2. Logline
“A day in the life of a ten pound note”
“My money is as good as yours”
A film depicting the various ways in which a ten pound note is
transferred from one person to the next; passing through different
ages, classes and genders.
3. Brief Narrative
Shot from the subjective, with mostly only hands shown, the note
Begins in the hands of a middle-class business man; he gives it
to a black cab driver for his fare; the cab driver goes into a
Corner shop to do the lottery; the shop owner lends some money
to his son from the till for ‘school supplies’; the son goes to pay
back the money he owes a drug dealer etc. The ten pound note
winds up in a birthday card of a little girl, after opening it, gives it
to her father to keep safe. The father is the business man from the
beginning, creating a full circle.
4. Genre
The genre of the short film is British drama; depicting all
the various social groups specific to Britain -
London in particular.
The generic conventions in the short film will be
employed through the character’s dialogue; due to
the camera focusing on the body language of hands
rather than faces, the off screen speech is going to be clear
in depicting each specific gender, class, culture or age.
Also adding to this will be the look of each character’s
hands and arms; displayed through aspects like
jewellery, tattoos, clothing, skin colour etc.
I want to keep the film reasonably fast-paced for excitement.
5. Incorporating influences into
the short film‘Winter’, made by the Central Film School London, has the visual
look I want to achieve with the scenes of the lower classes in my
short film. The audience would be able to tell the social status of
the main character, a homeless man called Ian, just by the look
of his hands, as they are very dirty and holding a bottle of whisky.
The shallow focus and low contrast gives it a very real, grey feel
which is something I want to achieve visually.
In terms of this narrative in context of social/British drama, it
contradicts the frequently negative stereotype given to black
youths as Adewale is friendly, polite and likes to study; in my film I
want to meet as many stereotypes of British people as possible,
whether they’re negative or positive, to give the audience
familiar representations and clearer contrasts between each
character.
6. Incorporating influences into the
short film
Other influences I hope to incorporate in terms of genre and character are
feature films like ‘Harry Brown’, ‘Offender’, ‘Nil by Mouth’ and other short films
like ‘This is Vanity’.
‘Nil by Mouth’ has the consistent close up shots that I want to use, as well as that
fast paced conversation that emphasises realism and social drama.
These films are very clear in representing many different social groups within one
small area; rich/poor, young/old, good/bad black/white etc.
7. Incorporating influences into the
short film
In terms of cinematography, I’d like to incorporate the style of the ‘bullet’s eye view’
seen in the 2006 feature film ‘Lords of War’. It shows the journey of a bullet, from
creation to destruction – it travels through the hands of factory workers, military, and
finally gunmen. I think this particular style is visually very interesting. I will be depicting a
similar journey with a ten pound note instead.
8. How my work will develop from
my influences
By thinking carefully about all aspects of mise-en-scene, I hope to do
what these films have done, which is establish each character
quickly through dialogue, costume, body language and so on.
I now realise how much representation is carried in an accent, or
just a short phrase; the audience can determine the social class of a
character in seconds.
These films frequently use binary opposites to give even more contrast to
the characters. By placing the characters with the greatest contrasts
in scenes directly after one another in my short film, these
representations become more obvious to the audience.
9. My Role
Working individually means I will be writing, filming and
editing the majority of the film myself.
I hope to develop my skills in cinematography, as I
haven’t had much experience in this area, and I know
it will be vital in creating the desired effect for my short
film.
I also hope to develop my skills as a writer, and that the dialogue
comes across well in the film and holds up the narrative; this is
particularly important as the actor’s faces won’t be seen most
of the time.
