Research and Development for 5 minute video

Basic outline

There are two ideas which I thought we could explore from the 1 minute films which were produced my Morgan and Omar in my group.

Omar’s idea explored:

·      the narrative was based on a relationship ending via a written letter. I thought that we could develop this narrative by showing the couple having possible issue beforehand which lead to their breakup. Or, we could explore the aftermath of the couple’s breakup, possibly with the ex-boyfriend going to his ex-girlfriend for an explanation. It may be better with the woman’s voice.

·      Possibly get a voiceover recording in the studio

·      Better lighting. Get lighting from AV loans or something which gives a bit of warmth

·      Possible locations- a room which looks better than in the original video, meeting in a park (Abbey Park)

·      Keep characters to a minimum, possibly 4 at most (main two characters and maybe introduce friends)

·      Production: mostly close ups of the individuals speaking with a shallow depth of field. Unhappy soundtrack playing in the background. A mid shot of the couple awkwardly interacting (should they meet up). Cut in shots of the letter like from Omar’s original video.

·       

Morgan’s idea explored:

·      The narrative was based on looking into how a young Muslim girl identifies herself, and she was talking about her characteristics. This narrative could be explored by looking into a fictional character’s life as a young Muslim girl and some aspects of her life which could be seen as taboo, such as her relationship.

·      The narrative could look at BBC 3 drama “Murdered by My Father” for inspiration. For example, the 5-minute film we do could just look at how the girl would be having a relationship which she doesn’t want people knowing about in case her family then find out.

·      The focus of the shots e.g. showing the protagonist’s inferiority by using high-angled shots

·      The presence of the girl’s dad over the phone, or in some written way

·      Possible locations- a park (where the couple go and meet), sulets common room (to create the environment of the couple having gone for food, spending time together etc.)

·      The characters in this should be kept to a minimum too, maybe even just looking at the girl and her secret boyfriend and how he is pushing for her to be honest about the relationship they share. However, because she is adamant she doesn’t want anyone finding out we only ever see the two of them in hidden locations

Alternative ideas:

Mix the two ideas together;

We could take the narrative from Morgan’s story for the five-minute video, but then mix certain elements such as the letter from Omar’s idea. This letter could be from the girl’s father just writing to see how she is doing at uni, or we could make it more realistic by featuring a text message or a voicemail which could then be seen/heard by the girl.

What we actually did

When it came to filming the video we struggled to go with our original idea which was going to be a mixture of Omar and Morgan’s ideas. This was because we couldn’t manage to find anyone to play the female character in our story, and this meant that we had to quickly change the narrative we were going to go with as we were running out of time. As a result, we decided since we only have the male actor we could do something focused on him, so we thought of doing a narrative where there is a male character who is suffering from depression.

The basic outline of the narrative was that our main character, Jamaine, is going through depression and he writes a letter stating how he wants to take his own life. His friend comes to visit and comes across the letter whilst checking Jamaine’s books and confronts him about it.

We will be using certain elements in this such as voiceover narration for the parts where the letter is being read, and we will feature some flashbacks of Jermaine earlier in the day expressing his frustration and writing the letter.

Also there were plans to shoot the video at a house just to give the video a more authentic feel, however due to us having changed from the original plan which then caused our schedule to be delayed, the house which we had planned to video at was no longer available. Instead we shot the video in a room at a uni accommodation and as the two characters in the video talked about uni and how it was going briefly, it meant that the mise en scene tied in well with the narrative that we were trying to put across.