Theme Music

I have found the greatest Theme music ever for our production,

It is from the sound production suite and it is on one of the CDs

The cd is called..

'Romance and Passion filmscore vol.3'

track 18 (for introduction)

Storyboards

Shooting Photographs.

Just a few photographs of our shoot, so people can have a tiny sneak preview of what to expect!

When the smoke has cleared.....

Congratulations everyone, the film is shot!

:D

Big thanks to Jaimie, Scott and Kara for their patience, obedience and help on what turned out to be a frustrating and very long film shoot! Hopefully we have all that we need for 5 minutes footage now.

Now its down to the editing, and recording sound. The location sound is complete, but other sound still needs to be done, such as footsteps, sperm movements, egg movements, soundtrack. Any help with this will be appreciated.

Jim

Actors For The Film

The actors for the film have been finalised, roles being as follows:

Good Sperm: Jaimie Watts

Bad Sperm: Scott Marshall

Egg: Karajo Pincott


Camera Man on the day will be Jon Micallef, and Sound Recordist will be Jim May.

The Script

Hi all!

Apologies on the time it has taken to get this posted up on here. This is the initial draft of the finished script. Additions, corrections, ideas much appreciated please.


Script

Jonathon Micallef & Jim May


Ext. Streets. Day.
(Camera pulling back revealing the streets with extras in shot, until it stops) our sperm is stood smiling in with comic mannerisms, his sperm outfit. Center of shot. Looks to his right and walks out of shot.
Camera tracks following our sperm walking down a road side, cheerful walk.

Int. Esculator. Day
Still shot from side of sperm stood on the moving escalator. Sperm looks about confused scratching himself.

Ext. Infront of a modern bar. Day
We see him sat in a bar sipping on a colourful cocktail. Looking out at everyone on the street, he doesn’t sit still. Camera static.

Ext. Park. Day
He is sat at a park, on a swing, going down a slide and playing with a football. Camera static.

Int/Ext. Train Station. Day.
He is sat next to some young people waiting for a train. Nothing in the cameras view signifies anything to do with the train station.
Cut to him sat reading a map with sunglasses on in the same shot.

Fade

Ext. Streets. (similar to before). Day.
Same tracking shot as previously
Walking down the street eating a cream cake/drinking, appearing less comic to our audience. Suddenly stops dead, drops the cream cake/drink all down himself on his front.



Close up of the sperms face
He is stood open mouthed, gawping at something slightly further down the street. His attention doesn’t shift at all. Camera static. Background visible, but not clear.

Long Shot
A distance shot of the egg looking left and right, and slowly crossing the road on a zebra crossing. Another shot of the sperms face shows us his facial expression of lust change. Camera Static.

Ext. Day (Streets, similar to before)
The egg wanders off and slowly becomes out of shot. We see the egg from the sperms point of view. He slowly begins to move towards her following her, gradually picking up speed as he pursues. He catches sight of himself in a window. Camera moving slowly forward.

Mid shot of sperm
Looking down at his suit, covered in drink/cake. He quickly brushes it off the best he can, (Camera moves behind the sperm) and then looks around for the egg, but she has gone. He stamps on the ground in frustration, and slowly begins mooching away. He reaches the end of the street, and all of a sudden the egg whizzes past on a bicycle. Camera static and rotating pan.

Long shot across street
Sperm watches egg roll past him, and begin to cycle off. Camera static.

Midshot (as before)
Sperm turns around, knocks someone off their bike, and pursues the egg. Camera Static.

Tracking shot
Sperm is cycling quickly through the streets following the egg who is infront of him. Camera Tracking.

Tracking shot
The camera pans around, following the egg this time, starting behind her, and slowly moving to be in front of her, moving forward, with the sperm in the near distance in the background.

Mid/Long Shot
Egg cycles into a park. A short time after, the sperm follows, but as the camera pans around, the egg is no where to be seen. The sperm stops cycling, and stops to look around. The person he stole the bike from earlier, catches up to him and slaps him around the face, takes his bike back and cycles off. Shot cross fades. Camera static.

Long shot
Sperm walking through the park, kicking an empty can/bottle, looking thoroughly sad. See him sat on a bench, writing/carving “Sperm4Egg” onto the wood. Camera static.

Tracking shot
The sperm wanders through the park, with his head down. Suddenly, he hears laughter, and looks up. Sees the egg with another sperm, who is smoking, and blowing smoke rings into the air. He is clearly a “Bad-boy” figure, and the egg is enjoying his antics. Camera moving and panning.

Trombone Shot?
Shows our sperm being shocked by the situation, realising that everything has gone wrong. Wipes his eyes and slowly begins to shuffle off out of shot. Camera static.

Time lapse (Gradually slowing in speed)
Our sperm is sat on a bench as things move, slowly varying his position, his stance, the direction he is looking etc. Finishes by slowing down, and the sperm gets up and walks away. Camera static.

Tracking shot.
We see our sperm back on the streets again, although this is a complete parallel to what his mannerisms were like before, he is downhearted, moving slower, shuffling, and generally looking very down in the mouth. Things no longer seem bright; he is no longer in such a nice area.

Midshot/Longshot
Walks past the end of a roadway with his head down. We see the egg and the bad sperm down the alleyway.


Close ups/Midshots
The bad sperm is all over the egg, trying to kiss her and touch her bum. The egg is trying to resist him, and pushing him away, but the bad sperm is very persistent. The egg screams and slaps the bad sperm. She begins to run away.

Close up
The good sperm hearing the scream quickly turns around to see the egg running out of the alleyway straight towards him, crashing into him, knocking him to the floor. The bad sperm follows chasing after her cursing her, shouting in an inaudible gruff manner, what are obviously insults. The egg cowers behind the good sperm, as the bad sperm approaches.

180 degree conversation.
Bad sperm begins poking the good sperm, who is blatantly scared of him, and is just wriggling around in the same place looking awkward as the egg cowers behind him

Close up.
The bad sperm looking into the camera as though it is the good sperms face, with a half smoked fag in his mouth, gruffly arguing in a non-comprehensible language. He shoves the good sperm backwards.

Midshot/Close-Up.
The Bad sperm grabs the egg from behind the good sperm.

Close-up
The good sperms face full of hatred and anger.

Return to Previous mid/close up angle
The good sperm smashes the bad sperm in the face, the bad sperm falls to the ground. The good sperm looks down at the bad sperm, and the egg grabs him spins him round and kisses him. They both walk off hand in hand, tracking shot in front of them moving backwards, and slowing cross-fading back to the bench in the park where the pen/inscription now reads “Sperm<3Egg 4eva” Camera static.
Fade to black.

Potential City Centre Location Shots

Hope these are of some use!

"Davey Jones" Score by Hans Zimmer from Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy

This piece of music is called Davey Jones and it is a score from Hans Zimmer produced for Pirates of the Carribean.

Once again discussing the impact that the visual elements and audio elements have together i wanted to show this piece of music.

I want to pay close attention to the very beginning where the soft chimes come into the music up until 1 min 14 seconds where the loud organs come in. I believe that this once again can be a catalyst the the type of music we wish to have for our emotional scenes.

If we were to want to take this path, we could produce our own music using software such as Garageband, Logic Pro, Cubase etc etc

I have been playing around with the piano on Logic Pro and have come up with some intersting/emotional music that could potentially be used.

Mark (Visual Editor) (The Race Of Life / Crunch Bunch)

"The End" Score by Harry Gregson Williams

This piece of music was composed by Harry Gregson Williams. The Vocals from 4 Mins 40 seconds are performed by Lisa Gerrard.

I wanted to add this to our blog to suggest the music path we may look to take. As an editor the most exciting thing about my job is seeing the Visual and the Audio come together to create a story, but its the overall meaning and emotion that can be created by combining the two which really makes editing for me exciting.

Some of my favourite films use composers like Harry Gregson Williams (Man On Fire) and Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Carribean / Gladiator) and they have become my favourite films due to the overall success and power that comes from combining the visual with audio. For a film to work for me, it has to create some sensation for me, and these films have done so enabling me to connect with them on an emotional level.

The music is a major key for me in film. Without it, the visual would not be so powerful. This is why i have included below "The End" which is a score from Harry Gregson Williams produced for Man On Fire. In our production, we have a scene where by the main character The Sperm sees another sperm with the egg that he has been pursuing that he has wanted for himself. The concept of an egg and sperm can been intertwined with that of love between a man and a women therefore the emotion can still be justified and i believe that using this type of emotional music can make this scene very powerful.

This type of music also is a major inspiration to myself as an editor because it represents to me everything special about the movies and really does justify the movie/hollywood aura.

As stated above i wanted to pay close attention to the score at 4 Mins 40 Seconds when the vocals come in. Therefore please feel free to skip to this part.

Thanks

Mark (Visual Editor) (The Race Of Life/Crunch Bunch)

Group Folder.

Guys, the group folder has been started today. Any suggestions for pages to be included within this will be helpful. Kara has suggested that we include a mood board, which I feel is a valid idea, so if anyone has anything they would like to add to this please begin collecting clip outs, condom wrappers, egg boxes, anything you feel will be useful to this.

Thanks,

Jim

Script Writing - The Know How

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/filmmakersguidewriting#writing

Please can you all check the link for tips on script writing. As we already have a treatment we DO NOT need to worry about this, but the tips on formatting (Check the links within the article) are going to be useful to us. The script should be provisionally done by this weekend.

To-Do List

Basically guys, now we have decided on our project, we really need to get cracking with who is taking on what within our production. We already have our practical roles, (Camera, editing etc) but we need to begin work on making this production as professional as possible!

My initial itinerary for what we need to be doing stands as follows:

*Group analysis of idea, and writing of our script - I'd like input, shot ideas, sound ideas, location ideas, character ideas and casting ideas from all of us please, Then as a group we can decide on the best and most feasible ideas for our piece at a group meeting.

*Shot List - Once we have our script and location ideas sorted, I'd like one or two members of the group to sit down with all of us and compile a shot list. I thought that we could basically do a chill out sesh, throw our ideas out there and compile this shot list with regards to character, action and location, and again, as a group decide on the best shots for our piece.

*Storyboards - Again, once the shot list is compiled, I'd like one or two of us (Preferably the best artists) to work on the storyboards for the film. This will be done from the shot list, so there is no need for full group involvement in this project.

*Casting - There are several ways we can do this. I have already had a couple of people approach me personally and ask if they can help out in our film, so we could do it this way by recommending friends/family/associates OR ALTERNATIVELY we could arrange a:

CASTING CALL! which would involve putting posters around uni, ringing up local drama societies, possibly hiring actors (dependent on our budget!!) and also holding auditions for the part, which may be hard as the piece will be non-dialogue.

*Location Scouting - Hopefully some good locations will come up in our initial ideas for the group analysis, but I still feel that this may be of use to us in this and future projects. I propose that we take a day to "Explore Sheffield" as a group, take some food and drink, get a dayrider bus ticket and search the city for good locations to shoot in. I realise that we are all skint students, but a dayrider ticket is definitely under a fiver, and this would look really good in our group portfolio. Also, we could hire a digital camera to take photographs of what we find, our daily banter, and strange people we encounter along the way. Also, if anyone has a polaroid camera, that would be really smart to use, as they produce great pictures and look really arty and professional! :)

*Costumes & Props - OH MY DAYYYYYYYZZZZ this is gonna be a big 'un for us on this project! Again as a group, I feel we need a brainstorming sesh to gather ideas for props and costume ideas for the film, main focus being on the sperm and the egg costumes. Obviously it will be easier if we have arranged a shot list and storyboard before we do this, but we may think of things to include as afterthoughts which could benefit the film, so lets get our thinking caps on guys! :)

*Shooting Dates - Obviously cannot stress how important this is. Of course all you guys will already realise that this is very important. We need to decide on this soon, especially if we are booking other people's time to help us out, for borrowing equipment and also for our crew availability. Hopefully within the next few days we will be able to sort this out, and begin really working to this deadline, ensuring everything is running smoothly, so lets go team!


Ideas, Thoughts, Complaints and Equations please? Hoping that there isn't too many of them!

Jim

Topic Decided

Hi everyone,

Following our group meeting and presentation of our film treatments today, we have been assigned to make the "Sperm" Film. Below is a copy of the treatment we presented, and I have also added a "Durex" condom advert, as inspiration to our piece.


The Race of Life.

A struggle seldom seen, put into human perspective, as a sperm chases an egg, to find his happiness.

Darkness. Slowly we hear on the sound, muffled noises of love making, building slowly louder and clearer until the sound of orgasm bursts through, and the screen is thrust into bright white light.

A shot of a city slowly fades in. Into the picture walks a mime, dressed in all black, T-shirt and trousers wearing a white mask, or performers leotard, holding a large cardboard cut out of a sperm. The shot cuts to follow the man moving backwards as the sperm moves slowly throughout the city, up an escalator, in the window of a bar, at the park, at the train station, drinking coffee and looking at a map with glasses on. We see the man holding the sperm slowly moving down the street and then suddenly stop dead in their tracks. The shot then moves behind the sperm and man, to see at the top of the street, another mime, this time holding a large cardboard cut out of an egg. The egg looks left and right, and slowly crosses the road, and out of the cameras sight. The shot cuts back to the sperm, who is still for moments, then begins to sprint after the egg. The chase continues through the city, the egg always in the distance as the sperm weaves through people, tripping, stumbling through the bustling crowd. Falls to the ground, and loses sight of the egg for a second and it vanishes. The sperm moves to the end of the street. All of a sudden in a great rush, a bicycle zooms past from his left hand side as he is looking right, the egg is on it. The sperm grabs the nearest bike to him, and pursues! He rounds a corner, and see’s only the egg’s bike on the floor. The egg is nowhere to be seen.

Shot fades in of the sperm on a bus, looking sad, and depressed. Steams up the bus window and draws a picture of him and the egg on it, holding hands and smiling. He gets off the bus at the next stop and stands perfectly still. Directly ahead of him is the egg, with another sperm, holding hands and kissing. We see a close up of the sperms body, and a broken heart is slowly drawn on it.

We next see the sperm walking disheartened along a road. He takes a seat on a bench, and sits there alone at the left hand side. We hear a scream and a noise, and the sperm looks up. It’s the egg and the other sperm, which is dragging the egg along, occasionally lashing out at her.

Our sperm watches this, slowly creeping behind them, following them. He moves slowly, but keeps close. Finally, as the other sperm is about to lay another punishing blow to the egg, our sperm strikes! He attacks the other sperm and forces him away from the egg, which now has cracks all over its shell. He wins the scuffle, the other sperm fades away, and he looks at the egg. Shot cuts back to the steamy bus window and the drawing that the sperm had done previously. There is now a love heart around it, and it says underneath it “Sperm & Egg 4eva!”

Shot fades out.

I want to create a comedy feel within this project, by use of actions, shots, locations and situations that the characters are put into. I’d also like to use a variety of colour in this piece to reflect mood.

My target audience for this piece is mainly comedy fans, of all ages. I feel that this piece will be particularly good for fans of sketch show comedy programs such as Little Britain, Monty Python etc.




************************************************************************************

The Durex Adverts.

Inspirations

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://blog.turning-point.co.uk/index.php/2007/10/23/my-journey-so-far/

Just browsing google, found a few stories about journeys. I don't know what sort of route we are taking with this film, so I'm trying to gather sources of different styles, hopefully one will suit us all. This one is a drug addicts story.

(Jim)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Australian drug geezer was very moving! A journey worth noting! Good Source Batman!

(Marc)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://kimberlysnyder.net/journey-pictures/

Some pictures from a woman's travel. Lead me to an idea, say a girl or guy trying to impress someone, says that they have traveled the world, and they have to prove it when they haven't really done it. So they get a stills camera, and fake a load of photographs of them in different places to try and prove that they haven't lied...

(Jim)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This idea is good mate. Only worry for me would be in regards to the locations. We would possibly have limited shots to really produce this. Unless we based it in one location, say a beach or seaside resort and that was where the women stated she had gone to.

Good Idea though.

(Marc)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Browsing youtube, I found a short 6 minute student film about a Journey, thought this might be relevant to us :)



(Jim)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guys I wanted to comment on the last idea. The short film produced Murray Pictures.

Let me just say that when I was watching it i got the idea of Journey straight away, which was obvious through the use of Transport and moving from one place to another. I liked some of the camera work and the music in some parts was effective with the visual but i have to admit I just thought it was a guy going to the beach, i had no idea of the actual path this production was intending until he goes to jump.

Being honest, about 3 mins in to this i started to think about an idea, of someone going to commit suicide and then during the last 10 seconds i was thinking "Dont you dare kill yourself cause that's my idea" ha but he went to jump.

So, basically what im trying to say is this is obvious inspiration for my treatment, but I feel that the message of Sadness was not put across well, some of the camera shots were far too long and the actual fact that i did not (until last 10 seconds) realize he was sad and going to kill himself I think we could produce a very strong piece of work by using this idea. Improving the music, camera shots, camera timing etc I think this could be a very powerful piece.

I also like the idea of going to the beach, because for me the sea itself is very calming and it's a nice location to shoot. We would have to travel to the nearest beach which god knows where it is but i like it. Seriously though another weakness of that film was that the lad was never going to kill himself jumping into the water from that height jeeeez ha. So this would need to be more dramatic.

(Marc)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who we are, and what we are doing! :)

Hello and welcome to our blog! We are first year Film & Media students at Sheffield Hallam University in England, UK, and this blog is for a short film we are writing, to document our progress, show you some of our influences, amuse you, entertain you, frustrate you, tease you and ultimately please you!

Our group consists of five members, Marc, Jim, Jon, Kara, and Elizabeth. Over the next few weeks we will be writing a script and storyboards for our film which we are choosing from 5 treatments put forward on Wednesday 4th of March. We will also each fit into one of 5 roles within the group which currently stand as follows:

Project Leader: Jim May
Camera: Jonathon Micallef
Visual Editor: Marc Stevens
Sound Recordist: Karajo Pincott
Sound Designer: Elizabeth Lamch