Ever since I was a kid, I love watching movies. My first ever birthday celebration with my parents was in a movie theatre watching one of the greatest films of all time named Avatar. The movie with the blue people that shows how cruel humans could be when they want something.
As I got older, I wanted to make films myself, I wanted to become a filmmaker. So I dug through the complicated layers of the movies and found out a lot about what is actually behind those closed doors that all the amazing filmmakers are in, those guys with the huge bowties.
James Cameron (Director of Avatar)
Photo Credit: Thanh Giang20101 via Flickr/All Rights Reserved
I realized, in order for me to make those films I needed way more than what I could reach. I needed money for equipment, location, I needed to know how to write a script and all that. It was not an easy task. There are so many steps and this year, during English Class, I simplified it down to Meeting new people; writing a script; making a storyboard; reviewing the script and storyboard; making the movie. Although, I did not get to film this movie, which is my favourite part of filmmaking. My partners that I met for this project did.
Teaming up through the internet (This year in English class)
There was a project that I did with the students in the school named Bio-Med Science Academy, BMSA, in Rootstown, Ohio. Our goal was to build a movie plan that they would shoot. The movie is based on one of the books that we read for our own pleasure. The book I read is called The Art of Thinking Clearly and the chapter is “If fifty-million people did something foolish, it’s still foolish (social proof)”
Here is the trailer for the movie that they made :
Script
First, we saw examples of scripts. I already knew how to write scripts, so I just looked at an example to use as a template.
This is the script for the movie
“The Martian”: S3.foxfilm.com. N. p., 2018. Web. 18 May 2018.
This is a good example because this movie is really famous and has great ratings. I first saw this is my Films Studies class. In that class, everyone sat together and read the script. We were instructed to point out the points that are good or that we don’t know about. For example, the EXT or INT at the top of each section is stating if the shot is exterior or interior
Here is the script that I wrote for this project :
StoryBoard
The storyboard was really simple. It might seem a bit effortless but really that’s all there is to the shot. I researched about storyboards as well. I saw one for toy story, it was really simple, but the movie was long, so the amount of stories on it is way more than mine. I couldn’t link the storyboard since it was provided by the teacher and the link is not available anymore. However, this is another website that I found, it is how Pixar do their storyboards. Streams, Kimber. “22 Rules Of Storytelling By A Pixar Storyboard Artist.” Laughing Squid. N. p., 2013. Web. 18 May 2018.
Here is my storyboard.
Some thoughts on after the project …
I think the most challenging thing about this project was the communication. I am not physically there to tell them what I want the movie to be like exactly. It’s a lot different than working on a movie set with people. We did not communicate a lot, except the time where we looked through the script, added a few comments and that’s it. The storyboard was there to show what the script was talking about in a simple way. But the shots and the video doesn’t seem like what I was looking for. I need to improve on the script writing and not think of anything but just the story I want to tell. I think the main idea in the video was not clear to those who have never read the book. Although they did a good job in shooting the video exactly like the script. So I think it was my part that made the story seem a little bit unclear. There was no context and nor was there any backstory. It was straight on the idea which also wasn’t very clear. So the video does not really convey the mood that I wanted it to.
Ultimately, it was a fun project to work with people that I just met for this task. Starting from the first email of knowing who they are. Then we moved on to commenting and giving feedback on the script. And seeing a product being made after a brief conversation. This shows that people could work together really well if everyone completes what they’re supposed to do.