Final Evaluation

BA Film and Media Production

Production, Realisation and Reflection 

Module Evaluation 

Drama- Crane

The idea for our drama film has been an on-going development process, firstly because we all came to the initial planning sessions with very different ideas, secondly because we had to make changes to fit around certain circumstances.  The idea to base our story around the cranes was one of my very early ideas, although it started out very differently; it began as a love story, about a girl wishing for the one she loved to return home to her. I quickly moved away from this idea, because I felt it could far too easily become a very cliché story, and I don’t tend to enjoy romance films myself so I didn’t feel very inspired. I did like the idea of the cranes though, this was inspired by  Japanese folklore, particularly the story of 1000 cranes, whereby the crane is seen as a lucky symbol, and that they love for 1000 years, therefore being a symbol of wisdom and luck. It is said that if one is to fold 1000 origami cranes, then one wish of theres will be granted. From here, I began to think of what people may wish for (trying to think beyond material goods), for example; love, acceptance, power, strength, health ect. I was inspired by the film Three Colours: Blue (KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI, 1993), to develop a character, who is trying to overcome her grief after the loss of her husband and child. I saw this as something someone would be desperate for, to wish for peace and closure after the loss of a loved one.  This is where the idea for our characters motives came from, what she wants to achieve in the duration of the film.  We also wanted to add in a kind of shock factor, inspired by the short film About a girl (Brian Percival, 2001). We got the idea of the main character being the cause of the death of her loved one, the result of a seemingly standard argument between a mother and daughter, with a disastrous ending that the viewer may not have anticipated. The cranes were her way of seeking forgiveness and closure, with context given to the origami cranes through the recitation of a descriptive poem. 

The character development really helped with the development of the film’s narrative; the relationship between Mother and Daughter (Alice) was a loving, yet incredibly fraught one; a fiercely over-protective mother and an increasingly frustrated daughter, hoping to fulfil her wish of going away to university despite her mother’s objections. This type of relationship was inspired by that of Sarah and Anna in My sister’s keeper (Nick Cassavetes, 2009), conflict as a result of fiercely over-protective love. 

As a result of problems related to casting, we eventually made the decision to change the character of a mother, to that of an older sister. We had much difficulty finding an actress old enough to portray a mother of a 17/18 year-old. And we decided it added something important to the story, by having an older sister, who has taken on the role of a mother in absence of their real one. 

The process of making this film did not come without some major casting and and location issues. In terms of my contribution to this project, I think I went far beyond what my roles (camera and editing) required of me, mainly because others in my group failed to fulfil their roles, and also because we were such a small group to begin with. We set ourselves a challenge to begin with, which was finding an actor who was able to play the role of a mother; our producer initially took this role seriously, and managed to get some responses for both her character and the role of Alice; however only two people finally came to audition, and they both ended up letting us down very close to our first chosen filming date. I can’t help feeling that this may be down to our producers poor and unprofessional communication. The same happened with our location; she made contact with two people and both were uncertain, eventually neither of them were able to help us. The director and I both had to take it on ourselves to find both actors and a location, we had missed our first film date, and we were on an incredibly tight schedule as it was two weeks before the deadline, and we had absolutely nothing done. We both posted ads for actresses online, and I began to look at out options for filming locations, eventually coming to the idea of paying for a B&B room or apartment. The problem here was finding somewhere cheap enough, who would allow us to film as well. I made contact with many places, without success, before finally finding somewhere in Sheffield (at the price of £56 divided by 3 of us), just over a week before the deadline. Meanwhile, we weren’t having much luck with actresses either, having made contact with numerous actresses, but then finding they were unable to suit our schedule. Eventually, we did manage to find an actress to play Alice (3 days before filming) and one to play Sarah, her older sister (2 days before). 

Thankfully, the planning and production of the script and various other aspects of the shoot were all planned and prepared without any problems. I had written 3 re-writes of the script, and prepared a shot-list and floor-plan, so once all of the actor/location problems were resolved, we were fully prepared to shoot. 

The actual shooting of the film took place over two days, mainly because we only had the apartment for a limited amount of time. Luckily, all of mine and the directors prior planning paid off, and the shoot went off without any major problems, aside from some space and lighting issues. 

I didn’t mean for it to look like I was taking over our producers role, but I feel her lack of interest and motivation would have been the end of our film, and if the director and I hadn’t of stepped in, their wouldn’t even be a film to speak of.  

I feel as though there are some clear strengths and weaknesses with my final film, which are partly due to the problems previously mentioned;the whole process was very flawed and rushed. Despite this, I think we did well in producing a film of the quality it is, and how well we managed to pull everything together. I think we did well to get everything filmed and edited in the time we had, and produced a final film that we were pleased with. I am happy that we stayed with our initial idea, developing it as we went a long. I also think we definitely made the right decision to change the dynamics of the sibling relationship; I think you can sense the loving family bond between the two, whereas before it was a very bitter and hateful relationship, I think the theme of letting go and the films resolution is intensified by this, because the audience knew that they really cared for each other. I also think one of the strongest points of our film is the actress who portrayed Alice; her performance was very intense and seemed genuine, she was really invested in the role and expressed emotion beautifully, I think the only thing that hindered this was her counterparts rather stiff performance. 

I think there are various strong points in terms of the filming and editing of this piece. Inspired by Blue Valentine (2010), I planned for the majority of this shots to be hand-held, I thought this would be a good way to capture both the intensity of the argument scenes, as well as the obsession and desperation that is supposed to be put across during Alice’s origami scenes. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful; I did attempt one scene in hand-held, but varying factors, including space and my general ability, proved that this would be detrimental to the final look of the film, and we opted to use static shots instead. The lighting also could have been much improved, as it provided quite a challenge during the editing process, I feel this could have been avoided if we had done more prior planning, but due to our tight schedule, this was just not possible. 

In terms of editing, I think the main problems with this again was because of the fact that it was all such a rush, as well as the difficulties we had syncing up the audio with the image. I did worry about the pace of the overall film, as the way the actresses spoke didn’t leave much time in between each cut. I do feel this is something we managed to crack though, and was actually successful in the final film. The colour correction we finally managed to work quite well too, which was something I was rather concerned with. We wanted to give the film two different colour tones; one for the crane scene and one for the argument (flashback) scene. I think this was a good save, it gave the clear distinction between the two different states. 

Given the circumstances, I am very please over all with the outcome of our film. If I could do it again however, I would leave out the accident scene, the reason being that I don’t feel it was necessary. The film turned out to be about closure, letting go and forgiveness. I think the scene just added unnecessary drama, and it the film would have been good enough with out it.  

I think one of the main things I have learnt in this module, is the necessity to be organised and resourceful (even though producer wasn’t even my role). I also learned the importance of prior planning, in terms of having a solid script and a detailed floor-plan and shot-list. The helped to make a very rushed shoot to remain on-track and organised, which was vital in out situation. I am also glad that I took the time to refine and re-draft our script, including creating a character development, I think if I had stuck with my first and original idea, our film would be nowhere near as strong as it turned out to be. My editing skills, including colour-correction and pacing, have also definitely improved, which is something I aimed for at the start of this module. I think my overall attitude towards the production of a film has greatly improved, and will defiantly benefit me in future projects.

I think the dynamics of our group were flawed from the very start; for one thing we were down 3 people in our group, and another, the remaining  2 other people had a terrible working relationship. I think my working relationship with the director was very good, as we shared a lot of good ideas and had a common goal in mind. But there was a lot of tension in our group when our producer seemed to lose interest, and was failing in her role. We were left in a very tense and difficult position, which led to some members of the group unwilling to even speak to each other. I do think the workload was very unevenly divided, with myself taking on  a lot of the producers duties because she was unable fulfil her role.  I am pleased to say that everyone did pull together on the day of the shoot, the consequences of letting personal differences get in the way of this would probably have had disastrous consequences for our film. 

Documentary- Liverpool stories: Overhead 

The documentary, as far as I can say, went much smoother in terms if planning an group contribution. From the beginning, we had three ideas which we initially pitched; Chinese new year, the Williams tunnel, and the Liverpool overhead railway. Although we like the idea of the Chinese new year, we soon realised that in order for it to be successful, we would have needed a very good angle on it, preferably with someone inside the Chinese community. This, we predicted, would not be a very easy feat, and may have resulted in our film having a week subject. We finally decided on the Liverpool overhead railway. A member of our group, whose family is originally from Liverpool, had a relative who had experienced the railway first-hand, and we decided to make a historical documentary, exploring the stories and past of people who the railway had effected. As part of research for this idea, I watched the documentary Harry Patch: The last Tommy (2009), which inspired a personal/story-like interview style. We didn’t just want it to be about the actual railway, but about the people whose lives revolved around the railway, making a more personal and nostalgic piece. Because the railway no longer exists in Liverpool, our editor and producer had the idea to superimpose a drawn image, on top of a shot of where the tracks used to stand. 

I think the final piece definitely has room for improvement, although I do feel as though we fulfilled our aim in terms of the look and content of the documentary itself. I think the questions and responses we got from George were exactly what we wanted; it made the film a very personal piece, not just about the railway, but about his experiences throughout his younger life. This paired with the still images gave it a very historical feel, which I know we were all very pleased to have achieved, although we were unable to make use of any moving images or footage, for the reason that we were unable to obtain permission for it. I do think it would have benefited the piece to have included it, but the images definitely have the same effect. Even though the piece relied heavily on mainly what we being said on screen,  the shots and cut-aways we got were appropriate for helping the audience to visualise what was being described by George, especially with the use of the image that was superimposed on-screen. One of the main things I think could gave been improved was the sound, which was effected by the weather and the location in which it was captured. Also, the composition of some of the shots could have been more improved and consistent through-out the piece. However, I do not believe these things have taken too much away from the piece.

I think my physical contribution could have been slightly improved for this project; but I do think contribution in terms of ideas and planning was even across most of the group, including myself. I think the reason for my lower contribution, was because some people in my group had a more advanced technical ability that myself, although this definitely benefited me in terms of development of my own skills.  I did have some assistance from the editor of our group during the actual shoot, although I did do prior planning in terms of the shots and the over-all ‘feel’ of the film which I wanted to achieve. This was inspired by James Cameron’s Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), in terms of the layering of images to give a sense of the past. It was important to plan the shots we needed to get, in order to be able to superimpose the images of the railway on top. 

I am generally please with how the group worked together, despite the lack of interest from two of our member. I think we worked well as a team in all stages of production, and produced a piece of a very good standard. If I were able to do it again, I wouldn’t changed much about the content or shooting of the film, I would simply make sure that I put much more effort into my role. 

Crane- Final Cut

Crane from Katherine Muldowney on Vimeo.

On-going Actor Problems

Our film in made up of two characters; a Mother and a daughter, therefor it is important to find two actresses who can play the two different ages. We've decided to look at two different resources for our characters; the university drama course could help us find an actress of 18-21 to play Alice. However, we need an actress with a convincing playing age to portray the Mother character. Our producer, Kayleigh, has placed an advertisement on the Drama blackboard pace, and I also suggested she got in contact with some local drama production companies, in order to find an actress with a playing age of 30-35, to play Alice's Mother. So far, we have had a good response for the role of Alice; four girls have shown interest and are wanting to audition. We have only had one response however, for the role of the Mother, from a local production company; she does suit the part in terms of her age and appearance, and as a mother herself, she complimented the development of the two characters' on-screen relationship within the script, I think it would really help to have someone who knows the dynamics of a Mother-daughter relationship. We have arranged for her to audition with the four younger actresses, during the easter holidays, to see who can project the best and most convincing performance.

Update 1
A few days before we are to audition our actors, and only two have confirmed their availability; one actor for each character. It's not convenient, as it doesn't give us any other options to choose from, but we are hoping they will be able to play the characters well.

Update 2
Having auditioned both actors, we are very happy with their performance, and have offered them the parts. There is the small issue of still finding a new location, and fitting this around their availability, but we're hoping this won't prove to be too much of  a big issue.

Update 3
Unfortunately, Lucy (Alice) has informed us that her university timetable has changed, and her availability has become very limited. We have also had very little contact with Lauren (Mother), so we are getting a little worried about their reliability in terms of our filming dates. I think the best option at the moment is to keep looking for other people who could play our characters, just in case they one we have do let us down.

Update 4
As anticipated, both actresses have been unable to help us, there has been very little contact between them and Kayleigh; I do worry that her poor communication looked unprofessional to them, and in truth have actually just lost interest in our project, however I cannot be sure this is the case. We now have no actors at all. I feel that Kayleigh has lost interest in the project at this point, and is not willing to try and find anyone else. Michelina and I have taken it upon ourselves to find some new actresses. She has posted a new ad on the Drama blackboard, and I have advertised both roles on casting website, starnow.com. With five days before the booked film date, we are desperately hoping for responses.

Update 5 
As a result of my ad, I got a response for both characters. The first was Bethan, an english student who applied for the role of Alice, we arranged to audition her the next day. She looked perfect for the part, and expressed the dialogue very well, so we decided to cast her straight away. The other response I had was for the role of the Mother, we were happy to at least have an option, but she didn't look right for the part at all, and she has applied from London, and was expecting us to pay for her travel and accommodation expenses. We had already paid for the apartment to film in, where she could stay, but it would cost too much to pay for anything else, so initially decided against her. However, it was so close to our film date, we decided to go ahead and pay for her travel, something we hadn't anticipated for the project, but I was willing to do it anyway. As far as things are going now, we are on-track to film on Tuesday.

Update 6
Disaster has struck yet again, I received a message from our actress from London; she has broken her foot and is unable to travel. Despite this providing yet another major problem, I'm quite relieved we won't have to pay for an actress, who wasn't right for the part anyway. I have now come up with two different solutions depending on what happens; the first is to change the mother character to an older sister, as we seem to have had a better response from the younger actresses. If all else fails, I plan to re-write the script to just involve one physical character, and write the Mother in as a memory, although I am hoping that it will not come to this as it is a lot of extra work.

Update 7
Luckily, two days before filming, we have been able to find an actress to portray the character of an older sister, which only involved some small changes to the dialogue in the script. She has previously worked in another groups film, which has confirmed her reliability for us. We made it clear that we had to film on Tuesday without fail, and she reassured us that this wasn't a problem, and she would be able to learn her lines by then. Although there is the issue that she won't have much time to rehearse with her on-screen sister, we are happy that this last-minute change I have made has resulted in us having our two characters.

Shoot Day 1

Today we began shooting the final scene, where Alice takes her last paper crane to the riverside. We chose to film this in Endcliffe park on Eccelsall road, because we were able to access this quieter area beside the river. It was a rather over-cast day, with some sunny intervals, and filming below a fairly dense area of tree branches provided some lighting challenges. We did make the decision to bring a reflector board with us, which turned out imperative to the shoot, I think we were able to make this work in our favour. There was only a small amount of dialogue in this scene (the poem) but we had no one to record, so the sounds did get neglected. We are having to re-record and dub the sound over the footage later on. I think today went well, the main challenge was getting the paper crane to move up-stream in the right direction, and without being knocked over by the current. After many takes, we were able to resolve this, and I think we got some really good footage.  

On-going location problems

At the beginning of the project, it was established that we would be filming at Kayleigh's home in Worksop. This was for two reasons; the first being that we were not allowed to film on University grounds, including accommodation. Secondly, we all felt it was really important aesthetically to film somewhere which felt 'lived-in', a real family home that you could tell had a lot of time and effort put into it to make it look homely.
We assumed this would be a solid plan from the beginning, and carried on writing our script, and finding our actors (which was also not without it's major difficulties). However, it turned out yesterday that it would not be convenient to film in Kayleigh's home after-all; a major problem, although she assured us that she would be able to find somewhere else for us to film, and she soon came back with the idea to film in her friends home in Barnsley. Hoping that this location will be suitable, we plan to visit and make a floor and lighting plan in the near-future, before the commencement of filming.

Update 1 
Today during the actor workshop, Kayleigh told us that the house she had arranged was only available to us on the weekend (either 11th or 12th) of April, for a few hours during the afternoon; this caused a problem, as we had planned to film during the week, fitting in with the schedules of our actors. Having spoken to both (the actors and the location) in turned out that neither were able to be flexible, and that we were going to have to find yet another location in which to film. During the session, Michalina spoke to another member of our group, who gave us permission to use her house in which to film. We discussed with her the days and times we wanted to film, and she assured us this would be acceptable. So we arranged to visit for the lighting/floor plan here instead.

Update 2
Today ( 3 days before our set film date) we had a message from Lucy, one of our actors, saying that her timetable had changed, and she was unavailable to shoot on the Monday. We also had no reply from Lauren, confirming that she would be there for the shoot. As a result, we are unable to use the latest location we have found; we planned to move the shoot to the weekend, if it would be suitable for our actors, but of course, the location turned out to be unavailable. We are now in the situation where we are struggling to fit the availability of actors around the availability of a location, which is proving to be incredibly difficult.

Update 3
At this point, there seems to be very little contact between Kayleigh and our actors, and we are still without a location to film in. We (Michalina and I) have advertised for new actresses, but without knowing who they are and when they are available, it is very difficult to find a location that is available to us when we think we'll need it. I have now taken over the job of finding a location, as I feel Kayleigh has lost interest in the project, and continues to suggest shooting in halls, which I have said, is out of the question.
I got some advice from a friend of mine in third year, who suggested that we find a B&B in which to film; I thought this was a good idea, although I was worried about the limitations we would have in regards to filming. I sent out the message below, to  5 or 6 different B&Bs around Sheffield;

Dear Sir/Madam 

I am a first year student at Sheffield Hallam University, studying Film & Media Production. I am currently seeking a location in which to film my final, end-of-year piece, which is to be a short drama. I would like to like to request the use of one of your rooms (paid at the usual rate) to use for the location of my project. 

The actual filming would be from the check-in time, through into the evening. From this time our hired actors will be making use of the room and we will be returning to film until check-out time the following morning. 

I would really appreciate if you'd be able to help with my piece, and of course we would provide credit to your business. I can also assure that I, a long with my crew, will be respectful to the space, and to your other guests. 

Many thanks, 

Katherine Muldowney. 

From many of the places I sent it to, I only got one reply, which was a rejection. It seems a lot of places would not appreciate for their guests to be surrounded by film crew, a long with any noise that could effect their stay. As it was getting very close to the date we wanted to film, I decided to book a B&B room anyway, at Kentwood Hall in Sheffield. I haven't received any permission yet, but we don't want to have our actors, with no location to film in. It's not the most ideal place either, as it's just one single room, but I like to think we'll be able to work around it.

Update 4
Having potentially found some actors, I have decided to carry on looking for a new location, as the space I had previously booked (now cancelled) was unable to help us, and I was finding it difficult to adjust the script to take place in just one room. I began looking at renting out a serviced apartment, but again worried about gaining permission to film there. I went on holiday website holidaylettings.com, and although I couldn't find anywhere affordable in Sheffield, there was an apartment in Lincoln that we could possibly afford to film in, it was rather far away, but we were getting desperate. I emailed the owner anyway, and she replied saying she would permit us to film there, but to book as soon as possible so there was enough time to take payment. I didn't want to book  just yet though, as we weren't 100% sure of our filming date, and I didn't want to lost my money. Once our actors confirm their availability, I will be able to confirm the booking.

Update 5
Having found our actors, confirming their availability for our dates (now Tuesday 21st April), I went to book the apartment. The owner quickly messaged me back, saying she was unable to take my booking, even though there was a vacancy still available for that night. Admittedly, I began to panic; we were filming in 3 days and we had no location yet again. As a last resort, I searched airb&b.com, a website where people rent out part or all of their homes. I was able to find an apartment in Sheffield for an affordable price, much better than travelling to a further location. I emailed the owner, asking for her permission to film in her apartment for the day (at the normal nightly rate of £56). She happily agreed to let us film, and accepted my booking. The apartment looked perfect, It was exactly the type of place we wanted; a small apartment that looked homely and lived in, and realistic for the characters to live in. It was an awful lot of effort with a lot of problems, but i'm pleased I persevered and managed to find somewhere.

Final Script

Due to our actress portraying Alice's mother dropping out last minute, I suggested that we change the mother character into an older sister, the reason for this being that we had two young actresses, instead of one older and one younger, and also because we were getting incredibly close to our booked shoot-date, and there was no time to find a new actress to play the mother. I made changes to the names, as well as the type of language used in the script. Luckily, the actress portraying Alice, who is 20, can get a way with a much younger playing age, and the age-gap between the two looks believable. 

Shot List

Floor Plans

Script Draft 2

 This second draft of the script I feel is greatly improved. As mentioned before, the argument needed to sound more as though it was involving a mother-daughter relationship, and I didn't want either of the characters to give the impression that they were the 'villain'. Although it is a heated conflict, I want the viewer to still be able to have some sympathy, and to see the loving relationship that exists between the two characters, despite their problems.

Inspiration 1

The filming of the piece is planned to be fairly uncomplicated in terms of blocking, lighting and shooting; the majority of the film is conversation which develops into an argument between the two characters. However, I think it is important to get a feel for the build up in tension that arises between the Mother and daughter characters through out the duration of the film, which I think will rely heavily on the way each scene is lit, shot and edited.

Lighting 

My sisters keeper (2009) is a film I researched into, and has provided good inspiration for the lighting  techniques I would like to employ for my film. I feel the way each scene is lit has a strong impact on the emotional engagement the viewer has with the content and the characters. Happy and cheerful scene are shot in a more high-contrast lighting, while more dramatic, emotional scenes are shot in low-contrast lighting; these techniques are not heavily used, but just enough to effect the audiences emotion. This is something I feel would be appropriate to use in my film, it helps to move and guide the emotional connection the viewer would have with the situation of each scene, as it goes from Alice's cheerful success from her test results, to the fatal accident that takes place as a result of conflict.  

My Sister's Keeper (2009) Nick Cassavetes 

My Sister's Keeper (2009) Nick Cassavetes

The low-key lighting of the scene helps to enhance the emotional impact on the viewer during a tense period conflict in the narrative. 

Likewise for the opposite, the high-key lighting helps the viewer to sense the emotions of the scene. 

Camera

In terms of shooting, I would really like to film as much hand-held footage as possible, particularly when it comes to the argument scene and the crane scenes. I think this is because it reflects the frustrated and frantic mind-set that the characters would be in, I think it's really important in order to indicate to the viewer the thoughts and feelings which are going on within the characters of the scene. Inspiration for this came from Blue Valentine (2010), there is a scene which takes place in a hospital between the two main characters, it is shot entirely hand-held, and adds a deep impact to the tension behind the scene, it is incredibly effective. 

  

Script- First draft

This is the first draft I have written of my script, with a few small changes from Michelina. Having taken the time for us all to review it, I feel it has gone the wrong way in that it focuses on Alice in too much of a negative light, making her look like something of a spoilt brat, having a similar effect on the Mother character. I think this is because it's so hard to write an argument and make it look as natural as possible, the subject it is about I think is fine, it's just how it is expressed which needs a lot of work. 

Pitch- Crane

In todays session, we pitched our idea to the rest of the group. After our first meeting, I went away and began to develop the characters and the story, which we decided would centre around the idea of the legend of the paper cranes. I began first by thinking about the girls motivation for creating theses cranes was and how they would fit in with the storyline. There were various questions I felt need answering in regards to her character. For example; what was the purpose of creating the paper cranes? Was she hoping for redemption and comfort? Or maybe just a distraction? Does her wish come true in the end? Is it a happy or sad ending?
The answers to these questions would of course be answered properly as the development of the script continued, but I felt they needed to be included in the character's backstory as well, to give their motivations some context.
We explained our idea to the rest of the group, and the following questions were raised;

What made her so angry that she killed her mother?

Was it an accident, or was it on purpose?

What are the dynamics of their relationship beforehand?

How are you going to show it?

What is the purpose of the poem?

I think the best way to approach answering the questions in regards to the characters, is to develop as much as possible both of their backstories, and to express this through the script. I don't want it to look as though it's just a typical fight between Mother and Daughter; it needs to appear as though this is a long time coming, and is a result of ongoing tension between the two characters. I think otherwise, it would look far too melodramatic, and, in the worst case, quite comical.
In regards to the questions about the poem, I felt that the paper cranes needed some context, especially as the Japanese legend may certainly not be know by a lot of viewers. I wanted it to be subtle though, I think the use of the poem will work to portray this.

In regards to developing the relationship between my characters, It was suggested that I researched how tenuous relationships have been portrayed in past productions. One which came to mind, was that between the characters of Sarah and Anna in My Sister's Keeper (2009), for the reason that, although their is a lot of bitter tension between the two characters, their is still the evident Mother-Daughter love and connection, which is something that I envision for my own two characters.

Initial Ideas

After the initial briefing session, I began straight away find inspiration, in order to develop a character and a scenario, as a starting point for our film. I watched the film below (Origami Street Art, by Mademoiselle Maurice), which prompted me to have a go at folding a few shapes myself.

Mademoiselle Maurice - Origami Street Art from ufunk parseError on Vimeo.

As well as researching the technique of folding the paper Crane, I also researched the meaning, which represents a significant folktale found within Japanese culture. In Japan, the Crane is the most mystical and holy creatures, and are said to live for 1000 years. Japanese legend says that, by folding 1000 paper cranes (one for each year of their life), one wish will be granted to the folder.

I began trying to think what my character might wish for, and came up with a few different choices e.g. Love, forgiveness, happiness, wealth, success. Initially, my character was going to wish for love.
I had the idea that she would visit the same place everyday, and leave a collection of cranes whenever she left, in hope of catching the attention of her love interest. He would then catch on, and began leaving the Cranes for her to find. In the end they would have made 1000 between them, and their wish to finally meet each other would come true.
Although I liked this story, I felt it would need something extra to help it to avoid becoming too cliché and boring, which it easily could. I wanted to keep the character and the symbol of the crane, but I didn't want to make a film about romantic love.

I then developed this into a film about loss and grief; her wish this time being for closure/relief from the pain she felt following the loss of her Mother. The 1000 cranes she folds would represent her wish to feel happiness again.

I took this idea to the small presentation we held amongst our group. Kayleigh came with a short character development, and Michalina came with her own story idea. Kayleigh's character was too under-developed to make much use of, so we focused on mine and Michalina's ideas. I got the impression that the rest of the group thought my idea wasn't exciting enough, and that it needed some kind of shock or sudden development, although they agreed that the symbolism of the crane was a good idea. Michalina came with a much more 'shocking' story, about someone who had committed a murder, but was acting very casual about it, just going about their daily life. This may have been a good idea, but it would be a struggle to extend it to be 5 minutes long, without it become boring to watch. We then had the idea to sort of merge our two ideas together; the girl in my story had lost her mother, and was dealing with grief, but then we questioned; what else would she feel if it was her fault? Our film would tell the story of a girl, wishing for acceptance and closure after causing her mother's death.

This was a very productive session in my opinion; we established our two characters, and decided on a location to film it in. Michelina and I agreed to go away and work on the script and character development, planning to meet again later on in the week.

Brief

Group/Roles-

During the briefing session we were required to get into groups of five/six as before. Like the previous assignment, I found myself in a group with only two other people, as there were two extra members who were rarely in our sessions and thus, unconfirmed. Regardless of this, we all decided on our roles during the seminar, planning on taking on the extra positions if our other group members didn't turn up. These were as follows;

Myself- Camera/Editing

Kayleigh Asquith- Producer 

Michelina Kubiak- Director/Sound design

Hannah Porter- Sound recordist

Patrick Clifton- Sound design

(Update-Since the briefing session, Patrick has been removed as Sound recordist due to lack of contact. The role of sound designer has been taken up by Michelina.)

At the end of the session, we agreed to go away and come up with a few of our own ideas or a character development, and we would gather as a group to put together a story for our pitch. 

During the session we also watched a series of short films, providing examples and inspiration, as well as looking at how to develop characters and their backstory/profile.