4. EXPLANATION
It was difficult for me to find photos that were related to my own idea. I could’ve quite easily have drawn them myself
but I don’t think that I would be draw my own dog as well the other parts of my film. However I find that this was the
easiest solution overall as it wouldn’t take as much time and I would also be able to provide an overall synopsis that
explains what’s going on in my storyboard. Since I also hadn’t taken my eight photos at this point, I wouldn’t be able
to use them in my storyboards either.
The overall synopsis of my storyboard showcases a dog, who notices the nice weather outside, and decides that he
wants to go out and play. However the members of the household are too focused on their work to even notice him.
He decides that he himself will try to open the door but struggles. He then comes up with the idea of using his leash
to hook over the door handle and then open the door. He succeeds and he is finally able to go outside and play when
he notices that the weather had gone from sunny to rainy (during his time trying to get attention and come up with
his plan to open the door he didn't realize that the weather had gotten much worse).
5. CONCEPT – STRENGTHS
Strengths:
• The story is simplistic, meaning that it would be easy to be able to shoot. Being easy to shoot also means that I
would be able to focus on the post production elements of my film, prioritizing the editing of my film.
• Since the story is simplistic it means that it will fit in with the 1 – 2 minute film duration rule.
• The film concept means that I will only need to film in one location which also means that I won’t need to go
through the process of booking locations and/or actors (since the main actor is my dog and the location I will be
filming in is my own house)
• The film concept meets with all of the requirements in the brief e.g., the film is between 1 – 2 minutes, there is no
dialogue as well as there also being a twist at the end, the main actor has a goal that they reach (one of the other
requirements is to shoot on a different lens for a certain part in the film which is simple for me to do).
• I believe that the entirety of my film can be shot in one full day. This would then allow me to get ahead with post
production.
6. CONCEPT – WEAKNESSES
Weaknesses:
• Even though the story is simple meaning that it would be easy to film, it also means that the story might not be as
engaging or creative.
• Because of short duration we had been given for our films in the brief, it means that I have had to prioritize certain
ideas and leave out others which means that certain parts of the film may not make sense.
• The film concept isn’t original as I had taken inspiration from an already existing short film.
7. TECHNIQUES I WANT TO INCLUDE
In our brief there are specific types of shots that we must include, these are;
• A shot in low light.
• A shot in slow motion or capturing a fast moving object.
• A shot in shallow focus.
• A shot in deep focus.
• A tracking shot.
• A minimum of two different lenses used.
I think that these types of shots will be quite easy to film as I will be able to take them naturally during the filming
process. One of the main shots that I will be using is a tracking shot which I will be using during a part of my film when
I will use the CANON DSLR to track my dogs movement as he moves from one side of the room to the other (there are
a total of two shots that will be tracking shots).
When watching the existing short film mentioned previously, I found that the use a variety of different shots. I found
that a lot of the either tracking shots, slow motion shots or deep focus shots (which was the entirety of the short film
since deep focus refers to all parts of the shot being in sharp focus).
The reason as to why I mainly just want to stick with the brief and only include the shots that are mandatory is
because of how short our films must be.
8. TECHNIQUES SUMMARY
I think that because I want to stick with the brief and the shots that we have to include it means that I will have an
easier time shooting everything since I’m already aware and have the list of shots we need. As stated previously, there
are multiple shots that I can shooting naturally within my film e.g., parts of film film include two different tracking
shots, the entirety of my film will be shot in deep focus and my intend is to use the slow motion shot on an particular
scene that also involves a close up shot.
Film:
Since I am creating a short film it means that there are multiple types of shots that I can use (compared to another
media such as a documentary where they primarily focus on singe wide shots and close ups of interviewees). Since my
film is centred around my dog as the main actor I will also want to use a point of view shot, meaning that my dog
would not be in the frame and instead I will do something behind the camera (e.g., pull something toward
somewhere) to make it appear as though my dog is the one doing the action. The reason to why I want to do this is
because during my experiments I found that it was difficult to get my dog to do a specific action myself and I then got
the idea to do a point of view perspective of the dog which made the idea of shooting that particular scene much
easier.
12. The research so far isn’t as detailed as I would’ve wanted it to be. This is because I found it difficult to find appropriate
existing products (e.g., articles, videos, short films) that either matches or has some relevancy to my film concept. I
think that interviews and even a survey will be the most successful due to getting the opinions of my audience first
hand. This would then allow me to see what my audience likes and dislikes and see what they think would fit and be
appropriate for my film (i.e., what sort of music would fit this theme of film, what techniques they would like to see).
Another issue that I encountered was with my storyboards. I looked online to see if I could find any appropriate
images that could match with my film concept but unfortunately I was only able to find random images that don’t
particularly match with each other e.g., the storyboards are supposed to showcase what my film concept is however
some images, the 3rd and 5th, don’t really show correctly what will happen during the film.
I think that I could also have some issues with filming certain scenes with my dog, which I had solved through the use
of a POV shot from my dogs perspective, however there are other shots that I would want to include that may not be
possible e.g., having my dog sit on command and look up (the purpose of this scene would be to have my dog sit in
front of the camera and look up. The next scene that follows would then be a wide shot of the front door in the living
room). If I were to change any more scenes it would mean that I would need to go back through all of my documents
and change the concept of the film and the reason as to why it didn’t work out.
13. PLOT
The film opens with my dog sitting atop of a chair, looking outside. It then cuts to a household members shutting the
living room door, not knowing that their dog is still inside the room. The dog hears the front door being shut and
jumps from the chair, realizing he has been trapped inside of the living room alone. He then decides that he must
escape on his own and looks for a solution for a way out. He locates his leash and drags it to the front door. He then
throws the leash atop the door handle and opens the door. However when he is finally able to escape, he realizes that
the household member is nowhere to be seen. He finds that the room he had been trapped in previously is more fun
to stay there.
