Writing Short Films- Linda J. Cowgill

 

I read the chapter ‘Plotting- the twists and turns’ in the book ‘Writing Short Films’

by Linda J. Cowgill to help me develop my script as I needed a deeper plot. I

found reading this book very helpful. The chapter starts off defining what a plot

is and the difference between a plot and a story. A plot is the cause and effects

of events in the story for example A causes B which in turn causes C, however

a story is more A, B and C or the events and not what causes the events.

 

In my film I didn't have much of a plot as I didn't have enough causes and effects.

To change this I made the plot link like this- the farmers mother died, which meant

the father gave up working on the farm and left it all to his son to do, he couldn’t

do it on his own, he ran out of money so he couldn’t pay for his license to

slaughter animals and could only afford the slaughter man to take one rarely so

that no one got suspicious of how he was slaughtering his animals without a

license. This in turn meant he needed someone to help that he didn’t have to

pay and someone who didn’t know enough about farming to realise he was

slaughtering without a licence. So he asked his cousin Leah, she found out

about the slaughtering’s, money issues and not having a licence as he left

paperwork out. She didn’t like how he treated the sapiens and how he killed

the new born sapien because her father left a few years prior and she hasn't

heard from him since, this devastated her and she could relate to the sapiens

getting taken away from their mothers or killed. One sapien was ill as the farmer

couldn’t afford medicine and was going to get it slaughtered. Her protective

sisterly instincts kicked in and she new she had to save the sapien, she goes

out in the night and sets the sapien free. The next day the farmer can’t find it

and the slaughter man turns up, it is found with its mother in the

barn. Leah has to make the decision to either let the sapien be taken away and

get killed or tell the slaughter man about the farmer’s illegal slaughters that

could put him in prison.

 

I found ading more causes and effects helped make the story flow better and made it more interesting for the audience. I also read about how the characters have to develop, Leah changes from being shy and closed up at the start to being passionate and standing up for herself and letting the emotions she has been holding back out. Johnny changes by being inconsiderate and selfish by treating the sapiens badly because he didn’t have the money, to realising he has been putting up a wall against his emotions since his mother died and he needs to stop letting the sapiens suffer due to his problems.

 

A useful point Linda Makes is everything in a short film has to have a point, in feature length films there might be action scenes that makes the film successful but in short films action scenes need a point, there isn’t enough time to have something unnecessary and you don’t want it to come across gratuitous.

 

At the start of a film anything is possible but once the audience understands the characters and the conflict this will fulfil the audiences expectations, not that they will predict the end but because the conclusion will feel more true to the audience.

 

Getting tips on how to structure my plot and how to make sure everything is connected and has a meaning really helped me add depth to my plot. Having a good plot will make it more interesting for the audience and hopefully make them question throughout the film what will happen next?

 

References

 

Linda J. Cowgill, 2005. Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters. Second Edition Edition. Lone Eagle.

 

 

 

OCR A2 Psychology Student Unit Health and Clinical Psychology- David Clarke

Janis and Feshbach- Fear Arousal

 

The underlying message in my film is about human behaviour and how we

treat other living things may it be animals or even other people.  I want

people to realise what is happening in the world today and make a change.

I looked into some studies in psychology to see what I could do or not do

in my film to make the audience more active and change their behaviour.

 

A study by Janis and Feshbach in 1953 compared high-fear, medium-fear,

and low-fear presentations about dental hygiene, each presented to a group

of 50 high school students. The high-fear group saw a film that contained 71

different references to the topics of tooth decay, gum disease, discoloured

teeth, dental drills, and cancer. Many of these warnings were illustrated with

graphic photographs. The moderate-fear group saw a film discussing many

of the same topics, but containing only 49 anxiety-arousing references. The

low-fear group saw techniques of effective brushing and teeth cleaning,

without unpleasant topics. A fourth group, serving as a control, received no

presentation at all.

 

Students in the high-fear group were impressed with the film. 28% said they

found the film so disgusting that it really bothered them. However students

receiving the low-fear presentation thought it was boring, and only 2% in

that group found anything offensive in the presentation.

 

A week later Janis and Feshbach gave a questionnaire to the students asking

how tooth-brushing behaviour had actually changed. They found 28% of the

high-fear group reported that they had changed their habits, but 50% of the

low-fear group reported better habits. Evidently the low-fear group learned

from their presentation, even if they found it boring. Students in the high-fear

group had a quick emotional reaction but less behaviour change.

 

The reason to this might be because in the high-fear presentation the

instructions of how to improve dental hygiene may have been lost or forgotten

in amidst of the fear-arousing images. 

 

After researching into this I decided instead of including lots of graphic imagery

within the film showing all the cruelty and abuse, I would be more suggestive and

show some hints to what being treated like a machine would be like. For example

in the barn scene instead of seeing the baby getting shot you would just hear the

gun shot. The reason I'm not going to show nothing at all is because I don't want

to bore people, however I don't want to shock the audience too much that they

don’t act and change their behaviour and ethics on what is acceptable and not.

I don’t want them afterwards to have a high emotion response but not change as

a consequence.  I want my audience to feel inspired and positively change their

behaviour to help stop the camouflaged reality of slavery.

 

Fear appeals can be helpful in changing behaviours, but it is important that the

level of fear is tailored to each audience.