Brief and Lecture (24/02/2015)

ASSESSMENT 1

SHORT FILM PACK

We received our first assessment brief today and a master class about story telling. We learned that there are other ways of brainstorming and getting ideas. He also went through the structure a story should have (beginning, middle and end).
After the lecture I tried out writing down 10 nouns that are important to me, what some of them have in common and why they are important to me. I was able to associate a few of them, and come up with a couple of ideas. I found this method really interesting and made me think a lot. It made me realize things that I hadn't thought of before. (Idea 1)
I also tried mixing two genre movies together to get more ideas. I didn't find this method very helpful, because I found the movies I chose to be too different from one another. I then tried out normal brainstorming, writing down what short movies I like (Feast!) and why I liked them. I found that "feast" is simple, and easy to sympathize with. I tried thinking of more simple stories ( Idea 4 and 5).
I also did some character sketches, figuring out what kind of mood or atmosphere I like.
I found that most of the themes I'm interested in are: love, human condition, slice of life, I kept most of my ideas grounded so the audience can relate easier.
I asked many students in my class for feedback, and was able to get more inspiration for my story.
I am still thinking about what I can add to the stories or what direction I want the story to go into.

1.) A man is in the train to get to work. He is the only person in color while the rest are colorless. The train stops and he is the only one to go out. He gets to work and looks around and notices that everyone else is grey too. He looks at his own hand and sees he has been losing his color and has only little color left. Determined, he leaves the office and walks into the forest. As he looks around he sees life full in color which makes him regain his own color back.
This story idea is based upon my 10 nouns that I chose. When I was in Japan, it scared me how rough everyone treated each other. People were jammed into the trains (I could hardly move!) and everyone works almost everyday. I feel that the world has become superficial and people lose track of what is really important. The character felt like he was a robot (working everyday on repeat) in a city full of people and wanted to feel alive again by being surrounded by nature.
I'm not too sure if it is too simple as I think it might not be clear why he is losing color at the start, and I 'm not too sure if the ending works or not because I feel I can think of a better resolution.

2.) A man bumps into a woman while having his face down, looking at his phone. (Everyone is grey) He apologizes and looks up while the woman mumbles as she continues to look at her phone and walk away. He starts to look around and notice the beauty surrounding him, the city has color (New York), and there is life all around him. He looks down  and notices that he is in color too. He becomes happy but sad when he notices that everyone else is colorless and can't notice the beauty. He bumps into them on purpose to make them look up and notice the beauty too. 
Every time I go to a restaurant, or to the park, I notice that groups of friends are just on their phones and don't interact with each other. I think sometimes if you don't stop and look around, you miss out. The character realizes he as missed out and makes everyone else aware of their surroundings. Not too sure if the ending works or not because it is quite open. Not too sure if the setting works, either city or park. Not too sure if I want to add an environmental message (which is also important to me) since I already have a main message in the story.

3.) A lightning hits the ground and fire is born. The fire morphs into a boy. He looks down at his hands, astonished. He notices a rose and walks towards it. He touches the rose and it turns into flames. Shocked, the boy stumbles backwards and notices the grass catching fire underneath him. As he stumbles back he bumps into a tree. He quickly moves away from it, but it's too late. The tree is on fire. Suddenly a cloud builds up over the tree and rain falls, extinguishing the flames. The water morphs into a girl. The girls walks past the boy, towards the rose which is still in flames. She holds out her hand. The boy looks scared for the flower. But water drops from her hand and she puts out the flames. She gets up and walks towards the boy. The girl holds out her hand for him. He hesitates but touches her hand. His hand turns into ash and falls to the ground. The boy is shocked and looks down at his hands, having only one left. The girl points towards the ash on the ground, which has morphed into the shape of his hand. He can move it and he is so overwhelmed that he hugs her. She is surprised but hugs him back. The boy turns into ash. The girl sees the ash on the ground and looks down at her hands. Suddenly two hands grab hers, and as she looks up she sees that the fire boy, has morphed into ash boy.
I have had this idea since last year, and used it to practice story boarding. I like this story because it is in a way about new beginnings and how we change ourselves for people we care about. I like the idea of using the natural elements and combing them to create something new. I wanted to use metaphor so I chose fire to represent an aggressive character (who is scared of what he can do to others) and water to represent a healing/nurturing character, having them as elements also helps represent how change can be positive. The style for the story would probably be quite simple. (gravity falls, over the garden wall). I feel like the audience can relate even if they don't understand it right away.

4.) A student is at Life drawing and the girl he has a crush on sits opposite him. He keeps looking at her, and starts to draw her instead of the life model. The tutor instructs everyone to turn their drawing boards around to show the class their work. The boy blushes immediately but when he sees the girl turn her drawing around, he sees that she was drawing him the whole time. 
I know that for this one, you could make the boy and girl art students at a library, drawing each other and it would be the same story. But what I like about the life drawing class is that they both are more interested in each other rather than in anyone else, and that they are forced to show their boards to the whole class (including each other). I know life drawing isn't the most interesting setting, but I thought if you have the two characters make it interesting it could maybe work. I feel like it would be easy for the audience to relate to.

5.) A girl goes to class/work and as the day progresses her life's battery, health bar, hearts (like in a video game) runs low. She gets home and hugs her family/boyfriend and recharges. Throughout the day she could drop her sandwich (lose health), get a bad grade (lose health), gets a compliment (health increases), bumps her head (loses health) etc.
I like this idea because I think a lot of people can relate. We all have those days where everything goes wrong, and having a hug from a family member or friends just helps. I got this idea because every time when I go visit my family I feel like I get energy again, like filling up your car so it can run again. I am not too sure if the hug at the end works or if she should talk with them and recharge then. I also need to think more about what happens to her throughout the day, if she spills her coffee or what things make her health go low or high.

I think I learned a lot about forming ideas and coming up with stories in different ways. I liked helping others with their stories and finding out things I can improve on my ideas/stories. I think it was great how everyone helped each other and I liked the group activities the most. It was good to hear what others think and what stories they came up with. I found it challenging to come up with lots of different ideas in one day/limited amount of time. I also found it challenging to make the stories short, to say a lot in a limited amount of time. I want to improve on exploring completely different ideas to have a wider range.