Edale - Storyboard

Edale - Location

We didn’t get to visit Edale before the shoot so a lot of it will be improvised with regards to location on the day. I did do research on the place prior to going though so that we would have a good idea of what would be there so we could plan our story and shots around it, maybe just having to change things slightly on the day depending on what we come across. I also wanted to know what to expect in terms of preparation – Edale is a small Village in the Peak District so there is lots countryside and hills surrounding it which means we will need to dress appropriately, take protective covers for the equipment as we’ll be working outdoors and also expect to be working on lots of different and potentially rough terrain.

We will be travelling by train which means we will be carrying the equipment for most of the day, due to this we will probably not stray too far away from the village as it’s quite heavy and if the weather conditions are bad we don’t want to be going too far as it can get quite misty the higher up you go and towards the top of the hills.

There are not really any shops in the village so we will be better off taking our own food and drink, this will also be more efficient as it will save us having to go back into the Village to find somewhere to get food which would take up time.

Edale - Schedule

Project Schedule
Project Set	Wednesday 19th Oct
Discuss Ideas for ‘Portrait of Place’	Friday 21st Oct
Book out Equipment for 9.00am Thursday 27th	Monday 24th Oct
Meeting to discuss final plans for shoot	Wednesday 26th Oct
Day of Shoot - Edale	Thursday 27th Oct
Return Equipment	Friday 28th Oct
Capture Film Footage & watch through	Monday 31st Oct
Edit Rough Cut	Tuesday 1st Nov
Feedback Tutorial	Thursday 3rd Nov
Final Edit	Monday 7th Nov
Presentation/Hand in day	Thursday 10th Nov

Edale - Ideas

The 2 main ideas we came up with were:

1 – We were going to explore the relationship of a couple on a day out in Edale. The focus would be on how they are with each other throughout the day and this would be shown to the audience by their facial expressions and their body language towards each other and movements. It would start off with them looking quite happy and excited which would then turn to annoyance as they got lost and disagreed on which way to go, by the end of the day though everything would be alright and this would possibly be shown with a shot of them both looking content and leaning on each other as they waited on the platform for the train home.

2 – The second idea is more dark and mysterious as all you see is a man dressed in dark clothing walking about in the countryside suspiciously collecting things, he then goes back to a place where he has left a body only to discover that it has gone. The man then grabs his weapon to find this person that has escaped but is left on a cliff-hanger so you don’t know if he finds them dead or alive or if they got away.

Highrise - Gabrielle Russell (2002)

            http://vimeo.com/28303792

This is a 4 minute film with no dialogue but despite that I found it said a lot in a short period of time. A woman is sitting in her flat watching the TV with her baby sat on the sofa and the only noises you can hear are the TV and the baby with its bottle. It doesn’t take long to work out from the surroundings that this woman probably doesn’t have much money and from what I gather a single parent. Straight away you can work out she’s not happy and it builds tension through the emphasis of the noises from the TV where there is an annoying game show on and the baby who is whinging and drops the bottle of milk on the floor. A drip then seems to fall slowly from the teat onto the carpet and everything seems to stop for a moment. I think this is a poignant moment as to me it feels like this is where it all comes to a head for this woman and something inside her has just snapped.

There is a look of resentment towards the child on the woman’s face that increases as the film goes on. The woman ends up falling over while going to pick up the babies bottle as she’s on the ground she sees the baby heading towards the open window, she seems to watch it and you can see on her face that part of her is scared and wants to jump up and save her baby but there’s the other side that thinks this could be my way out thus she runs out of the room into the dark corridor and relief appears to sweep over her as it’s just an empty corridor with no noise no baby just peace. This is then shattered when she hears a noise that sounds like the baby has fell which then shocks her back into reality but the baby has not fell it was just a toy doll that it was trying to reach. I think this is an exploration into post-natal depression, the woman doesn’t need to say anything it’s all expressed through her face and body language which the camera focuses on with mid shots and close ups of her face throughout and shots of the TV showing a happy screaming woman which is in stark contrast to how she’s feeling.

Christmas with Dad

At first this documentary film grabbed my attention for the wrong reasons as it looked like it was just going to be about a large family of kids trying to cope with not much money at Christmas which to an extent it was but as it went on you could really start to feel for this man and the kids.
I liked it because it was interesting and funny but also had an underlying sadness to it as well as you found out about AJ's (the Dad's) past and present life. AJ of whom is the main focus of this documentary is only 23 living with an older woman and her 8 children of which only 2 were biologically his and they both have one on the way. The documentary centres around his thought and feelings on matters while also finding out more about him as a person.
I liked how it was shot with AJ being interviewed either on the doorstep or the street, which was not very glamourous but gave a real sense of how poor the family probably were and was staying true to them,  but then inbewtween mid-close up shots (so quite intimate) of him him talking there would be scenes of the children in the house just getting up to their normal things and also hearing their take on things too as it felt like you were getting quite up close and personal with the family and like nothing was being held back.
 I think the point of asking AJ questions somewhere away from the family was so that he would share all with us without any interruptions of worried that his family would hear, I also think it's so that us the audience could really concentrate on what he said and empathise with him as he poured his heart out to the interviewer.
As I watched I remember thinking the lighting was quite dull or possibly had a bit of a cold feel to it, even with all the Christmas lights on which I think may have been to symbolise that there is something hanging over this family. I think it could be something that Aj told us about his father going blind at a young age and that his eyesight also was deteriorating, that meant he too would soon be blind.
I don't remember there being much sound either apart from the talking and background noise, there was music at the beginning which had quite a sad tune to it which kind of set the tone off from the beginning.
 Despite the family being large and quite poor (so probably living off benefits) and the audience probably not agreeing with everything they saw, like the baby chewing on the cigarette packet, the way it was shot made it hard to dislike this guy. They did that by playing with our emotional strings and making us feel for him and the situation. I also feel it was his frankness and honesty and in many ways his innocence along with his not so lovely background that made him quite appealing to a judgemental audience.

Steel Homes

Steel homes is about people and some of the things they keep in storage, which doesn't sound like the most interesting thing to make into a film but Eva Weber manages to pull off something quite different and quite emotional. When the film first starts you don't really know what to expect as the noisy lift starts moving and you see shots of this big empty looking building it seems quite creepy at first until this voice comes over the top. The womans voice sounds like she has just come on through mid-sentence though which adds to the quite eerie feel you get from this place with its long grey corridors, harsh lights and just the odd person caught walking around in the distance. I think long shots of the people were used delibrately to show the distance of these people because when they're in their storage rooms it's like they're in the own little world just left with their thoughts in their head.
This is what the film is about, it's not just random junk in boxes all this stuff means something to people, it brings back memories of the past of a time before or maybe loved ones that have been lost and I think the mood captures that well because there is no sound or anyone else around just the odd noise heard in the building which makes it appear very solitary and really draws your attention to what's being said as if there had been family or friends about it wouldn't have quite had the same emotion. The way it's filmed also makes it feel like there's not even a camera man or any crew around which also adds to this lonely atmosphere as it's like the people visiting their things are just talking and reminiscing to themselves.

I liked this film because of the stark contrast between the location and content of it. You have this very cold and desolate looking building made of all metal and very non-descript then as it goes on it becomes filled with these heart-warming memories and each persons storage room has a story to tell. 

In a way this building represents these peoples minds as everything is hidden away for no one else to see, the the things in the building and the thoughts in their minds and they might not be visited very often but nonetheless are always there.