our selves can invest in as we learn more about his life. We also learn soon that the character is in possibly a vulnerable state of mind with the voice-over saying "How did we end up here". Making a character vulnerable is a sure way to enable the audience to like them as we see they are real and can relate to them. This as well as the rather strange way in which we meet the protagonist (in just underwear and floating) makes him interesting and putting all this together makes him a character we care about and want to follow.

Stage Directions.

The highly descriptive start of this script gives a great and detailed visual image of how the movie starts, setting the tone of the screen play from the off. There are also detailed directions for example (V.O) appearing in parenthesis telling the reader this is a voice over is a clear instruction of how the dialogue is supposed to be received. The script also tells us in detail what we as an audience are supposed to see, therefore without giving strict instructions to camera men it still manages to suggest what the shots should look like enabling us to envision a finished product. We also just from the first page have detailed descriptions of characters including ages and what clothes they are wearing all adding to the visual image the script is trying to create. 

Again in this extract we have detailed stage direction such as "And the skype call is over. Riggan closes the laptop and leans forward trying to regain his calm. His reflection appears in the mirror, and for the first time we see his face". Using such detail again really allows us to picture the finished product making for an extremely efficient script when trying to turn it into a film. We also have simple but clear slug lines that tell us where each scene takes place adding to digesis of the film. Although relating to character development, the stage direction "Riggan throws on a sweater and stumbles into some slacks" again portrays him as being real and again this makes the audience feel empathy for him and therefore like him

Dialogue

The dialogue also gives us a great idea of the relationship with our protagonists daughter and it is one that seems rather strained and this is only emphasised due to the contrasting situations both characters find themselves in, one who has just been meditating and the other who is in a shop being shouted at. Sam the daughter doesn't even question the state her father is in, although this may be because she cant see, it may be because she is used to this sort of behaviour from him and this can suggest several things about there relationship to the audience. She then begins to ask a question before interrupting her self to tell the Korean shop owner she works for to "shut up". This shows her to be a strong willed person however we learn soon after she is in fact doing a favour for her father by picking up some flowers for him. With the Korean shop owner shouting in the background it is clear the situation is rather stressful on the daughters side however from the dialogue Riggan uses we can see he isn't very appreciative with short demanding sentences such as "Achemillis. Or something soothing that smells nice. Listen I can't--". We can presume he is about to say I can't talk now but is cut off by Sam who is begging to lack patience. The apparent void of appreciation for his daughters help suggests our protagonist may be self absorbed and this is only amplified by the personal errand she is running for him, buying someone flowers is considered to be a personal an sincere gift, and him getting somebody else to buy them for him shows him to be an insincere person.

The Heist
 

The Heist is a comedy short focusing on two amateur thieves breaking in to a warehouse to steal jewellery. The plan inevitably goes wrong however leading to some humorous moments and dialogue. What I really like about this film is the cinematography, the opening sequence alone utilizes some really nice shots that give the viewer great perspective of the situation as see here:

I also like the genre of this film a lot, the crime comedy genre is going to be the genre I choose when creating my own 10 minute film. I feel it allows the chance to insert a lot of humour into to the film, as well as maintaining some sort of action.
There are also some movie references in this film which is a nice touch and again also added some humour to the film. The dialogue in general is also very well put together aiding the telling of the story. It also gives a strong sense of character for each protagonist as well as there being spontaneous language features like interruptions making the conversations seem natural and flowing.
The film is also edited well with a nice variety of shots which are well put together.
The film also makes good use of music cutting it in and out changing the atmosphere from an exciting one to that of an awkward one when our two wannabe robbers realise their mistake.


Real gone.

Another short film I like was called Real Gone. This tells the story of a man determined to kill him self and depicts his numerous attempts and comical failures at doing so.
The stand out thing about this film is the great cinematography and direction which utilises the show and not tell method excellently with there being not much speech in the film at all.

The shots captured are of high quality and again make the film feel nice to watch enabling us to focus on the story rather than notice how it is constructed. The story is paced well with slower start that lays the foundation of the story enabling us to ascertain who the main character is and his motivations. We learn that the character is suicidal, obviously a sensitive topic to tackle, but the way the film uses ridiculous attempts of suicide allows humor to take the edge off what could be a somber subject. The film then continues to depict humorous failed attempts which begin to occur rapidly making them more funny.
Towards the end of the film the protagonist, after saving someone's life has the epiphany that life is worth living before again humorously being ran over by a fire engine. The subtle message the film has about life being worth living and enjoying it before its over is also a nice touch as it gives the story a meaning.

Theme

I want to make a comic crime short following two criminals. I've always liked this genre as it creates a lot of opportunities to insert comedy and dark humor into the film. Films such as London Boulevard (2010, William Monahan) do this well.

Another theme I would like to insert into my film is friendship, particularly between two main protagonists. Friendship is usually a theme in buddy cop films like Bad Boys 2 (2003. Michael Bay) however i think the theme could also be successful in crime comedy genre as well. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005, Shane Black) Done this well showing an unlikely friendship between amateur thief turned supposed actor Harry Lockhart played by Robert Downey Jr. and Gay Perry, an arrogant homosexual private eye played by Val Kilmer. The movie showed this dysfunctional friendship blossom to that of a genuine one providing comic scenarios through out which helped make the film, which this trailer shows.




Audience Research.

Being reasonably certain that I want to produce a script telling the story of two amateur criminals finding them selves completely out of there debt in a diamond deal that goes wrong, I would consider the genre to be a British crime comedy. This being an already successful genre with directors such as Guy Richey producing films such as Snatch (2000) and RocknRolla (2008), I can assume the basic concept would be well received as it wouldn't venture to far in to unexplored territory. However in order to get an idea of what people like about the genre and what they don't I created a basic survey in order to ascertain what would make a successful short crime film. The results of the survey can be seen below:

As seen here this question was to determine the sex of the respondent as to find out if there was a reasonable balance of both sexes. As we can see 2 people neglected to answer the question and of those who did 30% were female and 70% were male. Although this isn't balanced in anyway, I believe this is due to the constitution of my media class of which most of the respondents came from. In order to gather data from a more balanced set of participants I would have had to have contacted far more people and this would have been very time consuming. However if I possessed the time and resources to do so this would have provided a more accurate and reliable yield of data.

Question 2 inquired to the age of the participants. Again the heavy swing towards the 10-18 group is probably due to most participants being from our media group constituting of 17-19 year old students. And to reiterate if the proper time and resources were available I would have liked to gain a more representative sample of society.

Question 3 is a more relevant question, asking participants if they do indeed like the crime genre of films. Encouragingly only 1 person said they didn't with other participants equating to 93.34% of the total said they either did like the genre or had at least occasionally enjoyed it. This was an encouraging bit of data as it suggested people would probably enjoy a short crime film.

Question 4 asked how long it had been since our participants had last seen a crime film. This again yielded positive results as 80% percent had seen a crime film recently suggested there was an apparent interest amongst our participants and hopefully among people in general. However the recent Tom Hardy film Legend (2015,Brian Helgeland) did release within this time frame which could have a slight effect on the results. Only three people said they hadn't seen a crime film in the last year but this isn't enough to suggest the crime genre would be one to avoid when making a short film.

Having asked if they liked the genre. question 5 was designed to ascertain whether they would  actually watch a short crime film as opposed to a feature film. The response was extremely positive with 93.33% saying they would and only one person saying they wouldn't. Again this high amount of "yes" answers may be due to the high amount of these responses coming from media students who usually like films. However this still suggests that those who are passionate about films are fond of the crime genre, even if this doesn't represent the average person.

Similar to question five this asks if the participants would attend a screening of the short. This got the same results presumably from the same people reinforcing the previous results.

Question 7 was very important when considering the characters and the diagesis of the film. The results were quite evenly spread, however a comic crime film was clearly the stand out favourite and this was pleasing to me as this was the type I wanted to make. The second favourite was a biographical crime film. To make a short biographical film would be very hard with the resources I posses as well as the issue of trying to tell an detailed and cohesive story of someone's live within ten minutes, I decided early on I didn't want to make a biographical short crime film. In regards to the nationality both British and American received equal amounts of votes. Looking back I believe it would have been more beneficial to have these to as a separate question as to have a more reliable result. However I have decided to make the characters British as upon filming I believe it will be easier to film in our own accents instead of adopting slightly on sounding American ones.

The last question asked what sort of ending the participants like to see in a crime film. The overwhelming answer was one in which the protagonist prevails conquering what ever story line throws at him with 73.33% saying they favored this ending. The second most popular and also my favored ending is that of a tragedy with 20% saying they would prefer this ending. I believe this is the ending I will go for despite the results. This is due to the fact that I want to create a comic crime screenplay, and although  I want the characters to be likable, I don't want to insert a super hero subtext or narrative in to the screen play. I want the characters to be believable and therefore not a black and white story of a good natured but flawed character prevailing against the purely evil villain as I think this is a warn out cliché.

Taking in to consideration my influences for my ten minute short, that being Guy Ritchie films like Snatch (2000), Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and probably the most influential RocknRolla (2008). Because of this I researched the types of demographics and psycho graphics that like those sorts of films aim to entice. Most of Guy Ritchie's gangster films follow working class, male criminals in an attempt to make a massive amount of money. We can therefore assume the main target audience would naturally be males from a similar working class background. Due to the working class backgrounds and professions of the characters there are many profanities used as well as dark humor, often involving graphic deaths. Because these things feature we can assume the target audiences wouldn't be below that of 15 year olds due to age ratings on films. Taking all of this into account we can firmly say my short film's primary audience will be a similar one; consisting of working class males from an age group ranging from 15-50 year olds. This would place the Primary audience in the E-C2 sections of the demographic char seen below. 

When looking at the target audience from a psychographic point of view I looked to the chart seen below. I Believe the target audience would be predominantly made up of the Struggler and mainstream categories. In regards to the struggler category the description of mainly physical and mechanical jobs matches the working class demographic I have mentioned previously, and therefore I believe they will most affiliate themselves with the film. I also believe main-streamers will make up a large portion of the audience due to the fact that films are part of popular culture, as well as the fact this film will contain comedy, again something that appeals to the masses. 

In summary my research gave mostly positive results finding that the majority would be interested in an already popular genre of film. I also feel the amount of responses could have been better to give a more accurate representation of the majorities attitude however a clear pattern still emerged with most of the questions allowing me to gain a definitive answer for them,and that over all the concept was plausible one and likely to be successful.

Location.

When considering the location of the film I knew I needed to feature an area that was secluded, somewhere that the audience would believe a criminal deal would take place. The place I immediately thought of Fritton woods. Having been there many times I am familiar with the area and believe it would offer some great shots for the short. Here are some examples of locations that could possibly be used in the short. Specifically the opening seen when see the two protagonists entering the forest, and the opening in which the deal takes place.