The Narrative 2 Unit is the main focus for senior Film students at Freestyle. Rather than creating silent short films again as we had in Junior year, Narrative 2 dives deeper into the preproduction process of filming a movie, as well as incorporating dialogue and character development.
Pitch/Logline
The first step to creating our narrative films was to brainstorm a plot and form a logline: a one-sentence summary of the story to hook readers into wanting to watch. My partner, Charissa, and I’s logline was as follows:
Logline: An extroverted/outgoing teen girl (Alea) overcomes her trauma and mental barriers with the help of a friend (Emory) after being sexually assaulted by her boyfriend (Chad).
Synopsis
The next task was to write up a one-page synopsis of our story in order to get approval by our teacher.
CharissaVElisaF-Senior-Narrative-SynopsisDialogue Scene
Whilst brainstorming our plot and the details of our own individual films, the class learned how to set up, film, and edit an effective dialogue scene. This was our first time using boom mics, a slate, and a triangle set up (3 angles capturing one conversation).
Screenplay
One important task in the filmmaking process that we skipped over in Junior year was screenwriting. In class, we learned how to write scripts from start to finish.
CharissaVElisaF-Revised-ScreenplayLined Script
After writing our screenplay, we learned to break it down into eighths in order to mark down important details for planning. For example, we highlighted keywords such as costumes, props, and characters in each scene to easily distinguish what we needed before filming.
CharissaV_ElisaF-Breakdown_Lined-ScriptShot List
We then created a master shot list of every single shot in the film, set with details on angles, movement, characters, and props.
Stripboard
The last step of preproduction was to plan out a filming schedule. We planned locations, how long it would take to prepare our set, and how long it would take to film each scene.
CharissaVElisaF-ScriptboardNarrative Trailer
Because of the difficulties with COVID, my partner and I had to completely change our film to fit our needs. Our new film is about a lonesome teenage girl driving and having a heavy conversation.