Pitch

I was asked to create a pitch for the idea of which i had to come up with for my short film, to create this pitch i was asked to think of various things, such as the idea itself, influences and research, timescales, equipment, casting, locations, props, contingencies, genre, codes and conventions, audience and censorship, after describing these i was also asked to present the pitch to the class.

Summary/Idea Generation:

The idea i have is a Time Loop scenario with a student, he has a singular hour before the loop resets and he wakes up in his bed, i thought that this was a good fitting as it is something that i can realistically do with the constraints i have in production, it also helps to be one hour because it lets me think of interesting things for the character to do whilst in a smaller area (his room) the idea will also have a non conclusive open ending, letting the viewers interpret it in whatever way they want too.

Narrative Structure:

The film will be told linearly, focusing on the beginning of the story all the way up until the end, they character may reference past events but they will not be shown, this helps me as it portrays the past as so distant that the main character cant even remember it fully, having a warped view of it due to how long he’s been in the loop.

Narrative Devices:

The first will be that the main character will realise his predicement and firstly enjoy it a rather large amount, experimenting with the new things he can do, knowing that he has no consequences for his actions, he joyfully does anything however and whenever he wants, seemingly blissful forever.

The second would be when the main character realises that he cant escape, and has done everything he can think of in everyway he can think of, he finds life horrible and apathy begins to set in for him, he doesn’t take anything seriously and neglects everything, he often spends whole loops at a time not leaving his bed, as he sees even doing that as pointless.

The final is when the main character discovers a way he may escape the loop, his old excitement finally returns to him after an unknown amount of time of being apathetic, he pursues this escape plan until the open ending, where he wakes up in his bed for the last time, it is unknown to the audience if he actually escaped or not, leaving it up to the viewers interpretations.

Timescales:

The short film itself will be around 8 minutes in length, i aim to make sure that the character is likeable and understood within the 8 minutes, i also aim to convey a compelling plot within this time, on-top of this i believe that the short film will be completed within the time limit i have been given, i will ensure this is the case by recording footage whenever i can, due to me having 4 weekdays without college and at home, (the main location for my film) i will be able to film often as i have free time for the majority of the week.

Equipment:

The equipment i would need for this is rather low, as all i would need is a camera+tripod and a charger, perhaps i could also have another camera of the same specs to use whilst the current one is charging, ensuring i get the maximum amount of recording with the hours i have, apart from this equipment a boom of which can be mounted on the camera would be helpful, editing software which is provided by college will also be very useful.

Casting:

For this short film, the focus of it will be on hopelessness, apathy, loneliness, so the film will emphasise the loneliness of the main character as due to the loop he fails to have any meaningful relationships or friendships with people, as they’d never truly understand his predicament, so he decides to stay alone as much as possible, due to this the movie will only need a small cast of possibly 4 people (which are included into camera operators etc)

Locations:

Due to the nature of the plot the main location will be my house, and the surrounding area, due to the loop the main character cannot leave a certain area due to time constraints, meaning that the location will be very easy to film in (due to it being my own house) this is extremely helpful and convenient in filming, i will also be using places which realistically can be reached within an hour, such as neighbouring parks and forests etc.

Props:

The primary props i would need would be my phone, a watch, clothing, pens pencils etc, i would not require much and the majority of which i need i can get from my own home, so the props that are needed are very limited, as the character may want to experiment with ways to escape the loop i may require blood etc.

Contingencies:

To avoid any future problems i will be filming whenever i can, making sure that i have the most useable footage possible, i will also upload all of the footage onto my personal PC to ensure that none of it is lost, i will primarily be filming within my own home, making this even easier as i never risk losing anything or misplacing things, it also helps prevent any outside events from interrupting filming.

Film Genre:

The genre of my film is Sci-Fi, as it contains many Sci-Fi conventions, including things such as time travel, teleportation, alternate universes ect, these are the main themes of the movie, as it focuses on a time loop which is both time travel and teleportation, and it may also be taking place within an alternate universe with similar rules to our own, which would make the movie plausible.

Time travel; The main aspect of the movie is the fact that the character is technically travelling through time every-time the loop resets, meaning that he himself can remember his and others actions whilst they cannot.

Teleportation; Every-time the loop resets the character is automatically teleported to his bed.

Parallel universe: The film may take place within a universe much like our own, with the only difference being that this singular human is stuck in time, meaning that everything else is the same

It explores these themes by emphasising their importance throughout the entire movie, making sure the audience knows that all of them are a key part of the film.

Influences and research:

The main influences for my movie would be two separate time loop themed movies, these being Groundhog Day (1993) and Palm Springs (2020) both these movies are focused on Time Loops, they both also focus on the main character attempting to break out of the loop after being inside of it for an unknown amount of time, i took inspiration from both of them in many ways, one of the main ones being that they present hopelessness well.

Characters:

The characters my film will require will serve specific purposes, the main character can only interact with a certain amount of people due to his situation, so he is very limited in those he can meaningfully speak too, i will establish that early on he has a neighbour of which he can speak too, this character will serve the purpose of being someone the character can actively change his attitude towards.

Another character will be established to be walking by at the moment the loop starts, this character is established to be an old friend, they will work together to help him reset the loop (the main character will have to explain that hes within a loop, using more specific words to help convince this friend hes in one as the movie progresses, helping show the time length of the loop) their may also be several characters who appear at the locations the character visits, they may be used to establish the main characters lack of care and consequences.

Technical coding:

The lighting throughout he movie will be generally the same, making it difficult to film in certain areas, as if the lighting is different then it would a large continuity error as the time loop would ensure the lighting was always the asme, as it would always be the same time, meaning the clouds and weather etc would be the same, always.

I will personally edit the short film to ensure that the theme i want for it is there, i will try to make the film emphasise loneliness and hopelessness more than anything, and make sure that each narrative device has different elements, such as the first being cheerful and happy, the second sad and depressing, the third hopeful and excited etc.

I will use various angles, the angles and shots changing depending on the mood i want to present, for the happy and hopeful themes i would emphasise close ups and high angle shots etc, for the sad parts i would also use close ups, extreme close ups and low shots, every-time the character wakes up it will be above his face in a birds eye, i will also include many high angles too, this will help show the characters insignificance.

Mise-En-Scene:

I will use various different outfits to symbolise different things, such as initially the character will wear more vibrant and bright outfits to symbolise his happiness and freedom, and whilst the movie progresses his outfits will get progressively more boring and plain, on-top of this i will change the lighting (within the limits of the movie) by having the character constantly open his curtains at the start, then whilst the second act hits he doesn’t bother opening them anymore, the dark lighting due to the curtains being closed helps convey dread.

Challenges:

The challenges that i will face with the film are mainly due to continuity, as the film focuses on a time loop (which in of itself is a certain place in time forever) i would have to ensure that the lighting, items, props, everything is in the same exact place for the beginning of each shoot, this may prove difficult as if anything is even slightly moved then the shot could be ruined as it would make no sense for it to have been moved, to get around this i will ensure that the character himself is generally a tidy person, having a neat room which is easy to clean and doesn’t have much in the way of decoration, this would help me as there would be less things i’d have to look out for.

One of the largest problems (ontop of the others) would be