Short Film Analysis: Stray Dog

Stray Dog is a film about a teenage boy, named Milo, who is struggling through a breakup with his girlfriend, unnamed. The way he coped with the breakup was beginning to talk to his alter ego in his mind. Milo begins talking to his alter ego and has a realisation that the only way to deal with the sadness is to make his girlfriend upset. As Milo travels deeper and deeper into depression he discovers a lighter, which is actually a time machine. He "selfishly" uses the time machine to travel back in time to discover the reasoning behind the break up. He discovers that his friend which he confides in is the soul cause of the break up. Finally Milo realises that using the time machine to repair a breakup is incredibly selfish and learns a life lesson. The goal in the film is for Milo to repair the breakup and resume a happy existence, and the life changing moment is when Milo realises that he is being selfish about his feelings. I think that the visuals in this short film are incredibly helpful to the emote the mood and the feeling of the protagonist, which allows the audience to connect with the thoughts in his head more easily.

Eleven: Choice of Music

The choice of music is very important for the mood we want the audience to feel. Since it's only an eight minute film we have to limit our music to the opening and closing credits. We wanted to use a feel good song at the beginning to show a happy situation that Blake is in. This will let the audience immediately know that there is a positive atmosphere for our characters. This will contrast to the end of our film which ends terribly for Blake. After finding out his fathers affair with Sophie, his piano teacher, the mood and atmosphere changes dramatically for Blake. We will use a melancholy song that sparks emotion for Blake and the audience. Overall this choice of music will put the audience through a roller-coaster of emotions. After a lot of research into this style of music, we found an independent musician, Sam Garrett. His music has a variety of happy and emotional songs. This would be perfect for our short film. I have just sent a request to Sam asking permission to use his music. Here are the two songs we hope to use:

https://soundcloud.com/samgarrettmusic/higher-than-the-mountains?in=samgarrettmusic/sets/namaste

https://soundcloud.com/samgarrettmusic/river

Eleven: Changing the Script

There have been many changes in our final script. Our first idea which contributed to Blake's love of music, was his passion for Duke Ellington. The idea of having Duke Ellington play in the car with his father driving started to become a theme which we loved. Blake's witness over the 'affair' has changed dramatically. It started out as a big mistake. Blake saw his father giving Sophie (piano teacher) a hug which didn't tell the audience anything of suspicion. Blake took this hug and immediately saw it as an affair. When Blake revealed all to his mother the twist would be that Sophie was a piano teacher, meaning that Blake had got the complete wrong end of the stick. These were the two biggest changes in our script. Looking back now we realise that both ideas would have been extremely difficult to achieve through the camera and convince the audience that it was a believable narrative. Here is the opening of my very first draft:

Eleven: Writing The Script

After finishing our treatment we are finally ready to start writing our first draft of the script. I am already half way through scriptwriting which is a good step towards filming near the Christmas period. Having the first draft ready as soon as possible is key to giving our actors an idea of what their character is like. Recently me and my partner Jacob realised that their was far too much dialogue. We decided that we wanted our film to tell the story through the camera. We sat down and cut a majority of the dialogue. I have been using Celtx which is a great scriptwriting freeware. It provides a scene heading, action for a character, dialogue etc.  Here is the opening of our film:

Eleven: Location Hunt

Family Home

This is the house where we will be shooting the majority of our interior shots. We wanted to find a modern family home that portrayed a middle class lifestyle. Already establishing where we are shooting gives us a head start on planning scenes and where actors will be placed in the film. Here are some examples of where we are going to shoot:

Blake's piano

The Living Room 

The TV Room

The Garden

Eleven: Our Posters

Billboard

Poster

We are aware that the other cast and crew members have not been included however we will make sure that they are with our final poster. The distributor will also feature on our poster. This will give a more professional look to our overall film.

Alternate poster

Here are a few potential posters for Eleven. We took over two hundred photos and these were the best three. Based on audience feedback the first two seemed to be the most popular. We haven't yet showed the alternate poster to any audiences yet. We were very keen to show our main actor Blake in the foreground of the poster. This is to show that he is the main focus point of the film. Each photo shows a different expression but all with the same meaning. Clearly he is confused or upset about something or someone. We wanted the poster to portray a story all about Blake. The slogan 'Family Is Everything' summarises the main theme and symbolism in our film. Blake's confusion and disbelief leads him to behave in a very different way. The love for his family is shown through the fact that all of the images are taking place in the "sanction" of his own home. 

Our film's story is similar to 'What Maisie Knew'. The focus of the girl at the front immediately tells the audience that she is the main character. We have also used this to make sure that Blake is the centre of attention on the poster. The font is angular in block capitals that shows the name of the film without sacrificing the mood. We have used the same type of font on our poster. 

Ted Talks: Writing A Story

Ted Talks Notes: Writing A Story 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al3-Kl4BDUQ

• Story is about the audience not the writer
• Writers have to be unfaithful
• Why we write
• Egotism
• Wanting to change the world
• Getting vengeance
• 3 act structure
• B M E
• Aristotle
• Pity (Undeserved Misfortune [Creates Audience Connection]) -> Fear (Worse and worse situation)-> Catharsis (Release of Fear [PEA -> Happiness Drug])
• Rehearse our fears -> to enable the audience to feel for the story
• Only we are the story tellers, only we can give you immortality