Shooting plan;

As my film is going to be silent, except for diegetic music and muffled sounds, I do not require a script of speech, however, I do require a shooting script.

Location 1 - Bedroom

- Shots of bedroom, establishing, realism and verisimilitude.
- Shots of character sleeping, (blurred shots and in focus), getting out of bed and ready.
- Shots of character starting to dance

- Establishing shot of Tam asleep in chair, high angle shot, low lighting
- Cut Away -
- Mid shot of iPod on speakers
- Cut Away -
- Close up, high angle of Tams face, low lighting, Tam wakes up and sighs
- Cut Away -
- Extreme close up of Tams eyes, low lighting, Tam looks around room and into camera, focus variable
- Cut Away -
- Long shot, Centre framed, low lighting, Tam sits up and sighs
- Cut Away -
- Close up of Tam, centre framed, Tam sighs loudly and runs fingers through hair
- Cut Away -
- Extreme closeup of Tam's feet, Tam's hand comes into shot from top left of screen and rubs feet
- Cut Away -
- Long shot of Tam sat on chair thinking, framed to the right of the screen, Tam stands up and picks up mug and exits room
- Cut Away -
- Mid shot of Tam walking through door way into kitchen
- Cut away -
- Long shot of Tam walking to sink to fill kettle
- Cut Away -
- Close up of tap filling kettle
- Cut Away -
- Low angle shot of Kettle being placed back on stand and turned on
- Cut Away -
- Long shot of hall way, Tam walks into shot from left and exits Kitchen
- Cut Away -
- Mid shot of Tam walking through doorway, camera pans with Tam as she sits down in chair and moves her hands to her feet
- Cut Away -
Extreme close up of Tams feets as she rubs them
- Cut Away -




Location 2 - Theatre

- Closeups of hands, feet, preparing for dance
- Shots of charatcer dancing, possible split screen between dreams and reality
- Lots of lens flares and bright lighting to re inforce illusion
- Switch between bedroom and theatre after she has falled down

Body Style and Movement;

As Ballet has a very strict structure style of choreography with lots of precision and poise, I want to clearly differentiate between the two realities with movement of Tam.
In the real world I want her to be more fluid and free with her movement but still apply discipline, I aim to show this through close up shots of her hand movements and hair/head positioning. However, for the dream scene, I want her movements to be far tighter and precise as she is imagining that she is a professional performing to an audience.
I researched into split dancing styles within Ballet and feel the best example of this is 'Swan Lake' A dance which has both a Black swan and White swan, often played by the same dancer (representing the switch in personality) I chose two clips from the film "Black Swan" (Starring Natalie Portman, 2010) which I feel best portray the difference between two seperate personalities/realities.

White Swan Performance : (4.16 - 5.13)
Black Swan Performance : (11.14 - 11.45)

Props and location;

- Dressing Gown
- Kettle
- Large arm chair
- Mug
- iPod
- Coffee table

Location 1: Real World
I had the image in mind of a large armchair to be used in the establishing scene from the very start of planning and knew that my friend Abi had one in her new house so I asked her if it would be okay to film in her living room and she said yes. Her house is also used for the kitchen scene as well as it had the right amount of space and the mise-en-scene for a kitchen was already in place, therefore verisimilitude was automatically created without use of extra props.

Location 2: Dream World
As the main theme of my short film is the shift between dreams and reality, I felt it necessary to have two locations; one being the dream world and the other being the real world. For the dream world I wanted to portray what the inside of Tam's mind would look like to her (Empty due to extreme focus on dancing) I chose to use the theatre at my college as it has a very large black back drop but also has the set up of a stage to reflect that Tam's dream is dancing on a proper stage instead of her living room. The theatre all has sufficient lighting to be able to adjust the lighting to a spot light, emphasising the focus on Tam.

Costumes;

As my short film is set around a dance environment I will require appropriate costumes, such as leotards and ballet shoes. I want to stick to the traditional style of attire that is associated with Ballet. My actress, although she does do a variety of dance, is not very advanced in Ballet so the choreography will be very basic, therefore through the use of the costume, the audience will be able to recognise she is indeed a Ballet dancer.
I want to keep the outfit the same between the dream and real world to show continuity in performance, however I will change my actresses hair style within the shift; I want her to have a very casual down hairstyle for the real world (to prove she is not professional) and in the dream scene I will place her hair in a tight bun like most professional Ballet dancers do (this will reflect on her dream of being a professional).

Aims and Context;

My Audience:
Cross over/ Possible Mainstream. Mainly female audience aged 15+ from SEG range C - E
Audience Expectations:
(Will be written after poll is complete)

My Aim:
My aim is to create an emotional response of  sadness within my audience using key dramatic stylistics within editing, cinematography, sound and Mise-en-scene. I want to create a feeling of empathy between the audience and the protagonist and for the audience to relate to the character in terms of her loneliness. As my character is unconventional to the usual style of protagonist (happy, successful etc.) and has an unknown disability, I will use a lot of establishing shots and close-ups for emphasis on emotional response.

My Context:
I will be making a short 4/5 minute film using techniques (camera angles to emphasise emotion, lighting techniques to emphasise character importance etc.) learned throughout the research stage. I will be undertaking the role of Director, Cameraman and editor. The title of my short film is going to be "A dance of shadow/A dance of light"

'The Wanderer' Analysis;

'The Wanderer' (Dramatic Narrative) by Navajo Joe Films. Dir. Harrison J Bahe.
Synopsis: 'A man wanders aimlessly through life regretting the decisions he made that lead him to this point in his journey.'

I chose to analyse this short narrative as I had done so for another film from the same director and felt it emanated the same emotional response as I want my short film to show.
 The film starts out with an establishing shot of an American country road, the shot is filmed in black and white which I believe strengthens the isolation of the location (desert surroundings(black) with the flow of modern cars on the road (white). There is no traffic going past on the cameras side of the road, whereas on the other side there is a steady number of vehicles, The character then walks into the shot and as he does so an extremely large lorry drives past him, symbolising that the characters world is just passing him by in both directions. Non diegetic text then appears in the lower left hand corner with the words 'The Wonderer', establishing that the film will be about the character who is a wanderer.
The use of non diegetic sound is very important to the effectiveness of the film as without it the shots simply show a man walking along a road and there is no purpose. The script is implied to be the characters inner monologue as he describes his situation. The first lines of the script are 'There was nothing, but the road before me', these words contradict with the mise-en-scene of the scene as there are cars, mountains and trees around the character but they also emphasise the isolation that the character is feeling, all he sees is the road, he is completely oblivious to the world around him and this is again strengthened with the close up shot of the characters face, he shows no facial expression and he is simply looking straight forwards, it gives off the effect that he is empty, and reborn into the world trying to find purpose, he says 'I had no idea where it would lead me, but I knew it would lead me to where...I at least wanted to be' implying he does not know where he is going or will end up, but wherever it is, he will want to be there.

Although my short film is not based outdoors or about a wanderer, it does carry the same element of being lost within society. As Tam is deaf, I want to use similar techniques within the sound editing that 'The Wanderer' uses such as a sense of silence until an overly loud thing passes (e.g. the lorry in 'The Wanderer' and the Kettle in my film)

Genre Conventions;

Drama is one of the most popular genres used in film and television as it is very broad and allows a lot of narratives to fit to its conventions as they are so common in relation to real life and the struggles/hardships of real life. There are two main areas of a dramatic narrative; the story and how the story unfolds. As the genre is so generic, a lot of sub genres are placed within it, some of the most popular being: Period Drama, Family Drama, Teenage Drama, Social Drama etc.

A Period Drama is usually based upon a different era to now e.g. 18/19^th century, and they are commonly British as a lot of actors are classically trained for theatre performances which period dramas are very similar too. As a spectator, I would expect a period drama to have the following conventions: Appropriate Mise-en-scene (no shots in a modern city as it would not be realistic to the sub-genre), appropriate costumes and props (again, it would not be realistic and believable if the characters were wearing modern clothing for a film set 200 years ago), I would also expect the beliefs and actions of the characters to be relevant to the era in which the film was set for authenticity.

The sub-genre I will be basing my film around is Social Drama. I believe an audience would expect my film to fit to a realistic Mise-en-scene relevant to the time the film is set (Present day), a narrative which is mainly focused on character development and a wide range of emotions throughout the narrative which represents some of the struggles in real life.

With my short film fitting into this genre, I am going to make sure my protagonist is easily relatable to my audience through the use of key stylistics: Cinematography, Mise-en-scene, sound and editing.  

I have chosen a dramatic-short by a “Navajo Joe Films” entitled “Memories” (dir. Harrison J. Bahe, 2010) to analyse to help me understand how to structure my short film.

As soon as the film begins, a sense of confusion and curiosity begins through the use of the non-diegetic sound and the use of close ups. By using the soft , eerie music in sync with the characters performance we are given the effect the character is going through some form of hard ship, however, through the using the technique of having a blurred background (Laptop the character is looking at) we are not shown what he is finding difficult. The cinematography also highlights the fact that the character is isolated; it establishes him to be sat in a dark room with only a laptop for light. The suspense begins to increase even more when the cinematography changes to show what is written on the laptop. We see that the character is struggling to write a letter, the struggle is again emphasised through the cinematography as it shows the characters hand in an extreme close up curling away from the keyboard. We are shown that the character is beginning to overcome his difficulty through the use of the sound. The soundtrack changes from the soft, eerie music to a slightly more upbeat piano, and as it changes the character begins to type.

The film shows a lot of flashbacks to reveal the narrative and it is shown through the use of editing alongside cinematography; a lot of gentle fades are used between scenes and the camera pans/tilts away from the character into blackness. In all of the flash backs, the non-diegetic music (Piano and Violin) continues to play but it also has a voice over of the character playing with it; the voice over is used to let the audience know what the character is typing on the screen without having to look at it. There is no diegetic noise in any of the scenes to indicate it is past tense. The use of this technique will help me greatly in making my short film as it will emphasise the difference between my theory of dreams and reality.

More of the plot is revealed through the characters voice over; he talks about his friendship with “Teran” and as he does, the flashback coincides with the story. The volume of the over playing music decreases when the character reveals the next part of the narrative, indicating to the audience that it is the next part. Shots of the character typing again reveal that the next part of the story is not going to be a happy one as he begins to struggle to write again. The editing then reveals scenes from Teran’s point of view of the present day in sync with the flash backs being described. The story is then revealed that the main character died to protect Teran. As the film comes to an end the voice over finishes and the cinematography shows the laptop screen again to reveal that the character did not actually type anything.

This short film demonstrates a lot of useful techniques that may help me with my dramatic short. It fits fully to the conventions of social drama as it builds the characters and narrative up throughout the entire film, it has a lot of emotion within it as shown by the characters performance and the use of non-diegetic sound.