Synopsis – “One Shot”

-An interesting short one minute piece focusing on one single male character. We follow the man in a heavily restless state as time slowly counts down. Anxiety and apprehension form the predominant tone of the piece. The male gets down on his knees masked underneath a pillowcase, producing shock and discomfort in the audience, especially when a rifle appears, targeting him. Reality hits: this man is a prisoner, seconds away from execution, and we have just experienced his last few moments of life.


Summary of Action

In short, One Shot is about a man due to be executed.
We are introduced to this man, kneeling and praying. He is in a plain, minimally furnished small room. A clock is ticking. Revealing an agitated disposition, the man gets up and continually taps his fingers on a table. He bites his nails. His eyes twitch and in general, he appears nervous. Unexpectedly, he then gets off the chair, moves a short distance and falls to his knees. Oddly, he then places a pillowcase/balaclava over his head. A gun appears, pointing at the main character. After a short, high anxious pause with the man looking towards his killer and then bowing his head, the screen goes black.


Reasoning

The execution idea is something quite striking or shocking and so means our piece wouldn’t just be a run of the mill student film. It is more challenging as well, being quite a contentious issue. However, without directly telling the audience the nature of the man, there is no reason as to why he couldn’t be presumed a hostage, subjected to the mercy of terrorists, or a prisoner on death row. (Mise en scene would have to leave hints of his true nature.)

The way we open the scene with the man praying would maybe subject the viewer to think that this is a religious man, synonymous with being moral and decent. The ticking clock would draw our attention to time passing, perhaps counting down; exactly what the main character is having to experience. Tapping his fingers and a restless state should raise questions in the viewer’s mind, making them wonder why the man is nervous and what has happened? The act of getting to his knees and placing a balaclava on his head would cause confusion, again questioning the character we have been introduced to. When the gun appears pointing in very close proximity to our character, we realise what is happening and his anxiety becomes understandable: he is about to be executed. This juxtaposed against the prayers we first witness the man carrying out creates quite a strong contrast; it is something of a shock. The man who at first could have been presumed religious; moral, decent, is about to be slaughtered.

Drama could also be perceived in the way the scene opened with the man on his knees praying, and now will end with the man on his knees head bowed again, but for a very different reason: death. Questions would be asked as to what has he done? In general, the audience would question the type of man they’ve been watching and maybe change their opinions of the character, more sympathetic perhaps. When the gun is produced, it surely proves there is no way out for this man. He is alone and he is vulnerable.

The final blacking out of the scene leaves the ending open to the viewer’s imagination. The audience would presume the execution will be followed through, but by leaving the audience with an open end, they are left to their own devices to finish it off, and overall, the piece should have a more resounding impact, being much more striking.


Composition of the film

At first the camera is panning from up to down and we can see a man praying. As the camera is panning away, we can observe his fingers then tap on a table he is sitting at. He is biting his nails and his eyes express his feelings of nervousness. Then he places a balaclava on his head with the camera is zoomed in and focused on his head. The man stands and moves with the camera following. Suddenly the camera zooms out (maybe a quick zoom) and we see a line of people waiting to be executed. Then a gun will appear in the frame of the shot and it will fade to black. The heartbeat will continue for a few more beats, until finally stopping.

Light

One of the most important factors of the mood in a film is light. Therefore, the lighting of this film should reveal the feelings and the atmosphere, which are emphasized with black and white colors, in order to show a distant freeze shot.

Music

The soundtrack of the film will consist of only a heartbeat. This heartbeat will become faster/slower or louder/quieter at different points to match the expressions of the film.

Communication

To ensure an efficient and fluid film process from start to finish, our group members will keep in regular contact, having regular face to face meetings, in addition we will text and email each other. The bonus with email is that we can attach various forms of our work with which the recipient can then read, comment and even adapt, and then return this to the author - furthering a team effort and involvement with our work. Lastly, posting on our blogs and regular updates will accumulatively mean the group are in regular contact with one and other.


Scheduling

To structure ourselves and to ensure maximum effectiveness of what we produce, we began the film making progress from the word ‘go’.

Initially we started off with an afternoon working on genre analysis; that is, looking at relevant examples of single shot films.

From this, we separated to brain storm ideas that could make up the main idea or theme of our piece.

This was then followed up the day after with a group meeting consisting of a couple of hours to present our various ‘sketches’ and discuss the pros, cons, and reality of the individual ideas. The benefits of this are that the ideas were still fresh in our mind and we could toy with them a little more, due to the contribution from all the group members.

From this, we then chose our final idea and assigned individual tasks, which split up the workload but also provided specific focus for each member of the group to work on.

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From here on in, we will be meeting at seminar sessions, and more independent group meetings in our self directed study time, to ensure everybody is afloat with the production of the piece and committing themselves fully to their group responsibilities. Furthermore, everything we do can be analysed from four different perspectives in these group sessions, meaning our work should be of a professional level and not lacking in any way.

We will have to spend time setting up the location, be that light, props, time of day and prepping any extras about their roles. The actual filming of the piece will take a few rehearsals and then no doubt a few takes to ensure the best is captured for the final edit. We will ensure plenty of time is available to get everything right and not have to rush ourselves.

The final edit will comprise of a full group’s involvement: to add titles, adjust colour levels, include and perfect the rhythm of sound with the visual footage. Importantly, we will take into consideration all the group members opinions, so to ensure that everybody is happy and confident with the piece. We may even do several drafts of an edit, meaning that each re-draft we are tightening up our piece, ultimately bettering it’s quality. A test audience could also prove meanwhile



Assigned roles

Ashley took on the writing role for the synopsis and our internal production notes, such as ‘Summary of Action’ and ‘Reasoning behind the Piece’. In addition, Ashley will write the brief communication and scheduling information.

Leanne decided she would like to create the storyboarding for which we will refer when we come to filming. In addition, from previous Media experience, Leanne has a collection of sound clips we could use for our piece, so will be checking through these for items we may need, such as, a ticking clock and heartbeat sounds.

Andria showed an interest in wanting to film the footage, so alongside this, volunteered herself to write a short bit on the mood, tone, colours and general visual makeup of the piece we will produce.

David meanwhile was assigned the task of sourcing a location and bearing in mind all the needs for the idea. This will be documented with pictures and an explanation of the suitability, availability of the location. Furthermore, David has been hoodwinked as the main character and therefore actor, in the piece!