UK Film Council Productions 5/10/10

During lesson time we watched three short films of different genres to help us generate more idea for our own. Rather than looking at the technical side of the films we focused on the characters and the believability of their actions, specific plot points and pithy dialogue. By observing this in existing films we could look at our own treatments in more detail and improve them.

THE FIRST TIME IT HITS...
This was a completely visual film with animation and exciting editing. Looking at the characters, there was a believable skater dude and a bad girl within the same location. The skater did some tricks in the hope he would impress the girl whilst she smoked and gave the cheeky eye in his direction.
Animation was then used to illustrate them falling in love and his thought of maybe doing a trick to impress her. However, the trick goes horribly wrong and the skateboard hits her right in the head. This twisted the plot and span it right into a comedic film.
It was a beleivable boy meets girl situation which had a modern twist of action that made it funny. The best part abput it in relation to helping me was that there was no dialogue. It was 100% soundtrack which was parallel to the on screen images.

ICE CREAM DREAMS...
This film had very simple plot points involving a girl helping her father sell ice cream from his van.
At first she doesn't want to go and play with the other children but by the end of the short film she has the courage to go. The characters were very believable and the dialogue was only incorporated where necessary. The mother saying "we could do with another day like this" when counting the money collected from being out selling ice cream. The characters were simple and believable but the little girl was given more depth. She had this because everytime she wanted to go and play her conscience would appear and warn her away.

HARD LABOUR...
This was my favourite of the three films as once again it had a simple base of a storyline but the realistic characters alongside their actions really made the film great. There is a husband and a wife living under the same roof with their one son and the nanny that takes care of him.
However, when both women fall pregnant (BY THE SAME MAN!) the story unfolds with twists and deception until finally the nanny takes her revenge in snatching the other womans baby because the male character made her get rid of her own. The characters were very realistic in the sense that the middle class male paid off the nanny so that she kept quiet. Additionally, the nanny claimed she had to go back to Croatia to be with her sick mother just so she could make the couple believe she was gone - but really so she could come back and steal the other baby. All of the characters were well constructed and the backstory to each one made the film as good as it was.

From this task i could work on the treatments already made within my group, and make them more believable and realistic to the storyline they abide by.