BDM 311 Personal project

I have been working on a new pitch for my end of the year film. An decided to leave the influences from Goodfella's behind and go for a more comedy orientated gangster film. Below is my first pitch that made last week and thought I'll add that on my blog.

I'm still looking at a kidnapping situation but making it more of a fun caper. With all the characters being out for money and greed turns them selfish and makes them do stupid things. And to stick with the film noir theme that no one really wins in the end. 

I was really stuck at a certain point with the narrative but then I remembered what Duncan taught us last year. If you get stuck and have no idea what to write just start writing down anything that comes in your mind. Do this for about 5 minutes and see what happens. I've used that trick last year and again this year which worked out well, although not perfect it still helps me to get my ideas and imagination going. With the limited range of actors that we can work with I always work with people that I know would do well for my characters. This might not work out in the real world but then there are casting agency's and some productions have more $ available that what us students have. I write the characters with those people in mind.

Blog out.

BDM 311 Personal project.

On the 17 of July we pitched our ideas for end of the year film towards Patrick. Mine was about 2 brothers, a safe cracker, an older lady in a wheel chair and a gang boss or leading figure. The visual idea I had for some scenes are the vault in the dance studio and a boxing ring. The boxing ring would be where the fight club is situated just behind P&S.

I've worked with James Tobin on some designs and ideas for this. 

This would be the safe cracker at the end of the short. Just as a plot twist. Visually a good idea but it would need a narrative to support the visuals and that is where I came short. 

The box promoter or shady figure would also be a passionate gardener and I wanted to mix the beauty and passion for gardening with the ugliness of violence.

The idea for this came from the scene in Marathon man with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. I was looking for the kind of visual set-up.

The idea of the 2 brothers not being the brightest is seen here in another sketch by James. Where the deaf brother shot the hired safe cracker in the head. So they'll have to find someone else. That character would be very closely related to the box promoter and then the inspiration for that came from Goodfellas. So it would start out in a fun way but afterwards turn very dark. The other inspiration came from Lock Stock and A Fish Called Wanda.

This is James Tobin's sketch for the 2 brothers ideally played by Tim & Campbell. Who both showed an interest in the parts.   

But once I worked on my pitch I felt that the narrative was not quit right. The characters would be good fun to work with on screen but the ultimate execution of the story would not work out for the best. I knew Patrick would not green light it. My other idea was that for a documentary on Cosplay in New Zealand. But I reckon that the logistics for that would be way to complicated for me to organise at this stage. Still working out a new pitch and the ideas for that will be coming up shortly in the next few days. I've also written a pitch on paper for last Friday but I cannot, at this stage, put it on my blog. As the temp storage is not accessible at the moment.

Blog out.