Research Dosier

     I have chosen to enter the wihoutabox film festival. withoutabox gives you the opportunity to look at multiple film festivals that take place all around the world and choose one that suits you and from there you can then choose a category to enter. I have chosen to enter my script for a withoutabox film festival in Norwich from 1st May to 8th May 2014 and there are multiple categories my screenplay would qualify for. The first is a short film, any film under 25 minutes but then there is also a Student film which is any film under 25 minutes but you must be a student whilst production took place so I would qualify for that. The last one and the category I will probably enter is the short screenplay and for this you must have a script that is 30 pages or under.

     The script I have chosen to analyse is the BBC Three series In The Flesh and this is the first page of the first episode which I have annotated so that I know how a professional script looks that way it will help me when I come to writing my own scripts.

     That's an analysis of a script and how it should look and be laid out however there is more to a script than just looking professional. An important part of script writing is character development giving the story some emotion and detail but what is a good example of character development? There is inner presence, outer presence and character development through the use of dialogue and each can be used in very different ways but each with their downsides.

     This particular script is from The Syndicate, series 2 episode 1 and this is a very good example of inner presence, for someone reading this it's incredibly descriptive and you really begin to get a good understanding of the character however this cannot be easily shown so it's at this point it's down to the actor to try and portrait this in the character as best they can. What I really like about this is you learn a lot about the character in just a few words, we learn what he was like and what he has become whilst giving us a basic understanding of how he got there.

     On the other hand this shows us what the character looks like but unlike inner presence outer presence can be more easily shown to an audience. The reason I like this example of outer presence is although you can show this to an audience there is also more behind it with the effect of stress there which is a useful effect of inner presence which combines the two together very well.

     This is a good use of dialogue as it shows many things. The first thing it shows is them looking for something quite desperately so it must be fairly important although your not actual told what it is there looking for keeping the audience interested and gets them hooked as they want to find out what they are looking for. Also the way they talk to each other shows some what of an uneasy relationship between the two enhanced by the fact that they're looking for this object. Finally when the phone rings the line "That'll be them again" shows that they have been expecting a phone call but perhaps not a good one in fact it sounds like they've been getting hassled by someone which again leaves the audience guessing and hooks their attention even more.

     Finally we've got a good use of scene direction and follows the rules of show don't tell very well. The way that Rose looks around to check that there's nobody looking first before taking the call seems very shifty and is well used to create some suspense in the plot as it gets the audience wondering what's going on, once again getting their attention but this time through the use of scene direction rather than dialogue. Also the ringtone suggest a lot about the character and what type of music she likes, it gives us a greater insight into her as a person and all of this is created without a single piece of dialogue which makes it even more intriguing.

           

     This short film is so beautifully done it's amazing. I think the reason I like this particular short film so much is because of the fact that there is hardly any dialogue within it. The fact that the girl can't talk creates new ways for them to talk to each other and because of that it's all descriptive and the story is told through what we see not what is heard however when the odd bit of dialogue does come in it provides some fantastic character development. I can only imagine what the script looked like, with pages and pages of description instead of being a little bit of description followed by loads of dialogue.  It provides a useful vision for me personally when writing my own script as it shows that a script doesn't have to have lots of dialogue to be interesting in fact quite the opposite, lots of description and telling the story that way can make a story much better and more in depth as opposed to relying on lots of dialogue.

         

     With this short film it shares some similar values to the last one, although it contains more dialogue most of it is included for comical use as there is a language barrier between the two main characters and that's why I like this short film so much. It tells the story of a man in an airport who cannot speak English and cannot go home, it's a simple story and we see the two characters work together to help each other and even become friends however most of this is developed through description and how the characters act. The only time the dialogue really does become an important part in the story is when a bit of back story begins to develop however other than that most of the dialogue used id for comical effect between the two characters who can't understand each other. Some of the best moments in this short come from scenes with no dialogue and that's why it's so good as it shows you and doesn't tell you however when the dialogue is used it pays off with good use of comedy or providing some unique character development.

     For my idea to fully work I would need to do some research, the first of which being research into my audience so in order to found out more about my audience I created a survey online which I then distrusted across the internet. My main target audience for the short film is teenage and young adult females, in my questionnaire I did however get slightly more males than females but they were all in my target age group. By achieving this I can look into if my intended age group will be interested in a Rom-Com short film and if there are not why they wouldn't be.

I found that the people I asked has a wide range of tastes and interests when it comes to film genres and although Romance wasn't a popular choice Comedy was. Everybody who did the survey selected Comedy as being one of there favorite genres so when writing the script I should keep this in mind and maybe include more comical elements as opposed to making it more strongly romance based. But a big question is if my target audience likes short films and if so what do they like about them?


     I found that most of my audience likes short films because of how short they are and how a narrative could be told within the space of a few minutes although someone did say they're too short they did still say they like them. Another person that they enjoyed the short that had not much dialogue but still contained a narrative which is the same reason as to why I liked the short film The Most Beautiful Thing so that would be something to keep in mind when writing my script.

     Although my audience enjoys watching short films the real challenge is weather they are willing to watch a short Rom-Com film. I was quite surprised at the responses I received because a lot of people said they enjoyed Rom-Com's and would watch a short Rom-Com film. Someone even said that it was there favorite genre but an interesting comment was "it can tell a few years in a few minutes". I like the idea of this and maybe I could somehow find a way to implement this idea into my own script.





















          Now that we have some audience research we can start to research into other areas such as theme, location, character and other existing media texts. However as mine is set in a college I wouldn't need to research it as I go to college and already now a lot about my location so I will be concentrating heavily on other media texts and how they might have influenced my script in terms of theme and character. There are several films that inspired me to write my script all of them from the Rom-Com genre and that's the reason I chose to write a Rom-Com because it's my favorite film however when I think about my script there's only one film I can think of that seems like it and the more I think about it the more I realize that this is the main film that inspired me to write a Rom-Com.

     When this question comes to mind the one answer I can only ever seem to find myself saying is Love Actually. I adore this film and looking through my own script I do feel that it has some parts to it that may even seem a little like Love Actually. The big one here I think is the characters, every character has their own unique charm to them and it's some of the minor characters that I love the most so when writing my own script I have tried to keep this in mind, no matter how big the part is a character is still a character and everybody is different. I also like the way that it's set in a very small environment with each other the characters coming together at the end so I kept that in mind as well trying to make my own setting very small as I feel this adds to the heart warming feel of the story and how you don't have to look far for love. A big interest to me is the simple fact that it's set in England. I feel that films set in the UK tend to have this unique and quirky charm as British films tend to do so that's why I chose to set my own script within the UK not only to support the British film industry but also to try and add some of that quirky charm into my own work.

     Although I do not have multiple story arcs of different characters in my short film I do feel the two have the potential to be very similar whilst still being completely different however it wasn't just this film that inspired me to make a Rom-Com. Two of my favorite films ever made are Rom-Com's and they are Silver Linings Playbook and About Time, although I really like Silver Linings I don't feel my script resembles this at all however I can associate it more with About Time which is another British Rom-Com by Richard Curtis. About Time really stands out to me because it's a simple love story about a young time traveler trying to find the perfect girl for him however unlike Love Actually it is really funny but it isn't as funny, it's still funny in places but it's more about the love story than the comedy and that's why I associate that with mine. My script has the potential to be funny in places but really it's about the love story more than the comedy.

     I feel the research process has been beneficial to me and has sparked some new ideas which I can take with me and write up into the new script. It really has helped me think about ultimately how I want the script to be and how I can make it like that whilst still being a good script and also entertaining my target audience so by taking this knowledge away with me I feel confident that I can go and improve my script to make it better.

Bibliography :
https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=7957
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/in-the-flesh-s1-ep1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/the-syndicate-s2-ep1
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LFRCFNH