Rough version of the story

Rough version of the story:

Title shows up

Scene opens in a room. A man is sitting on a sofa watching film (Labyrinth), being completely immersed into it. Everything is quiet. Except....Tick..Tock. A clock on the wall is ticking. He either catches the ticking, or the clack starts ringing (alarm). He looks at the time and registers that he is late to work. He quickly gets up, leaving in a hurry. The sound of the clock ticking seazes, we can hear the door shutting. Otherwise everything is quiet. We see him get his headphones out and onto his head. The muffled sound of David Bowie’s music starts playing (Only mashed bits). Alternative is, that the man starts humming and quietly singing the songs. The narration starts here.

He walks down the streets, not interrested in anything. In this sequence the city is shown, the tall buildings, people and traffic never seazing it’s beat.

He gets to work and starts his day. Timelapse.

He is leaving work, again with the headphones on. He goes through the city, when he realizes it has stopped raining. He takes off his hood/hat and looks up. There he sees a big screen showing the news ‚David Bowie is dead‘. What follows is a burst of sound, people talking, laughing, dogs barking, cars honking, clock beating, ambulance horn. The same with vision, we can see snippets of the news, headlines, interviews. After it gets the loudest, everything suddenly stops. Narration ended.

Alternative: He takes the headphones off, and all the normal sound comes in, laughing, talking, etc. And then he notices the news. Everythingslows down, the sound of his surroundings quietens, but the news get highlighted in his mind.

It starts raining again and the man starts slowly walking home. The only sound here is the rain. The man is crying. He gets home, sits down and plays the movie again. The camera will then slowly back away and tilt to the dark sky.

Alternative: The film the man was watching in the morning was on tape and when he returned, the tape was broken.

Alternative 2: The end scene could end with the rain sound and the sound of the wall clock ticking.

End Credits.

All through the film, New York merchandise will be seen, to underline the poems roots in New York and at the same time show the place of death of David Bowie. 

Storyboard

Storyboard

Carrying on from the shooting schedule, this clear and detailed storyboard shows the final scenes of the film. There will be more shots than 19, but I chose these 6 shots to represent the full ending idea of our short film.

As well as images and shot details, this storyboard also includes details on audio that the viewer will hear. In this assignment, sound is very important, because we are not allowed to use one music track and we must keep dialogue at a minimum. We still intend to use a lot of sound in our piece. We will do this by creating a melody and a beat similar to David Bowies songs to resemble his music by using various sound effects, such as, tapping the floor or beating a desk. We also intend on using other lifelike sound effects to convey a natural environment e.g. Car horns, birds tweeting and clocks ticking.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

This shooting schedule shows when we will be filming and what equipment we will need each day. It states the location to film in and what the idea for the shot is. This piece of pre-production assist us greatly whilst filming, because we know what we want to achieve so hopefully there is no messing around.

New York at night - ideas

New York at night:

Ideas:

·         Darker, showing the worst parts of city, yet with a sense of belonging (this city is the worst, but it is my city)

·         Actor could be only one, with no words, discovering the corners of Cardiff and being lethargic, sad, and deep in thought.

·         Nature leaves the city, rejects man

·         A siluette of a man/woman is the city showing us it’s heart (city centre)

Shots:

·         Camera shots of driving

·         Center of Cardiff – spinning motion?

·         Ideal would be in black and white, with the actor/thing in focus in colour (not sure how to do that in a video)

·         Shots on Cardiff Clock tower – showing the time still moving forward

Sound:

·         Sirens of Ambulance

·         Clock ticking/whole hour

·         Heart beating [?]

·         A sharp sound of a piano key at the end (nature rejects man), showing the city, dramatical effect

Verse	Ideas
A near horizon whose sharp jags Cut brutally into a sky	Sunrise, reflection of a skyscraper (or a really tall building) in a puddle of water, Opening shot overlooking Cardiff, instead of birds chirping the sound of planes
Of leaden heaviness, and crags Of houses lift their masonry	Smoke, chimneys, A factory, a pile of bricks, abandoned houses/depressive houses that are the same, pressed into each other,
Ugly and foul, and chimneys lie And snort, outlined against the gray	Fogs, steams, bad climate/air, chimneys again (?), trash, shot up into the greyness of the sky in contrast to the tall city buildings
Of lowhung cloud. I hear the sigh The goaded city gives, not day	The steam going up, into the sky. Tilting camera to underline the point. Slowly going into night. Actor could appear.
Nor night can ease her heart, her anguished labours stay.	She is in the city. Show of breathing. Shots from car, showing the traffic, train (?), Actor can appear.

Verse	Ideas
Below, straight streets, monotonous, From north and south, from east and west,	Crossroad, showing all possible directions (N,S,W,E), shots in neigh borough area,  showing the same streets in different directions
Stretch glittering; and luminous Above, one tower tops the rest	Definitely dark now. Showing the light of the city. Could be not focused. Could show it focusing. Actor’s siluette overlooking the lights.
And holds aloft man's constant quest: Time! Joyless emblem of the greed	The siluette of the man in front of the clock tower. Between this and the previous verse could be a pause in narrating. Showing the siluette to be walking. In front of the clock camera tilting upwards. The sound of full hour (?)
And holds aloft man's constant quest: Time! Joyless emblem of the greed	The sound of full hour (?), Showing the building of museum, city hall (showing greed)
Of millions, robber of the best Which earth can give, the vulgar creed	No idea. Maybe showing shops and shoppers? The siluette still there.  Probably will need something more climactic
Has seared upon the night its flaming ruthless screed.	Unfocused street lamp(?), electronical advert

Verse	Ideas
O Night! Whose soothing presence brings The quiet shining of the stars.	Tilting camera upwards, to see the stars (if possible) with some tall building in the shot, no sound
O Night! Whose cloak of darkness clings So intimately close that scars	Cardiff bay, showing dark with lights in the background, siluette still here, hugging itself, piano sound (?)
Are hid from our own eyes. Beggars By day, our wealth is having night	Birds, fish, any animal, barks/pleas in the background, (some shot of blindfolded eyes?), close up of a hand touching the ground/pillar (?)
To burn our souls before altars Dim and tree-shadowed, where the light	Shot of Church, best if it’s illuminated. Shadows of trees before the church. Sound ob bells ringing (?)
Is shed from a young moon, mysteriously bright.	Clock shot, Moon shot, Something round that shines, blackness around

Verse	Ideas
Where art thou hiding, where thy peace? This is the hour, but thou art not.	Looking at crowds from a distance, if sound then muted, bells ringing
Will waking tumult never cease? Hast thou thy votary forgot?	Still looking at crowds, maybe rotation of camera to make a point
Nature forsakes this man-begot And festering wilderness, and now	Some dead trees, plants, indicates nature leaving, show the factory instead
The long still hours are here, no jot Of dear communing do I know;	Last shots overlooking the city, still with the silluette overlooking it.
Instead the glaring, man-filled city groans below!	Break of vision (like shards of mirrors breaking apart), the sound of the piano key screeching

New York at night - inspiration

Here are several things I thought to be inspiring to use in shooting. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsec4hWZz2M – a video from a car showing New York at night

Bays in New York – showing the possibility for us to use water shots.

A shot from above showing the whole city – while doing the same in Cardiff would not have the same effect as in NY, it could still create good atmosphere.

A foggy night at NY – a good idea to use. If Cardiff gets any fog it could be usable. Otherwise, we could improvise and use a steam from a cup to create a fog for the shot.

Cardiff Clock Tower – a good clock we could film and then catch sound from.

A man/woman overlooking the city. The idea is that the person IS the city, looking at the people.

Schedule

Schedule

Here is a schedule I made as the director to roughly follow to guide us smoothly through the completion of our project.

I have decided that the aim for the first week will be to secure a poem, idea and sort all the pre-production out ready to film in the next week.

The second week we will be filming and editing as we go in a minimum of two locations. Aspects of this schedule could change.

The final week will to review all our work, make sure the edit is complete to a high standard and quality that we all intend to achieve, and the post-productions and evaluations are completed on the blog ready to present our final pieces on the last Friday.

Shauna Richards