Feedback MGS 06/11/2015

1. Shooting must begin next week with the intention that the majority of footage is completed by Christmas.
2. Film form research linked to genre, sound, cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene.
3. Research into different narratives within the genre
4. Mind map of original ideas.
5. Complete detailed storyboard and add it to the blog.
6. Write a detailed storyboard.
7. Draft filming
8. Draft photographs.

"Dearest Ada" Screenplay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dearest Ada

Draft 1

 

Screenplay by:

 

Francesca Wallace

Will Pallant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scene 1 - Beach - The proposal - 1964

Flashback. The beach. They are alone on the beach. Arthur and Ada walk hand in hand along the beach. Ada goes over to pick something up, a shell or something similar. Arthur is hesitating, almost stuttering when he talks.

Arthur

So Ada I was wondering…

Arthur get’s down on one knee.

 

Ada

Look Arthur isn't this pretty.

As Ada turns around she notices Arthur on one knee, there’s a slight hesitation as she begins her next sentence as an element of surprise begins to grow on her face.

 

Arthur

I mean I have been wondering since we’ve met.

Ada walks towards Arthur slowly.

I was wondering, if you would marry me?

A tear exits from Ada’s eye as she almost runs to Arthur who greets her running with a hug of which Ada squeezes him.

Is that a yes?

 

Ada

Yes, Arthur, Yes, I will most definitely marry you.

A shot of them hugging zooms in. Arthur places a ring on her finger.

2015, back in the lounge, Ada has a reminiscent look on her face, Ada is sitting in the lounge alone, surrounded by many boxes, of which she is trying to decide whether to keep or not, her grandson Charlie walks in with yet another box.

Charlie

I’ve found this box nanny, would you like to keep it or are we getting rid of it.

 

Ada

Let me have a look Charlie…

Long pause as she is looking through the box at the contents, slight hesitation. She notices a record by The kinks.

Oh my, i think i recognise this box… you see your grandfather and I collected these items through our marriage. Charlie grandad and I were married for a very long time.

Ada begins looking rather emotional however quite reflective, as all the memories of her and her husband's 55 years together are flashing back on her. She notices a letter in the box, picks it up and begins to read it. Ada begins to read the letter aloud.

Dearest Ada, When I reflect on our 51 years together, there are a number of memorable days. I cannot help but be reminded of the moment I first met you. It was the year of 1964.

Ada’s narration of the letter then changes to a voiceover of her late husband; Arthur in which there is a flashback of the memory her husband, Arthur is narrating.

 

Scene 2 - Dreamland - Ada and Arthur roller skating - 1964

Arthur

The date of the memory is narrated by Arthur, it also appears on the right bottom corner of the screen, in a typewriter font, the sound of a typewriter is narrating the date. In the background you can see a room full of people roller skating.

Friday 7^th November 1964.

Fade out of font.

You Really Got Me by The Kinks begins to play.

 I can recall the first day i laid eyes on you, we were both rollerskating at dreamland, the kinks were playing in the background, I had been watching you rollerskate, not in a weird way, it was just i couldn’t help but acknowledge your beauty, you had this element of surprise in your face, as if you were waiting for the next moment you could share your excitement with someone, whatever that excitement was.

Ada takes a glimpse at Arthur from the other side of the room of where Arthur is, Ada smiles then turns back to her friend.

I saw you take a glimpse at me. I couldn’t hold a smile back, you looked like you had so much to tell, it was as if you were just waiting for the moment to tell all of these wonderful secrets.

Arthur and his friend begin rollerskating at which point we see Ada and Arthur collide, not enough to fall, but enough to acknowledge who each other are.

As my friend and I entered the roller skating rink, i felt this body collide with me as i turned around I saw you giggle.

Ada giggles, Arthur cracks a smile.

You were very apologetic, both of our friends must have known each other as, as we had had our collision (Arthur giggles) our friends had begun talking, I took this opportunity to start talking to you, somehow I managed to persuade you into going on a date with me.

 

Ada

Return back to the lounge scene where Ada is crying slightly, her granddaughter who is now in the room starts comforting her. The narration of the scene is now by Ada, who continues to narrate the next stage of the letter. Ada picks up the pocket watch.

Soon after we had gone on a date, we were married and everything seemed to happen extremely fast as I can then just remember it being my 21st birthday and you gave me this silver pocket watch, because i never had a watch and you were always the one telling me the time.

Zoom into pocket watch which is in Ada’s hand, Flashback of Arthur's 21st birthday, Pocket watch is in Arthur's hand zoom out and we see Arthur opens the pocket watch, date appears in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, as Arthur narrates the date.

 

Arthur

Monday 10th January 1965.

At this moment we see a room filled with people form, Arthur is presented with a cake and we see him blow the candles out, someone is taking a picture with an old camera, in which we focus on this person, see them take the photograph through their view and then flashback returns to 2015 where grandson; Charlie is putting the camera down; graphic match, we are back in 2015.

 

Ada

Ada picks up a cork.

 

Ada

It was 1965, we were married and I had just received a promotion, you brought home a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

Flashback to 1965. Arthur and Ada are both at home, she walks through the door with a bottle of champagne and gives him a hug, they are both smiling.

 

Arthur

Thursday 22nd May 1965.

The date appears on the bottom right hand corner of the screen as Arthur narrates the date and the next stage of the letter.

I recall never being able to get rid of the cork because we didn’t have much money and we still celebrated as you were so excited for me. This was one of our happiest memories as this job meant that everything was going to be ok, as I had a pay rise and you would no longer have to work at that awful cafe anymore.

We see them drink the champagne and celebrate. Flashback, then back to 2015. Ada continues to sit in the lounge, with her two grandchildren. Her face shows her emotions towards the letter and how emotional she feels.

 

Ada

Continues to read the letter, the narration has now switched back to her.

After I got my new job it meant that finally we could have a holiday and since we never had the chance to go on a honeymoon, this was our first holiday as  a married couple. You were so excited and couldn't stop talking about it until we actually arrived.

Ada picks up a shell. Flashback to beach scene of them on holiday.

 

Arthur

Arthur narrates the date.

Saturday 7th August 1966.

We stayed in a small B&B in Cornwall, right next to the beach, I think we must have visited  the beach everyday, because you just loved picking up new shells, even if they were identical to the one you found before.

Arthur and Ada walk along the beach hand in hand. Ada continues to collect shells. Arthur is patient, he admires her.

Once they have walked along the beach we return to 2015, Ada still sat in the lounge narrating the letter from Arthur that she is reading.

 

Elements of the Film

Character names-

Grandmother: Ada

Grandfather: Arthur

Grandson: Charlie

Granddaughter: Alice

Daughter: Matilda

Husband: Theo

 

The letter – elements

Record (The song when they first met at the party)

Record player

Pocket watch (21^st birthday)

Camera

Cork and champagne bottle (new job/promotion)

Shell (1^st holiday)

Phone (Baby’s coming)

Baby shoes

Dried rose (40^th wedding anniversary)

Message of death “Glad to have lived life as he has”

 

 

 

70 years old

Met when they 16

1961

song

Tossin n turnin bobby lewis

The twist chubby checker

Dion Runaround sue

‪Pretty little angel eyes Curtis lee

The Dovells Bristol stomp

Ricky Nelson Travellin man

The Kinks you really got me

Wonderland by night Bert Kaemfert

Genre

• Romance

Traditionally, a romance story involves chivalry, adventure and love. In modern writing, a story about character's relationships, or engagements (a story about character development and interpersonal relationships rather than adventures). It has produced a wide array of subgenres, the majority of which feature the mutual attraction and love of a man and a woman as the main plot, and have a happy ending. This genre, much like fantasy fiction, is broad enough in definition that it is easily and commonly seen combined with other genres, such as comedy, fantasy fiction, realistic fiction, or action-adventure.

• Period Drama

A historical period drama is a work of art set in, or reminiscent of, an earlier time period. The term is usually used in the context of film and television. It is an informal crossover term that can apply to several genres but is most often heard in the context of historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers. The implication is that the audience is attracted as much by the lavish costumes as by the content. In the performing arts, a period piece is a work set in a particular era. This informal term covers all countries, all periods and all genres. It may be as long and general as the medieval era or as limited as one decade—the Roaring Twenties, for example.

• Arthouse

An art film (also known as an art movie, specialty film, art-house film / arthouse film, or, in the collective sense, as art cinema) is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. An art film is "intended to be a serious artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal"; they are "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit", and they contain "unconventional or highly symbolic content".

Digital Storyboard

Above is the original footage which we shot of a pocket watch which we thought looked quite retro and we also that it could be a similar shot to one we might use in our actual film.

This shot is the first shot which we attempted using after effects on, our plan was to turn the footage from colour into black and white and also to try to put some dust, dirt or scratches onto it. We had success in making the footage into black and white, we did this buy desaturating it completely and then we increased the contrast and decreased the opacity.

This version of our shot shows how we experimented with the footage to try and make it more saturated. It is clear that certain colours such as the golds and the pinks are much more vibrant than in either of the previous clips. We did this by increasing the saturation on the specific colours which we wanted to stand out by using Adobe's After Effects.

This clip shows an experiment which we did using After Effects which didn't exactly go to plan. We were trying to put dirt and scratches on our footage so we decided to try to add grain to the layer. Unfortunately we had no success by adding grain so we instead decided to use fractual noise which is how we ended up with this footage. Although this clip did not come out how we wanted it to, we do believe that this a step in the right direction.

For this clip we attempted to create a sepia tint for our film. We found this effect quite difficult to do, we had to change the saturation, the opacity, the contrast and the colour correction. Despite this we are very happy with the sepia tint which we created in this clip. We think that it could be used in a clip that is related to the 60's ot maybe the 70's, we also thought that the effect we got looks quite similar to the effect that is used in the "Summer of Love" sequnce in Matthew Vaughn's "Layer Cake".

"The Falling Man" by Andrew Perry

We found this film while at an open day at Bucks New University. While looking at the Film and T.V. Production course at the university we were handed a Film showcase by one of the lecturers. When  we got home we watched all of the short films on the showcase to see what type of films they made at the university. We were pleasently surprised when we found this film as we think that it has quite a few similarities to our idea for our own film.
The film starts inside a woman's house. she seems to be moving out and her family are helpimg her to get some of her loft. Her grandson finds a diary and hands it to her. The diary turns out to belng to someone whom she once knew. the film then shows flashbacks from her past.
We thought that this narrative was very similar to our idea because it follows an eldery person who finds a diary of someone she once knew but has since died and because it shows flashbacks from different eras and it also uses the same props such as the record player.
Our film differs due to the fact that the film won't relate to an anecdote about a man who fell from the sky but instead it will focus more on the relationship between a widow and her late husband.