First Script for "I wish you weren't a genie"

INT. MEDIA HALLWAY DAY

LUKE is walking through the corridor and stops at a classroom, staring admiringly at OLIVIA in the room who is acting

[Sits down and plays on his psp]

OLIVIA comes out and he stands up to speak to her, she ignores him and walks away.
She drops a lamp and LUKE picks it up. He stares at the lamp for a minute and looks up to see she’s gone.

LUKE
Argh! I wish I wasn’t such a loser!
[hangs his head]

GENIE
Is that an official wish?

LUKE
What... Who are you –?

GENIE
Oh! Hi I’m Genie, and that’s (points at lamp) my lamp
[Goes to shake his hand]

LUKE
[confused]
Right... if you say so

GENIE
No really, I’m your Genie now Luke

LUKE
[A bit weary]
How do you know my name?

GENIE
I told you! I’m a genie

LUKE
Yeah okay whatever
[turns to walk away]

GENIE
So why do you think you’re such a loser?

LUKE
What? How did you –

GENIE smiles

LUKE
[Shakes his head/rolls his eyes and walks out]

The GENIE runs out after him

GENIE
Wait! Wait! I can prove it, name something you want right now...

LUKE
Look, i don’t –

GENIE
Just do it!

LUKE
Okay then... i want... a chocolate bar

The GENIE makes a chocolate bar appear

LUKE
[Fascinated]
Wow...



EXT. IN SCHOOL. DAY

LUKE and GENIE are walking around together talking

LUKE
So after you grant someone a wish, you have to leave them?

GENIE
Yeahh, it’s quite emotional sometimes. Enough about me though, what are you going to wish for?

LUKE
Well... There’s this girl...
[Smiling and thinking to himself]
She’s really cool, and so beautiful. But I don’t think she even knows i exist.
She’s so kind and gentle, and has the most stunning smile! I’d love to just walk up to her one day and tell her that I –

[LUKE bumps into OLIVIA and knocks her books on the floor]

OLIVIA
Well pick them up then!

LUKE picks up the books and hands them back to her smiling but she takes them and walks off]

GENIE
Who was that!?
[Gives girl dirty look]

LUKE
Olivia!

GENIE looks shocked and slightly confused

GENIE
That’s the girl you like? Well she looked right through you so maybe we should make you noticeable to her first! I know just the thing...



INT. IN A ROOM. DAY

GENIE gives LUKE a mini makeover, removing his glasses, cutting his hair etc.
They also laugh and joke together, playing psp,

LUKE comes out with his new look

GENIE
Wow! You look... great
[Something in her facial expression suggests that she likes LUKE]

LUKE
Really, do you think she’ll like it? I mean... like me?

GENIE
She’d be mad not to
[Her tone goes quite poignant]




EXT. IN PLAYGROUND. DAY

LUKE walks towards OLIVIA, and looks back at the Genie and she gives him a thumbs up but once he looks away her facial expression saddens

LUKE
[Clears his throat]
Olivia...

OLIVIA
Yeah...

LUKE
I erm... wanted to say –

OLIVIA
[Looks at psp]
What’s that?

LUKE
Oh its my psp, you wanna play?
[He smiles]

OLIVIA
Erm, No! That’s so nerdy!

LUKE reacts to this and suddenly looks towards the genie who is sitting alone on a bench.

LUKE
You know what... I gotta ...
[He walks away from OLIVIA and goes over to the Genie]

LUKE
Genie! I’m ready to make my wish!

GENIE
[Looks sad and is hesitant to grant the wish]
Oh. Are you sure... You don’t wanna wait and s –

LUKE
No no... i know exactly what to wish for

GENIE
Okay... go for it
[Looks down and gets ready to grant the wish]

LUKE
I wish you weren’t a genie!

GENIE
Wha...
[She looks up at him and smiles – they both realise they like each other]



INT. CLASSROOM. DAY

LUKE is sitting at his desk waiting for lesson to start. There is a shot of a girl’s feet as she walks into the room, the camera tilts up to reveal GENIE. She takes her seat next to LUKE.

Vision Board 2

After hearing the feedback from the first vision board we went back and recreated it, taking cinematography into consideration this time. For our second board we used more high key lighting images as we picture our film to be quite bright and colourful to fit the idea of a genie as this is fantasy and magic based and it's better that it's bright lighting as opposed to dark and gloomy because it wouldn't suit our film. It's also quite a happy film, with a happy ending and a 'happy' storyline - love. We also stuck to colours such as yellow, pink, blue as these are attractive and also reflect our story - being quite fairytale like colours, suiting the genie idea. We used a shot of a couple in a park - being a representation of the scenes where Genie and Luke are spending time together, having jokes and 'getting to know each other'. The image works well to present this because it's a good shot showing a girl and a boy with a bit of "chemistry" and is similar to what we pictured for our own film.

Vision board 1

When asked to create a 'vision board' we assumed it meant a collage of images relating to our film. For instance, the main characters interests, ideas for costume, words reflecting the story... but it wasn't until after we had created it that we recieved feedback saying that it's not supposed to be showing those things. The vision board is meant to be us imagining what our film will look like, relating to cinematography, i.e. lighting, camera etc... and the vision board was meant to be a representation of this.
So this is our first attempt, where we added specific images to reflect certain parts of our film. The top right is an area with pictures to do with video games and tv to show Luke's interests and hobbies, we then had a section with genie costumes, along with words such as 'makeover,' 'that girl,' 'changed my life' etc... to display some of the things that happen within the film

Pitch #3 & Feedback

Pitch3 Presentation

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After recieving more feedback from the second pitch we went 'back to the drawing board' and came up with a much simpler much shorter version of the story.

Feedback for PITCH #2

Feedback For Pitch2

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Cinematography - Friday 25th September

Cinematography relates to the decisions made on lighting and camera when recording a film. A cinematographer is the person who directs the positioning of the camera and lighting for each shot, this role may also be referred to as the director of photography. In some cases the cinematographer can also be the camera operator, but this isn't always true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMRB5cCrzY&feature=related

In the above interview with Christopher Doyle he explains how he uses lighting and camera work in his own films. He mentions that space can be created by light, which can be something that we interperet in our own work if we need to create a spacious shot we can now understand that specific lighting will help to do this. An example from Doyle's own work is when he says that the actors casted shadows in a location that they chose to film and initially they didn't intend on creating this effect however the space and lighting that they discovered on set meant they could, creating a more effective shot for them. He also speaks about the camera and how that is used, he mentions the idea of dancing and that the better you can 'dance' the more interesting camera shots. I suppose he is suggesting that the more free you are with the camera the more you can do with it, as in capture a variety of shots and viewpoints in an effective way. (I.e. when he was taking shots of what looked like the aftermath of perhaps a fight?, he moved around freely capturing shots that made the scene look very effective.)




Cinematography - YouTube



After watching Christopher Doyle's lesson on cinematography it allowed me to see that there is more to making a film than simply putting actors infront of a camera and saying, Act!. Therefore i researched into some more clips on cinematography to widen my knowledge of how to make lighting improve the effectiveness of my film. This clip from YouTube shows various directors speaking about lighting and how different lighting creates certain effects and moods within a film. One person from the clip said 'Light can either be flat, or not flat' which suggests it's not just about any lighting, the lighting has to be done right to look effective. The clip makes clear that lighting has a significant role to play in film and ensuring that your film has the right lighting will help to tell the story perhaps, make it look right etc... Since watching these clips on cinematography it has enabled me to take note of what will make the film look good, and lighting is a key element for doing this.


In the directors commentary with Krzysztof Kieślowski he also provided ideas on how to use camera to tell parts of the story. He explained how the shot of the sugar cube being soaked in coffee was an effective way of showing something about the heroine of the story. He explained that the use of the close up gave the audience an insight as to what the girl was concerned about during the scene, she had no interest in the man telling her he loved her and she had no interest in the man outside playing the flute, her attention was on the sugar cube and Kieślowski showed this through the camera with use of close ups.

Watching online short films...

'Oh My Genie' is a film submitted to the Kids First Film Festival and is about 3 children discovering mysterious bottle and along with it comes a genie. Our film also is quite 'child-like' but not really to the extent of this film where everything is quite simplified, as our characters aren't that young. However looking at the trailer, the way the genie behaves is similar to how we imagined our own genie character...at about 0.38 seconds into the trailer she does specific body language which we could perhaps include in our film, when she grants wishes maybe, or just how she generally acts. The movement is quite feminine yet 'genie-like' and it would fit into our film nicely.

Feedback for PITCH #1

Feedback For Pitch Presentation

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Watching online short films...

This film includes the idea of a genie like our story, although the genie is used in a different way and has a different purpose. However when the genie appears and comes into the story, from the lamp, it could be inspiring when thinking about our own film. Since this is also a low budget filming special effects weren't used a lot, the entrance of the genie wasn't shown in a magical way anyway. We also do not have access to special effects to make people appear/disappear so in the same way that this film brought in the genie, we will have to use a similar approach. The genie simply comes from behind the character after he rubbed the lamp, this also being an effective way to make the genie 'appear from nowhere' without needing top quality effects and so on.

Homework - WEDNESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2009

When researching for ideas on short films the website Screenonline appeared to display some useful tips for writing short films.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/shortfilm/tour1.html
The link above is to a document by Phil Parker where he discusses particular questions that need to be answered when writing a short story, to ensure it's a good one.

- Who is the protagonist?
- What is the active question, which is the basis of the action in film?
- Who or what opposes the protagonist?
- From whose point of view is the audience being shown the story?
- What is it about? or, What is the theme?
- What is the style of the film?

Therefore by taking this into consideration we can review our own film and see if we can answer these questions effectively, displaying to us whether our story is missing necessary things or if it is effective enough.



Can our story answer these questions?
Who is the protagonist? - Within our story it is quite clear that Luke is the protagonist of the story seeing as it follows him throughout the film. The story is based on Luke's attraction to Olivia and then later his developed feelings for the genie, therefore Luke's desires are at the heart of the story revealing that he is the lead character within it.

What is the active question, which is the basis of the action in film? - The basis of the action in the film is Luke's desire for Olivia and the action revolves around getting him ready to confront his 'crush'.

Who or what opposes the protagonist? - There is nothing exactly 'opposing' Luke apart from the fact that he and Olivia are from completely different "worlds". She is from a higher repuation and popularity whereas he spends most of his time alone and is 'invisible' to her.

From whose point of view is the audience being shown the story? - The story isn't shown through one person's perspective, rather an outsiders one. However there are certain scenes that show specific views from particular character (for example, when Genie realises she likes Luke and tries to drop hints that he shouldn't go to Olivia the story is slightly leaning towards showing the story from Genie's point of view as the camera will focus on her and her disappointment). Other than small scenes like this the story is told from a general point of view.

What is it about? or, What is the theme? - It's about a boy who confides in a genie and requires her help in order to attract another girl, however by the end of it all he realises his true feelings lie with the genie herself.

Penelope

In the film Penelope the girl transforms from having a snout to having a normal nose. In relation to our film we can use this when considering how we are going to show the genies transformation into a human. We may not decide to display the change but if we do certain ideas can be taken from this film, for if we decide to show the genie during/after the change how she reacts to herself is something we need to show. Therefore ideas from Penelope could help and provide an idea.

A Cinderella Story

Within this scene from A Cinderella Story we see Sam's character show the fact that she is drawn to Austin, and we see this through a slow motion shot of him walking which makes him look very important and desirable in Sam's eye. In the same way we want to show Luke having this same admiration for Olivia and we also have the idea of using a slow motion shot to show his distraction for her while he's talking to a teacher. By watching Cinderella Story we can see this type of shot used effectively and take ideas for how to make the shot work for us in the same way.

Sam's character is also similar to Luke's in the sense that she isn't very popular and generally keeps herself to herself except for her one and only friend. The comments that the boys and girls make towards her could inspire us as to how we can show Luke with these same problems and issues that he has to face. Sam is used to the abuse and comments which can be seen in the clip as she simply shrugs it off and doesn't really take it to heart, suggesting it's a regular thing, very similar to Luke's own life. We can take notice of how Sam simply ignores the bullying and perhaps include these techniques in our film to show the same thing.

The clip also begins to show a relationship between Sam and the person she is texting, they seem to be getting to know each other and we can perhaps use certain facial expressions and actions when showing the developing relationship between Luke and the Genie.

Regina George

Our character Olivia is the girl that Luke likes in his school, the popular girls that most boys like. However we don't want her to come across as a nice person or a genuine character, and Regina George from Mean Girls is a suitable person to gather ideas from for our own character. Olivia will treat Luke badly and be rude and inconsiderate of his feelings so we need to show characteristics which will explain why she acts this way. Therefore we need to research into characters like this and notice how they act, speak, react with other characters - particularly people 'below' their "status". The way Regina speaks is quite stuck up and it appears she thinks she is better than everyone else, and that everyone else should 'fall at her feet'. This would be a quality that we need to consider with our character Olivia as this is how she would also speak and behave because they're quite similar characters, her costume could also be inspired by the way Regina dresses as it reflects their want for attention and desire to be constantly noticed.

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is another film which has similar themes and ideas to our own story. The character Dorothy enters a world that she has never come across before, like a fantasy world, tieing in with our idea of a genie. Within the film her character has to meet new people, i.e. the scarecrow, the tin man, the lion etc... and she has to get her mind round specific things as she finds them hard to believe because she's from a completely different world, similar to Luke having to accept the fact that he has come in contact with a genie. Therefore from the Wizard of Oz we can look at how Dorothy acts when told 'bizzare' things by the characters, such as the fact that the scarecrow doesn't have a brain, and how she comes to believe it. Since the film falls into a fantasy genre aswell it realtes to our film almost perfectly so we can easily take these aspects and make them work successfully in our story.

The film also involves Dorothy becoming good friends with the people she meets and developing firm relationships with these characters, another similar idea to our story where Luke and the genie become good friends and become extremely close. By looking at this film we can take notes of how their relationships evolve and perhaps use these ideas within our own story to show the development between Luke and the Genie.

Genie in the house & Wizards of waverly place

Both of these clips are from children's programmes that have relation to genies. From the clips we can take ideas for costume and actions and see how people react to genies. Both genies have quite diverse personalities in the two clips showing that they don't have a particular mind set making it easier for us to create our character to the best fit for our story. Inspiration for costume will almost definately come from the 'Wizards of waverly place' genie as she is female like our character and we take ideas from her outfit for what our own genie could be dressed in.

GENIE - Character Profile

- Doesn't have a family or background - just a genie

- Friendly, pretty, attractive, bubbly, generally happy, looks out for people she likes, loves meeting new people,

- Always wondered what life would be like as a human

- Dream : to fall in love

- Always wanted to meet genie from Aladdin!

- Likes : glitter, sparkly things, flowers, shiny and shimmery things, accessories,

- Favourite colour : gold

- Favourite animal : zebra

- Very girly, loves pink and grooming herself and sometimes others...

- She loves being a genie however she never felt complete as one, she has never been fully satisfied with her life but is still content with how it is...

- Weakness : doesnt always speak her mind, she doesn't always voice her opinion and sometimes gets walked over or misses opportunities she wanted.

LUKE - Character Profile

- Quite lonely and withdrawn

- Spends a lot of time playing video games and watching fantasy films...he easily believes in things [i.e. the genie]

- Never had a girlfriend

- Goes to Barking Abbey school, in year 11 - 16 years old. Moved there recently and hasn't got to know anyone, keeps himself to himself.

- Nice person but he hasn't come out of his shell yet, gullable, shy, unconfident however he's quite laid back with people he gets on with, friendly when he's not being shy,

- Brought up by a single mum - they have a good relationship, his dad left when he was three (he never really had a father figure and was always affected by his fathers absence, feeling unwanted - reason for him being alone alot).

- Not religious

- When he's at home he spends majority of his time in his room either watching tv or playing video games.

- Dream : to make something of himself and maybe one day show his dad what he become.

- Weakness - short tempered, been in fights in other schools because he lost his temper with bullies - bullied before as he's seen as a 'loser'.

- Dislikes : bullies, teachers, school, people speaking about his dad, things going wrong,

- Likes: computer games, darts, football,

Pitch #2

Pitch 2 Presentation

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After recieveing the feedback from our first pitch we went back and edited the story, we kept the idea of a genie and the boy stayed the same also but we entered a new storyline, that the boy begins liking one girl and asks the genie to help him get her but by the end of it all he falls in love with the genie.

Pitch #1

Pitch 1 Presentation

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Im a genie in a bottle - Christina Aguilera

Even though we cannot use the song in our film our story still relates to the song as it is concerning genies.

The scene where Aladdin first meets the genie

This clip relates to our film as we also have a genie involved, although we cannot show a genie actually appearing from a lamp like the clip we can still take from the way they react to each other, etc...

Gold Mood Board

- Gold typically represents wealth and riches being the colour of expensive jewellery and a royal colour

- Dubai is famously known for it's quality gold and a country related to the colour

- Marriage is another typical connotation of gold, also representing the 50th wedding anniversary, weddings rings are also usually gold...

- Celebrities are generally connected to the colour gold through the idea of wealth and stardom, the 'Walk of Fame' consisting of gold stars with celebrity names on them, glamour and fashion can also be related to gold

- Eygpt is strongly linked to gold as it was a very royal colour relating to pharaohs etc... and many of them were buried in sarcophagus' made of gold...

- Ferror Roche, gold trainers and gold watch suggest luxury and wealth also represented by the colour gold usually, the chocolates are considered 'posh' chocolates shown in advertisements as very luxurious and rich surrounded by people of high class.

- Gold is also a representation of science, being one of the elements in the periodic table