NEA Short film planning and notes

 

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• Characters fight on a skateboard?
• Action / comedy
• Teenagers - stunts - British looking buildings - juxtaposition between teenage activities with old buildings. 
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Ideas for short film

1. A young man inherits a scarf from his dad shortly after his passing, however it gets stolen by a biker gang, and he must fight them to get the scarf back. This is easier said than done when he realizes that the scarf is actually a powerful weapon that the biker gang will use on him.

2: a group of kids tell a chatgpt-like ai to destroy the world just to see what would happen. The ai's attempts are pathetic at first, they send out a tweet asking for reliable ways to gain access to artillery for free which gets no responses. However over the course of a few weeks, the threat of the ai takeover becomes more and more prominent as the chatgbt thing starts to get close to achieving its goal.

3: A courtroom drama about Santa deciding who goes on the naughty or nice list. 

(notes)

I’ve decided to settle on my first idea, the scarf film, for my film idea, it might change due to difficulty of shooting action, but I will research how to do action on a low budget before filming and I will try to make the action simple enough to be possible to shoot and safe. 

I'm interested in filming the other ideas for fun, maybe upload them to YouTube. The Santa one is interesting, but would require well written dialogue and jokes which I'm not confident on yet. 

My friends who I sit with in class have ideas for serious and emotional short films, like Slap and Echo, while I want my short film to stand out above the rest of the class, who I’m assuming are mostly making serious films as well, so I want to make a film more similar to Fly, and go for a more fun and light hearted direction.

I’m going for an Everything Everywhere All At Once tone for my film, as even though it’s a fun action film, there’s still an element of heart and emotion behind the absurd story. The idea of fighting a biker gang to retrieve a scarf is a silly idea, but I want the scarf to be personally important to the protagonist and his family, and I think it’s a good idea to make the audience sympathise for the protagonist trying to get his scarf back, even though he’s doing silly and over the top things to get it back. 

This isn’t the first time I’ve written a short film script, and usually when I write a script, especially when it has a time limit (in this case it's around 5 minutes) I always like to write scenes with music in mind to keep the length of the film under control. I take inspiration from Edgar Wright when I write a script, as he always includes the lyrics to songs in his action scenes as if they’re dialogue from characters. For example, Freddie Mercury is treated like a character with dialogue when a queen song plays, and his lines are lyrics from the song. I do a similar thing, as it helps me piece together how long the scene is.

This film is split into 3 acts. The film needs to be around 4-5 minutes.

Conversation with the Mother to the Mark's scarf getting stolen should be 1 minute or under.

Chase scene should be around 2 minutes,

Final fight to bus ending should be around 1-2 minutes.

Scarf Swing - Short Film by Alfie Hudson

Act 1 

The protagonist, Mark, has a realistic and heartfelt conversation with his mother, they vaguely reference Mark's deceased father. Mark's mother lends him his father's scarf, not only is it worth a fortune, but it's very personally important to the father. She says "whatever happens, do not get it dirty, and don't lose it!" Mark catches a train to school. On his way there, there is a POV shot of binoculars. This is from the perspective of Shane, Mark's arch nemesis. Shane gets on his bike with his biker gang, surrounds Mark, steals the scarf, and they bike away. Mark is shocked. 

Act 2

As Shane and his gang bike away, Mark steals someone's skateboard. There is a chase scene, Mark catches up to the biker gang. There is dialogue between Mark and Shane about how important the scarf is, and how much the scarf is worth. Shane is careless with the scarf, it gets dirty and damaged. The gang uses scarfs to fight, Mark uses an umbrella from his bag. 

Act 3

Shane uses the scarf as a weapon against Mark, while mark uses an umbrella among various other objects from his bag. Shane, after defeating Mark, accidently drops the damaged scarf into a puddle. Flashback to "don't get it dirty!" Mark is now determined and defeats Shane.

Alex says he will lie in a river like that guy in the other student short film if asked :)

CAST 

Mark - Alex

Shane - Antonio

Biker gang - Ava, Celia, me

Mother: ???

Still need to find an actress for the Mother character (maybe one of my friends can dress to look older, and maybe the father in the picture can just be Alex with a fake moustache and a suit and tie?)

Visual aesthetic 

Film takes place during winter day. Characters will wear coats and scarfs. 

Protagonist will wear mostly blue clothes, blue coat, antagonists will wear red. Main scarf will be red. 

I need to find a way to attach the camera to the bike in a way where the camera. A mouldable tripod might work.

I ordered a Flexible Gorilla pod which I can use to film bikes. I can attach it to helmets and handles. 

The shots on bikes can be shot slowly, and I can speed the footage up in post production. 

Protagonist - Mark

Antagonists - Shane and Bike gang

Location Reece

line  

SOUNDTRACK

(Parts of the shortlist are lyrics for the song that’s playing in the scene. They will be highlighted)

Songs I want to use:

Last Train to London (audio)                                                          INTRO / GETTING READY SCENE

Legend of Xanbu                                                                                                           OPENING TITLE

Mushroom Hunting (seatbelts)                                                                                             BIKE CHASE

1 (instrumental) - MOB CHOIR                                                                                   MARK VS SHANE

More Than One Heart (Instrumental) - movie                                                                   END CREDITS

Act 1 Shot list

• 4 Shots of Mark's neighbourhood (Last train to London is playing)
• Opening shot - House - we hear an alarm clock
•  shot of bed - (Violins playing) Mark turns alarm clock off and energetically gets out of bed
• Shots of Mark getting ready for school, puts things in his bag, puts his coat and hat on etc
• Shot of toaster popping out of toaster 
• Shot of Mark spreading butter 
• Low angle shot of Mark turning around holding his plate, looking down about to eat his toast - hint of sadness, he puts his toast down (Song is quiet, but still in the background)
• High angle shot of Mark's father, his father is wearing a red scarf
• From behind Mark, high angle shot of Mark's mother tapping his shoulder
• "Have you got your gloves?" (Open to rewriting script later, I’m not too confident with writing dialogue yet)
• "Oh, yeah, yeah." from in front of the camera, we see the mother holding up the gloves
• From behind Mark, the mother is holding his gloves with a disapproving expression, she mockingly says "Yeah yeah, your not."
• Shot on Mark, he puts the gloves on. The mother says "You're the one getting the cold, not me" We hear her walking away.
• Mark looks to the picture again, the mother stops, turns around, then looks as well. We see Mark in shot out of focus 
• Same shot of the picture
• Same shot before the picture shot with Mark out of focus. The mother sighs.  
• "Come on, follow me." Two shot - The mother takes Mark by the hood and drags him off screen. Mark tries to pick up his toast, but the plate gets knocked on the floor.
• Shot from inside cupboard. The Mother gets a red scarf from out of a cupboard
• Shot of her putting the scarf around Mark's neck.
• "I know we don't have a lot of pictures of dad in the house, but one thing we do have is this lovely overpriced scarf which belonged to him -"
• Close up shot of scarf. (Legend of Xanbu starts plying) 
• Shot of mother "Now, I'm giving this to you for today, because it's super cold out, and you're too unemployed to buy your own."
• Shot of Mark, the mother puts the scarf around his neck "But only if you promise that it wont get dirty. And it won't get lost."
• Close up of Mark's face "Sure thing"
• Quick cut to door shutting outside, (Ba ba ba ba ba) - title appears "Scarf Swing"
• close up shot, he looks to his scarf (Ba ba ba ba ba)
• he looks back up like an inspired anime character. he hair blows in the wind (Ba ba ba, ba ba bababa!)
• Music abruptly cuts. Hot fuzz inspired series of shots on bus / train showing where he came from and where he's going. 
• Shot of train doors opening. We don't see Mark, that would probably be too hard to shoot.
• Bus goes past, we see Mark after he got off bus. If train, we see him walking in a train station. He walks past camera wearing headphones, the camera follows him as he walks he’s listening to Turn to stone by the electric light orchestra. Reference to my media music video. 

Act 1 notes

End of act 1. Roughly under 1 minute.

These shots are what I will shoot first. I think it's best the shoot the film chronologically. For the picture of the father, just use a picture of Alex with a snapchat filter on that gives him a beard. 

Mise En Scene includes Scarf / Gloves / Blue coat / Blue shoes / Cupboard / Picture of father / alarm clock / bed / bag / bag objects / hat / train / headphones / powerful fan

Act 2 Shot list

• Slow Mo series of shots of scarf
• Binoculars shot of Mark walking to school 
• Shot of Marks shoes walking
• Shot 1 bike prep
• Mark walking
• Shot 2 bike prep
• Mark walking (closer)
• Shot 3 bike takes off
• Shot of Shane on bike and gang going past in slow motion "Lets kick the beat"
• Pov shot of Shane approaching Mark - bike can be seen from Shane's perspective on the lower half of the screen - he rings his bike bell
• Slow motion shot of Mark reacting
• Slow motion shot of Shane reaching his hand out
• shot of Shane grabbing the scarf - once he takes it, he bikes to the right of the screen taking the scarf with him. 
• Shot of Shane going past, "it's your turn" Mark spins and falls over in shock 
• Front tracking shot of Shane biking away, drums in music have started
• Multiple shots of cars, music sounds like car beeps.
• shot of mark getting up
• Shot of Mark trying to get a bike out but it's locked
• Low angle reaction shot
• Shot of Mark looking forward
• Tracking shot of skateboard
• Shot of Mark's foot getting on skateboard (conga drums) He goes to the left of the screen.
• tracking shot of Mark perusing them on skateboard in alley 1 

Starting line

• Shot of Shane looking back
• Shot of gang looking back too 
• Akira style shot. Mark is holding and umbrella from his bag. 
• Comic book 4 panel shot one after the other. Close up shot, Mark is getting his umbrella ready, close up of Shane looking to his gang member and nods, shot of gang member nods as well, shot of the gang member pulling their breaks

1

• Shot of the first bike member stopping - camera facing Mark
• Shot of gang member standing with bike. Lights turn on.
• Mark stops his skate board. Close up.
• Mark opens his umbrella as if shooting a shot gun at the enemy. The gang member waves their scarf around, appears to have been shot with the umbrella. 
• Gang member falls over and dies. Blood? Mark skates past him
• Tracking shot from front.
• Mark puts umbrella back in his pocket.
• “Rhythm tracks.”

3

• Shot of Mark’s skateboard going past to the next road, he has dropped his umbrella 
• Close up of the umbrella landing on the floor
• Shot of biker gang member stopping, They fall off their bike, the camera follows them as they roll forward.

4

• Close up shot of Mark on umbrella wrapping the scarf around his hand.
• Tracking shot behind. Two of the remaining bikes aside from Shane who stays at front break. 

5

• Shot - Mark’s left, there’s an enemy bike.
• Mark looks to his right, similar shot

6

• Tracking shot from behind. Left enemy throws their scarf to the right, they catch it. Mark watches the scarf go over. In the same shot, the screen breaks up into three, each side, close up shot of each pulling the break. In the middle shot, you see a close up of the middle of the scarf that the enemies are holding together. Middle shot changes to Mark’s shocked expression - close up of eyes. (make sure both of these actors can bike with one hand, if not, switch clothes and have Antonio and me do it)
• "countries"
• Tracking shot of Shane biking round the street corner 

7

• Shot of Mark ducking to avoid scarf. He gets back up and turns around.
• Second shot of Mark turning around and then looking forward approaching the corner. Camera goes back during this shot.

8 - turn

• Tracking shot of Mark going round the corner 
• POV shot approaching Shane's bike
• Whip pan shot of Mark riding past the red post box as seen in the location Reece 
• Tracking shot of the two gang members (still both holding the scarf, if they can't bike with one arm, then we can attach the scarf to the bikes.) biking around the corner
• Extreme close up - eyes - shocked reaction from one of the gang members
• POV shot - quickly approaching the red post box.
• Screen splits into two, both sides of the screen are the two members looking shocked and confused at each other. 
• Shot from behind their scarf, just as it's about to hit the post box, the shot quickly goes black with text:
• CRASH!
• Shot of the two gang members knocked out behind post box - bikes on the floor - scarf around the post box. This will make it appear that the characters got into the accident without showing it for safety reasons. 

9

• Tracking shot. Mark pushing the floor twice to gain speed. (Lyrics get quieter) 
• shot 1 from the back of Mark approaching Shane
• Shot 2 two shot. Shane of the far right and Mark on the left behind him reaching out his arm to grab the scarf. 
• Screen splits into two from previous shot. On one side we see a close up shot of Mark looking left. 
• Second screen is a close up shot of the scarf
• First shot changes from Mark to a close up of Shane, angry and mysterious, slowly turning around. "Why are you doing this?"
• Shot of Shane quickly grabbing his scarf. "This scarf belongs to me now!"
• Low angle shot of Shane taking scarf off.  "I'm not gonna be the one that catches a cold!"
• "What the hell are you talking about?! It belongs to my family!" Shot of Shane biking towards the right of the camera. He uses the scarf as a lassoo 
• Shot of scarf flying around in the air
• Shot of scarf wrapping around a street lamp "Just bring us back to.."
• Pov shot from street lamp, scarf helps Shane take a 90 degree turn into another "My family had one too!"
• Shot of Shane going around the street corner, pulling his scarf back. Camera pans to see him going down the road. He looks back "The name's Shane kid, remember the name."
• Tracking shot of Mark going past the street. He skates forward. "You'll pay for this..."
• Shot of Mark's feet skating. Music gets quieter until it stops. (Music in the next scene goes brrr)

Act 2 notes

End of act 2

Song lasts for around 1:50 minutes, meaning that act 2 is around 2 minutes. If act 2 is two minutes, act 1 is around 1 minute, them I've got around 1-2 minutes left in a total of 4-5 minutes of film. The other student short films are around 5 minutes and 30 seconds so I'm sure it will be alright.  

The song for act 3 will last 1 minute and 55 seconds. 

These shots will be the trickiest shots, since a lot of them are filming on bikes. I will use equipment to attach the camera to things, making the production more convenient. Try to make it so the shots of the first bike gang member have at least one other character off screen so that actor can film the scene, since that will be a character I will play, all other shots will be filmed by me. 

Mise en scene includes: Scarf / Mark's clothes / Shane's clothes / Gang's clothes / scarf / binoculars / Shane's bike / gang's bikes (3) / locked bike / Mark's skateboard / bag / umbrella / gang's scarf (3) / red post box / marks headphones/ powerful fan to simulate wind

Act 3 Shot list

• (1 starts playing) Establishing shot of the Car park building as Shane bikes past the camera. (Song has started)
• Shot of Shane running up the building.
• Shot of Mark's feet stopping the skateboard
• Low angle shot of Mark looking up the building determined.
• Cut to Mark angrily opening the door. (Only drums are playing) Camera quickly zooms in. (This is on the top floor of the leisure car park, there are never any cars or people there.)
• Camera spins to reveal Shane standing, getting his scarf ready. Camera zooms up to him and behind him showing the scarf, like the Thor reveal in god of war Ragnarok (Drums and violins start)
• Mark gets his umbrella ready and up
• Tracking shot, Mark's feet running towards Shane
• Tracking shot from front, Mark is running towards Shane with umbrella like a sword
• Shot of Shane standing still, skilfully swinging the scarf
• Extreme close up of Mark's eyes, shocked.
• Shot of Mark getting hit with Shane's scarf. He falls to the floor
•  Shot of Mark backpack falling to the floor with all of the objects going everywhere, including a bottle of water and a pencil.
• Shot of Umbrella falling to the floor.
• Shot of water rolling to the other side of the place.
• (electric guitar goes waarrrrr)Tracking shot left, Mark has fallen, he rolls a bit implying impact, until he stops.
• Shot of Mark, on the floor, and Shane looking intimidating. 
• Shot of Shane's hand letting go of the scarf, it falls to the floor
• Shot of scarf hitting the floor. The floor and scarf are both dirty. Shane steps in it as if putting out a cigar.
• Close up of Mark's face, slowly zooms in. Mix of shock and anger looking at the scarf. During this shot, we see a fade of a repeated shot from earlier when Mark's mother says "Now, I'm giving this to you for today, but only if you promise that it wont get dirty. And it won't get lost." during the flashback, there is also a picture of the father that we saw earlier in the film. The flashback fades go away. (Wow wow wow woww) Shocked expression goes to determined.
• (Chorus starts )Mark has gotten up, quickly wraps scarf around his hand as he walks.
• camera follows him as he walks towards Shane
• Camera goes around Shane and Mark. Shane extends his arm to stretch the scarf to hit Mark, Mark ducks and punches Shane with his scarf fist. Shane stands back. He swings the scarf to trip Mark, but Mark jumps over it, Shane pulls the scarf back. As he pulls the scarf back, Mark unties the scarf from his hand and whips Shane's face mask off. 
• Shot of mask falling to the floor. (Higher guitar notes)
• Close up of Shane looking at Mark. He gets up to runs. 
• Tracking shot - Shane runs behind a confused Mark, uses the scarf, Mark manages to hold it just in time, 
• Shot of Mark with the scarf in his hand, and pulling it.
• Shot of Mark fake headbutting Shane
• Shane steps back, tired and injured his hand on his head, is about to swing the scarf.
• Shane swings the scarf to Mark, Mark jumps back. Shane nearly trips over.
• Close up of hand. Mark wraps the scarf around his fist again.
• Shot of Mark punching Shane in the eye.
• Shot of plastic eye ball falling to the floor. 
• (guitar audio plays left and right - use editing) Shot of Shane's face, his eye is closed and has fake blood. 
• Shot of Mark, he sounds tired "I will not be the one who catches a cold."
• "Yes you will..."
• Close up of Mark "Huh? (A big "Huh?" appears behind him, I can edit this in post production)
• Shot of Shane's hand grabbing the water bottle. 
• Shot of Shane splashing Mark with water.
• Shot of Mark getting hit by the water and falling back
• Shot of Mark hitting the floor (electric guitar)
• Shot of Shane wrapping the scarf around his foot.
• Shot of Mark laying down looking up.
• POV shot, Shane is about to stomp the camera.
• Mark dodges (rolls) just in time and stands up. They stare 
• Shane lassos his scarf. 
• POV shot from scarf going towards Mark
• The scarf appears to go around Mark's neck. 
• Shot of Mark
• (Drums) Camera zooms in on Shane. He sneezes.
• Shot of Mark, surprised, he snatches the scarf away.
• Shot from in front of Shane, he falls and lets go of the scarf.
• Scarf returns to Mark. Shot of his hand grabbing it, camera moves to his face.
• Low angle shot of Mark putting the scarf back on.
• Close up shot of Shane looking up, angry
• From behind Shane, Mark runs away angrily, Shane pursues him
• (Electric guitar goes Wwaaarrrr again)  Shot of Mark going down the stairs. 
• Tracking shot of Mark running outside
• Slow motion shot of Mark running super angrily. He runs past the camera. The camera turns as he runs into the distance. 
• Shot of Shane stopping
• Low angle shot, he looks down
• Shot of scarf on the floor
• Low angle shot, Shane looks at it
• shot of Shane's eye on the floor
• (Edit the song into the ending where when Mark sits down right when the song ends) Tracking shot of Mark getting in a train, he walks to one of the more open seat areas so the camera can easily follow him. He sits down, clings to his scarf and sighs. He sneezes. It's ok if his sneeze sounds too fake, I can use audio from the internet in post production.
• Cut to Shane, Mark's sneeze echo's, Shane’s mask is off, looks off into the distance. Color pallete is noon / orange. 
• He looks down at his black scarf that Mark dropped in the fight.
• Extreme close up of mouth, he starts to smile
• Cut to black “we’ll meet again” 
• He turns around and walks away into the distance - Final song plays for credits, as he walks off into the sunset, the credits play. At the end of the credits, the film title moves from the bottom of the screen to the top like the opening credits for reservoir dogs.
• Cut to black - music gets quieter until it stops.

Act 3 notes

End of act 3. 

Act 3 lasts for around 2 minutes and 10 seconds

Act 2 lasts for 2 minutes and act 1 lasts for 1 minute. 

credits are 32 seconds, meaning that the film overall is 5 minutes and 42 seconds. A little too long? I'll find a way to shorten it in post production. Find a good place in Cambridge with a good sunset. Credits change to the next after every 2 beats in the song.

I would like it if it was raining in this scene, but I don't want to damage the camera, it might ruin the lighting, and weather is unreliable so maybe not. I could make it look like it was raining in post production, but that might look too fake. 

Mise en scene includes: Mark's Scarf / Mark's clothes / Shane's clothes / binoculars / Shane's bike / / Mark's skateboard / bag  / marks headphones/ powerful fan to simulate wind / plastic bottle of water with no paper on it / pencil / clutter bag objects / water for the ground / plastic eye / fake liquidized blood / 

Credits

Directed by                                                  (Video of a clipboard snaping) 

Alfie Hudson

Written by                                         (video of fingers using a typewriter)

Alfie Hudson

Edited by                                          (Video of hand using a mouse and keyboard)

Alfie Hudson 

Cinematography by                         (video of someone using a camera and zooming in)

Alfie Hudson

Starring 

Alex Chang                                                     (Picture of his character)

Antonio Cassiano                                         (Picture of his character)

???

as Mark's mother                                         (Picture of her character)

Alfie Hudson, Ava Johnson                           (picture of their characters next to their names)

and Celia Rios               

  

Songs

Last Train to London by Electric Light Orchestra                                  

Legend of Xanbu by Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch                                                                  Mushroom Hunting by Seatbelts                                                                      

1 (instrumental ) by MOB CHOIR   

More Than One Heart (instrumental) by Yumi Kawamura 

SCARF SWING

credits is around 33-40 seconds long.