UNIT 9 PROPOSAL

In Unit 9: Characteristics and context of creative media production, I have been assigned the
task of researching the codes and conventions of my chosen specialism, as well as
documenting, filming and editing three short films with direct emphasis on said chosen
specialism. In second year, each creative media production student is tasked with selecting
a specialism to continue with for the rest of the year, and eventually be graded upon in the
Final Major Project (FMP). I have selected cinematography, which means that for this unit I
will be marked on the art of photography and camerawork in film-making. Each film must last
a minimum of two minutes, whilst not exceeding the maximum of four minutes. The three
films need to each be a different genre, but have to be based on the same suggested
scenario.
The suggested scenario for each film is Someone walks into a room and opens a box,
which has to apply for three different genres. The genres that I have decided on are drama,
comedy and thriller. All of them are quite different, however there are a lot of similarities
between the codes and conventions for all three.
The three films will each loosely follow the suggested scenario in their own way. The thriller
is the closest representation of the suggestion, with it being entirely focused on the contents
of the box. It focuses more on the deadly and perhaps fatal contents that could kill the man
who opens it. The drama film follows a similar path, with the box not really playing much of a
role but rather the poem that is found inside. The final production, the comedy, is based on
the box of gum, however the box is quite important for that short film.

As I am going to be working by myself, I need to complete the following for each production:

Script Equipment list

Story board Crew list
Test shots Contingency plan
Props list Clearances
Location recces for all locations Permissions
Call sheet

In order for me to complete this task to the best of my ability, I have been researching into
the codes and conventions of cinematography within the genres of drama, comedy and
thriller. To prove these techniques exist in film, I analysed a film for each genre to show the
application of codes and conventions in productions. Each film had ten screenshots of
cinematic moments, with detailed and structured analysis beside them.
 DONT SWALLOW

This is the first film that I am going to be creating, starting production on the 19th of
November and ending on the 24th November. The project that I am creating is a thriller style
sequence, which is loosely based on two productions that I watched approximately a year
and a half ago.
The first production that influenced DONT SWALLOW was the award-winning television
show Sherlock, which is available on BBC and on Netflix. In the pilot episode, A Study in
Pink, Sherlock Holmes and his recently appointed friend/associate John Watson solve a
case where the victims are given a choice between two pills, each looking identical. This is a
common idea for thriller style productions, and has been recreated hundreds of times. The
second production that influenced DONT SWALLOW was a short film I watched about a
year ago called The Vial. Another thriller based project, it focused on the vial and someone
taking it, with brilliant cinematics. I wanted to replicate these ideas, with my own spin for
DONT SWALLOW.
The film is approximately three minutes long, and is a mix between a young man (played by
brothers Elliott and James Plumridge) discovering a box and some found footage of the
same man narrating what not to do if the audience were to find the box. Inside the box, as
the audience discovers, is a USB and two identical pills. On the USB, there is not that says
that the young man must take one of the two pills. It becomes apparent at the end of the film
that no one has ever survived the pills, except himself.
One of the things that I am very dedicated to is the lighting on set of this production. Over
the past year, lighting and colour correction has been something that I have not put as much
emphasis on with my films and I would like this year for that outlook to change. For the
scenes of found footage I am going to overlay a red hue, whilst on the actual footage I am
going to make it darker, to emphasis the low-key lighting.
 ILL CRAWL HOME

The second production that I am going to make is a drama-based assignment, which will
follow a rather different path than the dramas I have been looking at. I have always found
drama to be my least favourite genre in film/television, as it if often too broad that almost
anything and everything can be assigned as a drama. To counter this, I have gone along the
route of b rolling a short poem that I found online. I was inspired to create this short film from
a production I watched last year during the Final Major Project (FMP) stage of Year 1. It was
called An Idiosyncratic Peach and was created for a Final Major Project the previous year by
another student from a different college. It followed a narration about a suicidal girl named
Peach, and although I believe the student categorised it as an indie production, many of the
aspects involved made it sit comfortably within the genre of drama too.
The film is based upon the poem Ill Crawl Home, which was written and posted
anonymously online sometime within the last three years. It is brilliantly written, and I have
had it saved on my phone for a couple of months now. The poem goes as follows:

ILL CRAWL HOME
you love a girl made of stardust
constellations splayed across bare skin
and with a supernova at her fingertips
she is the stuff of dreams
a shooting star that burns too bright
her wings are tattered and jagged
feathers frayed with years of neglect
you start to wonder if she will ever see herself
as you do
you love a nebula waiting to explode
to become a star
a girl waiting to soar
a phoenix waiting to rise
you love a girl rooted in the earth
made of iron and steel and healing
you love a girl with ghosts in her eyes
with a lions mane matted with blood and dirt
you love a girl so broke with guilt
that she scrubs her hands clean with blood that isnt
there
you love a girl with shoulders heavy with a burden
way beyond her years
you kiss the scars anyway
she appreciates the offer and you cling to one
another
in the hopes that her spirit stays with you both yet
you love in a time of chaos and war
you love in a time of uncertainty
you love in a time of children marching in boots
fashioned for soldiers ages apart
you love in a time of casualty counts like
competition
one on top of the other
you love in a time that does not give you the luxury
you love you love you love
stars cross, uncross, then cross again.

Over the top of the narration will be the video images of everything that is said on screen.
For example, when the line with a supernova at her fingertips is said, there will be a five
second shot of the close-ups of a young womans hands, fiddling with the bottom of her
sweater. Another example of the effective use of b-roll is the shot for the line you love a girl
rooted in the earth at which point she is playing in the dirt, hands caked in mud and a
childish grin plastered over her face.
In order to get the best sound for the narration, I am going to be booking out the new Radio
Station studio so that the quality is better than it would be if I recorded the voiceover on my
phone. However, I will be using a voiceover made on my phone to outline how long each of
the clips needs to be, so it may appear on the first draft as a little tacky.
 STICKY SITUATION

The final film that I will be creating for Unit 9: Characteristics and context in creative media
production will be a comedy, which I know and fully understand will be the most difficult
production to make. Whilst the cinematography of the project might not be as challenging,
making the comedy actually funny could be tricky as everyone has their own idea of what is
considered humorous. For example, what I might find funny someone else might find boring.
I was inspired to create this production by another comedy short that I found on YouTube,
called The Stapler. Created by a full team of cast/crew, the two-minute long film captures
everything that I want my comedy to highlight. Moments that should not be funny, but due to
cinematography and editing, become laughable.
The narrative behind this short film is a fight that breaks out between two fellow classmates
after hours. Both students (most likely one male and one female, however the details have
not been finalised) are staying behind after class to complete some coursework. They are
the only two people left in the classroom. There is a packet of gum left on one of the desks,
with a simple note attached that states the students to help themselves. Simultaneously, the
students rise to collect some gum, only to discover that there is only one piece left. The two
students then comically fight each other over the remaining piece of gum, with slapstick
punches and comical Nerf war action. The two students engage in a fight lunging back and
forth, climbing onto desks, knocking the gum out of hands. Finally, one of the opponents
concedes and the other starts to chew the gum victoriously. However, they start to choke,
and the other student smirks before the screen goes black.