Character Profiles

Terry Boateng

Similarities to...

Aml Ameen (who plays Trife in Kidulthood)

Myrin HallSimilarities to...

Noel Clarke (who plays Sam in Kidulthood & Adulthood)

Storyboard

A very rough sketch which helped us visualise our opening sequence in order for us to create our finished product. This was a method of planning which we found very effective, when it came to doing our dialogue, shooting our various camera angles, etc.

Treatment

For our film opening we wanted to incorporate the things that teenagers come into contact with whether it is from seen on the news or in real life.
• Drugs
• Addiction
• Weapons
• Gangs
• Theme of escapism
• Street wars
• Low class lifestyle
• Street reputation.
We wanted our title to represent the film and what the film is about. After we had done so editing we started to come up with titles. Each of us would pick their own name and we would see who’s was the best.
The titles that where suggested:
• Estate of Mind
• Here today gone tomorrow
• The better life
• Eyes of a teenagers

The title that we decided that we was going to use as Estate of Mind because the film is based on a estate and to survive on the estate you need to have your mind focused to make sure that you are not killed.

We then came up it a statement for our film opening; An Estate is not only a low class building it is a state of mind... Estate of mind.

The film follows the lives of two young south London teenagers trying to find a way to escape their lifestyle but is really leading themselves to their death. Josephine is a 17 year old mum who struggles to control being a mum, a student and a broke drug addict. As she tries to quit the addiction she finds herself get more addicted which makes her lose everything she has. She is wanted by her abusive ex boyfriend, who is her drug dealer because he wants his money. Terry is also 17 years old trying to make something of his life but finds himself confined to selling drugs on an estate but there are other dealers who want to see him dead so he starts to carry weapons. When he gets to a dead end he realizes that “Bad boys don’t have to stay bad forever” and changes his life proving society wrong that teenagers can change.

Josephine and Terry fall in love. Terry tries to get Josephine out of the trouble she is in and get her child back but this just makes Josephine ex boyfriend, Terry’s enemy mad. Terry gets killed and Josephine escapes. Our opening has a mixture of scenes and a smoky effect where the titles of the film appear. We did this to create suspense to see what is going to happen. It starts with an establishing shot of London to show that it is set in London. Then cuts to a drug scene with a few teenagers taking drugs. After that Terry is seen walking into the estate that he sells drugs but then is robbed and threatened.

In our opening you cannot tell the narrative as we wanted to make it attract the audience to carry on watching the film to find out what happens at the end. We do indicate who the main characters are.

Our target audience is both male and female teenagers from different backgrounds, because every teenager knows about the drug dealers, gangs, weapons and killings whether it is from seen on the news or in real life. The film includes everything that is happening in real life from selling drugs on an estate to robbing teenagers on the streets for no reason. Every teenager knows about what goes on, on the streets that they live on especially if they live in London.

This is how the opening is going to go;
We had the production logo followed by the ‘Solomon pictures’ with the soundtrack beginning. After we have the establishing shot followed by a title. Then we have a bird’s eye view of Me walking followed by a title. Next we have a close up of vodka bottle pouring drinks but the drink gets less than more followed by a title. Then we have a long shot of Me being followed by Myrin who is a drug dealer who wants to see me dead, then a title. After we have a close up on the vodka bottle to show that the teenagers are drinks alcohol, then a title. After we have an extreme close up of Josephine’s lips as she smokes followed by a title. Then we have the confrontation of me and Myrin, followed by a title. Next we have a dancing scene that has an effect to show that they are drunk followed by a title. After a cocaine scene followed by a title. Then a scene of me putting the drugs into a locker followed by a title. Then a spilt scene with all three main characters and a voice over followed by the main title of the film.

Rough Cut Feedback

Estate Of Mind Rough Cut from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

On Thursday 18th March 2010 we showed our opening to our class mates.

This is the feedback we got:
• interesting and good
• attracts audiences
• excellent soundtrack, it goes with the timing of the titles
• titles look professional
• good effect on the dancing adds to the drunk effect
• the "wasn't always like this" needs to be recorded again
• some scenes are too dark and needs to be re-shot
• cannot tell the narrative
• make the main title last longer
• make drugs last longer
we will be taking this feedback and using it to improve our opening.
Improvements we are making:
• taking out the wasn't always like this or re-doing it
• re-shooting today the dark scenes
• adding extra shots to the drug scene to make it longer
• making the titles last longer
we wanted to make the audience not know the narrative so that they can try to just what is going to happen in the film and so that they can try to link the characters together. we mainly wanted the audience not to know the narrative so that they would be attracted and interested to find out what happens in the film.

Soundtrack Creation

The programme Cubase was used to create the soundtrack for our opening sequence, the aim of our soundtrack was to create a piece of music which our target audience would be likely to listen to, we opted for the Grime/Hip-Hop approach, which would help us connect to our target audience at the very beginning of our opening sequence and grab their attention, which would make them want to watch more of our opening sequence, thriving on the mentality of our target audience as if they like the music then they are more likely to give our filming a chance as they may feel the connection between the music and the theme of our short film. Orchestral sounds used in this piece of music to build the atmosphere, create tension and include a more sinister feel into our opening sequence.

Estate Of Mind Soundtrackbyduaneamarquaye

Modboard

To create my mood board I selected images from Goggle which I believed would represent our short films theme and storyline the best, using images of people smoking and drinking, the use of drugs, guns and knives, which usually results in one thing, death, represented by the rose.

These images express all the emotions of our short film and shows the main challenges which face the youth of today, and the decisions they have to make every single day of their life.

Influences

Kidulthood

Kidulthood was a major influence on our short film, there are very few successful films which fitted into our genre and theme, our film was based on drugs and violence and so was Kidlulthood, this film inspired us to create a short film which also gave a representation of youths in today's society, it is fair to say that most films of this particular genre represent young people in a negative way, we were out to do the complete opposite, yes we did portray youths at the start in a way which could be deemed negative, however, in the end we turned the story around completely and sent out a positive message the the viewers of this film.

Here is a list of some other films which influenced us in a similar way:

Adulthood

Bullet Boy

Shank

1 Day

Synopsis

Estate Of Mind

Josephine is a 17 year old mother juggling motherhood and education she is caught up in an excessive drug addiction which she is finding harder and harder to put to an end, she is breaking down and finding life harder and harder to live as the days roll by, will Josephine find the right state of mind, overcome her addiction and become a loving mother to her child?, or will she crumble back into her Estate of mind.

Terry is a young man growing up in the dangerous streets of South London where drug usage and Gun & Knife violence is at its peak. his life is based around both of these and he is trapped in a cycle which he feels he is unable to get out of, until one day when his true love helps him to realise that their is more to life than that of gang culture and crime, from then on Terry tries his best to break away from this chain, which he once called 'unbreakable'. Terry is on a personal mission to find happiness with his new found companion, but will he succeed?

In a place where the right state of mind is only a dream but where the Estate of mind is a reality.

The title 'Estate of Mind' signifies a stereotype of the typical groups or individuals which live there. Having the right state of mind means breaking away from the stereotype (Estate of Mind) and finding your inner potential which we should all be allowed to release in order to achieve.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

AS preliminary task from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Terry, Josephine, Dwayne, Myrin

For our preliminary task we had to direct a short scene of an individual opening a door, walking across a room and sitting down to have a conversation. In this scene we had to include 3 different camera shots, a shot reverse shot, match on action, and also follow the 180 degree rule.

Planning & Research

Before we even were allowed to set our eyes on a camera, we had to conduct all of our planning and research. For this we looked at previous AS preliminary tasks posted on the internet (YouTube), we discussed our views of the various videos we watched and compared them to one another, this was a hard process because it was such a short task and the videos lasted for about 00.30 seconds each, so it was almost impossible to notice any sort of variation which we could comment on, however, this was a good task which would develop our understanding of the different camera shots and looking at what other groups may have not included or if they had included anything extra in their preliminary task, which was not needed so that we would learn from their mistakes and not waste time on including certain camera shots/camera angles which are unnecessary and that wouldn’t gain us any extra marks.

We formed our groups and started to brainstorm, thinking of suggestions or ideas for our own preliminary task. This didn’t take us long as many people had chosen to work in the same groups they had decided to work with on previous/future tasks, which is a good idea when getting the work done more quickly, as you don’t have to spend time on breaking barriers or introducing yourself to people you don’t know or haven’t worked with in the past.

We researched into the different editing techniques, we tried to gain full understanding of the editing techniques described to us, however, there were many occasions where we didn’t understand what a description meant, and this lead to s having to watch clips of editing techniques on the internet, this was a better way of learning as you could be given a definition/description of an editing technique, and also be given an example if you didn’t understand the description which would enable you to understand it better.

Pre-Production Planning

After conducting our planning and research we started developing our storyboards, this was quite a stressful process as we had to figure out what our storyline was actually going to be and also our location. When we had worked that out we used two sheets of A4 paper to draw up our storyboard, this would consist of the dialogue and actions used in the scene and the camera shots used. We planned thoroughly what we would include in our production we wanted to express our skills fully, and this was hard because we had a larger group we all wanted to have a say in what our production would include forgetting that this only a preliminary task.

Production Process

We decided to be a little bit different from the rest of the groups in our class and opted to film our preliminary task outside. We asked for permission to film in a local café just down the road from our school, the location we chose perfectly fitted the storyline/plot and made our production look more professional and showed our creativity as we thought outside the box.

We used various editing techniques in our preliminary task such as dissolve and jump cuts, etc. We tried not to include too many as it was unnecessary and wasn’t part of the criteria to pass the task.

Evaluation

What Went Well?

· Making sure we had included every camera shot we needed to include.

· Finding a unique location

· Creating a convincing storyboard

· Research on other examples of AS preliminary tasks

· Teamwork

Things to Improve?

· Focus in lessons

· Staying on task

· Carrying out even more research

I believe that our preliminary task successfully achieved the criteria.

Smart Targets

Specific - We will need to be able to film a specific range of camera shots/angles in order to meet the requirements of our brief.

Measurable - We should be able to keep track of our progress and help ourselves by coming up with ideas of our own which we think would help improve our film.

Achievable - We will set aims which we know we will have enough time and the right equipment or knowledge to complete.

Realistic - We will not set aims which we think will require too much from us, so we can eliminate the risk of not reaching the aims we set for ourselves initially

Timely - We will set ourselves a deadline which we feel will give us enough time to fit all of which we have planned to complete.